Patrick got a faraway look in his eye. I believe that for those few moments, his head went back to what Third Earth was before. His true home. The way it was meant to be. He came back to reality with a look in his eye that was as determined as I’d ever seen from him.
“Then I guess I’d better make the most of it,” he said, almost cocky.
The Traveler from Third Earth was ready to go.
I had one more moment with Mark. My friend and I had been through so much, together and apart, even before I had become a Traveler. He was my oldest friend. He was my brother.
“So… she’s okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, she’s good. Better than good. You can ask her yourself pretty soon.”
“You think she’ll come here with the exiles?” he asked, daring to hope.
I laughed. “Are you serious? We’re talking about Courtney, right?”
Mark laughed too. “Yeah, dumb question. She’ll probably lead the way.”
The two of us looked at each other. Neither knew what to say. Instead, we hugged.
“You know something,” he said softly. “The memory of our life back at home is the only thing that’s kept me going.”
“I know. I think that goes for everybody.” “I miss it.” “Me too.”
“Are we going to win this one?” he whispered, so none of the others could hear.
“We have to” was the only answer I could give.
He pulled away from me. His eyes were watery. “We better. I want to go home.”
“I do too,” I said.
It was the first time I had been less than honest with Mark. Of course I wanted to go home. To Second Earth. To Stony Brook. To my old life. But win or lose, that wasn’t possible. I wasn’t from Second Earth. Not really. I was only a visitor. My life back there had been fabricated. It tore me up to accept that. There was no way I’d say that to Mark. At least, not then. Our friendship meant too much to me.
Patrick joined us. It was time to get going.
“Be alert,” I said to them. “And be ready.”
“Good luck,” Patrick said.
I gave one last look to Patrick, then to Mark, then stepped off the territory to begin the most important mission I’d ever undertaken as a Traveler. I had to convince a multitude of civilians that they had one more battle to fight.
Whether they wanted it or not, they were the final hope for Halla.
Chapter 36
Gunny met me on the outskirts of the village of Black Water.
He had been waiting for me. That was the plan. In the time Gunny had spent with the gars on Eelong, they had come to trust him. Spader too. But I didn’t think it would be smart to bring Spader along on this diplomatic mission. This wasn’t the time for enthusiasm and “Hobey! Let’s go get ‘em!” We needed a steady, guiding hand if we were to convince the exiles to come on board. Gunny was that guy. He sat on a rock, overlooking the village, waiting.
“How’d it go, shorty?” Gunny said as casually as if he were asking about the weather.
“Mark and his people are with us. Patrick will let us know if things start happening on Third Earth.”
Gunny shook his head. He looked tired. “Such a thing,” he said wistfully, as he gazed down at the village of Black Water. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. “This all just keeps getting more complicated.”
Gunny was the oldest Traveler. He’d seen so much more in his life than the rest of us. His real life, that is. As tough as it was to accept the fact that we all originally came from Solara, it must have been the hardest on Gunny. He had lived pretty close to a full life on Earth before learning he was a Traveler. He had a different perspective than most of the rest of us.
“You okay, Gunny?” I asked. “I mean, we’ve been hit with a lot of things lately.”
“You know, shorty, I’m near sixty-five years old. At least, I think I am. I’ve kind of lost track of the years. I seen a lot of things, even before I learned about the Travelers. It’s not easy for an old duffer like me to accept new things, and I’m not so sure I would have believed this business about us being spirits from some other dimension, ‘cept for one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Gunny held his hands up. Both of them. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed before, but Gunny had two hands again. I blinked. How could that have happened? His left hand had been chewed off by a tang on Eelong years before. Now it was back, as good as new. He flexed it and made a fist to show me how real it was.
“How?” was all I could get out.
“Don’t really know” was his answer. “When Spader and I got swept out of here, wouldn’t you know it, but my old hand came right along with me. Like nothin’ ever happened. I guess I should be happy about it, and I am. But what it tells me, more than anything, is that we really aren’t natural to Earth. We’re made-up beings, and that’s why those spirit folks were able to make me up a new hand. Heck of a thing.”
“But a good thing, right?”
“Sure, ‘cept it makes me a might sad. I liked the life I was living.”
“I hear you.”
“Makes me realize something else, too. I was poor most of my life. Had to teach myself to read and write. Never wore a single piece of clothing that didn’t first belong to somebody else, till I joined the army. But I made something of myself. I was the bell captain of the Manhattan Tower Hotel and proud of it. I might not have been setting the world on fire, but I was good at what I did. People appreciated it, and I was happy.”
“Can’t ask for much more than that.”
“My point exactly. Thing is, a guy like me wouldn’t make it in this new setup. There’s no room for regular folks in this world of Ravinia. There’s the few people who have it all, and everybody else. There’s always been those who have more than others, but now, the regular folks don’t even have the chance to build a life they can be proud of. With all the philosophizing and theorizing and threats and highfalutin goals, it all comes down to one thing: Saint Dane is killing the chance for people to be happy.”
Gunny had pretty much summed up what this was all about. Saint Dane was taking away the chance for people to be happy. It sounds so simple, but being happy is probably the number one goal for everyone, no matter what world they come from. Talk about basic rights. What was that phrase from the Declaration of Independence? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Except for a chosen few, Saint Dane was taking away those rights. It took a sixty-five-year-old guy who had lived most of his life not knowing anything about Travelers or Halla or guiding spirits to put it into such clear perspective.
“And that’s why I’m glad you’re here right now,” I said to my friend. “You and I have to convince those people down there that this is their chance to take back those rights and have another shot at being happy.”
Gunny took a deep breath and stood up. His energy was renewed. “Then let’s get it done,” he declared.
It wasn’t long before Gunny and I were sitting in the chambers of the gar leaders in the dead center of the ring of buildings that made up the village of Black Water. It wasn’t hard to get an audience. Aron was still one of the village elders. Most of the others remembered Gunny and were grateful for all he had done to help educate the gars while he was trapped there with Spader. Some of them remembered me, too. We were friends. We were trusted.
Also in the meeting were ten leaders of the Yanks. Years before, they had divided the group up into ten distinct units, to help manage and organize their lives. Each group elected a leader that reported to the gar elders. The liaison between the gars and the Yank leaders was none other than Courtney. She was in the meeting too. Courtney had a foot in both camps. She knew Black Water, and she was from Second Earth. She could speak intelligently to both groups. It seemed to be a pretty smart way to quickly organize a village that had suddenly tripled in size. The proof was not only in the fact that the village ran smoothly, but also that they were able to work together and organize a solid defense against the klees. Everybody was feeling pretty good about themselves.