Page 29 of Beholden
Once in a while, we thought we heard voices and the clamor of digging from the other side of the debris. But each time we stopped to listen, eerie silence met us.
Beside me, Gabriella paused, wiped her sleeve across her forehead, and then wearily grabbed another stone. Though we’d each long past wrapped pieces of her chemise around our hands to protect them from the jagged rocks, blood still seeped through the linen from all our cuts.
I wanted her to take a break and rest, and was angry with myself that I had to stand by and watch her work herself to exhaustion. But if we didn’t make headway erelong, our task of staying alive would get much more difficult once the light went out.
She swayed, and I held on to her arm and steadied her. When she stopped singing some time ago, I realized she’d reached the limits of her endurance, so I taught her a lullaby native to Scania. That had rejuvenated her singing for a short while before she lapsed into silence again, not even having the wherewithal to ask me how I knew the lullaby.
“Tell me more about your mother.” I tried once again to distract her from the difficulty of our predicament.
“I am too weary, my lord.” Breathlessly, she heaved another rock onto the pile behind us. “Will you not tell me more about the escapades you had with your brothers? I wish my own brother had lived. I am sure we would have been dear friends.”
I’d already shared all my stories about our childhood adventures fishing, swimming, and hunting, though I couldn’t tell her everything without giving away my homeland. I also couldn’t tell her about our strict education and training regime in preparation for taking the kingship, although with the chances of our escaping the tunnel growing slimmer, I wasn’t so sure that keeping my identity hidden mattered anymore.
At the prospect of failing to free her, I lapsed into frustrated silence.
As if sensing my self-loathing, she apparently felt it was her turn to distract me. “What is the first thing you shall do upon being freed from the mine once your sentence is complete?”
“I would like a feast with an endless supply of mutton and herring. What about you?” Although her sentence of slavery had no end date like mine, I persisted anyway. “What is the first thing you’ll do?”
“I should like a warm bath with scented soap.”
The torch flickered again, and I paused. “Your chemise, my lady. Let’s burn it and give ourselves more time.”
Without my needing to say another word, she ripped a strip and set it on fire. As we watched the dirty piece of linen flame and disintegrate, I knew we were only prolonging the inevitable clash with rats.
“Take my boots,” Ty said weakly from where he lay. “The leather will burn longer.”
I couldn’t. Then he’d be without footwear for the duration of our months in the mine, especially if I couldn’t locate any more gems for purchasing a replacement. I wouldn’t make him suffer that way. But he’d pushed himself up and was unlacing a boot.
“No. Keep yours. I’ll burn mine.” I stopped his hand and gently pressed him back to the ground even as I tugged at the laces of my boot. But at the flare of the fire behind me, I spun only to find that Gabriella had set one of her shoes on fire while she dangled the other, ready to add it.
At the sight of her pale feet poking out from underneath the ragged hem of her gown, my frustration arched, causing the wound in my head to throb. It wasn’t fair that she’d been reduced to wearing ragged clothing and shoes, devoid of even stockings. And now, if I couldn’t think of a way to save us, she might be bitten by rats and lose her limbs.
Hadn’t she suffered enough? “The duchess’s steward should be languishing here,” I spat the words. “Likely he took from the coffers and blamed you.”
She paused, and her shoulders slumped wearily. “No. I took the coins.”
“You did?”
“I took coins once a month, just as I always had.”
Surprise choked off my response.
She offered a weak smile. “Yes, I am guilty as charged, and I did not deny it.”
“Technically it belonged to you—”
“’Twas God’s, and I intended to give it back to him by distributing it amongst the neediest of my people, as I did on every new moon.”
As she resumed working, I could only stare at this amazing woman. I’d come here to learn to be the slave of all. And I’d done everything I could day after day to serve the other slaves around me, including Gabriella. But I clearly had much yet to learn.
Moreover, I had much yet to do. Innocent people like Gabriella were languishing and no better off than when I’d first arrived.
Had I somehow missed the true meaning of my mission?
While my thoughts rushed frantically forward, I grabbed the rocks and threw them away from the entrance, working even faster. As I clawed and dug, she did the same, only halting to add more ripped pieces of her chemise and her other boot to the fire.
The flames rippled and gave off a dirty black smoke that filled the air and made it difficult to breathe. Even so, we pulled at the rocks, hardly daring to stop lest we lose a second of precious light to dig our way to freedom.
