weird, but for somebody like Aja, who is all about being perfect, it was a huge statement. It was a tough moment because no matter how you cut it, we had lost. The Reality Bug had failed. No, worse than that. It had nearly killed every last person on Veelox. Calling it a failure is kind of an understatement. The virtual-reality computer called Lifelight was back online and most everybody on Veelox had jumped back inside to live in their own personal fantasy worlds. There was nobody left in reality to grow food, to maintain buildings, to uphold the law, or to do the million and one other basic things that a civilization needs to function. It would only be a matter of time before the territory itself began to fall apart. Bottom line was, Saint Dane had won his first territory. I couldn’t let him win another, so staying on Veelox wasn’t an option.
“Please finish my journal for me,” I asked Aja. “Tell Mark and Courtney that I went to Eelong to find Gunny.”
“You don’t want to finish the journal yourself?” Aja asked.
Good question. Maybe I was too tired. Maybe I was drained after having snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I could even say that I was in too much of a hurry to find Gunny. All that was true. But as I think back, I believe the real reason was because I was too embarrassed to admit defeat. Especially to you guys. I still don’t know why I was chosen to be a Traveler, but I’ve been around the block enough times now to realize that whether I liked it or not, the job was mine. On Veelox, I had done a lousy job. I was angry, frustrated, and a little bit scared, because I didn’t know what losing a territory was going to mean in the battle against Saint Dane. My head was not in a good place.
“No,” I finally answered. “Please finish it for me.”
She nodded and said, “I’m sorry, Pendragon; this was my fault.” Aja was near tears. She took off her small, yellow glasses and cleaned them on her sleeve. Aja hated to admit defeat even more than I did. She was a brilliant computer scientist who never failed at anything she tried, until now. Too bad it had been the most important challenge of her life.
“Don’t think that way,” I said, trying to sound positive. “This isn’t about any one of us. When we fail, we fail together.” That was a totally cheesy, football coach-type statement, but I couldn’t think of anything better to say.
Besides, it was the truth. I was as much to blame as Aja.
“What do I do now?” she asked. “Maybe I should go with you.”
I have to admit, I thought about bringing her along. Every time I had gone to a territory for the first time, I had another Traveler with me. But it wouldn’t have been right to take Aja away from Veelox. No, this time I had to fly solo. I was suddenly missing Uncle Press a whole bunch.
“No,” I said. “You’ve got to keep Lifelight running for as long as possible. Remember, this is about all of Halla, not just Veelox. Saint Dane hasn’t won yet. Anything can happen.”
“So you think there’s still hope for Veelox?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” I answered. To be honest, I wasn’t sure about that at all. But I had to give Aja hope. She grabbed me and hugged me close. It took me totally by surprise because Aja wasn’t normally an affectionate person. But she held me so tight-it made me realize that telling her there was still hope was like throwing a lifeline to a drowning person. She needed to hear that, whether it was the truth or not. I hugged back. I liked Aja. I felt bad that she was hurting. But I was hurting too. Hugging her felt good. I guess misery loves company.
“Find Gunny,” she said while still holding me. “And do me one favor.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
She pulled back from me. I looked into her deep, blue eyes. They once again flashed with the confidence I remembered from when we first met. “I want another crack at Saint Dane,” she said with authority. “Get it for me.”
I had to smile. Aja wasn’t the type to feel sorry for herself for long. She had too much brass for that.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I answered.
Aja leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. She held her cheek against mine for a second longer and said, “I believe you.” We stayed that way for a long moment. I have to admit, it felt kind of good.
My time on Veelox was over. I was on the wrong territory. I backed away from Aja and took two steps into the mouth of the flume. As I stood there staring into the infinite black void, my thoughts went to what I might find next. Truth was, I had no idea. Eelong was a total mystery. Gunny had left for Eelong only a few days before, in pursuit of Saint Dane. The plan was for him to get a quick look around and then meet me back on Veelox. He never returned. That could only mean trouble. So I had to flume to a new territory, alone, and be prepared to face whatever nastiness prevented Gunny from coming back. I suddenly wanted to step back out of the flume and hug Aja again. But that would have blown whatever small bit of cool I had managed to build.
“Eelong!” I shouted into the flume. The tunnel instantly came to life. The stone walls cracked and groaned; a distant pin spot of light appeared and the sweet magical jumble of notes could faintly be heard. They were coming to take me away.
“I won’t let you down again, Pendragon,” Aja called.
“You didn’t let me down this time,” I answered.
The stone walls of the tunnel began to dissolve to crystal as the light grew brighter and the music grew louder.
“Remember,” she said with gritted teeth. “I want another chance.”
“You’ll get it,” I replied, trying to sound as if I knew what I was talking about. But other than making Aja feel better, what I thought didn’t matter. Veelox was then. The battle was moving to Eelong.
“Good luck, Pendragon,” Aja shouted.
“And so we go,” I said.
I squinted against the brilliant light as I felt the familiar tug that meant my trip was beginning. A second later I was lifted off my feet and launched through the flume. Next stop, Eelong.
I still had no clue as to what a flume actually was, or why they were able to send Travelers through time and space, but the experience was awesome. It was like floating through space on a bed of light. It was the closest you could get to playing Superman.
But this time something was different.
It wasn’t a physical difference. The ride felt the same as always. The difference was with what I saw. I was surrounded by the usual star field, but there was something else. Something more. Beyond the crystal walls of the flume, I saw floating images. As I flew along, I’d see something far in the distance, then whip past it and watch it disappear behind me. The images were nearly transparent, which meant I could see the stars behind them like they were ghosts on the edge of becoming solid. Some looked to be my size, others were so huge it took me a few seconds to move past them. Some I even recognized. I saw a Bedoowan knight from Denduron on horseback, galloping through space. I saw what looked to be a school of swimmers in green swimskins from the underwater city of Faar, moving in formation. I saw a tall building that could have been the Manhattan Tower Hotel and an aquaneer on a skimmer from Cloral, riding the sky.
Other images I didn’t recognize. There were two giant men who looked like twins, running across the sky. They looked powerful, though somewhat stiff, as if they were mechanical. I saw a vast field of people wearing nothing but rags. They were all raising their open hands into the air in some common gesture that looked like they were cheering. I also saw a huge, spotted jungle cat charging across the field of stars.
None of this was scary. In fact, it was kind of cool. It was like kicking back and watching a bunch of weird movies projected in space. But the more I saw, the more it bothered me. Why was it happening? What had changed? What did the strange images mean? I couldn’t help but think back to what Saint Dane had warned. He said that once the first territory fell, the rest would fall like dominos. I didn’t want to be paranoid or anything, but since Saint Dane had finally toppled a territory, I worried that there might have been some grand, cosmic change in Halla.
I didn’t get the chance to stress about it for long because the musical notes began to play quickly. I was at the end of my trip. My thoughts turned to Eelong. Was I about to be dumped into a pool of water, like on Cloral? Would there be quigs waiting for me, licking their chops because the dinner bell had just rung?
A few seconds later the flume gently deposited me on my feet. Nothing dramatic at all. That was the good news. Bad news was that I was instantly engulfed in a tangle of thick, sticky ropes. At least I thought they were ropes. For all I knew it was a massive web and the quigs on Eelong were hungry spiders. But I didn’t want to believe the worst, so I pushed my way through the dense tangle of ropes. I came out on the far side to find myself
