The Merchant of Death (24 page)

But nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing. I was suddenly hit with a terrible thought. Osa told me that the power only worked for Travelers. What if I wasn't really a Traveler? I was doing exactly what she did, but the ring didn't work. Maybe I wasn't a Traveler after all!

Loor had been watching from the doorway. Before my panic got any worse she said, “You are not from Earth. You are from Second Earth.”

Oh. Right. That's what Osa said. Second Earth. Did that mean there was a First Earth? I made a mental note to ask that
question later. There were more important duties at hand. I touched the stone and said, “Second Earth!” Sure enough, that was the ticket. The stone began to glow, the ring grew, the musical notes played, and I dropped the journal with my list into its center. It disappeared and all returned to normal. Cool. But then I was hit with another thought.

“Loor,” I asked. “How will I know when to flume back to Earth . . . uh . . . Second Earth? It could take a long time for my friends to get the stuff together.”

Loor gave me the straightest answer I'd had since my arrival. And she seemed unsure of herself, like it didn't make sense to her, either.

“I do not fully understand how,” she began. “But when Travelers fly through the flumes, they will always arrive when they need to arrive.”

It was then that I realized that Loor didn't know much more about being a Traveler than I did. Sure, she put on this tough front, but I think she was still trying to get her mind around the concept.

“My mother began to explain it to me,” she added. “She said the flumes travel through time as well as through space. But why a Traveler always arrives at the time they need to arrive was not made clear to me.”

“So you're telling me that when I flume to Earth—”

“Second Earth,” she corrected.

“Yeah, whatever. When I flume to Second Earth I'll arrive at the same time that my friends arrive at the other end?”

“Yes.”

“Does that work both ways? Forward and back?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if I left right now, would my friends be waiting for me already? Even though I just sent the list a minute ago?”

“I think so,” she answered.

“Then let's go!”

Loor led me back into the large cavern and then into a tunnel on the far side. This was an ancient tunnel, more so than the others. There were some loose rocks scattered over the ore-car tracks, which told me there hadn't been any miners through here in a long time. The walls also looked to be a bit rougher than the others, as if they hadn't quite perfected their digging techniques when this tunnel was gouged out of the earth.

We had walked for quite a while when I asked, “How do you know we're going the right way?”

Loor answered by raising up her hand. She was wearing a ring that was identical to mine. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before. I guess when you're in the Traveler Club, everybody gets the special ring. But the thing was, the gray stone was letting off a very slight glow.

“My mother showed me this gate a few days ago,” she explained. “She also showed me how to tell if a gate is nearby. The stone will tell you.”

Sure enough, I looked at my own ring and saw that the gray stone was starting to glow. Then as we rounded one more bend, I saw it. Embedded in the rock was a wooden door.

Several yards farther down the tunnel was another opening. There was a pile of stones in front of that, as if it had just recently been dug out. Beyond this opening was an old ore car on the tracks. The thing probably hadn't been moved in decades.

“How do you know it's this tunnel and not that one?” I asked.

Loor pointed to the wooden door. There was a star symbol carved in it, just like the door in the subway back in the Bronx. We walked inside and I saw the familiar tunnel that led
to nowhere and everywhere. I took a few steps toward it and then turned back to Loor.

“What do I do?” I asked.

“I think you know”, she answered.

Yeah, I did. I walked a few steps farther into the mouth of the tunnel when Loor called to me, “Pendragon?” I turned back and she said, “Your uncle is a good man. I want to rescue him too.”

I thought that was pretty cool. I nodded to her, then turned to face the darkness and said, “Second Earth!”

You know what happened next.

I
didn't want to leave you guys. When I took the flume back to that subway station, my thoughts were all about Uncle Press and the mission ahead. But once I got there and saw you both, I remembered how much I missed my real life. The small time I had spent on Denduron put my head in an entirely different place, but when I saw you two I suddenly felt like I had never left home. There was a moment where the idea of stepping into that flume and jumping back to Denduron was impossible. You were right, Courtney; it would have been easy. All I had to do was walk away.

But then I remembered Uncle Press and I knew what I had to do. I had to come back. Maybe it would have been better if I had stayed with you because I've made things worse than they were. Good intentions aren't always enough. You have to be smart and sometimes I think that I'm not that smart. I'll tell you what happened and you be the judge.

When I took the flume back to Denduron, I was greeted by Loor. The first thing she said was, “I was not sure if you would return.”

I got all indignant and said, “Hey, give me a little credit,
would you?” Of course she was absolutely right. I almost stayed on Second Earth, but I didn't want her to know that. I wanted her to think that I was confident in our mission.

She said, “We are both tired. We must get some sleep before we begin.”

“Do we have enough time?” I asked. I knew that Uncle Press was to be executed at “the equinox,” whatever that was. It could have been in ten minutes for all I knew.

“The equinox is at midday tomorrow,” she explained. “When the three suns are one in the sky. We have enough time for a short rest.”

Now I understood. The equinox was noon. Loor and I walked back to the small room in the mine. She didn't ask me about what was in the backpack and I wasn't about to start explaining. That would come later. But there was one item I wanted, so I took it out. It was my digital watch. I had no idea what time it was, but if we were going to sleep, I didn't want to end up sacking out for ten hours and waking up too late. I set the alarm to go off in two hours. That's just a long nap, and my tank was empty. Still, a few hours of sleep was better than nothing.

Loor watched me curiously as I set the watch alarm. She even jumped back with surprise when it beeped. I assumed they didn't have watches where she came from. It made me feel like I had one up on her for a change. But more important, her surprise at the beep meant my guess was right. To the people of Denduron, the simple things I could pull out of this pack would seem like huge magic. Throwing someone off balance, even for a short time, might mean the difference between success and failure. Or between life and death.

When I dug the watch out of my pack, I also found the extra surprise you put in there, Mark. You are the best. You know
how much I love Milky Ways and the one you stuck in that pack was the most delicious treat in the history of treats. Thanks. I even offered a piece to Loor. I thought that was pretty nice of me, since I didn't have much hope of finding another Milky Way around these parts. She took the bite-sized piece, popped it cautiously into her mouth and instantly spit it out. What a waste! I guess they don't have candy bars on her territory either.

“Next time you wish to feed me poison, warn me first,” she demanded.

“What are you talking about? Where I come from this is a major treat,” I said, still laughing.

“Then you come from a strange place, Pendragon,” she said while taking a swig of water to wash the taste out of her mouth. It was like I had given her a brussel sprout or something.

This was the first time Loor and I weren't totally tense around each other. We were like two normal people doing normal things. Believe me, it wasn't like we were suddenly buds or anything, but it gave me the courage to ask her a question.

“What else did your mother tell you about being a Traveler?” I asked. I figured the more information I had, the better chance I had of getting out of here alive.

Loor didn't answer and busied herself arranging the animal pelts on her side of the cell floor. I knew she heard me, so I didn't ask again. I had just about given up on her when she said, “You may not like what I have to say.”

Oh, great. More good news.

“If it's important,” I said, “I should hear it whether I like it or not.”

Loor sat down on the pelts and leaned her back against the wall. In spite of what I had just said, I wasn't so sure I wanted to hear this. But I had to.

“I have only known for a short time that I am a Traveler,”
she began. “I do not know much more than you do. But there is something my mother told me that is important. Maybe more important than saving Press and helping the Milago.”

This sounded big. She had my full attention.

“I know you want to know why we are Travelers, but I do not know. That is the truth. My mother said that I would understand someday, but for now it was not important. What she did tell me though, is that we must understand our mission.”

“Mission? You mean there's more to this than helping the Milago?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “My mother explained that there are many territories, and they are all about to reach an important time. A ‘turning point' she called it. It is a time when the outcome will either send the territory toward peace and prosperity, or plunge its people into chaos and destruction.”

“So the battle between the Milago and the Bedoowan is some kind of turning point for all of Denduron?” I asked.

“That is what my mother said,” she continued. “If the Milago break free of the Bedoowan, then Denduron will continue to exist in peace. But if the Bedoowan triumph it could be a disaster that will destroy the entire territory.”

That was huge. This struggle wasn't just about helping these poor miners, it was about saving the whole territory.

“How did she know all this?” I asked. “That's like predicting the future!”

Loor shrugged and said, “It is part of being a Traveler. Someday we will understand this. But for now we must know that the Travelers' mission is to go to the territories that are about to reach their turning point and do all we can to help guide events in the right direction. That is why my mother was here; that is why Press is here. That is why you and I are here.”

This was all a little cosmic for me. I thought I was finally getting my mind around how things worked, but I was only scratching the surface.

“Then who is Saint Dane?” I asked.

“Saint Dane is a Traveler like us,” she said. “But he has been working against us. He wants the territories to turn the wrong way and create pandemonium.”

“But . . . why?”

“When we find that answer, we will know all there is to know,” she said. “Right now, I do not have those answers. Now go to sleep.”

Yeah, right. Sleep. She just revealed that we have the future of Denduron in our hands, not to mention other territories that might be headed for trouble, and I was supposed to nod off to dreamland? And to make things just a little bit more interesting, there was a killer out there trying to stop us. I saw what this Saint Dane dude was capable of. Sweet dreams, Bobby boy! I was on the verge of a major brain hemorrhage and had to try and calm down. I told myself that none of this had anything to do with me. I had one goal and one goal only: to rescue Uncle Press. After that, I was out of here. If Uncle Press wanted to stay and try to change the course of history, that was his choice. But for me, I was catching the next flume home.

This gave me a little comfort and I tried to get some sleep. But before I put my head down I asked, “Is that it? Is there anything else you're not telling me?”

Loor didn't even open her eyes. She was nearly asleep. But she managed to say, “That is all I know, Pendragon. Is that not enough?”

Oh, yeah. That was plenty. It was time for lights out. I thought I would have trouble knocking off, but the truth was I was so exhausted, I didn't even remember my head hitting the
fur. That was great, except that it felt like I had just closed my eyes when my watch alarm went off. Two hours felt more like two seconds. Man, did I go out hard! I had one of those weird waking-up moments and didn't know where I was. It seemed like I was in my bed at home and my first thought was, “I gotta walk Marley.” But in no time, the reality of my situation came hurtling back. I sat up and tried to clear my head.

Loor wasn't there. After a stretch and a yawn, I went to my pack to do inventory and saw that the clips were undone. Somebody had been going through my pack! I quickly threw it open and did a quick scan. It looked like everything was still there, though it was definitely rummaged through. I was pissed. I clipped the pack shut and went looking for Loor.

I walked back into the now familiar main cavern of the mine. It was business as usual out there. These poor guys never stopped. I briefly wondered what had happened with the latest Transfer ceremony and if they had mined enough glaze to balance with the woman Mallos had chosen. I hoped so, but there was nothing I could do about that. I needed to find Loor and get the rescue show on the road.

I scanned the cavern and something caught my eye. Walking out of a tunnel to my left was Rellin. He walked along quickly while speaking with another one of the miners. The weird thing was, these guys actually looked happy. Rellin slapped the guy on the back like they had just shared some joke and the guy took off running someplace. Now, these guys had nothing to be happy about. The last time I spoke with Rellin he had pretty much condemned his entire tribe to a slow death by refusing to stand up against Kagan. Why was he happy all of a sudden? When he got farther away, I went to take a look down the tunnel they had just come from.