the gars.”
“Hang on,” Mark interrupted. “I think Saint Dane is wrong. Sure, if all the gars were killed off, it would throw Eelong totally out of whack, but get real. Even if they made it legal to hunt gars, they couldn’t wipe out the entire population.”
“Exactly!” Courtney agreed quickly. “That is, unless they had a weapon that was so powerful it could kill off thousands of gars at one time before they even realized what was happening.”
The weight of Courtney’s words hit Mark hard. The horrible truth was becoming all too clear.
“The Cloral poison!” he shouted. “Saint Dane brought the poison to Eelong to wipe out the gars!”
“It’s worse than that,” Courtney said with passion. “Think about it. What are the klees going to do after they kill the gars?”
The answer came fast to Mark, hitting him like a punch in the gut. “Oh my god,” he said, his panic growing. “They’re going to eat them! If some klees don’t know about the poison and eat gars who were killed by it-“
“Yes!” Courtney shouted. “They’ll be poisoned too. Then the whole food chain thing will be thrown out of whack and…Mark, with this poison Saint Dane truly has a chance of bringing down Eelong.”
Mark paced nervously. “I can’t believe this!”
“I’m not finished,” Courtney said, still calm.
“There’s more?” Mark asked, incredulous.
“Yes,” Courtney said. She took a deep breath and said, “You’re not going to like this.”
“I don’t like any of it. What?”
“Mark, we’ve got to travel.”
Mark froze. He wasn’t expecting to hear that.
“Say something,” Courtney said.
“No way!” Mark shouted. “That’s exactly what Bobby said we shouldn’t do!”
“Bobby could be wrong,” Courtney countered. “The ball just got slammed into our court. Bobby knows that Saint Dane wants to kill off the gars, but we’re the only ones who know how. The Council of Klee may have already revoked the law that forbids the killing of gars-“
“Edict Forty-six.”
“Whatever! We know the truth. How are you going to feel when we read in Bobby’s next journal that thousands of gars mysteriously died off? I don’t want to be the one to tell Bobby we knew it was coming but didn’t do anything to stop it.”
Mark walked deeper into the vast basement. All he could hear was the sound of his own footsteps, crunching on the gritty floor. The problem was, he agreed with everything Courtney had to say. But the idea of going against Bobby’s direct orders was tough to imagine. Even tougher was the idea of shooting through the flume. Sure, he had fantasized about it. But when it came right down to it, he didn’t think he had what it took to join this fight. Maybe Courtney did, but not Mark. Mark feared he was way too…Mark.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to go,” Courtney said softly. “But I do.”
Mark whipped around and saw that Courtney stood with both feet planted firmly. It was at that exact moment that Mark realized Courtney had already made up her mind. The time for discussion was over. She was going to jump into the flume.
“H-Hang on a second,” Mark said, trying to restore sanity. “Suppose I agreed with you? I’m not saying I do, but just suppose. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had to fight a quig or a tang or any other nasty creature that might be lurking around the jungles of Eelong. Heck, my mother’s car scares me! I’ve got the scratch scars to prove it. You’re right, Bobby has to know what’s going on, but we’d be killed on Eelong before we got the chance to tell him.”
Courtney gave Mark a sly smile and said, “Who said anything about going to Eelong?”
Mark gave her a curious look. She had just logically convinced him how important it was to ignore Bobby’s wishes and flume to the rescue, only to hear that this isn’t what she was suggesting at all.
“Now you lost me,” Mark said.
Courtney took Mark’s spiral notebook and his pen and began writing another message. She spoke as she wrote:
“This note is from Courtney Chetwynde and Mark Dimond, acolytes for Bobby Pendragon from Second Earth. We believe that Saint Dane has taken the poison that threatened Cloral and brought it to the territory of Eelong. Acolytes can now travel through the flumes. We are coming to get your help to find a way to stop it.”
Courtney ripped out the page and folded it in two. “Who are you sending that to?” Mark asked, totally confused. “An acolyte,” Courtney answered. “I think her name is…Wu Yenza.”
“Wu Yenza?” Mark shouted. “But she’s from-“
“Exactly,” Courtney announced. “She’s from Cloral.” Mark stared at Courtney, stunned.
Courtney held out her hand and said, “Give me your ring.”
Mark did as he was told. He was too numb not to. Courtney took the ring and gently placed it on the basement floor. She held the note over the ring and announced in a clear voice, “Wu Yenza!”
Instantly one of the ten symbols that represented the territories sparkled to life. It was a single, squiggly line that looked like a wave. The ring quivered on the ground and grew larger, revealing the tunnel to the territories. Brilliant light shot from the ring, looking like a headlight on the front of an oncoming freight train. The familiar jumble of musical notes grew louder. Courtney looked to Mark, winked, and dropped the note through the ring. The paper disappeared and the ring shrank back down to normal size. Courtney picked it up and held it out for Mark.
“Special delivery,” she said with a smile.
Mark took the ring and put it back on his finger.
“You’re right about Eelong,” Courtney said. “We probably wouldn’t get out of the flume tree. But even if we got lucky and found Bobby, there’s only one way to stop that poison… the antidote that saved Cloral.”
“You want to bring the antidote from Cloral to Eelong?” Mark asked.
“Exactly.”
Mark’s mouth went dry. What Courtney was suggesting went against everything they’d learned about how the territories worked. “But n-nothing is supposed to be moved between the territories,” Mark said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Saint Dane said the rujes have changed,” Courtney countered. “And he’s certainly moving things around. I think the alternative is worse. If we don’t do something, he’s going to have his second territory.”
D. J. MacHale
Black Water
Mark felt dizzy. He actually had to spread his feet to keep his balance. He looked down at the ground, praying that he’d wake up and this would all be a nightmare.
“I wish you’d come with me,” Courtney said. “But I’ll understand if you don’t.”
“I–I’m really confused, Courtney,” Mark stammered. “Everything’s getting so, so… twisted. Did you know that Andy Mitchell does college-level scientific research?”
The surprised look on Courtney’s face was almost comical. If Mark weren’t so upset, he would have laughed.
“Mitchell? The juvi doofus?”
“Nothing is right with the world anymore” was Mark’s answer.
Courtney nodded soberly. “I hear you. Things aren’t working out the way I thought they would, either. On any level. I may be totally dumb about this, but as huge as going to Cloral may be, at least it’s something we have control over. I’m going, Mark. Will you go with me?”
Mark looked into Courtney’s gray eyes and saw the intensity and confidence that had been missing lately. The old Courtney was back and she was ready to roll.
“Can I ask you one thing?” Mark said, though his voice was shaky.
“Sure.”
“Wh-What exactly are we going to tell our parents?”
Courtney laughed. “We’re going to ride a flume to another time and territory on the other side of Halla to try and save humanity from total destruction. I don’t know about your parents, but if I told mine, they’d lock me in the
