Black Water

CLORAL

“Please be well. Think of me. And though I know I don’t have to remind you…do not use the flume. There’s no telling what will happen if you do.

Mark lowered the pages of Bobby’s Journal #17 after having read it aloud to Courtney and Spader. Everyone looked pretty grim.

“Did we make a mistake by coming here?” Mark asked solemnly.

“No!” Courtney said with confidence. “Bobby doesn’t know the whole story. What about all those dead tangs at the farm? It all fits. It’s the poison from Cloral! I’ll bet Saint Dane is trying to find Black Water so he can use the poison there, too.”

“What do you think, Spader?” Mark asked.

“I think Courtney’s right,” he answered.

“Thank you!” Courtney shouted in triumph.

“But I’m not sure if bringing the antidote from Cloral is the right thing to do,” Spader added.

“How can you say that?” Courtney said quickly. “The rules have changed. Saint Dane told us that himself. If he’s mixing the territories, why can’t we?”

“Well,” Spader said thoughtfully. “Because he’s the bad guy.”

Courtney couldn’t argue with that. Instead, she grabbed the plastic bag with the sample of Seegen’s fur in it. “What about this?” she asked Mark. “We brought this from Second Earth. Aren’t we mixing things from the territories too?”

“I was going to destroy that,” Mark said sheepishly.

“Sure, after you were finished with it,” Courtney shot back. “I think things really have changed. Saint Dane ruined his first territory and it’s somehow made him stronger. Mixing the territories may be dangerous, but letting him win again might be worse.”

“And what about the acolytes traveling?” Mark asked. “Bobby thinks it’s wrong.”

“He doesn’t know for sure,” Courtney answered. “But I’ll tell you whatisfor sure: Saint Dane is about to wipe out the gars. He’s got the klees behind him and he’s got the poison. What do you want to do? Go home and wait for Bobby’s journal to tell us how he lost again, and Saint Dane’s powers have gotten even stronger? Or maybe Saint Dane will stop by to tells us in person, right before he starts messing with Second Earth.”

Mark looked to Spader. Spader’s eyes were trained on the floor. Mark saw that his jaw muscles were working as he clenched his teeth together. Finally Spader stood and took the plastic bag from Courtney and said, “We’re not doing anything until we know for sure. Come with me.”

A short while later the three of them stood in the agronomy laboratory on Grallion. They were with Ty Manoo, one of the agronomers who was responsible for accidentally creating the deadly poison that threatened to spread a plague across Cloral. They watched the pudgy little scientist as he busily prepared a microscope slide from the strands of Seegen’s fur.

“It was such a noble idea,” Manoo explained. “We set out to make a fertilizer that would double the growth rate of our crops. It would have insured a bounty of food for all of Cloral for generations! But something went terribly wrong.”

The others knew exactly what went wrong. Saint Dane.

“The fertilizer ended up mutating the molecular structure of everything it touched. The crops became poisonous. It was horrible!”

Ty Manoo was short and bald, with an elflike face. He was a nervous guy, who constantly licked his lips when he spoke. He was licking overtime now. He didn’t like talking about the poison he was partly responsible for creating.

“If it weren’t for the good people of Faar who created an antidote to counteract the effects, well, I’d hate to imagine what would have happened.”

“Saint Dane would have destroyed Cloral, that’s what,” Courtney said under her breath.

“Excuse me?” asked Manoo.

“Nothing,” Courtney answered.

Manoo finished the slide and slipped it into a microscope. It didn’t look anything like a Second Earth microscope. The contraption was round like a volleyball, and shiny silver. It had a flat base and a square window on top to peer down on the magnified image. Manoo looked intently down through this window while slowly spinning the sphere to focus it. “This is a waste of time,” he said. “Every trace of the poison was destroyed soon after…”

Manoo fell silent. Mark thought he actually saw the color drain out of his face.

“What?” Spader asked.

“Where did you get this?” Manoo asked numbly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Spader said quickly. “Is it the poison fertilizer?”

“It… it can’t be,” Manoo stammered. “It’s impossible.”

“But is it?” Courtney demanded.

Manoo looked at them with a mixture of fear and confusion. “Say something, Manoo,” Spader said firmly.

Manoo said sheepishly, “There was a problem-“

“Problem?”Spader shouted. “I never heard about any problem!”

“It’s not certain,” Manoo said quickly. “All the fertilizer was destroyed. All of it. But there was a discrepancy. A mistake-“

“What kind of mistake?” Spader asked, losing patience quickly.

“It was a clerical error. Nothing more.”

“Hobey, Manoo! Tell us!” Spader demanded.

“When we did an inventory, the numbers didn’t add up,” Manoo said nervously. “There were ten tanks of the poison that couldn’t be accounted for. We figured somebody wrote the numbers down incorrectly.” Manoo fell silent. The horrible reality was sinking in for him that the numbers weren’t wrong.

“You’re positive it’s the same poison?” Spader asked.

“I’d know it anywhere,” he answered, licking his lips furiously.

That confirmed it. The Cloral plague was officially on Eelong. Manoo pulled the slide out of the microscope and dropped it on the desk as if it were diseased, which it was.

“Spader, if it wasn’t a mistake, and those tanks are floating around somewhere on Cloral, we must-“

“They aren’t,” Spader said harshly. “You’re holding the last of it. Burn it. The fur, the paper, even this bag.” Spader shoved the plastic bag into Manoo’s sweaty hands. “Burn it all.”

“But what about the missing tanks?” Manoo asked.

“They’re going to stay missing,” Spader said sharply. “What about the chemical antidote? Was that destroyed too?”

“Of course not,” Manoo answered. “Every habitat has its own supply, in case, well, in case something like this happened. I can’t believe it! What should we do?”

“Nothing,” Spader said. “I’ll report this to Yenza. Don’t tell anybody else; we don’t want to cause a panic over nothing.”

“All right, Spader, if you say so,” Manoo whined. “But please, talk to Wu Yenza.”

Spader left the laboratory with Mark and Courtney right on his heels. Once outside he kept walking quickly, passing through a section of the farm that grew luscious-looking yellow-and-purple-striped fruit the size of grapefruits. Mark and Courtney had never seen crops like this, but they didn’t stop to marvel. The time for fun was long past.

“Do we have enough proof now?” Courtney asked, as if she were confident of the answer all along. Spader didn’t answer. “Where are we going?” Mark asked. “I’ve got to tell Yenza,” Spader said.

“The chief aquaneer,” Mark added knowingly. “Your acolyte.”

“What’s the point?” Courtney asked. “This isn’t about Cloral.”

Spader stopped short and whipped around to face the other two. He was upset. Mark saw it in his eyes. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he said. “Pendragon was supposed to come find me when he needed my help. That’s what I promised him.”

“What’s the difference?” Courtney said. “He needs your help now. You’re going to give it to him, right?”

“The difference is we’re doing the exact things he told us not to do! Okay, maybe the rules have changed and anything goes now, but Pendragon’s the Jead Traveler. I trust him.”

“We all do,” Courtney said.

“Then what if he’s right?” Spader barked with finality. “What if we’re doing the exact wrong thing?”

It was a statement more than a question. They let it hang in the air because the truth was, none of them knew what would happen if the territories started to mingle, or the acolytes traveled.

“I don’t know,” Courtney said calmly. “ButIdo know that if those are the rules, Saint Dane isn’t playing by them. Yeah, bad guys don’t always play fair, but he’s about to destroy his second territory. He told Bobby that once the first territory fell, the others would go more easily. So I think we have two choices. First one is: You can stay here, Mark and I can go home to Second Earth, and we can all hope that Bobby will figure out a way to stop the Cloral poison from destroying Eelong.”

“It won’t happen,” Mark said soberly. “From what we’ve read, they don’t have the kind of science on Eelong to create an antidote like they did on Faar.”

“Which brings us to our second choice,” Courtney continued. “We can take the antidote to Eelong. Hopefully it isn’t too late. The rules may be broken and two territories will be mixed, but it’s the best shot at beating Saint Dane. The only shot. The real question is, which is worse? Acolytes traveling and mixing the territories? Or Saint Dane winning territory number two?”

The three stood silently for a moment, then Mark said in a soft voice, “You want us to bring the antidote to Eelong?”

Wu Yenza stood on the deck of a large speeder craft that floated gently on the sea. She was giving a final check to the gear that was spread out before her. Yenza was the chief aquaneer of Grallion and carried herself with the kind of confidence needed for the job. She was older, somewhere in her thirties, and in pretty good shape. She had short black hair and wore a black aquaneer uniform like Spader’s, only hers had long sleeves with three yellow stripes on the cuffs that showed her rank. Yenza was fully up to speed on all things to do with the Travelers. After she and her aquaneers helped defeat Saint Dane and his raiders in the battle for the city of Faar, Spader told her all he knew about their mission to stop the evil demon. Realizing the importance of the Travelers’ mission, she agreed to become Spader’s acolyte. And now, standing on an aquaneer craft, she was doing a tech check on three silver cylinders that looked like scuba tanks. But they didn’t hold compressed air. They were filled with the liquid antidote for the poison that threatened Eelong.

“Each of these cylinders has a nozzle,” Yenza explained to Mark and Courtney, who watched her closely. “The liquid inside is under pressure. Opening the nozzle will let out a fine, wide spray. It doesn’t take much to counteract the poison.”

“Got it,” Courtney said.

Spader climbed up from belowdecks carrying three black backpacks. “We’ll each carry one cylinder,” he explained. He slipped one of the backpacks on and Yenza dropped a cylinder into it. Spader tugged the straps tight, pulling the silver cylinder snug against his back. “Just like that. Easy-do.”

Spader and Yenza helped Mark and Courtney slip into their own harnesses, then dropped the silver tanks into them. The gear was light. They could move around easily without having to lean forward and counterbalance.

“You look like a scuba diver,” Mark said to Courtney.

Yenza held up a silver pistol. Mark and Courtney recognized the weapon from Bobby’s description in his journals. It fired a short blast of water that was powerful enough to tear through a wall.

“There’s one for each of you. With holsters,” Yenza said. “I don’t care how tough those tangs are on Eelong, one shot from this will knock ‘em silly.”

“No,” Spader said. “No weapons.”

“Why not?” Courtney asked. “Eelong is a hairy place.”

“So it is,” Spader replied. “But we’re going there to get rid of a poison that should never have been brought in. That’s all. We can’t start using whatever we want from other territories.”

“I–Ihear you, Spader,” Mark said nervously. “B-But it’s going to be dangerous. We might not make it out of the flume tree alive.”

“If we don’t,” Spader said, “then that was the way it was meant to be. We’ll have to take our chances. Still want to go?”

Mark looked at Courtney. He had been having second thoughts about this trip all along. Now he was having third and fourth thoughts.

“Absolutely,” Courtney answered with confidence.

“Mark?” Spader asked.

Mark took a breath, then said, “Yeah.”

Spader said to Yenza, “Please send a message to Yorn through your ring. He’s the acolyte from Eelong. Tell him that Saint Dane brought a poison to Eelong from Cloral and we’re coming with the antidote. He’s got to get that message to Pendragon so we can join up with him.”

“Understood,” Yenza said. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come?”

“No, I’m not at all sure,” Spader answered. “But we’ve already got two acolytes traveling. If it turns out to be wrong, I don’t want to risk sending another.”

“It’s not wrong,” Courtney said defensively.

Spader replied by picking up his water sled. “We’ll soon find out. Ready?”

They all grabbed their air globes and placed them over their heads.

“Good luck!” Yenza called to them as Spader and Courtney leaped into the water.

“Thank you,” Mark said to Yenza. He sat on the rail of the speeder, twisted his legs over the side, and gently slipped into the warm water of Cloral. The three floated together next to the boat.

“Same as before,” Spader instructed. “Grab my belt.”

He ducked below the surface, followed by Mark and Courtney. They each grabbed on to his belt, and with the help of his powerful water sled, Spader pulled the trio down underwater toward the gate to the flume. Yenza had positioned the speeder right above the rock ledge, so in no time the three shot underneath. Minutes later they surfaced in the cavern that held the flume. Without a word they pulled themselves up onto the rocky ledge and got rid of their air globes and swim belts.

“We’ll wear these clothes in the flume,” Spader said. “Then find clothes from Eelong when we arrive.”

“It’s going to be tough explaining to the klees what these tanks are,” Mark said.

“It’s going to be impossible,” Spader shot back. “Let’s hope we won’t have to.” He slipped back into the water and called out,”Eelong!” Theflume overhead sprang to life. As the light and the musical notes grew closer, Spader looked to Courtney and said, “I sure hope you’re right about this. See you on the other side.”

The bright light flashed out of the flume and shot down toward Spader. Mark and Courtney had to squint to see what was happening, and caught a glimpse of Spader being lifted out of the water. A second later the light flashed so brightly that it blinded them. When it disappeared, Spader was gone. All they could hear was the faint sound of the musical notes fading into the depths of the flume. The two stood there, nervously waiting for the other to go first.

“You realize we could die on Eelong,” Mark said soberly.

“Nice,” Courtney said. “Real positive attitude you got there.”

“I’m serious,” Mark complained. “Are we ready for this?”

Courtney answered by slipping into the water. “Yes,” she said. “You’re not going to bail on me just when it’s getting interesting, are you?”

“This is a lot of things,” Mark said as he dropped into the water. “‘Interesting’ doesn’t begin to cover it.”

“Eelong!”Courtney shouted.

Instantly the flume groaned. They could hear the rock walls crack and grind as if an earthquake were shaking it. Mark and Courtney looked up in wonder.

“It didn’t do that when Spader left,” Mark said nervously.

Two rocks fell out of the flume, bounded down the side of the cavern and splashed into the water. Mark and Courtney had to swim out of the way or they would have been creamed.

“This isn’t right,” Mark gasped.

“Too late now,” Courtney shouted back as the musical notes grew loud. More rocks fell, splashing down in the water. The light from the flume circled them both and they could feel themselves being lifted up and out of the pool. A moment later they were whisked into the flume and sent on their way to Eelong.

As they flew, they quickly forgot about the unusual damage that happened to the flume. The anticipation of what was to come was far more exciting, and scary. As with their first flume trip, they saw strange images floating in the star field that surrounded the crystal tunnel. There was a giant castle that looked as if it were built into a mountainside, a silver, cigar-shaped zeppelin that could very well have been theHindenburg, and what looked like legions of tall soldiers, marching together in perfect formation, headed for some unknown war. Mark and Courtney had no idea what any of it meant. They didn’t have much time to discuss it anyway, because they soon felt the tug of gravity that meant they were arriving on Eelong. Seconds later they were on their feet…and enveloped by the curtain of vines. Each went a different way and quickly got lost in the tangle.

“Ahhhl” shouted Mark in terror as he slashed with his arms to keep them away. “Courtney!”

“Mark!” Courtney called back from somewhere. “It’s cool. They’re roots, remember? Bobby wrote about them.”

Mark stopped struggling. “Right, roots,” he said, embarrassed. He felt a strong hand grab his arm and relaxed. He wasn’t alone anymore. “Oh man,” he panted. “How do we get out of-“

As the hanging vegetation parted, he saw that the hand didn’t belong to Courtney. Holding on to his wrist was a yellow-eyed, sharp-toothed, semihuman quig. The two stared at each other, waiting to see what the other was going to do. Mark reacted first.

“Quig!” he shouted and tried to pull away. But the quig held him tight. Mark fell backward into the vines as the quig pounced on his chest. The beast looked down on him, baring his teeth in a hideous smile. It lunged for Mark’s throat. Mark threw his hands up to protect himself, and the quig bit into his forearm. “Ahhh!” Mark screamed in pain. Mark wasn’t a fighter. Not even close. But the pain kicked him into action. He whacked the quig on the side of the head with his free hand, knocking the little beast away. But not for long. The quig scrambled to his knees, ready to pounce again. Mark was on his butt, backing away on all fours.

“Courtney!” he shouted. “Help!”

The quig sprang, but before it got to Mark, a vine shot out and wrapped around its neck, holding it back. The quig let out a surprised yelp and tore at the noose. At first, Mark thought the vine had come to life and attacked the quig, but a second later he saw the real reason. Spader was clutching the two ends of the vine, holding the monster quig tight.

“Nasty little woggly,” Spader said with way more calm than the situation deserved. “I think you should apologize to my friend.”

The quig tore at the vine, cutting it in two, allowing it to escape. It took off through the root forest and disappeared. A second later, the vines behind Mark rustled.

“There’s more of ‘em!” he shouted, and backed toward Spader.

The roots parted to reveal…Courtney. “What happened? You all right?” she asked. “No!” Mark shouted.

Spader looked at Mark’s arm to see the damage. “It’s not bad,” he said. “Just a scratch.”

“Easy for you to say,” Mark shot back. “That thing better not have rabies!”

“Can we please get out of this jungle?” Courtney asked.

The three stayed close together and pushed their way toward the cavern that Bobby had described in his journal. Courtney emerged from the tangle first, took one look, and said, “Oh man!”

Mark and Spader came out right behind her. Mark had the same reaction, “Oh man!”

“Hobey,” Spader said. “I guess it’s true.”

Standing on all fours next to the flat rock in the center of the cavern was a big, brown jungle cat.

“Are you all right?” the cat asked. “I didn’t know the quig was in there. Sorry. That wasn’t a very good welcome to Eelong.”

They stared back at the animal numbly. Though Mark and Courtney had already met Seegen, seeing a talking predator cat was still pretty strange. And Spader had never seen any kind of cat before, civilized or not.

The cat said, “Are you Mark and Courtney? And Spader?”

Courtney was the first one to get her head back together. “Yes,” she said. “Boon?”

“That’s me!” Boon answered. He stood up on his hind legs and held out a pale green leaflike sheet. It looked just like one of the pages Bobby used to write his journals from Cloral.

“This is terrible news,” the brown klee said. “Would Saint Dane really bring a poison from another territory?”

“I don’t understand,” Spader said.

“It’s okay,” Mark assured him. “Klees are the superior beings here on Eelong.”

“No, I’m talking about the note,” Spader said. “I asked Yenza to send that note to the acolyte, Yorn.”

“She did,” Boon answered. “Yorn gave it to me just before they left for Black Water-that’s why I’m here to meet you. Is it true? About the poison from Cloral?”

“It’s true,” Spader answered. “Why didn’t they wait for us?”

“There’s something else I don’t get,” Mark said. “How come we can understand you, Boon? I mean, you’re not a Traveler. We’re not Travelers either, and I’m pretty sure you don’t know English. And now that I think of it, neither did Ty Manoo on Cloral.”

Courtney said, “Bobby said that things were changing. Maybe something changed in us because we can use the flume now.”

“Uh-oh,” Mark said.

“Now what?” Spader asked.

Mark raised his hand to show that the stone in the center of his ring was glowing. He took it off and placed it on the dirt floor. The familiar events followed quickly. The music, the lights, the growing ring…and the arrival of a roll of parchment pages. Mark reached down and picked up the next journal from Bobby Pendragon.

“Maybe all the answers we need just came in,” Spader said.