The Rivers of Zadaa by D.J. MacHale

hood. Teek did the same. Bokka waved to the Tiggen guards behind our horses. I turned to look, but didn’t see them. I took a step to my right to get a glimpse of them, but it was too late. They were gone. Vanished into the sand. I turned back around to see that Bokka and Teek had disappeared as well.
    â€œThey’re like worms,” I said to Loor.
    â€œThere are tunnels everywhere,” Loor said. Without another word Loor strode back to her horse and mounted up. I did the same. We snapped the reins and started back to the city.
    â€œSo how is it you got so friendly with a Rokador?” I asked as we trotted along. “I thought the two tribes didn’t mingle.”
    â€œAt one time we did,” Loor answered. “Especially the children. Bokka and I were marked at an early age to be trained as warriors. There were two camps, one outside of Xhaxhu and one belowground. Groups would take turns traveling to the other camp. It was a way for us to learn the ways of our tribal neighbors.”
    â€œThings have changed,” I said.
    â€œYes they have,” Loor said sadly. “That kind of cooperation no longer exists. The royal family of Zinj has been trying to bring our tribes back to the old ways, but prejudices and anger run too deep.”
    â€œSo, was this Bokka guy your…boyfriend?”
    Loor thought about the answer. I didn’t like that. I wanted her to scoff and say: “Nah! Are you kidding?” But she didn’t.
    â€œUnder different circumstances, we may have ended up together,” she said sadly.
    â€œI guess being from enemy tribes made that tricky,” I said.
    â€œYes,” she replied. “And finding out that I was a Traveler did not help either.”
    Oh. Right. That. So she and Bokka were not meant to be. Awww, too bad. Man, am I being mean or what? I decided to change the subject.
    â€œWhat about this royal family?” I asked. “Ninja something or other?”
    â€œZinj is the family name,” Loor corrected. “The crowned prince is named Pelle a Zinj. Though he has not yet taken the throne, he has slowly taken on the responsibilities of ruling the Batu. Even the Rokador recognize his wisdom. The king and queen are preparing to hand over the crown very soon.”
    â€œIs that good or bad?” I asked.
    â€œIt is good,” Loor said confidently. “Very good. He will make a wonderful, fair leader. He has dedicated his life to forging a treaty with the Rokador. But I fear it will be in vain. The drought has seen to that.”
    â€œOr maybe it was the Rokador who have seen to that,” I cautioned. “Like you said, there may be more to this drought than bad weather.”
    It was a grim journey back to Xhaxhu. I now had a pretty good handle on what the trouble was here on Zadaa, but figuring out something to do about it was a whole nother matter. There seemed to be only two possibilities. One was that Saint Dane was somehow manipulating events. When he disappeared from the celebration at Black Water, he did say he was coming to Zadaa, and he never went to a territory just to hang out. The other possibility might actually be worse. If the rivers had dried up here simply because there was a funky weather thing happening, there was nothing anybody could do about that. The sad truth might be that a war between these two tribes was the way it was meant to be. It would be tragic, but the job of Travelers wasn’t to interfere with the normal course of a territory’s history. Our only concern was if Saint Dane tried to monkey with things. For Loor’s sake, I hoped that wasn’t the case. If Saint Dane wasn’t involved, then I had no business here. Loor was from Zadaa. She would have to do what she had to do. But I was from Second Earth. I would have to back off. This was going to be a tough call. But I couldn’t make it until I found Saint Dane. Or he found me.
    We trotted the horses back through