by Sky Corbelli
Chapter 29
A Daring Escape
Ezra woke to an urgent prodding in his side.
“Hawkins,” came Sarah's harsh whisper, “time to go.”
He yawned and looked around at the darkened inn, stretching and wiping drool from his face. “Is it morning alrea–”
Sarah's hand clamped firmly over his mouth as she brought her finger to her lips. “Not that we aren't all having fun, but we've got a long walk ahead of us, and I don't see two days spent here cleaning things up making it any shorter.”
Ezra met her eyes and nodded. She removed her hand and he carefully made his way to his feet. It took a few tries. Sarah scanned the room while he worked out where all of his limbs were. “Where's Mat? He isn't answering his communicator,” she whispered, “I thought I saw him eating with you.”
Ezra blinked at her a few times while his brain came online. “Yes, eating. There was... food?” He vaguely remembered something about food, he was sure of it.
Sarah seemed to be doing some kind of calculation in her head, then she made a disgusted sound and ghosted through the room and out the back door. Ezra followed, more like a zombie than a ghost, but quietly enough that no alarm was raised in his wake. Sarah stalked down the road, glancing at each house until she found one that seemed to satisfy her. She knelt at the door, pulled something out of her hair, and deftly began picking the lock.
“Wait here,” she instructed tersely. “Let me know if anyone starts moving around. This will only take a minute.” The lock sprang open and Sarah disappeared silently inside.
Ezra looked around nervously, and shivered, wiping his nose with one arm and sniffling. “I'm getting a cold, I know it,” he muttered.
“As interesting as that is, please try to act like you're keeping watch out there,” Sarah's sarcastic reply came over his communicator. Ezra promptly shut up.
Just under a minute later, Sarah stormed from the house, blushing a deep red and dragging Mat by his ear. Mat was wincing and hopping along, trying to pull on his pants, when he spotted Ezra and flashed him an enormous grin, dropping his pants to give two enthusiastic thumbs up. “Jenna Haldis and her sisters really have a thing for dark strangers. Get a little sun on you, and I think you've got a shot.” Ezra stared at Mat, dumbfounded, as Sarah released him in disgust and stomped toward the edge of town.
Mat finished getting his pants on and trotted to catch up to Sarah, laughing under his breath. Ezra realized he was getting left behind, rubbed his nose again and ran after them. Mat looked up at the night sky and let out a sigh of contentment. “Never see stars like that in Sanctuary. Kinda makes you wonder why we–”
Mat fell on his face. Ezra probably would have found it funny if something hadn't just grabbed his ankle, tripping him as well. Sarah caught herself and spun, then looked incredulously down at their feet.
They were all chained to the ground by shackles of solid stone.
“It really is beautiful, just after a rain,” Gaav's voice rumbled at them from just off the road. There he sat, legs crossed and hands resting lightly on his knees, looking out toward the blight line. “I sentenced you to three days' labor, so I can only conclude that you came out to enjoy the night air.”
Mat cleared his throat as he stood up and tested his restraint, then peered off toward where the earth-crowned was sitting. “Gaav? Is that you? You must have come out here to check on any residual damage too!” He took an exaggerated look to the left and right. “Well, this part of town seems pretty secure. Yep, looks like everything's just fine.” He gave a theatrical yawn and stretched. “Oh well, early day tomorrow, we should probably just turn in. Enjoy your night air, Gaav.” Mat took a step back toward town, but the stone manacle didn't budge.
“Well,” Gaav said, slapping a hand to his knee, “I wouldn't want you to miss the sunrise. I can assure you, it is quite a sight to behold.” He rose, clasped his hands behind his back and started walking back toward the inn. “You'll have to tell me how it was in the morning. Have a pleasant evening.” He nodded to them as he strode past.
Ezra pulled his knees up and rested his head against them. He sniffled loudly. “Yes,” he said, “definitely coming down with something.”
==
“I told you I was getting sick.”
They were back at the inn, their stone shackles having disintegrated a few hours after people started moving around in town. The other two were taking entirely too much pleasure in Ezra's unfortunate circumstances.
“They not give nanos to you Legacies or something?” Mat grinned as he checked Ezra's temperature. “I swear they take care of little things like this.”
“They said that exposure to space shorted them out or decompression messed with a thingy and now they won't work or something,” Ezra grumbled back at him, stifling a sneeze.”Never seemed like a big deal until I spent three thundering days sitting in the rain freezing my blunted–”
“Blighted,” Sarah corrected seriously as she fought a smile.
“Thank you. Freezing my blighted ass off in the middle of nowhere. So you can both go strike–”
“Struck,” Mat interjected as he looked through the contents of a small pouch.
“–struck yourselves for all I care. And that doesn't even make sense,” Ezra concluded miserably.
A booming laugh made them all jump as Gaav strolled up. “The mouth on this boy. Better make sure none of the Sons or Daughters hear you, or they may think you're lacking a sound religious upbringing.” He chuckled as he picked up Ezra's discarded dishes from the night before.
“This'll help with the fever,” Mat said, dropping a pill into Ezra's hand, “but you'll just have to tough the rest of it out.”
“Thank you,” Ezra grumped, “well, guess we better get started.” He got to his feet and started reaching for a nearby hammer.
“No!” Gaav, the local physician, and several men nearby all shouted at Ezra in unison. He froze, not sure what to do.
Gaav cleared his throat and gave a small, encouraging nod to the others, who slowly sat back down, watching Ezra warily. “What we meant was that...” The huge man looked around and his eyes lit up. “You're sick! Yes, yes, you look very, very sick. And we wouldn't want you to strain yourself.”
“Bad for the healing,” chimed in a man by the bar.
“Wouldn't want it to spread,” the physician volunteered gravely.
“As if he hasn't already sent enough people to the–ow!” A man with a well-bandaged foot came down with a sudden case of elbow-to-the-side. “I mean, uh, gotta think of your health, young lad like you.”
“We'll just have to get by without you for the day.” Gaav placed a conciliatory hand on Ezra's shoulder. “Try to get some rest.”
“Excuse me.” Sarah got up, walked to the bar, picked up a cup and brought it to her mouth. Choking sounds of poorly stifled laughter immediately began coming from behind the cup as she looked back at Ezra, her eyes dancing in merriment.
“I could use a little air,” Mat said as he sprinted for the door. The whole town heard his guffaws the moment he was outside.
Ezra looked around the room, then sniffed loudly again, grumbling as he shuffled toward the stairs.
