Page 83 of Backpacking through Bedlam

About half of them were occupied, three by golden-haired little girls in scruffy secondhand clothing—not a sign of neglect in dragon kids, since the urge to hoard gold kicks in so young that they would probably already have viewed buying anything nicer as a waste of money—and the other five by large reptiles about the size of Komodo dragons, if Komodo dragons came with wings. All eight of them looked at me warily, unsure how to react to the sight of a glowing human woman. The expressions of fear and dread on their little faces hurt.

The realization that they were all caged alone hurt even more. They’d been allowed to stay in the same room, but they’d been separated all the same, unable to pile together for comfort. Oh, I was going to take great pleasure in beating the living crap out of the people who’d taken them.

“It’s all right,” I said, holding up my hands as I stepped farther into the room. “Pris and William sent me.”

Hopefully, invoking the names of the people I’d come to assume were the leaders of the local Nest would help, and it did, with a few of the kids. One of the girls stopped crying, and one of the little boys stopped mantling his wings, although he remained pressed against the side of the cage. I moved toward him first. He hissed, loud and angry.

“I can let you out, if you promise not to bite me,” I said, kneeling. “Do you know where they took the woman who was with you? Cara, I think her name was?”

“No,” sniffled one of the girls. “They put us in cages and they took her. They said we should get used to it, because we’re just animals, and they wouldn’t be doing us any favors if they acted like we were anything else.” Her evident offense grew with each word, until she sounded more angry than scared. That was a good thing. I gave her an approving nod, then focused on the latch for the boy’s cage.

The latches had been modified to keep them from being opened by captive children with clever fingers, but they were no match to an adult outside the cage with a background in lock-picking. In short order, I had the first cage open and moved away to let the little boy inside scurry free, not blocking him or moving to touch him in any way. He ran for the farthest corner and pressed himself there, hissing violently.

“It’s okay, Kris,” said one of the girls. “I think she’s part of Miss Verity’s family.” She turned enormous blue eyes on me and asked, with a slight challenge in her voice, “Aren’t you?”

“I am,” I assured her. “My name’s Alice. What’s yours?”

“Ariel.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Ariel.” I moved to her cage, repeating the process of getting it open. “I’m going to get you all out so you can take care of each other, and then I’m going to ask you to stay here while I go and find Miss Cara and make sure she’s all right.”

“And then we can go home?”

“As soon as it’s safe.”

Her face fell. “It’s not ever going to be safe, Miss Alice. We’re not people. We don’t get to be safe.”

“Oh, sweetie, never believe anyone who tells you that you’re not a person. You’re people, all of you, and you deserve to be safe. You’re not human people, and I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing, since it was human people who put you in these cages.” I opened the door, and she crawled out on her hands and knees. I shifted to the side, making it easier for her to get out without accidentally brushing against me. Dragons generally aren’t big on touching humans.

Ariel straightened once she was out of the cage, whirling to throw her arms around my neck in a brief hug. Dragons may not be big on touching humans, but scared children frequently are, and “child” came before “species” right now. I put a hand against her back as she hugged me, returning her embrace without trapping her, and silently vowed to kill anyone I had to in order to make sure this wasn’t going to happen again.

Ariel pulled away and I let her go, moving on to the other cages. Very shortly, all the dragon children were free, and piling up in the corner as I had expected, becoming a tangle of limbs, tails, and wings. I straightened.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I said. “If anyone comes in here while I’m gone, you have my permission and encouragement to bite them as hard as you can. Don’t give them the chance to cage you again.”

“Miss Cara says biting is wrong,” said one of the other girls.

“And normally, Miss Cara is right about that,” I said. “But right now, you’re being held against your will, and that changes the rules enough to make biting just fine. You bite anyone who tries to put you into a cage, you got me?”

The children nodded in ragged chorus, and I nodded back.

“Good. I’ll be back.”

The only door into this room was the one I had arrived through. I walked back toward it, and several of the children moaned as they realized the light was going with me. I stopped, looking back at them.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t have any way to leave the light here with you, and it’s not safe for you to come with me. Just pretend it’s bedtime. Tell each other some nice stories, and get cozy, and I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”

They muttered in discontent but made no further objections as I let myself out of the room, heading back the way I had come.

So: I was loose. I was unarmed. I knew where the children were. I knew that by now, Ryan had to be following our trail back to this location, which meant that I had backup on the way. Until then, I was in some sort of underground space with between three and five Covenant agents, none of whom realized who they actually had on their hands.

I smiled grimly as I made my way through the dark back to the room where I’d started.

Wasn’t this going to be fun?

Nineteen

“I swear, if all children have as much sense of self-preservation as Healy children, it’s a miracle anyone ever lives to adulthood.”