Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“There might be a guard here,” Rem’eb warns me. “If there is, let me take care of him.”
As if I’m going to fight him for that honor? Not likely.
Rem’eb leaves me behind and I lean against the strange wall that bisects their underground village. I watch him as he surges ahead, and his big body is graceful and silent despite his size. His sandals make no sound on the cobblestones, and when he goes around the far side of the wall, I feel a surge of anxiety. It bothers me when he goes out of sight.
A moment later, though, he peers around the corner and makes a beckoning motion at me, and I scramble to join him.
We pass by a large door on the far side of the wall, a guard at the front asleep at his post. The door has a large bar on the outside, which seems strange to me. What are they keeping locked in there? Livestock, maybe? I try to think of what I ate in the last few days that could be cultivated. Lizards, maybe? But all the ones I had were tiny.
“Come, we must keep going,” Rem’eb tells me, taking my hand once more. “We will be in the tunnels soon.”
“What’s behind the door?” I ask, gesturing at it as we hurry past.
He glances at it one last time and then leads me down a tunnel in the opposite direction. “That is where the females are kept.”
Wait…what?
“Females?” I repeat, using his word for it. I jerk my hand from his. “Why the fuck are your females barred in?”
He pauses, glancing at the wall and then back at me. “What is wrong?”
“Why. Are. Your. Women. Behind. A locked fucking door?” I’m doing my best to keep my voice down and failing miserably as I stab my finger at the offending door with each word. “Do you realize how fucked up that is? Why are they prisoners?”
“Come,” he says, reaching for my hand again, and when I don’t give it to him, he frowns, trying to understand my furious gestures. “I am not happy about it either, but there is no time to explain. Come with me and I will tell you more as we travel.”
I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him.
This clearly makes Rem’eb antsy. He paces back and forth, anxious. “Tia, the others will not be asleep all night. If we are to escape, it must be now. All it takes is one to alert the others that we are gone. I will tell you more, but you must walk with me. If we are caught, I will not have the chance to help you leave again.”
I hesitate, but when he impatiently glances down at the sleeping guard and puts his hand out again, I slap my palm into his. I’m the worst person in the world for leaving these women—these prisoners—behind. But you can’t save anyone until you save yourself, and right now Rem’eb is my ticket out of here.
I hope those faceless women on the other side forgive me for leaving them behind, because I’m not sure I’m going to forgive myself.
We race down another tunnel, and the buildings disappear. Another tunnel, and the walls are no longer smooth, the path beneath my feet no longer cobbled. It’s clear we’re getting into the less traveled parts of their underground city, and some of the tension seems to leave Rem’eb’s shoulders as we do. He glances behind us over and over, but when we make it to a third tunnel that forks off from the others, he seems to breathe a little easier.
Pointing at the next fork in the maze of tunnels, he says, “Your friend is being kept in a cell in that direction. We will be there soon.”
I pull my hand from his. “I can walk alone.”
Rem’eb flinches, and I feel like I kicked him while he was down. “I suppose to an outsider it does not seem fair. A great many of my people do not like it, the wall. But it was my father’s decision after the great sickness. It seemed like when it spread, the women would always catch it first, and catch it worst. No one could protect them. If a male was sick, any female that had been near him would grow ill. The khui would die slowly, and then the sick person would follow not long after. My father felt that the women were catching the sickness from us, the men. He had all of the men moved to the far side of the village, and the women into the houses on the other end and told the two groups to stay apart. No one grew sick, and so my father felt that the only way to keep all of his people safe—women and men—was to separate them. A wall was built in the village, and the women are brought food and goods into an antechamber. They have their own water supply. They live a life entirely separate from us.”