Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
We glare at each other until I leave.
Chapter
Thirteen
TIA
Days Later
I’ve been forgotten.
For some reason, Rem’eb hasn’t been coming to visit me. The first time a stranger enters my cell, I panic, wondering what happened to Rem’eb and who this new person is. But the man doesn’t look me in the eye, only drops the tray of food and water off quickly and exits. I’m on pins and needles as the time passes agonizingly slowly until the next meal, wondering if it will be Rem’eb again or the stranger.
When it’s a different guy and not Rem’eb again, my confusion changes to worry.
Rem’eb at least talked to me. This other man ignores my attempts to make conversation. It makes me feel more isolated and alone, and I search vainly for my knife, but it’s gone. Rem’eb must have taken it and I’d been too distracted with the kissing. Ugh. I am my own worst enemy, it seems. But there’s nothing to be done about it now, other than hope for a new knife. I try to make cutting gestures at the man that comes in but he ignores me entirely.
I contemplate rushing the door but I can see there’s another guard outside, the outline of his shoulder visible in the doorway. I’d have to make it past two of the hulking, four-armed strangers…and then what? I don’t know where to go.
But as another day passes and Rem’eb still doesn’t return to visit me, I worry that something bad has happened to him, too. All right, so I’m going to need to rescue R’jaal and Rem’eb and get the fuck out of here. No problem. I contemplate what to do to make that happen. Tear strips from the gorgeously woven blanket to form a rope? Cosh someone over the head with my toilet jar and then tie them up?
Actually that might be a good idea. If I can decommission the one guy that enters the room to bring me food, I can probably dodge the other or force him to chase me. If I’m fast, I can run away quickly. I just need an idea of where to go.
This time when he brings the tray, I wait on the opposite wall so I can peek out the door and see what’s outside. It’s shadowy, but that’s to be expected if I’m underground. It also looks like a cluster of buildings with eerily the same shape as the Croatoan ones. But that sort of layout, I can handle. If it’s built like Croatoan is, the houses are lined up along a main route, tucked away in a canyon for protection. If we’re in an underground canyon, it means there’s a way out. Somehow.
And there has to be a way to the surface, because that’s where they snatched me from.
The guard moves back to the door, having deposited his tray. He closes it just as I ask, “Where is Rem’eb?”
No response, not that I expected one.
I sit down to eat, since I’ll need my strength. There’s a cup of soup with a piece of mushroom floating in it, and I pick it up to drink it. It tastes bitter against my tongue, but I force myself to finish the entire thing. I won’t get very far wandering around if I’m starving. There’s no fruit brought for me, just more dried mushrooms, and even as I pick one up, my hand feels…heavy.
Slow.
I pick up the now empty soup cup and there’s a chalky residue at the bottom. No wonder it tasted different. I don’t think that’s spices. I think I’ve been drugged.
These fucking assholes. I swear…I’m going to make them pay…just…as soon…as…I wake…up…
Chapter
Fourteen
REM’EB
Icannot obey my father.
I am away from Tia for two tide-falls before the gnawing hunger I feel grows unbearable. I find reasons to return early, despite the fact that I had told Set’nef the Wanderer that I planned on going deeper into the garden caverns and that I was not to return for several tide-falls.
But I cannot sleep. I cannot eat. I cannot focus on anything because I think of Tia. Is she afraid because I have not returned to her despite my promises? Has my father hidden her away somewhere else? Somewhere more comfortable? Or have the rebels found out she exists and even now they carry her back to the surface?
Or…behind the wall?
Whatever it is, I know I cannot stay away. This hollow craving inside me will not let me abandon her. I backtrack my way through the lava tunnels, paying no attention to my surroundings. All I know is that I need to get to her side, to get back to the village and look upon her face again.
Surely this hunger for her is resonance? Even with the silence in my chest?
So distracted, I nearly run into Set’nef the Wanderer. He is coming through another tunnel, a pack on his back, and we both jerk backward and stare at each other in surprise.