by J. Thorn
I stopped as she brushed aside some long grass to reveal the rounded mouth of another tunnel. I yanked my hand from hers.
“What’s this?”
She turned with a wide grin, the ridge of her nose crinkled with a sparkle in her eyes.
“It’s our chance. I’ve been waiting for the right moment—that moment is now.”
“Why?”
“The slavers haven’t been coming to the prison as often as they used to. I needed all hell to break loose. Emil’s thugs beating on folks, guards trying to protect the slavers, prison beefs exploding. This is the best diversion I’m going to get. Our best shot at freedom.”
Dizziness gripped me as I looked between her and the tunnel.
Freedom.
It was all I had longed for, but it didn’t feel right. Taking a step back, I shook my head.
“I can’t… I can’t leave Kora behind. I have to get her first.”
Wyllow’s face darkened, her eyes flashing.
“Are you serious? We don’t have time for that. Besides, Kora is the reason for the riot. If she wouldn’t have killed Feliz, none of this would be happening.” Her tone dropped to a grim drawl. “She’s dead by now, for sure.”
I scowled and backed away. Something about the way she’d said that sent chills down my spine.
“You don’t know that. I have to try and find her.”
She shook her head and laughed. “So stubborn, Rayna. That’ll get you killed.”
Like I didn’t already know that.
“I gotta try.”
Wyllow conceded with a short sigh before explaining to me how I could get through the tunnel that emerged on the other side of the prison walls. She finished by clasping both my hands and giving me a squeeze.
“I hope to see you on the outside. Good luck.”
She whirled around with that, unlatching her fingers from mine and pushing back the overhanging trees. As she stepped inside the dark tunnel, I called after her—there was something I had to know in case we never saw each other again.
“Hey, Wyllow.”
She glanced at me from over her shoulder, her ginger brows raised. I stepped closer as my eyes locked onto hers. “Why did you help me?”
The stress of the riot and the anxiousness of the moment seemed to fall from her face. She smiled, wide and bright.
“The world is full of people, but only some are worth a risk. I knew I was here for a reason; I just didn’t know what that was until you came along. You’re one of the special ones, Rayna. Your dreams—nobody could have known what you saw, what you knew about me. A long time ago, a person very dear to me had been stabbed and burned at the stake while I was forced to watch.” Her lips tightened as her eyes held mine. “Go. Find your friend and get out of here.”
“Thank you,” I said, but I didn’t think Wyllow heard me as she spun away and disappeared into the dark opening.
A split second passed as her words filtered into my mind and I backed away. I began to rush back through the trees, and the hot air seemed to burn my lungs as the enormity of what she’d done and said hit me.
My legs pumped as I sprinted back to the prison yard to find Kora. As I closed in on the loud rumble of the riot, I began to feel caught somewhere between stubborn and stupid, and I knew that question would remain with me.
Wyllow had just known. She had risked her life for mine, and yet I was still unsure what it all meant. If I died in the prison riot looking for my friend, I’d at least do so knowing I’d made a difference in one person’s life, even if that person was an escaped convict who also happened to be a witch.
22
Even with their clubs and whips, the guards struggled to beat back the throngs of prisoners now attacking with their bare hands. Fights and alliances had shifted, the brutality now overflowing as prisoners fed the chaos.
I covered my head while dodging fights, searching for Kora in the increasingly dusty air. Blood-smeared faces would come into my view and then I’d be forced to step over a body bleeding in the dirt. I had begun to feel a pit forming in my stomach—I could step on Kora’s body and not even know it.
Someone slammed into my back and, instead of looking at who’d pushed me, I tried to stay upright and avoid getting trampled by the hundreds of feet stampeding through the prison yard. Horns continued to blow and the prisoners moved in erratic packs, attacking guards and sometimes each other. Stumbling forward, I caught myself just in time by snatching at the arm of a man wandering through the crowd. I looked at him, his grey eyes drifting down at me, blinking, unfocused and swollen with the blood that oozed from the corners. I gave him a swift nod and he walked back into the fray.
The dust cloud parted for a moment and I was able to see Emil and his sneering grin. He was holding a club that he must have wrestled away from a guard or, for all I knew, been given by a guard. At his feet, I spotted Kora on all fours with streams of blood running down her face. Emil kicked her in the ribs and she flipped over, her hands up and begging for mercy. He kicked her again and then cocked the club back.
I ran as fast as I could, knowing that one strike on the head from one of those clubs could knock a person out, or worse. Emil didn’t see me coming as he began to size up Kora for his blow, getting ready to beat her senseless. I lunged, knocking him to the ground and hearing the breath rush from his chest. I rolled over and straddled him as I began to punch him in the face as hard as I could. The guy was a real rockhead, which I found out firsthand as my knuckles began to split and bleed.
He brought his arms up and blocked my punches before twisting his hips and throwing me off. My back hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the wind out of me and the gravel digging into my flesh. But I didn’t feel any pain because I was running on pure adrenaline.
Emil stood up before I could, kicking at me and connecting the toe of his boot with the side of my head. I blinked hard and felt my head swim before catching my balance, leaning back, and blocking his next kick with my forearm. I caught his boot with my other hand, pulling hard and hearing the thud of his body hit the ground as I sprang to my feet.
“You little bitch. This time, I’m gonna finish you off.”
I gritted my teeth and braced for his full onslaught. I knew how much he hated me. It would take everything I had to beat him back now. A shimmer at my feet caught my attention, and I lowered my eyes briefly and spotted a shard of glass in the dirt, most likely from a broken window on one of the slave trader’s carriages.
He came at me fast, his huge fists like hunks of granite. I ducked several blows, but he connected two or three times, leaving my right cheek red and my left ear ringing. I stumbled and he came at my throat with both hands. I dodged and swooped up the glass, slashing the sharp blade across his left cheek as hard as I could.
A flap of skin dropped from the side of his face, blood cascading down his neck and pooling along his collar. He dropped to his knees, clutching at his face and wailing before looking up at me.
“You cut me! Damnit! You’re dead. Do you hear me? Dead!”
I grimaced, dropping the glass at my feet as I turned my back on him and scooped Kora up and onto her feet. She was barely conscious, but there was no way I could carry her outright. She’d have to stumble along with me holding her up.
“C’mon, girl.” I spun her around and began stumbling back into the chaos and toward Devil’s Hole. “You can’t pass out yet.”
I’m not sure how she stayed conscious or how I kept her upright, but somehow we made it into the lunch room, down the hatch, past Devil’s Hole, and to the mouth of the tunnel where Wyllow had been earlier.
I pushed Kora into the darkness, and then I followed.
23
“Stop, Rayna. Please, stop. I can’t run anymore.”
I had only taken a few steps into the tunnel when she stopped, and I ran right into her back. I scowled and shot Kora a glance in the low light.
“If any of the guards saw us, they’ll be coming. And I think it’d be w
orse if any of the prisoners saw us go into this tunnel. We have to keep moving.”
Kora put both hands on the sides of the tunnel for support while she smeared the blood from her face with the back of her hand.
“How did you know about this tunnel? Where will it take us?”
I shook my head and moved past her, now in total darkness. I thought I heard shouting coming closer.
“We don’t have time to talk about this now. This is the only way out and our last chance at staying alive. I’ll explain everything later.”
My voice reverberated off the tunnel’s walls as I continued to push further into the darkness. I didn’t stop or look back at Kora. I could hear her boots slapping through the ankle-deep water and that made me thankful that I didn’t have to drag her along.
“Julyen is dead and Emil thinks I killed Feliz. He won’t stop until he murders both of us.”
She was right, but this was not the time for us to discuss it. I wanted to get as far away from the riot as possible in case someone had seen us enter the tunnel.
The abandoned drainage pipe plunged us into almost total darkness. I saw a pinpoint of light behind us and one ahead. Judging by how far into the tunnel we had gone, I guessed we were about halfway through it. But I had no idea what waited for us at the other end. I had spent many hours in the silent and dark underground passages of Lake Union, but this was not like crawling. I’d found my job as a Crawler relaxing and rewarding, whereas now I was running for my life.
“Rayna.”
I stopped and faced my friend, my breath heavy and my vision finally adjusting to the low light. I could see only the whites of her eyes.
“Yeah?”
“Why did you come back for me?”
I hadn’t known Julyen and Kora for very long, and yet I felt an inexplicable connection with them both. Even if I had escaped the prison with my life earlier, I knew I’d have spent the rest of it regretting leaving Kora behind. I hadn’t been able to save Julyen, but I could help Kora.
“You’re my friend, and I wouldn’t let some dumbass club you to death in the yard.”
I heard Kora laugh, which turned into a wet cough.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. If they followed us, you and I are gonna get that reunion with Emil you’re looking forward to.”
She chuckled as I peered into the gloom, calculating the distance to the slowly growing pinhole of light at the opposite end of the tunnel.
“A few hundred yards.” I reached for her hand. “We’re almost there.”
The light grew until we were close enough to see an unbroken landscape of chromatic sand sweltering under the high sun. As we stumbled from the end of the tunnel, I took deep breaths, finally free of the dank mold and waste that had filled my nostrils. I turned to look at Kora when I heard her question, which she’d spit out with a mouthful of blood.
“What the hell is she doing here?”
“Huh?” I looked up to see Wyllow, shifting her feet in the sand and clasping her fingers together.
I blinked, thinking that she’d had enough time to be a mile or two away by now. And yet, here she stood at the end of the tunnel.
“What are you still doing here?”
She lifted her head, her amber eyes locked on mine.
“I told you, I’m not leaving you behind. There’s something about you, Rayna.”
Kora pushed me aside. The blood had filled the thin lines between her teeth. She murmured a string of profanity before getting her words straightened out. “Hell no! Uh-uh! I ain’t going anywhere with that witch.”
I stepped between them, but turned to face Kora. “Wyllow is the reason we were able to escape. She showed me the tunnel. You two can settle your differences later, but right now, we have to keep moving.”
Mediating their disagreement was not something I’d ever planned on doing, but I had to say something to keep them moving. I’d become increasingly nervous that we weren’t the only ones who’d made it to the tunnel.
“No, Rayna. I’m not going with her.”
A low hum came from the tunnel, which quickly morphed into a collection of angry shouts.
Guards.
“Decide.” I spun around to Kora as she looked from the tunnel to Wyllow. “Stay and wait for them or come with us.”
Kora groaned and waved a hand at Wyllow to get going. We followed her into the thickening sage brush as the first of the guards climbed out of the tunnel.
24
They didn’t chase us far. Most of the guards had been overweight and lazy, never needing to exert themselves beyond an occasional club upside somebody’s head. They saw Wyllow, Kora, and I, but they ran for only a few minutes before hunching over, hands on their knees as they hurled obscenities at us. As far as they were concerned, we were lost profit and nothing else. For them, there would always be fresh meat, and therefore it didn’t make sense to spend time and energy hunting us down.
At least, that’s what I thought at the time.
It didn’t take long for me to realize just how brutal the desert could be. Most of my journey from Seattle had been in the wagon, and while being chained up inside that cage hadn’t exactly been comfortable, we had gotten moldy bread and water—which was more than we had now. We quickly found ourselves being blasted by the mid-day sun without anything more than the clothes on our backs.
I dragged my feet along as they began to feel like heavy bricks in my boots. We’d been walking the desert for hours without stopping even though I hadn’t seen any evidence that the guards had continued after us.
Kora and Wyllow walked silently on each side of me. Neither had so much as uttered a word to the other during the long hike, and I had given up trying to smooth the tension between them. They would just have to suck it up and learn to get along. After all, it wasn’t like they had much choice other than to be in each other’s company given the current circumstances. I rolled my eyes as I moved between them, shrugging off their attitudes as we approached a series of wind-swept sand dunes and gigantic, sun-bleached boulders.
“We’ll take a break along the shaded side of those boulders.” I gestured ahead before looking back at them.
Kora narrowed her eyes and turned to Wyllow. “Got any spells to conjure water?”
“I don’t cast spells,” Wyllow said, scrunching up her face. “Besides, if I could conjure up water, you’d be the last person I’d give it to.”
Kora snorted. “Doesn’t surprise me none. Bet you’d save it all for Rayna. You got a fancy on her, don’t ya, witch?”
Wyllow skidded to a halt, turning on Kora.
“I told you, I am not a witch.” Wyllow looked at me as if she’d been dealing with an insolent child. She then shook her head and looked at Kora again. “Rayna happens to be a unique human being, and if you weren’t so preoccupied with yourself, you might realize that and shut your mouth!”
Kora’s lips curled as she took a deliberate step toward Wyllow.
“Who the hell do you think you’re talking to? You better shut your mouth before I shut it for you. Permanently.”
Before Wyllow could respond, I stepped between them, facing Kora.
“Both of you, stop. We have more urgent things to worry about than whether or not Wyllow is a witch.”
“Not.”
“She is.”
I all but growled, glancing back and forth between them. “We need to find somewhere to hole up for the night. It’s too hot to sleep during the day and we won’t get far without at least a few good hours. And we need to find food and water desperately. Now, we’re gonna rest for a minute, then keep moving.”
I spun away, walking toward the shade cast by the boulders and sinking to my butt to catch a much-needed break. I wanted to say a whole lot more, but I didn’t have it in me because I had a million things running through my mind. They stomped over and sat down next to me, one on each side.
Water. That was most important. Without it, we’d be dead in three d
ays. The wind tossed a handful of dark, gritty sand into my face as if reminding me of how a death in the desert would taste. I tried to spit, but my mouth felt as dry as the earth beneath our feet. We’d gotten what we wanted—our freedom. And now I wasn’t so sure breaking out had been the right call.
I was mulling this over when the sounds of thudding horse hooves and rickety wheels on gravel came from the other side of the boulders. I shot my head upright to listen, instantly leaping to my feet to peer around the heavy rocks.
“What is it?” Kora’s hot breath brushed warm across the back of my neck as she stretched to get a better look.
“Nomad merchants,” Wyllow whispered and then nodded with her head.
An older couple sat atop an old timber cart brimming with what appeared to be bundled supplies. Although torn and ratty canvas had been used to cover their load, I knew they had to have food and water on any journey through the desert, no matter how short the distance. Their rough, tired voices carried along the ridge as they spoke. They wore an elaborate swath of material around their heads while thin, loose fabric flowed over their frail bodies. The cart was drawn by two horses that had seen better days, but at the rear trotted two spirited stallions.
I turned to the girls, crouching behind the boulders and out of sight as the cart slowly drew closer.
“Water.” I heard it sloshing around. “They have water.”
Kora grinned. “Horses, too. We’ll take it all and use the goods to sell later.”
I frowned, shaking my head. “I’m not robbing two elderly travelers and leaving them for dead. What do we have to trade?”
We looked at one another, and I could hear the cart coming around the rocks bordering the road. I had to think of something fast.
But what?
Suddenly, Wyllow’s face erupted into a dazzling grin.
“I have something they’ll want.” She reached inside her shirt and produced the set of skeleton keys.
“Rusty keys?” Kora snorted and shook her head. “In case they ever get locked up in the prison?”
