Black Water Page 7

  “Then you won’t have to worry about me anymore,” Kasha said with a chuckle.

  The cats dropped their sticks, got down on all fours, and ran into the forest, once again looking like a pack of jungle cats.

  “She’s a friend of yours?” I asked Boon.

  “Since we were little,” Boon answered. “Her father is Seegen.”

  “Seegen? The Traveler?” I asked in surprise. “He has a daughter?”

  “Yes. She doesn’t know it yet, but Seegen told me she’ll be the next Traveler from Eelong. And when that happens, I’ll become her acolyte.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked, sounding more surprised than I meant to.

  “Yes. What’s wrong with that?”

  “Oh, nothing.”

  “Let’s keep going. We’re almost there,” Boon said, and continued walking.

  I followed, but with a new, troubling thought. There was only one Traveler from each territory. My uncle Press was killed, making me the Traveler from Second Earth. Loor’s mother and Spader’s father died as well, making them the Travelers from their territories. Aja was an orphan. If Kasha was destined to be the next Traveler from Eelong, then I was very worried about the safety of Seegen, the current Traveler. It was suddenly more important than ever to meet him.

  JOURNAL #16

  (CONTINUED)

  EELONG

  Leeandra.

  I’m not sure if you’d call it a city, or a zoo, or a fantasy village in the trees. It was all of the above. When Boon told me we were going to his home, I expected to find a tree house that smelled like cat pee and had clumps of fur piled in the corners. After all, these jungle cats may walk and talk, but they were still animals. I thought Leeandra would be more like a zoo than someplace I would call a city.

  Man, was I wrong. I suppose my first clue should have been the sky bridges and balconies. Near the flume tree they were old and unkempt, but the closer we got to Leeandra, the slicker these bridges became. There wasn’t a rotten board in sight. The supports were taut and true. Whoever built these bridges was a heck of an engineer. Also, the farther we walked, the more complex the structures became. The trees held multiple platforms connected by sky bridges at all levels and angles. As I think back on the journey, I can describe it as being like a trip from the country into the city.

  We also started seeing more cats. I should probably start calling them klees, but that’s going to be tough because, well, they were cats. I saw klees of all different sizes and colors traveling the sky bridges. Some walked on their hind legs. Others ran on all fours, seemingly in a hurry to get somewhere important. I suppose I should have been scared, because any one of them could have turned me into Tender Vittles, but I wasn’t. It all seemed so . . . civilized. I figured that unlike on Second Earth, predator cats and humans were able to live side by side. Weird, no?

  It was about to get a whole lot weirder.

  We were starting to cross another sky bridge when Boon stopped. He looked around to make sure nobody was watching or listening, then reached into his tunic and pulled out a thick, braided vine that was looped into two small circles on one end.

  “We’re almost at Leeandra,” he explained. “I hate to do this, Pendragon, but there are city rules that don’t apply in the jungle.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Restraints,” he said with his head down, embarrassed.

  “It’s okay, I understand,” I said and took the braided vine to place it around Boon’s furry hands. “I won’t make it too tight.”

  “No!” Boon said and pulled his hands back. “These are for you!”

  I didn’t react at first. It took a couple of seconds to understand what he was saying. He wanted to put the restraints on me!

  “You gotta be kidding me!” I shouted and backed away.

  “Sshhhh!” he said while looking around nervously. “You’re a gar. We don’t let gars walk around on their own inside the city.”

  “Why not? What’s wrong with gars? Besides the smell, which you already pointed out.”

  Boon frowned. He grew nervous. “I . . . I’m sorry, Pendragon. Maybe you don’t understand. I’m not really sure how to say this but, the gars here aren’t like you.”

  “Yeah, I saw those quigs,” I said.

  “Not just the quigs,” Boon said. “Pendragon, on Eelong, gars are like . . . animals.”

  I stared at Boon a long time, letting his words roll around in my head, hoping they would settle down in some way that would make sense. They didn’t.

  “I thought you knew,” he said sheepishly. “Most gars can’t even speak, that’s why I was so surprised to hear you talk. I guess I didn’t explain things so well.”

  “No, you didn’t,” I said nervously. “You’re telling me humans on Eelong can’t speak? Or think intelligently? Or work or read or laugh or write or . . . or play sports?”

  “No, they play sports!” Boon assured me. “Gars play wippen all the time.” He then dropped his voice low and said, “But lots of them are killed during the game.”

  “Oh, that’s just swell!” I shouted. “Humans aren’t capable of doing anything except getting killed playing games or being eaten by tangs. I feel so much better now.”

  “But everything will be fine if you stay with me . . . and put this on,” Boon said, holding up the restraint.

  “No . . . freakin’ . . . way,” I said. “You’re not going to put a leash on me like some kind of . . . of . . . animal!”

  “But that’s what you are!” Boon pleaded. “Nobody here knows about other territories or Travelers or places where gars are intelligent. Believe me, I know about it, and I’m still having trouble accepting it.”

  “Well, that’s just too bad,” I shot back. “The hell with your leash laws. I’m here to help these cats. If they’re going to treat me like a pet, then they can get somebody else to protect them from Saint Dane.”

  I was really mad. But more than that, I was freaked out. Can you imagine dropping down a few notches on the food chain and being treated like a lower life-form?

  “Take me to Seegen,” I demanded. “If he’s the Traveler from Eelong, then I’m going to need his help. And I’ve got to find Gunny. The more time we waste playing zoo boy, the more time Saint Dane has to cause trouble.”

  Boon looked to the ground. “I understand how you feel, Pendragon,” he said quietly. “I don’t blame you. If I went to Second Earth, I’m sure I’d feel the same way.”

  “I guarantee it,” I grumbled.

  “But we’ve got a problem,” he continued. “If you want to walk around Leeandra like you’re a klee, you’ll be picked up by the Stray Division and impounded.”

  “You mean like a loose dog?” I asked, horrified.

  “I don’t know what a dog is,” Boon answered.

  “What if you explained to them I’m a really smart gar, and I should be treated with respect?”

  Boon looked at me like I had just said I was going to sprout wings from my ears and fly.

  “Okay,” Boon said calmly. “You win. I’ll do whatever you want, you’re the lead Traveler. But please, before you decide, let me show you something.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “You need to understand how things work here,” he explained. “There’s a meeting going on right now. Maybe we can catch the end of it. It’s being run by the viceroy of Leeandra.”

  “You want me to speak at a meeting?”

  “No!” Boon said quickly, as if the idea actually scared him. “I want you to listen to what they’re discussing. After you hear what they have to say, I’ll go along with whatever you want.”

  I put my anger aside and decided that Boon was being pretty fair. He may have been naive about Saint Dane, and a little overeager, but he seemed to be a smart guy. He was trying.

  “Okay, fine,” I agreed.

  Boon looked visibly relieved. “But please,” he added. “Until that meeting is over, will you go along with me and slip these restraints on your
wrists? The klees will think you’re with me and we won’t have any problems.”

  The idea of getting tied up and led around like a dog made my mouth go dry. It’s hard to describe the feeling. It was very primal, like I was handing over control of my life and my intellect.

  “Trust me,” he added. “It will be much easier this way.”

  I answered by holding out my wrists. Boon nodded in thanks and gently slipped the two loops over my hands. He gently tugged the loops tight until they were snug around my wrists. My stomach twisted.

  “Now,” he said. “Let me show you Leeandra.”

  Boon stepped onto the bridge, and I was happy that he didn’t pull the leash tight. He waited for me to walk beside him. That was good. If he had made me walk behind him I think I would have lost it again. It was then that I noticed the band of light in the sky had moved lower on the horizon. My guess was right; this thing was like the sun. This small revelation made me feel more comfortable. At least I was getting to understand Eelong, even if I wasn’t so thrilled about most of what I was learning. I looked ahead over the sky bridge to a huge tree on the far side. The bridge led to a large portal in the tree, like we were walking over the drawbridge to the entrance of a giant castle. There was dense foliage to either side of it, blocking my view of what was beyond.

  “You okay?” Boon asked.

  “Yeah, whatever” was my answer. Truth was, I wasn’t, but what could I do?

  We walked through the portal to find that this hollowed-out tree held a guard station. Two large cats stood in front of a cage that blocked the way. They each held long sticks as weapons and had coils of ropes attached to their belts. They were the same weapons I saw the cat named Kasha use against the tang.

  “Boon!” one of the cats shouted jovially. “Where have you been? You missed the wippen tournament!”

  “Busy,” Boon answered, trying to sound casual. “How’d it go?”

  “Lousy,” the other cat answered. “Those big klees from the north end were too good.”

  “They’re no better than us,” the first cat corrected. “They just train more.”

  The second cat added, “We needed you, Boon.”

  “Next time,” Boon promised. He nodded to the cage door. The first cat swung it open for us.

  “New gar?” the cat asked.

  I had been looking to the ground the whole time. I was afraid if these big cats looked into my eyes, they might see some hint of intelligence they weren’t used to. But now, I glanced to Boon to see his reaction. Boon gave me a quick, embarrassed look.

  “Uh, yeah,” he answered.

  “Do yourself a favor,” the first cat said. “Wash him down. He stinks.”

  It took every bit of willpower I had not to say something. The truth was, these cats didn’t exactly smell like roses either.

  “Yeah,” Boon said. I heard a slight nervous quiver in his voice. “I’ll do that. Thanks.”

  Boon led me through the door. I was a good little gar and followed with my head down. As we walked away from the cage, Boon whispered, “Sorry.”

  I decided not to give him a hard time. Instead I asked, “What’s wippen?”

  “It’s the game I told you about,” Boon said, relieved to be talking about something else. “We’ve all played since we were kids.”

  “Kittens,” I said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Forget it.”

  Before I had the chance to ask him any more about what to expect, we stepped out of the portal on the far side of the tree and I got my first view of Leeandra. Oh man. What a sight! Like I wrote before, it was a city built in the air. There were wooden huts of all sizes dotting the sides of the trees. Busy sky bridges were everywhere. The structures were built high overhead, and down low, with the lowest buildings only about twenty yards off the ground. I guessed they were still high enough to be safe from marauding tangs. The city was big. I saw no end to the buildings, either way. It all looked to be manufactured out of natural material. Wood, bamboo, and woven vines. I didn’t see anything that looked like metal or plastic. Everything I saw was very much like I had seen on my way to Leeandra, but multiplied a few hundred times.

  But there was more. Running alongside many of the sky bridges were vehicles that traveled on a single track, like a monorail. They were open-car trains that each carried about twenty klees. They moved silently and stopped at intersections where klees got off and on. I also saw elevators. There were round platforms that carried passengers up and down the outsides of the trees, to all levels. I saw fountains on many levels that emptied into square troughs where klees bellied up and lapped water like, well, like cats. That meant Leeandra had pumps, and plumbing. But maybe the most incredible sight was the streetlights. The entire city was covered by a thick canopy of foliage that didn’t let in much light from the sunbelt in the sky. So even though it was daytime, it was pretty dark. But the streetlights took care of that. Every few yards along the sky bridges and walkways was an overhead light fixture that was made up of a handful of small, vertical tubes that looked like wind chimes. The lights gave off a warm glow that made the city look as if it were lit by giant fireflies. It was something out of a fairy-tale fantasy.

  “You have electricity?” I asked Boon.

  “What’s that?”

  “You know, power, juice.”

  Boon shrugged and shook his head. He had no idea what I was talking about.

  I tried another tack. “What makes those trains run? I mean, I doubt if you have little birds inside running on a treadmill like the Flintstones.”

  “Oh! You mean energy!”

  “Yeah, energy. What makes everything go?”

  “Collectors, above the canopy,” Boon explained. “We use crystals to collect and store energy from the light in the sky. It’s very simple, really. But I don’t know what a ‘flintstone’ is.”

  Amazing. This walking, talking jungle cat was telling me that this society of animals had figured out a way to collect enough solar energy to power their city, while our so-called advanced society on Second Earth had no clue as to how to make solar energy practical. If it was so simple, how come we couldn’t do it?

  “Don’t you get your energy that way on Second Earth?” Boon asked innocently.

  “Uh . . . yeah, sometimes,” I said quickly, not wanting to admit the truth. “Where is this meeting?” I added, changing the subject.

  “At the Circle of Klee,” Boon answered. “This way.”

  The two of us walked through the city, crossing over several more sky bridges and taking two different elevators. Klees were everywhere—on the sky bridges, on the elevators, riding the monorails and hanging around on every level of the city. I didn’t see many gars, though. The ones I did see were either walking along on leashes with klees, like I was with Boon, or doing some menial work, like lugging heavy materials or cleaning the monorail tracks. The gars may have been considered animals, but they were smart enough to do work. I was beginning to think there was a lot more to the social system on Eelong than Boon had explained to me. The gars were small people. The biggest guy I saw was maybe a little over five feet. They all wore rags like I did, and had wild hair that looked like it hadn’t been brushed or cut since the day they were born. Only a few had beards, though. I wasn’t sure if that’s because they shaved, or they simply didn’t have much facial hair.

  What really freaked me out, though, was the look in their eyes. It was like nobody was home. They walked all hunched over, always glancing back toward the klees they walked with. I was beginning to realize what Boon meant when he said I’d stand out. Without thinking, I found myself hunching over a little bit.

  One last note about the gars. Just before we reached the Circle of Klee I saw something that was kind of odd. I’m not sure what it meant, but it was strange enough to write about here. We passed two gars who were tied up outside a tree house like dogs waiting for their master. They sat huddled together, staring at something that one gar held in the palm of his
hand. It was a cube about the size of a box that a ring would come in. It was amber colored and could have been made of some kind of crystal. The odd thing was that the gars were both petting it like it was alive. They made this strange cooing sound, as if they were consoling a baby. It was totally creepy. They were so focused on this little cube that they didn’t hear us coming, but as soon as we drew even with them, the one gar closed his hand around the cube and hid it so fast, it made me feel like it was either very valuable or very illegal. I made brief eye contact with the gar and could tell that the guy was scared I had seen his treasure. Or maybe he was scared that Boon saw it. Either way, he looked pretty nervous. I decided not to say anything to Boon, but filed it away to ask about later.

  We took one last elevator and arrived at a platform that led to an archway into a hollow tree. As soon as we stepped off the elevator, I sensed that the tree was busy with activity. The general buzz gave it away. When Boon led me inside that archway, I saw that it was a meeting place. The room was big, with benches circling a round stage at the center. And it was packed. There must have been a hundred klees. What do you call a group of cats? A pack? A herd? A litter? They were all sitting on benches, looking toward the stage at center. Yes, they were sitting. They were cats, and they were sitting. Unbelievable.

  Standing onstage was a tall cat dressed in a royal blue tunic. He actually looked somewhat like a lion, but his hair, or mane, wasn’t as full as a lion’s. It was long, though, and fell halfway down his back. He looked older, too. He stood center stage holding a long, wooden staff that had the carving of a snarling cat’s head on top. I wasn’t sure if he needed this for balance, or if it was a symbol of power. Behind him sat six more cats, each wearing tunics that were bright red.

  “The Council of Klee,” Boon whispered, as if reading my mind. “The governing body here in Leeandra.”

  He gently nudged me to an area away from the stage, where we could watch the proceedings while keeping our backs to the wall. That was a good idea. We didn’t want any klees sneaking up from behind to hear us talking.