The Merchant of Death (40 page)

“That is right!” came a giggling voice from the tunnel ahead.

“Figgis!” shouted Loor and continued on to the end of the side tunnel.

I followed her out and into the wider tunnel on the far side. When I hit the intersection I saw that this next tunnel stretched out in two directions. Ore-car track was at our feet and an empty ore car sat on the tracks to our right. It was an ancient Milago mine tunnel. I looked at the floor and saw there was a lot more rusty tak dust coating everything. This must have been residue from when Figgis mined the stuff out of the rock. Like gold dust. A thin layer of the deadly stuff was everywhere. But there was something else strange about this place. It looked somehow familiar. The ore car, the opening to the side tunnel, the pile of rocks in front of the opening. I felt as if I'd been here before.

That's when my ring began to glow. I looked to Loor and she had already seen her own ring glowing. We had indeed been here before. This was the tunnel that held the gate to the flume. When we used the flume the other day, we had no idea that we were close to Figgis's source for tak. I looked to my left and sure enough, a few yards down the tunnel was the wooden door that led to the flume.

“Why does this whole setup give me the creeps?” I asked Loor.

She felt it too. Why would Figgis lead us down to the one place that he would want to keep secret? The answer came in the form of a rumble.

“What is that?” asked Loor nervously.

I listened. The rumble grew louder. It was either thunder, an earthquake, or . . .

“Cave-in!” I shouted.

I grabbed Loor's hand and ran along the track in the direction that would take us back to the main cavern of the mine. We passed the door to the flume and got only a few steps further when the ceiling in front of us collapsed! Tons of rock and gravel fell down, blocking our way out. My first thought was to go for the gate and jump into the flume, but we couldn't leave Denduron. Not now. So we ran back into the tunnel and dove into the side tunnel that led to Figgis's tak mine.

No sooner had we entered the tak mine than another cave-in sealed off the smaller tunnel ahead of us. Rocks tumbled down from the ceiling and poured into the small cavern. I took a few steps back and fell down on my butt. When I turned to get up, I came face to face with something that had tumbled down in front of me when the ceiling collapsed. It was a skeleton. I'm not ashamed to admit it; I screamed. Yes, I screamed like an idiot in a
Scooby Doo
cartoon. I quickly scrambled away and Loor helped me to my feet. The two of us stood there holding each other, not sure of what to do. It seemed as if the cave-in had stopped, at least for the time being.

Loor looked at the skeleton and said, “It must be a miner who was trapped here.”

That made sense. But then I saw something that threw her theory out the window. I took a closer look at the skeleton. He wore rotted-out leather clothing that marked him as Milago. But there was something else, something unique that made me want to scream all over again. The corpse wore an eye patch. The cloth was shredded and dangled down from the empty
socket, but it had definitely once been a patch. And that's not all. On each of his bony fingers was a braided green ring. I had seen this only once before and remembered it all too well. This wasn't any miner.

“It's Figgis,” I said, trying not to sound too freaked out.

“That cannot be!” exclaimed Loor. “Unless we have been chasing a ghost.”

Then a voice came from behind us. “I am afraid it is indeed Figgis.”

Both Loor and I spun to see someone standing in the opening to the tak mine. It was
Figgis!
Huh? The guy looked pretty healthy for a, okay I'll say it, for a ghost.

“The poor little man died a few years ago,” he said. “Such a tragedy. He set traps to protect his little find here. That's why the ceiling collapsed. He didn't want anybody else to steal it from him. He died setting one of those traps. So sad. Such a visionary, and so . . . dead.”

My mind was not getting around any of this. We stood there staring at Figgis, uncomprehending.

“I see you have not figured this out yet,” he said with a smug smile. “Let me make things easier for you.” And then, the little man began to transform. I had seen this happen once before, in a lonely subway station in the Bronx. His hair grew long and his body grew back to its normal height of seven feet. His leather Milago clothes changed into an all-black suit, and his eyes flashed with icy blue intensity. Yes, we were looking at Saint Dane, and he had us trapped under a ton of rock with no escape.

“I told you, Pendragon,” he said with a smile. “You can't beat me.”

T
he Milago miners charged out of the forest. The attack was on.

The Bedoowan knights didn't budge. They wanted to see what these bold peasants had planned. The first line of miners stopped and loaded their slingshots with tak. On command they flung their explosives at the waiting Bedoowan. The small tak bombs flew across the battlefield and exploded on impact. But they had fallen far short of the front line of the Bedoowan defense. If they were going to do any damage, they were going to have to get closer, which meant they had to put themselves within range of the Bedoowan archers.

The Bedoowan on the other hand, were surprised by the explosions that blasted down in front of them. Except for the quig that had been blown to bits in the stadium, they had never witnessed anything like this. There was a movement along the lines to retreat, but the Bedoowan commander wouldn't let them budge. They were going to hold their ground. The Bedoowan commander sent a line of shield carriers to the front. These brave men stood in line like a barrier of steel and
flesh to protect their comrades from the incoming missiles. Behind them, the archers stood ready to release their arrows as soon as the Milago miners were in range. This was going to get real ugly, real quick.

But I didn't know any of this until afterward. Right now I had my own problem to deal with, which was Saint Dane. There was no way out. We were trapped by two cave-ins that were caused by Figgis's booby traps. The only way out of this seemed to be through the flume. But it might as well have been a mile away because standing between us and the gate was Saint Dane.

“You brought the tak here, didn't you?” I spat at the guy.

“I did no such thing!” he said, acting all innocent. “Tak is natural to Denduron. Figgis discovered this vein several years ago.”

He walked over to one of the walls and scraped off a layer of dirt with his hand. As the dirt fell away, I saw beneath it the familiar rusty red color of tak. I looked to Loor and for the first time since we met, she looked scared. That's because she realized, as I did, that this entire cavern was made of tak. The bomb we had dissolved in the stadium was like a firecracker compared to this cavern . . . and we were standing in the middle of it.

“Figgis thought the miners could use the tak to help them tunnel through the rock,” Saint Dane explained. “It was noble of him, but he was a merchant and he thought like one. He wanted to help the miners, but he also wanted to make a profit.”

The evil Traveler walked over to the skeleton that used to be Figgis and nudged the bones with his foot. “I can't say that I blame him, but his greed proved to be his undoing. He set
traps all over this cavern to protect his precious find. Unfortunately one of them backfired.”

He kicked Figgis's skull and it rolled away from the body and landed at our feet. I wanted to kick it back just to keep it away from me, but that would have been gross.

“So you came to Denduron and took his place,” I said. “And you showed the Milago miners how to use tak as a weapon.”

“Of that, I am guilty,” he said with a proud smile.

“But we stopped you,” Loor shot back at him. “Rellin did not use the bomb.”

Saint Dane answered this with a laugh. I didn't like that. When bad guys laugh it means they know something you don't.

“But it is better this way,” he said with smug authority. “If that bomb had blown up it would have taken much longer for the Milago to regroup. Now, once they have won their little war they will still be strong enough to begin their march across Denduron. I suppose I should thank you, Pendragon.”

Oh, man, was it possible? By preventing that bomb from going off, did I make things worse? “And what if they don't win the war?” I asked. “What if the Bedoowan win?”

Saint Dane brushed more dirt off the walls, revealing more tak. “No matter,” he said with a shrug. “There is an endless supply of tak. It may take time, but the Milago will come back. They will find new ways to use this lovely weapon. It is inevitable, Pendragon. This will soon become a territory at war. Denduron will fall. And when it does, it will be the beginning of the end of Halla.”

Halla. There was that word again. This was all about Halla.

On the battlefield above, the Milago miners had crept closer to the Bedoowan knights. They were now within range to slingshot the tak into the front line of shield carriers. The
frightened Bedoowans huddled beneath their shields as the tak bombs smashed into them. With small explosions the tak burst on impact against the shields and threw a blast of fire into the ranks. Several of the Bedoowan knights died right there. Others got smart and realized it wasn't a good thing to let the small rock bombs hit their shields. They began to dodge out of the way rather than shield themselves as the tak bombs rained down, setting off explosions that tore up the ground.

That's when the next line of Bedoowan knights began sending their arrows. They were too far away to take direct aim, so they arched their arrows high into the air toward the Milago. The black little streaks shot across the sky and rained down on the Milago silently. Some found their mark, others stuck harmlessly into the ground. But there were enough arrows in the air to prevent the Milago miners from flinging their tak uncontested.

Watching this all from a safe distance from the battlefield were the rest of the Bedoowans and the Novans. They had spread out along the grassy bluffs to witness the spectacle as if it were a show put on for their amusement. Children played, musicians performed, and food was passed around as though at some kind of summer festival. Queen Kagan was positioned in the center of it all and stood on her throne to get the best view possible.

In the Milago village Uncle Press had found Alder, and the two of them tried again to warn the villagers to hide in the mines. The villagers knew Uncle Press, so at least they didn't slam doors in his face. But time after time they got the same response. To a person, the villagers were prepared to do battle with the Bedoowan. It didn't matter if they were women or children or the elderly or the sick. None of them feared death,
nor did they fear the Bedoowan. Their only fear was having to continue to live the horrible lives they had been born into. No, these people were not about to run and hide. If the Bedoowan knights got past the miners, they would be ready, and they would fight.

Frustrated, Uncle Press and Alder ran quickly to the battlefield. Arrows rained down on the Milago while tak bombs scattered the front lines of the Bedoowan. Uncle Press and Alder were stymied. They wanted the Milago to defeat the Bedoowan, but not with tak. The true enemy here was tak. But if they somehow convinced the Milago to stop using it, the miners would be overrun by the Bedoowan. It was a no-win situation.

And speaking of no-win situations, Saint Dane had just said something that scared me to death. He said that the fall of Denduron was the beginning of the end for Halla. Uncle Press said Halla was everything that existed. Every place, every territory, every time that ever was. If Saint Dane succeeded in destroying Halla, did that mean that the entire universe would be destroyed? The thought was too huge to comprehend.

“Why do you want to destroy Halla?” I asked.

Saint Dane laughed. Great, more laughing. I hated that.

“You are young, Pendragon,” he said. “There is much you do not know. But I will say this: When Halla crumbles, I will be there to pick up the pieces.”

That sounded ominous. “I don't believe you,” I said. “How can one man control the destiny of the entire universe?”

Saint Dane ran his hand over the wall of tak. “It is like lining up dominos,” he said. “Pushing over the first domino takes almost no effort, but when it falls it knocks down the next and the next and the next until before long there is nothing left
but a pile of toys in complete disarray. The territory of Denduron is my first domino.”

It was true. Denduron was only the beginning. Saint Dane would then turn to the next territory and the next. It would only be a matter of time before he worked his evil on Loor's home territory of Zadaa and set his sights on our home. On Second Earth.

“Your mother is dead”, Saint Dane said to Loor. “But what of the rest of your family on Zadaa? And you, Pendragon, what of your family on Second Earth? And your friends, what are their names? Mark and Courtney? When the dominos fall, they will all be caught in the crush.”

I wanted to scream. It was like he had read my mind. This guy
was
evil.

“But this does not have to be a tragedy,” he said with an oily smile. “Think of it as an opportunity. You two are strong. You have powers that you cannot imagine. If you joined me, I would teach you how to use them. Fighting against me is impossible, but fighting with me can bring you untold rewards. You could protect your loved ones, and live to rule Halla beside me. It is a wonderful thing I am offering you.”

On the battlefield above, things were getting worse. The Milago had been able to keep the Bedoowan back while suffering only minor casualties. The Bedoowan side of the field was a mess. There were fires burning everywhere and the tak had chewed up the ground. However, the Bedoowan casualties were very few. They had mostly managed to avoid the incoming tak. Now the Bedoowan commander realized that the incoming bombs were slowing down. The Milago were running out of their strange and horrible weapon.