Page 40 of Anger

“No,” Griffin answered.

“Not in my case,” Chimera added.

“Damn!” Lanie exclaimed. “All four of you were thought dead.”

“Refuge blocks our thoughts and presence from the outside world. Try to mind speak to your people. You won’t be able to,” Chimera replied.

Lanie reached out and found a perturbing lack of noise. There was silence in her head.

“How did you know Mac was at the castle?” Lanie demanded.

“Because he is tracked. As soon as Mac teleported from one place to another in a blink of an eye, we locked on to him. Mac is valuable to us and much loved. Him being a prisoner was not on the cards,” Griffin responded. He lifted a heavy paw and cuffed Mac on the back of his head.

Mac grinned.

“The Board wasn’t sure of Mac’s intentions. Alainen has raised his ugly self again,” Lanie stated.

“You have our sympathy, sister, but your Board does not control us,” Chimera replied. “And we weren’t prepared to allow Mac to become a prisoner.”

“Welcome, sister,” another voice said, and Lanie’s eyes grew wide as she took in the three-headed dog heading towards her.

“Cerberus!” she exclaimed and hugged the creature.

“Indeed, it is I,” he responded.

“Are there any others?” Lanie asked.

“No, this is all of us. We do have a loose lock on Gargoyle, and we believe he is with another shifter. But we are having a hard time pinning them down,” Hydra added.

“Nobody has heard from him for centuries,” Lanie replied.

“No, we think he’s locked his form down. But we’re getting random thoughts every so often,” Hydra admitted.

“How? If mind speak does not work here,” Lanie asked.

“It doesn’t work for you, sister, it works for us. We can hear the thoughts of the others, but they can’t hear us. Ask Tisiphone, it’s her magic,” Chimera replied.

Tisiphone smiled. “You’ve always had an inquisitive mind, Lanie. Come, you can’t have eaten yet, and it is lunch time here.”

“Do you trade with the outside world?” Lanie asked as they entered the building. A smile broke across Lanie’s face as she recognised the buffet-style setup.

“Yes. However, we grow most fruit and vegetables ourselves, and we also farm our own meat. We are quite self-sufficient. We have perfect weather for what we need to grow,” Hydra replied.

Lanie waited as the other three shifted to human forms and headed for the long buffet-style table. Plates of food were put out for people to help themselves and then you’d sit on cushions in gatherings and eat.

“This is amazing,” Lanie said as she picked up cheese and meats with some fruits.

“We worked hard to create this. It began five hundred years ago in your time, but for us here, it’s been much longer,” Griffin replied.

Lanie felt a little awkward. They were in human shape, but she didn’t know their human names.

“How many people live here?” Lanie asked.

“Four hundred thousand. And out of those, three hundred thousand are warrior-ready,” Chimera answered.

Lanie choked on a bit of apple.

“What?” she exclaimed.

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