Psychic

34. Family

After leaving the restaurant, Rai spent about an hour looking around the city for her uncle, Antonio. She knew he was living in Minesce from the letters she had received from him. They had once been very close. When Rai was young, Antonio, who was Lily's brother, lived with them in Korrik. He had acted as her father for several years while Cliff was at sea.

Rai's feet were starting to hurt her. She was tired of walking around and decided to approach the nearest person for directions. "Hey, sorry, do you know where they sell the slaves?" The stranger directed her to an old abbey. On the way, Rai explained to Aila, "my uncle works for a slaver as an accountant. He would've been there when they were sold."

When they arrived at the abbey, they found it locked. Rai pulled on the door a few times to be sure when a man opened it suddenly. "Whoa," she stepped back quickly. "Uh, is Antonio Rodriguez here?"

"Why?"

"Need to see him."

"Why?"

Rai became slightly agitated, "he's my uncle. You don't have to let me in. If he's still here, just tell him I'm here." Without a response, the door was closed in her face. "Um, okay then."

"We just wait, I guess," Aila said softly.

Rai had been leaning against the railing of the stairs to the door when it flew open again. Antonio saw her instantly and stood frozen with his hand on the door. Rai recognized him instantly since he had not changed in years. He had darker skin than Rai and Lily and his nearly black hair wavy was always cut just a few inches past his shoulders. He had thick eyebrows over his intense shadowed eyes, currently staring at Rai.

Jericho walked up to the open door to look inside and smelled the bottom of Antonio's pants. He looked down at the dog then up at Rai. "You have got to kidding me." He had the same thick Spanish sounding accent as Lily. "The fuck are you doing here?" He opened the door further and stepped out, now apparently ready to scold her. "I swear to the gods, if you ran away-"

"Did you not recognize me?" she cut him off quickly.

"You look so different than I expected but Jericho is unchanged. Now what the fuck are you doing here, huh? Where is Lil?"

"Home. She wanted me to come. Kind of. You've seen pictures of the boys. The twins. One of them was sold here along with two other kids."

"Then it was him. I wasn't sure at the time. Not like I could've prevented the sale anyway."

"It's fine. I need to know who bought him."

"You do not. What are you thinking? You crazy?"

"Yeah. Did the person who made the delivery not tell you that they had actually taken nine kids from the camp. Isaac and Aaron, Sahalli and two of my cousins from Dad's side." Antonio had left Korrik ten years ago, so he had never met Sahalli, who was only eight. The only children he had ever known from his family, were the ones who were adults now like Lestat, Rai and her brother Matt. "And I got her back. My friends helped me steal another one right out of a private zoo. Another one we took from a lieutenant with a giant octopus. At least, I think it was an octopus."

"You mean Sumeia? In Diocus? You fought with Sumeia and Charles?"

"Well, no. My friend did that but I did fight some Generals from Morrisuke. You're distracting me. I need to know where you sold those kids. There would've been three. They were delivered together. All under ten years old."

"Yeah, I remember," Antonio sighed. He went into the pocket of his jeans and took a key out, holding it out to her. "Let yourself into my house. When I'm done here, I'll go tell you what you need to know."