“’m not answering your questions.” Those grey-green eyes flashed with contempt, and the mage inched himself a little more upright while doing his best to look down at me from his long nose even though my head was above his. “I don’t…answer…to you.”
I nearly snorted. Typical mage attitude, always acting superior even in the face of death and starvation. Truthfully, it was admirable, but a little annoying since we were both on the same side. Taking a gamble, I dropped the illusion and allowed my true form to show.
The delegate’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull. “Y-you!”
“Shhh!” I clapped a hand over his mouth as the others stirred. “I remember you – you’re Bosal ar’Nuris, the Secretary of Education and Culture.” I tried to hide my shock at seeing him in such a state – I was used to seeing these mages striding briskly through the halls of the Palace, proud and aloof, not sitting here in their own excrement. “If you start yelling, you’ll bring the whole Resistance camp down here!” The delegate struggled beneath my hand for a moment, but he was too weak and disoriented from the drugs, so eventually he subsided and I released him.
The delegate tried to speak again, but the drugs proved to be too much of an impediment for coherent speech. On instinct, I touched my hand to his shoulder and pushed some magic into him, visualizing the drugs leaving his body and energy filling him. My stomach pitched with nausea, and I tightened my grip on his shoulder as another wave of tiredness washed through me.
Beneath my hand, I felt the delegate’s shoulders straighten. He sat up a little, some alertness returning to his eyes, and I let out a breath of relief. No, I hadn’t healed him, but maybe I’d helped him enough that he could talk to me now.
“You’re the…hybrid…” he slurred as he peered up at me through the darkness. “Lord Iannis’s apprentice. Did he…send you here to free us?”
“No, though of course I’ll do what I can. I came out here trying to find him. Why is he not with you?”
Bosal shrugged one shoulder. “Don’t…remember. None of us do. We were on the airship one moment…down here the next. No idea where Lord Iannis is. Hoped he’d escaped back to Solantha…but clearly hasn’t, since you’re here.” Disappointment rang in his thick voice, mirroring my own.
“Do you have any idea what the Resistance is planning?” I pressed, hoping to get something, anything out of the mage. “What was their purpose in taking down the airship?”
“Wanted…to stop us from attending the Convention.” The mage’s voice seemed to be getting a little stronger, and I wondered if the dose they’d given him was starting to fade. “Don’t know why, but they’re planning something.”
“Alright.” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose with my free hand. A quick glance at my wristwatch told me my time was about up. “I’d better get back before someone misses me.”
“Wait.” The delegate’s hand shot out, wrapping around my wrist with surprising strength. “You’re not going…to leave us here, are you?”
“I would like to free you, Secretary,” I said with regret, “but can you even stand? Do you have a spell to rouse the others, and get up the mineshaft?”
His growl of frustration sounded more like shifter than mage. “If we could, we’d be gone already. Don’t know what that drug…they inject us with is, but it’s too effective…and we don’t get enough water. We need help.”
“I’ll come back with reinforcements as soon as I can,” I promised. “But if I don’t go now they’ll just catch me too, and then nobody will find Lord Iannis.”
“Al…right…” Bosal sighed, releasing my hand as he slumped against the wall. “Just hope you come back…before they decide to kill us.”
Yeah, I thought as I took my leave. I hope so too.
13
I woke up the next morning with ravenous hunger clawing at my belly. By the time I’d made it back to the cabin last night, I’d been exhausted from all the magic I’d used, and had collapsed into bed after telling Annia and Fenris what I’d learned. Sleep had helped somewhat, but if I was going to recharge I needed food. Lots of food.
A tinge of pink washed over the dark sky as Annia and I made our way to the kitchens, a mere suggestion of dawn that made me grumpy as hell as I was not an early morning person. But we had to get the soldiers fed on time, and besides, I could use the opportunity to stuff my face so that I wouldn’t be too irritable by the time everybody showed up.
“By the Ur-God,” Annia muttered as she began opening tub-sized cans of corned beef hash. “We’ve been here less than twenty-four hours and it already feels like we’ve been assimilated into the camp.” She spoke quietly so that the sleepy-eyed soldier on guard couldn’t overhear.
“Tell me about it,” I said around a mouthful of cookie as I kneaded dough. It honestly felt weird that we were feeding the very people who were responsible for Iannis’s disappearance, but we didn’t have nearly enough manpower to take them on, so we had to blend in. “If we don’t get out of here soon, we might just find ourselves in uniform.”
Annia snorted. “Do you really think that Rylan will slip up like that?”
“No,” I admitted with a sigh. “He’ll figure out what I’m up to, and since he’s a lapdog for the Resistance he’ll rat us out for sure. And don’t forget the tiger shifter, Daresh. He’ll denounce us in a heartbeat, when that spell wears off.”