I prepared myself for the worst. Would the army be mechanized? How would they be armed? Would this be a primitive army of cats? Or had Ravinia somehow developed more deadly weapons? Maybe most important, would we find that the army was filled with dados? As we crept out onto that bridge and looked below, I expected all of those questions to be answered.
They weren’t. What I saw below was far worse than anything I could have imagined.
“I don’t understand,” Boon said, sounding as dumb as I felt.
What we saw below was… nothing. The wippen fields were empty. The armies were gone.
“I do,” I gasped. “They’re on their way. They’ve already left for Black Water.”
Chapter 29
How long?” I asked.
“How long what?” Boon replied.
“Since you saw them the last time!” I shouted. My heart was pounding. I had the sick feeling that we were too late.
“Yesterday. Maybe the day before. I don’t remember.”
“It’s a long day’s ride to the mountains that surround Black Water,” Kasha reasoned. “I believe an army the size that Boon described would take at least twice as long to get there.”
“So if they left two days ago, we’re too late,” I snarled. “Let’s hope they left yesterday” was Kasha’s reasoned answer.
“We’ve got to get there,” I said. “Before they do.”
“There’s only one way to do that,” Kasha offered.
I knew exactly what she meant, and it wasn’t about going back to Solara and hoping that the spirit would send us back to Black Water.
“You think you can still fly?” I asked.
“No!” Boon shouted in protest. “You want to steal a gig?”
I shrugged. “We’ve done it before.”
“Things have changed, Pendragon,” Boon argued. “The Ravinian security is much tighter. Leeandra is on a war footing.”
“Good,” I said. “Then they won’t be surprised when we bring the war to them.”
“You do not have to help us, Boon,” Kasha said sincerely. “You have already done far more than I should ever have asked for.”
Boon looked back and forth between the two of us. “Wait,” he said. “Do you think for one second that I would not come with you? I am your acolyte, Kasha. And in case you did not understand, I have no love for the Ravinians. Trust me, I want to do everything I can to stop them. If that means trying to steal a gig and landing in the middle of Black Water, so be it. I just want you to know the risks.”
Kasha smiled. “Thank you, Boon. We understand the risks.”
“Then when do we leave?” he asked.
“How about yesterday?” was my obnoxious answer.
The three of us made our way quickly across the sky bridges, headed for the tree that housed the hangar where the gigs were stored. Kasha and I had flown one of the small, two-seater helicopters to Black Water once before, and ended up in a dogfight over the jungle with other, more-experienced gig pilots. We won. I hoped that she was just as sharp with her flying skills as she’d been back then. No, what I really hoped for was that she wouldn’t have to use those skills again. An uneventful flight would be just fine. But first we had to get a gig.
The trip back was easy. I kept the tarp over my head and couldn’t see much. Kasha and Boon more or less led me along. I’m sure we got plenty of strange glances, but nobody stopped us. The gig hangar was in the same spot as I remembered, but as with the rest of Leeandra, it had changed. My memory of the place was that it was a massive space hollowed out from one of the monster trees, high in the air. One whole side of the tree was open, under which a launch platform was built out over the city. Launching a gig meant wheeling it out from inside the tree and onto the platform, and taking off from there. All of that was the same… but there was more. The first change I noticed was that when we reached the doorway that led into the back of the hangar, there were no guards.
“What happened to the increased security?” I asked.
Boon shrugged. “I don’t know, Pendragon. I clean sewers. They don’t discuss those details with me.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry.”
“Perhaps they don’t need security anymore,” Kasha said soberly. “The gigs may all be gone to support the army.”
“Let’s find out,” I said, and dropped the tarp for the last time. I hoped.
I boldly went for the wooden door that led into the hangar. Opening it cautiously, I was met with darkness.
“I don’t get it,” I said softly, for fear there were Ravinians inside. “Are we in the right place?”
“Yes,” Boon answered. “There is no other hangar.”
“Then why is it dark? The opening where they launch the gigs is huge.”
Kasha didn’t wait for the answer that Boon didn’t have. She pushed past me and into the hangar.
It was definitely the same hangar, but with one big difference. The opening through which the gigs were launched now had massive doors that looked to be made from bamboo. They were closed. I waited for my eyes to adjust, which was something Kasha and Boon didn’t have to worry about. After all, they were cats.
“The gigs are here,” Kasha whispered.
My eyes hadn’t adjusted enough to make out any detail, but I could sense that the room was full. That was a relief. At least the klees weren’t planning another aerial attack on Black Water. The gigs were there for the taking. But it wouldn’t be easy. Not only were the giant doors shut, the helicopters were powered by crystals fueled by light from the sunbelt. Good news was that it was daytime, without a cloud in the sky. Bad news was that it wouldn’t matter how much light there was outside if we couldn’t open those doors to get at it.
“Look,” Kasha said, pointing high above.
I saw a room two stories up, built out from the hangar wall. It looked like a control room with an open balcony surrounding it. My guess was that it was a flight tower where they coordinated the gig launches. A light was on inside the room. I clearly saw a klee sitting inside.
Kasha continued, “I would guess the hangar doors are controlled from up there.”
My eyes had adjusted enough to see that there was a set of open stairs built against the wall that led up to the control room. The way to go seemed obvious.
“Find a gig,” I said to Kasha. “Boon and I will go up there and open the doors. As soon as the light comes in, power up.”
“You cannot fight a klee,” Kasha warned.
I grabbed Kasha’s forager weapon that she always had strapped to her back. It was a long wooden stick much like the ones Loor and the Batu warriors used.
“I can fight one klee,” I said.
“And I’ll be with him,” Boon added.
“Even so, we can’t fight a bunch of klees,” I cautioned. “Once things start getting nasty, we’ve got to get out of here fast.”
Kasha nodded. There wasn’t any more to be discussed. I tapped Boon on the back and motioned for him to head for the stairs. We wound our way through the gigs, trying to hide from the eyes of the klee up above in the control room. If there was one thing we needed, it was surprise. If that klee thought he was being attacked, I’d bet anything that there was an alarm he could sound and bring others running. We had to be quiet and fast and out of there before he knew what hit him, which hopefully would be the end of Kasha’s stick.
At the bottom of the stairs I stopped Boon to strategize.
“Get him to come outside onto the balcony,” I instructed.
“Are you sure?” Boon asked, uncertain. “I know you’re brave, Pendragon, but you’re not a warrior.”
I almost laughed. I probably would have if I hadn’t been afraid of alerting the klee.