“No,” he answered. “Not yet.”
Kasha and I exchanged looks.
“Tell us what’s happening,” she said to Boon.
Boon took a quick look around, as if to make sure nobody was watching.
“Come,” he said. “Into my home. It would not be good to be seen by a Ravinian guard.”
Ravinian guard. Unbelievable. It didn’t matter what territory or what race or even what species was on a world, the Ravinians’ control of Halla was complete.
As it turned out, Kasha had brought us to the platform that led into the tree where Boon lived. It was a small, old-school Leeandra apartment structure built into the hollow tree. There were old, crumbling chairs and threadbare rugs on the floor. Boon didn’t live in luxury. We made ourselves comfortable, and Boon gave us some sweet drink that re-energized me. He also gave me one of his old cloth shirts, so I didn’t have to walk around half naked.
“So much has happened since you two left,” Boon told us. “I don’t know where to begin.”
I wanted to learn it all, but I was much more concerned about the future. About Edict Forty-six and what it would mean to the gars and the exiles in Black Water.
“Let me guess,” I said. “Things were going really well between the klees and the gars. Once the klees understood that the gars were intelligent, they began to accept them, and a new society began to emerge. But then came Ravinia.”
Boon sat down on the floor next to me.
“How could you know?” he asked.
“The same kind of thing has been happening all over Halla. The Ravinians promise a better way of life, but in order to achieve it, they only reward those who provide something they consider valuable to society. Those who don’t make the cut are cast aside or reduced to slavery. I’m guessing that Ravinia was the beginning of the end for the gars here in Leeandra.”
“That was exactly it!” Boon exclaimed. “The Circle of Klee had become just ‘the Circle,’ to allow the gars to be part of it. Now it is called ‘the Circle of Ravinia.’”
“Of course it is,” I said with a sarcastic huff.
“The rights of the gars were reduced instantly. They barely had time to get used to being equals when the Ravinians began tossing them out into the jungle.”
“Why weren’t they kept around to perform the menial jobs?” Kasha asked. “Like before?”
“Because there were plenty of klees to do that,” Boon answered. “Ravinia separated those klees they considered special from those who did not contribute. The chosen were given incredible houses and positions of power, while everyone else was forced into building the new city.”
“And I’m guessing the gars were considered beneath even them, so they were cast out. Right?”
Boon nodded.
“What happened to you, Boon?” Kasha asked.
Boon dropped his head. He looked ashamed. “I was just a lowly forager, and not a very good one at that. I thought the part I played in bringing the gars from Black Water would allow me to be part of the elite. I was wrong. Actually, I think it hurt me. They saw me as a gar sympathizer. I’m no longer a forager. My job is to clean the sewage lines that carry waste from the new buildings. I am easily replaceable, as they tell me each day. Look at this apartment. I’m lucky to still have it. Soon this will be taken over by the Circle of Ravinia and knocked down, and another mansion will be erected. I’ll have to live in the outskirts of the city, at a place they call the Horizon Compound. I hear that klees live four to a room there, with little food and even less comfort.” Boon sighed. “The future for Eelong seemed so bright.”
“Until Ravinia,” I said.
“Yes, until Ravinia.”
Kasha added, “And now Edict Forty-six is about to be repealed. It sickens me.”
Boon shook his head. “Oh, no. Edict Forty-six was rescinded long ago. Gars are regularly killed and eaten for food.”
Kasha shot me a surprised look. Then to Boon she said, “But I overheard some foragers say that something important was about to happen that would make the hunt for food so much easier. I assumed they meant the repeal of Edict Forty-six.”
Boon’s expression turned even darker. “Something is about to happen to make the hunt for food easier,” he explained. “But it isn’t the repeal of Edict Forty-six.”
“Then what is it?” I asked.
“It’s why I asked about Gunny and Spader,” Boon answered. “The klee army has been massing and training for a long time now. They play their maneuvers out on the old wippen fields. I have never seen so many soldiers assemble in one place.”
“What are they training for?” I asked nervously.
“I am not supposed to know, but as a worker, I turn up in many places that most would never expect. I have heard the plans.”
“What, Boon?” I demanded.
“The army is going to march on Black Water,” he stated flatly. “Whatever gars are not killed in the strike will be captured and kept alive-” “For food,” I said, numb.
Boon nodded. “The army is immense. The gars won’t stand a chance.”
“Do you think they know of the exiles?” Kasha asked.
“What exiles?” was Boon’s answer.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “The klees won’t know the difference between a gar or a human. Or care.”
“What’s a human?” Boon asked, confused.
“Show me, Boon,” I demanded. “I need to see this army.”
“Can you do that?” Kasha asked Boon.
Boon thought a moment, then nodded. “Yes. I know a trail through the trees, along a route that is off-limits to most, but I have the combinations to the locks, since I clean everywhere. I can show you the entire klee army.”
“Now,” I said. “I want to see them now.”
“Why?” Boon asked. “They train the same way in the same location every day.”
“I want to know what we’re up against” was my simple answer.
“Up against!” Boon said, aghast. “You cannot stop this army!”
“Let me be the judge of that,” I said boldly.
Kasha stood up. “I’m sorry if this is difficult for you, Boon, but it’s important.”
Boon pounced to his feet. “You don’t have to convince me. I’m happy to be back in action!”
I took the tarp from the forager wheelbarrow and draped it over my head in case we were spotted by a Ravinian guard. Or any other hungry klee, for that matter. Since Edict Forty-six had already been repealed, there were no restrictions on
Bobby-chow. Boon led us on a journey along the catwalk pathways that snaked across the treetops of Leeandra.
“Most klees don’t come up here,” Boon explained. “Only the workers. We’re able to move equipment and supplies without having to bother the klees below.”
“Typical Ravinians,” I scoffed. “They want everybody to do their dirty work, but don’t want to see how it’s done.”
“That’s pretty much it,” Boon agreed.
Every so often we’d hit a doorway that had a complex lock made from twisted bamboo. They were primitive combination locks, and Boon knew all the combinations.
“I’d get lost up here,” Kasha said.
“I have. More than once.” Boon chuckled. “How do you think I learned my way around?”
We traveled for at least twenty minutes, moving from bridge to bridge, level to level, until we drew near the large, grassy wippen fields.
“Just past this last tree,” Boon explained. “That’s where you’ll see them. Be careful; once we’re over their heads, we can be seen.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t want to be eaten,” I said.
