by Amelia Jade
“Now, any more questions? No? Okay, get inside,” Blaine said, waving them forward.
Zeke shook his head, and followed Asher as they made their way to the door. This was just going to be good, he could tell.
***
Several hours later, with nightfall in full force, they emerged from their makeshift transportation box.
“Where are we?” Zeke said, immediately looking around. They were in a forest, of sorts. It was thick, overgrown, and very unused to any sort of traffic, not even animals. Tall pines with their multitude of branches were interspersed with spruce, cedar, and even a few big oak trees. But it was the dense clusters of brush that really made the space feel tight for someone so used to the unceasing horizon of the sky. The thickness of it all reduced their visibility to perhaps fifty feet at best.
Overhead, the canopy had closed in, preventing them from seeing the sky and any trace of the moon. The weather still felt like it was going to storm, so Zeke had to wonder if the clouds wouldn’t be occluding the sky now anyway. He looked around the undergrowth one more time.
They certainly weren’t in any of the forests around Cadia that he’d been in. That didn’t mean much, as Cadia was huge and he hadn’t explored it all, or even close to the majority. So they were somewhere new.
“So, thoughts?” Dom asked as the three of them took in their surroundings before making a decision.
“Well, we can’t see a damn thing here. The trees are so thick, climbing one would be unlikely to help much.” Zeke shrugged and looked over at Asher. “I would say follow the land and go for high ground. Try to find a clearing, a big hill, anything like that, that might provide us some insight as to where we are, so we can triangulate our way home.”
There was no argument from the others, and they began to shove their way through the undergrowth.
“This is annoying,” he grumped as they moved along, taking turns leading the way and dealing with finding a path.
“Tell me about it. They didn’t even give us a chance to load up on food. I’m starved,” Asher complained.
“You’re always starving,” Dom chimed in. “Ever since you met Quinn. I swear, she’s trying to fatten you up or something. The woman feeds you constantly. It’s not good for you, man.”
All of them laughed.
“Well, it hasn’t helped now that Amber is around,” Asher said, turning the tables. “She’s just as bad, and when the two of them get going, look out!”
More laughter.
“So, is she sticking around, Zeke?” Dom asked.
Zeke hesitated. “I hope so. But who knows. She’s safe now, but things are so haywire. Don’t forget, there are people after her outside of Cadia, and if anyone found out she was here in Cadia, she’d be in a huge amount of trouble. So things are stressed.” He shook his head. “You know, there still hasn’t been any sign of the shifter who actually took her into Cadia in the first place. No more attacks, no nothing.”
“Do we even know what kind of shifter?” Asher asked.
“Not really. From what Amber has told me, a flyer, but not a dragon,” Zeke said. There were only three types of flying shifters, which left either a gryphon or Pegasus shifter. “But nobody else really seems to be asking that question. Or the other question bothering me.”
“What other question?” Dom sounded intrigued. Their pace had slowed a bit, but they were definitely heading uphill at the moment.
“Why?”
“Why what?” Asher asked, shooting him a puzzled look.
“Why take her and just drop her there in the first place? Why not kill her and be done with it? Instead, the shifter knocked her out, or someone working for her company knocked her out, and then dropped her into the middle of Cadia, and let her wake up? How does that make any sense?”
Zeke watched as the other two contemplated that question, and failed to come up with an answer.
“Did it hope she would be caught, and then killed for trespassing?” he asked, trying to talk it through aloud.
“Or perhaps they didn’t bank on you defending her, and claiming that her story was the truth. Perhaps they thought she’d be blamed for the pipeline, which would allow her to disappear.” Asher ventured forth the explanation.
“That’s the best answer I’ve heard yet,” Zeke said. “But it still feels like there is a puzzle piece missing somehow.”
Abruptly the forest before them stopped as they pushed their way through another darkened cluster of bushes, vines, and other plants.
A swath of forest had simply been eradicated, like someone took a knife and cut it out. And placed down in its midst was a long, metal tube on upraised supports.
“That’s the fucking pipeline,” Zeke said aloud.
“It can’t be,” Dom said as they moved down the slight dip in the land toward the huge steel apparatus.
“It is.”
“But I thought it only went a few miles inside Cadia?” Asher asked, looking around them. “I’m telling you, this forest isn’t a forest anywhere on the western edge of Cadia. I know those forests well.”
“So do I,” Zeke said, the others turning to face him. “Which tells me one thing.”
“What?”
“We’re not in Cadia. They dropped us off outside.” He pointed down the cut, where the mountains were visible as bare silhouettes in the distance. “I bet if we had seen those without the pipeline, and with no sun, moon, or stars to guide us, we would have assumed we needed to be heading away from them. Instead of toward them.”
All three Top Scale cadets stared at the mountains for a moment.
“Those sneaky bastards!” Asher exclaimed, referring to their instructors.
“Well, we have them now. We can just follow this straight back into Cadia.”
The others agreed and they began to jog along under the pipeline, where the ground was smooth and the footing wasn’t treacherous.
“Hey, guys, something just occurred to me,” Dom said as they went.
“What’s that?” Zeke asked, still breathing easily as the miles began to slip past them.
“Nobody knew about this pipeline entering Cadia, right?”
“Right.”
“Okay, so how is it then that this mystery shifter knew not only where to go, but who to take? Doesn’t that seem a little coincidental for all this?”
Zeke pulled up his run, coming to a halt as he stared at his new friend.
“Dom, you are absolutely right. I never considered that angle before. Shit, I’ve been so concerned for her safety and just finding the one who did this that I didn’t ask how they knew to be there in the first place.”
Asher nodded. “Something is definitely going on here.”
Zeke looked at them both. “We know where we are now. Getting back is easy. I’m going to shift, and follow the pipeline, see if I can’t find any clues. Anything that might shed some light on what the hell is going on here.”
“But Blaine said—” Dominick began to say, but a sharp motion from Zeke cut him off.
“I know. I’m not saying you two have to join me. But don’t forget, Dom, they are also trying to teach us to think. To realize that sometimes we need to act on our own. We’ve realized what they tried to do to us. Yes, it was somewhat lucky that we ran across the pipeline and found out much easier than we likely would have otherwise. But there are some serious questions that need to be answered, and they’re barely even being asked!”
The other pair exchanged looks.
“So,” he asked. “Am I going alone, or is anyone coming with me?”
***
They searched high.
They searched low.
He swiftly followed the pipeline from where they had found it, to its ending in Cadia.
But there was nothing that he felt might give him more clues.
“Okay, we should probably turn back,” Asher said as they continued to search north of the end of the pipeline.
“Agreed,” Zeke said unhappily. He wan
ted to keep searching, but they were already right on the border of the gryphons’ territory, and none of them were in the condition, nor mood, to deal with the questions that would inevitably be asked if they strayed into another shifters’ territory. It just wasn’t worth it.
“Oh shit.”
Zeke’s long neck whipped around to focus on Dom, who had just uttered the oath.
There, behind them and closing fast, was a large figure in the air.
A dragon.
“Guardian?” Ash asked.
“Worse, I think,” Dom replied as they banked around to meet the oncoming figure.
“Blaine?” Ash asked again.
“Worse,” Zeke said as the figure resolved out of the darkness.
“Oh shit,” Ash said.
It was Daxxton, the Wing Commander of Top Scale.
“We are so fucked,” Zeke muttered.
Together the trio came to a halt, hovering mid-air as their wings worked hard to keep them aloft.
“I’m listening,” Daxxton said without preamble, wanting to hear their excuse for being in dragon form.
With nods from the others, Zeke took the front, and explained to the head shifter at Top Scale why they were doing what they were. He told him about the pipeline, the unexplained presence of the shifter who took Amber, and how something about it all just didn’t add up. Zeke was very careful not to mention the fact that Amber was still among them, instead phrasing it to seem as if his curiosity had been eating away at him with all the missing facts.
“So, based upon these unanswered questions of yours, you decided to break mission protocol of your own accord?” Daxxton asked in a dangerous voice.
Zeke took a deep breath in. “Yes sir, I did,” he said, stressing his own decision. “We had deciphered the mission we were on. After that, it was simply a matter of time, not logic, skill, or other aspects. Simply time to run back into Cadia and to the Academy. The mission was, in essence, complete. I wasn’t sure if we would get another chance to investigate what was going on, and so I took it. I take full responsibility, sir.”
Daxxton looked at him, then the others.
“Owens,” he said, addressing Asher. “Are you your own individual?”
The Frost Dragon looked around for a moment, confused. “Ah, yes sir?”
“And what about you?” Daxxton asked Dom.
“Yes sir,” the Blue Dragon replied, looking equally lost.
“So are you two telling me then, that Cadet Hawthorn here has turned you into his slaves? That he forced the two of you to accompany him under threat?”
“Uhhh,” Asher stammered.
“Quiet, Owens. That was a rhetorical question.”
Asher’s muzzle snapped closed audibly.
“All three of you can consider this exercise failed.”
The Gold Dragon buffeted them with a huge gust of wind from his wings as they all tried to speak up. The sudden assault forced them to work extra hard to maintain position, and it also effectively quelled their protests.
“Your questions are valid, Hawthorn. And they bear further thinking. I charge you with investigating further, and to keep me informed with what you uncover.” Daxxton looked at them all individually. “But this was not an emergency situation that would have required you breaking off mission protocol. We encourage you to think, to analyze situations, and I understand where you were coming from. But in this instance, you had a mission to perform, and you didn’t.”
Zeke thought about protesting some more, trying to convince the Wing Commander that he had been right in his decision to abort their mission and go hunting for clues of any sort.
Except Daxxton is right. You aborted the mission for a non-critical issue. The odds of you finding anything this late in the game are miniscule. You should have completed the mission, brought your concerns up to Daxxton, and gone from there. You disobeyed orders without solid reasoning.
“Yes sir.”
He said the words aloud, but with strength. Zeke was not going to let himself be cowed by their leader. He had been wrong, but he was prepared to admit that, and accept the punishment. Zeke wished his fellow cadets did not have to be punished alongside him, but again Daxxton was right. He didn’t force them to come with him. They could have decided to stay the course. No, today a very valuable lesson about prioritization had been learned, and also about respecting the chain of command, something he would have to do if he were to become a Guardian.
But no matter what he had done wrong, Zeke wasn’t going to grovel for forgiveness. That wasn’t his way. He would accept the critique, and grow stronger from it, proving to the others that he could grow from within and learn from the experience.
Daxxton gave him a long, evaluating look, and then nodded at him. It was a quick, brief thing, but Zeke knew. His point had been received, and Daxxton approved.
“Now get back to the Academy. No detours,” Daxxton said.
Zeke dropped slightly, using the falling momentum to help him build up some speed, and then banked through a sharp eighty-degree turn to head for home, the others flying alongside him.
To his surprise, Daxxton continued on, back toward the border.
Where is he going, I wonder?
The Gold Dragon quickly disappeared in the darkness as they went in almost diametric directions.
Zeke’s mind returned to the puzzle of the pipeline and Amber’s kidnapping.
Amber. He missed her dearly. Zeke wished he could be back with her in his arms right then, like they had spent the night before. That was a memory he knew he would always treasure, though he hoped to be able to make many more with her.
But first I have to stop whoever is trying to hurt her. And to do that, I have to figure out why.
It was no small task.
“Is it crazy to think they’re working together?” Asher asked suddenly, breaking the silence that had descended over them since their parting with Daxxton.
“Who’s working together?”
“The humans, the pipeline people, and the gryphons or whomever?”
“Gryphons and humans? I don’t know Ash, that seems like quite a stretch if you ask me,” Dom said. “Gryphons hate humans. Probably more than any other race. Despise might be a better word even. Why would they turn around and work with them?”
“Well obviously they would get something out of it. I mean, think about it. The shifter who took Amber had to know not only where, but when to attack as well. So someone obviously tipped them off. But here’s another thing for you: Remember how Amber said the pipeline was supposed to skirt Cadia, heading north along our western border, and then east along our northern one?”
“Yeah,” Zeke said.
“Well, picture in your mind if the pipeline continued that path, but cut through our territory,” Asher said. “It would go right through—”
“Gryphon territory,” Zeke finished softly. “Asher, you might be on to something. But that still brings us back to our original question. Why?”
Asher didn’t have an answer to that one.
“Money?” Dom asked. “I know it sounds simple, but often times that’s the correct answer.”
“I just don’t see them needing it,” Zeke said with a shake of his massive head, his wings flexing and driving them forward as the first bits of rain began to beat along the massive membranes, sliding off the back of them in a spray.
“But what else could it be?” Asher asked.
Zeke didn’t have an answer, but he spent the entire rest of the trip trying to figure it out.
Chapter Eleven
Amber
“Ladies, we’re home!”
The call echoed through the house.
Amber was relieved to hear the voice, knowing it belonged to Asher. If he said they were home, that meant Zeke was with him. She vaulted over the couch and made a beeline for the back door where the two men were just removing their shoes.
“You’re late,” she said, taking up a stance next to Quinn, who had come f
lying down the stairs. The two women crossed their arms, looking back and forth at the two of them.
The men exchanged looks, and Amber saw Quinn’s face twitch at something.
“They know how much shit they’re in,” she said out of the corner of her mouth, giving her head a tap.
She must be reading Asher’s emotions just then, Amber realized.
“What a handy tool. Try and communicate to them just how hard they’re going to have to work to make up for being an entire day later than they were supposed to be.”
Amber’s head moved slightly.
Asher grinned and rushed forward, throwing Quinn over his shoulder as he headed for the stairs.
She pounded on his back and thrashed in his grip. “That is not what I meant, you brute! Put. Me. Down!” she shrieked with laughter as he spun her around to look back at Zeke and Amber, giving them an apologetic shrug.
“Hey, you oaf, that was my head you almost splattered all over the table!” Amber shouted, still pounding away at his back. Asher didn’t even seem to notice the blows.
“I hope you had a lovely day, Amber,” he said. “I do apologize for keeping him away.” Asher sobered suddenly and put Quinn down. “We didn’t mean it,” he added, suddenly serious.
Amber frowned, looking at him and then back to Zeke, who had come to stand closer to her side.
“Zeke, what’s he talking about?” she asked nervously. Serious talks like that, with her being in the position she was, were never a good thing at all. It could only mean bad news.
“Nothing as bad as it sounds,” he reassured her with a calming smile. “We got sent on a mission overnight without warning. None of us knew it was coming, so we didn’t have a chance to notify you. We are sorry,” he said, sweeping her into a hug and kissing the top of her head.
Amber sensed that wasn’t all though.
“You’re holding something back,” she and Quinn said at the same time.
“Oh this is not good,” Asher said to Zeke. “Not good at all. They’re getting to be way too close with each other. You are so screwed,” he teased.
“Stop avoiding the point,” Quinn said with an elbow to his side.
Asher frowned as she didn’t pull the blow, but delivered it hard, knowing it would likely not faze him.