The Battle of Betazed - Charlotte Douglas [36]
“Just one taste,” she said reasonably. “You’ll like it, I promise.”
“No.” He stamped his foot and turned his head to avoid the proffered spoon. “Don’t want sadi. Want chocolate.”
She could thank Deanna for the boy’s preference. Her daughter had sent them an ample supply of the confection before the war started, and with careful rationing, Lwaxana had managed to dole out an occasional treat to Barin until only a few weeks ago.
“But this is chocolate,” she improvised. “It’s just yellow. And juicy. And tart.”
Barin shook his head defiantly, unconvinced, but Lwaxana’s attention had already been drawn to the approach of Enaren. She sensed his agitation even before she heard his footsteps pounding down the tunnelway. Within seconds, he thundered into the room.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded.
“Two members of the scavenging team just returned. The Jem’Hadar have captured Okalan.”
She dropped the spoon into the bowl of minced fruit and handed it to Chaxaza. “Where?”
“They grabbed him just as he was leaving the hospital-at Condar village,” Enaren said. “The others in his group were hiding and managed to slip away.”
“What about the ryetalyn?”
Enaren shook his head. “Okalan had it when the Jem’Hadar captured him.”
Lwaxana bit back a curse of frustration. The doctor had used the last of the ryetalyn to save Enaren’s grandson, but afterward, three more children had come down with the fever. One hovered near death. Without medication, he’d die before sunrise. “Perhaps Okalan dropped it along the way in the hope we’d find it.”
“We can search,” Enaren said. “It was the last ryetalyn known to be within a hundred kilometers.”
Lwaxana reached for her cloak on the bench behind her. “Let’s go.”
“Where do you think you’re going?” Enaren asked in amazement.
Taking charge, Lwaxana drew herself to her full height and tinged her voice with the irrefutable tone of command. “The other members of his team will show us where Okalan was captured. Then we’ll follow his trail and locate him.”
Enaren gaped at her as if she’d lost her senses. “And if we find him? What good will that do?”
Lwaxana bristled at his lack of faith. “Okalan and I are two of the strongest telepaths in this cell. If I can communicate with him without his guards seeing me, he can tell me what happened to the ryetalyn.”
Enaren shook his head. “It’s a fool’s errand.”
Lwaxana’s eyes flashed with fury. “Tell that to the parents of those sick children.”
Enaren hesitated. “It’s almost sunset. The beasts begin foraging at dark. And if we use our phasers, we’ll draw the Jem’Hadar down on us.”
“Then arm yourself and the others with blow guns,” Lwaxana ordered. “And hurry.”
With few modern weapons, the resistance had reverted to the blow guns and darts of their primitive ancestors to protect themselves from wild animals and even to kill tunnel rats. Most of the men and women had become proficient in the use of the small tube, fashioned from the hollowed stems of the corzon plant and armed with tarna thorns dipped in the deadly poison of the zintaba root. The toxin killed instantly.
After ordering Chaxaza to persuade Barin to eat and swiftly kissing her son, Lwaxana led the way into the tunnel that exited the caverns. Enaren followed. The other members of Okalan’s team, the stocky young cavat farmer and a gigantic blacksmith, both from Condar, joined them as they left the stronghold.
What if the Jem’Hadar have transported Okalan? Enaren demanded. We’ll never find him.
I know where he might be, the cavat farmer answered. The ugly brutes have commandeered the community hall as a temporary headquarters in this province. My guess is they took him there.
We have to hurry, Lwaxana insisted, before they decide to move him somewhere else.
The rest of her thoughts she shielded to herself. If the Jem’Hadar suspected Okalan was a member of a rebel group, they’d