“I’m coming with you,” Jakke said.
“I will come, too,” their father said as he followed after his two sons.
Searching the royal gardens, there was no sign foul play---at least none that was obvious. They continued their search, however, and Dazz heard Jakke call out, “Over here!”
When he hurried over, he spotted Derrk lying behind a bush. “Is he…”
“Yes, he’s dead,” Jakke said before looking up at his brother with worried eyes. “He was Sydney’s guard.”
“Let’s go. I’ll organize a search party. They couldn’t have gone far. It’s too hard to hide humans on our planet, so someone had to have seen something,” their father said.
Chloe
Oh, God, my head hurts! Chloe thought before even opening her heavy eyes. She felt the hard floor underneath her sprawled-out body. As her hand slowly went to her aching head, she tried to open her eyes.
Getting her first look around---well, at the ceiling, really---it looked like some type of odd wood. Probably from the trees here. Turning her head slightly, she could tell the walls were made of the same material. If she were on Earth, she’d say it was a homemade storage shed, emptied out so she could be thrown inside.
Chloe heard a moan, which helped to clear some of the fogginess clouding her thought. Sydney! Chloe rolled to her side before trying to sit up. She had to make sure Sydney and the baby were okay.
Spotting her new friend lying on the opposite side of the room, Chloe slowly crawled over to her as she fought off the effects of the drug.
“Sydney, are you okay?” Sydney didn’t answer, just moaned every now and then.
Raking the hair out of her friend’s face, Chloe said, “Don’t worry, I’m gonna get us out of here.” She knew that saying the words aloud was as much for her own benefit as it was Sydney’s.
Standing on unsteady legs, Chloe finally made it to the door. Of course, it was locked. Instead of beating on it and alerting anyone to the fact that she was awake, she stumbled back to Sydney and sat down.
Have patience!
Chloe sat quietly, letting her body flush out the last of the drug that plagued her system. She needed to be focused; sharp-minded when their captors came.
Sydney lay on the floor beside her. When she started to move more, Chloe knew she was coming around. “Ahh…my head,” she moaned. When her eyes slowly opened, she saw Chloe looking down at her. “What happened?” Sydney asked as she tried to sit up.
“We were drugged and kidnapped,” Chloe said in a deliberately calm tone.
“Why?” Chloe watched as her friend started breathing rapidly and the pulse in her neck quickened.
“Hey, calm down. Everything will be alright,” Chloe soothed her; she’d been afraid Sydney might overreact.
“You don’t know that,” Sydney said, almost hyperventilating.
“Listen,” Chloe started rubbing her back. “Put your head down and take slow, deep breaths.” When Sydney did as she instructed, Chloe asked, “Feel better?”
“Yeah, I think so.” She took a couple more calming breaths before looking at Chloe. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to be patient, smart, and then we’re going to get out of here.”
“You think we can?” Sydney asked with hopeful eyes.
“Well, we’re certainly going to try.”
The two of them moved so they were sitting with their backs propped against the wall.
“What do you think they want?” Sydney finally asked.
“Truthfully?” Sydney nodded. “I think that whoever took us will use us as hostages or leverage. When I was on the Defender, someone helped a Tureis escape and kidnap me. That’s how I met Mara; she was also being held by the Tureis.
“Someone doesn’t want King Mallik to be ruler anymore. I think they’ll use us to try to force him to step down,” Chloe finished.
“Then we’re screwed,” Sydney complained. “That man doesn’t like me.”
Chloe laughed, and said, “Hold a grudge much?” Sydney looked sharply at her, but Chloe just shrugged and said, “Sorry, I just call it as I see it.”
“He wasn’t nice to me.” Sydney huffed.
“Was he mean to you?”
“No, he just ignored me,” Sydney grimaced.
“So he ignored you; how long are you going to hold a grudge?” she asked, and when Sydney just shrugged again, Chloe continued, “You’re mated to his son and about to have his grandchild. Why not be the bigger person and extend an olive branch?”
“I’ll think about it.”
Time passed slowly, so Sydney filled her in on what little she knew about Azziar. In the back of Chloe’s mind, she kept hoping Dazz would open the door any minute, but it didn’t happen.
“How long do you think they’ll keep us here?” Sydney asked.
“I don’t know.” After a few minutes of silence, Chloe thought of something she’d been wondering about. “Hey, you don’t know how a standard day compares to an Earth day, do you?”
“I haven’t thought about it for a while, but I do remember that their standard week is the same as nine earth days. Oh…if you want to know his age, then divide it with 3.5, which will tell you his Earth age.”
“That helps a little. I guess I need to stop thinking in Earth time, since we’re not on Earth anymore.”
A noise outside the door halted further conversation. Chloe watched as the door cracked open, and then she burst out, “Zanne, what are you doing here?”
“You know him?” Sydney asked.
“Yeah, he was the doctor’s assistant on Dazz’s ship.”
He stepped further inside the room, and with a malicious grin, he said, “Finally, I have you.”
“But why, Zanne?” Chloe asked, shocked because she’d thought him nice until now.
“Why? How better to hurt the Commander than to kill his mate? On the Defender, we tried to kill you. But after he rescued you from the Tureis, someone was always with you. I even tried to find a way to slip mucchal into your food, but Sakku insisted on tasting everything whenever a tray was sent to your quarters.”
“So why not kill me now?” Chloe asked. Something wasn’t right.
“After arriving home, I and some others found that we were not alone in our thinking about Mallik and the ruling family. There’s been a hidden uprising for a while, and we now have enough males to make our move. Imagine how happy we were to find both of you walking in the royal garden with only one guard! Now we can force his hand, make King Mallik bow down to a new ruler.”
“You do realize that this makes no sense. King Mallik also lost his mate in the same attack, so there has to be another reason.”
“Shut up!” he yelled.
Someone else walked into the room. She would have been beautiful with her long, flowing white hair, but the hate flaring in her eyes made her unattractive. She was staring straight at Sydney, and Sydney was staring back.
“Cassia, it’s nice to see you again,” Sydney said with condemnation.
“You know her?” Chloe asked.
“She’s one of the consorts Jakke got rid of after we mated.”
“One of the consorts!” Cassia yelled. “I was supposed to be his mate and one day help rule the planet! That was always our plan, and then you came and ruined it all!”
“What plan?” Chloe asked, still trying to put everything together.
“So you never cared about Jakke?” Sydney asked with anger lacing her voice.
“Oh, I cared! I cared that one day he would rule---at least for a while---until he died of an unfortunate accident,” she sneered.
“You rotten bitch!” Sydney spat.
Cassia took a menacing step toward Sydney. “I will…” Cassia began, until Zanne yelled at her.
“Shut up, Cassia! Leave her alone and don’t say another word!” She glared, first at him, and then Sydney, before stomping out of the room. She would be a problem---if not now, then later, Chloe thought.
“For now,” his smile was evil. Chloe knew that whatever he had planned would not be a simple death.
Chloe didn’t like him being in the room with them, and they needed to get away as soon as possible. After an uncomfortable silence, she asked the only thing that came to mind.
“Well then, can you bring us some food? Sydney’s pregnant and she has to eat to stay…alive.”
He stared at her before letting his eyes dart to Sydney and then back to hers, weighing the truth of her words. Even with Zanne being the healer’s assistant, he didn’t know much about human anatomy.
“Fine, I’ll be back.” He left, closing the door behind him. Chloe checked, and yep---it was locked.
“What are we gonna do?” Sydney asked with fear in her voice.
“We’re getting out of here. We know there are at least two of them, but hopefully, that’s it. When he comes back, somehow, you need to get his attention---be a distraction. I’ll do the rest.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I just wish there was something in here you could use as a weapon.” Chloe said, looking around the completely empty, square room.
“You wait over in the far right corner, and I’ll be to the left, closer to the door,” she added. Sydney nodded and moved into position.
Sometime later, Chloe heard someone at the door. When Zanne came in carrying some food, Chloe waited just long enough to make sure he was alone.
“Thank you for bringing me some food,” Sydney said, getting his attention.
Chloe went for her trusted move. She did a leg sweep, knocking his legs out from under him. Zanne dropped the tray and tried to stop his fall with flailing arms. It was too late; before his back hit the floor, Sydney pounced. She came down on top of him, and as he hit the floor, her knee hit his crotch.
Her elbow connected with the side of his temple, and pain vibrated down her arm. His skull must be made of steel. At least it worked!
As he lay there unconscious, Chloe looked at Sydney and said, “Let’s go.”
“How long do you think he’ll be out?” Sydney asked.
“I don’t know,” Chloe replied.
The two of them cautiously but quickly left the room, not wanting to run into any others. Chloe had no doubt that if they were caught, they’d not have another chance to escape.
They made it out of the two-room cabin, and Chloe got her first look at the forest the cabin stood in. The trees were at least ten times taller than the largest trees she’d seen on Earth.
“We’ve got to go,” Chloe whispered to Sydney, who was also staring at the massive trees.
“Go where?” Sydney asked as they started running. She stayed right behind Chloe, letting her lead the way.
“Anywhere but here.”
As they jogged in silence, Chloe kept looking over her shoulder, worried that Zanne was following somewhere behind them.
They’d been running for at least fifteen standard minutes when Sydney said, “Stop.”
When Chloe stopped, she spotted Sydney gasping for breath, with her hands on her stomach.
“Are you okay?” Chloe asked. The cabin was out of sight, but they hadn’t run that far.
“I’m okay, but I don’t think I can run anymore. The baby is too big for me to run very much. I think it’s bouncing from kidney to kidney.” After catching her breath, the two of them started walking at a hurried pace.
“Something keeps bothering me,” Sydney said.
“What’s that?”
“When I was on Earth, I rescued Jakke’s youngest brother. When I helped another Azziarin escape, he smelled Takkeo on me. That’s how they knew where to look for Takkeo.”
“Makes sense,” Chloe said, still leading the way.
“Yeah, except I smelled really bad, you know? I hadn’t showered in months, and the closest I got to Takkeo was helping him to my hideout.” Chloe stopped and faced Sydney. “Do you think Zanne can track our scent?”
All the breath rushed out of Chloe. She knew she’d missed something! “Let’s find the strongest---smelling plants around us and rub them all over our bodies. I’m not sure what the ground is made from, but we can try to do the same with it. We’ll just pretend it’s dirt.”
The two of them got busy, sniffing everything around them, and then helping each other coat their skin, clothes, hair---their entire bodies.
They walked for what seemed like hours, and Chloe could tell Sydney was exhausted. It would soon be dark, and they needed a place to spend the night.
“Let’s check out that fallen tree over there,” Chloe said, pointing at something in the distance.
When they got close to it, Chloe looked inside and noted it was hollow and she could see out the other end. It was around 3 feet high, 3 feet wide, and more than twenty feet long.
“What do you think?” Sydney asked while staring into it.
“I think it’ll be fine. You crawl inside and rest; I’m going to block the back entrance with whatever I can find. I’ll see if I can find some rocks or something to help partially block the front entrance. That’ll help mask our scents, and maybe protect us from predators.”
“Predators?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” Chloe tried to reassure her friend, but she didn’t really know what was out there.
Chapter Twelve
Dazz
“This is driving me crazy!” Dazz exclaimed as he paced the room. “I feel like I should be doing something!”
“I’m going kill whoever took my mate!” Jakke fumed.
“Not if I kill him first!” Dazz continued pacing. “I don’t understand why this is happening. Almost everyone lost family members during the last Tureis attack. That has to be an excuse. Someone must be inciting anger to recruit members, but there has to be another reason for the attacks on our family.”
“We will figure it out after we get our mates back.”
“I hope so, Jakke.”
“Jakke, Dazzan, we have a lead on your mates,” King Mallik said as he entered his office. Dazz heard the concern in his voice; his father only called him Dazzan in private when he was under stress.
“What have you learned?” Dazz asked, stopping right in front of his father.
“We interviewed many males and females, and the only name that came up frequently was Zanne. I think we should start with him.”
“Zanne? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Dazz paced. “We knew Trevvin had help, but I never suspected Zanne!”
“Do you know where he is?” Jakke asked.
“He has a home near here, and a cabin located in the east forest.”
“Let’s start with his home,” Dazz suggested.
The three of them, along with ten soldiers, set out toward Zanne’s house. When they arrived, Dazz was the first one to knock on the door. When nobody answered, they spread out and looked around. They peered through windows and checked every door.
“Where is this cabin?” Jakke asked his father.
“We don’t have an exact location; only that it’s in the east forest.”
“Let’s head that way, and maybe someone can tell us where to find it.”
Three standard hours later, they found the small cabin nestled in the large forest.
“It’s empty,” Jakke called out, disappointment lacing his voice.
Dazz’s eyes took in the food that lay on the floor in the otherwise-empty room, and his lips twitched a little. “They’ve been here.”
“How do you know?” Jakke asked.
Dazz sniffed the air, and then said, “I can still smell her. It’s faint, but there.” Jakke sniffed as well, and then nodded. Dazz continued, “See the food on the floor? Chloe incapacitated Zanne when he came in. If I were to guess, they then escaped and he is after them.”
“It’s too late to go on now; we’ll sleep here, and start the search first thing i
n the morning,” their father said.
Dazz didn’t want to wait, but he knew they’d never be able to see anything in the forest. The trees were too dense, and wouldn’t allow much moonlight to shine through. They could use artificial illumination, but that would alert Zanne of there location if he was nearby.
After a restless night’s sleep, Dazz rose just as the first sun made an appearance. Jakke was already up and ready to go.
As they traveled, they took their time looking for any signs that someone had passed by. They also sniffed the air, each one trying to catch the scent of his mate.
“Did you hear that?” Dazz asked his older brother in a whisper.
“I did,” Jakke answered.
They stealthily headed toward the male voice that said, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Jakke and Dazz looked at each other before one went to the left while the other went to the right. Half the males followed Dazz, while the others followed Jakke.
As they circled around, Dazz saw Zanne at the entrance of a hollow log, taunting his mate. He quietly withdrew a hunting knife that was sheathed on his leg, and like a predator, he quietly closed the distance between the two.
Zanne never saw it coming when Dazz forcefully grabbed his hair, using it to tilt his head back while the knife came to his throat.
“Zanne, it’s nice to see you again,” Dazz said with his face twisted in anger.
“Finish him,” Jakke said, now standing by his side.
“Goodbye, traitor!”
Just as Dazz was about to slit Zanne’s throat, King Mallik ordered, “Stop!” When all eyes turned to the king, he supplied, “You can’t get information from a dead male.”
Dazz knew he was right, but he wanted to slay the male for touching his mate. Reluctantly, and before he could change his mind, he handed Zanne over to another male, saying, “Tie him up and make sure he can’t escape!” Taking a deep breath, he looked into the hollow log, and called, “Chloe, are you in there?”
“Dazz?” she called back, and relief filled his soul.
“Yes, you’re safe now.”
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