my own people would be at a disadvantage.”
Bokka took both of Loor’s arms and held her reassuringly. “I understand,” he said. “The only thing we can do is try and stop this from happening. But if it does, I am a Rokador, and you are a Batu. I am a Tiggen, you are a Ghee.”
They held eye contact. The grim reality was obvious. These two could very well end up having to fight each other. As much as I wasn’t sure about the guy, I wouldn’t want that to happen to Loor.
“If you hear anything,” Loor said, “please, contact me.”
“And the same for you,” Bokka said. “Good-bye, Loor. When we meet again, I hope it will be under better conditions… as it was when we were young.”
Loor nodded sadly.
“I don’t know who you are, Pendragon,” Bokka said to me. “But if Loor says you can help us, then I do not doubt her.”
I nodded. What else could I say to that?
“Good-bye, Loor,” Teek said. “And to you, Pendragon.”
Bokka took a step backward and flipped up his hood. Teek did the same. Bokka waved to the Tiggen guards behind our horses. I turned to look, but didn’t see them. I took a step to my right to get a glimpse of them, but it was too late. They were gone. Vanished into the sand. I turned back around to see that Bokka and Teek had disappeared as well.
“They’re like worms,” I said to Loor.
“There are tunnels everywhere,” Loor said. Without another word Loor strode back to her horse and mounted up. I did the same. We snapped the reins and started back to the city.
“So how is it you got so friendly with a Rokador?” I asked as we trotted along. “I thought the two tribes didn’t mingle.”
“At one time we did,” Loor answered. “Especially the children. Bokka and I were marked at an early age to be trained as warriors. There were two camps, one outside of Xhaxhu and one belowground. Groups would take turns traveling to the other camp. It was a way for us to learn the ways of our tribal neighbors.”
“Things have changed,” I said.
“Yes they have,” Loor said sadly. “That kind of cooperation no longer exists. The royal family of Zinj has been trying to bring our tribes back to the old ways, but prejudices and anger run too deep.”
“So, was this Bokka guy your…boyfriend?”
Loor thought about the answer. I didn’t like that. I wanted her to scoff and say: “Nah! Are you kidding?” But she didn’t.
“Under different circumstances, we may have ended up together,” she said sadly.
“I guess being from enemy tribes made that tricky,” I said.
“Yes,” she replied. “And finding out that I was a Traveler did not help either.”
Oh. Right. That. So she and Bokka were not meant to be. Awww, too bad. Man, am I being mean or what? I decided to change the subject.
“What about this royal family?” I asked. “Ninja something or other?”
“Zinj is the family name,” Loor corrected. “The crowned prince is named Pelle a Zinj. Though he has not yet taken the throne, he has slowly taken on the responsibilities of ruling the Batu. Even the Rokador recognize his wisdom. The king and queen are preparing to hand over the crown very soon.”
“Is that good or bad?” I asked.
“It is good,” Loor said confidently. “Very good. He will make a wonderful, fair leader. He has dedicated his life to forging a treaty with the Rokador. But I fear it will be in vain. The drought has seen to that.”
“Or maybe it was the Rokador who have seen to that,” I cautioned. “Like you said, there may be more to this drought than bad weather.”
It was a grim journey back to Xhaxhu. I now had a pretty good handle on what the trouble was here on Zadaa, but figuring out something to do about it was a whole nother matter. There seemed to be only two possibilities. One was that Saint Dane was somehow manipulating events. When he disappeared from the celebration at Black Water, he did say he was coming to Zadaa, and he never went to a territory just to hang out. The other possibility might actually be worse. If the rivers had dried up here simply because there was a funky weather thing happening, there was nothing anybody could do about that. The sad truth might be that a war between these two tribes was the way it was meant to be. It would be tragic, but the job of Travelers wasn’t to interfere with the normal course of a territory’s history. Our only concern was if Saint Dane tried to monkey with things. For Loor’s sake, I hoped that wasn’t the case. If Saint Dane wasn’t involved, then I had no business here. Loor was from Zadaa. She would have to do what she had to do. But I was from Second Earth. I would have to back off. This was going to be a tough call. But I couldn’t make it until I found Saint Dane. Or he found me.
We trotted the horses back through the giant opening in the wall of Xhaxhu and went right back to the Ghee stables where the horses were kept. As I think back on what happened next, and I think about it a lot, I can’t believe how dumb I was. I guess I have to give Loor some of the blame too, but it was mostly my fault. It was a simple, stupid mistake that could have been easily avoided. But it wasn’t. I messed up, and I paid the price.
“Rokador!” a gruff voice screamed.
We had just gotten off our horses. I looked around, wondering what Rokador would have been idiot enough to stroll into the lion’s den, the home of the Ghee. There were none to be seen. That’s because the person being called out, was me. I was the idiot. I instantly realized my mistake. I had taken off my dark cloak out in the sandy farm. There was so much to get my mind around back there, I had forgotten to put it on again. It was still lying out there in the sand. Loor’s mind must have been elsewhere too, for she didn’t even notice. So here I was, looking all sorts of gleaming-white, having strolled right into the belly of the beast.
“I will handle this,” Loor whispered to me. “Say nothing.”
A tall Ghee warrior strode up to us with madness in his eyes. As luck would have it, this guy was bigger than Loor. She stood in his way, saying,”Iam taking this Rokador to the superior for questioning-“
The guy didn’t stop. He blew past Loor, knocking her out of the way like she was a doll. Whoa. I had never seen that happen before. This day was full of a lot of things I hadn’t seen before. I didn’t like any of them. As this angry giant strode toward me, I was like a deer caught in the headlights. I backed off, and hit into my horse. There was no place to go. The guy grabbed me by the front of my Rokador jacket and lifted me up until I was on my toes.
“Howdareyou?” he seethed. The guy was out of his mind. That much I could see. “You ride into the Ghee compound? On a Batu horse?”
Loor tried to get between us, saying, “He is my responsibility. I brought him here.”
The Ghee warrior looked at Loor and said, “And you will bring him out, when I am finished with him.”
The guy held me tighter and dragged me out of the stable and into the light of the compound. By now, several more Ghee warriors had heard the commotion and started to gather. Loor trailed behind, trying to take control.
“What is your division?” Loor demanded. “Who is your commander? This is my prisoner. Your superior will punish you for standing in the way of-“
“Someone quiet her!” the tall Ghee shouted.
Instantly Loor was jumped by two big Ghees. Whatever was going to happen, Loor couldn’t stop it. The tall Ghee dragged me to the center of the compound, and threw me to the ground. I landed hard, rolled once, then popped back to my feet ready to, well, I’m not sure what I was ready to do, except run. That wasn’t going to happen because we were quickly surrounded by Ghees. I was trapped inside a circle of enemies, with a very big guy facing off against me.
“Never let it be said that the Ghee are unjust,” the tall warrior said with a sneer. He walked to one of the other warriors and yanked the guy’s wooden stave from the harness on his back. He walked back into the circle and tossed the six-foot stick at me. I caught it, if you could call it that. It was more like I stopped it from hitting me in the head by blocking it with my hands. The weapon fell to the ground. The Ghee warriors laughed.
“L–Look,” I said nervously. “I have agreed to speak with your superior and tell them all I know.”
The tall Ghee laughed and slowly walked toward me. “That is good to know,” he said with a chuckle. “And I will allow you to do that. But first, you must get past me.”
The guy suddenly shot forward, grabbed my jacket, and jerked me toward him until we were nose to nose.
