Pendragon - The Soldiers Of Halla Part 48

The reply came back, "On the way."

I looked beyond the sea of burning helicopter wrecks to the Conclave of Ravinia. The wall looked more imposing than ever. The giant steel doors were shut tight. A line of people appeared along the top. Defenders. Though the sight of them paled in comparison to the image of the ma.s.sive army of dados, or the attack helicopters, I knew that the defenders now lining the wall of the conclave would cause us the most trouble. That is, if the next phase of the plan was successful.

I said to Mark, "Please, tell me we caught the express."

Mark changed the walkie frequency again and called, "Give me good news."

The reply came back, "Say the word."

Mark looked to me and winked. "All aboard."

I took one more look at the conclave wall. In spite of the carnage that surrounded us, there was a strange calm. At least I thought so, because I knew what was going to happen. The battle was about to escalate far beyond the downing of a few helicopters.

"Do it," I said.

Mark immediately hit the send b.u.t.ton. "Bring it," he ordered.

The reply: "We're on the move. You might want to stand back."

The ground in front of us began to shake. The sound of machinery could be heard above the crackle of the fires that were consuming the helicopters. Just as I had seen it happen before, a crack appeared that led from the river's edge right up to the large, red rectangular door of the conclave. The ground parted, revealing the single train track beneath. At the same time, the water of the river boiled, followed by the large, long tube of a tunnel that rose up from beneath and connected with the rail.

Mark shook his head in awe. "We've been planning this forever. Never thought we'd actually do it."

I said, "Nothing like a good old-fas.h.i.+oned train hijack, pardner."

A whistle shrieked from inside the tunnel. Once, twice. It issued a harsh warning. Get out of the way. Looking up at the track that led to the conclave, I saw that it ran beneath one of the burning helicopters. Mark saw it too.

"Shouldn't be a problem," he said. "So long as there's no unexploded rockets in that wreck."

It was too late to worry about it. A second later the golden train engine blasted out of the tunnel. It charged out at full speed, far faster than the train Patrick and I had hitched a ride on. They must have started back far enough to get up a full head of steam. That was wise. They were going to need it.

As soon as the train cleared the tunnel, three men jumped off. Actually, two jumped. One was pushed. Two were Mark's guys, the third was the engineer. The plan was to hijack the train at Penn Station and force the engineer to drive it here. There was no reason to leave him on board for this unscheduled, one-way trip, so they pushed him off. They all rolled away from the accelerating train, hopefully unhurt.

There was only an engine. No other cars. They were cut loose because they would have slowed the engine down. I felt Courtney tense next to me, as the engine bore down on the burning wreck of the helicopter. The golden engine slammed into the fiery ma.s.s, knocking the hulk away as easily as if it were batting away a fly. The chopper carca.s.s bounced and rolled as the train engine charged on, headed for the giant red door that protected the conclave.

"Here we go," Mark said.

I winced. It was going to be a spectacular crash. The engine hit the door at full speed. The sound was horrifying. Metal clashed with metal. The engine roared angrily as it slammed full-speed into the solid ma.s.s. The door gave way from the bottom. The train forced the immense hunk of metal inward, which broke the top loose. The engine paid for the mayhem it caused. The golden train jumped the tracks, but kept moving forward. There was too much inertia. Too much hurtling weight. Part of the stone frame around the door crumbled. The giant red door slammed the ground where the train had just been.

I only caught glimpses through the smoke and dust, but that was enough. Through the destroyed doorway I saw that the train had flipped and rolled. It may have been huge, but it was spinning like a toy. When it finally came to rest, it was at least thirty yards inside the conclave.

I hoped it had missed the statue of David.

Courtney said, "Well, I guess that worked."

The wreck had blasted a ma.s.sive wound into the wall that protected the Conclave of Ravinia.

"Now comes the hard part," Mark said, dead serious.

We had blazed the path. The Conclave of Ravinia was wide open. There was nothing clever or surprising about what was to happen next. When the exiles and the gars arrived, we would storm the walls. Nothing fancy. Nothing crafty. We would use our numbers to overpower whatever force was left behind to protect the conclave. People would die. The strength of the remaining dado force would determine how many. The exiles knew it. The gars knew it. The rebels knew it. And of course, the Travelers knew it. But we were all willing to risk our lives for what we believed in.

"It will be a while before they arrive," Kasha said.

"That's okay," Mark replied. "We need time to get ready."

Mark led us to the edge of the river, where down below on the water we saw two ma.s.sive barges headed our way. We had been able to move thousands of people across time and s.p.a.ce, but if they couldn't get across this narrow river, it would all have been for nothing. Mark's solution was for the rebels to come in with two barges, creating a makes.h.i.+ft bridge. Side by side they would span the width of the river. The trick was to secure them. Rebel barge pilots were in command of the vessels. They carefully maneuvered the two crafts into position so that they could be wedged together, forming a solid surface. It was an arduous process that made me crazy. I didn't know how much time we had before the dado army returned. Or the Ravinians threw something unexpected at us. I kept glancing south, wondering when the Travelers would arrive with our army. Standing by the river, waiting, wis.h.i.+ng it would all happen faster, was torture.

"Will it be ready?" I asked nervously. "I mean, by the time they get here?"

"It will," he a.s.sured me.

Mark had already pulled off the impossible. Five times over. Maneuvering a couple of barges was cake compared to the other miracles he had worked this day. Still, I was sweating it out.

Finally, with a grinding of metal against metal, the barges stopped moving. The rebel pilots on board each gave us a thumbs-up. The bridge was in place.

"You want to be the first over?" Mark asked.

"We'll all go," I said, and ran down the steep bank of the river's edge. I jumped onto the wooden-decked barge. It felt solid. Kasha, Mark, and Courtney followed. It seemed safe enough, but we were only four people. There could be four hundred at a time on this thing. I put all doubts out of my mind and continued across. When I got to the far side and climbed up the bank, I was greeted with a welcome sight.

Directly in front of us were the taxicabs and gars with their cannons. They were still in firing position, ready for whatever the Ravinians threw at us. Seeing them wasn't a surprise. My focus was on what lay beyond. Maybe four blocks behind the line of cabs, moving toward us, was Uncle Press a along with about forty thousand other welcome faces.

"Yikes," Courtney gasped.

Yikes was a good word to describe it. Uncle Press led the way, along with Aron and Boon and the other Travelers. They were followed by such a huge ma.s.s of people that it took my breath away. Many carried silver s.h.i.+elds that looked like riot-police gear. Those s.h.i.+elds, along with some short rifle-looking weapons, had been distributed by the rebels.

Or should I say, they were courtesy of Ravinia and stolen by the rebels. As much as we needed every weapon we could find, the s.h.i.+elds looked pitiful compared to what we would be facing on the far side of the river.

Uncle Press led the army up to the line of taxicabs, where a signal was given and quickly pa.s.sed back through the link cubes. In no time the ma.s.s of humanity was halted. Aron was right. Commands moved quickly.

"It's done," I exclaimed. "The door is down, the bridge is in place."

"What about the choppers?" Uncle Press asked. "What choppers?" Mark asked. "Oh, you mean those flaming wrecks?"

Uncle Press smiled.

"There are guards stationed along the top of the wall," Courtney said. "Waiting."

"We can't let them wait long," I pointed out.

Uncle Press looked ahead to the target, then back to the army that he had led all the way from Eelong.

"What we do here today is for the people of Halla," he said. "We can hope for a lot of things to happen from this point on, but most important, we have to hope that this will never, ever happen again."

With those words, the a.s.sault on Ravinia began.

Chapter 40.

The first move was to cross the river.

It would take a while to get everyone across the barge bridge. Or, at least enough people to begin the a.s.sault. Alder, Loor, Spader, and Siry took charge, directing the movement. It was kind of eerie. n.o.body spoke. The tension was obvious. They knew that their time had come.

I went across first with Mark, Courtney, and Uncle Press. We walked a short way toward the conclave and stopped, motioning that that was as far as the first line should come. First over the bridge were several gars with radio cannons. They would be critical in knocking out any dados on top of the wall. They were followed by several exiles and gars, who carried either the silver s.h.i.+elds or stolen weapons. These were the same weapons that we had used to fend off the dados when Mark, Elli, and I were in the dado factory. They were like rifles, but with wide barrels. They worked. I walked back to the river and looked down to see that the barges weren't as stable as I would have liked, but they were holding. At any one time I'd say there were several hundred people on top. They swayed and tipped, but the weight was divided evenly, so there were no disasters.

I went back up front to join Uncle Press and the others. A formidable force was gathering. I could only imagine what the Ravinians were thinking. I hoped they were scared.

I wondered where Saint Dane was. He had to know that a storm was brewing. Was he ready? Or was he on Eelong, frantically trying to rally the dado army? Had he envisioned something like this happening? Saint Dane always thought four steps ahead. There was every possibility that he had something planned for us once we got inside. That was the scariest thought of all.

Our mission from this point on was straightforward. Control the Conclave of Ravinia. To do that, we had to eliminate every last dado. Once that was accomplished, we would gather every resource possible and defend the conclave against the dado army that was sure to return. I was confident that we outnumbered the Ravinian security force a hundred times over. My fear was what the human Ravinians might do. If they got into the fight, it would be a bloodbath. On both sides.

Looking back at our gathering forces, I felt as if we had waited long enough. Aron came forward and explained to me the logistics of the a.s.sault they had worked out during their march from downtown.

"We have four waves," he explained. "The first will bring the radio cannons to neutralize the dados. They'll also have s.h.i.+elds and rifles. Their job is to pave the way for the following waves to enter the conclave."

"They're going to take the brunt of it," Uncle Press said gravely.

The concept made sense. The job of the first wave was critical. They would be charging into the strength of the Ravinians' defense. The grim reality was that these brave people would take the heaviest losses.

Uncle Press continued, "I think the Travelers, Aron, and Boon should be in the second wave. We will need them once we get inside."

"I will attack with the first wave," Loor said. It was a flat-out statement. There was no arguing with her. She wasn't going to hide behind anybody.

"As will I," Alder said.

"What about me?" Spader chimed in. "I think I'd like first crack at these wogglies. We earned it, didn't we?" "Me too," Siry chimed in. "And me," Boon said.

Uncle Press looked to Aron. Aron shrugged. "It is not the time to be cautious."

Uncle Press shook his head and sighed. "Fine. Who picked you people anyway?"

"That would be you, mate," Spader said. "And you made some fine choices, I have to say."

I said, "Mark, you've got to hang back."

"Not a chance!" he shouted.

"You have to. You're the only one who can coordinate the rebels. We have no idea what's going to get thrown at us. If you go down, we're done."

He wanted to argue. Instead he offered a compromise. "I'll be in the second wave."

I didn't fight him. "Courtney, stay with him."

"I'll watch his back," she said in her typical bold way. "Just watch your own."

"I've got plenty of people watching my back," I a.s.sured her.

"You're not going," Uncle Press said to me.

I snapped a surprised look to him. "The h.e.l.l I'm not!"

"It can't end for you here, Bobby. Not like this."

"No way. I'm not asking anybody to do anything I wouldn't do myself."

"You have to. There's more to this battle than claiming the Ravinian conclave. We could get inside and take over the fortress and even turn back the dado army, but that isn't what this is about. It's about the return of the spirit of Halla. It's about taking back what was meant to be and ending the dark cloud that has altered events throughout time and s.p.a.ce. Like I said, there's only one way that can happen. For that, we will look to you."

I didn't understand what he meant at first. What kind of double-talk was this? There was no way he was talking me out of this fight. I looked to the other Travelers for support, but they seemed to know what Uncle Press meant.

Alder was the one who put it into words. "What Press means is, you have a bigger task ahead."

My anger slipped away as the realization hit me. It was true. I couldn't risk falling during the attack. My destiny went beyond the storming of the conclave. If we were to triumph, once and forever, Saint Dane had to be ended.

That job was mine.

"I want to be there with you all," I said. "You will be," Alder said.

"You have always been with us," Loor added. "Your spirit was our guide from the beginning. Today is no different."

I believe that was the highest compliment I'd ever been paid. I hoped it was true. I hoped I could live up to it.

"Boon, stay back with me," I said. "We'll fly in over the top."

"Yes, sir!" Boon said eagerly, and jumped to my side.

I took one last look at my Traveler friends. Alder, Spader, Siry, Kasha, and my uncle. Press Tilton. The Traveler from Second Earth before me. Each carried a silver s.h.i.+eld, except for Loor, who had her wooden stave out and ready.

*And so we go," I said.

Uncle Press nodded to Aron. Aron brought out his link radio cube.

"First wave at the ready," he said into the glowing cube.

Instantly the first line of warriors tensed up. Boon, Mark, Courtney, and I got out of the way. We quickly made our way through the ma.s.s of people, headed for the gig that was waiting near the river.

Suddenly I heard what I thought was a huge cheer. It wasn't. It was a battle cry. I turned back to see the first wave of exiles and gars running for the conclave. The a.s.sault was under way. Just like that. My stomach turned over. Such brave people, all willing to give their lives for a better world. Or rather, for the better world that used to be. They charged across the open field with nothing to protect them but those tiny s.h.i.+elds. There were thousands in that first wave. I wondered how many would be left standing when it was complete.

I wondered what would happen to the Travelers, The dados didn't wait for the a.s.sault to get too close before they began shooting. The steady paf paf paf of their weapons echoed across the battlefield. Several of our people were hit, and turned to ash instantly. The result of getting hit by a charge from one of those weapons had the same effect as what we'd seen when the Ravinian guards had executed that poor guy inside the conclave. Instant incineration. I hoped it wasn't painful. Adding to the sound of the weapons firing was a constant metallic pinging sound.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Those silver s.h.i.+elds repel the charge from those guns," Mark explained. "We stole them from the Ravinians a long time ago. Never thought we'd have to use them."

It gave me a little bit of hope that at least they had some protection. But there looked to be hundreds of dados on top of the wall, the high ground, firing down. No matter where they shot, they were sure to hit one of our people. That's how many of us there were. A couple of gars dropped to their knees with their radio cannons and started firing back. One by one, dados were knocked backward off the wall, never to be seen again. It looked like a shooting gallery.