I must apologize for the delay in this post. I've been sick, and it really sapped my energy. But I'm back with Choices: Segment 5 of Q's Story. I hope you enjoy it! (Or you can read from the beginning here)
Sincerely,
Lillian
(Lead-in from Segment 4)
“You’re going to kill Mee-Kyong because she’s
not the Somnus,” Q said.
He
nodded appreciatively. “So you see that an exchange does not help me. But I
believe I will keep you, anyway. You are much more interesting than I
anticipated.”
“Oh.”
She smiled. “You have no idea.”
The
ring grew hot on her finger. She held it out and said, “Rise!”
The
ground trembled. Wind swept through the closed room, whipping her hair toward
the statue of the burning woman and startling a shout from the guard. But Dette
only watched her, enraptured by her power, his chest heaving in his excitement.
And
the dragon on her ring came to life.
It
swelled until its body spanned the room from nose to tail. Great, golden wings
unfurled, shattering the statue into thousands of colored crystals. Long, sharp
talons clacked against the floor. It threw back its head and roared, and flames
billowed toward the vaulted ceiling.
The
guard fired at the dragon, but the bullets bounced off the swollen metal and
lodged into the wall. Q flung her hand toward him and said, “Sleep!” And the
guard slumped onto the floor, unconscious.
Q
turned back to Dette, her eyes the same flashing amber as the dragon’s.
And
Dette breathed, “It’s you. You’re the Somnus.”
(Choices: Segment 5 of Q's Story)
At
a flick of Q’s wrist, the dragon grabbed Dette in its massive jaws and lifted
him into the air. Dette screamed with a horrible mixture of fear and sick
delight, and Q’s stomach turned at the sound.
“Where
is she?”
“I
can’t tell you. They’ll kill me.”
“And
you think the dragon won’t?” The dragon breathed, and Dette screamed again as
flames singed his side.
“She’s
still here,” he said quickly, his accent fading under the pain. “They won’t
come for her till evening. If you let me go, I’ll take you to her.”
Q
glanced at Min as the dragon released Dette. He was staring at her, his dark
eyes wide. There was no accusation in them, but she felt guilty all the same. As
if she should have told him from the start what she was. She reminded herself
that she wasn’t responsible for the evils of others.
All
she could do was try to stop them.
* * *
The
domed corridor was long and wide, the meager light augmented occasionally by
dragon fire. They could barely see twenty feet ahead. Behind them, the tunnel
disappeared into the dark, so that it seemed as if they’d been walking forever.
Darcy
muttered to Q, her eye on Min and Dette, “This is too easy, right?”
“Darcy,
we’re underground in the middle of a nut job’s property, on our way to his
bunker to rescue a stranger. With a dragon. Exactly how difficult to you want
it to be?”
“He’s
lying, and you know it. He gave in too quickly. And who is this ‘they’ he keeps
talking about? ‘They’ will kill him; ‘they’ haven’t taken her yet. What if he’s
walking us into a trap?”
“Well,
then, you know. Dragon.”
“Right.”
Darcy nodded, unconvinced. “Dragon.”
Doors
emerged in the dark ahead. Dette stopped at the keypad beside them and glanced
at Q. In response, the dragon heated the air, its talons gouging shallow
grooves into the cement floor. Dette’s fingers flew over the keypad, and the
doors swung open.
Beyond
them lay a prison.
Round
metal cages stretched from floor to ceiling, showcasing over a dozen men,
women, and children in relentless illumination. The spaces between the cages
fell dark, the area so wide even the dragon fit easily. One man bared his teeth as Dette passed, his
incisors long and sharp. A few cages down, a woman hissed and flung what looked
like lightning at them, but it sizzled against the bars and died away.
Q
stared at the back of Dette’s head, supremely uneasy at the scope of his
collection. That he could successfully capture and detain such creatures
suggested far more knowledge and power than she’d realized. She wondered how
much he knew about her own gift.
“Mee-Kyong!”
Ahead
of her, Min raced toward a cell to the right, where a dark-haired woman lay on
a small cot. The woman sat slowly, her back to them, and a warning chill raced
down Q’s spine.
“Min,
wait.”
The
woman turned and stared blankly at Min, her face tattooed with a lovely filigree
of blue. Her green eyes shot to Dette, and then she began to back away.
“Not
again!” Her voice was shrill, her eyes suddenly wild. “You send another man in
here, and I’ll kill him. I swear I will!”
“It’s
not her.” Min stopped, his stomach sinking at the look on the woman’s face. He couldn’t
help but imagine what horror she must have endured here. He thought of the
bloodied chip stolen from his sister’s arm, and he grabbed Dette and slammed
him against the bars. “Where is she?”
Dette
only smiled, and Min’s rage boiled. He slammed his fist into that infuriating
smirk, and the man’s head knocked loudly against the metal bars. Min hit him
again, and then again, livid that even violence, so foreign to him, would fail
to provoke a response from his sister’s kidnapper.
“Min,
stop! If he’s unconscious, he won’t tell us where she is.”
“Dear
Quinn.” Dette turned to her and bared his bloodied teeth. “It’s darling that
you ever thought I would.”
The
roar came from their left, an inhuman resonance that seemed to shake the very
air in which they stood. The ground trembled under the force of the tremendous
reverberation. Cages rattled, and dozens of hairline cracks splintered the
ceiling.
Another
roar sounded, and a huge chunk of plaster crashed into the girl’s cell,
knocking down Min and Dette. The bars bent under the onslaught, and the door
swung open.
The
girl hissed and charged at Min, green eyes flashing. Q flung her hand out and
commanded, “Sleep!”
When
she turned back, Dette was gone. The roar came again, closer this time, and a
piece of the ceiling smashed into the floor at Q’s feet. All around them, caged
creatures began to shriek.
Min
ran into the dark, shouting for Dette. Darcy grabbed Q’s arm and yelled,
“Whatever that thing is, you have to make it sleep!”
“I
can’t! I have to see it to knock it out!”
She
sprinted toward the sound, clinging to the darkened spaces between the cages.
The dragon flew over her head, lighting the dark with its breath. Under the
golden glow, she could just barely make out a man in the distance, so large he looked
as if he could pick up the dragon with one hand. He walked over to the wall and
braced his back against the white brick. He clenched his fists so hard that the
muscles in his shoulders popped out in stark relief. And he roared again.
A
crack ran up the wall behind his back and then across the ceiling. Another
piece of plaster fell and nearly pinned the dragon. Q shot out her hand and
shouted, “Sleep!”
The
giant fell, and it seemed that even the weight of him was enough to quake the
floor. As the cacophony began to die around them, Q called out for Min. He limped
over, panting, and rested his hands on his knees.
“Dette’s
gone. So is Mee-Kyong, probably before we got here. And now we have no way to
know where they took her.”
He
rammed his arm against the cage behind him and then leaned against it, his
forehead on the cool metal. All around them, supernatural creatures stood and
stared, but Q barely noticed. Failure was a lead weight in her gut, and for the
first time, she feared that everyone else was right. That she should forget the
Somnus and leave the world’s victims in someone else’s charge.
But
that wasn’t actually an option. Inadequate or not, she was the only one here.
Heart racing, she called the dragon to her side and walked over to the sleeping
giant.
And
then she woke him up.
