The Hunt for Freedom

Chapter Thirty Seven

    Lainey woke cold and hungry. She felt for Dakari, found nothing, reached for the food and came up empty handed. She saw a faint light and moved towards it. Down the path she found him sitting up gorging on a chicken leg. He had conjured a ball of fire and it lit the passageway, offering warmth and making it look as cozy as the skiing lodge her parents favored. He smiled at her and offered her the bucket of chicken.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" He asked between bites.

She grabbed a wing, and looked up at him. "I know that the cave faces west, because I could see the sunset as I scrubbed the entrance." She bit into the heavenly food as if it was food from a five star restaurant.

"That's good, could you see anything else?" He asked, pausing to practically inhale a muffin.

"No, just a long flat bank of cliffs. When he took me to steal that girl I saw that the cliffs are connected to regular land, with a town not too far....at least it didn't look too far on the back of a dragon."

"Did you see people, maybe hear their accents?" He asked as he tore into another piece of chicken.

"I have no memory of that night after we landed. He does something with his eyes...."

"I have heard the weredragons talking about that in the kitchen. They are rather crude in all that they can make females do. They are also experts in technology, and medical science. For all this primitive living, they are rather genius. I guess that happens when you live for centuries."

Lainey thought back to all she had seen in her days of servitude. In her frantic attempt to go unnoticed she hadn't really processed what the weredragons were up to. There were countless caves that looked like science labs, beakers and test tubes littered every surface. At the time she had thought it was some kind of infirmary. Gurneys lined the walls, and sometimes young girls were strapped to them.

There were also caves full of gadgets. Cameras and drones, laptops and virtual screens. She was never allowed to clean in these rooms but she had once been summoned to bring dinner to a weredragon that couldn't tear himself away from whatever project he was engrossed in. There were at least twenty other weredragons busily pounding away at their keyboards in that room. No one spoke a word. It hadn't dawned on her then that there should be no electricity or internet in a cave.

"I do know they love surveillance cameras,". She started. "In Essam's office upstairs, and in his private quarters he has banks of computers. When I am cleaning he forgets I am there and I watch him watching people. His favorite seems to be a girl with long dark hair that lives by the beach. He watches her like a jealous husband. He loses his mind when she goes inside her big house. I guess he can't watch her there." She trailed off and drained the rest of the water pitcher. She was still thirsty and thought of the tide pools at the end of the tunnel. Maybe he could make them drinkable.

"I guess we'd better get moving," she said and looked up to see a look of complete terror on his face. All the color he had started to regain was gone and his eyes had fixated on something behind her. She turned quick to face whatever was poised to attack, knowing it must be horrible if it scared him that bad.

There was nothing there, just the eerie glow of his private ball of flame bouncing off the stone. She turned back to find him head down, eyes closed.

Had he died of fright? What had just happened? Lainey's heart was racing as her imagination got the better of her.

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With a pounding rain bouncing off the glass walls of the conference room, Maggie longed for the sun. It was rare to have natural rain here, and even still, it was unwelcome. It had been raining for hours and Maggie wondered if Katalea could make it go away soon.

The meeting had gotten boring with no new news to discuss and she had turned her attention to the drone circling the palm trees that lined the perimeter. Penny students must be practicing in the rain, she thought. She thought of Geoff, her sweet mate, waiting for her to finish up so they could each lunch together. She thought of food and realized she was starving.

She felt the nudge inside her head of a message and smiled as she heard her brother's voice.

"It's Dakari!" She yelled, and all eyes turned to see.

They quickly realized what was happening and started firing questions at her. She ignored them and covered her ears so she could concentrate on what Dak was saying. Who knows how long she would have him?

"He says he is getting stronger. Lainey is bringing him food and information. He says they are inside a cave, in a west facing bank of cliffs. He can smell saltwater, so he thinks it is the ocean they face. He doesn't know what ocean." She stopped.

Everyone was looking at her, the room had gone silent. They waited for more, but no more came. Maggie was so focused she hadn't noticed that she had begun ripping up the paper in front of her into tiny shreds. Tears began to slide down her face as she feared she had lost him again. Suddenly she paled. Sheet white, and eyes terrified she shouted to everyone.

"Dak says they have cameras on us. He has been watching Katalea for months!"

Maggie turned to the drone. The others followed her gaze. Was it possible? Abe stood and headed for the door, conjuring a large rock on the way.

"Wait!" Katalea yelled. "Let's not give away what we know. We might jeopardize Dakari's escape."

Abe kept going but tossed his rock into a puddle. It was obvious that he wasn't pleased with being yelled at but he couldn't fault her logic. Katalea watched as he masked his anger with concern and turned back to the group.

"How can we use this to our advantage?" He said, turning to the male warriors.

Katalea spoke again. It was not the time to call him out on his gender control issues. "Let us break for lunch. It will give us all time to think about this and how we want to handle it. We will meet again at sundown, but let's meet in the basement. I will have it swept for all unwelcome devices and we can speak freely."

"Great idea," said Farsi, "I will send a crew over immediately."

Maggie sat as everyone filed out. She turned to Katalea and whispered, "Dakari says the weredragons name is Essam, and he's obsessed with you. He doesn't think he can see inside the house though, but he sees everything else you do.

Katalea's mind was turning. "Then we'll just have to give him something to watch."