Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
As I leave the compound and cross the dirty streets of the fort, heading for my clinic, someone jogs up behind me.
"Hey, got a second?" The speaker is Rachel, the scarred woman who is newly mated to a dragon, and one of Azar's “guests.” She's pregnant and he wants her to stay until the baby is born so we can add to our arsenal of weapons against the creature in the Rift. Rachel's clearly not a fan of the idea, or of Azar, or of much of anything. She's made that very clear.
So it's surprising to me that she flags me down on the street. I pause, trying to keep a frown off my mouth. I'm suspicious of her timing, but maybe it's nothing at all. "Is it the baby?"
"Hm?" The stump of Rachel's arm touches her belly. "Oh, no. Nothing like that. I just wanted to bring something to your attention." At my curious look, she continues. "Jurik and I were scouting yesterday, and we found some stuff that might be medication in a warehouse, but we weren't sure. We were wondering if you could come with us and help decipher some of the labels."
Medication? She wants me to go? I never leave the fort, mostly because there's always more to do here. I have a clinic full of sick people, but if it is medication, I desperately want it added to my supplies. "You should probably talk to Azar—"
Rachel shakes her head, straightening her shoulders in an almost defiant tilt. "Azar wasn't available. Something about meetings. I can't get in to see him. And I tried talking to the person in charge of scavenging schedules, but he can't send anyone out for at least two days because it's a location farther out than we normally go. So if I leave it in someone else's hands, it's going to take almost a week, and it could be gone by then." She gives me a challenging look. "I thought you'd want to get the medication—if it is medication—back here as quickly as possible, since you've got so many sick people."
I purse my lips, thinking. I can talk to Alma, see if she wants to go, but she's going to be coming off of an overnight shift and I know she's terrified of dragons. Plus, she doesn't know anything about medication other than what I've taught her. She doesn't know the names of the less common types, or what will still be usable after all this time. "Was it a pharmacy?" I ask absently, turning the idea over in my head.
"A shipping station," Rachel says. "Lots of packages."
A shipping station could have pharmaceuticals. I know there were some mail order places in business in the Before. This could be good…and if we find a cache of medication there, it might lead to us uncovering more, if this shipping station is one of many. I swallow hard, studying Rachel. "You'd take me? Today?"
She nods, smiling. The scarred side of her face healed badly and it contorts her mouth, a little too tight to look pleasant. "It's a few hours there and a few more back. We could be back by dinner."
That decides me. "Give me five minutes to make sure the clinic is covered."
It takes more than five minutes, of course. Alma is exhausted, but knows how important it is to get medication, so she agrees to stay on. We have two militia guards that have first aid experience, so I make an executive decision and insist that they serve in the clinic today. I tell them it's Azar's order, and since he's my husband, they wouldn't dare contradict me.
Not that they would, anyhow. They instantly nod and say “Yes, Lady Melina” as if I wasn't just another fort person a few months ago. I'm the wife of the man in charge, and I could tell them to stand on their heads and they would.
Rachel waits for me on the edge of the city, and she brazenly pushes her way through the guards when they try to stop her. "Unless you want to get eaten by a dragon," she tells them, "You're not going to lay a finger on me."
I purse my lips at this, because I'm not thrilled at the message it's sending, but it's effective. They leave her alone, and we head out of the gate, past the barricade for the first time in years, and a massive golden dragon is waiting there for us. Jurik. The only reason I don't panic is that his eyes are whirling a calm shade of gold, one that I recognize from my nights with Azar. Rachel lights up at the sight of him, beaming a smile in his direction and moving fearlessly to his side. "Ready, Melina?"
She hands me a bike helmet to put over my hair, and I watch as she grabs the series of straps she has set up along Jurik's enormous golden side. The dragon dips low and maneuvers his body, trying to help her up, and when she's settled in the saddle, she wraps a set of reins around her stump and reaches down with her good hand.