creature. But no longer. We stood there silently. I think we were all waiting for Kasha to speak first. I glanced at her to see that her eyes were tearing up. But she was strong. She didn’t break down or anything.
“How did he die, Yorn?” she asked.
The old cat sighed and said, “I don’t know. As I told you, he left here for Second Earth, looking for Pendragon. When he came back through the flume, he was dead. What happened there I can’t say.”
Boon did a quick examination, checking for signs of injury. He found nothing.
Kasha looked to me and said, “You told me klees are treated like gars where you come from. What could have happened?”
“I can only guess,” I answered. “If Seegen appeared in my home town, they’d try to capture him. They’d probably shoot him with a tranquilizer to make him sleep. As a last resort they might shoot him with a gun that was more deadly, but there are no wounds. I don’t think he died on Second Earth.”
“But he left here alive, and now he’s dead,” Kasha said, trying to contain her emotions.
I felt horrible for her. I knew what it was like to lose a loved one. And I also knew what lay ahead for her.
“I don’t know how he died, Kasha,” I said sympathetically. “And I know you don’t believe in the battle against Saint Dane, but I promise you, it’s real. Your father’s death is proof of that.” I knelt down to Seegen and gently removed his braided necklace. Dangling from the loop was his Traveler ring. I held it up for Kasha to see.
“You’re the Traveler from Eelong now,” I said. “I’m not asking you to change your beliefs, but I am asking you to help us stop Saint Dane.”
“And why should I?” Kasha asked.
“Because it’s what your father wanted, and I guarantee Saint Dane had something to do with his death. If you want justice, you’ll join us.”
Kasha looked at the dangling ring. She glanced to Yorn. Yorn gave her a slight nod of encouragement. She looked to Boon. Boon gave her a weak smile in return. Kasha tentatively reached out and grasped the ring, examining its dark gray stone and the symbols that circled it.
“I believe in things I can see,” she said. “Everything I’ve heard about you, Pendragon, must be taken on faith. But my father is dead and that’s about as real as can be.” She gave me a piercing look and continued, “What I do is for him. Not you.
Not Yorn or Boon or some misguided mission. As long as you understand that, I’ll help you.”
“Understood” was my simple answer.
She then dropped the ring in the dirt. “But I am not a Traveler,” she said with disdain.
Boon and Yorn looked at me, waiting for my reaction. I didn’t get ticked or anything. All I did was bend down and pick up the ring.
“Whatever works for you,” I said. I dusted off the ring and added it to the two I already had on the cord around my neck.
It was a tense moment. Yorn broke the silence by saying, “Seegen was my best friend and I was his acolyte. I may be old, but I can still be of use.”
“Absolutely,” I said.
“Good,” Yorn said. “We should first attend to his body. After that we can set our sights on Saint Dane.”
We struggled to bring Seegen’s body from the underground cavern out to the jungle where a zenzen-powered wagon was waiting for us. We had traveled to the flume tree in this wagon because we knew we would have to bring Seegen’s body back. We gently loaded the big cat’s body onto the wagon, covered it with a blanket out of respect, and began the long journey back to Leeandra.
“Will there be a ceremony?” I asked. “And a burial?”
“A ceremony, yes,” Yorn explained. “But we do not bury our dead on Eelong. Bodies must be burned to keep them from scavenger tangs.”
“Like with Gunny’s hand,” Boon reminded me.
“Yes, Gunny’s hand,” Yorn added. “I was surprised to have found it after he was attacked. I thought for sure the tangs would have devoured it.”
Yorn dropped his head and fell silent, as if the conversation was upsetting him. It wasn’t doing much for me, either. The whole subject was depressing and gross. I didn’t mind that we didn’t talk for the rest of the journey. I was too busy watching out for tangs, anyway. Luckily for us, we didn’t run into any. I suppose I should be grateful for that small bit of luck, because it seemed as if the only luck I had been having lately was the bad kind.
Back in Leeandra, I stayed at Kasha’s home while the others attended to Seegen’s body. I wanted to go, but we all figured it would be tough to explain why a gar was there. It gave me time to collect my thoughts, eat something, and start writing this journal. I didn’t get very far. No sooner did I start writing, than I conked out. My body really needed the sleep. The last thing I remember was that it was still daylight when I put my pen down to rest my eyes. The next thing I knew it was dark, and I was looking up at an excited Boon who was shaking me awake.
“Pendragon! You have to come, now!” he said, barely able to contain himself.
“Huh, what?” I asked groggily.
“Kasha told me to get you quickly.”
“Why? What’s going on?” I asked, trying to kick-start my brain.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, saying, “It’s about Black Water.”
A bolt of adrenaline shot through me. Suddenly I wasn’t so sleepy. Boon ran out of the tree house without waiting for me, but that was okay, because I was ready to roll. I caught up and we jogged across several sky bridges. He didn’t put restraints on me, and I didn’t remind him to. It was nighttime and there weren’t many klees around to see us.
“Where are we going?” I asked as we ran.
“Kasha has many friends in government,” Boon answered. “She found out where the Inquisitors are questioning the gar about Black Water. We have to hurry.”
Excellent. Kasha had only been a Traveler for a short time and she was already helping out. I was very curious about Black Water. Not because it was an interesting fable or anything, but because the klees were so interested in it. A few minutes later we arrived at the tree that held the Circle of Klee. Boon took me to an elevator that brought us much higher into the tree than we had been before.
“Be quiet now,” he whispered. “We aren’t supposed to be here.” He led me along a sky walk that circled the tree, and into a doorway. Inside was a dark corridor that traveled around the inside of the tree. We moved quickly and quietly until we came upon…Kasha. She was peering through a small window into the center of the tree.
“We’re here!” Boon announced in a loud voice.
“Shhh!” Kasha scolded.
“What’s happening?” I whispered to Kasha. I moved to look through the small opening, but Kasha stopped me.
“You must be prepared for this,” she cautioned. “You will not like what you see.”
“Okay,” I said. “Prepare me.”
“There’s no good way to say this,” she said coldly. “They are torturing the gar. Unless he tells them what they want to know, I fear he will die. He may anyway.”
“What do they want to know?” I asked.
“They want to know where Black Water is,” she answered.
“So it’s real?” Boon asked, a little too loud. He quickly clamped his own furry hand over his mouth. He shrugged an apology.
“The Inquisitors seem to think so,” she answered. “Are you prepared?”
“Yes,” I answered. I took a deep breath and peeked into the hole. Turned out, I wasn’t prepared at all.
We were high overhead, looking down through small slits near the ceiling. We must have been in an observation area for those who didn’t have the stomach to be too close to what was happening below. I was one of them. Beneath us was a large room with a table in the middle. Tied to the table was the gar I remembered from the prison. He was naked from the waist up. My stomach twisted when I saw that his torso and arms were covered with hundreds of bleeding cuts. There were two klees in the room. One lashed at the gar with a thin strap that made a sharp, uglycracksound. The poor gar cried out in pain. It left an ugly, bleeding cut on his chest. I had never seen anything this cruel before, and hoped I never would again.
