Page 68 of Rarely Pure and Never Simple
"I'll ask the one you're looking for if she'll speak with you. She's not Tara, though. Her name is Dryad now. Please respect her choice."
Damien gave a respectful nod. "Of course."
Shade didn't return. Instead, several grandmotherly women arrived to see to the various shredded patches on Blaze's skin and to redress his leg wound. They took his bloody, torn clothes, leaving him disgruntled and wrapped in heavy blankets.
"At least they left my damn boots," he grumbled.
"And your guns."
"Yeah. Think they were scared to touch those."
Blaze stretched out on the woven carpet, settling his head on Damien's thigh. Though there was a little twitch, Damien allowed it. He sat quietly, stroking Blaze's hair, content to wait, apparently. Probably a good thing. They needed a few quiet moments. Instead of saying some of the things he probably should have, or at least thanking Damien for being so patient with him, Blaze fell asleep.
He woke to soft voices, Damien's, of course, since his head was still in Damien's lap, and a female voice much younger and softer than Shade's.
"It was the plants. They got me out the first time."
"How?"
The answer didn't come immediately. Blaze kept his eyes closed, afraid that he would keep the young woman from speaking freely. "Plants are patient. Persistent. They dug roots under my cell floor and into the wall. That weak spot between wall and floor started to crumble, and one night, I was able to kick out a hole big enough to crawl through. The lab people never figured out what I was, so they didn't suspect the plants. They didn't have anyone like Shade, and my school record just lists my talent as 'nontraditional communication.' I hid and snuck out through the main gate when a supply truck came in that night."
"What is it that Shade does?"
"She calls herself a taxonomist. She looks at you and knows what you do.Exactlywhat you do and how it affects you."
"Do you find her frightening?"
Tara—Dryad—laughed. It was a happy, throaty laugh, natural and friendly. "I guess at first. She's abrupt and short, but it's because human contact's hard for her some days."
"Ah." Damien's hand threaded through Blaze's hair. He could practically hear Damien thinking,Yes, I know how that is. "How did you find your way back to the school?"
"I didn't have any supplies, no coat, prison slippers for shoes. I probably would've died out there, but the lu xing found me. They helped me and pointed me here. How they know about this place, I'm not sure. But once I was here, fed and happy, I knew I couldn't just sit on my butt. Other kids were still being tortured at that lab. Other kids were in danger of being taken."
"You went back to the school first to warn them."
"I only got to talk to Katie, but I hoped it was enough. I… I don't have proof, but I think the administrators at the school were helping to funnel kids to the lab. Flea and Torrent left school with me that second time. Torrent called this huge storm while the prisoners were out for exercise period. Tons of confusion. Good stuff. Flea jumped the gate and unlocked it from the inside. We only got a couple out, though, barely."
"So you decided that wasn't the best solution."
"Right. I was hoping, someday, to have the right people to hit the lab hard. I wonder if that's you."
Blaze cracked an eye. Dryad was sitting cross-legged a few feet away. She had a round, open face and short black hair. Her smile for Damien held only sincere curiosity, no resentment that a grownup might be taking over her operation.
"We hope to be. If you help us, I think we can."
"Will he be okay?"
"Blaze? Yes. He did more than a human body should. Even his. But he'll be all right."
"And Shudder?"
"I don't know. I hope they let me check on him later. See what your healer said. Concussions can be strange."
Blaze turned on his back and stretched, tired of pretending to be asleep. "Hey."
"Hey, yourself." Damien smiled down at him, a real smile. "Blaze, this is Dryad. Dryad, this is the infamous Blaze Emerson."
"Hi." As Blaze had feared, Dryad turned shy with him awake.Fuck. Should've waited.
