But it wouldn’t be easy. Not only were the giant doors shut, the helicopters were powered by crystals fueled by light from the sunbelt. Good news was that it was daytime, without a cloud in the sky. Bad news was that it wouldn’t matter how much light there was outside if we couldn’t open those doors to get at it.
“Look,” Kasha said, pointing high above.
I saw a room two stories up, built out from the hangar wall. It looked like a control room with an open balcony surrounding it. My guess was that it was a flight tower where they coordinated the gig launches. A light was on inside the room. I clearly saw a klee sitting inside.
Kasha continued, “I would guess the hangar doors are controlled from up there.”
My eyes had adjusted enough to see that there was a set of open stairs built against the wall that led up to the control room. The way to go seemed obvious.
“Find a gig,” I said to Kasha. “Boon and I will go up there and open the doors. As soon as the light comes in, power up.”
“You cannot fight a klee,” Kasha warned.
I grabbed Kasha’s forager weapon that she always had strapped to her back. It was a long wooden stick much like the ones Loor and the Batu warriors used.
“I can fight one klee,” I said.
“And I’ll be with him,” Boon added.
“Even so, we can’t fight a bunch of klees,” I cautioned. “Once things start getting nasty, we’ve got to get out of here fast.”
Kasha nodded. There wasn’t any more to be discussed. I tapped Boon on the back and motioned for him to head for the stairs. We wound our way through the gigs, trying to hide from the eyes of the klee up above in the control room. If there was one thing we needed, it was surprise. If that klee thought he was being attacked, I’d bet anything that there was an alarm he could sound and bring others running. We had to be quiet and fast and out of there before he knew what hit him, which hopefully would be the end of Kasha’s stick.
At the bottom of the stairs I stopped Boon to strategize.
“Get him to come outside onto the balcony,” I instructed.
“Are you sure?” Boon asked, uncertain. “I know you’re brave, Pendragon, but you’re not a warrior.”
I almost laughed. I probably would have if I hadn’t been afraid of alerting the klee.
“Boon,” I whispered. “A lot has changed since we were together. Just get him outside.”
I think he sensed my confidence and didn’t question me again. The klee pounced up the stairs on all fours. Though he moved quietly, the stairs rattled under his weight. The klee in the control room would know pretty quickly that somebody was coming up. Hopefully, when he saw another klee, he wouldn’t think anything bad was about to happen to him… because something bad was about to happen to him. The stairs twisted and turned as we climbed. I kept one section of stairs between us, thinking that if the klee came out to see who was coming up, he’d see Boon and not me.
When Boon was almost to the top, he gave me a quick look. I waved as if to say, “Go for it.” He continued on up to the balcony, where a closed door led into the room. He didn’t open it. Instead, he walked around on the balcony to the front of the room, where there were two large windows that looked out from the control room onto the hangar floor. I could lean out, look up, and see Boon as he rapped on the glass. I couldn’t see the klee inside, but I saw Boon gesture for him to come outside.
This was it. I crouched low on the stairs. Directly above me was the door into the room. As soon as the klee came out and turned to round toward Boon, I’d have my chance to spring from behind and knock him into next week.
The door opened. The klee came storming out, looking angry. I guess he didn’t like having surprise visitors knocking on his window. I was close enough to see that he wore a red Ravinian guard uniform. I stayed low, hoping he wouldn’t see me on the stairs. He walked around the balcony to the front, where Boon waited for him.
“Who are you?” the klee demanded to know. “This is a restricted area. You are not authorized to be-”
Before he could finish the sentence, I jumped up onto the balcony and clocked him on the side of the head. Hard. My plan had worked. Everything went perfectly, except that the klee barely reacted, other than to stop talking. Uh-oh. The klee slowly turned around to see what had hit him, so I hit him again. Whack. Right on the side of his cat head. The klee’s head snapped to the side, but he wasn’t hurt. My first thought was that it was impossible. I had nailed the guy with two blows that should have crushed him. The truth hit back a second later.
“Dado,” I gasped.
The cat jumped at me, paws up, claws out. I was so stunned that I barely moved. By all rights the thing should have torn me apart, but Boon jumped at the klee and tackled him from behind. The dado klee hit the floor of the balcony with Boon on top of him.
“The hangar door!” Boon yelled.
Right. The reason we were there. I backed away and went for the control room. Inside I saw that besides the door that led to the balcony, there was another door in the back wall of the room that must have led inside the tree. I feared there might be klees beyond that door, so I jammed Kasha’s weapon against it, hoping it might give us an extra few seconds.
On the balcony, Boon and the klee were wrestling. I didn’t know what kind of fighter Boon was, but there was no way he’d be able to battle a dado for long. I had to get the hangar doors open so that Kasha could power up a gig, then get back out to help my friend.
There was a long control panel with dozens of toggle switches. I really wished there was one that read: hangar doors. There wasn’t. Luckily, most of the switches were the same size, which meant they must have more or less done the same thing. Whatever that was. To the far right of the panel was a large toggle switch. It looked just as good as any, so I threw it.
The overhead lights went on, bringing the hangar to life. The hangar doors didn’t budge though. On the far left of the panel was another large toggle. I quickly went for it and threw it. Two things happened. With a jolt and a screech, the giant doors at the front of the hangar began to slide open. They separated in the middle and slowly moved to either side, like a curtain on a stage, opening up our escape route. Sunlight streamed in, which meant Kasha would have power. That was all great except for the second thing that happened.
Alarms blared. There must have been a special security process required to properly open those doors. Unfortunately, I didn’t know it. I had no doubt that we would soon be flooded with Ravinian guards, because you didn’t need to have the acute hearing of a cat to hear the harsh, jangling horn that honked incessantly. I ran for the door to help Boon as the back door into the control room blew open. The bad guys had arrived sooner than expected. Kasha’s weapon did nothing to keep the door closed. A Ravinian klee burst into the room, picked me up, and threw me against the far wall of the control room, opposite the door to the balcony. I was trapped. A Ravinian klee was between me and the way out. There was nothing good that could come of this scenario. I figured I could battle the klee for a while, but his claws would make for a short fight. I was all set to step out of there and go back to Solara when I saw something leaning against the control panel that made perfect sense. These were dados. Dados that were built on Third Earth. There was no more pretense about not mixing territories. Saint Dane had seen to that. So it made perfect sense that if dados were on Eelong, they would also have dado weapons. Leaning against the control panel was a long, silver wand exactly like the Ravinian dados used on Third Earth.
The klee went for me.
I went for the weapon.
I snagged it just as the klee swiped at me with its claws out. I ducked, feeling the whistle as he barely missed my head. My hands were on the weapon, but I didn’t have time to turn it on. Instead, I jammed the handle back into the dado’s gut. Or whatever it is that area is called on a standing-up cat. The dado didn’t flinch. Its instinct was to take another swipe at me. I didn’t bother trying to block it. I just pushed away from the klee and fell down on my butt. It swiped nothing but air, then set its eyes on me and pounced.
I fumbled with the red power button. I didn’t know if I’d have the chance to power it up and defend myself at the same time. It was more important to use it to ward off the attack than to damage the dado. I stopped worrying about the power and held up the silver wand. The cat did the rest. It leaped with all four paws in the air. Its eyes were locked on mine. It landed square on the point of the wand and seemingly perched there for a second, though I know that was impossible. I pushed, and the cat fell on the floor right next to me. Its lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling.
