I looked at Loor. Her eyes were wide, unbelieving. The two of us looked back onto the sea of stones. The thousands of lights had suddenly taken on a whole new meaning.
“It is a graveyard,” Loor said softly.
It was too much to accept. There had to be some kind of mistake. There were so many! I asked, “Are you saying each one of those stones represents a Rokador who died from this sickness?”
“No,” Teek answered.
It was a brief moment of relief. Very brief.
“Each one of those stones represents ahundredRokador who have died,” Teek continued. “Their ashes lie below those markers.”
I was rocked. My knees went weak. The extent of the tragedy was mind-numbing. We were looking out over the remains of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people.
“My family is gone,” Teek continued. “Bokka’s too. We didn’t know any of this was happening until we returned. We had been gone for so long and it happened so fast. This is why there was so much secrecy. This is not just about the rivalry between two tribes. The survival of our entire race is at stake. We aren’t running out of space. We’re running out of people.”
“How many?” I asked, stunned. “How many are still alive?”
“Perhaps a few hundred,” Teek said, barely able to speak. “A thousand at most. The elite were protected. So were their families. The Tiggen guards were spared because we were not here. Many of the engineers survived who ran the remote control stations. Our ambassadors to Xhaxhu, as well.”
“Is the disease still spreading?” Loor asked.
“No,” Teek said. “The doctors were finally able to bring it under control. It had happened once before in our history. Thousands died before a cure was found. I don’t know why it took so long to recognize it this time. It should have been stopped early, but it wasn’t.”
I felt as if Saint Dane probably had a hand in there somehow.
“We were told that if the Batu discovered our weakened state, they would invade us. The elite decided to strike first. We don’t want to live in Xhaxhu. Our home is here. Underground. All we want is to survive.”
“And who suggested this plan, as if I didn’t know?” I asked.
“Saint Dane,” Teek answered. “He has been advising the elite.”
“It’s perfect,” I said, reeling. “He’s taken advantage of a natural disaster and gotten the Rokador all paranoid. Then he’s played the other side and pushed the Batu into attacking, which is exactly what the Rokador feared. Unbelievable.”
“Why would he do this?” Teek asked.
How could I answer that? “Because he’s a bad guy,” I said. It was the understatement of all time, but I wasn’t about to explain how Saint Dane was a demon from another territory, who was doing his best to destroy the past, present, and future of everything that ever existed. Teek was having a bad enough day as it was.
“Many of the Tiggen guards do not believe this is right,” Teek said. “But when faced with extinction…” He didn’t finish his thought. It now made sense why all the guards were looking at us with these long, sad faces. They were reeling from the horror they discovered on their return to Kidik.
They had lost family, they had lost friends. Their entire existence was threatened. Bokka was right. It was a nightmare.
“There’s something I don’t get,” I said to Loor. “The Rokador are nearly wiped out by a horrible disease. They’re afraid the Batu will finish the job, so they want to defend themselves by striking first. If it works, thousands of Batu will drown. It would be a double disaster of epic proportions. No question. But is it enough to throw an entire territory into chaos? I mean, where would it all lead?”
Loor leaned on the steel rail of the balcony overlooking the vast Rokador graveyard. Her mind went somewhere else, lost in thought, calculating the possibility. Finally she came back and said, “Zadaa is a violent territory. Many tribes fight to the death to defend their little piece of land.”
“The primitive tribes,” I said. “The cannibals.”
“Yes,” Loor said. “The cannibals. It is one of the reasons the Rokador went underground. It was safer. The Ghee warriors were created to protect Xhaxhu. In the past the Rokador have been our allies, so they fell under our protection as well.”
“I know all that,” I said.
“There is a fragile balance on Zadaa. Xhaxhu is one of the only civilized areas on the territory. The Batu and the Rokador are the future of Zadaa. If the Ghee are wiped out, along with most of the Batu, that balance would be thrown off. It would only be a matter of time before one of the marauding desert tribes attacked Xhaxhu. Perhaps more than one would lay claim. These tribes are barbaric. There would be no one left to defend the city. Generations of knowledge and progress would be wiped out. Zadaa would be sent spinning into turmoil.”
I swallowed hard and said, “And these marauding tribes are, are-“
“Yes,” Loor answered. “They are cannibals.” She looked at me with fear in her eyes and added, “Saint Dane is very close to winning his next territory.”
I’m finishing this journal deep within the core of the Rokador world-or what’s left of it. Can it still be called a world if barely anyone lives in it? Teek has found a safe place for us. From here we must decide how to stop the Rokador. Which means stopping the Batu. Which means stopping Saint Dane. Which means we are in deep trouble.
I’m afraid things are too far along for us to do anything here that would help. It’s all too huge. This isn’t about changing somebody’s mind, or stopping a small rocket, or even destroying a mine with explosives. It’s about stopping an army. That’s out of our league.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m beginning to think the best choice for us is to give up Zadaa. As I’ve said so many times before, this isn’t about any one territory. This is about Halla. If Loor and I stay here, we may not survive. Saint Dane may not want us dead, but I can’t speak for the rest of the Rokador. If they’re willing to drown thousands of Batu, killing us wouldn’t make them blink.
We’ve already lost Kasha. Spader and Gunny are trapped on Eelong. If Loor and I become trapped here, or worse, the Travelers would become so weak I’m afraid we’d have no chance of stopping Saint Dane. As I’m sitting here writing this, I truly don’t know what we will do.
Before I finish this journal, there’s one last thing I have to write. I told you what Saint Dane said about Courtney. I don’t know if he was telling the truth, or just trying to upset me. The more I think about it, the more it’s got me worried. There’s always some small shred of truth in everything Saint Dane says. The details of what he meant about Courtney finding a beau, whatever that is, don’t matter. What matters is that he would know anything about you guys at all. I’m not saying this to scare you. I don’t think you’re in danger. My biggest fear is that he may have come to Second Earth to begin laying the groundwork for his attack on our home.
All I can say is…keep your eyes open and watch your backs.
I miss you guys.
And so we go.
END OF JOURNAL #22
SECOND EARTH
Mark jumped up from where he had been readingon his bedand paced. Back and forth, back and forth, bed to desk, desk to bed. It was a totally useless activity, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do. His palms were sweating so fiercely, he had to put Bobby’s journal down for fear he would smudge the writing. A thousand random thoughts fought for control of his brain; none of them were good. Only one mattered. Saint Dane was on Second Earth.
The demon wasn’t taunting Bobby just for the sake of it. He was here. Mark was sure of that. Saint Dane knew about Courtney and that guy she met. What was his name? Wimpley? Whipple? Wittle? Whatever. How else would Saint Dane know about that if he wasn’t here? Was this the beginning of his plot to control Second Earth? Up until that moment, Mark held out hope that by saving First Earth, the Travelers had saved all three Earth territories. That hope had just gone adios. Mark knew that if Saint Dane was here, it wasn’t to sightsee and snoop on Courtney. He had plans. Bad plans. And Mark was the only one who knew it had to be true. Courtney was oblivious, and Bobby and Loor were trapped miles underground on an island of the dead where an assault was about to be unleashed that would wipe out the Batu-the tribe that was keeping the civilized people of Zadaa safe from barbaric cannibal marauders. Saint Dane was on the verge of winning another territory and turn his sights to Second Earth.