“Every single Ghee in the underground will be killed,” Loor said, numb. “Thousands will perish.”
“Xhaxhu will belong to the Rokador,” I said. “That’s the nightmare that Bokka talked about.”
“But it isn’t,” Teek said softly.
“Of course it is!” Loor shouted. “Why else would the Rokador wipe out so many Batu? You want the city. How can they make such a cruel decision? The Rokador used to be our friends!”
Teek was in tears. “There’s more,” he said.
“More than this?” I shouted. “More than genocide?”
“Yes,” Teek said. “I promise you, we did not know. Bokka, me, and most of the Tiggen guards. We weren’t here. We didn’t see it. We knew the elite were preparing for war, but we didn’t know why. It wasn’t until we returned that we saw the truth.”
“The truth,” Loor said. “Bokka said we needed to know the truth. What is the whole truth?”
Teek wiped his tears and said, “I will show you.”
We followed him through several more corridors until we had reached the far side of the large building. Teek stopped at a door and said to us, “Outside this door lies the truth, and the horror.” He took a deep breath to prepare himself, then walked out. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to see what was beyond the door, but I had to.
We followed him onto a balcony that looked out over a vast, flat field. It must have stretched out a mile in front of us, and almost as far to either side. The only reason we could see it so well was that the entire field was covered with small, round white stones. Thousands of them. I’m guessing they were about a foot in diameter. They were equally spaced in perfect rows for as far as I could see. On each stone was a small light. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. There didn’t seem to be anything horrible about this place at all.
I was wrong.
“It started slowly,” Teek said. “There was no warning. By the time there was serious concern, it was too late. We are not like you. We do not live our lives exposed to the elements. We do not have the same resistance to disease as you.”
“What happened?” I asked.
Teek looked out at the sea of stones and said, “We were hit with a virus that caused a sickness. A deadly sickness.”
I looked at Loor. Her eyes were wide, unbelieving. The two of us looked back onto the sea of stones. The thousands of lights had suddenly taken on a whole new meaning.
“It is a graveyard,” Loor said softly.
It was too much to accept. There had to be some kind of mistake. There were so many! I asked, “Are you saying each one of those stones represents a Rokador who died from this sickness?”
“No,” Teek answered.
It was a brief moment of relief. Very brief.
“Each one of those stones represents ahundredRokador who have died,” Teek continued. “Their ashes lie below those markers.”
I was rocked. My knees went weak. The extent of the tragedy was mind-numbing. We were looking out over the remains of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people.
“My family is gone,” Teek continued. “Bokka’s too. We didn’t know any of this was happening until we returned. We had been gone for so long and it happened so fast. This is why there was so much secrecy. This is not just about the rivalry between two tribes. The survival of our entire race is at stake. We aren’t running out of space. We’re running out of people.”
“How many?” I asked, stunned. “How many are still alive?”
“Perhaps a few hundred,” Teek said, barely able to speak. “A thousand at most. The elite were protected. So were their families. The Tiggen guards were spared because we were not here. Many of the engineers survived who ran the remote control stations. Our ambassadors to Xhaxhu, as well.”
“Is the disease still spreading?” Loor asked.
“No,” Teek said. “The doctors were finally able to bring it under control. It had happened once before in our history. Thousands died before a cure was found. I don’t know why it took so long to recognize it this time. It should have been stopped early, but it wasn’t.”
I felt as if Saint Dane probably had a hand in there somehow.
“We were told that if the Batu discovered our weakened state, they would invade us. The elite decided to strike first. We don’t want to live in Xhaxhu. Our home is here. Underground. All we want is to survive.”
“And who suggested this plan, as if I didn’t know?” I asked.
“Saint Dane,” Teek answered. “He has been advising the elite.”
“It’s perfect,” I said, reeling. “He’s taken advantage of a natural disaster and gotten the Rokador all paranoid. Then he’s played the other side and pushed the Batu into attacking, which is exactly what the Rokador feared. Unbelievable.”
“Why would he do this?” Teek asked.
How could I answer that? “Because he’s a bad guy,” I said. It was the understatement of all time, but I wasn’t about to explain how Saint Dane was a demon from another territory, who was doing his best to destroy the past, present, and future of everything that ever existed. Teek was having a bad enough day as it was.
“Many of the Tiggen guards do not believe this is right,” Teek said. “But when faced with extinction…” He didn’t finish his thought. It now made sense why all the guards were looking at us with these long, sad faces. They were reeling from the horror they discovered on their return to Kidik.
They had lost family, they had lost friends. Their entire existence was threatened. Bokka was right. It was a nightmare.
“There’s something I don’t get,” I said to Loor. “The Rokador are nearly wiped out by a horrible disease. They’re afraid the Batu will finish the job, so they want to defend themselves by striking first. If it works, thousands of Batu will drown. It would be a double disaster of epic proportions. No question. But is it enough to throw an entire territory into chaos? I mean, where would it all lead?”
Loor leaned on the steel rail of the balcony overlooking the vast Rokador graveyard. Her mind went somewhere else, lost in thought, calculating the possibility. Finally she came back and said, “Zadaa is a violent territory. Many tribes fight to the death to defend their little piece of land.”
“The primitive tribes,” I said. “The cannibals.”
“Yes,” Loor said. “The cannibals. It is one of the reasons the Rokador went underground. It was safer. The Ghee warriors were created to protect Xhaxhu. In the past the Rokador have been our allies, so they fell under our protection as well.”
“I know all that,” I said.
“There is a fragile balance on Zadaa. Xhaxhu is one of the only civilized areas on the territory. The Batu and the Rokador are the future of Zadaa. If the Ghee are wiped out, along with most of the Batu, that balance would be thrown off. It would only be a matter of time before one of the marauding desert tribes attacked Xhaxhu. Perhaps more than one would lay claim. These tribes are barbaric. There would be no one left to defend the city. Generations of knowledge and progress would be wiped out. Zadaa would be sent spinning into turmoil.”
I swallowed hard and said, “And these marauding tribes are, are-“
“Yes,” Loor answered. “They are cannibals.” She looked at me with fear in her eyes and added, “Saint Dane is very close to winning his next territory.”
I’m finishing this journal deep within the core of the Rokador world-or what’s left of it. Can it still be called a world if barely anyone lives in it? Teek has found a safe place for us. From here we must decide how to stop the Rokador. Which means stopping the Batu. Which means stopping Saint Dane. Which means we are in deep trouble.
I’m afraid things are too far along for us to do anything here that would help. It’s all too huge. This isn’t about changing somebody’s mind, or stopping a small rocket, or even destroying a mine with explosives. It’s about stopping an army. That’s out of our league.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m beginning to think the best choice for us is to give up Zadaa. As I’ve said so many times before, this isn’t about any one territory. This is about Halla. If Loor and I stay here, we may not survive. Saint Dane may not want us dead, but I can’t speak for the rest of the Rokador. If they’re willing to drown thousands of Batu, killing us wouldn’t make them blink.
We’ve already lost Kasha. Spader and Gunny are trapped on Eelong. If Loor and I become trapped here, or
