these plants grew the same blue apples that were thrown into the wagon earlier.
And there was something else. Lying amid the rows of plants were dead tangs. Lots of them. It didn’t look like there had been a fight or anything. All these tangs looked as if they just lay down…and died. Not that I felt bad for these monsters, but it was totally creepy.
Durgen took a step away from the wagon and surveyed the carnage. Kasha walked up to him and asked, “What happened here?”
Durgen looked troubled. “There have been reports of some crops turning foul. These tangs stopped at the wrong farm.”
“But how could this happen?” Kasha asked. “Did the fruit simply turn rotten from being overripe?”
“That’s my guess,” Durgen answered. “But whatever the reason, with the food shortage we can’t afford to let this happen again. Which is all the more reason to be out here and harvest what we can. Let’s keep moving.”
The wagon began rolling again. I saw that every few rows held more dead tangs. As horrible as it was, it gave me a slight bit of hope that maybe enough tangs had been killed off so they wouldn’t bother us. On the other hand, if the fruit out here had become poisonous, I wasn’t too thrilled about having to pick any of it. I was suddenly relieved I hadn’t eaten any of the blue apples that were thrown into the wagon.
We soon left the farm and followed the path back into the jungle. I was happy to leave the tang graveyard behind.
“Death place,” whispered a weak voice next to me. I was so shocked, I actually jerked back. I looked to where the voice came from but saw only the gars, staring out at the carnage with wide, scared eyes.
Then another voice said, “Time soon.”
I whipped around to see another gar.
“You can talk?” I whispered, because I didn’t want the klees to hear.
The gar looked at me. For the first time I saw signs of intelligent life. He let out a small smile and said, “Time soon.”
I was stunned. The gar could speak! This was incredible. These creatures were being treated like animals, and don’t get me wrong, they acted like animals, but they could speak! They had intelligence! Why didn’t Boon tell me this? Or Kasha? How could the klees treat gars like cattle when they had an intellect?
I looked at the other gars in the wagon, and froze. They were all looking at me with these strange smiles. I didn’t know how to react. They didn’t look dangerous or anything. Just the opposite. They all looked at me with what I can best describe as…love. I’m serious. You know that look. It’s the proud look you get from your parents when you’re playing tuba in some lame-o concert at school, and they’re thinking you’re ready for Carnegie Hall. I had seen that look once before, other than from my parents, that is. It was in the arena on Denduron, when the poor Milago miner was about to be attacked by the quig. Remember that? The old miner saw my face in the crowd, and even though he was about to die, he stood up straight and gave me a smile of strength. It creeped me out then, and it was creeping me out in that wagon on Eelong. What did these people see in me? Did they know I was a Traveler who was trying to save them from Saint Dane? That was impossible…wasn’t it?
I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked back to the gar who first spoke. He held out his hand. In his open palm was something I recognized. It was a small, amber cube like the one I had seen the two gars petting back in Leeandra. A closer look showed me that it was definitely made of some kind of crystal. But one of the sides was black. I looked at the strange object, not sure of what to do. He didn’t want me to take it, it was more like he was showing it off.
“What is it?” I whispered, not sure if he’d understand.
The gar cocked his head, as if he were surprised I didn’t know what it was.
“Black Water,” the gar said.
I had absolutely no freakin’ idea of what he was talking about. Heck, I was still thrown by the fact that he could talk. That’s when a gar sitting across from me said, “Black Water.”
He too was holding one of the small cubes. I glanced to the front of the wagon and saw that two more gars had cubes. They each held them up with two hands like they were fragile, precious treasures.
“Soon,” another gar said, and the others nodded.
“Soon what?” I asked.
“Home,” another said.
Before I could ask them any more, the wagon came to an abrupt stop. The gars quickly hid their cubes, which told me they didn’t want the klees to know about them. Very interesting. Now I was faced with a difficult choice. I felt as if the only way I’d learn about these cubes would be to ask Boon or Kasha. But if the gars didn’t want the klees to know about them, would I be betraying their confidence? Boon and Kasha were on my side. At least Boon was. But they were klees, and klees were about to start hunting the gars, which is exactly what I had to prevent. What was I supposed to do? My head was starting to hurt as much as my butt.
“Everybody out!” shouted Durgen.
He threw open the back of the wagon and we all climbed out. One cat untied our restraints while another handed us each a large, empty sack. Once I got the circulation back in my legs, I looked around to see where we were. Since I had been so focused on the gars in the wagon, I hadn’t noticed that we had emerged from the jungle and arrived at another farm. A quick look around showed that there were no tang bodies lying around. Durgen walked up to the first row of plants and plucked off one of the blue apples. He strode back toward the wagon and tossed the fruit to a gar who was standing next to me. “Eat,” he ordered.
The gar looked at the blue apple like it was poison. I didn’t blame him. It might have been. “Now!” Durgen yelled. The gar closed his eyes and took a bite. “More!” Durgen commanded.
The frightened gar took a few more bites and reluctantly swallowed. We all watched him, expecting… I don’t know what. Would he fall down dead like the tangs?
He didn’t. The gar looked visibly relieved and hungrily gnawed on the rest of the apple. But he didn’t get far because Durgen knocked it out of his hands. I was beginning to have some serious issues with this Durgen character.
“The fruit is fine here,” he bellowed to everyone. “This is where we harvest.”
Oh joy.
Suddenly I was grabbed roughly by the back of my shirt and yanked away from the group. “Don’t try to run away, gar!” a klee hissed at me.
It was Kasha. She pulled me far enough away from the group so they couldn’t hear what we were saying. She gave me a rough shove that nearly threw me to the ground.
“Hey, easy!” I complained.
“We need to talk,” she said.
“What happened to that farm back there? Why did those tangs die?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Kasha answered. “But if you want to stay alive, listen to me. Do what you are told. Be sure to stay near the center of the pack. The tangs attack from the outside in.”
“You didn’t tell me gars could talk,” I said. “They’re intelligent. They aren’t animals.”
“Pendragon, are you listening to me?”
“Yeah, yeah. Outside in. How could the klees want to hunt intelligent life?”
Kasha gave a quick glance behind me. I turned to see Durgen stalking toward us. “Do as I say, Pendragon,” Kasha said quickly. She gave me a kick and I fell at Durgen’s feet. “I was making sure he will carry his weight,” Kasha explained to Durgen.
Kasha was definitely playing this up for Durgen’s sake, but I think she was enjoying it a little. Durgen lifted me up by my shirt. I was really getting sick of being handled like a doll.
“Good,” he said. “Then he will lead the pack.” He shoved me in the direction of the other gars. I didn’t know what he meant by leading the pack, but whatever it was, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like it.
The klees herded the gars together, shoulder to shoulder. I was in dead center. That was good. Tangs attacked from the outside in. But I was told to walk forward first, into the tall stalks. The others were to follow me, slightly behind and spread out like an arrowhead. That was bad. I was the tip of the arrow. If there was a hungry tang lying in wait inside those plants, I’d be the first one to reach it. I gave a quick glance back to see Boon sitting in the driver’s seat of the wagon, looking helpless. I heard a loudcrackand felt a sharp, stinging pain on my back. Yeow! I looked the other way to see Durgen standing there with a long strap he used like a whip.
“Now!” he bellowed. “Before the tangs catch a whiff of your stench!”
