Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 105

 

Ases wrinkled up his nose before he even drank the tuber milk, but I kicked him under the table. I’d warned him in the transport what he had to do, and I knew he could drink this and lie about it. I’d once seen him swill an entire bottle of bar mixings on a dare.

He’d vomited profusely within minutes, but that was alcohol and sugar. This was just fermented tuber milk. Totally fine. He was a shifter; he should like milk.

I upended my cup, suppressing my shudder at the gloopy nature of the thickened milk and the bitter tang that clung to the roof of my mouth and every single tastebud on my tongue. “Just as exquisite a flavor as I remember from the first time I tried it.” My eyes watered, and I swallowed the saliva that wouldn’t stop flowing as my body kept trying to get rid of the nasty flavor that was so noxious I swear it was burning the hairs out of my nose.

Surprisingly, Timok actually looked like he did enjoy the tuber milk as much as he said he did. I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he that accomplished a liar?

Should we trust him?

He winked at me when our host smiled. “I can take you to Chaintrik,” the male said. “Follow me.”

I scooped up the bag of nuts Timok purchased, and we were quickly down in the tunnels. Our guide had a light, but it barely showed the path in front and kept our group out of the darkness. I was not a fan of being underground, and I kept my head on the swivel.

“What are you looking for?” Ases whispered. “And why did you bring those nuts? Do we actually need them?”

“Giant bugs.”

“What?” He flicked his claws out in the dim light and started looking all around. “How giant?”

“How do you think they made these tunnels?”

Ases looked horrified.

“They’re definitely big enough that you and Bouncer would have a challenge fighting back if one attacked from our back or sides in this limited space. Though he’d like to eat an althea, I’m sure. I had to hold him back last time we saw one. I think all he thought was dinner.” I was keeping Bouncer close to me just in case.

Now Ases looked disgusted. “Bugs?”

I shrugged. “It’s what I fed him the first time we met. Grubs, out of these really hard trees that he couldn’t get to himself since his claws weren’t sharp enough to dig into the wood and he’d been kicked out by his mother.” I patted his back. “At least, I assumed that’s what happened. He was hungry, and I didn’t want to get eaten, so bugs were better.”

The distraction was good enough that I barely noticed when we hit a central point where the tunnels met and the rebels had a meeting room set up. I passed off the nuts to our guide, glad Chaintrik didn’t have one of his bugs with him.

He sat at a console, studying several screens while all four hands were flying over the controls, but he stood and turned when we entered. A tech took his place.

“Essell, it is good to see you again, but I am sorry that it is happening because Garjah was taken.”

“You know what happened?”

“We do.” He waved a hand toward the screens. “We monitor nearly everything, and he contacted us after the attack at the welcome dinner. He was concerned that someone was feeding him false information, but he couldn’t be sure who.”

“He trusted that it wasn’t you?” Timok asked. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Yes.” Chaintrik didn’t justify his answer and turned back to me, ignoring Timok. Despite my fear for Garjah and my desperation to save him, amusement tugged at me, and I had to suppress a smile.

“I need to find him, and we need help to save him. Then we’re going to take out everyone who had a hand in trying to hurt us, starting with whoever took Garjah and ending with the Kardoval. I’m going to take every single scrap of power away from them because that will hurt them the most.”

“You’re sure that’s what they wanted to do?” Chaintrik asked.

“Ases, show him.” I wasn’t going to justify my actions every step of the way, and we had more than enough evidence to damn those four who thought they were able to get away with kidnapping and murder. That would teach them to hire idiots. Ases’ mech had recorded very interesting conversations.

“They don’t say it was the Kardoval who sent them.”

“Garjah will be with them.”

Chaintrik goggled at me, his thin nostrils flaring. “How do you know that? We just found him.”

My heart sped up, and I stepped in close to him, breathing faster. “You know where he is, and we’re still standing here talking? Where is he? Take me to him!” I clenched all my hands into fists.

“It’s not that simple. He is deep within the security headquarters; we aren’t actually sure he isn’t there voluntarily—”

“He’s not,” Timok said. “I was with him when they captured him. Trust me when I say, he did not go of his own free will.”

“We cannot get directly under the building he is in because we have not tunneled that far, but we can get close. However, we cannot rush into this. There’s a risk of revealing our secret if we aren’t careful, and too many people depend on the safety of these caverns to allow the Kardoval to find them.”

Chaintrik was right, but it was killing me. Tears burned in my eyes, and my throat ached, but I nodded. “How soon?”

“We’re looking for the closest exit, but we must wait for dark.”

“A whole day?” I said in dismay. 

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Julie Lynn Hayes