“Lars,” Zale said with interest.
“Who’s Lars?” Geth questioned.
“He’s quite wise,” Anna said seriously. “You would do well to speak to him.”
A woman dressed in a business suit and one dressed like a nurse came running out of the tall purple stalks. They were breathless and their faces were red from excitement.
“They’ve found the trail,” the nurse said. “They’re coming.”
Anna looked at Geth with panic in her eyes.
“They’ll be here quickly,” the businesswoman said.
“Everyone scatter!” Anna ordered. “Hide until you are sure of your safety.”
Geth scrambled over to Clover and began to untie him.
“You can’t outrun Payt,” Anna argued.
“Untie my brother,” Geth ordered.
“I’m not going with you,” Zale yelled. “Leave me.”
Anna began untying Zale as he yelled at her. She stared at the lithen, looking confused.
“You’re the one Eve said would save us?” she asked in disbelief.
“I don’t know Eve,” Zale insisted. “And I have no desire to save anyone but myself.”
Once Clover was free, both he and Geth worked on Edgar. The beast seemed angry until Clover uncovered Edgar’s eyes and let him see that the sycophant was there. Clover’s presence calmed the Tangle immediately.
Anna untied Zale’s right leg, and Zale jumped up to run off. Anna tackled Zale from behind. He flew to the ground, his face plowing into the dark dirt. Zale squirmed and fought, but he was so weak from years of doing nothing that Anna easily held him down.
Both Geth and Clover were impressed.
With Edgar freed, Geth bolted to Zale and took him out from under Anna. In the distance they could all see stalks of purple growth flying up into the air as something large thundered their way.
“Come with us,” Geth urged. “We could use you.”
“No,” Anna replied.
Anna disappeared as Geth slung a kicking and screaming Zale over his shoulder. Clover swooped in behind the two of them, riding the head of Edgar. The Tangle grabbed Geth and Zale and took off running.
Payt was now less than a mile away.
Edgar ran through the fields of growth like a burrowing animal. Geth looked back and could see Payt getting closer, riding on top of a large wooden wagon as he had the night before.
Edgar sprinted as fast as he could, but the crops were troublesome to push through, and with the weight of Geth and Zale it wasn’t easy for him to maintain their lead.
“They’re getting closer!” Clover yelled.
Geth looked back. The wagon Payt drove was being pulled by a team of small horses. There were two other wagons behind him and hundreds of boors everywhere, running forward with their arms raised. The mass of inhumanity was tearing up the landscape as they thundered closer.
“Put me down!” Zale ordered.
Edgar broke from the field of tall purple stalks and out into a dusty stretch of weed-covered land. In the distance the unstable ground of Zendor was bubbling, sending large dirt pods up into the air.
Payt and the boors burst out from the field behind them, now only a few hundred feet away.
“Run through the unsteady ground,” Geth hollered. “It’ll make it harder on their wagons.”
Edgar turned and ran straight toward the hundreds of dirt bubbles that were expanding and lifting up off the ground. Geth and Clover had previously ridden on one of the bubbles to make an escape. Unfortunately, the pods in this field weren’t quite as large, and there wasn’t time to climb onto one and have it expand beneath them without being caught.
“We can’t go up,” Clover yelled. “Those pods won’t hold Edgar.”
Edgar wove through the rising dirt wads, tiring with each step. The unstable ground made moving forward harder on the wagons, but it also made it almost impossible for Edgar to progress. Clover clung to the right horn on the Tangle’s head and yelled into his ear.
“Keep going!”
Edgar picked up his speed as the boors closed in. Geth was still being held tightly with his brother. Their feet were dangling as Edgar ran.
“You should have left me!” Zale yelled. “We can’t outrun that!”
Zale pointed back toward Payt. He and the boors were no more than two hundred yards away. Geth could see Payt’s eyes fixed on him. The scratches Clover had dug across his face were red and thick. Payt smiled a wicked, no-room-for-mercy smile. Hundreds of boors ran in front of the wagon with their arms out and their slow minds fixed on nothing but getting to Geth and Zale.
Geth struggled in the arms of Edgar, trying to get out. “I need to stop Payt!”
“Really?” Clover asked incredulously. “Are you going to fight every single one of those boors in front of him?”
“If I need to,” Geth answered loudly.
Dirt pods were rising and bursting all around them as Edgar struggled to keep his footing and move forward quickly. The temperamental ground rocked and gurgled.
“We’re not going to—”
Clover never got a chance to finish his sentence. The soil directly in front of them crumbled and opened up. Dirt exploded as they dropped into a giant sinkhole and plummeted downward.
Payt pulled up on the reins, and his wagon spun and slammed to the ground, stopping just inches before the sinkhole. Hundreds of boors spilled like jacks into the opening behind Geth and the others. Payt held onto the overturned wagon, which saved him from falling into the hole and kept him safely on the ground.
Edgar roared as the massive dark hole swallowed its prey and belched up nothing but dirt.
Chapter Six
Drop It Like It’s Hot
I like the dark. I have nothing against sunshine, but there’s something comforting about a dark night. Many important discoveries have happened in the dark. Light, for one, would never have been invented had there not been a bit of black to illuminate. The game of hide-and-seek was created in the dark when a man had to feel his way around a room full of friends to find the light switch. And how fair would it really be if we were all able to “Guess who” without the darkness of someone’s hands over our eyes? Dark serves a purpose. It enhances ghost stories, makes chocolate more mysterious, and gives flare guns a much better chance of being spotted. I like dark, but I’m not sure how to feel about the kind of dark that Geth and Clover had been experiencing in Zendor. Not only were the nights starless and without a moon, but now, as they dropped from the bubbling field of dirt down hundreds of feet with dark boors falling behind them, they were having to deal with dark in a whole new light.
Clover screamed as he held tightly to the horns of Edgar. In a state of panic, Edgar had released Geth and Zale, and they were free-falling just above him.
“You have killed me!” Zale yelled as they plummeted.
“You’re not dead yet,” Geth hollered back.
Two seconds later their bodies splashed down into an underground lake filled with thick, warm water. They sank only a few feet as the gelatinous liquid absorbed most of the impact of their fall. Their bodies slapped up against the surface of the water, shocking and stinging their skin. Before they could even cry out, boors by the dozen dropped over and around them, splashing the thick water and creating massive ripples and waves.
They had fallen so far that there was no light visible from up above. The complete darkness caused the boors to freeze in the positions they had fallen in. Geth pushed two off of him as he tried to swim toward where he had heard Edgar hit.
“Clover!”
There was no answer.
“Clover!”
Edgar bellowed, and Geth could hear Zale complaining.
“I was content,” Zale moaned. “I was safe. Look at me now. Wait, I can’t see myself because we’ve fallen down a h
ole!”
“Calm down,” Geth called out. “Do you have Clover?”
“No,” Zale replied. “My beard’s been ripped.”
“That’s not important,” Geth said with bite. “Where’s Clover?”
“Here!” Clover cried out from a fair distance away. “Over here!”
A small, dim light blinked on as Clover pulled out the last of the glow stones he had taken from the Stone Holders a few days ago. Geth looked toward the light and smiled.
“You okay?” Geth hollered.
“I’m fine,” Clover yelled back. “A bunch of those boor guys fell on me. I think I’m stuck.”
“Hold on,” Geth replied.
Geth swam slowly through the gooey water. There were boors everywhere in the liquid and piled on top of each other. Geth’s right ear smacked hard into one of the boors’ heads. A crack echoed through the darkness. Geth shook it off and kept paddling toward the dim glow-stone light.
The heavy water was hard to swim in. It took ten good strokes before Geth could see the glow stone clearly. Clover was buried under three frozen boors. His hand was sticking out from under them with the glow stone in his palm. A couple of the boors in the water were blinking due to the weak light of the stone. The rest all stared blankly into the dark.
“Hurry,” Clover said with an almost casual air from underneath the boors. “These guys don’t smell good.”
Geth swam up to the mass of bodies and pushed at the boors on top of Clover. Treading the thick liquid made it awkward and hard to get any real strength. The boors were twisted up together and wouldn’t move. Geth tried to pull instead of push, but that was even less effective.
“Get them off of me,” Clover insisted. “My forehead’s wedged in this guy’s armpit.”
“There are too many on top of you,” Geth said calmly. “I can’t get any leverage in this water.”
“Edgar!” Clover yelled, remembering there was something with considerably more strength nearby.
The sound of thrashing water and crashing boors could be heard as Edgar frantically worked his way to Clover. The Tangle sank under a heavy pile of boors and then pushed back up to the surface. Edgar snorted and blew liquid all over. Geth wisely moved out of the way as Edgar threw his arms forward and blasted the boors from off of Clover. Clover rolled over on the body he had landed on and smiled up at Edgar. He spat something out of his mouth and held the glow stone over his head.
“Thanks,” Clover said. “Apparently Geth can’t tread and push at the same time.”
Geth had already turned his attention from Clover to his brother.
“Zale!”
There was no answer. Clover hopped onto Edgar’s head. He grabbed onto one horn with his left hand and held the glow stone up with the other. All three of them turned and began to swim back in the direction Geth had come from. Geth spotted Zale’s head just bobbing above the water. Zale’s eyes were open and staring straight forward. Geth treaded water next to his brother as Clover held the glow stone higher, trying to see any sign of dry land or an opening they could get out through.
“Can you see anything?” Geth asked.
“No,” Clover said. “Well, I can see a bunch of those dirty boor guys. Wait.”
“What is it?” Geth asked.
“I can see a dirty boor girl also.”
“That doesn’t change anything,” Geth said.
“I just didn’t want to be unfair,” Clover explained. “Lilly’s trying to get me to be more sensitive.”
Geth and Edgar started to swim, but Zale just stayed there with his head bobbing in the thick water.
“Come on,” Geth insisted.
Zale didn’t say anything.
“Listen,” Geth insisted, “you might not be right in the head right now, but I’m not leaving you here.”
Zale stayed silent.
Geth wrapped his left arm around Zale’s neck and began to swim, pulling him behind him. Zale didn’t protest, but he didn’t help, either. It was a struggle to paddle forward.
“Your brother’s not as much fun as I thought he’d be,” Clover observed from the top of Edgar.
“You thought he’d be fun?” Geth asked, breathing hard as he swam.
“I at least thought he’d be funner.”
Edgar swam remarkably well for being such a massive creature with hooves for feet. He paddled with his large, thick arms and used his huge tail to propel him forward. There were oddly frozen boors all over the water’s surface. It wasn’t always easy or comfortable to move through them.
“We should be in Foo,” Clover complained once more. “There are no boors in Foo. Well, except for that one guy who’s always blathering on and on about his kids. He’s a bore.”
Geth stayed quiet.
“I mean, I’m all for adventure,” Clover continued. “But this feels like it might end bad.”
“Look,” Geth said with excitement. “Is that a wall?”
Clover held the glow stone a little farther to the right, and they could clearly see the outline of a rock wall. Geth swam faster, pulling Zale behind. He got to the wall and reached out with his right hand to touch it. The stone wall was cold and as wet as the water. Geth kicked around with his feet trying to find a bottom or someplace to stand or climb onto—there was nothing.
“What now?” Clover asked.
“We’ll follow the wall,” Geth said, as if it were just a game. “It has to lead somewhere.”
Geth and Edgar paddled along the side of the dark stone, searching for an opening or ledge. Clover moved onto Edgar’s back, and the Tangle began to pound at the wall with his horns. A couple of stones broke loose above them and dropped into the water, barely missing Clover. Edgar got hit on the head and bellowed accordingly. Zale took a stone to the left shoulder and bellowed vulgarly.
“Let’s just keep following the wall,” Geth instructed. “No more pounding.”
“This could just be a big, round, underground lake,” Clover pointed out. “There might not be a way out. We can’t swim in circles forever.”
“You’re not swimming,” Geth pointed out. “You’re riding. I suppose we could just bob here until we perish.”
“Fine,” Clover said. “Keep swimming, Edgar.”
Edgar and Geth continued to move along the wall, pushing boors out of the way and constantly kicking and grabbing for anything that looked solid. They reached a corner of the wall where the water ran down a five-foot-wide corridor. They headed down the passage without a thought.
Edgar barely fit in the small canal. His shoulders were inches from the sides. The ceiling of the passageway was eight feet up. It was covered in fuzzy moss that made their voices sound muted. The water was still too deep for them to feel a bottom anywhere.
The underground passage turned at a seventy-degree angle and then straightened out. Geth’s legs and lungs burned from the constant paddling.
“You’re insane,” Zale said, putting in his negative two cents.
Geth stopped swimming and treaded water with his feet.
“You are heading into blackness,” Zale complained. “The exit could be ten feet to your right and you’d never know it. More likely than not, there isn’t an exit.”
“I’m glad our father’s no longer alive,” Geth said seriously. “He would be disgusted with you.”
“That’s no concern of mine,” Zale snipped.
Geth’s blue eyes crackled under the weak light of the glow stone. He reached his hands up and pushed Zale all the way under the water. He held his brother down, making no motion to let him up.
“What are you doing?” Clover asked with interest.
“Reminding him that he wants to live,” Geth said calmly, still holding Zale’s head underwater.
Zale wasn’t putting up any struggle.
“Most people remind e
ach other with a phone call, or maybe those sticky little notes,” Clover said, holding the glow stone out over the water directly above where Zale was being pushed down. “This looks more like murder than ’minder.”
Edgar began to fidget, recognizing that something wasn’t right.
“I have brothers,” Clover tried to reason with Geth. “Sure, we’ve had our disagreements, but I’ve never threatened to drown them.”
Zale was still being held underwater and making no effort to fight his way up and out of Geth’s hold.
“Okay,” Clover admitted, “I held one of my brothers under that one fountain. But that just got his hair wet. Besides, he had drawn on my face while I was sleeping.”
There was still no struggle from Zale.
“Let him up,” Clover suggested. “Please.”
“He’s a lithen,” Geth said, as if he were answering a trivia question on a game show.
“He’s going to be a dead lithen if you don’t let go,” Clover argued. “I know he’s nuts, but you can’t kill him.”
Geth looked down at the water. The liquid was too dark to see beneath, but he could feel Zale down there.
“He’s going to die,” Clover begged.
Geth kept treading and holding Zale under.
“I’m telling Leven,” Clover said. “I know I’m just a sycophant, but there—”
Zale burst up out of the water, gasping for breath and clawing at the air. He choked and coughed for a minute before finally calming down. Zale looked at his younger brother and spat. Geth just smiled.
“What are you trying to prove?” Zale asked.
“I knew you didn’t want to die,” Geth said. “Now come on.”
Zale said a few choice things and then reluctantly began to swim after Geth.
“If we get out of here, I’m going to kill you,” Zale insisted.
“Fine,” Geth said.
“I’m serious,” Zale complained. “I was safe and content in that prison cell, and you have made my life a dangerous bruise.”
“At least you can describe it as a life now,” Geth pointed out.
“I can remember a time when I believed that kind of rubbish,” Zale spoke. “The lithen rhetoric is foolish and has no fit here.”