The cat said, “Are you Mark and Courtney? And Spader?”
Courtney was the first one to get her head back together. “Yes,” she said. “Boon?”
“That’s me!” Boon answered. He stood up on his hind legs and held out a pale green leaflike sheet. It looked just like one of the pages Bobby used to write his journals from Cloral.
“This is terrible news,” the brown klee said. “Would Saint Dane really bring a poison from another territory?”
“I don’t understand,” Spader said.
“It’s okay,” Mark assured him. “Klees are the superior beings here on Eelong.”
“No, I’m talking about the note,” Spader said. “I asked Yenza to send that note to the acolyte, Yorn.”
“She did,” Boon answered. “Yorn gave it to me just before they left for Black Water-that’s why I’m here to meet you. Is it true? About the poison from Cloral?”
“It’s true,” Spader answered. “Why didn’t they wait for us?”
“There’s something else I don’t get,” Mark said. “How come we can understand you, Boon? I mean, you’re not a Traveler. We’re not Travelers either, and I’m pretty sure you don’t know English. And now that I think of it, neither did Ty Manoo on Cloral.”
Courtney said, “Bobby said that things were changing. Maybe something changed in us because we can use the flume now.”
“Uh-oh,” Mark said.
“Now what?” Spader asked.
Mark raised his hand to show that the stone in the center of his ring was glowing. He took it off and placed it on the dirt floor. The familiar events followed quickly. The music, the lights, the growing ring…and the arrival of a roll of parchment pages. Mark reached down and picked up the next journal from Bobby Pendragon.
“Maybe all the answers we need just came in,” Spader said.
JOURNAL #18
EELONG
Howdoes he know?
It’s a question that’s always bugged me, but now it’s pissing me off. Ever since I left home with Uncle Press I’ve had to accept a lot of things that made no sense. On top of that list of course, is the question of why I was chosen to be a Traveler. But there are a thousand other questions rolling around that have yet to be answered, like: Who made the flumes? How can they shoot us through time as well as space? What is the power behind it all? Where did the rings come from? I could go on forever, but there’s one question that’s making me totally nuts right now.
How does he know?
I’m talking about Saint Dane. Time and time again he’s found the perfect moment in a territory’s history to step in and work his evil. Why is that? Can he predict the future? Can he look into a crystal ball and see the entire history of a civilization and pick a moment in time when he can do the most damage? If I ever find the answer to that question, I think I’ll unravel the entire mystery as to why all of this is happening. Maybe then I can forget this whole mess and go home for good.
I guess the reason I’m obsessing about it now is because I’m angry. Mostly at myself because I’ve been an idiot. We are at a critical turning point in the history of Eelong; an event is about to happen that will alter the course of this territory forever, and Saint Dane is once again ready to step in and push things the wrong way. What makes it all so frustrating is that I had a chance to stop him, and I blew it. The truth was staring me square in the face and I didn’t see it. Saint Dane made a critical mistake, and I didn’t realize it until it was too late. I should have been smarter. Now Eelong is on the verge of catastrophe, and I don’t know what we can do to stop it. I’m feeling totally helpless. All I can do now is go back and write about what’s happened since I finished my last journal. At least that way there will be a record of my failure, so that when the history of Halla is written and they get to the chapter on Eelong, they’ll know which Traveler was to blame. Me.
I finished my last journal after we found Seegen’s map to Black Water. Our plan was to have Boon stay in Leeandra to spy on Timber and the Council of Klee while Kasha, Yorn, and I followed the map to Black Water. At first I thought only Kasha and I should go because Yorn was kind of, well, old. I don’t mean to sound like I’m against old people or anything, but this was probably going to be a dangerous trip, and I wasn’t sure if Yorn could handle it. But Yorn told me he wanted to help make sure Seegen’s last request was carried out. I figured the real reason he wanted to go was because he didn’t trust Kasha. Truth was, neither did I. But Kasha understood Seegen’s map. I didn’t. To me it looked like a bunch of circles with random numbers and some arrows that represented…whatever. But Yorn could read it. I figured if Kasha bailed, Yorn could take over. Besides, I was happy to have somebody along who wanted to be there, as opposed to Kasha, who didn’t. So we became a trio.
Kasha guessed it would take a full day, riding on zenzens, to follow Seegen’s map to the end. We decided to rest that night and start out at dawn. That was fine by me because my batteries were dead. While Boon and Yorn went out to arrange for the zenzens and stock up on provisions, Kasha and I returned to her home. I was glad to get the chance to talk to her alone. She was the Traveler from Eelong now, whether she accepted it or not. I knew what she was going through, and I felt bad for her, but there were more important things at stake than her feelings. I needed to get her up to speed, fast. So when we got to the privacy of her home, I tried to do just that.
“How do you feel?” I asked, opening the conversation as innocently as possible.
“About what?” was her sharp answer.
I didn’t want to push. She got mad easily, and I didn’t want her thinking the problem was me and decide to go all klee on me and take my head off. Or some other vital body part. So I tried to make nice. “A lot’s happened,” I said. “I remember how tough it was when I first found out I was a Traveler and-“
“Stop!” she roared. “I amnota Traveler!”
“But, you saw what Saint Dane did to the gar-“
“It was a gar,” she shot back. “It wasn’t like he was torturing a klee.”
“I don’t believe you feel that way.”
“I don’t care what you believe,” she spat at me. “My father is dead because of you Travelers. I’m not going to make the same mistake.” She tried to walk back to her room, but I cut her off.
“I saw you risk your life to save a gar,” I argued. “And you did the same for me, more than once. That’s not the way somebody acts when they don’t care.”
“Look!” she snarled. “I told you I’d help you follow the map. But I’m doing it for my father, not because I’m a Traveler.”
“Fine, whatever.” I was getting tired of arguing with her. “I’ll leave you alone, but I need to see your father’s journal.”
“You can’t. When we burned his body, I threw the pages on the fire.”
“You didn’t!” I shouted.
“I absolutely did.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want anything to remind me of how he wasted his final days. I’ll follow his map for you, Pendragon, but then I’m done.”
She brushed past me. I didn’t give up.
“But Eelong is in danger-“
Kasha whirled on me. “I told you if anything happened to my father because of you Travelers, I’d tear you apart. I meant it. After I get you to Black Water, if I ever see you again, I’ll kill you.”
She stormed out of the room, leaving me a little dizzy. Not only had I bungled the chance to get her on board, I pushed her into threatening my life. Nice work, Bobby. Real diplomatic. I could only hope that she’d make good on her word. At least the part about getting me to Black Water, that is. The killing me part I’d just as soon she forgot. With that ominous thought in mind, I laid down on the couch and turned my thoughts to the task ahead.
Black Water. What exactly was it? A place? A state of mind? Another dimension? A lost underwater city like
