Page 46 of Freedom Mine
“Where?”
“Sanctuary.”
* * *
ALLI
She’d heard the men talk of a second mine, but no one knew when it had been abandoned or why, just that it had. Kayo had assigned her the task of leading the harkifa he insisted they needed, though it didn’t seem to have much of a load in its packs. A few lightsticks, a shovel, fire rake, machete, metal canteens and a lot of markers, certainly a light enough load they could have split them between two backpacks and left the stubborn animal behind.
“Do you know where the mine is?” she asked.
“Sure do. I worked it enough,” he said, as he cut through the dense underbrush with the machete.
The landscape was much denser here than over by Freedom Mine. More humid too. She could feel the sweat beading on her neck, and they weren’t in direct sunlight. If there was ever a trail here, she couldn’t make it out, but Kayo seemed to know where he was going. The way he hacked away at the undergrowth, she suspected he was working through some issues along the way.
“How long have you been here, on Varkos?”
“Long enough.”
“What made you want to buy a mine?”
“What’s with all the questions?” he asked, without interrupting his swing of the machete.
“I thought it would be nice to get to know you.”
He stopped hacking at the brush. He was breathing hard, sweating, and all she could think of was how nice it would be to relieve him of that shirt, take a wet cloth and soap him down.
“You want to get to know me?” he said, jarring her attention back to him as he came so close she had to tilt her head back to look up at him. “Are you sure about that?” he asked, his voice deep, darker than usual.
She swallowed. “Yes. Quite sure.”
“Why?”
What type of question was that? “You don’t like me much, do you, Kayo?”
He spun around. “Don’t like you? Hells, Alli, why would you say that?” he asked, sounding incredulous.
She bit her lip. How do you tell a man it feels so right to be near him when there is a wall between them? A wall he constructed. When she didn’t answer, he started hacking at the brush again.
They walked in silence for the next few minutes. “I didn’t buy this property, not really,” he said unexpectedly. “Mac, the guy who bought me, owned it. After he freed me, I stayed on. I didn’t know where to go, but I knew I couldn’t go home.
Mac sold the property to me before he died. For the few parchas I had to my name.” He sighed. “All nice and legal.” His words had an unusual bite to them, but he shrugged as he continued hacking away at the brush.
“It set his mind at ease knowing someone would carry on for him. He really loved this place, and he didn’t have anyone else.”
“You miss him.” She hadn’t missed how he spoke of Mac with affection.
“Mac? Sure, though at times I curse him.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. A moment later, he veered off of what had appeared to have been a path at one time. He returned with a lone branch.
He tied the branch to the back of the harkifa, so it overhung the beast a good foot on each side. “This is the maximum we pack a harkifa. If he can’t pass through the trail I’m blazing, tag the tree with a yellow marker, shoulder height, and remove the stick long enough for him to get through. I’ll send back some of the men to clear anything we mark with the flags. A few times through here will be all it takes for the harkifa to trample a path.”
An hour and fourteen flags later, they reached the mine. The entrance would have been missed by anyone not familiar with the area, given how covered it was in shrubs and fallen rock. She tied the harkifa to a tree and unloaded the gear while Kayo removed the growth near the mine’s entrance. While the harkifa grazed, she explored the immediate area. There was something ominous about this section of the mountain. . . quiet, almost hallowed.
She pulled an old sign from behind a pile of rocks. The sign was rusted over but the letters were clear. “Sanctuary.”
“Aptly named,” Kayo said as he took the sign from her.
