I was witnessing the birth of another flume.
Light blasted out of the circle, eating away at the rock, creating the new opening. The music arrived next, quickly growing loud and jangly. I looked back to the village to see if any gars had come out from wherever they were to see what was going on. The village was empty. I was alone. Within a minute the hole of light had grown to thirty yards across. That’s when it stopped. The enormous tunnel was complete. Even from as far away as I was, I recognized the walls of gray stone.
The highway was open.
I knew what was going to happen next.
Saint Dane wasn’t going to wait until morning.
Enough light glowed from the flume so that I could see what was coming in. This tunnel stretched to another world. From deep inside, marching in step, came the first line of invaders, carrying red Ravinian flags. They marched to the mouth of the new tunnel and continued down the slope toward the village. There were more. Many more. Looking beyond them into the flume, I saw no end to them. Like a swarm of red locusts, the Ravinian army poured from the depths of infinity, bent on their deadly mission.
Saint Dane had sent his entire force to march on Black Water.
The final battle for Halla had begun.
Chapter 37
Wave after wave of dados marched out of the flume, headed toward the village of Black Water.
Some wore the uniform of the Ravinian soldiers. Others were dressed in the green uniform and gold helmet of the security dados from Quillan. There were even hundreds of dado klees that came pouring out. All were armed with the silver prods that could extinguish life with a single shot. Unlike the attack on Black Water by the klees, these dados weren’t interested in capturing anybody for food. This was an army of execution. As far as I could tell, every dado we had seen in the factory on Third Earth had made the journey. It meant that Saint Dane was pulling out all the stops. This was his final assault. He wanted to complete his quest by destroying every last one of the exiles.
But where were they?
I watched the massive show of force pouring into Black Water from behind the safety of one of the defensive huts in the first ring of structures. Seeing so many dados confirmed my fear that there was no way the gars and Yanks would be able to hold them off for long. Depending on how long the radio cannons had power, they could knock out a thousand, or a few thousand. But there would be a thousand more to take their place. And a thousand more after that. It was small consolation that my fears were correct. I was mesmerized by the sight of such an overwhelming force pouring from the flume.
It wasn’t until I felt the hair on my arms crackle with energy that I was snapped back into the moment. One of the invaders must have seen me and fired his weapon. What the heck was I still doing there? Alone. Facing an army of thousands. With weapons. It was time to be somewhere else.
I ran back into the heart of the village, not sure if I should look for Courtney and the council, or just get back to the flume and jump to Third Earth. I ran past house after empty house. All the lights were still on, but nobody was home.
Paf! Paf! I felt the surge of two blasts of power fly past. The dados were after me. I made a quick turn down a narrow street and was faced with two red-shirt Ravinian dados. Their weapons were up and pointed. At me. I jumped off the street as paf. Another shot flew by. Too close. I couldn’t let myself get hit. No way. If the spirit of Solara was as good as gone, my own spirit wouldn’t survive my body’s death and end up back on Solara. If I got shot now, it would be over. For good. There was no more safety net. I was now running for my life.
I heard dados everywhere, yelling orders and knocking down doors in their search for the exiles. Running through the rings of structures was like sprinting through a maze. I kept changing direction, making it difficult to be tracked. Unfortunately, I outsmarted myself and got turned around. I wanted to end up at the flume, but I was dangerously close to being lost, or accidentally circling back and ending up surrounded by dados. I kept looking up at the mountains that surrounded Black Water, trying to get my bearings. It was impossible. The mountains formed a continuous ridge. There were no particular peaks that stood out. It was like running around inside of a bowl. With every turn I kept hoping that I’d run into a gar, but the village was empty. Totally empty. Except for one lone creature.
I rounded a corner and was met by a klee. A dado klee. The Ravinian uniform was the tip-off. The cat seemed just as surprised as I was. I froze. The klee raised its weapon. I had nowhere to run. No place for protection.
“I’m Pendragon,” I called out, hoping that it would mean something. Maybe Saint Dane wanted me taken alive. It was a desperate move… that didn’t work. The klee raised its silver weapon and took aim. I dove to the ground and rolled. I wanted to make a tough target. Maybe I would get lucky. The klee brought the weapon to its eye…
And was attacked by another snarling klee. The big brown cat leaped from a window and knocked the Ravinian to the ground.
“Boon!” I called out.
I jumped to my feet and ran for the two wrestling klees.
“Don’t let that thing touch you!” I warned, knowing that one touch of that silver wand and Boon would be vapor.
Boon clamped his powerful jaws on the Ravinian’s neck. The klee didn’t react, of course. It was a dado. But as it fought to get loose, I was able to jump forward and kick the wand out of its paw. The weapon clattered away. The klee tried to fight off Boon while reaching for it. He didn’t have a chance. I grabbed the wand and screamed, “Let it go!”
Boon jumped back, and I jabbed the business end of the silver wand at the dado. It instantly stopped moving.
Boon was out of breath and wide eyed. “What’s happening?” he shouted. “Where is everybody?”
“You don’t know?”
Boon shook his head. “I was sleeping on the outskirts of the village. They know I’m not a threat, but I’m still a klee. So I decided to stay clear of everybody. When the alarm went off, I came back looking to see what was happening, but everybody’s gone!”
“And the dados are attacking from Third Earth. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Boon and I took off running, but it seemed as though every way we turned, there were more dados. With nobody to stop them, the city was quickly becoming infested.
“There’s another flume,” I told him. “Far to the south on the edge of the farm. But we’re cut off.”
Boon grabbed my arm and yanked me in another direction. “I’ve got a way.”
We continued our twisting route until we got to the very center of the village and the large building that was Gar Central. Boon led me inside.
“Is there a tunnel or something?” I asked.
“No. Just the opposite.”
We hit stairs. Boon sprinted up on all fours. I had all I could do to keep up with the cat. I trusted Boon but didn’t like that we were climbing up. It wouldn’t be good to be trapped on the roof, with no escape route.
He said, “In the brief time that there was a truce between the gars and the klees, technology was exchanged. Things were going well, until Ravinia.”
“What kind of technology?”
We made it to the top stairs. Boon opened a door that led out onto the roof. “That kind,” he announced.
Sitting there, square in the middle of the roof of the large building, were three yellow gigs.
“Tell me you know how to fly,” I demanded.