[GlacierDragon]

Thanks Oddey!

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Chapter 17

“I can’t believe it,” someone says. The high-pitched voice tells me it’s a Vykker. Why there’s one in a Slig birthing-complex, I have no idea. Maybe they’re needed to make sure everything’s going okay with the Queen?

“I can’t believe it,” the Vykker repeats. “Do you know what time it is? Everyone else is asleep, why can’t you be? You could’ve come to me with your problems in the morning.”

“I thought somethin’ should be done about it right away,” says a second voice, undoubtedly a Slig.

A loud, exaggerated sigh, then: “All right, fine. What did you do, trip over again?”

There’s a short silence. “I thought so,” mutters the Vykker. “Why you can’t be more careful, I’ll never know. Luckily you’ve only sprained your wrist so I’ll just sort it out and then we can both leave this place and go off to our beds. Well, you can’t of course if you’re doing a night shift.”

A cabinet being opened. Some rustling and various other noises. A grunt of pain from the Slig. A cabinet being closed. All simple sounds. Nothing to say we’ve been found out.

I shift my position slightly, trying to get rid of the cramp forming in my lower back. My leg kicks against the filing cabinet accidently. I freeze. Dammit.

“Did ya’ hear something?” the Slig asks urgently.

“What are you talking about? No, I didn’t hear anything.” After a few seconds the Vykker continues, “There, all better, now go back to whatever it was you were doing. Odd, I need some sleep.”

Thankfully, I hear the Slig leave. However the Vykker stays. Why won’t he go? I ask myself. I struggle to stay silent. Carefully I peak around the cabinet. The Vykker’s sitting on a chair in the corner, doing something with a computer. I can’t see the others. Where the hell have they gone?!

The Vykker abruptly stands and turns to my direction. He sees me instantly and his tired expression turns into that of horror. “You!” he shrieks, pointing a claw. “You’re that one who escaped! Where are your friends? Are they in here too? I’m going to call the… the… the…”

His words fade away and he drops to the ground, his eyes rolling up in his head. Behind him stands Zevenk with a hypodermic syringe in one hand. “Tranquillizer,” he explains when he sees me emerge. “He’ll be out for a while.”

“Well, he was complaining he needed some rest. I guess it will help,” I joke.

It turns out the others were all hiding beneath a great big table, which has a white sheet covering it. The sheet drapes down to the ground so they would have all been obscured. I could have saved myself some trouble if I’d followed.

Not wanting to waste time, I ask Blege, “Where would there be weapons?”

He hesitates, before answering, “Well, I didn’t work here for too long, so I’m not entirely sure. The armoury used to be near the top of the tower –”

“What?” Zevenk exclaims. “You mean you told us there would be weapons but now the time comes that we need to find them and you don’t know where they are?”

“Hey, arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere,” I yell, getting between them. Creck stands by the computer, scrolling down the screen, not wanting to be part of a possible argument. Zevenk glares evilly at Blege, who merely folds his arms and looks away with an uninterested expression.

“Not meaning to gang up on you or anything,” I say, “but he’s right. You could have mentioned sooner you didn’t know where the guns were. Now we’re going to leave with nothing.”

“You just want to go? Without even searching?” he replies.

“Well, I don’t know about you but I don’t want to stay in this place longer than necessary. There’s no point looking for something we won’t find. And even if we do stumble across an armoury it will be locked, and most likely have guards.”

“He’s right,” Creck says without looking up from the computer. “According to this database there are over five hundred Sligs in this place, and all of them are probably looking for us. I say we get out now before they discover we’re here. Our friend,” he gestures to the Vykker, “will speak when he wakes up.”

I peer over Creck’s shoulder at the computer. And sure enough, he’s opened a list of all the Sligs employed in the birthing complex. There’s a lot more than any of us expected.

“Fine,” Blege says. “Let’s go before anything happens.

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Just so there's no confusion, that Vykker was not Vechk. It was just a random guy.