The Rivers of Zadaa

SECOND EARTH

“What are you reading there?”Andy Mitchell said.”Highlights?”

Mark quickly rolled up the yellow pages of Bobby’s last journal. He had already read it three times. “N-No. Uh, what’s ‘highlights’?”

Andy plopped down next to Mark with a bag full of burgers and fries. “You know, Highlights. That kid magazine they have in doctors’ offices where you gotta find the picture of the pencil hidden in the tree and whatnot.”

“Oh. No. This is just, uh, something I’m working on,” Mark said.

“Yeah? Another one of them stories about Pendragon?” Mark shot Andy a surprised look and asked, “What did you say?”

“You know, like that one you wrote about, what was that place? Da-doo run run?”

Mark relaxed. He had forgotten that Andy had seen Bobby’s first journals. In fact, he had stolen them from Mark. Mark and Courtney had to pretend that they had written the story themselves so Andy wouldn’t spread strange rumors about what really happened to Bobby…that weren’t rumors at all.

“Denduron,” Mark corrected. “No, it’s just an article. Leave it alone.”

“All right, jeez, lighten up.” Andy handed the bag of food to Mark. “Here, eat something. You look like hell. Sorry it took so long. Nothing’s close to anything up here in the boonies.”

Mark took the burgers, but didn’t feel like eating. His mind was in too many different places. Courtney was lying in an operating room, near death, from an accident that might have been caused by Saint Dane. They still didn’t know if she would live or die. As horrible as it was, worrying about Courtney kept his mind from spinning to all the other things that had him so worried.

Saint Dane was on Second Earth. Was he there to lay the groundwork for his attack on their home? As much as he wanted to think there was another reason, Mark couldn’t come up with one. His worst fear was about to come true. There was going to be a battle for Second Earth. That is, unless Bobby could stop Saint Dane for good.

That thought brought Mark back to the strange news from Bobby’s latest journal. Of course, Mark was thrilled that Zadaa was saved. But that also brought bad news. With so many losses, Saint Dane was getting desperate…and violent. He nearly killed Bobby out of sheer anger. Hedidkill Loor, which brought up some truly unsettling possibilities.

Loor had returned from the dead.

How strange was that? It was good news, yes, but disturbing news just the same. How could it have happened? Other Travelers died, and stayed dead. Mark saw one die himself, Seegen, the Traveler from Eelong before Kasha. What was different about Loor’s death? Was it Bobby? But Bobby was there when his uncle Press had died. The same with Kasha. Those two didn’t come back from the dead. Whatever the reason was, it brought something to light that could not be denied. There was something unusual about the Travelers. The simple fact that they healed so quickly was enough proof that they weren’t normal. Or at least normal by the standards of the territories they came from. That brought Mark around to the bottom-line question that disturbed him the most.

Who was Bobby Pendragon? Really? They had been best friends since either could remember. Now Mark was faced with the possibility that Bobby wasn’t just randomly chosen to be a Traveler. He was different. More different than even he could imagine.

“Mark?” a woman’s voice called. It was Mrs. Chetwynde. She entered the waiting room along with Mr. Chetwynde. Both looked tired and scared. Their eyes were red. They had been crying.

Mark jumped to his feet to greet them. “You made it!” he exclaimed.

“We’ve been here for a while,” Mr. Chetwynde said. “We’ve been with Courtney.”

Andy stood up and joined Mark. Mark asked, “How is she?” He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to hear the answer.

The Chetwyndes exchanged looks, as if they weren’t sure which one of them should answer. That wasn’t a good sign.

“Is she okay?” Mark asked more insistently.

“She’s out of surgery,” Mrs. Chetwynde said. “She’s got problems. She lost a lot of blood. The doctors have done all they can; now it’s just a matter of time.”

Mr. Chetwynde continued, “She’s really banged up. Broken ribs. Her left arm was broken in two places. She has a terrible concussion…”

“Wow,” Andy said without even thinking.

“The real damage was internal,” Mr. Chetwynde said. “There was lots of bleeding. That’s why the surgery took so long. They think they repaired it all but, they just don’t know for sure. The next twenty-four hours are going to be critical.”

Mrs. Chetywnde said, “If you boys hadn’t found her…” She didn’t finish the sentence. The words caught in her throat.

“What happened, Mark?” Mr. Chetwynde said, holding back tears. “The police said it was a hit-and-run. How did you find her?”

Mark was prepared for that question. He knew it was coming. “It was luck, mostly,” he began. “Courtney called me yesterday to say she was riding into town to meet some guy named, uh,-“

“Whitney,” Mr. Chetwynde said. “The police told us. Nobody can find the guy. He’s not registered at the school.”

“Yeah, we found that out too,” Mark said. “This is Andy Mitchell, by the way. He’s a friend of mine; he gave me a ride up this morning.”

The Chetwyndes smiled at Andy. Andy nodded. He wasn’t used to being polite.

“Why did you decide to come up?” Mr. Chetwynde asked.

This was the tough part of the story. Mark couldn’t say that he was warned by Bobby Pendragon in a journal from across time and space that an evil demon might have been stalking Courtney. That probably would have made their heads explode, along with Andy’s. Mark decided to be as vague as possible.

“It was just a feeling,” he answered. “Courtney talked about hanging around with a new guy, but for some reason it didn’t feel right to me. I can’t explain why. I’d been planning on visiting her anyway. It was lucky we decided to come up when we did.”

The Chetwyndes nodded. They accepted his reasoning. So did Andy. It was close enough to the truth. Mark continued quickly to get past that rough spot. “When we got here, we found out that Courtney didn’t make it to class this morning. She wasn’t in her room and her bike was gone. That got me thinking the worst, like she never made it back from her date last night. So Andy and I drove into town. We saw the fresh skid marks on the road, and when we stopped to look, I saw Courtney’s book in the bushes. That’s how we found her.”

Mrs. Chetwynde started to cry. “Thank you, Mark. Both of you. You are both angels.”

Andy shuffled uncomfortably. Mark felt a little awkward too.

“It’s getting late,” Mr. Chetwynde said. “You shouldn’t drive home. We can put you guys up in a hotel for the night.”

Mark wanted to stay in the worst way. If they wouldn’t know about Courtney for another day, he wanted to be here. He looked at Andy and said, “What do you think?”

Andy shrugged and said, “Sure, what the hell.”

Mark winced at his language in front of Courtney’s parents. He looked at the Chetwyndes and said, “That’s great, thanks. But, uh, I gotta call my parents and tell them what’s going on. They sort of don’t know we came up today. If you could talk to them for a second and tell them you’re here and all, I’d appreciate it.”

“No problem,” Mr. Chetwynde said. “What about you, Andy?”

“I’ll call my parents,” he said. “No problem.”

Mrs. Chetwynde said, “But first you should see Courtney. She wants to talk with you.”

“Really?” Mark asked. “She’s awake?”

“For now,” Mr. Chetwynde answered. “I don’t know for how long, though. She’s pretty drugged up. She’s in intensive care, just down the hall.”

“Awesome!” Mark said, and started to walk off. He suddenly stopped and turned back to Andy to say, “C’mon.”

“Nah, it’s cool. It’s you she wants to see,” Andy said.

Mark walked back to Andy and said, “If it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t be here right now. She should know what you did.”

Andy looked at the Chetwyndes. They nodded encouragement. Andy shrugged and followed Mark. As they walked along the corridor toward the intensive care unit, Andy scratched nervously.

“Look, uh, Chetwynde’s not exactly a fan of mine,” he said. “I don’t want to bother her or nothing.”

“She should know how much you helped,” Mark said. “Just say hi.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve never seen a banged-up person before,” Andy said nervously. “What if I do something stupid, like puke.”

“Don’t” was all Mark said.

The two guys found the nurses’ station and asked where Courtney was. The nurses broke out into big smiles. They said that normally only family members were allowed to visit in intensive care, but seeing as Mark and Andy were the two heroes who saved Courtney, they’d be happy to make an exception. Besides, they said, Courtney had been asking to see Mark. The nurse led them through the corridor. There were only four rooms, and none of the others was occupied. Mark figured that in such a small town, it was a big deal to have somebody in intensive care. The nurse walked them to the last door at the end of the corridor and stopped.

“How is she doing?” Mark asked her.

The nurse frowned. That was a bad sign. “You’ll have to ask the parents,” she answered. “Don’t be long, okay?”

Mark knew that was bad news. People were quick to give good news. It was time to see for himself.