“I’m not talking about one of them,” I said. “I’m talking about another Traveler. Somebody who knows the bigger picture and how important this is. If anybody is going to jump with me, it has to be another Traveler.”
Aja let the idea sink in, then nodded. “Sure. I could send you both in. Do you have somebody in mind?”
“Absolutely,” I answered. “And I can’t think of anybody I’d trust more to get us out of a gnarly situation… alive.”
(CONTINUED)
VEELOX
“If I thought there were a better way of doing this, I swear I wouldn’t be here asking you to come along,” I said.
This was tough. I was asking a friend and fellow Traveler to go on a dangerous mission. In some ways it was more dangerous than anything we had faced so far, because we were dealing with the unknown. When we were in my own jump, the Reality Bug searched my brain for things I was afraid of and came up with those vicious quigs. As scary as that was, at least I knew all about the quigs and could figure out a way to beat them. But once we were in Dr. Zetlin’s jump, the dangers would be from his memory, and we wouldn’t have a clue as to how to battle the nastiness that might come flying out of his genius brain.
“I could go myself,” I said. “I will if I have to, but I think we have a better chance of pulling this off together.”
I could have asked any of the Travelers to help me, except for Gunny because I still wasn’t sure what happened to him on Eelong. But of all the Travelers, there was one I felt had a superior chance of helping me battle whatever boogeymen we found on the jump into Dr. Zetlin’s fantasy world. That was Loor.
“You have explained this Lifelight very well, Pendragon,” she said. “Yet, it is hard for me to believe it is possible.”
“Weren’t you the one who told me that after all we’ve seen, we shouldn’t think anything is impossible?”
Loor looked right into my eyes and gave a little smile. That didn’t happen often. Loor wasn’t the smiley type. But when she did, it made my heart melt. It wasn’t until I saw her again, here on her home territory of Zadaa, that I realized how much I had missed her.
Aja had taken me back to the gate, where I flumed to Zadaa. I have to admit, part of me wanted to flume to Eelong to find Gunny, but I needed to find Loor. I could only hope that Gunny was okay.
I had been to Zadaa once before, with Spader, so I knew the way to Loor’s home. I arrived at the gate on Zadaa and quickly changed into the white robe that was waiting for me. (Boxers stayed on, as usual.) I then made my way quickly through the labyrinth of underground tunnels that brought me out to the wide, subterranean river flowing under the city of Xhaxhu. Behind the waterfall that fed the river was a portal that I knew would lead me to the ramp up to the city. Everything was pretty much the same as I remembered it, except for a few disturbing changes.
Through the portal behind the waterfall was the giant giz-matron that controlled the flow of the underground rivers of Zadaa. It was a coolio-looking device with dozens of different-size pipes that ran floor to ceiling. In front of the pipes was a control platform with a series of levers and dials and switchesthey used to control the river water. Spader and I had watched a guy work this bad boy when we were there before. Well, when I entered the chamber this time, there was a guy working the controls again, but with one big difference.
“Stop right there!” a gruff voice shouted at me. “Where are you going?”
It was a big, beefy guard with a long, nasty-looking club that would do some serious damage if it made contact with any part of my body. In fact, three of these bad boys stood there, guarding the water controller. The people who lived underground were called Rokador. Loor told me that there was some tension between the Rokador tribe and the people who lived on the surface, the Batu. Whatever the tension was between these tribes, it must have gotten worse since I had been here. Before, the Rokador didn’t need guards.
“I’m, uh, I’m going up to the city to, uh, get some supplies,” I said, trying to sound like I wasn’t making this up as I went along. Which I was. The Rokador were light skinned, like me, so they assumed I was one of them. Good thing. I didn’t want to be a pifiata.
“Do you want an escort?” the guard asked. That wasn’t a bad idea. If I was safe down here with the Rokador, then it followed I might be in danger up with the Batu. But I had no idea how I would explain that I was going to visit Loor, who was a Batu.
“Thanks, but, no,” I said.
“Be careful,” the guard grumbled. “Return before sunset.”
Now I was getting nervous. If things had gone south here on Zadaa, then it was going to be tricky finding Loor without getting hammered by some Batu guy who had an ick against the Rokador. The only thing I could do was try to be invisible. I hurried up the winding ramp that brought me into a building on the surface, and for the second time I saw the beautiful city of Xhaxhu.
If you remember, guys, I told you that it looked like ancient Egypt, with tall sandstone buildings. The streets were paved with stone and lined with palm trees. There were statues of all sizes, some towering as high as the buildings. It was a beautiful oasis in the middle of a vast, dry desert. Its water source was the river that ran below ground. Without that water, Xhaxhu would dry up and blow away like a forgotten sand castle. Knowing that, I saw something that made me nervous.
Running beside many of the streets were troughs that carried water throughout the city. At nearly every intersection was a fancy fountain that sprayed arcs of water in complex patterns. At least that’s what I saw last time I was here. This time the troughs were nearly dry. Only a small trickle of water ran through them. The fountains weren’t spraying water either. This was a really bad sign. If there was a problem with the water, the city was in trouble.
But that was something to worry about another day. Right now, I had to find Loor. It was a scary trip. The streets were alive with people, most of them Batu. As I described before, the Batu were dark-skinned warriors. They wore light, leather clothing that showed off their lean, muscular bodies. With my light skin and white robe, I stood out like a flashlight in the forest. I was getting some seriously bad vibes from these people. If looks could kill, I wouldn’t have lasted two minutes. Seriously. I could feel pure hatred coming from them as soon as they laid eyes on me. It wasn’t just the tough-looking dudes, either. The women were giving me the evil eye too. So were their kids. Heck, if a Batu dog walked by he probably would have peed on me. I put my head down and kept moving, hoping to make it to Loor’s home in one piece.
Loor lived in a large, one-story building that was reserved for the military. She was a warrior in training, and was given a small apartment. I found it pretty easily, and was within a few yards of her place when my luck ran out.
Without warning, somebody grabbed the back of my robe and lifted me up like a doll. The guy spun me around and I came face-to-face with a giant Batu warrior. No, make that four giant Batu warriors. They all stared at me and none of them looked happy to see me.
“You have lost your way, little Rokador sheep,” the guy snarled. “Are you looking to take back more of your precious water?”
“Uh, no, actually,” I said, trying to be friendly, “I’m looking for-“
“Water!” he shouted. “Water is all you know, water is what you will have!”
The other Batu warriors cheered, egging him on.
“But my friend lives right-“
“Here is your precious water!” he shouted.
The Batu warrior dragged me over to a wall near the front of the building. I tried to break away, but the guy was too strong. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. If I broke loose, there were three other goons there to grab me. Behind the wall was the community bathroom. On one side of the enclosure was a trough of fresh running water for drinking and washing. On the other were holes in the ground with water running underneath for, yeah, you guessed it, going to the bathroom. It was basically an outhouse. Unfortunately we didn’t stop at the fresh-water trough.
The warrior stopped at one of the open sewer holes, then stuck his nose in my face. “You love water so
