my hair. If he had connected, he would have knocked me into next Tuesday… if there was such a thing as Tuesday on Zadaa.
“And Veelox?” he asked. I heard the confidence in his voice waver.
“No biggie,” I said cockily. “When you go down for good, we’re going back and pull Veelox out too. Aja is working on it right now. Veelox was a draw.”
Saint Dane took a step back as if I had physically hit him. I was definitely getting to him. I didn’t think it was because of what I was saying. None of it was new news. It was more the way I was saying it, with absolute confidence. It was becoming pretty clear that Saint Dane’s plan to embarrass me in this fight, wasn’t working. I was slowly getting the upper hand.
“You can beat up on me all you want,” I said. “But you can’t change the truth. You are losing. I think you know it too. You’re getting so desperate that you’ve resorted to beating me up with a stick. How pathetic is that?”
Saint Dane staggered. Oh yeah, I was hitting him worse than he had hit me.
“You can’t even make me feel bad about Uncle Press anymore, because he promised that one day I would see him again. And I believe that. I believe all the Travelers will be together again. I don’t know how, but you know what? I think you do. Oh yeah, you know exactly how it’s going to happen, and you’re getting nervous because that time is getting closer. And when we’re all together again, it’ll be the end of your sad little quest.”
I was hammering him, bad. I saw it in his eyes. He clutched his stave, wringing it fitfully. It was time to go in for the kill.
“And you know what? The real reason you’re going down is because that’s the way it was meant to be…and there’s nothing you can do to change it.”
Since the day I learned that I was a Traveler, I had made a lot of mistakes. Some of them small, others not so small. What I had just done with Saint Dane in the Ghee compound on Zadaa was one of the big ones. Saint Dane’s plan in picking this fight may have been to embarrass me in front of the Ghees and hurt my confidence, but in that one second, his plan changed. I’m sorry to say that I changed it. What happened next I had brought on myself, with my words. The only good thing I can say about it was that it was fast.
Saint Dane took me apart.
With an angry roar he charged at me, the wooden stave spinning like a helicopter blade. I threw my weapon up to protect myself, but Saint Dane dropped to one knee and kicked up at me with his boot, catching me right in the gut and knocking the air out of my lungs. I doubled over as he stood, driving his knee into my forehead. He was done playing. He wanted to hurt me. To say that I had never taken a beating like this is probably the biggest understatement I have ever made. When his knee hit me, I saw colors. Splotches of green and yellow floated everywhere. My ears rang.
I had a vague understanding that the Ghee warriors were laughing and cheering, but they sounded like they were on the far end of a long tunnel. I turned away to get my balance and cover up, but I wasn’t fast enough. A dark flash hit me square on the cheek that must have been Saint Dane’s weapon. It spun me around so fast, everything went blurry. I think this is when I dropped my weapon, not that it wasdoing me any good anyway. I fell to my knees and looked up in time to see Saint Dane winding up and attacking me with his weapon like a lumberjack chopping with a giant axe. The stave came straight down at me.
In that one fleeting instant I realized that this could be the end. It’s amazing how many thoughts can race through your head so quickly. In times like this, it’s almost like time slows down. It suddenly all seemed so clear. Forget the games. Forget the mystery and the misdirection and the complex plots to turn the territories toward chaos. The only thing standing between Saint Dane and the conquest of Halla were the Travelers, and I was their leader. With me out of the way, he would have a much easier time. Believe it or not, in that one instant I actually wondered what had taken him so long to figure that out.
Saint Dane was trying to kill me.
But I wasn’t giving up. I threw my arm up and caught the full brunt of the blow. It didn’t even hurt. My battered body was beyond pain at this point. My brain couldn’t process it anymore. I deflected the blow from my head, but the force was so strong it knocked me onto my back. Saint Dane leaped at me, ramrodding the end of his weapon into my ribs. Once, twice, again. I knew he must be breaking bones, but I couldn’t feel anything anymore. The demon got right into my face.
“Beg me to stop,” he hissed angrily. He hit me in the ribs again. I looked into his eyes. They had returned to lightning white…and were mad with rage. “Beg me,” he demanded. I felt his spittle land on my cheek. His anger had turned to frenzy. There was no plan here. No plot. No trickery. He had lost it.
“Thisis the way it was meant to be, cretin,” he growled. “This is what the future holds, for you and your like. That is the promise I made, and I will keep it.” He hit me again, but I was beyond caring. “You will beg for my forgiveness and mercy.”
I looked up at him. I can’t begin to tell you where I got the strength or the brass to do this, but I smiled and croaked out, “Dude, you are talking to the wrong guy.”
He froze. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was because he couldn’t believe I had that kind of brass either. At least, that’s what I hoped. But the shocked look on his face quickly turned back into a fury that I feared would finally put an end to this beating, and my life. He reared back and let out a howl like a wild animal standing over fallen prey. He looked back down at me and raised his weapon. This was it. End of the line.
“Stop!” I heard a voice call out.
Saint Dane snapped a look to the crowd. He hesitated long enough so that two Ghee warriors had the chance to run in and pull him off me. Somebody had saved me. There was somebody out there who took pity on a poor Rokador. But I didn’t recognize the voice. I was flat on my back and barely able to move, but I painfully turned my head to where the command had come from.
Standing in the crowd was a new spectator. He wore a dark purple robe that covered his head. It looked familiar, but I didn’t know why. How could I possibly know anybody on Zadaa? I then remembered where I had seen him before. It was at the zhou battle. He was the mysterious guy who was in the tier above me, watching the fight. Whoever this guy was, he was my new best friend. He took a step into the circle, and I was surprised to see that the Ghee warriors backed away from him and knelt down on one knee.
Who was this guy?
He walked up to me and said in a soft, compassionate voice, “This is not what we are about.” He then took off the robe to reveal a tall, dark-skinned guy who wore an incredibly ornate, bright red tunic with an elaborate design around the neck. He held out his hand to me and said, “I am Pelle, heir to the throne of Zinj. We will take care of you.”
I looked at the guy’s hand. For a moment I thought about reaching up for him. After all, he was my new best friend. Instead, everything went black and I passed out.
JOURNAL #20
(CONTINUED)
ZADAA
Thefirst thing I saw was Loor.
I had opened my eyes a crack. Only a crack. That’s as far as they’d go. I guess it was because they were swollen from the pummeling I’d gotten. But I didn’t have to open them far to recognize Loor. She was sitting close, looking at me. The expression on her face didn’t change when I opened my eyes. I think that’s because my eyes didn’t open far enough to even look like they were open. But I could see her, and she looked fine. And worried.
“How long?” I asked, though I have no idea what it sounded like because my mouth felt about as dry as that sand farm where we met the Tiggen guards. When she heard me croak, Loor snapped to attention and came to my side. She knelt down near my head, which made me realize I was in bed and not still lying in the Ghee compound.
“Pendragon!” she exclaimed. “I was afraid you would never wake up!” There was true feeling in her voice.
