Chapter 28
In order for us to get inside the walls of Leeandra, I had to die. Sort of.
“Gars are no longer allowed inside the city walls,” Kasha explained. “At least, not by their own choice.” “What does that mean?” I asked.
Kasha didn’t answer. She was nervous. That wasn’t like her. At least, it wasn’t like the confident Kasha I knew. The two of us crouched in the jungle, just before the clearing that surrounded Leeandra. I’d guess there was a stretch of about fifty yards from where the jungle ended until the big wall that protected the tree city of Leeandra.
“Forgive me, Pendragon,” she said. “I’ve seen things since my return that have been quite disturbing. I’m having trouble understanding it all.”
“Tell me,” I said.
“When I returned, I arrived inside the walls of Leeandra. But the village had changed so drastically, it took me a while to realize it. The structure of the city had been altered dramatically. I tried to find Boon, but had no luck. I even tried to contact him through my Traveler ring. After all, he was my acolyte. But the ring no longer functions.”
“I hadn’t even thought about the rings,” I said. “They probably went dead when the flumes exploded.”
“That’s my guess. I asked anyone who would listen if they knew him, but got nowhere. Finally, I found someone who said that Boon had gone on an expedition to one of the outlying farms. That’s why I was on the outside. To look for Boon.”
“Did you find him?”
“No. The farms are no longer where they used to be. I came back, for fear of getting lost. That’s when I stumbled on the tang attack, and you.”
I nodded. “What else did you find in the city?”
“I roamed about, trying to get my bearings. It was nearly impossible. That’s when I realized that I had been sent to a time that was further in the future than when I had lived here. It was the only explanation as to why the city could have changed so.”
“You said something is about to happen to the gars. That must be why we are here now.”
“I believe it is.”
“So? What is it?” I asked.
Kasha fell silent. Something was obviously bothering her.
“You discovered something, didn’t you?” I asked.
“I saw something. Something I never thought would happen, yet it has. I walked to the part of the city that the foragers used as their base, hoping to find someone I might know. It is still there. Mostly as I remembered it. The foragers still function. They still leave the city to gather food. But…”
She couldn’t continue. Whatever she’d seen had really disturbed her. I didn’t push her, because I knew she’d eventually open up. Though she was a klee, I could read her expressions as clearly as if she were human. Her dark fur glistened, as if she were sweating. Kasha was definitely off balance.
“There was a group of foragers inside the barracks. They were eating and talking, and laughing about how their jobs would soon be so much easier. They said there would be no more lurking through the jungle. No more worrying about tangs. No more guarding those who harvested fruits and vegetables at the farms. It was a celebration of sorts. It was all about how their lives would soon change because they would no longer have to forage in the jungle.”
“So then, what are they going to do for food?” I asked.
“They didn’t say,” Kasha said. “They didn’t have to. I saw.” She swallowed. Hard. The memory was a tough one. “One of the foragers was chewing on a bone. He finished and threw it onto a pile that had been building near the door.”
I felt as if I knew where this was headed, but I still had to hear.
“What was he eating, Kasha?”
“It was a leg bone. A gar leg bone. All of the bones were gar bones. It’s happened, Pendragon. Gars have become food. They’re on the verge of repealing Edict Forty-six. It’s going to be legal to eat intelligent creatures! The foragers’ jobs will no longer be about finding food in the jungle. I believe they now will be in charge of gathering the gars for… for…” Kasha had to work hard to hold back her emotions. “It’s a step away from cannibalism.”
I looked toward the high walls of Leeandra, with its flapping Ravinian flags. Knowing the truth, the fantastic village in the trees took on a whole new feeling for me. It was no longer a wondrous village of talking cats. It was a slaughterhouse.
“Kinda makes me not want to go inside,” I said.
“I do not believe the issue has been decided yet,” Kasha said. “They spoke as if it were something that was about to happen, but had not yet occurred.”
“But they were eating gars!” I shot back.
“Foragers always lived above the law,” Kasha explained. “They feel the rules of the common klee do not apply to them. There is arrogance among the foragers. I know. I was one of them. One of the worst.”
“But you never ate gars.”
“No. It was something my father instilled in me. I suppose at one time it would have been acceptable, but since we discovered that the gars were intelligent, it could no longer be justified. How is it possible that after such great strides were made, the klee took such a giant step backward?”
I pointed up to the flapping Ravinian flags.
“Ravinia” was my answer. “Fueled by Saint Dane’s vision. Power to the powerful at the expense of the weak. That’s pretty much what he’s spread throughout Halla. It doesn’t surprise me at all.”
“I’m devastated,” Kasha said, her head down.
“Don’t be,” I said quickly. “We’re not done yet. We’re here to protect the exiles, and given all that you told me, I think I know what the Ravinian klees have in mind for them.”
The thought was sickening.
“That’s why we need to get inside Leeandra,” Kasha offered. “We need to learn when the edict will be repealed. That will tell us how much time we have before the exiles are in danger.”
I looked at the tall wall again. I didn’t want to go in there. I really didn’t want to go in there. But Kasha was right. We needed to know when Edict Forty-six would fall. Once that happened, it would be open season on all gars.
And exiles.
“There’s no way I can get through those gates the way I did last time,” I said. “Not if gars are banned from Leeandra.”
Kasha gave me an uneasy look. “Some gars are allowed inside.”
“Which ones?” “Dead ones.”
I stared at the cat for a good long time, trying to figure out what the heck she meant by that. I soon found out. A few minutes later I found myself lying on the bottom of a four-wheeled forager wheelbarrow. Kasha was pushing. A dirty tarp was over me. The plan was simple. As far as anybody would know, she was wheeling in a dead gar to be eaten by her fellow foragers. Yeah, how sick is that? I lay there, trying my best to act dead. I had taken off my Ravinian shirt and dirtied up my pants, so that it wouldn’t be obvious I was wearing the uniform of a Ravinian guard. I didn’t think that would go over too well if I were discovered by a klee Ravinian guard. They might think that I had stolen it from one of their guards and, well, I figured their revenge might be messy. I kept the boots, though. Kasha pointed out that klee boots were very different from what gars wore, so nobody would suspect that I had gotten them from a Ravinian guard. So that’s how I was wheeled toward Leeandra-naked from the waist up and covered in mud to make me look like lunch.
I looked out through a fold in the tarp that gave me a narrow view ahead. Kasha quickly pushed me along the base of the wall until we came upon one of the huge gates that led into the village of Leeandra. Guarding the entrance were two large, scary-looking klees wearing red Ravinian guard uniforms. They each had spears strapped to their backs. As scary as it was entering Leeandra the last time I had been there, it didn’t compare to this. I was food. Simple as that. I hoped that the klees inside were civilized enough that they wouldn’t all pounce on me and
