The Lost City of Faar

CLORAL

Theseawasnowcalm. Thethreeofussatonthebubbleof the floating hauler, staring at the reborn city of Faar. None of us could say anything for the longest time. There were no words that could truly describe the spectacular sight we had just witnessed. Well, maybe there was one.

“That was… cool,” I said, knowing it was the biggest understatement of all time.

The three of us exchanged glances and started to laugh. It was an incredible moment. We helped the city of Faar complete its destiny and probably saved Cloral at the same time. If there was a lesson here it would have to be that you should never, ever lose hope. We had given up. Thrown in the towel. The fat lady had not only sung, she had left the stage. Saint Dane was already doing his victory lap. But we pulled it out. Unbelievable. The only way we could show our disbelief was to laugh. It felt great.

We watched as the Faarians swam toward their city and tentatively crawled up on the shore. One by one they emerged from the water, gathered together, and stood looking up in awe at their mountain city. It was the first time the sun had touched their buildings in centuries. Water still poured from the beehive of tunnel openings that dotted the mountain. The transpire was complete.

As we sat, watching this wondrous sight, we heard the sound of waves slapping against a hull. All three of us turned to see that the black submarine was cruising toward us. My first thought was to jump back in the hauler and get the heck out of there, but a closer look told us there was no reason to be afraid. The deck of the submarine was lined with aqua-neers. They were all staring at Faar with the same look of wonder. Just as Spader had predicted, his mates had won. They now commanded the raiders’ sub.

Stepping from out of the control tower was Wu Yenza. She walked out into the sun and stood with her hands on her hips confidently, watching as they drew closer to us. She was very much in charge.

“She’s good,” Uncle Press said.

“She’s better than good,” I added. “If not for her…”

I didn’t have to finish the sentence. We all knew where we’d be right now if Yenza hadn’t gone for help. I turned to Spader and said, “Maybe you’ll get a promotion for this.”

An odd thing happened. Spader didn’t smile and make a clever comeback. He just watched the approaching submarine intently. His mind was somewhere else. Even though we had just pulled out an incredible victory, there was now a dark frown on his face. Without a word, he dropped back down into the hauler and powered up so we could rendezvous with the sub. I looked at Uncle Press. All he could do was shrug.

As Uncle Press pulled off his swimskin, Spader guided our hauler right up alongside the sub. An aquaneer tossed us a rope so we could tie on. Spader handed me the two air globes and water sleds and I tossed them up to the aquaneer. We then all climbed aboard the sub and were reunited with Yenza.

“I guess you found Faar,” she said with a wry smile. Another understatement.

“What made you leave?” asked Uncle Press.

“A hunch,” she said. “When you didn’t surface, I assumed you had found the city. And if Zy Roder was right behind us, I didn’t want to take him on myself. I’m good, but notthatgood.”

“Where is he?” asked Spader with no emotion.

Uh-oh. Now I knew what was in Spader’s head. The sight of the sub approaching had reminded him of Saint Dane. I was afraid that he would still be looking for revenge.

“He’s in the brig down below,” answered Yenza. “I won’t let him get away again.”

Spader walked past us toward the control tower.

“Spader, let it go,” I called.

But Spader kept walking. What was he going to do? Uncle Press and I followed him.

Spader entered the control tower. He grabbed an aquaneer by the shirt and demanded, “Where is the brig?”

“Below, halfway to the stern,” answered the aquaneer, a little intimidated.

Spader pushed him aside and headed for the ladder.

Uncle Press called, “Spader, stop. Take a breath.”

Spader wasn’t listening. He slid down the ladder. We were right behind him. We hit the main deck and had only taken a few steps when we heard a scream come from the back of the sub. It was a horrible, pained howl. Without a word we all began running toward the sound. Spader was a few feet ahead of us and glancing into each doorway as he passed, looking for the source. Finally he saw something and entered a doorway. We followed right behind.

This was the right place. The room was split in half. We had just entered the front half. The back half was closed off by prison bars. On the floor in front of us was an aquaneer. Another aquaneer was behind the bars of the cell. Roder/Saint Dane was nowhere to be seen.

“He killed him!” shouted the aquaneer behind the bars. He was all sorts of excited and out of breath.

Uncle Press immediately went to the fallen aquaneer.

“Who did?” demanded Spader.

“Zy Roder! We were putting him in the cell when he suddenly turned on us. The guy is strong! He threw me in here and closed the door, then grabbed him and choked him and — I think he’s dead.” The guy was out of his mind with panic.

Uncle Press checked the aquaneer’s pulse.

“He’s not dead, but he needs help,” said Uncle Press. “I’ll get Yenza.” He blasted out of the door and turned left to get back to the control room.

“Where’s Roder?” asked Spader.

“I don’t know! He ran out. Let me out of here. We’ve got to find him!”

I pulled a set of keys from the belt of the fallen aquaneer and threw them to Spader. Spader unlocked the door to the cell and the other aquaneer ran out.

“I’ve got to report this to Yenza!” he shouted, then ran out and turned to the right.

“Help me,” I said to Spader, and the two of us moved the aquaneer into a sitting position so he was more comfortable. His eyes opened slowly and focused on me.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“Roder…” the guy gasped. “I got too close to the cell. He grabbed me.”

“We know,” I said. “Your friend told us.” The aquaneer focused on me and frowned. “What friend?”

“Roder locked the other aquaneer in the cell after he attacked you.”

The aquaneer shook his head and said, “Roder was already in the cell. He reached out and grabbed me. Nobody else was here.”

Spader looked at me with confusion, but I knew instantly what had happened. Saint Dane had transformed himself again. That wasn’t an aquaneer in the cell, it was Saint Dane, and we had just freed him.

“He took a right,” I said. “The control room is to the left.”

“He’s going for the launch chamber,” shouted Spader.

“Let him go,” I begged.

Spader wasn’t listening. He bolted from the room, hot after Saint Dane.

“You okay?” I asked the aquaneer.

He nodded and waved for me to get going.

“Spader!” I shouted. “Spader, stop!”

I ran after my friend, but there was no stopping him.

Moments later we both got to the door of the launch chamber that had once held the hauler. Spader pushed on the door, but something was keeping it closed from inside. He pushed harder and the door finally gave way. Someone had put a barrel against it. We both jumped into the room in time to see Saint Dane about to make his escape.

He had transformed back into his normal self. His steely blue eyes flashed at us as we tumbled into the room. He was on a skimmer, like the underwater skimmers we used to sabotage his battle cruiser. We saw him a second before his head went under the water. His long, gray hair billowed out, like a spiderweb in the water around him. Our roles had reversed. This is how Saint Dane had seen us as we made our escape on the hauler.

Saint Dane shot us a look of such hatred that I thought my hair would ignite. Then his head sank below the surface. Spader made a move as if to dive for him, but I held him back.

“Let him go,” I begged Spader. “You’ll get another chance.”

Spader threw me aside and ran back out into the corridor. I followed, but had trouble keeping up because he was running flat out.

He got to the ladder, scrambled up into the tower, then jumped outside, onto the hull. As I was climbing up the ladder after him I kept yelling, “Stop him! Somebody stop Spader!”

Things were happening so quickly no one had time to react. Spader ran across the hull and headed right for the hauler we had arrived on. Before anyone could stop him, he cast off the line, jumped on board, and dove into the bubble.

Uncle Press and Yenza came running.

“What is he doing?” Yenza asked.

“Saint Dane, I mean Roder, escaped. He’s got a skimmer.”

Spader was already submerging in the hauler. Uncle Press watched him sink below the surface, his mind turning. He then looked to the deck, grabbed an air globe, and threw it to me. We were going after him.

“I know where he’s going,” he said.

“How? Where?” asked Yenza.

I wanted to ask the same thing, but I figured Uncle Press would tell me on the way. He grabbed his own air globe and one of the water sleds. I grabbed the other.

Yenza said, “I’ll send a team of aquaneers with you.”

“No!” commanded Uncle Press quickly. “We can handle it.” Something about the way Uncle Press snapped at Yenza made me realize where we were going. It all made sense. I should have figured it out myself. We were headed for the gate. Saint Dane was going to try and escape through the flume. It was the only option left to him. The aquaneers didn’t need to see this. It was a Traveler thing.

“Ready?” asked Uncle Press.

“Close enough,” I answered.

We both splashed down and plunged below the surface.

“You know which way?” I asked.

Uncle Press looked around and said, “There!”

I looked and saw a thin trail of bubbles left by the hauler. We both triggered our water sleds and followed the trail like breadcrumbs in the forest.

“This could take hours,” I said to Uncle Press as we shot along side by side.

“Maybe,” he answered. “Or maybe Saint Dane knows about another gate.”

I hadn’t thought of that. On Denduron there were two gates. Who’s to say Cloral had only one? But neither of us knew for certain, so all we could do was follow the trail of bubbles.

“Spader is going to be an important ally to you, Bobby,” Uncle Press said. “But he’s got to learn how to control his emotions.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” I said.

“Killing Saint Dane isn’t the answer,” he continued. “I wish it were that simple, but it’s not.”

“You mean… he can’t die?” I asked.

“His body can die,” Uncle Press explained. “But he would just come back in another form.”

“What is he? Some kind of… ghost?” ”Not like you’re thinking. His spirit is evil, Bobby. Killing his body won’t stop him from his quest.”

“Okay,” I said, not really understanding. “Whatwillstop his quest?”

Uncle Press didn’t answer at first. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t want to tell me, or he didn’t know. Finally he said:

“It won’t end until he thinks he’s won. That’s when he’ll fail.”

O-kay. That meant almost nothing to me. But I was used to that. The truth was, things were actually getting less confusing… sort of. When I thought back to how clueless I was the first time I hit the flume, I was amazed at how far I had come. But there was still a long way to go and much to learn. I had to accept that. So I didn’t push Uncle Press anymore. Besides, getting too much information just freaked me out.

We traveled for a long time and my arms were getting tired from holding the water sled out in front of me. I kept having to change my grip, sometimes holding on with only one hand to rest my other arm. I didn’t think it was going to be possible to keep going at this pace and hang on for the hours it would take to get back to the flume near Grallion.

And that’s when my ring started to twitch. We were nowhere near the rock shelf where we had first arrived, so that could only mean one thing: There was another gate.

The bubble trail from Spader’s hauler led us deeper. It was getting darker too. And cold. Up ahead I saw a rock formation rising up from the bottom. It looked kind of like a mesa you’d see in a Western movie, but of course it was underwater. It rose up to a flat top, with steep cliffs on either side. My glowing ring told me the gate must be hidden in this formation somewhere.

Something else made me think we were almost there. On the far side of the rock formation I saw a fat stream of air bubbles rising toward the surface. Whatever was causing this was on the other side of the formation, out of our sight. It could have been Spader’s hauler, but I didn’t know why it would be spewing so much air. Uncle Press and I directed our water sleds toward the bubbles, and as soon as we passed over the top of the formation, we had the answer.

It was Spader’s hauler all right, but Spader wasn’t in it. The hatch was open and it was now filled with water. Jets of air spewed up from inside. But that wasn’t the most dramatic part. There had been an accident. Okay, maybe accident wasn’t the right word because it looked like Spader had meant to do what he did.

It was an unbelievable sight. Jammed between the bubble of the hauler and the rock wall was a dead quig. It wasn’t as big as the others, but it looked plenty nasty just the same. Spader had no weapons to protect himself, so he rammed it with the hauler. The shark had fallen onto a ledge, with the hauler right on top of it.

“Nice shot,” said Uncle Press.

The quig’s tail twitched. Maybe it wasn’t dead after all. We kept our distance.

“So where’s the gate?” I asked.

We had to be in the right place. Not only was my ring going nuts, but the quig was a dead giveaway. I hoped that it was close because Spader didn’t have an air globe. Once he got out of the hauler, he was going to have to hold his breath. The two of us scanned the steep wall of the rock formation, but saw no opening.

Then I caught something out of the corner of my eye. It was a bubble no bigger than a golfball that rose up near one section of the wall.

“There!” I announced, and drove my water sled toward it.

When we got close to the wall I saw that the whole rocky face was draped with a curtain of red sea kelp. I tried to remember the exact spot where I saw the bubble rising and started pushing the kelp aside, looking for an opening. But there was nothing behind the kelp but rock. No opening, no tunnel, no gate. The whole time I was looking, I kept glancing over at the quig that was pinned by Spader’s hauler. If that thing suddenly sprang to life, I was out of there.

Finally I grabbed a handful of kelp and pushed it aside to reveal a star dug into the rock.

“Got it!” I shouted.

Uncle Press joined me and we dug through the vines until we found a narrow opening. It wasn’t much wider than a human body, but it had to be the gate. I don’t know why I was feeling so brave all of a sudden, but I went first. I entered the dark crevice and pulled myself along by grabbing on to the rock walls. It only took a few seconds before I saw a shaft of light streaking down through the water ahead of me. A second later I surfaced into another underwater cavern. Uncle Press surfaced right behind me and we both pulled off our air globes.

I didn’t know what to expect. What I really hoped was to find Spader there alone and safe, with no Saint Dane to deal with.

The cavern itself was much smaller than the one near Grallion. The pool of water that we now floated in was barely big enough for the two of us. Directly across from us was the flume. We were definitely in the right place. None of this was a surprise. What was hard to believe were the two people inside the cavern.

One was Spader. He was sitting on the rocky floor to our left, crying. And it was pretty obvious why. The other person in the cavern… was his father. I had only seen the guy once, and he was dead at the time, but I remembered him. Dead guys tend to leave an impression. The question was, how could he possibly be here? Alive?

When Uncle Press and I threw off our air globes, Spader’s father turned to us and said, “Look, your friends have arrived.”

The two sat together looking like they were having a quiet, father-son heart-to-heart. There must have been a hundred emotions fighting for Spader’s brain time.

He looked at us through his tears and cried, “Hobey, Pendragon! He’s alive! Saint Dane kept him here, like a prisoner! Can you believe it?”

The truth was, I couldn’t. But my mind wasn’t firing on all cylinders at that point either. It was Uncle Press who kept a clear head and gave Spader the bad news.

“It’s not him, Spader,” he said. “Your father is dead. You saw him on Magorran. He was poisoned.”

Spader looked at Uncle Press in confusion. If he had been thinking clearly, he would have realized the truth on his own. But seeing his father alive again had done a number on his head. It sure messed with me for a second, but I soon understood the truth as well. It made me hate Saint Dane even more, if that were possible. He was truly an evil being to have done this to Spader.

“Oh, Press, you are such a killjoy,” Spader’s father said. “And I thought you were dead.”

He turned to Spader and said with a sigh, “Your daddyisdead, Spader. And you will be too if you don’t back off.”

Spader’s brain wasn’t computing. He watched with wide eyes as his father stood up, walked to the mouth of the flume, and announced, “Veelox!”

Instantly the flume sprang to life with light and sound.

Spader’s father then looked back to Spader and said, “Who knows? Maybe I’ll find your mother along the way and kill her, too!”

Spader fell back against the wall like he had just been punched in the stomach. Spader’s father then made a quick transformation back into Saint Dane. He then looked right at me and stared into my brain with such an intense look, I wanted to sink back under the water to escape it.

“Until next time…,” he said with an evil grin. Then with a slight bow, he was enveloped by the light and sucked into the flume. I looked at Spader. His eyes were huge. He was only now starting to realize what had happened.

Uncle Press and I pulled ourselves out of the pool of water and went to him.

“His evil reaches out in a lot of ways,” said Uncle Press. “He takes as much pleasure in causing you this kind of anguish as wiping out a territory or murdering hundreds of people. It’s all the same to him.”

I could see Spader’s anger growing. His look went from one of confusion, to realization, to rage.

“I’ll kill him,” he seethed, and went toward the flume.

Uncle Press held him back. “Don’t,” he said firmly. “This isn’t about your own vendetta. This is about protecting the territories, and Halla.”

Spader shoved Uncle Press aside. He pushed him with such force that Uncle Press slammed into the rock wall and fell to the ground.

“I don’t care about the territories, or Halla, or whatever it is you say I’m supposed to be fighting for. He killed my father and he will die for that.”

He strode toward the flume. That’s when I heard the faint sound of the musical notes coming back.

“Veelox!”called Spader.

The light began glowing from the flume and the notes got louder. But something was wrong. I had heard them comingbeforehe said “Veelox.” The flume had already been activated. Something was coming our way.

Uh-oh. I thought back to the mine tunnel on Denduron when Saint Dane had sent back a quig shark through the flume that nearly ate Loor and me. Spader stood in the mouth of the flume, expecting to be taken away, oblivious to the danger. The musical notes grew louder and light blew out from deep inside.

“No!” I shouted. “Something’s coming back!”

I started to run for Spader, but Uncle Press grabbed me from behind and pulled me back so hard I tripped and fell on my butt.

“Spader, get out of there!” he yelled, and ran for the flume.

Spader wasn’t moving. There was only one thing on his mind, and that was revenge. I scrambled back to my feet in time to see Uncle Press headed for Spader. The light was so bright now that whatever was coming would be here in a second. Spader stood at the mouth of the flume, waiting for a ride that wasn’t coming.

What happened next took only a few seconds, but they were the longest seconds of my life. I will never forget them. They were seared into my brain forever. Uncle Press dove at Spader and knocked him out of the way. Spader crashed against the far wall, out of the light, away from the flume, and safe from whatever was coming back. But now Uncle Press stood there alone. He had saved Spader, but whatever was coming through the flume was going to hit him.

I heard a whistling sound, then a scream, and an instant later the rock wall opposite the tunnel exploded. At first I thought it was some kind of bomb that had come through, but there wasn’t one big boom; there were several smaller, sharp cracks. Bits of rock were blasted off the wall and rained down on me. There was no mistaking what it was — these were bullets. It was like someone had fired a machine gun into the flume and the bullets traveled all the way through, only to be spit out here.

Another second went by and it was over. The lights stopped, the musical notes stopped, and the storm of bullets ended.

“Uncle Press!”

He was lying on the ground, right at the mouth of the flume. I ran to him to see if he had been hit, but I already knew the worst. There was no way that many bullets could come flying out of the flume and miss him completely. It would have to be a miracle. But since my life had been one miracle after another lately, that’s what I was hoping for.

When I knelt down next to my uncle, I saw that my miracles had run out. Uncle Press had been hit. More than once. His eyes were unfocused, but they still had life. I looked quickly to Spader, who was crouched in the corner where he had fallen. He, too, looked at Uncle Press in shock. He had no idea what could have happened.

“Get the hauler,” I screamed at him. “We’ve got to get him back to Grallion.”

“Bobby, no,” Uncle Press said, grabbing my arm.

“You arenotgoing to die!” I shouted. My uncle was lying in front of me, mortally wounded. My invincible uncle. The uncle I loved and who took me on more adventures than any kid deserved… and that wasbeforeI became a Traveler.

“Listen, Bobby —,” he said weakly.

“No! You are not going to tell me this is the way it’s supposed to be! Not like this. Not you!”

Spader crawled over to us and listened. He was in even more emotional agony than before. I knew what he was going through. Uncle Press was going to die because he saved Spader’s life, the same as Osa died saving mine.

“You’ve asked me a lot of questions, Bobby,” Uncle Press whispered. “But there’s one you never asked.”

“What?” I said, tears streaming down my cheeks.

“I’ve told you there is only one Traveler from each territory,” he said. “You never asked why there were two from Second Earth.”

He was right. I never did. I don’t know why, but the thought never crossed my mind. It was so obvious, but I never thought about it. Or maybe I didn’t want to.

“Are you going to tell me?”

“The answer is, therecan’tbe two Travelers from Second Earth. I knew my time was short. That’s why I brought you from home. It was your time. It was Loor’s time, and Spader’s, too. You are the next Travelers.”

I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t care about Traveler rules or Halla or Saint Dane or anything else, only that my uncle was lying here, dying.

“I’ll tell you something else,” he said. “You are the last. All that has gone before is prelude. The fight is yours. You will take it to the end. You are the last Travelers.”

He was growing weaker by the second. He looked to Spader and said, “Spader, I know this is hard to believe, but you will see your father again. Your mother, too.”

He then slipped his hand down my arm and held my hand. “And I promise you, Bobby Pendragon, you will see your family again. And when you do, I’ll be there. Remember that and don’t be sad… because this is the way it was meant to be.”

He then closed his eyes, and he was gone.