The Merchant of Death (39 page)

“Are you going to help me?” asked Loor impatiently as she unloaded the glaze.

“I have an idea,” I announced and ran toward the quig pen. Loor watched me as if I had lost my mind, but she needn't have worried. My plan didn't involve going back into quig world. No way. In fact, as an afterthought I stuck the little ball of tak into my pocket to free my hands and then closed the door to the pen just in case any more of those bad boys were wandering around inside. It was a smart thing to do, but it wasn't the main reason I went over there. I was looking for the water faucet where the Bedoowan knight filled the water bucket that
he used to wash away the blood of the Milago miner. When I found it, I turned the handle so that water poured out slowly. I then checked my fingers to find that they were still covered with the rusty-colored tak residue. I stuck my fingers under the faucet, rubbed them together, and the tak dissolved! That was exactly what I hoped would happen. This stuff may be a powerful explosive, but it was still a natural mineral that would dissolve in water. Thank you, Mr. Gill, and eighthgrade Earth science. He thought I was asleep in class most of the time. I wasn't.

“What are you doing?” shouted Loor.

I quickly grabbed one of the wooden buckets that was near the faucet, filled one, and lugged it back to Loor and the ore car.

“We are wasting time, Pendragon,” Loor said with growing impatience.

I ignored her and dumped the bucket of water into the ore car. Loor had this angry look on her face like I was being an idiot again. I stood back with the empty bucket and watched. In a few seconds my patience was rewarded. It was only a small drip, but the water had worked itself down through the tak and was running out between the wooden floorboards of the ore car. The water was rust-colored, which could mean only one thing . . . the tak could be dissolved!

“We don't have to lug this thing out,” I announced. “We can dissolve the tak like dirt.”

Loor stuck her finger under the drip of water and saw that it was indeed full of dissolved tak. She thought a moment, then said, “More water!”

She jumped to her feet and ran back to the faucet for another bucket. For the next ten minutes we ran back and forth between the faucet and the ore car, dumping water
inside. Little by little, the tak turned into liquid and ran out of the car. When enough of the tak dissolved so that we could move it, we began taking turns pushing it around. My idea was to spread the tak around enough so that its power would be diluted all over the field. The rusty liquid ran out of the car, poured onto the field and sank down below the grass like some deadly fertilizer. I had no idea what kind of problems this would cause later on. For all I knew, once the tak dried this could be like a minefield. But I didn't care. The main thing was that the power of the huge bomb was gone forever.

Finally I took a look inside the ore car to see that most of the tak was dissolved away. There were still some remnants clinging to the wooden car, but there wasn't enough left to do any big damage. I guess you could say that we had successfully “liquidated” the bomb. I looked to Loor and smiled.

“Or we could have tried carrying it out,” I said with a touch of sarcasm.

I didn't get many chances to dig Loor, so I took them where I could. She looked as if she wanted to say something in return, but was having trouble finding the words. I expected her to point out how I had done something stupid after all.

“I am a warrior,” she finally said. “I was raised to fight my enemies with force. That is not what you were taught.”

Uh-oh. Here we go. I was sure she was about to tell me what a weenie I was and that we should have muscled the ore car out of the stadium.

“But maybe that is good,” she went on. “Maybe that is why we are together. You are not a warrior, yet you have shown more bravery than any warrior I have known.”

Whoa. That was out of left field! After getting slammed
by her at every turn, I wasn't expecting a compliment. I didn't know what to say.

I thought about what she said and realized that maybe she was right. I wasn't a fighter and wasn't planning on becoming one, so maybe our strengths complemented each other. I wrote to you before about the feeling I got that being here felt right. Well, as I stood there with Loor, I got the same feeling. The two of us being together felt right. We weren't exactly buddies, but maybe we were meant to be partners. It must have been hard for her to admit that I was her equal, at least when it came to the bravery department, and I wanted to say something back to her that let her know how great I thought she was. But I didn't get the chance. Before I could open my mouth, I saw something that I could barely believe.

“What is the trouble?” asked Loor.

All I could do was point. Standing in the royal box was Figgis, the little merchant of death who started this whole tak mess. What was he doing here? How did he get into the palace? Stranger still, he must have known what Rellin was trying to do with this bomb, so why did he hang around here knowing the whole place was going to blow up?

“This is strange,” she said. “Why is he here?”

As if in answer, Figgis raised his hand to show us something he was holding. It was the yellow walkie-talkie that was taken from me in Queen Kagan's chambers. He held it up, and giggled.

“It is the talking toy,” exclaimed Loor. “What is he doing with that?”

My heart sank. We had dodged a huge bullet, but here was another one aimed right at us. Loor looked at me and recognized how scared I was.

“Pendragon, what is the matter?” Loor shouted.

“The walkie-talkie works the same way the flashlight does”, I answered. “It has a battery that gives off a charge of power.”

“Could he use it to explode another bomb?” she asked nervously.

“Well, yeah,” I answered soberly.

Now Loor looked sick as the reality of the situation hit her. “Do you think he has another bomb?” she asked soberly.

“I don't know,” I answered. “But we better find out.” I took a step toward the royal box and called out, “Figgis! We want to talk with you!”

In answer Figgis abruptly turned and ran back into the palace.

“C'mon!” I shouted and ran for the royal box.

Loor was right behind me. We both hit the stairs and ran up three at a time until we hit the royal box. Without hesitation we ran into the Bedoowan palace after the strange little man who was responsible for finding the power to destroy all of Denduron.

Outside of the palace the two armies were drawing closer. The Milago miners were making their way through the dense forest, while the Bedoowan knights massed along the far side of a giant, open field. This grassy, sloping field was where the long-awaited battle would take place. Behind the Bedoowan was nothing but ocean. Behind the Milago would be forest. Between them was a huge expanse of empty field with nothing to use for protection but sea grass. The Bedoowan knights knew what they were doing. They had trained to protect their palace from marauders. They lined up in rows with shield carriers first, followed by archers, followed by spear carriers on horseback. They were ready.

Alder later told me how he ran through the forest with the
miners, trying to get them to turn back. But no one listened. They were locked and loaded and primed for a fight. But when they got to the edge of the forest, the leader held up his hand and the miners stopped short of charging out into the open. It was a smart thing to do, for he saw something that the rest of the miners hadn't yet seen.

Standing across from them on the far side of this vast field were the Bedoowan knights. But they did not look like a straggle of injured survivors who were reeling from a devastating explosion. Just the opposite. There were more knights standing there than the Milago knew existed. They didn't look any worse for wear, either. They were strong and healthy and well armed. Obviously something had gone wrong. The explosion didn't do the damage they had hoped. This battle wasn't going to be the cakewalk they had anticipated. This was going to be a dogfight and they were going up against the best dogs in town.

The Milago leader held his army back, not entirely sure of what to do. The rest of the Milago miners had now seen the vast army of knights and it shook their confidence.

The only thing that Alder could do was watch, and pray.

When Loor and I ran into the palace, we found ourselves in Queen Kagan's empty chambers. We got our bearings, then dashed out into the corridor. I looked toward the stairs and caught a quick glimpse of Figgis scampering down.

“There!” I shouted and ran after him.

Loor was right behind me. We got to the stairs and started down. They were wide, spiraling stairs, and as we ran down we could see that Figgis was far below, headed for the lowest levels of the palace. We bounded down the stairs as fast as we could without taking a header and breaking our necks.
When we hit the bottom, I saw that my boom box was there, only it was in pieces. That's how the knights finally got it to stop playing. They smashed it. I guess no one knew how to use the on-off switch. Idiots. I had the presence of mind to dig through the debris for the batteries. It may have been too little too late, but at least nobody could use these batteries to blow anything up.

We both took a quick look around for Figgis and heard a familiar giggle coming from down the corridor. The thought came to me that he was playing with us. But it didn't matter. We had to stop him. So we took off down the corridor.

“He is going for the mines,” she said. “He must know the secret entrance.”

She was right. That's probably how he got into the palace in the first place. Since we knew the way, we didn't bother looking down every corridor for the little guy. We headed right for the kitchen, which led to the pantry, which led to the trapdoor and the tunnels that would drop us down into the secret passage of the Milago mine that stretched beneath the palace.

In the forest, the Milago leader didn't know what to do. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. They weren't supposed to fight the Bedoowan army at its best. Should he attack or retreat? His decision would clearly decide the future of his tribe. Luckily for him, the responsibility for making a decision was soon taken away from him. With a roar of excitement from the miners, he looked to see a familiar face making his way toward him through the crowd. It was Rellin. He was here to take charge.

The sight of their trusted leader sent a rumble of relief through the Milago miners . . . not to mention to the interim
leader who no longer had to be in charge anymore. It must have been a stirring sight, seeing their leader walking confidently to the front of his troops to take command. He jumped on to a rock so that all the Milago could see him and announced, “My brave Milago brothers! Today is the day. Now is the time. This is where our slavery ends!”

The miners all gave a cheer. Rellin was stirring them up again.

“Bring the tak to bear!” he commanded and all of the miners who had the tak and slingshots came to the front of the group. “Are we prepared to take back our lives?”

Everyone let out a whooping cheer. They were no longer concerned about why he hadn't died. He was their inspirational leader, and they trusted him.

“Are we prepared to win our freedom?”

Another cheer.

“Are we prepared to make the Bedoowan pay for their crimes against us?”

That brought the biggest cheer of all. They were ready.

“Then do not stop until we have reached the throne room!”

That was it. The miners went nuts and the charge was on. With the tak throwers first, they charged out of the forest and onto the field to meet their enemy.

While this was going on, Loor and I dropped down the ladders into the Milago mine. No sooner did we hit the tunnel, than Loor stopped short, her ear to the air.

“Listen,” she said.

I did, and after a second I heard what she was talking about. It was footsteps. Running footsteps. Figgis wasn't far away. But the strange thing was, they were coming from deeper in the tunnel. That didn't make sense because the tunnel
didn't go on much farther. There was nothing beyond the end of this tunnel but a long drop to the sea. So where was that sound coming from?

Loor didn't stop to think, as usual. She headed deeper into the tunnel. Her senses told her that someone was back there running and she didn't bother to let logic stop her from following her instinct. All I could do was follow. We didn't go more than twenty yards before we came upon another offshoot from the main tunnel. It was a crudely dug side tunnel that was wide enough for one person to pass at a time. This is where Figgis went, so this is where we had to go too. As always, Loor went first. She ran into the tunnel, unafraid of what she might find. That was cool with me; she was the macho end of this duo, after all. Luckily the tunnel wasn't all that dark because there was enough light that seeped in from the main tunnel to let us see our way.

“I see the far end,” Loor announced. “This tunnel connects with another tunnel.”

I looked ahead and saw that she was right. This side tunnel connected with another large tunnel. But it soon proved to be more than just a shortcut. Before we reached the other end, the side tunnel grew wide and opened up into a large space. We stopped, trying to figure out why this cavern existed so deep inside the Milago mine. I took a step and felt something weird under my feet. It was a soft, springy sensation, like walking on tiny bits of rubber. I knelt down and scooped up a bit of the stuff to give it a close look. It had the feel of eraser dust. You know, the stuff you brush off your paper after erasing something. It didn't take me long to realize what it really was though, and my heart nearly stopped.

“What is it?” asked Loor.

“It. . . it's tak,” I said with a dry mouth. “I think we just found out where Figgis got the tak. He mined it . . . from right here.”