“Good thing I captured more than one…” She muttered darkly to herself as she changed her wind wall so that only she was in there with the creatures, and the others wouldn’t be able to hear their voices. The men behind her looked a little relieved as they went back to searching the forest for enemies. At least now she knew that even as she could fight off their hypnotism, they could fight hers off too.
She repeated the process of waking up the next mesmer, quickly giving it the same orders before she started in on her questioning. “Where are your prisoners kept?”
“In the feeding pit.” It hissed angrily at her, and she realized this one was a woman, though with their disheveled appearances and ratty clothing, it was hard to tell. There was something about that clothing that was bothering her…
“Where’s the feeding pit? How do I find it?” She pushed aside her niggling doubts, wanting to get a straight answer.
“In the massssssster nesssssssst. You’ll find it when you’re taken there…” She grunted, beheading that one as it fought free of her compulsion.
With the third one, she tried to get straight to the point. “Which direction is the master nest?” The thing pointed to the west and she asked her next question. “Is the feeding pit underground?”
Ten minutes later, she’d gotten all the information she could out of the captured mesmer, beheading them all. The master nest was two nests to the west, and the feeding pit was hidden in a hollow tree in the center of the nest. The blackened trees were confirmed to be the markers of the nests, and the mesmer made homes both in the boughs, the trunk, as well as in the surrounding brush. The master nest was even better, because it was built on the ruins of an ancient city, so some of them had stone dwellings.
The last bit of information she’d gotten was that feedings happened right after sundown. Most of the mesmer fed only once a week from the feeding pit. She also knew there were ten people in the pit at the moment.
But that was it. She hadn’t been able to extract any more information from them before they broke free of her compulsion and refused to go back under, trying to compel her in return. She’d almost given in a second time, but barely managed to stop herself. Even with her advanced mental fortitude, she had to fight to maintain her own control.
She dropped the wall between her and her guards, shaking her head as she looked at the sky. Dusk was starting to fall. It wouldn’t be long before it was fully dark. She finally realized that the trees were what allowed the mesmer to be active during the day. Even though they could see, the light was tinted a dark green that made it seem as if it was dusk most of the time anyway, at least until real dusk fell and it deepened to almost pitch black.
Her instincts told her to go, to rescue them tonight, before the mesmer had warning. “What is it? Why do you look so conflicted?” Marcelle’s soft voice pulled her from her thoughts.
Jade gestured to the sky. “It’s going to be dark soon. If we use lights, we’ll be a giant target. The dark is when they’re strongest, and my fellacai don’t see extraordinarily well at night either, so we’d be without their protection. The feedings happen at sundown...we’ll be too late tonight, no matter what.”
Marcelle looked thoughtful, then sighed and nodded. “We have to go back, and quickly.”
Jade nodded, glaring in the direction of the master nest. “It means they’re going to be better prepared tomorrow too. They’ll be more alert, and possibly lay traps.”
Patting her shoulder, Marcelle spoke softly, “We’ll have to take that chance.”
“Okay. Let me fly up above the canopy one last time so I can get a lock on where we need to go tomorrow, then we’ll leave using a wind bubble. We need to be quick, and I’m going to need to rest after, but it’s the best way to leave them confused as to what happened.”
Marcelle nodded, and Jade jumped, the alteration of her gravity having become almost second nature to her at this point. Up the tree she went, passing her fellacai as she flew into the sky, able to see the brilliance of the setting sun turning the leaves orange and purple in its glow. She looked to the west, making sure she knew which clump of bad trees marked the master nest. She shouldn’t have been surprised to see how large the area was.
Absorbing the last of the fading light as quickly as she could, she dove down into the trees once more, collecting her fellacai on the way down. They clung to her hair as she reached the forest floor where her group was waiting, standing as tightly packed as they could. She smiled wearily, standing within an inch of them as they were lifted off of the ground. She raised them twenty feet into the air, then shot them forward like a wind bullet once more.
Traveling at high speeds through the air, the ground that took most of the afternoon to cover was traversed in a little under an hour. She didn’t let them touch the ground until they reached the boulder, creating a wind ramp straight into the secret tunnel. The guards posted in the hallway were startled, but they reacted quickly to welcome and usher them inside.
She closed the door behind her, staring at it for a moment.
Just how much was she willing to risk?
Chapter Seven – Motives
“Lady Jade, is everything okay?” She heard the hesitant voice from behind her and snapped out of her small stupor.
Turning, she smiled at the man. “Not really, but there’s not much to do about it right now.” He grimaced a little, nodding. She patted him on the shoulder as she walked past, trying to keep up her smile, even if it felt more like a grimace.
As she entered the big common room, her eyes were drawn to the makeshift table once more. Marcelle was already there setting up the mirrors to contact those back in Caoi. The others were either cleaning up or preparing food. It looked like they were cooking some of the ape meat over a magical fire, which was a good thing, considering that it didn’t produce smoke.
Her babies flew off to explore the place, leaving her alone. Walking over to the cold room she’d created, she indeed found that one of the apes was skinned and cut apart. With a wave of her hand, she deposited the two beithiche there as well, wanting to clear up the space in her ring.
Absently, she reached into that space, using up most of her remaining energy to make it larger. The two beasts made it decently crowded on top of everything else she had in there. She hadn’t even had room to bring back a mesmer body to study.
With a sigh, she realized she was delaying her return to the main room, so therefore she forced herself to get moving once more. Walking over, she dropped into the seat next to Marcelle which one of the men hastily pulled out for her as she approached. She heard a soft gasp as she came into view of the mirror, and glanced up to find their majesties staring at her in something akin to horror.
“Jade, are you alright?” Ashanna’s voice was filled with worry as she studied Jade through the mirror.
A little puzzled at the strong reaction, Jade shrugged. “I’m fine. Why?”
Marcelle coughed into her hand, then reached over, pulling one of the not-currently-in-use mirrors and handing it to Jade so she could look at herself. Staring back at her was a pale creature, dark circles beneath her eyes. She was splattered with blood, and there were dirt and sweat streaks faintly visible. Her hair was sticking up in odd directions from her braid, and there were several twigs and leaves that’d gotten in there somehow. In short, she looked like a hot mess.