by Jacinta Jade
Taking a breath, she decided to be bold and, putting a hand to her chest, took a step in the direction of the guard. ‘You startled me,’ she told him, her voice hoarse.
The guard winced at her voice and nodded apologetically. ‘Sorry. I was posted to watch for you in case you woke up earlier than expected.’ He shifted sideways, giving Siray the glimpse of the cave beyond. ‘I need to ask you now to come with me.’
Siray nodded and didn’t resist as the guard gently took her elbow and began guiding her from the cave tunnel.
Beyond the narrow confines of that space, the walls pulled back and area around her widened into an immense cavern that was broken into sections by massive columns, the cave ceiling hanging many body lengths above.
As they moved through the large space, Siray stared at the columns and realised that what she had first taken for small walls were actually the points in the rooms where massive stalactites and stalagmites had met over the centuries.
Now she also realised that the voices she had heard came from different points around the cavern, and it seemed the small group she had met earlier was merely part of a larger one. As she was escorted through the cavern, she could see people talking to each other in little groups, their faces sometimes visible by the light of small fires. They talked, laughed, and … ate.
Siray’s stomach cramped painfully at the enticing smells, and it was all she could do not to break away from her escort and run over to those sources of food and warmth.
A couple of the groups looked up over at her and her escort as she passed by at a distance, but after glancing at her briefly, they looked away again. This struck Siray as interesting. So far, no one here seemed to be showing that much interest in her presence.
Siray allowed herself to continue to be half led, half supported across the cavern and was grateful for the guard’s arm holding hers, as her legs felt heavy and useless, causing her to stumble often and the guard to catch her. The guard led her past yet another column, but after having moved a few steps past, he patted Siray’s arm and halted. Some steps away, another fire burned in a small, shallow depression in the cave floor, and beside it, two males sat on blankets, warming themselves and preparing food.
At the sound of Siray and the guard’s arrival, they both looked up, yet shadows still played partly over their faces. One waved a hand, and the guard brought Siray over to stand before them on the other side of the fire.
As the warmth of the fire hit her face, goose bumps rose in a wave down her back. It also made her unconsciously relax the hold she had on her muscles, causing her legs shake. Her guard kept a hand gently resting on her arm, though, and looked pointedly at the males before him, one of whom stood and hurried over to her, the shadows hiding his features.
‘Please, sit—you must be exhausted,’ he said, offering his arm to her as well.
Somewhat embarrassed at her own weakness, Siray accepted the male’s assistance and gratefully sank to the floor.
As her guard left, the other male went back to his side of the fire and busied himself for a moment. When he came back, he held something in his hands, which he then placed on the ground before her.
Siray looked down and stared.
Food. Real food.
Without thought, her hand reached for the loaf of bread, and, feeling the warmth of it, she raised it up to breathe in its smell. Her eyes closed as her mouth salivated, and she sighed. Warmth and food.
A slight scrape against stone and the slosh of liquid told her that someone had placed a drink in front of her. Her eyes sprang open, and she dropped the hunk of bread she’d been eating to grab up the cup and, tipping her head back, took swallow after swallow, the water tasting fresh and pure.
The second male across from her chuckled. ‘I suggest you drink the next one slower, lest you be ill,’ he said in a deep voice. He reached across to her side of the fire with a long arm and, taking her cup, poured her some more water from a jug resting beside him.
The male who had given her food returned to his spot on the other side of the fire and leaned forwards, finally allowing Siray to see his face.
It was the male who had helped her escape.
She stared at him, her cheeks reddening when he noticed her gaze.
He nodded at the food and bread that rested by her feet. ‘Please, eat. You need to regain your strength.’
At his words, Siray remembered the bread she had dropped, and she forgot everything else again as her stomach rose up to protest against the delay. She set about eating it, ripping chunks off and cramming them into her mouth. The bread was warm and fluffy, and Siray thought it was the best thing she had ever tasted.
Looking down the plate that had been placed before her, she saw that they had provided her with fruit and hard-boiled eggs. A banquet. She picked up the eggs and ate them, the ache in her stomach lessening with each bite. When she reached the piece of fruit, she just nibbled on it as her stomach settled, savouring its succulence as her eyes once more returned to study the males across from her.
They had also been eating their own meals, but seeing that she had sated her appetite enough to focus on them, the older male to her right put his plate down and leaned forwards. He was the one she had seen right before she’d passed out in the glade, his hair and manner of speaking confirming as much.
‘I know you must have many questions, Siray,’ he said as he watched her, his dark eyes reflecting the firelight. ‘Hopefully I can give you some of the answers you want.’ He folded his hands. ‘My name is Roalger, and this is Baindan,’ he said, gesturing to the younger male seated beside him. We’—and here Roalger gestured more broadly to the cavern around him—‘fight against those who are risking our world’s future in some new play for power. We are known commonly by society as anarchists or terrorists, yet we fight for society. We prefer to call ourselves the Resistance.’
Siray stared at him, the past actions of the Resistance and warnings about them rushing into her mind. She stopped nibbling on the fruit and put it down.
‘They told us that terror—that the Resistance was brainwashing youths, trying to get them to join their cause,’ she said quietly. ‘They also say that the Resistance wants to overthrow the ruling pair and council so that you can gain power for yourselves.’ Siray studied Roalger carefully.
He nodded slowly. ‘Yes, it’s quite a campaign they have organised against us.’ He leaned forwards, the light from the fire making his eyes flash. ‘Our enemies are well imbedded within the ruling levels, but not everyone is with them. Yet far from making our task easier, this makes it harder, as we never know who to trust.’ Roalger’s eyes narrowed. ‘Even now, I still have some doubts about whether I should be telling you anything at all, in case you’re actually a spy and your whole captivity was a ruse to get you inside our organisation.’
Siray blinked, leaning back a little at his words as her jaw worked soundlessly in disbelief. She even sputtered a bit before she finally managed to get words out in response. ‘A spy? Who would I be spying for? The people who tortured me?’ Ironically, she was angry that her motives were being called into question, even though she had just done the same to Roalger.
Roalger also leaned back. ‘If you think about it, it’s actually a brilliant plan. Groom you during your student days, make a show of your failed graduation, and fake a capture. All to get you where you would be well placed to betray us.’ Roalger smirked, but his eyes continued to bore into hers.
Siray shook her head and shakily got to her feet, somehow managing not to fall over into the fire in the process. She glared down and across the flames at Roalger. ‘You’re wrong. I don’t care about your organisation, and I don’t want any part of it. What I want is to leave here so I can return to my friends and family.’
On the other side of the fire, Baindan sighed. ‘I told you, Roalger—she’s the victim in all this.’
Roalger pressed his lips together in a thin line. ‘Mmmmmmm.’ He was silent for another long moment before he le
aned forwards again. This time, his expression was softer.
‘Unfortunately, Siray, you cannot return to your city.’
She stiffened. ‘Why not?’
Roalger’s expression shifted again, his brows narrowing slightly. ‘The people who took you captive wanted to study you. Analyse you. Experiment on you. If you were to return, they would make you disappear again, and this time even we would not be able to find you.’
Siray’s thoughts returned to Silver and the tests, and she swayed slightly on her feet.
Baindan stood quickly, moving around the fire to place a warm hand on her shoulder. ‘You need to rest and recover your strength.’
Siray flinched a little at his touch, but she let him assist her to a sitting position once more without resisting. ‘Why me? What are they looking for?’ She glanced at Roalger, desperate for answers that would help her make sense of everything, and then found her eyes turning back to follow Baindan as he walked back around to his side of the fire to resume his seat.
‘We think they chose you because you might have traits they are looking for. The same traits that some of us share.’ Roalger nodding pointedly towards Baindan.
Siray’s brows narrowed in confusion, and she shifted her eyes between Roalger and Baindan as if there was a difference she could spot.
Seeing her glances, Roalger gestured to Baindan. ‘Baindan is what you might call a multishifter.’
Siray kept looking at Roalger blankly until Baindan explained.
‘I’m not committed to just one form like most but can Change into a number of forms,’ he said casually.
Her eyes widened.
Roalger lips twisted upwards slightly. ‘When youths began disappearing, some of us eventually linked the emergence of this trait to the disappearances. We investigated. Realised it was our own administration that was responsible and decided to fight back. This is why we are persecuted.’ Roalger gestured to her. ‘It is why you were taken.’
Siray started to shake her head but stopped when she recalled Silver’s words.
His lordship has a special interest in this case.
‘But I failed to Change during the ceremony—why would you, or anyone, think I have this ability?’ she asked them, confused. How could they know something about her that she didn’t even know?
Roalger held his hands up, smiling softly. ‘I think that is a conversation best left to the elders of our group. But I think I can say with surety that the people who held you believed you had this ability.’ He stood. ‘I was only tasked to find and rescue you if possible. Our leaders will want to debrief you as soon as possible.’ Roalger nodded to Baindan and started to walk away.
‘Wait!’ Siray called out. ‘Please, I have to know more. Why—’
Roalger gave a small wave and continued walking, calling over his shoulder. ‘Baindan will assist if you need anything further.’
Then he was out of Siray’s sight. She stared in the direction he had gone for a while, frustrated at her lack of understanding and the lack of answers.
She turned glumly back to the fire and almost jumped when she saw Baindan still sitting there, watching her.
‘Easy there,’ he said with a smirk. Then his face became serious. ‘Although I can understand you being jumpy after … all the stuff that’s happened.’
His casual mention of the events of the last few days snapped something inside Siray. All the tension from the last few days, her fatigue, her frustration, built into a big angry wave that rose inside of her. And found its target.
‘Stuff? Oh, you mean being abducted, beaten, tortured for days on end, dying, being revived, then starved, knocked unconscious, and held in a cave who knows where, by a group of freedom fighters?’
An explosive giggle burst from her, only dying off after she had to gasp for air. Images from the last few days floated through her mind, and she sat staring at the fire, unblinking for a time.
Baindan also sat quietly for a time, watching her. ‘I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. I didn’t know the full extent of it. But once we bring you to our main camp, you’ll get the answers you want.’
Siray looked at him across the flames. ‘Am I your captive, then?’
Baindan looked steadily at her. ‘You are free to leave if you want. We would not make you come with us, if that was your decision.’ He pivoted to his right and pointed across the cavern. ‘The entrance to these caves is down that passage. We would provide you with food and water to take with you if you wished.’ His voice lowered, and he spoke softly as he rotated back to face her. ‘But, as Roalger said, if you leave us now, it will only be a matter of time before those who held you captive find you once more. Your lack of training and your inability to Change means you would be unable to hide from them in the forest or defend yourself.’
Siray looked down at her hands and rubbed them together in front of the fire. Not for warmth—she was warm enough now—but as something comforting to do while she thought. These people claimed they were the Resistance, but they didn’t act or sound like the group the ruling council had warned the cities about. They had rescued her, but how did she know that they truly were the enemies of the people who had tortured her? And now that she thought about Silver and how cunning he had been, she wondered if her ‘rescue’ had really been that. Or was this all a front to get her to go with them to wherever they wanted to take her? She knew so little about these people—so how could she trust any of them?
As if in answer to her thoughts, Baindan spoke again. ‘Siray. You can trust us.’
Siray looked up into his face and studied it for some time. Then she made her decision. ‘I’ll stay,’ she said quietly.
Baindan nodded, looking relieved. ‘Good,’ he said.
They both returned to staring into the fire.
CHAPTER TEN
LATER THAT NIGHT—she assumed it was night, as everyone in the cave had curled up to sleep beside whatever fire they had been sitting at—Siray lay awake listening to the small sounds echoing through the cave around her.
She could hear the breathing of Baindan from where he lay on the other side of the fire pit next to the pillar, and the sounds of other sleepers as they moved or grunted in their sleep somewhere else in the cavern.
After informing Baindan of her intention to stay, the two of them had continued to sit by the fire, exchanging only a few words now and then, mostly about the cave itself. Siray hadn’t wanted to talk about what had happened to her, and Baindan seemingly hadn’t wanted to talk about himself or his group either.
She wondered if he had been under instruction from Roalger not to tell her anything further. Not that it made any difference—she had made her decision.
Siray held her breath and again listened intently to the sounds around her. Baindan was snoring softly now, and farther off, she could hear a faint dripping. She let out her breath carefully and slowly sat up. Without the rise and fall of voices that had filled the cavern earlier, the space around her felt even larger to her senses. Luckily, it wasn’t completely dark, with the glow from the embers of dying fires and small torches in the walls casting patches of lonely illumination throughout the cavern. Yet even with the last of the flickering light, a lot of the cavern was hidden in a deep darkness.
Siray only remembered the actual direction of the cavern entrance that Baindan had pointed out as she had made sure that she had lain down with her feet pointing in that direction.
Now, she slowly pushed herself to her feet, even holding her breath at times just to be sure she wouldn’t wake Baindan. Once she had carefully stepped free of the area around the fire, she began walking in the direction of the door, her hands floating out to her front and sides, as she aimed for the left-hand side of the cavern entrance. She had noted earlier that the space between her fire and the entrance had been fairly clear bar the dips and climbs of the cavern floor. So as long as she tread carefully, she shouldn’t run into anything until she hit the wall.
As she took small,
measured steps, she thought about what little she had learned from Roalger. Potential allies or not, Siray wasn’t going to trust anyone anymore until she knew exactly what was happening to her. And that meant getting out of this place now before they took her anywhere else. She would make her way out of the cavern, get her bearings, and travel to the closest city.
As Siray walked carefully forwards, she felt the floor of the cave tilting upwards slightly, and she moved slowly now, sure she was getting close to the wall by the entrance. Another step. She stretched out her arms, waiting for the brush of the wall against her fingertips. Another step. Another—
She jerked back as her hands hit the wall, surprised. Then, after rotating her wrists and giving her hands a quick rub together to stop them from smarting, Siray placed her left hand against the wall and, keeping it there, turned to her right.
As she moved, Siray let her hand drift along the wall behind her, using her touch to help guide her in the direction of the cavern’s entrance. At least she hoped so. If she had been off in her course initially, she could have ended up to the right of the entrance and would only be making her way farther into the cavern instead of out of it. As she had no way to tell except to continue moving forwards, Siray took a quiet breath in, and, after letting it slowly out, continued on. She estimated that she should be within twenty paces of the entrance if she was indeed on its left. So she began counting her steps as she moved.
When she neared twenty paces, Siray’s heart began to pound just a little harder. She had to be close now. She kept going, and as her count neared thirty paces, she felt her hands grow clammy. Maybe she had ended up on the right-hand side of the entrance after all. If she had, how far away had the first turn in the cavern been? She kept moving, trying to remember when the first obvious turn in the cavern had been.
Such was her focus, that she continued on a full two steps until she finally registered that she could feel nothing but air on her left hand. She froze in shock for a moment, then grinned to herself in the darkness, carefully backing up until her hands once again found that wall. There it was. Placing her palm flat against its surface, she followed the edge of the cavern wall around and into the tunnel that exited the cavern.