D. MacHale - The Soldiers of Halla

When I was there before, very few buildings were on the ground. That was a precaution against tang attacks. Now buildings were everywhere. Hundreds were still in the trees, but many rose from the jungle floor as well. Powered vehicles passed below us on wide streets. There were wooden sidewalks, traffic lights, and even giant billboards that didn’t advertise products, but instead displayed interesting works of art.

As different as it was from the Leeandra I remembered, it made total sense. This was the Eelong version of the Conclave of Ravinia on Third Earth. This was Utopia for the privileged.

Kasha said, “It is like looking into the future of my own time.”

“It is the future of your own time/’ I corrected.

“With no gars whatsoever,” she added.

With that in mind, I looked around to try and spot one. Of course klees were everywhere. Leeandra had become a busy city. I saw them walking along the streets-some on two feet, some on all four. Elevators rose on the outside of buildings, loaded with klees. Klees were even driving the powered vehicles. Not a single gar was in sight. Though they had been treated as slaves and pets, my memory of Leeandra was that there were almost as many gars as klees. They may have been on leashes, or forced into performing the worst menial labor, but they were very much a part of Leeandra. Not anymore.

I also saw several klees, dressed in the red uniform of the Ravinian guards, stationed on street corners. Ravinia was a part of life in Leeandra now. I wondered if they were living klees, or dado klees that had been built on Third Earth.

“Do not move!” came a harsh voice from behind us.

Uh-oh. We weren’t alone after all. I tensed up, ready for a fight. I looked to Kasha. She looked surprisingly relaxed. No, it was stranger than that. Kasha was smiling.

“Who are you?” the voice asked. “What are you doing in my home with that gar?”

I figured I should let Kasha handle this. After all, who would listen to a talking dinner?

“Is that any way to welcome back a tired Traveler?”

Huh? Kasha knew this guy?

“Kasha?” the voice gasped in disbelief.

Kasha turned and faced the klee.

“Hello, Boon,” she said. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you.”

The light brown klee stood there for a moment, stunned.

He then ran to Kasha and threw his paws/arms/hands/ whatever around her. The two hugged like long-lost friends, which was exactly what they were.

“I–I don’t understand,” Boon mumbled. He was in tears. “I saw you die. In that tunnel.”

Kasha glanced to me. I wondered how deep an explanation she was going to offer her friend.

“Obviously, I didn’t. I was able to escape and was nursed back to health.”

Smart move.

“Do you remember Pendragon?”

Boon looked at me and his eyes grew even wider.

“Pendragon!” he screamed, and leaped at me.

It was kind of scary. After all, klees ate us tasty gars now. But Boon wrapped his furry arms around me and gave me just as big a hug as he’d given to Kasha.

“You shouldn’t be here, Pendragon!” he exclaimed. “It’s too dangerous!”

“I know, Boon, it’s okay.”

Boon was just as full of energy and enthusiasm as I’d remembered. He pulled back from me and held me at arm’s length to size me up.

“You’ve grown,” he declared. “You are stronger.”

I shrugged. He was right.

“What about Spader and Gunny?” he asked. “I haven’t heard from them since… since…”

“Since the klees kicked out the gars?” I asked.

Boon nodded. “Yes. Are they all right? Are they still in Black Water?”

“No,” I said.

He relaxed. “That’s a good thing.” Alarms went off in my head.

“Why’s that? Has something happened to Black Water?”

“No,” he answered. “Not yet.”

Kasha and I exchanged looks.

“Tell us what’s happening,” she said to Boon.

Boon took a quick look around, as if to make sure nobody was watching.

“Come,” he said. “Into my home. It would not be good to be seen by a Ravinian guard.”

Ravinian guard. Unbelievable. It didn’t matter what territory or what race or even what species was on a world, the Ravinians’ control of Halla was complete.

As it turned out, Kasha had brought us to the platform that led into the tree where Boon lived. It was a small, old-school Leeandra apartment structure built into the hollow tree. There were old, crumbling chairs and threadbare rugs on the floor. Boon didn’t live in luxury. We made ourselves comfortable, and Boon gave us some sweet drink that re-energized me. He also gave me one of his old cloth shirts, so I didn’t have to walk around half naked.

“So much has happened since you two left,” Boon told us. “I don’t know where to begin.”

I wanted to learn it all, but I was much more concerned about the future. About Edict Forty-six and what it would mean to the gars and the exiles in Black Water.

“Let me guess,” I said. “Things were going really well between the klees and the gars. Once the klees understood that the gars were intelligent, they began to accept them, and a new society began to emerge. But then came Ravinia.”

Boon sat down on the floor next to me.

“How could you know?” he asked.

“The same kind of thing has been happening all over Halla. The Ravinians promise a better way of life, but in order to achieve it, they only reward those who provide something they consider valuable to society. Those who don’t make the cut are cast aside or reduced to slavery. I’m guessing that Ravinia was the beginning of the end for the gars here in Leeandra.”

“That was exactly it!” Boon exclaimed. “The Circle of Klee had become just ‘the Circle,’ to allow the gars to be part of it. Now it is called ‘the Circle of Ravinia.’”

“Of course it is,” I said with a sarcastic huff.

“The rights of the gars were reduced instantly. They barely had time to get used to being equals when the Ravinians began tossing them out into the jungle.”

“Why weren’t they kept around to perform the menial jobs?” Kasha asked. “Like before?”

“Because there were plenty of klees to do that,” Boon answered. “Ravinia separated those klees they considered special from those who did not contribute. The chosen were given incredible houses and positions of power, while everyone else was forced into building the new city.”

“And I’m guessing the gars were considered beneath even them, so they were cast out. Right?”

Boon nodded.

“What happened to you, Boon?” Kasha asked.

Boon dropped his head. He looked ashamed. “I was just a lowly forager, and not a very good one at that. I thought the part I played in bringing the gars from Black Water would allow me to be part of the elite. I was wrong. Actually, I think it hurt me. They saw me as a gar sympathizer. I’m no longer a forager. My job is to clean the sewage lines that carry waste from the new buildings. I am easily replaceable, as they tell me each day. Look at this apartment. I’m lucky to still have it. Soon this will be taken over by the Circle of Ravinia and knocked down, and another mansion will be erected. I’ll have to live in the outskirts of the city, at a place they call the Horizon Compound. I hear that klees live four to a room there, with little food and even less comfort.” Boon sighed. “The future for Eelong seemed so bright.”

“Until Ravinia,” I said.

“Yes, until Ravinia.”

Kasha added, “And now Edict Forty-six is about to be repealed. It sickens me.”

Boon shook his head. “Oh, no. Edict Forty-six was rescinded long ago. Gars are regularly killed and eaten for food.”

Kasha shot me a surprised look. Then to Boon she said, “But I overheard some foragers say that something important was about to happen that would make the hunt for food so much easier. I assumed they meant the repeal of Edict Forty-six.”