Page 28 of Romancing Rem'eb

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.

“You are returning early,” he says, pointing out the obvious.

There is an oddly guilty look on his normally closed face. “I am. I cannot stay away. I must return and check on the female.”

“Mmm.” He seems distracted. “Do you think she is in danger?”

“Not…danger.” Not precisely. I only know that I cannot be away from her. “What of the others? The yellow-mane female and the male?”

Set’nef’s expression changes to one of distaste. “Kin’far the Exile watches them far too closely. I do not like it.”

I know the feeling. “Shall I complain to the chief? Have him removed from his post?”

The other male’s expression grows closed again. “No. I will handle Kin’far. Do not involve the chief.”

Interesting. I nod, wishing him well, and continue the journey back to the village, tucked into the belly of the largest cavern.

When I return to the village, I nearly run into the other brother. Tal’nef the Swiftest is the younger sibling of Set’nef, and the brothers are close. Tal’nef is well-liked around the village for his open, easy demeanor, and I greet him with a weary sort of pleasure. “Where are you rushing off to, friend?”

To my surprise, his expression grows as cagey as his brother’s. “I am visiting one of the more distant caverns with my brother, Set’nef the Wanderer,” he says after a moment, shouldering a large pack. “There is the potential for another garden to be established there.”

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