Dragon: A Histories of Purga Novel

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Did you do as I asked?" Rone demanded as Fiona came up to him.

Her face was grimed with sweat and locks of her hair were plastered to her forehead. But she nodded.

"We destroyed both lifts. They were the only access points down here, so that should buy us some extra time."

"Good," he responded, looking out over the railing and into the prison. He could see his plan being put into action from his vantage point. A huge hole had been drilled into the prison's floor thanks to Quel and his band of four other engineers.

If they couldn't go up, the only other option was to go down, Rone reasoned. He planned to tunnel their way to the Great Sea and freedom. It wasn't going to be easy but he was confident it would work.

The prison had been cleared of all the bodies and the recently freed citizens were all milling about uneasily. Most of them were dressed in the clothes the Blak Soldiers had been wearing, save for the children. No one had wanted to, but they were a better alternative to the filthy clothes they had been wearing.

"Any luck finding my father?" Rone asked Fiona.

"No. I've tried coaxing the information out of our prisoner but he still says he doesn't know," Fiona replied. "I'm beginning to think he really doesn't."

"Where would they be holding him?" Rone asked, mostly to himself. He was sure his father was down here somewhere. It was the only place that was secure enough to hold the man.

"Rone," Darvian said, his voice cautious. "Are you sure he's even alive? What purpose could they have in keeping the King breathing?"

"Shut up, Darv," Rone answered. "I refuse to believe they would've killed him. He's too valuable. He knows all the access codes to the city's defenses and weapons. He knows all its secrets as well. They would be complete fools to just kill him."

"Does anyone else have that kind of information?" Fiona asked and Rone shot her a dark look. "Sorry, I had to ask."

"No. The King is the only person that has access to the codes. They were decreed too dangerous for general knowledge, so my father restricted access to just himself. Not even I know them," Rone answered hotly. "So again, they would be complete fools to just kill him."

"Then where would they put him?" Darvian asked.

Before anyone could think to answer there were loud shouts and the noise of blasters going off. Screams immediately erupted afterward.

Rone, Darvian and Fiona all ran head first for the stairs and took them two or three at a time until they reached the ground floor. People were running and yelling, trying to get away from something. When they burst through the crowd, they found Quel and his band of four other engineers swarm out of the hole they were drilling. One wasn't fast enough though. He took a round of blaster fire to his back and screamed in pain. There was a bloody hole where it hit him and thin curls of smoke drifted off his shirt and flesh. Quel reached down quickly and snatched the man's arm, hauling him by main strength until he was out of the hole and on the floor. The man's screams rose higher for a moment and then abruptly quit.

Rone looked at Quel, but the big man shook his head.

"What the hell is going on?" Rone asked.

"The drills bored right into some kind of chamber buried another two or three hundred feet beneath us. When we breached, we found ourselves face to face with twelve Blak Soldiers, all of them armed. They were right behind us when we came through."

Rone stared at the entrance to the tunnel. Dimly, he heard the pounding of boots echo up from its depths.

"Fall back to safety!" Rone yelled. "Soldiers, to the fore! Prepare to fight!"