D. MacHale - The Merchant of Death

“Grab my legs,” I commanded. She did. I was on my back too, with Loor between my legs. My arms were now free to steer and keep us afloat. My train idea was working. Now if we could only ride this out until the rapids stopped.

“Use your legs to keep us off the rocks,” I said. Loor was scared, but she had enough of a grip to start thinking again. While I paddled frantically, she kicked us away from a few sharp rocks. We then hit another drop and went under again. I could feel Loor starting to squirm away from me, but I held her tight with my legs. In a few seconds, we were above water again.

Then I was hit with a terrifying thought. What if these rapids led to a waterfall? There was no way we could survive that. I had to force the idea out of my head, because there was nothing I could do about it now.

We hit a few more drops, bounced off another rock or two, and then mercifully, the river grew calm. We made it through the rapids and there was no waterfall waiting. But we weren’t safe yet because Loor still couldn’t swim. My junior lifeguard training took over at this point and I began to tow her to the side. She was so tired and beaten that she didn’t have enough strength left to fight me, so it wasn’t all that tough to bring her along. Soon we were dragging ourselves out of the freezing water and crawling up onto the bank. We lay down on the gravel, totally exhausted, totally beaten up, but alive. Luckily the three suns were now higher in the sky and they were starting to give off some warmth.

After I caught my breath, I sat up on my elbows and looked at Loor. She lay flat on her back, still breathing hard. I have to admit, now that we were safe, I was feeling pretty good about myself. Not only did I save the big, bad warrior girl from one of Kagan’s knights, I also saved her life a dozen times over on the river. I couldn’t wait for her to admit that I wasn’t the lame wad she thought I was. But of course I wasn’t going to fish for a compliment. That wouldn’t have been cool. It had to come from her. So I waited. And waited. And waited some more. But she didn’t say a word. What was up with that? I was getting kind of ticked off. Not that I was expecting a full-on “Oh, Pendragon, you’re my hero!” but a simple “Thank you” would have been nice. Still there was nothing. Finally I decided to break the ice.

“You okay?” I asked.

“No thanks to you,” came the reply.

“What?” I shouted and sat up straight. “I saved you from drowning!”

“But if we had not been in the river, I would not have needed help,” she said as if she were totally ticked off at me.

“But if we weren’t in the river, we would have been attacked by Kagan’s knight!” I shot back.

Loor finally sat up and looked at me. She didn’t say anything at first, but her hard look made me feel like some sort of lower life-form.

“You were hiding in the bushes, watching me,” she said. Gulp.Busted. “If you had come out to speak with me,” she went on, “I would have told you that I was waiting for that knight.”

Huh? I couldn’t get my mind around this. “You were waiting for one of Kagan’s knights?” I asked, dumbfounded. “Why?”

“Because he is the Traveler from Denduron and he was coming to give me information about Press. You nearly killed us both to escape from the most important friend we have here on this territory. What am I supposed to say to you, Pendragon? Thank you?”

Denduron

Ihad reached a new low. The more I learned about this world the less I understood. Worse, when I finally tried to take action, I screwed up. Loor and I nearly died on that river and it was my fault. I wanted to go home. I wanted to be in my bed. I wanted to feel Marley’s nose nudging me and smell her fishy dog breath. Instead I was lying cold and bruised on the bank of a river on the other side of the universe.

“Loor! Are you all right?” I heard the voice first, then saw the guy crashing through the woods. It was the knight who scared me into our whitewater adventure. As he appeared from out of the brush I could see that he wasn’t much older than me. He was tall, and the leather armor made him look even bigger. He wasn’t very agile though. The other knights I saw were trained, dangerous dudes, kind of like ancient marines. This guy had the gear and the look, but he acted more like a big puppy who was all floppy arms and legs. He wasn’t exactly the fighting machine one would expect. He stumbled out of the woods, tripped over a root, nearly did a face plant in the dirt, then looked at us with wide, frightened eyes.

“We are fine,” assured Loor.

“This was my fault,” whined the knight. “I am so sorry.”

Loor felt herself for broken bones. “Pendragon,” she said, “this is Alder.”

“Alder what?” I asked, though I think I already knew the answer.

“Just Alder,” answered the knight.

Yup, another one-name guy. When does a society progress far enough to start using two names? Whatever.

“I cannot tell you how happy we are that you have arrived, Pendragon,” said Alder enthusiastically. “Now we can begin.”

Uh-oh. What did he mean by “begin”? I was getting sick of being one step behind everybody else.

“Begin what?” I asked.

Alder looked at Loor like he was surprised I didn’t know what he was talking about. He should get used to it. I looked at Loor too. Obviously they hadn’t told me everything. Loor gazed across the river. I could tell she was debating whether or not to answer. Her jaw was clenching. She looked back to me, stared me down for a second, and then let it out.

“You have seen how the Bedoowan tribe treats the Milago,” she began. “There is more you have not seen. There is torture and starvation and disease. The Bedoowan treat the Milago worse than dogs. They do not have enough food or medicine. Half of the babies born do not live past the first few months. The glaze mines claim lives every day. If this horrible treatment is not stopped, the Milago will die out. The time has come to stop it.”

I didn’t like where this was going. Sure, these people had it pretty rough, and things needed to change. But what I didn’t get was what my part was supposed to be in all this. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know, either.

Alder said, “The Milago are a gentle people. They are not warriors. It has taken years of hardship to convince them to take action. If it were not for Press, they may never have been ready.”

“What’s Uncle Press got to do with it?” I asked.

“Press has been their inspiration,” said Alder with reverence. “He has given the Milago the strength to fight back.”

Things were happening fast. This was the first time I heard the word “fight,” and I didn’t like it. “What about you?” I asked Alder. “You’re not a Milago. You’re a Bedoowan. How come you’re so concerned about them?”

Loor stared me right in the eye. “He is a Traveler, Pendragon,” she said forcefully. “Just like I am, and Press, and my mother. That is what Travelers do. They provide help where it is needed. Are you ready for that responsibility?”

“Well…no,” I said honestly.

“I did not think so,” spat Loor with disgust.

Alder gazed at me with a look of confusion, and maybe a little desperation. “But Press has spoken of you for some time now,” he insisted. “He told us that if anything happened to him, you would take his place.”

“Whoa, whoa!” I said, backing away from him. “Uncle Press didn’t fill me in on any of this! All he said was that there were some people in trouble who needed our help. I figured all we had to do was give somebody a ride someplace, or maybe help move some furniture. I didn’t know he was talking about leading some freakin’ revolution!”