Текст книги "The Moon Dwellers"

Автор книги: David Estes

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 18 страниц)

We have to do something. He’s saved us and now he’s going to die for us.

I take a step forward, but a strong arm holds me back. “No,” Cole says firmly. “We have to go. It’s suicide.”

I try to struggle free, but Cole’s grip is iron. Tears spring up as I try to wriggle away. “Let go!” I yell. “Please, they’re going to kill him!”

Tawni’s face appears in front of me. She pulls Elsey beside her. “Think of your sister,” she says.

My body collapses, all fight gone from it. As much as I am willing to throw my life away in an effort to save Tristan, I know I can’t abandon Elsey. Not after all she’s been through. Not after all we have been through. I am all she has. And she is all I have.

I let myself get half-dragged, half-carried into the absolute darkness of the cave. I feel numb. Tears continue to well up and stream down my face, but they feel cold, emotionless, a neurological response to a stimulus, nothing more.

I barely notice as we cut a random path through the cave network. In the back of my mind I know we are in the Lonely Caverns. Although we haven’t necessarily meant to come this way, it is the perfect place to hide from Rivet. I remember the kids at school telling stories of the Lonely Caves, how kids are always getting lost in them, dying of starvation, or falling down bottomless pits. I used to fear the caves, but now they feel like a sanctuary.

I can hear Cole and Tawni whispering, making quick decisions about which side tunnel to take next. They are taking the most convoluted route possible, almost trying to get us lost in an effort to lose Rivet, who will surely be pursuing us again soon, if not already. But with each twist and turn, they recite the full list of the directional changes we have made so far out loud, trying desperately to remember the way back out. I try to memorize what they are saying, as a backup, but get confused halfway through. I’m still not thinking clearly, am still a bit of a mess.

But listening to the sounds of their voices also helps.

Eventually I get control of my body and am able to save Cole a lot of effort by walking on my own again. When I do, Elsey appears by my side, illuminated by a flashlight she is carrying. I notice that I have one as well—we all do. Funny how I can’t remember them being turned on or even someone giving one to me. We fall back from the others right away.

“Adele,” she says, her violet eyes radiating compassion. “Are you okay?”

I put my arm around her as we walk. What can I say to her? Actually, Elsey, I’m a complete wreck because a guy I have a massive crush on, a guy I’ve never met, a guy whose father abducted our parents, is dead, all because of me.

Instead, I say, “I’m okay now, Elsey, sorry to scare you like that.”

“I wasn’t scared,” she says. The matter-of-fact way in which she says it makes me believe her. Perhaps my sister is made of a tougher substance than I am. Or maybe she is just too young to understand the true horror of what has just happened, is just happy to have her big sister back.

“You’re very brave,” I say.

“What happened back there? Who was the guy that saved us? He knew your name, Adele.”

My face tightens and I try to get control of my emotions—take a deep breath. “It was no one,” I say.

“Tell me,” Elsey says. “I’m not a child anymore.”

There is so much truth in her eyes that I know she is right. Although she’d only been at the orphanage for six months, she’s changed, matured. Ten years might’ve passed in her mind. I can’t always protect her anymore.

I decide on the truth. “This might sound impossible…in fact, I’m not sure I believe it myself…I might’ve been seeing things…I was probably mistaken, but—”

“Adele, please, just tell me,” Elsey says, interrupting my ramblings.

I take another deep breath. Why is this so hard? Just say it. Say it. Say it! “I think it was Tristan Nailin,” I blurt out, feeling dread wash over me, as if by speaking his name I have cemented his fate.

I expect Elsey to giggle, to look at me with knowing eyes, to say Sure it was, Adele, I believe you, using the sarcasm that I taught her. She surprises me by saying, “I thought so.”

“You what?” I say, unable to hide my surprise.

“He looked like Tristan,” she says with a slight nod of her head. “I mean, not as good looking as in the magazines, but…”

“I thought he looked even better,” I say defensively.

Elsey eyes me curiously. “Since when did you think Tristan was handsome?” she says, sounding more grown up than ever.

“Since, since…oh, I don’t know.”

Elsey smirks at me. “You can tell me the whole story later.”

It dawns on me. Why was Elsey so easily convinced that it was Tristan? She doesn’t seem to find it strange at all that he appeared out of nowhere in a remote part of the Moon Realm. “Elsey….why’d you think it was Tristan? Was it just because he looked like him?”

Now she giggles, finally sounding her own age. “Because of the news, of course.”

My heart flutters and I know she is about to tell me something important, so I stop and call to Cole and Tawni, who come jogging back, their eyebrows V’d in concern. “What’s wrong?” Cole says.

I motion to Elsey to speak. “Tell them what you were about to tell me,” I instruct.

Elsey’s eyes widen. “You mean, you don’t know?” she says incredulously.

“We’ve been kind of…busy,” I say.

“Right,” she says, changing her tone to that of a lecturer. “Well, all the kids gathered in the big room to watch the telebox this morning, like we always do. This kid we call Wiz suggested we watch the news, like he always does. He always gets voted down and we watch something else, but this morning he put it on before anyone could say anything. You guys were all on the screen.” She waves her hand across us.

“We saw that,” I say, hoping that isn’t her big news.

She changes course, her voice softening as she says, “I just knew you would come for me, Adele.” Finally, she fully sounds like a little girl again, the little sister I remember, before life’s challenges forced her to grow up before anyone should have to.

I put an arm around her. “I’ll always come for you. Now, what else did you hear on the news?”

Elsey’s eyes light up. “That Tristan ran away from home!” she exclaims.

“What? He…ran away?” I look at Tawni and Cole, who are staring at me.

“Yep. And apparently he was headed for the Moon Realm, subchapter six I think they said.”

“That’s only a single train ride from here,” I say, finally connecting the dots.

“He was coming to find you,” Tawni says.

Cole shakes his head. “C’mon, seriously. These strange feelings and all that rubbish again, really? Coincidence I reckon. If he really was trying to get away for a while, he probably just picked a place where no one would think to look for him.”

Elsey touches my arm. “Why would Tristan have been coming to find you?” she asks.

I tell her everything. Cole stalks off and pretends not to listen, but Tawni stays by me, even holds my hand for part of it.

Elsey is ecstatic when I finish. “He did come for you,” she says positively. Under her breath, she says, “No matter what that other guy says.”

It is then that I realize we haven’t had time for introductions. “Elsey,” I say. “This is Tawni. My friend,” I add.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Elsey,” Tawni says. “Adele’s told us so many nice things about you.”

At that, Elsey beams.

“Cole,” I say, a bit louder to get his attention, “come meet Elsey.”

He saunters over, his dark skin glowing a strange orange color under the illumination of the flashlights. “Hi, Elsey,” he says. “I’m Cole.”

My sis sticks out her hand and shakes Cole’s big paw. “Tristan was looking for my sister,” she says definitively.

“Oh, great. Now it’s three against one,” Cole says, grinning. At least he doesn’t seem frustrated anymore. “We’d better keep moving. I think we’ve probably done a good enough job of losing ourselves in here, but they’ll keep searching until they find us.”

We walk for hours. Time seems to stand still inside the caverns. Cole and Tawni give up on trying to remember which route we’ve taken. I think they realize that we aren’t going to be going out the way we came in anyway.

The caverns are ominous and scary, and yet beautiful at the same time. Around every bend is another stalactite or stalagmite, some impossibly big, some carved by nature into complex patterns, more intricate than a master carver could ever hope to emulate on a museum statue. We pass under giant stone archways, and cross natural rock bridges, some so thin that we have to crawl across on our stomachs, trying not to look down at the never-ending drops into darkness on either side.

Much of the time we are able to walk upright, the jagged ceiling rising well above us. But at other times we are forced to stoop, or even crawl.

I am beat, so I know Elsey must be tired, too. At first she keeps up a constant chatter, talking about anything and everything. She talks about her time in the orphanage, asks a million questions about the Pen, and tries to get us all to agree that we are on a fantastic adventure. Eventually, she ceases talking completely, though, so I know she is getting tired. We need to stop, but none of us seems to want to make the call. I think we all feel that every additional footstep gives us a greater chance of survival.

Cole, who is leading, finally stops and sits on a flat stone rock that looks like someone has put there as a bench. He says, “I think we’ve gone far enough. It must be the middle of the night. Even Rivet will have to stop for sleep.”

We are all too tired to disagree. Or even to eat. Instead, we go straight to bed, four ducks in a row, pressed up close to each other for warmth. Cole and then Tawni and then Elsey and then me.

“He’s not dead, you know,” Elsey whispers.

“Who?” I say, although I know the answer.

“Tristan.”

“Oh.”

“If you’re really meant to be together, then he couldn’t have died. He might be captured, tortured even, but somehow he’ll find you.” I can’t tell if her words are wise beyond her years, or simply the vivid imagination of an innocent child. Either way, they comfort me.

“G’night, Elsey,” I say

“Love you, Adele.”

“Love you, too.”

Although I’m sure it is hours later, it feels like I start dreaming the second my eyes close. It isn’t of Tristan this time, for which I am strangely relieved. It’s like I know that if I dream of him I will only see death. Thankfully, my mind gives me a reprieve from such pain. Of course, the alternative isn’t much better.

I dream of war. The star dweller army is destroying all of the Moon Realm, running rampant across the subchapters. It’s like I am on the outside of a looking glass, watching the horror unfold before my eyes. For some reason I’m not angry at them. I know they are just frustrated at being the scum of the earth, treated like rats by the sun dwellers. Used, abused, stepped on.

The sun dweller army is coming, their legions of troops marching forward, their armor polished and gleaming. I can see them, but the star dwellers can’t. I scream, try to warn them, but no one can hear me through the mirror. No one except Rivet, that is, who is leading the sun dweller army. His black eyes look right at me, challenging me to come down. I don’t want to, but know I have to.

I swim through the mirror, pushing it to the side and behind me, like it’s made of a strange viscous liquid. Gravity grabs me and pulls me to the ground. Rivet smiles as he tightens his bow string. He shoots me through the heart.

You know how they say you can’t die in your dreams? I do. The pain is so intense, so real, that I cry out in my sleep. But still I don’t wake up, clinging to life in my dream by reaching for a sky I have never seen, as life ebbs from my broken body. I die tonight.

When I do wake, I am surprised to find myself very much alive with three familiar faces hovering anxiously over me. “We’re here, Adele,” Tawni coos. “It was just a dream.”

“So real,” I murmur. “I died.”

Elsey’s face is clouded with concern. “You’ll never die,” she says.

“You got that right,” I say, trying to put on a strong face for my sister although I feel weak from the nightmare.

“We need to eat something and then keep moving,” Cole says. For all the emotion that Cole displayed when we were at Tawni’s house, he seems equally emotion-free now. Rigid, soldier-like. It doesn’t bother me.

We eat quickly, swallowing the tasteless canned beans in gulps, like it is a race.

Because of Tawni’s watch, we know we’ve only slept four hours and that it’s still early in the morning. Cole suspects that Rivet and his men have slept even less, so we need to keep moving. When we start out, I am already dreading the day’s hike. My ribs are sore and tender, but by gritting my teeth and breathing through them, I can control the pain.

Elsey seems to have slept better than me, bouncing along beside me and chattering away. “I’m so glad to be out of that orphanage,” she says. “Some of the kids were nice, and I’ll miss Ranna for all of eternity, but the rest of it was dreadful. We all slept in the same room and ate the same porridge every day. They only let us go outside once a day, and the rest of the time we had to do chores around the place. Once a month they let us take a bath. How was the Pen?”

“About the same,” I say. “Maybe a bit better, to be honest.”

“Where are we going?”

“To find Mum and Dad.”

“Really? You think they’re alive?”

“Tawni thinks that Dad is. And I bet if he is then Mom is, too.”

“Oh, sweet joy! We’ll rescue them, won’t we, Adele?”

“Of course,” I say, not sure at all.

It feels good knowing where my father is, even though getting him out will be the equivalent of a suicide mission. Between knowing about my dad and having Elsey around, I feel like I am at least half a person again, a significant improvement on the empty shell I had become. But there is still a huge part of me missing, because I haven’t saved my dad yet and don’t even know where my mom is. I wonder where she is, what condition she’s in. Despite my assurances to Elsey, I know there is a good chance she’s dead. I try not to think about it.

Chatting with Elsey makes the day go by so much faster. She is like our little motivator, constantly saying positive things in her very proper-sounding way. Once she is done grilling me about what I’ve been doing while we were apart, she focuses on Tawni and Cole, asking them even more questions. They tiptoe around some of the serious things we’ve already discussed, and focus on telling funny stories from their childhoods.

All in all, it isn’t a bad day, and before I know it, we are stopping again for the evening. We haven’t eaten since the morning, so we are all famished. We devour our canned food again, except this time I actually enjoy it. I don’t think it’s the taste of the food, though; I think it’s just that being free of the Pen and back with my sister makes the bland food taste good—it’s the taste of freedom, I guess.

When we finish eating, Cole brings up the topic we’ve all been ignoring. “How the hell are we going to get out of these caves?” he says.

“Are we lost?” I say, making a bad joke.

Tawni laughs anyway—snorts actually, as she is taking a sip of water when I speak. That gets us all laughing, with Elsey’s infectious giggle keeping it going for a long time. Even Mr. Serious joins in, smirking at first, then chuckling, and finally full out laughing. We all need it.

“If we just keep going, we’ll come out somewhere eventually, right?” I say.

“How much do you know about the Lonely Caverns?” Cole asks.

“Not much. They connect three or four subchapters, don’t they?”

“Yeah,” Cole says. “For each grouping of subchapters there is a cavern that acts as a hub to connect them all. The Lonely Caverns are the hub for subchapters fourteen to seventeen. They’re used by miners to travel from mine to mine. The miners stick to the main tunnels, which we left almost immediately. According to the maps I’ve seen, the caverns are a hundred square miles.”

Tawni adds, “And we’ve made so many turns that we don’t have the first clue as to which direction we’re headed. We may have been traveling in circles all day, or we may have cut a path straight across—impossible to say for sure.”

“Best guess?” I ask.

Cole says, “I think we’re going to end up somewhere in subchapter sixteen. We headed straight east when we first entered, and I’m pretty damn sure we haven’t cut back across any of the main tunnels, so that means we’re still headed east, unless we got completely turned around and are now headed south and west again, back the way we came. We should know soon enough, because we’d end up rejoining the main tunnel.”

“Okay,” I say. “So we just keep walking?”

Cole shrugs. “No other choice.”

Chapter Fourteen

Tristan

These days not many people believe in God anymore. I’m not sure I do sometimes. Those above are enjoying themselves too much to stop to think about whether they’re blessed. And those below are too jaded. My mom did, though. She believed with all her heart that there is a greater power out there, one that cares about us, watches over us. She said bad things still have to happen, because they help us learn and grow, but that in the end we’ll be saved.

I could use a little saving.

I wake up with a nasty bump on my head. I don’t even remember getting hit. It throbs like hell.

I try to sit up, but it is difficult with my arms and legs tied.

It is dark. Not like a cloudy night with the moon and stars blocked; dark like the sun, moon, and stars don’t exist, which they don’t in our world. Plus there are no overhead cavern lights, no streetlights, no houselights. I work out that we’re in a cave pretty quickly.

It all comes flashing back. The girl—no, Adele—running, being chased by my father’s demons. My intervention. Rivet’s gleaming eyes. Our salvation by the same men who surely now hold us captive.

You’ll make a pretty prize for the star dwellers indeed.

From the man’s words, it doesn’t sound like they are star dwellers, unless he is talking about them in the third person. I don’t think so.

A light flashes in the dark. It moves closer.

The man holds the torch in front of my face. It burns my eyes while they try to adjust. I shut them tight, and then slowly open them, squinting for at least a minute. The whole time the man waits patiently for me to get them open.

When I do, I gasp. I know he is the man who spoke to me earlier, the one who killed Rivet’s men. He isn’t wearing his hat this time, and I can see his face, which is what makes me gasp. Half his face is swollen red and bubbling with blisters. Whether a lifelong disease or a fresh scar, I do not know.

“My face got damn near blown off by the heavy artillery,” he growls. “Pretty sight, ain’t it?”

“What do you want?” I ask.

“From you?” he says. “Nothin’. All you gotta do is come with us. I hope I’m not makin’ it sound like you’ve got a choice. ’Cuz ya don’t. Yer comin’. As sure as the sun ain’t shinin’, yer comin’.”

“Who are you?”

“Doesn’t matter. Just a guy. A guy fed up with bein’ crapped on by yer kind. For once the damn star dwellers got the right idear. Fight back.”

“But they’re killing your own people.”

“Eh. So they’ve got their target a bit mixed up. But it’s workin’, ain’t it? We’re goin’ to join ’em, and others will, too. So the plan worked, eh?”

My head is spinning, half because of what this guy is saying to me, and half because of the blow I took to the head, probably from the butt of this guy’s gun. “Look, man, I’m not the one you want. I’m not like them. I hate my father. I’ve left the Sun Realm and I’m not going back. Just let me go and I’ll stay out of the whole thing. Please.” I feel like I am begging, my voice higher pitched than usual, all toughness stripped from it, leaving just a child’s voice.

“Okay,” the man says.

“Really?”

“Nah, just messing with you. Ha ha ha!” The guy’s laugh is as rough as the stones around us. “Yer my prize, kid. We can use ya. Yer one hell of a bargainin’ chip.”

He leaves the torch nearby and moves off into the darkness. Using my elbows as levers, and by twisting and balancing on one shoulder, I manage to get myself into a seated position so I can take in my surroundings—or at least what I can see of them.

Roc is sleeping nearby, his forehead marked by a puffy, red welt. They haven’t bothered to give us blankets or pillows or anything, so my body is sore and cold from lying on the hard cavern floor all night.

There are several other men sleeping nearby. I am sure there are more, at least a dozen, but the light from the torch only extends in a small sphere. I assume we are somewhere in the Lonely Caverns, most likely not very far in, as the men won’t have wanted to carry our limp bodies for very long.

I have no idea how long we’ve been out, but I hope it wasn’t long, for with each passing minute Adele is traveling further and further away from me.

How twisted are the hands of fate? Pretty twisted, I’d say. Mangled and knobby; old and decrepit. Every time you’re granted a stroke of good fortune, it’s offset by a calamity. Like Adele escaping from prison right when the star dwellers attacked. Sometimes the good luck is even caused by something bad. Like when Adele’s path crossed ours at that exact fateful moment. Had Rivet not been chasing her, perhaps she would have arrived later, and I wouldn’t have seen her. We might’ve missed each other by taking different routes, like two companies of miners passing in the night, unknown to each other.

My father doesn’t believe in fate. He says we make our own fate. So far, he’s been right about that. I sort of believed him until now. But after everything that has happened, I know there are other forces at play. Forces that want Adele and me together, and that will keep giving us chances at it. I hope that force hasn’t given up yet.

Roc stirs in his sleep and then opens one eye, clamping it shut again immediately when the light hits it. He raises a hand to his temple, gingerly feeling around the red bump, cringing each time he touches a raw nerve.

“You okay, man?” I whisper, trying not to wake the other guys.

“I think so. You?”

“About the same. Just a knock on the head. I think it was done gently enough to not cause any permanent damage. I think they want us alive to use as hostages.”

“Hostages for what?”

“They’re taking us to the star dwellers, who will then try to get to my father through me.”

“What’re we gonna do?”

“Not much we can do. Go along for the ride, I suppose.”

A familiar voice echoes through the cave. “That’s right! There’s nothin’ you can do!” Each of the men around us awakes with a start, some of them jumping up and grabbing weapons, looking for someone to fight.

“It’s just me, you idiots,” the voice says, as a figure steps into the light. It is the guy with the burnt face. “Time to move,” he says.

“Move where?” I ask.

“None of yer damn business,” he says.

With impressive speed, the men get packed and move out. I ask for water but am denied. They do, however, unbind our feet so we can walk easily. Our hands remain tied in the front. I smile when they don’t bother to retie them behind our backs. In the front gives us lots more room to maneuver in the event that an opportunity arises.

But no chances for action come up today. Our march feels endless, especially with no water to quench my burning throat. Roc and I are separated—sandwiched in between two guys each—so we aren’t able to talk to each other. When I do risk a question to one of my guards—a simple Can I stop to go to the bathroom?—it is answered with a rough jab to the abdomen with the end of his rifle.

Not a good day.

Twice we hear echoing voices bouncing off the walls from somewhere in the cavern. We stop suddenly and everyone strains to listen for more sounds, trying to discern who it might be or what direction it is coming from, but all we get is silence, and it is near impossible to determine where the sound originates from. I wonder if it’s Adele and her friends, somewhere in front of us in the caverns, moving by some twist of fate in the exact same direction as us. Or it might be Rivet with a new troop, replacing the men who were killed by our captors. Whoever it is, they stay out of our way and we out of theirs.

I don’t know the Lonely Caverns well, but from studying Roc’s map I know enough to realize we are sticking to one of the four main tunnels, which intersect at a hub near the middle. We are essentially using the cavern as a conduit to move to another subchapter.

At the end of the day’s march, my legs are on fire and my wrists rubbed raw by the constant chafing of the tight ropes that bind them together. My mouth and esophagus are so dry I can’t swallow. My head started really pounding halfway through the day, and it is all I can do to ignore the urge to collapse and curl up into a ball. I am sure Roc’s day hasn’t been much better than mine.

Thankfully, they sit us down together while they prepare the evening meal, probably because we are easier to guard if we are in one place. Roc looks like hell, his face pale and his eyes barely open, and I wonder if I look any better. One of the guards finally shows mercy and gives both of us two gulps of some kind of liquid that tastes like dirt. It’s the best dirt I’ve ever tasted, and I would drink the whole bottle if they let me.

Speaking is difficult, but I don’t know whether we’ll get another chance, so I use my recently moistened tongue to lick my chapped lips and attempt a few sentences. “You gonna be all right, Roc?” I say.

Roc manages a tight smile and says, “It’s nothin’ compared to all the chores you make me do around the palace.”

I grin. I know Roc will be all right as long as he keeps making jokes. “Speaking of which, I’ve got a few for you this evening if you don’t mind?”

“As long as it involves knocking a guard or two on the head and getting the hell out of here, I’m game.” I’ve never heard Roc say anything that violent before and for some reason I find it really funny. It appears that our little trip away from the Sun Realm is changing him already.

“If you take six, I’ll take the other six,” I say.

“How ’bout I take three and you take nine,” Roc counters.

“Seven and five—that’s my final offer.”

“Deal,” Roc says.

We should probably take the time more seriously, try to come up with a real plan, but I think the little bit of joking helps more than anything else would.

We don’t knock any guards on the head tonight. We are just too tired. Plus, they keep two watchmen awake at all times, who are charged with guarding us and the camp at the same time.

Despite not having a pillow or blanket for the second night in a row, I sleep like a dead man, nestling my head in the crook between my forearm and bicep.

When I awake, the pain in my head is gone. I struggle to a seated position and look around. Roc smirks at me. “How’s your head?” he says.

“Never felt better,” I say honestly.

“Mine, too. I think there was some kind of medicine in the drink they gave us last night.”

“Probably a slow-acting poison that will kill us in a few days.”

“Probably,” Roc says.

One of the guards is watching our exchange with interest. He is a stocky guy with a shiny bald head and graying beard. He says, “My daughter’s in love with you.”

Roc says, “Me?”

I laugh.

Baldy says, “No, you,”—motioning to me—“the one with the good head of hair and pretty-boy smile. She’s got a poster of you up in her bedroom. Cost me a whole week’s pay. She will never forgive me if I don’t get an autograph when I have the chance.”

I’ve had some strange requests in my life, but this one takes the cake (if we had any cake, that is). The whole world is exploding, we are captured by a gang of misfits, and one of my captors wants an autograph?

Of course, I give him one. It’s not like I have a choice. I sign his canteen and he even lets me have a drink from it in exchange. “Thanks. Might be worth somethin’ someday,” he says.

No one else speaks to us this morning. But they do let us walk together this time. I guess they are feeling more comfortable that we aren’t going to try anything, probably because they can tell we are getting weaker from the lack of food and water.

Big mistake.

It’s another grueling march, although it’s broken up when we stop for a break upon reaching the hub, a huge cavern that was carved out decades ago. Four gaping tunnels branch off on each side. We sit on manmade stone benches that were erected for travelers. The men seem less serious, joking and laughing as they eat. They give us small chunks of the dried meat we’d bought a couple of days earlier and a swig of water. The food and water, along with whatever medicine they’d given us the previous night, leaves me feeling somewhat refreshed. If we are going to try something, now is the time.

When no one is looking, I silently draw Roc’s attention with a quick flick of one of my fingers. Right away I can see the fear in his eyes. He is right to be scared: the next few minutes could kill us.

I wait patiently for the perfect moment to launch the plan I have in my head. Half the men have wandered off and are doing a bit of sightseeing, checking out the multitude of intricate carvings etched by travelers into the rock walls. They are spread out, which is bad, but no one is covering the entrance to the tunnel we’ve just come through. That’s good, because I am hoping to go back the way we’ve come anyway. It will make them less likely to pursue us.

Four of the others, including the leader with the deep voice, are engaged in a heated discussion about Tri-Realm politics. That leaves two guys who are sort of paying attention to us, although more and more they are distracted by their friends—I can see their eyes flicking back and forth between us and them.

One of them turns his back to add a comment to the conversation.

Only one guard now.

His eyes are on me, but it’s a blank stare, like he is looking without really seeing. I can tell his mind is on the conversation behind him. I rise silently, trusting it will take a few moments for his brain to register what his eyes are seeing. Before he knows what hit him, I…well, I hit him. Club him over the head with my tied-together fists. I hit him hard enough that he won’t be getting up anytime soon. He doesn’t cry out and the others are too distracted to notice.