The Way Back (Champions of the Crystal Book 4)

Chapter 5.1

Noise at the door startled her back into the present. It was only the guard changing, but it made her aware of the need to stay alert. She had to live through this and get back to Praxatillus before she could even begin to deal with the problem of what to say to Tassan.

A few moments later, Mara entered, carrying a small plate with some leafy greens on it. She offered it to Sabrina, then sat down across from her and watched as Sabrina picked warily at the small, hard nut-like nodules interspersed among the leaves.

"It is nutritious," Mara told her. "I have lived on it for years."

Days, at most, Sabrina thought wryly.

"I know you say we are not the same, but truly I do not think it will harm you, and you must eat something."

"True," Sabrina said. She put a leaf in her mouth and chewed, carefully. It was bitter, but palatable. The little nut-like things were overly sweet, but she found that combining the two made an almost pleasant taste. She glanced at Mara and said, "Well, I've had to eat worse. I remember a dinner at Verssath that was truly horrific. Scotty spit most of the meal into his napkin and dropped it onto the floor. I think even Tirqwin was tempted to follow his example!"

Mara's expression did not change. Sabrina added, "I've always suspected you did something to yours to make it taste better after it was inside your mouth. You looked entirely too amused to be suffering along with us!"

"I have no memory of that, or of any of your stories," Mara said. "It does no good to keep speaking of them. It is wearisome to hear continually of people one does not know. Besides, my mistress prefers her servants to work in silence."

Sabrina saw no option but to accept the set-down and comply, at least for now. She stood docilely while the guard unshackled her, and then she followed Mara downstairs and through a maze of corridors. At last they reached a courtyard, and Sabrina thought she smelled water in the instant before they turned a corner and found themselves at the edge of a large, shallow pond. It was entirely covered by a rickety-looking structure of broad leaves and twisted branches—the same odd foliage growing along the shoreline of the pond, Sabrina guessed. The shade evidently helped keep evaporation to a minimum.

She longed to jump inside and cool off, but even if the presence of several guards hadn't deterred her, the movement she soon discerned beneath the surface effectively banished her desire. Mara picked up a long-handled net and gestured for Sabrina to pick up another nearby. Her suspicions were confirmed when Mara expertly scooped up a netful of wriggling, slimy forms and tipped them into a waiting bucket. Remembering that the creatures' bite could possibly kill her, Sabrina's attempts were far more tentative and far less successful, but at last she filled a bucket on her own and was allowed to lug it back inside. Toiling up the stairs with the heavy bucket after a long time in the heat exhausted her, but there was to be no rest. Mara showed her how to feed the infants, then taught her how to carefully uncover the eggs, turn them, and rebury them. One hatched while they were doing so, and Mara cooed softly at it as she picked it up, not seeming to mind when it bit her, and carried it to the infants' trough.

This is grotesque, Sabrina thought. I'm glad Tirqwin's not here to see this, or Ford. Though maybe they could snap her out of it. I have to think of something, and soon.

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Scotty was used to hard work—he was in the military after all and took particular pride in keeping himself in top shape—but digging through what felt like miles of rock with a primitive pickax in near darkness was not exactly a day at the gym. He wasn't even entirely sure what they were digging for, but he strongly suspected that not nearly enough attention was being paid to shoring up the tunnels and ventilating them. His engineering background enabled him to make all kinds of depressing calculations about the weight of the rock above them, the ability of the few supports to bear the load, and the odds of making it back to daylight if a collapse began. Of course, if it was slow enough, it might be his chance to escape. He wondered if it was worth hacking at the nearest support beam. If only the guard were standing directly under it, he thought he might try.