D. MacHale - The Soldiers of Halla

Saint Dane snickered and gestured to the remaining dados. The two guards let go of me and followed Saint Dane out. The door was slammed behind them. I heard the sound of the lock being thrown. The two of us stood there, dazed. I put my arm around Elli. She buried her face in my shoulder and cried.

“I’m sorry I brought you back,” I said, trying to console her. “It was a mistake.”

“What are we going to do?” she asked.

“Exactly what Saint Dane expects us to do. We’re going to save Mark.”

Saint Dane knew what he was doing. As usual.

He knew I wouldn’t leave if Mark was in trouble. In spite of what Nevva had asked for, I was sure he would play out this execution for as long as possible in order to keep us there. That was pretty clear. What wasn’t clear was when he planned on launching his dado attack on the exiles. Or where. I figured the exiles had to be on Third Earth, because the flumes were destroyed and Saint Dane had no way of sending his army to any other territory. So then, where were they? Somewhere in the destroyed New York City?

The logistics made sense, but I tried to make sense of the exchange that Saint Dane and Nevva had about her “little experiment” and her wanting to leave the territory where the exiles landed “unspoiled.” Third Earth had definitely been touched and wasn’t even close to unspoiled. Did that mean the exiles were somewhere else? And what was Nevva’s experiment? Even if we knew the answers to those questions, I had no idea how we could stop an army of dados. We could always go back to Solara and rally the rest of the Travelers, but even with the warriors among us, there was no way we could stop an army.

On top of everything else, my plan to have Elli try and get Nevva to see reason had backfired. All it did was upset Elli and put Mark in danger. I guess it’s an understatement to say that things were looking bleak.

“Em sorry,” I said to Elli. “Eve messed this up pretty badly.”

Elli gently touched my cheek. “Your only fault is that you put too much faith in the power of someone’s better nature to triumph. That is who you are, and it is exactly what you should have done. Unfortunately, Nevva’s better nature is not what we hoped it would be. For that, I am the one who should be sorry.”

“We all make our choices,” I said quickly. “Nevva made hers.”

Elli nodded, but I didn’t think she bought it. “What has happened to Nevva is a reflection of what Saint Dane did to all of Halla. He took something good, and twisted it into something evil by appealing to a darker nature.”

“And we couldn’t untwist her,” I added. “Which makes me question if Halla is too far gone to save.”

“Don’t think that way,” Elli said quickly. “We may be near the end, but there is still hope. There is always hope.”

“Is there?” I shot back. “Even if we figured out a way to destroy every last one of those dados, what would stop Saint Dane from building more? And more after that? It’s not looking good.”

Elli deflated. “Then what should we do? Give up?” she asked softly.

I laughed. “Give up?” I exclaimed, overly enthusiastic.

“Who said anything about giving up? This is just starting to get interesting!”

She knew I was making light of a very dark situation, but she appreciated it just the same and gave me a hug.

“I hope you know that you have done everything possible to put an end to this madness. I am so very proud of you.”

I wished I could have taken more comfort from that, but as nice as it was to hear, truth was that I had failed horribly. Many times over. You don’t get points for effort. But in spite of my gloomy assessment, Elli was right. As long as the Travelers were around, there was hope. The trick was to figure out what to do next. I gave her a squeeze of thanks, then pulled away and scanned the room. We had to find a way out.

“Saint Dane took Mark because he wants us to stay here,” I said, thinking out loud. “That’s good. It means he still thinks we can do some damage.”

I strolled around the large, empty room. The windows were up near the ceiling. No way to climb up there. The only way in or out of that room was the door-the solid wooden door with the heavy handle. I grabbed the handle and pressed the lever. It was locked. I looked to Elli and shrugged. “What the heck, it was worth a try.”

I stepped back from the door, debating about how hard it would be to knock down. I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea or not, seeing as there were probably dados outside guarding us.

“It may be time,” Elli offered.

“Time for what?”

“To use the power of Solara.”

I hadn’t even thought about that. I’d put that option out of my mind because every time the Travelers used the spirit, we were pushing Solara closer to extinction. How much more power was left? Was there a way to measure it? Was Uncle Press looking nervously at some big cartoon like gas gauge that was creeping toward “empty”? Each time we traveled, I cringed, expecting something horrible to happen. So far we were okay, but how much longer would that last? How much traveling were the other Travelers doing? It wasn’t just me and Elli, after all. There were eight other Travelers flying around, searching for the exiles.

“It’s supposed to be a last resort,” I said.

“I know,” Elli said with finality. “I believe we’re there.”

Glancing around that room, that prison cell, I knew she was right. We could choose to sit there and do nothing while Mark was executed and the dados marched. Or we could do something. But what?

“I guess I could go back to Solara,” I said. “Then come back here and hope that the spirit sends me somewhere else. Like the other side of the door. But that seems a little like overkill to move three feet.”

“Why don’t you just go under the door?” she asked, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

“Go under the-” I looked at the floor. It was an old door. Really old. It wasn’t airtight by any means. I thought back to when Saint Dane and I were fighting. He swung his electric wand at me, and I willed myself to become smoke. I don’t know exactly what happened, but his weapon passed through me with no effect. I had definitely changed my physical self. Was it possible to transform myself so completely that I could just float under the door?

“Yeah,” I said thoughtfully. “Under the door. Sure. Why not?”

I took a step back and stared at the wooden door. Nothing happened. I looked harder. Didn’t help.

“Feeling silly,” I announced.

“Don’t. It would be silly not to try.”

I shrugged and looked at the door again. How did this work? It was easy enough to move between territories. All I did was think about where I wanted to go and there I was. Compared to that, going under a door should be like, nothing. Right? I closed my eyes and visualized what I wanted to do. I wanted to float. I imagined what it would be like to move with the air. I pictured myself descending to the ground.

I didn’t feel any different. Disappointed and feeling like an idiot, I opened my eyes to discover… I was different.

It was like my eyes had become a moving camera. I didn’t feel like I had changed, but I had. I traveled down, toward the floor, in complete control. Looking around, I didn’t see myself. Had I become invisible? My eyes reached floor level, and I looked ahead to see the crack beneath the door. Was I small now? Could I sail right under? I imagined moving forward, and I did. I floated across the surface of the stone floor until I reached the bottom of the door.

I held my breath. At least, I think I did. Did I have breath to hold? I moved forward and passed underneath, seeing the width of the door passing over my head as if I were traveling under a bridge. I have to say, it was the coolest experience ever. If the whole thing wasn’t so alien, I probably would have enjoyed it. As it was, I was more worried about how to get back to normal than in taking the time to appreciate the fact that I had turned myself into some other kind of matter.