Page 80 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Eravin nodded to the guard a few feet away. The woman looked as if she’d had an hour or two of sleep in the last week. Her messy braid hid under the collar of her carelessly buttonedJaydian uniform. Rips and burns decorated much of the jacket in other places. She looked up when Kase, Eravin, and Stowe climbed down, but she didn’t move from her position.
Kase wasn’t one to say anything, but if his father caught this guard shirking her duties, then it wouldn’t end well for her.
She nodded to them. “Don’t get handsy. Don’t look at anybody wrong.” She pointed down the tunnel past the makeshift city. “Hospital ward is that way if you need attention, but last I heard, the wait is a few hours at best.” She pointed in the other direction. “If you don’t need a medic, consult with the team in the central cavern. They’ll get you assigned to duty rotation.”
Duty rotation. That was a good sign. Some kind of organization had been put into place, even if the state of the people around him made it seem otherwise.
Stowe knelt and rummaged through his pack, whipping out his special caffeine concoction. He handed it to the soldier. “You look dead on your feet.”
She took it and eyed the contents. Then she glanced back at Stowe. “Why do you care?”
Stowe shouldered his pack once more. “It’s the least I could do to thank you for your service, lass.”
She snorted, but she still uncorked the vial and knocked back the dark liquid. Shaking her head, she handed it back. “Thanks. Welcome to the Catacombs.”
With that, Kase gestured for Eravin to lead the way toward the central cavern. He’d rather follow than get a well-placed bullet in the back, tentative truce or none. Ironic how things changed over the years. Five years ago, Kase wouldn’t have anyone else watching his back.
The number of people lining the tunnels and alcoves was impressive. In the cramped space, it might be easy to mentally inflate the number of survivors, but they still gave Kase hope.If so many from the lower city were gathered here, surely his mother must have made it out.
That was what he kept telling himself, anyway.
He scanned the faces for her blue eyes and dark hair streaked with glittering gray. He didn’t linger too long, lest they look back at him and realize just whohewas.
With any luck, they’d all mistake him for a greenie hover pilot on his way to report to his Lead, though his poor jacket had seen much better days. His pack covered some of the biggest rips, at least. Maybe that was why the soldier on guard had let them pass without any trouble—they looked as roughed-up as any other refugee, and their weapons weren’t visible.
Or maybe she’d just been that grateful for Stowe’s caffeinated gift. Good thing Harlan wasn’t around to see it—he probably would have accused the guard of taking bribes.
Eravin wound his way through the labyrinth like he’d lived in it his whole life. The guard hadn’t mentioned that there were so many tunnel branches weaving and winding like the veins of some reptilian creature from First Earth…asnake. Or maybe something from Greek mythology, like the Hydra. Yes, that fit.
Hallie would’ve seen the similarity, too.
Of course, it could be in the same blueprint of the city above, but without landmarks like the public squares, it was hard to navigate.
Soon, raised voices echoed off the tunnel, replacing the pall of whimpers and murmurs. Kase resisted the urge to grab his pistol, but he pushed back his jacket to make it easier to reach just in case.
Many people clogged the next tunnel, all vying to see what lay ahead. Eravin, who’d been quietly leading the party, elbowed his way through the crowd. Kase let his jacket fall back into place and followed, murmuring apologies as he wove after Eravin. With an inch or two of height on most of the people gathered,he could see some of what lay ahead, but not much. All he could make out was a dark expanse and someone shouting at the void below.
They reached the edge of the crowd to find a part of the tunnel floor had collapsed. Kase turned to the person next to him, a man with soft brown eyes and brown skin leathered with age. “What happened?”
The man pointed. “Been cave-ins all over. People getting swallowed up left and right. Someone even said one of the Stradats’ sons fell into one a few days ago.”
All the air left Kase’s lungs. “Son…which one?”
The man wasn’t necessarily talking about Jove. Kase thought he remembered Stradat Loffler or Sarson having a son, though he hadn’t bothered to learn about them or speak to them at any of the state functions he’d gone to as a child, or even as an adult. Lavinia Richter had been the only child of a Stradat he’d cared to talk to.
“Harlan Shackley’s son. The only decent one left to him. Pity he paid for the sins of the father, but…” The man sneered, calling Harlan a rather foul name and spitting on the ground before adding, “Serves him right after what he done. Gives him a taste of what some of us went through in that fire three years ago. Shame he was the only Stradat to survive.”
Kase didn’t realize he’d moved until he stumbled into someone—Stowe.
“Let’s get a little air, son,” he said, his hand on Kase’s chest. It was hard to tell if Stowe was holding him back or keeping him upright. He wasn’t really sure which he required himself.
Eravin only watched with a detached interest before he peeked over the edge of the chasm again. Kase’s vision shrank to a pinpoint of light as Stowe dragged him backward. Only Stowe’s shoulder, propped against his, kept him upright as they pushed their way through the throng of people.
The only Stradat to survive.
Only decent one left…shame…
Before Kase knew it, they were in a nearly deserted corridor off the main branch. Stowe finally let go and propped him against a wall. He fetched his canteen and forced Kase to take a swig.
