Saint Dane finally pulled away from Siry. He twisted toward me, still on his back. I could feel his rage. He would be up and on me in seconds. With my left arm out straight, I lifted the bow and pulled the string back until I felt the feathery tail tickling my cheek.
Saint Dane struggled to get to his feet.
“Pendragon!” Siry shouted.
“Stay down,” I commanded calmly.
I was ready. In a second Saint Dane would be in the way. I had to let it fly. The instant before I released it. Saint Dane’s head snapped back and he fell forward, hitting the ground face-first. Siry had tackled him from behind.
“Shoot!” Siry screamed.
“This is the end,” I said, and let it fly.
An instant later Saint Dane melted into smoke and blew past me. Siry and I were alone, fifty yards from Armageddon.
“Run!” I screamed, and did just that.
I dropped the bow and took off. Siry was right behind me. We sprinted for our lives. The first sound I heard was a short, crisp hiss. I’d heard that sound before. The tak was igniting. A second later…
The world erupted behind us. The tunnel lit up with the fire from the explosion. I felt the heat and then heard the blast. It was unbearable. A quick glance back showed a fireball coming up the tunnel behind us. The floor shook, making it hard to run. I thought we’d be cooked, but we hit one of the smaller cross-tunnels and dove out of the way as the force of the blast shot past us. The monstrous wave of fire blew by, its heat scorching my face. I thought my clothes would ignite. We had dodged the fire, but the force of the explosion was tearing the tunnel apart. Rocks and sand fell around us. It was like being underground in the middle of an earthquake. The main tunnel was an inferno. We had to run deeper into the cross-tunnel.
“There’s gotta be another way out,” I said, pushing Siry forward.
The ground shook, throwing us off balance. The ancient tunnel couldn’t handle it. Rocks pummeled us. We held our arms over our heads as we ran. Behind us the tunnel collapsed. If there wasn’t another way out ahead of us, we would be buried.
We were buried.
The tunnel ahead of us collapsed too.
“Under there!” I yelled, and pushed Siry beneath a section of fallen roof. Or floor. Or something. It was a long, thick piece of rock that had fallen leaving a small opening beneath. It looked strong enough to protect us from anything falling from above, so long as the rock itself didn’t give way and crush us. Siry and I squeezed into the space under the collapsed section and huddled together, waiting for the end. A world of rock and sand rained down on us. I could barely breathe. My lungs felt like they were filling with dust. Siry and I held each other close. We would either survive, or be crushed. Together.
Thirty seconds. That’s my guess as to how long the entire event took from the time the tak ignited, to the moment when the rumble died down. It was a thirty-second lifetime. But we were both still breathing. Barely. There wasn’t much air. Neither of us moved for the longest time, for fear of bumping something that might trigger a collapse.
“Is it over?” Siry asked meekly.
I peered out between my two crossed arms. There was a whole lot of nothing to see. Slowly, cautiously, I poked my head out from beneath the rock slab. The air was filled with dust and dirt, making it impossible to see anything… except dust and dirt. I lifted my shirt and held it over my mouth to try and keep some of the debris from going into my lungs. Slowly, painfully, the air began to clear. After a few agonizing minutes I got my first look at what we had to deal with. I laughed.
“What?” Siry asked.
The tunnel had collapsed on either side of us. It turned out to be a good thing. I saw a faint shaft of sunlight peeking through the carnage. As the dust settled completely, I saw a sliver of blue sky.
“We can climb out!” I cried.
I reached back, took Siry’s outstretched hand, and pulled him from our temporary shelter. We scrambled up a steep pitch of rocks that soon gave way to sand. In no time we were on the surface, staring at Tribunal Mountain. Intact.
“Look!” Siry said, pointing above us.
On the rocky ledges of the mountain were people. The people of Rayne. They were alive. They had survived the blast. They crowded together, silently looking out over their village… and their future.
(CONTINUED)
IBARA
Siry and I climbed out of the ruins of the tunnel and made our way back toward Tribunal Mountain. A cloud of smoke and sand hung over the village behind us, making it impossible to see what damage the tak bomb had done. One thing I saw right away was that the ground wasn’t the same. The force of the explosion really did act like an earthquake. The shock waves were probably carried along by the tunnel. Whatever. The result was that we couldn’t find the path back to the mountain, because there was no path. At least, it didn’t look much like a path anymore.
“Pendragon!” came a welcome shout.
It was Alder. Alive. He ran to us from out of the swirling dust. It was the most beautiful sight I could have asked for. His big smile beamed through the smoke. When he got to us, we all hugged.
The brave knight from Denduron pulled back and asked, “Hey, did you hear that?”
Siry and I stared at him blankly.
“It was a joke,” Alder said quickly. “You are not the only one with a sense of humor, Pendragon.”
Alder had made a joke. A dumb joke, but a joke.
“Wow,” I laughed. “I guess it’s official. Halla is never going to be the same.”
He gave me a friendly cuff on the shoulder.
“What about the dados?” Siry asked.
“It was difficult holding them back,” Alder answered, his joking finished. “There were more of them in the second wave. Many more. We couldn’t have kept them back much longer.”
“I want to see,” I said.
Alder led us over chunks of debris that had been pushed up from underground. It seemed most of the rocky tunnel was now on the surface. Still, there was so much dust and debris in the air, I couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of us.
“The archers were heroic,” Alder said as we picked our way through. “I have fought beside warriors who had more skill, but none as brave. Even as the number of dados grew, they did not flinch. I ran between positions, showing them where to direct their arrows to best keep the dados off balance. I could not be everywhere. They quickly learned on their own.”
“So what happened when the tak exploded?” Siry asked.
“I told them that when they felt the ground rumble, that was the sign. When it came, they did not hesitate. They dropped their weapons and ran back. The ground felt as if it were growing under our feet. It threw us forward like a wave, but I do not believe there were any serious injuries. We were lucky.”
“And the dados?” I asked.
He led us to a huge mound of sand and rock that hadn’t been there earlier. The three of us climbed to the top to get a better view of the battlefield. Or what was left of it.
The smoke hung like a spooky haze over all we could see.
When the tropical breeze thinned it enough to make out detail, my mind wouldn’t accept what I was seeing. I thought there must be some mistake.
“It’s gone,” Siry gasped in awe.
The village of Rayne no longer existed. In its place was a mess of destroyed huts and fallen trees. Directly in
