Chp.13: Clues of the location

Haku was sitting motionless in front of a severed head, staring at it intensely. If anyone had seen him in that context, they probably would have thought he was enchanted, but in reality he wasn't. He was waiting. Because that head was no ordinary head: it was one of Rhaegal's avatars, the one closest to him. He was sure that if his brother tried to contact him, he would do it from that head.

As he sat there, he reflected. He had tried to imagine different scenarios, but unfortunately none of them allowed him to understand where they had taken his brother. He had sent Malchia and Glausar to check the meeting place, obviously incognito, and in fact they had found in the point marked on the map a sort of strange tower outside which some soldiers were camped. However, Haku doubted that he would find Rhaegal inside the tower; it wouldn't have made sense for King Marcus to keep him so close to the meeting place. It was more convenient for him to hide him in an place impossible to find. His sisters had offered to make an inspection, but Haku had preferred to avoid it: he still didn't know how humans had managed to see through the rune of invisibility, and therefore it was better not to try his luck for the moment.

Finally, the head shook slightly and the eyes opened. "Hello, brother" Rhaegal's voice greeted him.

"Brother! Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Haku asked apprehensive.

"Hey, hey, calm down, I'm fine!" Rhaegal exclaimed. "Don't worry about me, I'm still in one piece. They haven't done anything to me. I think they gave me some drugs to keep me quiet, because I seem to have slept for a long time. I woke up recently and my mind is still very lightheaded. I'm pretending to continue sleeping because I know they are watching me. Debilitated as I am, I have to concentrate quite a lot to maintain the connection with the avatar"

Haku breathed a sigh of relief. Even though he knew Rhaegal was too important to be hurt, a little part of his mind had still been preoccupied with him for all those hours, imagining very unpleasant scenarios. Luckily, there seemed to be no such complications. "Are you sure they didn't do anything to you? Because if they touched you, I..."

"I told you to calm down, brother. Although I don't remember anything from the last few hours, since I was probably asleep, I have no wounds of any kind on me and I feel no pain anywhere. They didn't do anything to me" Rhaegal replied. "By the way, regarding my capture, I wanted to tell you that you were right and that I was reckless and..."

"It's not important now! We'll discuss this nonsense another time!" Haku snapped. Even though he was very angry, he knew this wasn't the time to scold his brother; her priority now was just to save him. "Can you give me any clues as to where you are? Even the slightest detail could be..."

"I can do more, brother. I can tell you exactly where I am" Rhaegal replied with a smirk.

Haku's eyes widened. "Really?" he exclaimed, not expecting such good news.

"They deprived me of my sight, hearing, and smell, but they underestimated my abilities. Even without these senses, I was able to tell where they were leading me" Rhaegal replied. "Please give me a bust. I need to use some hands. And give me a map too"

Haku nodded and pulled an ogre torso out of its dimensional pouch, to which he connected the head. After a few moments Rhaegal was able to move his arms and hands. You could clearly see that he was still groggy and was struggling to maintain a stable connection with the avatar: his fingers moved almost jerkily. Haku wondered what drug they had given him to make him look like this.

He placed the map in front of him, and Rhaegal immediately started drawing something on it. "This is where they kidnapped me" he said, drawing an 'X' on a river, then drawing a line to another 'X'. "And here where they deprived me of my senses. Up to here, basically, I could still see where we were going. After this moment, since I couldn't use my senses to orient myself, I used another technique. I counted one to one all the seconds in which they carried me in the air. In total, from this point to the end of the flight, 2,296 seconds elapsed, or 38 minutes and 16 seconds. I cannot say with absolute certainty, but from the force with which the air hit me I estimate that the wyvern always flew with the same speed, meaning about one hundred and thirty meters every second, which means that, assuming it traveled in a straight line, it could have gotten at most here". He pointed to a spot about three hundred kilometers away. "However, from the air pressure banging against mine body, I realized that the wyvern changed direction many times. The first time after the first two minutes, with this corner here, then after five, with this one...". Rhaegal continued to draw several lines on the map, changing the course each time, until he circled a large area at one point on the map, about seventy kilometers away from where he was captured. "Here, this is where I should be now. Unfortunately I can't say for sure where in this area I am, but you can narrow your search here anyway"

Haku looked at the area Rhaegal had circled. It measured about a couple of kilometers in diameter and was located in the middle of a prairie. But more importantly, it matched the place where he was supposed to meet the king to talk about the ransom. "The place where the king has given me an appointment is this" he said pointing to a dot in the center of the circle drawn by Rhaegal. "That means they're holding you captive somewhere around here. I've sent our sisters to scout ahead and they've confirmed that there's a tower, but that's unlikely to be the place. I don't know if there are any other structures around. We should investigate further, but with the humans having become able to see through the invisibility rune..."

"I can help you with that too" Rhaegal said. "The humans can see us thanks to a magical device that allows us to perceive the life energy of living beings. It is a bit like our ability to perceive body heat or the electric field of the nervous system of our prey. I don't know if it exists a way to counteract that effect, but so far the only magical device I've seen was contained within the Black Vulture mask, which means regular soldiers don't have it... but I can't say it for absolute certainty"

Haku memorized that information carefully. If indeed the magical device worked that way, then perhaps there was a way around the problem and fool the humans' senses again as they always had. If he could find out, not only he could (maybe) save Rhaegal, but he would also obtain an additional guarantee of security for future covert operations. He should have told Maldor and Isaac about it; perhaps they could give him some useful advice, especially now that they had discovered how to combine magic and mathematics. "Tell me about this Black Vulture. What can you tell me about her?"

"She's dangerous. Very dangerous" Rhaegal answered. "She can read her opponents perfectly, she has considerable strength, she knows a lot about us dragons and she's also an expert on drugs, since she's probably the one who put me to sleep. I don't know why but I have this impression. I don't I'm sure, my memories are still a little blurry". He let out a growl. "But it's not her you need to pay more attention to. It's true, she's dangerous, but still I think that, just like you, she prefers to avoid a fight without adequate preparation, so with a surprise attack you should be able to handle her. But there are also some legendary levels here"

Haku's eyes narrowed. He was sure that was the case since the king would be present, and therefore wouldn't come without adequate protection, but it was annoying nonetheless. "How many?"

"So far, I've only seen Hara" Rhaegal answered. "I don't know if Thornag is there too, but since he usually never leaves the king..."

"…it's probable that he's there too" Haku anticipated him. "And Carrion? Do you happen to know if he's back?"

"No, unfortunately. The king made no mention of it when..."

"The king? Have you met him?"

"Yes, he wanted to talk to me in person"

"Why?"

"Personally, I don't know. I remember that he told me that you wanted to use me as a bargaining chip, perhaps to calm me down and convince me to stay quiet. But I also remember that I felt like I was talking to an extremely smart individual. He reminded me a lot of you"

Haku didn't know whether to take it as a compliment. "Be careful with him. If he has talked to you, then he must have something in mind. That man is a skilled manipulator. He may not have asked you anything now, but I'm sure he will show up again soon and will. Try to don't fall into his trap. What are the last things he said to you?"

Rhaegal seemed embarrassed. "Um… I don't actually remember. I think Black Vulture injected me with the drug in the middle of the argument, because I don't remember seeing the king or his men leave. It wouldn't surprise me if she did, that woman really has a bad attitude..."

Haku let out a snort. He didn't like that Rhaegal remembered so little. While this was normal after taking a sleeping pill or some other type of drug, he felt that something was wrong, and he didn't like it at all. "Is there anything else you can tell me that might help me find you?"

Rhaegal reflected well. "The room I am in is completely enclosed, windowless, and there is a smell of stale air. I believe I am underground, so you should sound the ground" he answered. "I can't think of anything else, unfortunately"

"Don't worry brother, you've done enough. You've given me more information than I hoped" Haku said. "We will continue to look for you, and now thanks to you we know where to do it. I will always carry this avatar with me, so you can contact me at any time"

"That's a good idea. I don't want these people to figure out that I can contact you, so I have to be very careful when I log on here" Rhaegal replied. "I certainly can't activate the connection while they're talking to me. I know they've seen you use an avatar before, but I still don't want to risk it"

"You're right. Well done, brother" Haku said. "When you return to your real body, try to find out something else, but also be very careful. I don't know what game the king is playing, but I doubt that he will just keep you prisoner, or he wouldn't have spoken to you himself. Always watch your back"

"I will" Rhaegal confirmed.

Haku nodded satisfied. "We'll get you out of there, brother. Just be patient"

"I know, brother. I'm not worried. I know you will free me" Rhaegal replied, then he disconnected the link with the avatar. The head and torso returned lifeless and fell to the ground. Haku watched them for a moment, then he pulled the head off again and held it in one paw, while putting the rest of the body back into his dimensional bag. This done, he immediately ran to his sisters; they had a lot to talk about.

Rhaegal returned to his body and opened his eyes. He was still in the room and Black Vulture stood before him and was sharpening her knife. "Mh. You woke up" the woman said. "I didn't think the Lethe water would knock you out. Or maybe it was the pain..."

"Lethe water? What are you talking about?" Rhaegal asked confused.

"Oh right, you can't remember" Black Vulture said. "But personally I don't care. I have to admit you were very resilient in the first six hours. I made better games then!" and having dictated this, she hit him with a sort of flail that tore a part of his back, making him roar in pain. "Let's see how tough you really are, dragon"