Not That Far

Chapter 18-Chase

  I gazed bleary-eyed at the uneven wall as Shay kindled a fire near the back of the cavern just after sunrise. I hadn't slept but in brief snatches after the dream last night. I couldn't stop thinking about Sattari, Saiden or Aris long enough to get some real sleep. So it had been nearly sun up before I drifted off again for a few minutes out of pure exhaustion.

  "Couldn't sleep?" Shay guessed with his back still turned. I nodded wearily, but respond verbally when I realized he couldn't see me.

  "Not much. Had another message last night. Couldn't really get back to sleep after that." I hadn't gone through the trouble of explaining the confusion and seemingly impossible way I got the messages from Sattari, so I simply told him they came when I was asleep. Which wasn't a lie.

  I didn't want to burden him with anything else. And what you didn't know you couldn't reveal. Even though I wasn't planning on letting him out of my sight once we got there; plans can always go astray. If they found us out when we finally got in the slave camp I knew he wouldn't tell them anything willingly. But the slave masters have ways of making even the most stubborn spill their guts.

  "Anything we need to know?" Drayan asked from his spot leaned up against the cavern wall. He had woken up late yesterday evening confused and unsettled from nearly three days worth of nightmares. It had taken both Shay and me several hours to convince him that the dreams weren't real. That they were only dreams. At least I hoped they were only dreams.

  "That's about it actually." I answered wearily yanking my fingers through my disheveled hair. "Just that we need to hurry it up. They won't last much longer otherwise." I gave them the gist but didn't go into detail. There wasn't much detail to go into anyhow.

  "This isn't enough to go on." Drayan lashed out angrily, pushing himself off the wall and approaching me. "We need to know exact location of the camp, security detailing, confine conditions, inmate count--stuff like that if we're gonna do this."

  "Need I remind you she's an inmate herself, not the slave mistress, Dray. She doesn't have access to that kind of intel. And even if she did it wouldn't be much use anyhow. It's not like we're breaking in. All we have to do is 'stumble' upon the camp then run away. The guards are sure to give chase if we look weak enough." I cast a sideways glance at him. It was becoming very hard to keep a hold on the precious little patients I originally had. And his abrasive mood was grating on that little bit of patients so very slowly but surely.

  "That's the just thing though. We've gotta break out of the camp once we get what we came for. And although this isn't a central camp, it's still big enough to pose a serious threat to the Association if they can trace us back to them-"

  "Enough!" Shay interrupted our mostly one-sided argument. He glared between the both of us with an irritated look. "Fighting isn't going to fix it. He told us all he knows Drayan, let it go."

  "No, he's right." I sighed heavily while I climbed to my still aching feet. "I'd like to know these things just as much as he does, but I don't control what comes through." I went to join Shay who already had breakfast heating and was busying himself with setting out the plates while pointedly ignoring both of us now. Drayan sighed before sitting down beside the fire with us.

  We ate in relative silence and prepared to depart shortly. We swept the ashes out the the cavern and made sure we hadn't left anything behind before we finally took off around midmorning. Shay climbed onto Zurii's back as we scaled the remaining part of the mountain face. Most if the time I flew with Drayan in my wake while Zurii simply clawed her way up the steep slopes and sheer rock walls.

  But all three of us were gasping for breath before too long. And not long after we set out Shay had to get off and fly the rest of the way up because Zurii had ripped a claw. She limped the remainder of the way painfully. I glanced back and was dismayed to find that she was leaving a faint trail of blood in here wake, staining the snow pink. But there was nothing I could do about it. I just prayed that nobody was following us.