everything was still there, though it was definitely rummaged through. I was pissed. I clipped the pack shut and went looking for Loor.
I walked back into the now familiar main cavern of the mine. It was business as usual out there. These poor guys never stopped. I briefly wondered what had happened with the latest Transfer ceremony and if they had mined enough glaze to balance with the woman Mallos had chosen. I hoped so, but there was nothing I could do about that. I needed to find Loor and get the rescue show on the road.
I scanned the cavern and something caught my eye. Walking out of a tunnel to my left was Rellin. He walked along quickly while speaking with another one of the miners. The weird thing was, these guys actually looked happy. Rellin slapped the guy on the back like they had just shared some joke and the guy took off running someplace. Now, these guys had nothing to be happy about. The last time I spoke with Rellin he had pretty much condemned his entire tribe to a slow death by refusing to stand up against Kagan. Why was he happy all of a sudden? When he got farther away, I went to take a look down the tunnel they had just come from.
I entered to find that it was another abandoned avenue. The ore-car railroad tracks were old and rotten. This must have been one the first tunnels they dug off the main cavern. I wondered how long ago that was. Years? Decades? Centuries? I also wondered why Rellin and the other miner were down here. I found my answer a few yards in. As with many of the other tunnels, there was a chamber dug out of the rock off to the side. But unlike the cell where I had just slept, this one had a wooden door to it. I took a quick look around to see if I was being watched, then opened the door and went inside.
It was a room about twice the size of the one I had just slept in, and this one was packed full of equipment. At first I thought this was where they kept their mining tools, but on closer inspection I saw the truth. This wasn’t digging equipment, this was an armory loaded with weapons! There were hundreds of spears like the ones Uncle Press had lashed to the side of the sled we rode from the top of the mountain. I was surprised to see their sharp metal tips gleaming in the light. The Milago weren’t allowed to use metal tools except in the mines, but I was sure they weren’t allowed to make weapons, either.
One side of the room was full of these spears. Below them were stacks and stacks of arrows. There must have been thousands. Across from them were the bows for the arrows. Probably a hundred in all. This looked to be a pretty formidable arsenal. Then I saw something that didn’t quite make sense. There were large baskets placed along the back wall. I recognized them as the baskets they used to bring the glaze to the surface. These baskets were full, but not with glaze. I walked over to them and picked up one of the items inside. It was a small, sturdy stick about six inches long. Attached to one end were two thin, leather straps about eighteen inches long. At the other end of the strap, a leather pouch the size of a baseball card was attached. I looked at the strange contraption trying to figure out what it could be. And then I got it. It was a slingshot! An old-fashioned slingshot! These guys didn’t have rubber, so it wasn’t the kind that you could stretch back and snap to propel stones. With this thing you had to hold the wooden stick and kind of fling the stone. There must have been a couple hundred of these babies in the baskets.
As I stood there holding the slingshot, I was struck with a sad thought. Rellin was right. The Milago were not prepared to do battle with Kagan’s knights. These slingshots were pitiful. Sure, we all knew the story about David slaying Goliath, but that was just a story. How did these guys think they could stand a chance against trained, killer knights in armor by using these toys? The spears looked a little more dangerous. The arrows did too, but did the Milago even know how to use them? Suddenly Rellin’s concern seemed very real to me. If they tried to fight the Bedoowan, they’d be slaughtered.
I was just about to drop the slingshot back in its basket, when somebody reached out and grabbed it from my hand!
I turned in surprise to see Figgis. He danced away from me, swinging the slingshot over his head.
“Changed your mind, have you?” he chirped. “Ready to make a trade?”
“I don’t want anything from you,” I said as strongly as I could.
“No? I have many things you may need,” he said with a toothless smile. “How about this?”
He took something from his waist pouch and held it up to me. It was a red Swiss Army knife.
“That’s mine!” I shouted and grabbed it away from him. “You went through my pack! What else did you take?” The mystery of why my pack was worked over had been solved. Figgis didn’t put up a fight for it. He just cackled out a wheezy laugh.
“I know what you really need,” he said slyly. “I know, I know.”
“What do I need?” I asked, losing patience.
“You need tak,” he announced. “I am the one, the only one who can get it for you.”
Tak. There was that word again.
“What is tak?” I asked.
Figgis laughed again and reached into his waist pouch.
“Tak is the answer,” he said reverently. “Tak is the hope.”
Whatever tak was, it couldn’t be very big because it fit in his pouch. He was just about to pull it out…when Rellin walked in.
“Figgis!” he shouted.
Figgis instantly pulled his hand out of the pouch, empty. He looked incredibly guilty.
“You should not have brought him here, old man,” Rellin chastised.
Figgis cowered and ran out of the room like a guilty puppy. Whatever tak was, it was clear he did not want Rellin to know that he was trying to sell me some.
“I am sorry you saw this room,” he said, sounding tired. “I do not want you to think we still have hope of fighting the Bedoowan. These weapons will soon be destroyed.”
Something wasn’t right. Rellin wasn’t telling me the whole truth. I figured since he wasn’t being totally up front with me, then I should be careful about what I said to him. So I didn’t mention the tak thing that Figgis was trying to sell me.
“I guess you gotta do what you gotta do,” was all I could think of saying.
I didn’t like being there, especially since there was something going on that I wasn’t clear on. The best thing for me to do then was leave. So I walked past Rellin and out the door. He didn’t say another word to me.
Once away from there, my thoughts went back to the problem at hand, which was Uncle Press. So I ran back to the cell where my gear was. When I stepped inside that room, I saw that Loor and Alder were there and they were going through my stuff! They had it spread out all over the floor. Wasn’t there any such thing as privacy around here?
“Hey!” I shouted.
Alder jumped back, embarrassed. But Loor kept right on rummaging.
“I am looking for the weapons you brought back,” she said without a hint of apology. “I see no weapons here.” She said this while shaking one of the yellow walkie-talkies you sent.
I grabbed it from her and said, “I didn’t get any weapons. I wouldn’t even know how to use a weapon.”
“Then this is all useless,” she spat out.
“That’s what you think,” I said and handed her back the walkie-talkie. I then found the other walkie-talkie and stepped to the far side of the room. I put it up to my mouth, hit the send button and said, “Boo!”
Both Loor and Alder jumped in surprise. Loor threw the walkie-talkie away like it was hot. Alder caught it and then he threw it too. Man, how excellent was that? It was the exact reaction I was hoping for.
“What is this magic?” asked Alder with wide eyes.
“It isn’t magic,” I said. “You gotta understand, my territory is way more advanced than here. Things like this are pretty common where I come from. It’s not magic, it’s science.”
I picked up the small CD boom box you sent and hit Play. Instantly the first track started to play. It was a head-banger rock song with thrashing guitars that sent Loor and Alder into a panic. They covered their ears and ran to the far side of the room like frightened rabbits. It was awesome. I didn’t want to prolong their agony so I turned the music off quickly. The two sat there staring at me with wide, frightened eyes.
“Still think we need weapons?” I asked with a sly smile.
Then I saw something that totally blew me away. Loor looked to me and, believe it or not, she smiled.
“I like this science,” she said.
“Me too,” added Alder.
So far so good. Their reactions gave me hope that my ideas might work. The trick was to use this stuff the
