Authors: Rain Oxford
“The only thing we know is that we like it here.”
We made our way through the hospital until we got to
the morgue, where Rebecca pushed the door open. Inside was a creepy room with
many metal cabinets and a metal bed in the center. There was one door against
the far wall. It was freezing in here, so I immediately drew my fire to the
surface and pulled Sydney into my arms.
Sitting on a stool beside the metal table was a
middle-aged man dressed in a light business suit, who sprang to his feet when
he saw us. I pushed Sydney and Dylan behind me, but Rebecca put her hands up
calmly.
“It’s just us, Keigan.”
The man relaxed slightly. “I thought you were dead
when you didn’t come back last night. Who are they?” he asked.
“This is Dylan Yatunus. He saved everyone at the
warehouse. He’s Ron’s father.”
The man reached out his hand to shake Dylan’s, but I
was in protective mode. I pushed Dylan back and growled at the man. I still had
plenty of Dylan’s energy in me to use in an emergency. The man’s eyes narrowed
angrily, but he didn’t make a move. Dylan sighed and nudged me out of the way
before taking the man’s hand. “Forgive my brother; he shot and killed his
manners.”
“Well, your son has fantastic manners, so I guess
it’s alright. Your boy is a pleasure to have in class. Too bad there’s nothing
I can teach him.”
“He’s a genius, I know. Just help him get into the
same class as his brother and you’ll have one little angel on your hands. Now,
about these kids. I’d like to get them home now.”
Keigan went to the door on the far side of the morgue
and opened it to reveal a makeshift slumber party. Five children were huddled
around a fake campfire with sleeping bags strewn about. One little girl was
zipped up in the sleeping bag so deeply that I almost missed her, but she was
shaking. I went to her and let Dylan handle the others.
“Hey, there, little cub. What’s your name?” I sat
cross-legged next to her.
Gold eyes peaked up at me. “Alyssa.”
“Well, Alyssa, I’m Mordon. I’d like to get you home
if you’ll let me.”
She shoved back the sleeping bag, practically jumped
into my lap, and wrapped her arms around my neck in an act of pure, innocent
trust. Even as I wanted nothing more than to get her home, Rojan snarled
fiercely.
The little girl had a power inside her that could
hurt Dylan; a beast like Rojan. She wasn’t a dragon, though. I recognized the
image Rojan gave me instantly; this little girl was one of those
draxuni-looking creatures. She was from Skrev.
I wasn’t prepared for the bright light that filled
the room. Furthermore, when we were suddenly in a dark jungle forest under a
blood red sky, I knew we were in trouble.
“What are you doing here, honey?” Vivian asked, her
entire demeanor changing the moment she saw her son.
“Zeb sent me to keep me safe while he went to go help
Dylan.”
“
Who
sent you here?”
“That was foolish of him. I will take you home and
care for you there,” Ghidorah suggested. Vivian looked devastated.
“Excuse me, but I can take care of my son for five
minutes.”
“Dylan trusts me with him.”
“That doesn’t mean I do. I only met you on Duran five
years ago, for less than a day.”
“It was more than a day and I don’t particularly
remember you doing as much mothering as Tiamat did.”
“Don’t talk to her like that!” the child growled.
“Hello, Sammy. Do you remember me?” I asked him,
trying to distract him. I hadn’t seen him since his Dylan brought him and Ron
to visit when Sammy was four.
“Hello, Nila! Of course I remember. You blew up the
throne room and gave me chocolate. I always wanted to ask you… You are Nano’s
nephew, and he’s my biological dad, so that makes you my cousin. However, Dylan
is my adopted dad and your adopted brother, so that makes you my uncle. How can
you be my uncle and my cousin at the same time?”
“Vivian?” I asked her. I wasn’t equipped to answer
difficult parenting questions.
“Sammy, stop teasing Nila,” she told him. She knelt
in front of him and pulled him close. “Now, Nila and I are working on something
right now, so I need you to go with Ghidorah.”
“Why can’t I help you?”
“You already have. I love you, honey. Now go back
with Ghidorah and when this is all over, I want you and Dylan to visit.”
“Have you made your decision?” Ghidorah asked.
“I have.”
* * *
Right before Ghidorah could take Sammy back to Earth,
another demon appeared. He and Ghidorah instantly squared off and growled at
each other. Sammy just rolled his eyes. “Zeb, chill out and just take me to my
brother.”
“I can do it,” the Guardian snarled at the demon.
The demon scoffed. “I’m the babysitter. You just do
your job and leave me to do mine.”
All three vanished, leaving me more than a little
confused. “Do you know that demon?”
“No, but Sammy wasn’t afraid of him, so I assume he’s
a friend of Dylan’s. Let’s get to the surface.”
“What is the point now that you know Nano has
betrayed us? Also, why didn’t you tell Sammy that Nano is giving vital
information to the enemy?” I asked.
Her expression was miserable. “Things have never been
easy for Nano and me, but I still can’t believe he betrayed us. There has to be
something we’re missing. I don’t want Sammy to hate his father when I’m sure
this is some kind of misunderstanding.”
Vivian was in complete denial. Unfortunately, it
seemed her trust in her mate was going to mean endangering Dylan.
“We need to stop this slave operation. If we can get
to the man in charge, I can subdue him and Kseve can arrest him.”
“But Kseve isn’t here and neither of us have magic.
What can we possibly do?”
“What do you mean? No, we don’t have magic, but that
has nothing to do with slavery. We have to stop them from hurting our people.
It doesn’t matter if they have magic and we don’t.
She nodded. “What’s your plan?”
“Follow me.” I led her back through the town which,
fortunately, was empty of the slavers. When we arrived at the medical station,
a small building with two examination rooms and a waiting room, she frowned
with confusion. Although all of the drugs have been long since cleaned out by
outlaws, nobody bothered with the actual equipment.
“Why are we here? I’m not hurt,” Vivian said.
She was a brave woman, but far too insecure. “That’s
not why we’re here.” I searched boxes and desks until I found a case of
trackers. Each chip was tubular, white, and as small as a grain of rice. “Kseve
and I have hundreds of these, but they’re in our bag, which is with him.”
“What are they?”
“Trackers. I am High King, Vivian, so I have many
faithful followers. Although I want as many of my people safe as possible, I
know I cannot do this alone.”
“There’s a rebellion.”
“Yes. They go by the Kedgra, identify each other by
speaking English, and are all highly trained wizards. If you don’t want to do
this, I understand. It will be dangerous, especially when you don’t have
magic.”
“I’m going to do it, but explain to me what I’m
doing.”
“I will put the tracker in you that will allow me to
follow you and hear what you hear. My plan, if you agree to it, is to put you
back in the slave ring, where you will get traded around. I will send goblins
in each place after you are moved to a new one and rescue all the slaves. There
is a priority target. We can use the trackers to overhear their plans, so we
know that one person is in charge. Unfortunately, I know very little about him
because those who hear him talk end up dead.
“You were experimented on, and you weren’t the only
one. Whatever they were doing, they had left behind many dead bodies. I want to
know what the
physician
was trying to do. Do you remember anything about
him?”
She shook her head. “I just remember them bringing me
into a room… everything after that was fuzzy and painful. Wire me up and let’s
get this show on the road.”
I paused to stare at her. “My English is confused.”
She laughed, but her smile turned into a painful
grunt as she clutched her ribs. “Struggling against a demon, okay… laughing,
not so much. I’m saying that I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”
“You could die.”
“Yeah, or I could help save hundreds of people. It’s
worth the risk.”
I worried that her choice had something to do with
Nano’s betrayal, but Dylan had told me she was a selfless woman who cared about
the greater good. I took the injector, placed one of the chips in it, and
turned to Vivian. “It would hurt less in a fleshy area, but you don’t really
have any fat on you, so pull up your sleeve.”
“Don’t you have anything to sanitize it with?”
“All of the medicine and sanitation stuff has been
stolen.” I pressed the injector against her upper arm and pressed the trigger.
“Son of a biscuit!” she screamed. “Jesus, that hurt!”
There was barely a mark on her skin. I took a clean
cloth from the drawer and held it to her wound, but it stopped bleeding within
seconds, so I threw it in the trash.
“How will you be able to hear what someone is saying
when it’s in my arm?”
“They are Vaigdan technology.” I pulled a small black
devise and held it up for her to see. “With this, I can keep track of you and
everyone else I have the numbers for.”
“You’re going to track me with an iPhone? There’s a
new tracker app? That’s a little… creepy.”
“What is iPhone? This is a computer. I put the
numbers for your chip into it and I can hear what you here. If your cover is
blown or I’m ready for rebellion to rise, I will push a button that will make
the chips vibrate. It will not hurt, but it will feel very weird.”
When I pushed a button on the side of the computer,
the screen lit up. I held the computer over her arm and it scanned the numbers
automatically, adding them to the collection. Once a small beep indicated it
was complete with its task, small letters appeared on the screen for me to type
her name into it.
Vivian and I then split up so I could test the
connection. When the human started singing to herself, it came in clearly
through my computer. After that, I set it to find her and it brought me right
to her easily.
With no more time for practice, Vivian went off on
her own while I scanned the channels, listening into other rebels with trackers
in place. It was very quiet, so I fell asleep.
* * *
That night, I heard Vivian being captured again. I
hated putting my people in danger, but I had to help as many people as
possible.
In a small, abandoned house, I was monitoring a
conversation between two slavers. Since the captive was sleeping, the slavers
felt safe enough to discuss where they were moving to next. When a muffled
sound outside the house startled me, I turned the monitor off and stood from my
chair, not sure if I should look out the window or hide in the concealed
compartment under the bed. My choice wasn’t really that difficult; I was never
one to hide.
I stepped behind the door and a moment later, it
opened slowly. A large, dark form entered through the doorway and paused.
“Nila, come out.”
I sighed. “You scared me, Kseve.” He shut the door as
he turned. “How did you find me?” He held up a black tracking monitor identical
to mine. “When did you…?”
“The second day after I became your guard. You
disappeared and the whole kingdom spent an entire day searching for you. I
found you sleeping, curled up with a book to your chest in an old, abandoned
library.”
I grinned. “That was the day I discovered fiction
stories. I remember it being a lot easier to get to after that.”
“It nearly collapsed on top of you, so I had a troll
go in and reinforce the walls and doorway.”
“You could have just taken the books out.”
“You would have found somewhere else to hide from
your people. Now, what have you found out?”
“Nothing so far. I put a tracker in Vivian. She is
now in the old air filtering center. When she gets moved, we will send Rehta’s
unit in to rescue the slaves. Did you find out anything?”
“No. I got those we rescued to the surface. Can we
trust the human? Her mate betrayed us.”
“We can trust her. Did you find any food?” I asked.
“I got some bread and water from the surface.” He set
out bag down and pulled out a bundle of cloth. I took it and unwrapped the loaf
of bread. “Did you eat any yet?”
“Yes.”
“Liar.” I took a third of the bread and passed the
rest to him. “Eat.”
“You need more than I do because my metabolism is
designed better.”
* * *
The plan went well for the next three days. Vivian
was traded from place to place and after each time she was moved, we sent a
unit of goblins in to rescue the slaves and imprison the slavers. Meanwhile, I
listened to the rebellion for any sign that the slavers had caught onto us.
We were gaining ground, but too slowly. Whoever the
“physician” was, he was adding to his collection of bodies every day. Even
worse, we still had no idea what he was trying to accomplish.
* * *
I was awoken by Kseve insistent prodding against my
chest. “What?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. The only light source was a small
candle. “I am so tired of the dark.”
“Soon, this will be over and you can move
aboveground. Listen to this. Your human is being taken to see the physician.”
He held up the monitor.
I listened to the obvious sounds of Vivian
struggling. Other than some foul insults, nobody said anything to her. When a
door shut and Vivian stopped yelling, I stood. “We need to find her now.”
Just as I was reaching for the doorknob, I head a
door opening in the monitor. “Welcome back, human,” a voice said in Dego.
I froze with shock, for I recognized the voice.
“Nila, that is---”
“I know. Adre is the physician.” I swiped my finger
to the right on the screen, changing the menu options, and selected the alarm
button. “The rebellion has started. We need to save Vivian now. If you think my
uncle is bad when he betrays us, you do not want to see him if we let his mate
get killed.”
I set the monitor to track Vivian. We had followed
her movements at a near enough distance that we were only a few minutes away.
The building was little more than a large shack with people rushing through the
doors. I knew half the captives in this compound were part of the rebellion,
but not if any of them were close enough to save Vivian.
Kseve kept my path clear, debilitating the slavers on
the way. We made our way through two rooms before we found Vivian and my
brother. The human woman was backed into a corner, wielding a scalpel like a
weapon. Adre turned to us and smirked at me, ignoring Kseve.
My brother aged poorly over the years. His black hair
was oily and cut roughly. After working so hard his entire life to create a
respected, clean appearance, it was a shock to see him look so rough and worn.
“I have been waiting a long time for this, little
brother,” Adre said.
Behind me, goblins flooded into the room.
Fortunately, I knew these were my supporters. “You have caused so many
problems, Adre. Come quietly now, and you will get a very nice cell on the surface.
There will be fresh air, plenty of good food, and clean water.”
Kseve stayed by my side while four of the ten other
goblins surrounded my brother. Dytha took Adre’s left arm and Krehm took his
right arm.
“You have defeated me. Kill me, little brother,” Adre
demanded.
“I would never kill you.”
“Why not?”
“You are my brother.”
“You took away my power,” he snarled. “I will kill
you happily and without hesitating.”
“I did it for your own good. You killed our father,
and for that I took away your power. Now you have threatened our people, so you
will go to prison.”
He laughed. “Did you really believe it would be that
simple? You should have killed me years ago, when you had the chance.”
Dytha wasn’t prepared for Adre to suddenly kick him
in the side of the knee. By the time, Krehm reacted to pull Adre away from
Dytha, my brother pulled a weapon out of a holster at his side. The sound of
electrical charging was the only warning before he aimed the silver gun at
Krehm.
“Get down!” I yelled at the goblin.