Dragon Lost (Book One of the Dragon Insurgent Series)

Chapter 3: Betrayal Within

Betrayal Within

It was about an hour later when the woman decided to talk to our parents. She stood and walked over to where mother and father were laying, and once she was at a respectful distance, she bowed low and said, "It has been a true honor to be welcomed into your home, I cannot thank you enough for the experience, and I want to tell you that your children are beautiful, and your wife is unimaginable."

Father nodded at this last statement, "I do believe introductions are in order. My name is Freon, and I thank you for the compliments. True humility cannot be outshined by mere petty praise."

Mother looked down at the woman standing before her and said, "I am Isis, and though I was scared at first when you came into our cave, I see now that we have nothing to fear from you." she looked to where Catherine and I were sitting, "My children love to hear about your adventures, and I am pleased that they grew to you in such a short time." Looking back at the woman, "Then again, young ones are always more open to new ideas, given they have little experience with the outside world."

The woman nodded, "That is true. My son Sam was always running around saying hi to anyone he could get to. He never cared if they would hurt him or not, as far as he was concerned, everyone was his friend."

Father leaned down and brought his head even with the woman's, "We still do not know your name. Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself?"

She smacked her hand against her forehead, "How rude of me. I hear all there is to know about your life and family, and I forget to tell you my name. My dearest apologies, my name is Elena, but my friends call me Elli."

"Then it is wonderful to meet your acquaintance Elli." Father said.

They talked for a few more minutes in hushed voices, but I caught the words "Home" and "Travel" a lot. I could only guess that they were talking about where we would be moved to in order to be safe from future visitors. We walked out of the cave, and the men stopped whatever they were doing to stand at attention. When my mother followed father out of the cave I heard more than one gasp, and I noticed that mother was not trying to not appear stunning in the morning light.

"She's showing off!" I thought to myself, "As if father would stand for that!" but a quick look showed he was being just as deliberate as she was, if not more so. "What a disaster! At least Catherine hasn't gone being her usual nuisance."

We walked down the mountain, mother and father flying down to meet us at the camp. All the while Elli was talking to her men in a small voice about what she had learned from us. I tuned it out because I had heard it all before, and focused on not tripping on the many rocks that littered the rough trail.

We entered the camp and our parents flew down to land in a cloud of fine dust. As they landed, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked to see that one of the men had raised his firearm and was aiming for mother's exposed side. I called out a warning just as her fired, but mother did not fall over dead, bleeding from a mortal wound. Instead I saw a dart sticking out from her side like a parasite, but before she could react, the drugs contained within it shut down her mental systems and she passed out on the rocks. Father noticed she had fallen, but before he could retaliate, a second dart found its way into his side. He was able to gasp out one word as he too passed out.

RUN.

I immediately ran behind one of the tents and saw as Catherine was shot with a smaller dart. She looked at it with a slightly confused look, and then fell to the side, out cold. I watched as they were dragged into the cages, and nearly jumped out in an attempt to rescue them, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me. I looked back to see Elli behind me, and she said in a voice filled with fear, "We have been betrayed. One of my men's grandfather was in an earlier expedition that your father killed. I am sorry to say they mean to do exactly as I feared would happen. They told me either I went along with them or they would kill your family."

She hung her head, "I am ashamed that I let them frighten me into submission, but I am not going to let them get all of you." She raised her head again, looking me in the eye. "The camp that we are based in is about three months to the west if you go on foot. I can't do anything more than that you will need to enter the Capital in order to have a chance in finding your family." She stopped to check to see if we had been spotted, then continued, "If you manage to find your way into the city, you will need to make your way to Sumter Corp. Sumter Corp is the corporation that paid for our trip, so they will be holding your family in the main building for some time until they decide what to do to them." We heard Elli's name being called as the men gathered up the last of the gear, "I have to go, but I hope this will not be the last time we see each other."

She ran off to help the men clean up the last of the gear and attach the cages to the machines. I crawled back until I could hide under a rock outcropping, hoping that by some miracle they didn't find me and take me along with. The machines started up, and soon their noise filled the surrounding hills, a deep thrumming that rattled my very bones. Once the noise had faded, I climbed out from under the outcropping and watched as my family was flown away to some awaiting horror. I made a silent vow that the first thing I would do upon finding them, was to rip the heart out of the man who had betrayed us.