“Yeah, he will,” Mark said, and leaped from behind the seats, into the aisle, throwing himself at the first guard as he was about to pass them. Mark’s feet were off the ground as he nailed the guy in the ribs, knocking him into the opposite row. The musical notes grew louder. The second guard stopped. He knew he wouldn’t make it in time. Instead he raised his gun and took aim at Patrick. The wounded Traveler was in his sights for one second. The second after that, Courtney was in his sights. She stepped right in front of him, the barrel of the pistol pointed at her nose.
“Too late,” she said with a smug smile.
Brilliant light and music filled the massive room. The guard blinked. He didn’t know what to do.
“Put it down,” Naymeer’s calm voice said from the bottom of the stairs.
Reluctantly the guard lowered his pistol.
Courtney kept her eyes locked on the guard’s. Her back was to the flume. A moment later the light disappeared. The music ended. Patrick was gone.
“I do so abhor violence,” Naymeer said wistfully. “It is a tool of the ignorant.”
The guard stepped away from Courtney, revealing the elderly man as he strolled up the aisle. The first guard got to his feet, grabbed Mark, picked him up by the collar, and shoved him toward Courtney. The two stood together, facing Naymeer.
“We should be introduced formally,” the man said. “I am the Traveler from Second Earth.”
“No, you’re not,” Mark said quickly.
Naymeer raised a surprised eyebrow.
“Of course,” he said with a knowing smile. “I respect your loyalty. Won’t you please accept my humble offer and join me for dinner?”
“No, thank you,” Courtney answered.
Naymeer took a tired breath. “Really? I would think you two would be interested to hear about all the wonderful work I’ve been doing here.”
“She said ‘No, thank you,’” Mark said adamantly.
Naymeer shrugged. “It would be so much easier if we did this on my terms.”
Mark and Courtney didn’t budge.
“Easier for who?” Courtney asked in defiance.
“Please!” Naymeer said jovially. “Let’s not be contentious. I’m sure you’d enjoy seeing what I’ve done to my house in Stony Brook.” He leaned into them with a sly wink and added, “After all,
I didn’t get the chance to give you a tour the other night.”
He smiled, turned on his heel, and strode back down the aisle toward the stairs.
“The car is waiting outside,” he called back.
Mark and Courtney didn’t move. The two guards had to grab them by the arms and shove them toward the stairs.
“Where do you think Patrick tried to go?” Courtney whispered to Mark as they were pushed along.
Mark shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter… if he’s dead.”
JOURNAL#35
DENDURON
Theysaythetruth hurts.
They’re right. I’ve been getting hit with a lot of truths lately, and it hurts. I didn’t realize just how badly I had messed things up until the moment I hit Denduron. Yeah, things got worse. What can I say? I was an idiot. I was kidding myself. I gave up. I was tired. Guilty guilty guilty. On all counts. I’m not trying to defend myself or justify what I did, but for the record, I truly thought I was doing the right thing by burying the flume on Ibara and trying to trap Saint Dane. It wasn’t about being selfish. Okay, maybe it was a little bit, but I really thought it was the right thing to do.
I was wrong.
As I write this journal, I can only say that I now know how wrong I was. Saint Dane will not be defeated by a single clever move. It’s gone way beyond that. The only way I will be able to stop him now is to destroy him. Mark, Courtney, I don’t know if you’ll ever get the chance to read this, but I want you to know that I’ve finally come to the realization that he’s been manipulating me from the very beginning. I don’t know if things have gone exactly as he planned, but that l doesn’t really matter. What counts now is that the battle is nearing its completion, and unless I can do something more than I’ve done, he will win. The Convergence has begun. The territories are tumbling toward chaos. The one glimmer of hope I have is that as far as I know, things haven’t hit bottom. Yet. That’s a scary thought, because things have gotten pretty bad. We’re on a path that’s leading toward the complete breakdown of Halla, so that Saint Dane can remold it the way he chooses. As grim as that sounds, at least we haven’t reached the end of that path yet. I’ve got to try and stop him before we do.
For that, I will have to crush him.
When the flume dropped me at the gate on Denduron, it first looked as if I wouldn’t be doing much of anything anymore. Normally the end of a flume ride is marked by a gentle deposit. I didn’t expect this arrival to be any different.
Wrong. Again. My feet touched the ground, gravity took over, and all hell broke loose. I was ramrodded square in the chest and knocked back into the flume. It happened so quickly I didn’t know what hit me. That’s not just a figure of speech. I really didn’t know what hit me. I was slammed down onto the hard rock floor of the flume, wishing that the receding light would have been thoughtful enough to take me back along with it. It didn’t. I was stuck with whatever it was that wasn’t happy about my arrival. Before I had the chance to see what had slammed me, I heard it. It was a growl. A familiar growl. It took all of two seconds for me to put it together.
The quigs were back on Denduron.
I didn’t try to figure out what that might mean. There would be time for that later, assuming I could get out of there and create a “later” for myself. I didn’t jump to my feet. I didn’t want to be a threat. At least not yet. I lay on my back and twisted my head to try and see my nemesis. My eyes hadn’t adjusted yet to the dark, so all I saw at the mouth of the flume were two eyes. Yellow eyes. They seemed to be floating in the air. I knew they weren’t. They were inside the head of a quig-bear. Locked on me. I heard its heavy breathing. This thing was going to attack again, and there was no place for me to go. I couldn’t even activate the flume and travel somewhere else. By the time the light came for me, I would be hamburger. I couldn’t just lie there either. It would be the easiest meal that quig ever had. There weren’t a lot of options. Actually, there was only one option. Attack.
I rolled forward and leaped for the mouth of the flume. It was a totally insane move, but the only thing I had going for me was surprise. I hoped that jumping at the monster would be the last thing it expected.
“Ahhhh!” I screamed, trying to sound more threatening than I was. Between my sudden move and the lame scream, I bought myself a second to act. That’s about how long the quig hesitated. I lunged at the eyes, but I wasn’t about to grab it. That would have been suicide. I remembered the multiple rows of sharp teeth set into the strong jaw of those prehistoric bears. It would have bitten my head off before my hands could reach its throat. The quig didn’t know that. For that one second it must have felt threatened, because it didn’t move. Or maybe it just couldn’t believe I was being such an idiot. Didn’t matter to me. I had bought another second to do something. That was the good news. I cut hard to my left, trying to get past the beast. I almost made it too. Almost. That was the bad news.
Two seconds isn’t a very long time. I had drawn parallel with the quig, thinking I might get past it. That hope didn’t last long. The beast realized I wasn’t a threat and made its own move. It lashed out with one oversized paw and slashed my left shoulder. It clubbed me so hard that the impact spun me around. I found myself reeling backward again. I desperately tried to keep my balance, but couldn’t stop from slamming the back of my head on the rock wall on the far side of the gate cavern. I forced myself to stay focused, because I knew if I didn’t, the next thing I’d hear was the sound of the quig chewing on me. Followed by my own screams. I looked up to see the beast on all fours near the mouth of the flume. It was exactly as I remembered the quigs from Denduron. It was a brute of a mutant bear with long bonelike spikes rising from its back. Though it was one of the smaller quigs, it had to be
