blasted out of the tunnel. The concussion knocked me to the sand. I hit hard, feeling the heat on my back. I lay there, afraid to move. Bits of rock rained down on me. I covered my head in case something bigger than gravel was coming my way. The sound of the immense blast echoed away. I waited. The gravel stopped falling. I cautiously looked up to see what was left of the rocky cliff.
There wasn’t much. What had been a tall, steep cliff face, was now rubble. The tunnel was gone, buried under tons of rock. I looked at my ring. The sparkle was gone. It was once again gray stone. It was the proof I needed.
I had destroyed the flume on Ibara.
Saint Dane was not going to leave this territory.
Neither was I.
(CONTINUED)
IBARA
I’m writing this journal from a small room somewhere deep within Tribunal Mountain. It has become my home. I hope what happened hasn’t shocked you, Courtney. It’s been a while since I destroyed the flume, so I’ve had time to think about it. Now that the emotion and excitement have died down, I still believe I did the right thing.
I’ve given everything I have in the battle against Saint Dane. I’ve made lots of mistakes, but I’m only human. At least, I think I’m human. Actually, I don’t think I’m human at all, but you know what I mean. Since the loss on Quillan, I haven’t been the same. Quillan took a lot out of me. From the beginning I always felt as if there would be an end to this quest. Especially since we seemed to be beating Saint Dane on most territories. Quillan changed things for me. I began to feel as if this battle would be endless. Who says that every territory has only one turning point? What’s stopping Saint Dane from returning to any of them to try and turn things his way? On Ibara he convinced the Flighters to attack the pilgrims of Rayne, which was classic Saint Dane. But what about the dados? There was no turning point involved there. It was flat-out war. What’s to stop him from doing the same kind of thing on another territory? He could assemble another dado army on Quillan or march down Stony Brook Avenue.
That’s why I took such a drastic step. The flume here on Ibara is history. Saint Dane is trapped. If that’s what it took to end this war, it was worth it. I haven’t seen any sign of him since I blew up the flume. But I will. I’m sure of it.
Of course, destroying the flume means that I’m trapped here with him. This is hard to admit, especially to you, but I think that’s a good thing too. Truth is, I’m done, Courtney. I feel as if I’ve lost sight of the values that Uncle Press said were so important. Seeing the wreckage of Rayne was hard. Sure, we stopped the dado army, but we might have taken the heart from this territory in the process. I was out of control. My obsession with beating Saint Dane was all I cared about, when I should have been worried about the welfare of a territory. Saint Dane manipulates people to bring about their own ruin. I’m afraid the person he manipulated on Ibara was me. I made the choices. I changed the destiny of Ibara by mixing territories.
Neither of us can do that anymore.
Instead of fighting an endless battle to prevent chaos, I want to be positive. I want to look forward. I want to build something. I see that chance here on Ibara. The village was destroyed. Many people were killed. Rebuilding will take decades. I want to be a part of it. And the Flighters are still out there. That conflict hasn’t gone away. The defenses here are now weak. If the Flighters decide to attack, the people of Rayne may not be able to stop them. That’s another reason that I’m happy to stay here. I want to protect these people better than I did before. They’ve even asked me to be on the tribunal. Can you believe that? I wonder if they’ll give me a title? My mandate will be to carry out the vision of Aja Killian. Maybe that was always the way it was meant to be.
Telleo has become my good friend. She reminds me a lot of you, Courtney. She’s strong. She has opinions. She doesn’t take grief from me. That’s probably why I like her. We spend hours at night talking about the past of Veelox and the future of Ibara. I don’t think I’ll tell her about the Travelers. It has no importance here. Not anymore. Especially since I am no longer a Traveler.
I miss Siry. In many ways I think he should be here with me, with his people. He would want to help them build their new lives. It’s exactly what the Jakills set out to do. But I didn’t want to trap two Travelers. My hope is that he will stay with Alder, or join with Loor. Together maybe they can learn the real truth about Travelers, and their own lives. They deserve to know that. We all do.
I don’t know if you will ever meet Siry, but if you do, please tell him something for me. Days after the dado war, I was sitting alone on the beach, staring at the sea beyond the bay, thinking of nothing for a change. It felt good. On the horizon I saw a dot. It was a skimmer, moving fast, headed for the opening to the bay. My first instinct was that it was a group of dados or Flighters, and I was about to rally the security force. As the skimmer drew close, I saw that it wasn’t a dado at all. Four people were on board. I thought I was seeing ghosts.
Flying over the water were four of the Jakills. One of them was rat boy, whose name I still don’t know. There was another guy and two girls. The girl driving the skimmer was Twig. They had been hiding in Rubic City and finally managed to steal one of the few skimmers that the dados didn’t use to attack Rayne. All I could do was stand there in the sand and laugh. I took it as a sign that there was real hope for the future of Ibara.
Of all the difficult things I’ve described in these journals, what I am now about to write is the hardest. But it’s reality. I don’t think I will ever see you again, Courtney. Or Mark. You are my best friends. You will always be my best friends. My biggest regret over what I’ve done is that I won’t know if Mark is all right. I think that will haunt me for the rest of my life. But I take comfort in the fact that by doing what I’ve done, I have saved Halla. Saint Dane said some disturbing things. The idea that Halla was only the beginning for some even grander plan of evil was too much for me to accept. It was the final straw in making my decision. Saint Dane is done.
So is Bobby Pendragon.
I will still write to you every so often, to let you know how things are going here. I hope you don’t mind. It’s the only way I can think to hold on to a little bit of my old life. I think of you and Mark every day. I remember the fun we had, before all this started. I never want to forget that, even though remembering makes me sad. But I’m not alone here. I have Telleo, and her father. It’s time to start a new life, and help these people find their own.
I don’t know if this is the way it was meant to be, but it’s the way it’s going to be.
I miss you both. I love you both.
Remember me.
END OF JOURNAL # 32
Courtney had to read the last journal from Bobby Pendragon alone in her “cell,” back in the isolation ward of the Queen Mary. Dodger was alone in his own “cell” across the passageway. Until she was released and reunited with Mark and Dodger, she would have to deal with the news on her own. She felt as if the term “isolation ward” could not have fit her situation any better.
She didn’t cry over the loss of her friend. She wasn’t elated over the saving of another territory. She didn’t take solace in the fact that Saint Dane may have been defeated forever. She felt numb. Empty. Being Courtney, her mind naturally raced ahead to the next challenge. What would the next impossible hurdle of their mission be? The strange reality was, there were no more hurdles. There was nothing more to do. Yes, there were questions. Why hadn’t the dados ceased to exist once Mark destroyed Forge? If Saint Dane was trapped on Veelox, what did that mean for Andy Mitchell? Was he gone? Or maybe it didn’t make a difference, because First Earth existed in another time from Veelox. Or maybe Andy was stuck here, because if he traveled anywhere else it would create a time paradox. Or maybe… or maybe…
Courtney tried to stop thinking. There were no answers. None that mattered, anyway. There was only the empty feeling of knowing Bobby was gone from her life forever, and their mission was over. She felt as if she should be thrilled, because it meant Halla was saved. Her home on Second Earth was saved. But she wasn’t thrilled. She felt overwhelmingly sad.
She spent the next three days in that cell. Alone. With no contact from anyone she knew. It was torture. The room was comfortable enough and they fed her well, but she was going out of her mind because of the isolation. Her only view of the outside world was through a single porthole. Not that there was much to see except ocean, but
