D. MacHale - The Soldiers of Halla

Saangi took control of our horses while Spader and I crawled up to join Loor. The three of us peered over the top to see we weren’t more than a half mile from the walls of Mooraj. The place looked pretty much as I remembered it. There was a formidable sandstone wall that surrounded the camp. I could see only the hint of the tops of structures inside, but they didn’t look any different from when I had been there to train. There were no silver buildings or weird sculptures. All looked normal, except for one thing.

“Hobey,” Spader exclaimed. “Quite the tricky-do.”

The place was surrounded by Ravinian guards. Dozens of them. For whatever reason, they didn’t think they needed much security at Xhaxhu, but Mooraj was being guarded like a fortress.

“There’s definitely something in there they don’t want to let out,” I observed.

“And that will make it difficult to get in,” Loor commented.

“No offense, mates,” Spader added, “but I don’t think we stand much chance with swinging sticks against that army.”

We were stuck. There was no way we could fight our way in. I thought that maybe it was time to do a little shape-shifting, but that had to be a last resort. Besides, the idea of turning into a bird or smoke or anything other than Bobby Pendragon kind of creeped me out.

“What’s that?” Spader asked.

I looked to the right of the sprawling fortress to see a small, stone building about thirty yards from the wall.

“It is the entrance to the underground tunnels,” Loor answered.

I looked at Loor. She looked at me. We were on the same page.

“Does the tunnel end there?” I asked.

“No,” she said thoughtfully. I could tell that her mind was racing to possibilities. “The transfer trains are housed beneath Mooraj.”

“It will be guarded,” I cautioned.

“But with fewer warriors than outside the walls.”

“We won’t know how many until we get there.”

“But it is our best opportunity.”

Spader had been looking back and forth between the two of us, trying to catch up. He finally couldn’t take it anymore and blurted out, “Stop! What are we talking about here?”

“I think we have a way in,” I answered.

We let the horses go. We didn’t need them anymore, and even if we did, it would have been impossible to hide them. My aching butt would have rebelled, anyway. So the horses were history. We crept through the valleys, doing our best to shield ourselves from curious eyes. In no time we found ourselves a few yards from the stone hut.

“I see no guards,” Loor commented.

“Wait,” I said, and quickly ran for the hut. Once there, I pressed myself against the far side, away from Mooraj. No alarms sounded. No Ravinian jumped out and tried to beat my brains in. I glanced inside the darkened hut. It was empty. Why weren’t there any guards here? I waved the others to come forward.

“I will go first,” Loor whispered. “Wait for my call.”

I didn’t argue. If she wanted to take on the first guard, that was okay by me. Heck, she probably needed to get out a little aggression anyway. After learning what happened to her people, I had the feeling she would welcome a fight. Loor held her wooden stave out in front, ready to do some damage. A moment later she entered the dark stairway. The three of us waited and listened. Loor descended silently. If a Ravinian guard was down there, he wouldn’t know what hit him. I kept expecting to hear the sounds of a fight. Instead, we heard a single word.

“Come,” she called to us.

I went first, followed by Saangi and then Spader. I remembered the stairs. We had taken the small train from one of the tunnels deep within Rokador territory to this very spot. These were the stairs I climbed to get my first sight of Mooraj, the camp where Loor and Alder taught me to be a warrior. Their vicious lessons served me well more times than I could remember. With each step down the stairwell, my hopes grew that this might actually be our way into the Mooraj camp, and our meeting with the exiles. We climbed down to a landing, turned, and continued into the dark. There was barely enough light for me to make out Loor’s form standing on the next landing… in a foot of water.

“I should have known,” she announced, defeated. “The tunnel is flooded, just like all the rest of the tunnels.”

Of course. When the pent-up rivers of Zadaa had let loose, the water raged through every tunnel the Rokador had created over generations. The pressure became too much, and their tunnel system collapsed like a house of cards, creating the ocean near Xhaxhu. Many tunnels remained, but most were flooded, like this one.

“I guess that’s why they don’t bother guarding this entrance,” I declared.

“We have to find another way,” Saangi announced.

“Hold on, now,” Spader said. He stepped down into the water and scanned the area. “How far below us is the cross tunnel?”

“It is just below us,” Loor answered. “Perhaps a few feet.” “And this leads to an open area under the camp?” he asked.

“It is where they kept the transfer trains,” Saangi said.

“Hobey,” Spader exclaimed. “I can swim that.”

“Impossible!” Loor blurted out. “No one can swim such a distance under the water.”

Spader gave me a knowing look. I shrugged.

“I’m an aquaneer,” he said with pride. “You may be a spiff warrior, but when it comes to playing in water, you’re in my world.”

“What if you make it?” I asked. “Then what?”

“Depends on what I find. If it turns out not too natty, I can lead you back myself, one at a time. Or maybe find a rope to pull you through quickly. Or it may be too far for any of that, but we won’t know unless I get wet and give it a lookey loo.”

Loor and Saangi frowned. They hated the idea.

I didn’t.

“Do it,” I said.

“There you go!” Spader declared and quickly pulled off his white Rokador clothing to reveal his dark swimskin. He gave a quick look to Loor and Saangi and saw how unsure they were. “No worries, mates. This is what I do.”

They weren’t convinced.

“If you get into trouble, you can always travel to another territory,” I offered, then smiled. “Or I guess you could turn into a fish.”

Spader laughed. “You forget, mate, I’m already a fish.”

He took a few more steps down until the water was up to his waist. He hyperventilated a few times to fill his lungs with oxygen, then started to dive into the water, but in the wrong direction.

“Wait!” Saangi called out.

Spader looked up at her and gave her a big smile. “Just wanted to see if you were payin’ attention.”

He turned in the other direction, jumped up, jackknifed, and dove into the dark. After one kick he was gone.

“He is an odd creature,” Saangi growled. “But I like him.”

I had to laugh. “Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel about him too. He’s incredibly brave… and seriously crazy.”

Loor had been oddly silent. She stared at the dark water, as if hypnotized.

“He’ll be okay,” I assured her.

“I believe he will,” she said. “But you are forgetting something, Pendragon. I cannot swim.” Oops.

“I swim but not very well,” Saangi added.

“That’s okay,” I assured them. “I’m a good swimmer, and I don’t think I could make it that whole way underwater.”

“Then why are we attempting this?” Loor questioned.

“Because if anybody can find a way to get us through, it’s Spader. If he thinks we can make it, we’ll make it. If not, he won’t risk it. Whatever he says, I’ll trust him.”

My assurances didn’t make them feel any better, but I was absolutely confident that Spader would give us an honest opinion. First he had to make it through himself. I was a little less confident about that, because he was swimming into the unknown. We waited for several minutes. I wondered how long Spader could hold his breath. Two minutes? Three? More? I could probably squeak out about a minute and a half, but no more. A lot less if I was swimming for my life. But Spader was a pro. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he could lung-bust at least three minutes, even while swimming hard. But the tunnel was dark. He could be a few feet away from air and not know it. Or what if he hit his head? After ten minutes I was beginning to think it wasn’t such a hot idea to have sent him into the unknown. After another five minutes I started looking over my shoulder, expecting him to walk down the stairs after having left this territory out of desperation, and returned where it was dry.