The Marenon Chronicles Collection - By Jason D. Morrow Page 0,149

been necessary. Alric just stood their staring at the mass of man on the ground.

“Where were you taking him?” one of the guards asked.

Nalani couldn’t answer because she would be given away, but Alric didn’t even look like he had heard. The guards were looking at her for answer!

“Where were you taking him?” the guard asked one more time.

Say something Alric!

“Excuse me?” The guard whistled this time, still looking at Nalani who was giving herself away more and more by the second.

Alric shook his head abruptly. “The slave quarters!” he nearly shouted.

The guard paused for a moment and nodded. He looked back at Nalani with concern in his eyes. “You ok? He must have hit you pretty hard.”

Coffman never hit her. In fact she was sure that his punch missed her on purpose. There had been anger in his face, but it was not directed toward her. He knew his duty and he had played it out well.

“I think he’s fine,” Alric said, talking about Nalani. “Just dazed. Let’s get this guy to the slave quarters.”

The guard waited. “I think you should come with us,” he said. “Let me get you to the infirmary. He’s not even talking!” He said, looking to Alric. “The man must have hit you hard.”

No!

“No,” Alric said. “I’ll take him. Can you four carry the big guy to the slave quarters?”

The guard nodded. “Yeah. Make sure your friend gets to the infirmary quick.”

“Right,” Alric said. “I’ll do that right now.”

With a heave, the four guards lifted Coffman’s unconscious body off the ground and began carrying him toward the slave quarters.

When they were a safe distance away, Nalani and Alric followed them.

“Sorry about that,” Alric said.

“What happened?”

“I’ve never seen Coffman out like that,” he answered. “It was weird, like he was dead or something. I never imagined anything that could kill that guy.”

“Well, he had to die to get here,” Nalani said.

Alric let out a snort. “If only you knew how he actually got here,” he said.

Nalani didn’t ask what happened to him. She didn’t want to know. Knowing how people got to Marenon was never a topic she was comfortable with discussing. She hated the thought of death. She never wanted to think that she could die again. It was a foolish thought, because it was inevitable for all of them, but that didn’t mean she had to dwell on it.

The pair walked at a safe distance from the guards and Coffman, but kept them in their sights. They needed to know where he would be when it was time to leave. They might even have to come looking for him in case he had some sort of information they needed. They still had a lot of work to do.

The city street climbed slowly uphill and Nalani could tell that the guards were struggling to keep Coffman’s body off the ground. The man weighed a ton. When Nalani and Alric came to the top of the hill they stopped instantly, dumbfounded at what they saw before them.

Alric had been wrong about the number of slaves the Nestorians had. He had said there were probably a few hundred or so. Before them, at the bottom of the hill, was a massive pyramid-like building that was nearly finished being built. Surrounding the base, and climbing all of the building on scaffoldings, were not hundreds, but thousands upon thousands of Human slaves laboring away.

With the mask on her face, no one could see how far Nalani’s jaw had dropped. Not even Coffman would stand out in a crowd of people this large.

Chapter Seven

Silas was happy to finally see Skarret in the air again. When the bird had been shot down near Mudavé, he didn’t think the animal would make it, but here Silas was, flying high above Canor with his four companions. Kaden flew on his own sarian, Cole, while Lorcan and Inga flew on ‘borrowed’ sarians. They used Autumn, who belonged to Myron Lloyd, and Storm, who was Quincy Todd’s mount. Kaden had assured the group that the owners would never notice. The two councilmen never left the castle and it would be good for the enormous birds to get out and stretch their wings.

This was Silas’ first time near Canor since he had gone through the gauntlet. That had been a horrible day with so many deaths. The city below them was still busy as he had seen it then, but when they flew over the river they could see only the charred remains of the