It had been a few hours and mostly everything was back to normal, well normal for Arriana. Jonah had given her a taste of her own medicine and then made her walk it off. He’d wanted to pick up the pace, but I had pity on Arriana and made us go slower than normal for her. Still, it had to be excruciating as the poison heightened your nerves til every sensation felt like pain to you. I was glad I wasn’t Jonah’s victim anymore. He showed he still had his mean streak in there hidden, behind the nice guy he had become. I guess it would always be a part of him. It was less evident now. Less needed but when it came out? Watch out!

  We were nearing the blue mountain from my dreams and inwardly, I shivered. The Morgans had been chained like prisoners, to the walls. Would they be chained this time, or be set free? I didn’t know. What if the council was there? Or Medina? What if Gale was there? I hadn’t told Jonah about Gale being his real father yet. There was no more time. In an hour, maybe two, we’d be at the temple. I hoped Gale didn’t say anything. I noticed the group had gone silent and had taken out their weapons. I gulped. I didn’t have a weapon only eleven unruly powers at my command. Would they be enough to free several hundred slaves? I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to its owner.

  “Everything will be fine, My,” Jonah said, smiling at me before patting my shoulder.

  “Easy for you to say. You don’t have lives on your shoulders,” I muttered.

  He turned to me and pointed. “I’m responsible for your life and the others,” he said. “Just because I tortured one doesn’t mean I don’t care about your lives. She needed to pay for her actions.”

  I sighed. “She has far and above! I get it. Let’s not discuss this again we aren’t going to agree,” I said, and he nodded.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Better. They seem to be settling down some,” I muttered, scratching behind my right ear and blushing. Jonah had seen me break down and hadn’t abandoned me instead he’d held me through it, while I cried and later while I slept. It was the nicest thing anyone, not counting my family, had ever done and I was still trying to assimilate that Jonah of all people, had helped me through a breakdown! He had changed here, and much more than I thought him capable of. We were now good friends. He knew of my illness, had helped me in my lowest time, and still remained by my side. He wasn’t bothered by my illness like I always pictured everyone to be. He had a mean streak as he showed with Arriana, but it was banked with me and I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  As we approached the mountain, I noticed a familiar blue entrance with lit torches. Could the mine children also be kept here? I walked towards it, the others following me. It was a slight incline and then we were in the mountain. There were dozens of cages some filled and some not. I counted over three hundred cages, with over a quarter or more full of slaves. The torches flickered in the dark, and illuminated the cave, to show that it had originally been a mine.

  “So maybe the children were here but aren’t any longer?” I muttered, taking in the shape of the sleeping slaves. Most would be able to walk out of here on their own two feet, but there were six that were already ill from lack of care. They had to be the longer-standing residents here.

  Jonah idled up to me. “There has to be at least a hundred slaves here and something tells me this isn’t even half of them,” he said staring at a small girl our age curled and shivering by the bars of her cage. He whispered some words and the girl stopped shivering. I could see a strange energy cloak around her.

  “Runes?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he said. “We better be careful My. This is the home of the Morgans.”

  “The Morgan are the slaves,” I said surprising him.

  “Come again?” he said.

  “The Morgan are transformed, slaves and children. I saw it happen with the goddess. She showed me. Medina turned a slave into a Morgan,” I said.

  “That’s!”

  “Crazy?”

  “No, knowing this place it makes sense, but that means that this problem has been going long before the council. I remember Morgans being a threat when I was young.”

  “It simply means that the council has been corrupt for longer than these five originally.”

  “Come on. We’ve got a whole mountain to explore,” he said taking a torch from the wall while I lit myself on fire.

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  “My, we have to travel in close quarters. I don’t want to be burned,” muttered Jonah as he held out another torch to me. I smirked.

  “Afraid of a little fire?” I asked.

  “When the person can’t control the flames, yes,” he said, smirking and I frowned. I wasn’t so bad, was I? I glanced at the flames playing against my skin and noticed their radiance. Okay, so he had a point. I extinguished the flames and grabbed the torch and we set down the hall. I tried to ignore the frightened cries of the slaves as we passed. It was obvious Aithne loved torturing them with her fire from the few singes I could see on the cages. I kept walking and entered a large outcropping that overlooked a huge room. In it were more slaves. Much more. They had a bodyguard too, a Morgan the size of the room. It was smaller than Datha had been but just. It was a silky blue color. We hid behind the outcropping and Atesh was shaking like a boiling teapot. I grabbed his hand and squeezed.

  Sympathy: You can talk to him telepathically

  Maryanne: I think you’d scare him worse

  Strength: Poor kid can’t take more surprises right now

  Mark: A little scare never hurt anyone

  Jessica: Yeah, scare him!

  Roy: He’s shaking like a cymbal

  Siren: Cymbals vibrate!

  Benny: Even I know that.

  Preacher: Duh!

  Leslie: Duh! Duh! Duh!

  Jack: Honestly? Stupid! We’ve got bigger problems to handle like that big bird sitting smack dab in the middle of the cave!

  Maryanne: Nice of you to notice it, Jack! Yes, we have a problem.

  Strength: It’s scared of fire so Roy? You’re up! Don’t screw it up!

  Roy: As if!

  I rolled my eyes and glanced at the others. They were unsure as to what to do. The Morgan had most of their attention.

  “You can’t kill it,” said Datha and I nodded.

  “We won’t. We’ll knock it out,” I said.

  “And how do you plan to do that,” muttered Arriana.

  I smirked. “Why using the most non-lethal thing we have. You.”

  She paled and fainted and I smirked glancing over at Jonah who was also smirking.

  “Okay, the weak link is down. Now for the real plan,” I said.

  Atesh, Niran, and I approached the Morgan from the shadows. It seemed to be asleep so that was a plus for us. We could startle it into action and as long as no one stared it in the eyes we were safe. I crouched behind a big stalagmite and let the flames consume me. Atesh and Niran followed my move, and we were three living torches. I watched my step, remembering these things had good hearing. It had probably heard us coming, so why wasn’t it moving even a little? Our plan wasn’t going to work if we couldn’t get it to move! Luckily the nesting thing opened its eyes when it felt the heat from us as we approached it.

  It spread its gigantic wings and I aimed at one while Ilias, who was hiding behind it took the other and we clipped them with wind blades so it couldn’t fly. I dodged its tail and stopped its swing with Preacher’s ability. I had forgotten about it. I could probably immobilize it myself with this power. Boulder and Ruckus wouldn’t have to cause a possible cave-in summoning the roots. I stared at the Morgan and felt the power lance out like a blanket and constrict the Morgan’s movements. I read the panic in its eyes and felt sorry for it. Could I revert the spell like I did with Datha? I let my hand glow gold and touched its forehead. There was no crystalis this time. The glow encompassed the creature and it began to shrink until a worn slave was all that was left there. The slave was curled and shaking with their eyes closed. I bent down and smoothed their hair. It was a child no older than eight.

  “Hey there. You’re safe,” I said smiling.

  The child opened her gray eyes and gasped. She sat abruptly and I could hear her spine crack.

  I winced. “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “M-Misty,” she said shaking like a dog after a bath. I thought it was cute. The others stood amazed around me and Jonah walked up.

  “You weren’t kidding. These things are Kin!” he said.

  “I don’t lie,” I said watching Misty as she took in her surroundings.

  “How did you do that?” asked Atesh astonished.

  “A better question would be why did the creature turn into an innocent child?” asked Nero.

  “Because that’s what it was before its transformation,” I said and explained the Morgan to them. Needless to say, they were all horrified even Arriana.

  “My mother has been doing this to children? Kin children? I don’t believe you! She is the council!

  “Face it! Your council is corrupt!” I cried. Me holding on to a scared child should have driven that home to them now.

  “But they are council. No one is above council, “ said Boulder.

  “I don’t care about your council. I care about the innocent suffering. This cave should have driven home just how bad things are and this child should have shown you how corrupt they really are,” I said holding Misty who had fallen into a deep slumber. Poor girl. I didn’t blame her.

  “We need to free the other slaves,” said Jonah gazing at me and I nodded.

  “Yes. I’m sure there will be more further on, but we need to free the ones in the first two rooms we found. Since they were only guarded by Misty and she’s back to herself we should be able to free them without any problems,” I said.

  “I can use a massive rune-unlocking spell for the cages and…” began Jonah.

  “Funny I didn’t think we would find the runaways here in this damned place,” said a familiar voice.

  I scooped Misty up and stood to face our new company.