Free Elf Saga: Bloodlines (Part 1: Curse of the Jaguar) by Joseph Robert Lewis

blows a handful of powder in my eyes and like
an idiot, I inhale it. I cough once, and I’m out.
    Thankfully, there’s no fever dream and I wake
up to the sound of Rajani whispering my name over and over.
    “Gen? Gen, wake up. Gen? Can you hear me?
Gen?”
    “Blabblarhg,” I mumble as I sit up and wipe
the drool from my cheek. I hear the chains, and then squint through
the bright sunlight at the metal bracelets locked to my wrists and
chained to the floor. “Well, at least there’s no dragon trying to
incinerate me. That’s nice.”
    “Gen, over here.”
    I look up and see Rajani in the cell next to
me. No chains on her. But she does have her cloak on, with her hood
pulled tight over her green hair, and she’s sitting in the center
of her cage looking sick, pale, and sweaty, as though she’s on the
verge of throwing up or passing out.
    “You okay?”
    She shakes her head. “Too much metal.
Headache. Dizzy.”
    “Oh crap, that Feyeri thing. The gloves. I
forgot about that. You really can’t touch any metal at all?”
    She shakes her head and waves her gloved
hands weakly. “I’ll pass out.”
    “Shit.” I sit back and look around. Our cells
are actually iron cages hanging from chains a small distance above
the floor, and beneath us is a pool of… something dark and bubbly.
It smells like oil. There are a couple dozen other cages, and about
half of them are occupied by other prisoners who all look Oyeran,
and mostly look guilty, judging by the smug looks they’re giving
me. No chains on them either.
    And no guards in the room.
    I blink hard as the urge to go back to sleep
tries to shut my eyes. “What did they hit me with?”
    “Some sort of heavy anesthetic. It knocked
you out instantly,” she says quietly, casting worried looks at the
other prisoners.
    “And what’s that smell?” My nostrils are
burning slightly and my head is throbbing just a little. It might
be a regular headache, or it might be… something worse.
    “I think it’s Hadimi seed oil,” she says.
“You feel sick? Like, blackout sick?”
    “A little.”
    “Here.” She whistles and one of her little
green friends darts out from her hood, slips between the bars of
her cage and mine, and plunges into my hair. I can feel the faerie
crawling around in there against the back of my neck and I have to
fight the urge to swat it. I shiver as tiny fingers scratch lightly
at my skin. “What’s it doing?”
    “Just wait a sec.”
    And a moment later the pain in my head
fades.
    “Wow, that’s a nice trick. Thanks.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    “So what’s the deal?” I rattle my chains.
“We’re stuck here until we agree to take Princess Jackass to the
lost city?”
    “Probably, but no one’s said anything to us
since we were arrested.” She bites her lip. “Can you get us out of
here? I really need to get out of here. I don’t want to pass out,
or barf. And my moms are going to kill me if they ever find out I
got arrested.”
    “Calm down. No one cares if you get
arrested.” I tug on the chains. They feel pretty secure.
    “Like you would know.” She shakes her
head.
    “I’ve been arrested lots of times.” I shrug.
“No big deal.”
    “Really? For what?”
    “Trespassing and mayhem, mostly.” I laugh.
“Did you know that’s a crime? Mayhem? Heh. Well, that’s the south
for you.”
    “So what do we do? Wait for them to let us
go? I mean, we didn’t do anything wrong. They can’t just keep us in
here, can they?”
    I tug a little harder on the chains. “I’m
pretty sure an angry princess can lock up whoever she wants for as
long as she wants, for whatever reason she wants.”
    “Quite so.” The door squeaks open and
Princess Amara strides into the prison, her cane knocking loudly on
the stone floor. Two of her personal guards follow her inside, but
they remain by the doorway as she comes toward us on a raised path
between all the oily pools under the cages. “Don’t trouble yourself
too much with those