She felt an odd sensation. Her first thought was that she was being pulled back into the flume, so she jumped forward like she was stepping on hot coals. A quick look back showed her that the flume wasn’t activating. So what was she feeling?
The answer came a second later. Light sparkled from the ring on her finger. The Traveler ring. Mark’s ring. No, her ring. She quickly took it off and put it on the ground in front of the flume. The ring grew and light flashed from the opening. Courtney closed her eyes. She needed a second to catch her breath. She didn’t know when she’d get another chance. The musical notes grew louder, and ended just as quickly. When Courtney opened her eyes, the ring was back to normal. On the ground next to it was another envelope just like the last one that had come through. It was Bobby’s next journal from Quillan.
The first journal she was solely responsible for.
She said out loud, “And so we go.”
QUILLAN
This is the beginning of the end. Or the end of the beginning. I’m not sure which. After you finish reading this journal, guys, you can tell me. In fact, you can tell me in person because I’m coming home. It’s time. Ever since Saint Dane made that comment on Zadaa about knowing what’s happening with Courtney, I’ve been worried about what might be going on back there. Maybe I should have already come home, but I made the choice to go to Quillan. I hope that wasn’t a mistake.
My experience here on Quillan has been different than on any of the other territories. As I’m writing this, I’m still not a hundred percent sure of what the turning point is. Saint Dane was right about one thing-this territory is a mess. I already told you a lot about it. I’ve seen so much more. I’ll tell you about it in this journal. The big question is, is Quillan already lost? I don’t think so.
I’ve been given a golden opportunity to try to make things better, at least in a small way. It may not be a huge, global turning point, but who knows? Maybe a small positive change can snowball and help put the territory back on its feet. That’s hoping for a lot, but what can I say? It’s all I’ve got.
It won’t be easy. In fact, it’s pretty scary. But that’s okay. I’m up for it. I’m writing this journal now, because it’s about to begin. When it’s over, I believe I will have done as much as I can for the people of Quillan. But there’s more to it than that. If I’m successful, and I will be, I think I’ll be taking a huge step toward reaching the end of this whole odyssey. Not just here on Quillan, but as a Traveler. Saint Dane is losing, I’m sure of that now. He’s desperate. We’ve lost Travelers along the way, and that is a tragedy, but we’re winning. You know how I keep writing about how I’m afraid that we may be winning battles and possibly losing the war? I don’t think that’s the case anymore. I think we’re winning battles and getting close to winning the war, too. Saint Dane’s confidence isn’t what it used to be. Since I became a Traveler, he has done everything he could to get me to give up, but I’m still here. He tried to get me to join him, but I never considered it, even for a second. On Zadaa he went so far as to beat me up physically to get me to give up the fight. It didn’t work. It only made me stronger. Here on Quillan he’s trying something new. He’s going to fail at that, too. All this tells me is that he’s running out of ideas. We’re going to beat him, guys. I think what’s happening here on Quillan is the beginning of the end. Or the end of the beginning… of my life as a Traveler. Of course there are no guarantees. Anything can happen. But for the first time since I left home, I can see the end, and it’s good.
To explain what I’m about to do, I have to go back to when I was kidnapped away from Veego and LaBerge by the Traveler from Quillan, Nevva Winter. It turned out that she wasn’t at all the person I first thought she was. But more about that later. After the accident I was kept in that cool, wet, fishy-smelling cell for about a day. They tried to make me comfortable, but that wasn’t easy considering the bed was a thin mattress and it was so damp that my bones ached. At least it wasn’t as bad as that cell on Eelong. Not by a long shot. Compared to that, this was like living large at the Manhattan Tower Hotel.
I wasn’t treated badly, though. There was a guy stationed outside my room who actually apologized for having to keep me in that cell. He said I wasn’t a prisoner, but that it wouldn’t be safe for me to be wandering around. I didn’t question him. Safe was good. A few times I asked him where I was and who the others were, but he just shook his head and said it wasn’t his place to tell me.
Just once I’d like to meet up with somebody who had all the answers and was willing to spill.
I took the time to write my last journal and collect my thoughts. Of course everything Saint Dane told me about Blok and how it controlled every aspect of everything on Quillan kept rolling around in my head. This was a territory run entirely by a store, and for profit. It was a soulless society that existed only to serve the bottom line of Blok, and to make those who ran the company wealthy. How sick was that?
On top of my worrying about the sad state of Quillan, Saint Dane had dangled a very big carrot that was tearing me apart. He wanted me to compete in the big game called the Grand X. Why? He wanted to see me lose. No, he wanted to see me humiliated. In return he offered to explain the origin of the Travelers. Could I trust him? It was an incredible opportunity. He was offering to unlock everything. Everything! I could discover who I really was and what had happened to my family. But as desperate as I was to learn those truths, I decided that the stakes were too high. With the Quillan games it wasn’t so much about winning or losing, it was about staying alive. People died playing these games. It wasn’t worth the risk, no matter how tempting the payoff. No way I was going to enter the Grand X.
That’s where my head was as I hung out in that cell. I tried to get some sleep and probably nodded out a few times, but it sure wasn’t restful. At one point my guard came in with a breakfast of dry bread and overripe fruit. It wasn’t exactly gourmet, but I was too hungry to care. I was nearly finished when my cell door opened again, and in stepped the person I wanted most to see. Nevva Winter. Finally! She was dressed all in black, just as she had been the day before when I was kidnapped. She moved quickly, almost nervously. That was her style.
“Good morning!” she said, hurrying in. “I hope you slept well.”
“Keep hoping,” I said.
Nevva had a black tool that looked like a heavy set of pliers, with sharp teeth. She opened and shut the jaws, saying, “These are impossible to come by. This one was stolen from a security dado.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Hold your left arm out,” she commanded.
I did. Nevva slipped one end of the jaws underneath the silver loop on my arm. Excellent! She was going to free me from my electronic leash.
“Hold still,” she said. “This might hurt.”
“Hurt?” I shouted in surprise. “Why would it-“
The loop squeezed my arm as she clamped the jaws around it. The little needles, or whatever they were that held it tight, dug into my arm.
“Owwww!” I said. “Let go!”
“We’ve got to get rid of this,” she said, grunting with exertion.
“Then hurry!” The loop was cutting off my circulation. If she didn’t hurry, it would cut off my whole arm! “Owwww!” I heard a quick, sharp electronic chirp. An instant later the pain was gone. The loop released. Nevva clipped through it, and the vicious cuff fell to the floor. I rubbed my biceps to get the circulation back.
“There,” she said triumphantly. “You’re free.”
“Thanks, I think. Why the special tool?”
“This not only cuts through the metal, it interrupts the power source,” she explained. “If you try to cut off a loop without interrupting the power, it will squeeze off your arm.”
Yikes.
“I’m glad I didn’t know that before you got it off,” I said.
“Put these on,” she commanded, handing me a black shirt, pants, and jacket like the ones she was wearing. “You can’t go around dressed like a challenger.”
She turned her back to give me some privacy. I changed quickly, happy to be rid of that challenger shirt.
“I’m sorry you had to spend the night here,” she said. “There was nothing I could do. There was an investigation into the accident when we freed you. I had to be there with the security force to report back to the trustees. If I wasn’t there, it would have raised suspicions and-“
