The Scarecrow of OZ by S. D. Stuart Read Free Book Online

without ever meeting them in person.”
    The Southern Marshal apparently wasn’t going to let this drop. “You’ve been working all this time for somebody you’ve never met? How can you even be sure they exist?”
    He cleared his throat again and did not look directly into the eyes of the Southern Marshal. Instead, he found something very interesting on the floor at his feet while he spoke. “The Directors do exist, Madame Marshal, believe me. And the threat they pose is very real.”
    Caleb had never seen Nero behave like this. Even when he wasn’t at the forefront, and hung back in the shadows, Nero always made sure that everyone around him knew who was really in charge. Now, for the first time, Caleb saw him for what he really was. Or at least what he had become. A broken man who was powerless to take what he wanted by force and had no choice but to supplicate himself to another.
    She folded her arms across her chest and gave Nero a stern look. “You’ve got me all worked up over nothing.”
    For the briefest of moments, Caleb saw a flash of the old Nero as he matched the Southern Marshal’s stare with one of his own. “It is hardly nothing. The dragons are coming to destroy everything we hold dear. We have to work together if we are to stop them.”

Chapter 6
     
    Caleb was taken down below the main deck, chained to the wall in a small room, and left alone. He was actually glad to be given this time to think. After the guard closed the door and left him some privacy, Caleb tugged on the chains. They were securely bolted to the support beam along the wall. Even if he did manage to break free, where could he go? He was on an airship, hundreds of meters in the sky.
    And even if he managed to escape an airship in mid-flight, and make it safely to the ground, where could he go then?
    A hybrid wandering around the Southern Territories, outside of electrified fence, would cause quite a stir in any town or city he entered. He certainly didn’t want to live out the rest of his days as a wild animal, living deep in some forest hunting for his food and hiding from everything else.
    He couldn’t escape back into the rest of OZ either. The ceramic wall that surrounded the Southern Territories was as smooth as glass and dwarfed the tallest trees. The tools he had used to get in had been confiscated when they were captured. And besides, he still had to rescue Dorothy. He wasn’t about to go anywhere without her.
    Of course, he had already created a small stir since he was captured outside the fence. Despite how careful he had been in the past, the Southern Marshal now knew he had found a way out. She would take extra steps to seal them in tighter than they were before.
    Some leader he had turned out to be. He had just made it harder on all the hybrids in the compound. Any hope of escape in the near future had just been quelled. He was the last person they should be looking to for guidance.
    But the Southern Marshal was right. From the moment he first arrived in the colony six months ago, everyone had looked to him as their leader. Rather than being treated as the new kid and shunned as a stranger, he was asked to sit in on the monthly council meetings. But as much as he tried to just sit there and remain silent, he was still called upon to settle disputes among the council members. And every decision he made immediately became law.
    He was constantly being pulled by the hybrids within the colony to take a leadership position. Now he was being pushed from the outside, by the Southern Marshal herself, to do the same.
    But a leader of what?
    And where would he be leading the hybrids to?
    He still had not figured out why the Southern Marshal had invited the hybrids to the Southern Territories. Why had she accumulated every hybrid into one place? What did she plan to do with them? Everyone he spoke to waved off his concerns and told him not to question their good fortune. Despite the electric fence, everyone told him, they were