“That would be the least of your problems,” Boon said somberly. “This army is training to invade the gar stronghold. If they saw a gar spying on them from above, I don’t think there’d be enough of you left to eat.”
Oh. Thanks for that.
We cautiously approached a thick tree. The pathway continued through the center of it. All three of us entered into the dark of the tunnel. Boon stopped us before we could exit out the other side.
“Now be careful, and quiet. No sudden moves. When you pass through that opening, look down. We’re directly above the wippen fields. The armies are below. Hopefully they’ll be in the middle of one of their mock battles and won’t notice us. You still want to risk going out there?”
“I have to, Boon. We have to know what the gars are up against, because we’re going to have to try and stop them.”
“Oh,” Boon said. “Then I suppose you really are a spy.”
“Absolutely.”
“Good. I will go first and signal for you to come if it is safe.”
Boon padded quietly (which was easy for him since he was a cat) out and onto the bridge that continued beyond the wide tree. Cautiously he peered down over the edge. Kasha and I watched nervously, waiting for his signal.
It didn’t come.
“What is he waiting for?” Kasha whispered nervously.
Boon stood on the bridge, looking down. His body language changed. He no longer kept low to make himself less visible. He stood up straight on his back two feet.
“What is it?” Kasha called to him.
Boon looked back to us. There was no expression on his face. He slowly lifted his paw and motioned for us to join him. Kasha and I crept forward quickly. We stayed low and quietly stepped out onto the bridge. I held my breath. We were about to see the enemy. The army below was gathered, organized, and trained to march on Black Water. It was a gruesome hunt for food that could end up wiping out the last hope for the salvation of Halla. Did Saint Dane know that? Was this his doing? If the invasion succeeded, he wouldn’t need the dado army on Third Earth. He wouldn’t need to use any of his dark power to create another flume. Halla would be his.
I prepared myself for the worst. Would the army be mechanized? How would they be armed? Would this be a primitive army of cats? Or had Ravinia somehow developed more deadly weapons? Maybe most important, would we find that the army was filled with dados? As we crept out onto that bridge and looked below, I expected all of those questions to be answered.
They weren’t. What I saw below was far worse than anything I could have imagined.
“I don’t understand,” Boon said, sounding as dumb as I felt.
What we saw below was… nothing. The wippen fields were empty. The armies were gone.
“I do,” I gasped. “They’re on their way. They’ve already left for Black Water.”
Chapter 29
How long?” I asked.
“How long what?” Boon replied.
“Since you saw them the last time!” I shouted. My heart was pounding. I had the sick feeling that we were too late.
“Yesterday. Maybe the day before. I don’t remember.”
“It’s a long day’s ride to the mountains that surround Black Water,” Kasha reasoned. “I believe an army the size that Boon described would take at least twice as long to get there.”
“So if they left two days ago, we’re too late,” I snarled. “Let’s hope they left yesterday” was Kasha’s reasoned answer.
“We’ve got to get there,” I said. “Before they do.”
“There’s only one way to do that,” Kasha offered.
I knew exactly what she meant, and it wasn’t about going back to Solara and hoping that the spirit would send us back to Black Water.
“You think you can still fly?” I asked.
“No!” Boon shouted in protest. “You want to steal a gig?”
I shrugged. “We’ve done it before.”
“Things have changed, Pendragon,” Boon argued. “The Ravinian security is much tighter. Leeandra is on a war footing.”
“Good,” I said. “Then they won’t be surprised when we bring the war to them.”
“You do not have to help us, Boon,” Kasha said sincerely. “You have already done far more than I should ever have asked for.”
Boon looked back and forth between the two of us. “Wait,” he said. “Do you think for one second that I would not come with you? I am your acolyte, Kasha. And in case you did not understand, I have no love for the Ravinians. Trust me, I want to do everything I can to stop them. If that means trying to steal a gig and landing in the middle of Black Water, so be it. I just want you to know the risks.”
Kasha smiled. “Thank you, Boon. We understand the risks.”
“Then when do we leave?” he asked.
“How about yesterday?” was my obnoxious answer.
The three of us made our way quickly across the sky bridges, headed for the tree that housed the hangar where the gigs were stored. Kasha and I had flown one of the small, two-seater helicopters to Black Water once before, and ended up in a dogfight over the jungle with other, more-experienced gig pilots. We won. I hoped that she was just as sharp with her flying skills as she’d been back then. No, what I really hoped for was that she wouldn’t have to use those skills again. An uneventful flight would be just fine. But first we had to get a gig.
The trip back was easy. I kept the tarp over my head and couldn’t see much. Kasha and Boon more or less led me along. I’m sure we got plenty of strange glances, but nobody stopped us. The gig hangar was in the same spot as I remembered, but as with the rest of Leeandra, it had changed. My memory of the place was that it was a massive space hollowed out from one of the monster trees, high in the air. One whole side of the tree was open, under which a launch platform was built out over the city. Launching a gig meant wheeling it out from inside the tree and onto the platform, and taking off from there. All of that was the same… but there was more. The first change I noticed was that when we reached the doorway that led into the back of the hangar, there were no guards.
“What happened to the increased security?” I asked.
Boon shrugged. “I don’t know, Pendragon. I clean sewers. They don’t discuss those details with me.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry.”
“Perhaps they don’t need security anymore,” Kasha said soberly. “The gigs may all be gone to support the army.”
“Let’s find out,” I said, and dropped the tarp for the last time. I hoped.
I boldly went for the wooden door that led into the hangar. Opening it cautiously, I was met with darkness.
“I don’t get it,” I said softly, for fear there were Ravinians inside. “Are we in the right place?”
“Yes,” Boon answered. “There is no other hangar.”
“Then why is it dark? The opening where they launch the gigs is huge.”
Kasha didn’t wait for the answer that Boon didn’t have. She pushed past me and into the hangar.
It was definitely the same hangar, but with one big difference. The opening through which the gigs were launched now had massive doors that looked to be made from bamboo. They were closed. I waited for my eyes to adjust, which was something Kasha and Boon didn’t have to worry about. After all, they were cats.
“The gigs are here,” Kasha whispered.
My eyes hadn’t adjusted enough to make out any detail, but I could sense that the room was full. That was a relief. At least the klees weren’t planning another aerial attack on Black Water. The gigs were there for the taking.
