D. MacHale - The Soldiers of Halla

“Will it be ready?” I asked nervously. “I mean, by the time they get here?”

“It will,” he assured me.

Mark had already pulled off the impossible. Five times over. Maneuvering a couple of barges was cake compared to the other miracles he had worked this day. Still, I was sweating it out.

Finally, with a grinding of metal against metal, the barges stopped moving. The rebel pilots on board each gave us a thumbs-up. The bridge was in place.

“You want to be the first over?” Mark asked.

“We’ll all go,” I said, and ran down the steep bank of the river’s edge. I jumped onto the wooden-decked barge. It felt solid. Kasha, Mark, and Courtney followed. It seemed safe enough, but we were only four people. There could be four hundred at a time on this thing. I put all doubts out of my mind and continued across. When I got to the far side and climbed up the bank, I was greeted with a welcome sight.

Directly in front of us were the taxicabs and gars with their cannons. They were still in firing position, ready for whatever the Ravinians threw at us. Seeing them wasn’t a surprise. My focus was on what lay beyond. Maybe four blocks behind the line of cabs, moving toward us, was Uncle Press… along with about forty thousand other welcome faces.

“Yikes,” Courtney gasped.

Yikes was a good word to describe it. Uncle Press led the way, along with Aron and Boon and the other Travelers. They were followed by such a huge mass of people that it took my breath away. Many carried silver shields that looked like riot-police gear. Those shields, along with some short rifle-looking weapons, had been distributed by the rebels.

Or should I say, they were courtesy of Ravinia and stolen by the rebels. As much as we needed every weapon we could find, the shields looked pitiful compared to what we would be facing on the far side of the river.

Uncle Press led the army up to the line of taxicabs, where a signal was given and quickly passed back through the link cubes. In no time the mass of humanity was halted. Aron was right. Commands moved quickly.

“It’s done,” I exclaimed. “The door is down, the bridge is in place.”

“What about the choppers?” Uncle Press asked. “What choppers?” Mark asked. “Oh, you mean those flaming wrecks?”

Uncle Press smiled.

“There are guards stationed along the top of the wall,” Courtney said. “Waiting.”

“We can’t let them wait long,” I pointed out.

Uncle Press looked ahead to the target, then back to the army that he had led all the way from Eelong.

“What we do here today is for the people of Halla,” he said. “We can hope for a lot of things to happen from this point on, but most important, we have to hope that this will never, ever happen again.”

With those words, the assault on Ravinia began.

The first move was to cross the river.

It would take a while to get everyone across the barge bridge. Or, at least enough people to begin the assault. Alder, Loor, Spader, and Siry took charge, directing the movement. It was kind of eerie. Nobody spoke. The tension was obvious. They knew that their time had come.

I went across first with Mark, Courtney, and Uncle Press. We walked a short way toward the conclave and stopped, motioning that that was as far as the first line should come. First over the bridge were several gars with radio cannons. They would be critical in knocking out any dados on top of the wall. They were followed by several exiles and gars, who carried either the silver shields or stolen weapons. These were the same weapons that we had used to fend off the dados when Mark, Elli, and I were in the dado factory. They were like rifles, but with wide barrels. They worked. I walked back to the river and looked down to see that the barges weren’t as stable as I would have liked, but they were holding. At any one time I’d say there were several hundred people on top. They swayed and tipped, but the weight was divided evenly, so there were no disasters.

I went back up front to join Uncle Press and the others. A formidable force was gathering. I could only imagine what the Ravinians were thinking. I hoped they were scared.

I wondered where Saint Dane was. He had to know that a storm was brewing. Was he ready? Or was he on Eelong, frantically trying to rally the dado army? Had he envisioned something like this happening? Saint Dane always thought four steps ahead. There was every possibility that he had something planned for us once we got inside. That was the scariest thought of all.

Our mission from this point on was straightforward. Control the Conclave of Ravinia. To do that, we had to eliminate every last dado. Once that was accomplished, we would gather every resource possible and defend the conclave against the dado army that was sure to return. I was confident that we outnumbered the Ravinian security force a hundred times over. My fear was what the human Ravinians might do. If they got into the fight, it would be a bloodbath. On both sides.

Looking back at our gathering forces, I felt as if we had waited long enough. Aron came forward and explained to me the logistics of the assault they had worked out during their march from downtown.

“We have four waves,” he explained. “The first will bring the radio cannons to neutralize the dados. They’ll also have shields and rifles. Their job is to pave the way for the following waves to enter the conclave.”

“They’re going to take the brunt of it,” Uncle Press said gravely.

The concept made sense. The job of the first wave was critical. They would be charging into the strength of the

Ravinians’ defense. The grim reality was that these brave people would take the heaviest losses.

Uncle Press continued, “I think the Travelers, Aron, and Boon should be in the second wave. We will need them once we get inside.”

“I will attack with the first wave,” Loor said. It was a flat-out statement. There was no arguing with her. She wasn’t going to hide behind anybody.

“As will I,” Alder said.

“What about me?” Spader chimed in. “I think I’d like first crack at these wogglies. We earned it, didn’t we?” “Me too,” Siry chimed in. “And me,” Boon said.

Uncle Press looked to Aron. Aron shrugged. “It is not the time to be cautious.”

Uncle Press shook his head and sighed. “Fine. Who picked you people anyway?”

“That would be you, mate,” Spader said. “And you made some fine choices, I have to say.”

I said, “Mark, you’ve got to hang back.”

“Not a chance!” he shouted.

“You have to. You’re the only one who can coordinate the rebels. We have no idea what’s going to get thrown at us. If you go down, we’re done.”

He wanted to argue. Instead he offered a compromise. “I’ll be in the second wave.”

I didn’t fight him. “Courtney, stay with him.”

“I’ll watch his back,” she said in her typical bold way. “Just watch your own.”

“I’ve got plenty of people watching my back,” I assured her.

“You’re not going,” Uncle Press said to me.

I snapped a surprised look to him. “The hell I’m not!”

“It can’t end for you here, Bobby. Not like this.”

“No way. I’m not asking anybody to do anything I wouldn’t do myself.”

“You have to. There’s more to this battle than claiming the Ravinian conclave. We could get inside and take over the fortress and even turn back the dado army, but that isn’t what this is about. It’s about the return of the spirit of Halla. It’s about taking back what was meant to be and ending the dark cloud that has altered events throughout time and space. Like I said, there’s only one way that can happen. For that, we will look to you.”