“Very well, Ty,” I replied in the language of my mother’s people. It was as good a time as any to switch, since that’s all I would speak in the months ahead. “I hope you are a fast writer, for I shall give you much to record.”
Ty stared blankly at me, clearly not much for jesting. And I suspected in the dangerous days to come, I would have to do more rescuing of my new companion than he would of me.
As I faced the west and let the cold wind buffet my cheeks, I braced my shoulders for the trials that would erelong be upon me and prayed someday I would be found worthy.
Chapter
2
Gabriella
“Run faster!” I shouted breathlessly. The sharp claws of rats scraped against the stone, and their bone-chilling squeaks echoed in the narrow cavern, drawing nearer.
Ahead, Benedict’s and Alice’s footsteps thudded as hard as their old legs could possibly take them. But the past months of exhausting labor had exacted their toll on my faithful servants, and they couldn’t move through the winding tunnels with the same agility they’d had after first arriving in the mine pits.
The steep uphill passageway made our race more difficult, as did the gravel that gave way beneath our feet, causing us to slip with nearly every step.
“Make haste!” I urged again, even as a rat lunged toward me and snapped at my leather boot. I slammed my hammer down on its head, causing it to yelp a high-pitched protest as it tumbled back several paces.
The faint light streaming in from the top of the incline meant we weren’t far from the safety of the surface. We needed to persevere until we reached the light, where we would escape the danger.
I had only to picture Molly’s swollen arm from earlier in the week, the skin purplish-blue and stretched taut, to know the consequence of even the smallest rat bite. I had only to picture the blood and severed limbs from the amputations I’d witnessed. I had only to picture those who survived and returned to the mines, attempting to meet their daily quotas with only one hand or one leg remaining.
Alice stumbled and slid down, nearly bumping into me. With wild eyes, she clutched her chest, her breathing so labored she couldn’t speak. Her gray hair had come loose from a simple linen head scarf and was now plastered to her perspiring forehead and cheeks.
“I beseech you, my lady,” Benedict said through his own jagged breaths. “Take Alice and I’ll fight the fiends.”
I swung my hammer at another rat, and he did the same. Could Benedict prevail against the vicious rodents by himself while I helped Alice the rest of the way?
No. With so many, he’d surely be bitten. “We shall slay them together. ’Tis the only way, Benedict.”
While fighting, he continued to push upward, practically carrying Alice. His silence meant he opposed my assistance. I couldn’t blame him. I wasn’t the least bit skilled in wielding weaponry and would likely hinder rather than aid him.
But what choice did we have?
“I am growing more proficient with my hammer and chisel.” I ignored the bandages around my fingers, especially the bloodiest one. “You need not worry about me.”
A shadow momentarily fell over the opening ahead, and I took sudden hope from it. “Help! Please, help!”
An instant later, a form dropped into the passageway. “Gabi? That be ye?”
“Yes!” I squinted to see the tall, lithe outline of Curly, one of the many kind people who’d befriended me. “The rats are after us!”
Before the words were out of my mouth, Curly was sliding down the gravel. Like Benedict and Alice, I flattened myself against the tunnel wall to make room for him. At the same time I kicked at a rat, sending it rolling away only to have another latch on to my boot and scurry up the leather.
I batted it with my hammer. But this time I missed, and the rodent climbed higher, clutching my frayed skirt, rending the thin linen with its claws and two protruding front teeth.
I couldn’t hold back a cry of alarm, and Benedict came to my rescue, slamming the rat away. It fell, taking a section of my skirt with it. In the same moment, he booted and swung and fought the others that leapt at us, ravenous for human blood.
With a shout, Curly plowed into the creatures, his sharpened rock blade already flying and sending the skinny creatures tumbling down the incline. Seconds later, dead or injured rats littered the path, and the cavern grew silent except for our labored breathing.
Curly stared down the darkened passageway, his tall body hunched and his makeshift knife outstretched, as though he expected more rats to rush at us. “Go on up with ye now.” He didn’t take his attention from the path. “I’ll see to yer backs, that I will.”
“Oh, thank you, Curly. You are a godsend.”
“Yer the godsend.”
I wanted to say more, to thank him again, but at Benedict’s tug I resumed the climb upward. Only after we’d crawled through the square opening and onto the rocky mountaintop, did I realize how badly I was shaking. My knees were too weak to hold my weight, and my hands trembled too much to tuck my tools back into my rope belt.
Even so, heedless of the stones that dug into my hands and knees, I crawled over to Benedict and Alice where they’d collapsed, searching them for any signs of blood. “You were not bitten, were you?”
“No,” Benedict whispered, grasping Alice’s hand. “Thank the saints.”
Heads bent in weariness, their stooped shoulders heaved as they gasped in air. Their garments, which had once fit so snugly against plump frames, now hung over sharply protruding bones. Their faces were sallow and sunken, their skin pale, and their bodies bruised.
Empathy swelled inside, and I gathered them both in my arms, kissing the tops of their heads. I loathed that every day I had to watch them waste away a little more.
All around us in the growing dusk, Slave Town was a hustle of business. Smoke drifted from thatched huts, and the scents of the evening meal wafted in the cool air, making my stomach grumble in protest.
I sighed. We would be going without food again tonight, now that we’d left our baskets behind in the mine.
Curly’s footsteps crunched in the rocks beside me. “Haven’t I told ye to be guarding your flame with your life?”
I released the older couple and turned to find my friend glaring down at me. He was framed by the fading sunlight and the splashes of rose and orange against the mountain peaks to the west. The colors of the setting sun highlighted the red in his wildly curly hair, which was much brighter than my own softer blond-red. His temperament oft flamed like his hair.
“’Twas not our fault.” I spoke calmly, trying to keep him from exploding. “We were guarding the flame carefully, but a foul breeze snuffed it out in an instant, plunging us into darkness.”
His thick red brows furrowed together above a face that had likely been handsome at one time but was now thin and bony and pale. “If ye won’t be working with the rest of us, then ye need to avoid the old tunnels and stay closer to the new where the air is cleaner.”
He knew Alice wasn’t capable of climbing down to labor in the new drift with the rest of the slaves. We’d already tried on several occasions. And he also knew that being together didn’t mean anyone was safe. With the tremors and cave-in that had trapped Molly and two others last week, he should know that well enough. We’d had to work day and night to dig them out, and even then only Molly survived.