Carry the Flame (31 page)

“I am so sorry, but most of you will not get to see this battle. It is a most special treat for my most special guests, but Ananda, Leisha, and Kaisha will take part in the festivities. Yes, you girls will have most special roles. It is a great honor.”

“You're not touching my daughters,” Augustus said, walking within feet of the wall below the Mayor.

“Stop your fretting, black man. I will not hurt your girls. They are our crown jewels for the Alliance. Come to your senses. If they do not come up tomorrow when I have the ladder for them, I will send my men after them, and you will not like that. Your daughters will be of great interest to my guests. Do not try to deny me this small pleasure.” He turned to the girls' side of the pit. “Leisha and Kaisha, you will be very busy tomorrow night. It will be most exciting, and I promise it will not hurt too much. I say the same to you, Ananda.”

Not hurt too much?

He smiled at her. Perhaps he considered it a “most special” kindness. She just wanted to kill him—before he murdered her mom. That would be most special to her.

H
unt tried to pull his gun out from under his body, but the barrel caught on the blade sticking out of his chest. Esau stared, hoping his master would collapse,
die.
But Hunt groaned, straining to push himself higher, offering a chilling view of the blood-streaked steel. Slowly, he began to slide the pistol out from under him.

Esau thought he might have time to grab the second gun. The weapon lay next to Hunt's pants. The fully naked slave raced only half a dozen steps before his master started to raise the weapon in his hand. Esau gulped in terror and kicked him in the face, flooding with animal fear even before Hunt's arm locked around his ankle. The slave slammed to the ground.

His master's hold tightened, but Hunt had dropped his gun when he grabbed him. Hunt's other elbow, supporting his weight, pinned the slave's right leg. The bone-on-bone pain was excruciating. Esau lunged for the gun by Hunt's pants, but it lay inches beyond his grasp.

He looked back, finding Hunt desperately trying to pick up the pistol he'd dropped. But Hunt couldn't hold his leg and also make the grab. When he maintained his fierce grip, the slave realized his master had made the same calculation as he: if both of them scrambled for a gun, it was he who would win the deadly race.

Hunt began to claw his way up his leg. Esau tried to drag himself away, breaking fingernails on the hard ground just below the sand. He made no progress.

Esau lunged again for Hunt's other gun. He failed. His master tried to force his hand between the slave's legs. Esau squeezed them together as Hunt's fingers grazed his testicles. The slave rolled onto his back, prying Hunt's hand farther from his privates. But his master hauled himself a foot off the ground and slammed his chest down on Esau's calf, stabbing him with the knife protruding from his blood-soaked shirt. The slave shrieked.

Hunt pushed himself forward, knifing the younger man's lower leg as surely as he had the boy's. His next thrust drove the blade up into Esau's kneecap. The slave screamed and beat Hunt's head, to little effect.

Grunting almost as loudly, Hunt grabbed two fistfuls of the slave's belly and heaved himself forward, plunging the knife into Esau's inner thigh. Clawing now at his chest, Hunt plowed the blade up the final length of leg, cleaving the meaty muscle.

Esau, screaming hoarsely, tried to push Hunt away. But he remained pinned by his master's size, and paralyzed by the grilling pain of the knife.

Hunt tightened his grip on the slave's chest, tearing skin. Then he jammed his elbows into Esau's hips and rose over him. Struggling mightily, Hunt aimed the blade sticking out of his chest right at the slave's sex organs.

A gun was fired from inches away, and Hunt collapsed. Esau, ears ringing, twisted violently from the plunging knife. It struck his hipbone with enough force to drive the handle halfway out of his master's back. The pain from this final assault felt crippling, though even in his misery Esau knew how much worse it could have been.

Jaya stood over him, revolver shaking in his damaged hand. He'd ripped open the big knuckle at the base of his thumb when he tore himself free from the wire. The exposed bone burned white in the sun. A flap of his bloody skin hung from the cage like a peeled-off glove.

“Get him off me!” Esau cried.

Jaya kicked Hunt's body as ruthlessly as he had the knife handle only minutes ago, forcing the lifeless torso to the side. Esau spied a bullet hole in Hunt's temple, blood matting the dead man's hair.

The slave climbed to his feet, shaking terribly. He stared at his leg wounds. “Did you see what he did?” The savagery astounded him.

Jaya shook his head no, but eyed the long, deep cuts. “They're bad.”

“They hurt. Oh, God,” Esau cried, “they hurt so bad.” He bent to pick up Hunt's weapon.

“Don't touch it.” Jaya raised his gun hand. “You were going to hurt me, too.” He glanced at Esau's crotch.

“I saved you.” The slave hugged himself. He couldn't stop shaking.

“Get away from the gun.”

“You're a kid. You don't now what you're doing.”

“I sure saved you.” Jaya never lowered the barrel.

Esau stepped aside. The youth grabbed the weapon. He was still bleeding from his own knifing and brutal unfettering.

“Get dressed,” he told Esau. He sounded older than the weakened slave. “I'm taking his pants.” His own lay shredded on the sand.

“Mine will fit you better. I can wear his.”

The boy considered this, and nodded.

T
he sun's edge appeared in the cavern ceiling. Miranda studied it, shading her face with her hand.

“Do we have to go?” Cassie asked anxiously. More than anything, she wanted to keep walking to the waterfall.

“Do you think you could run all the way back?” the older girl asked.

“I guess. Sure.” Cassie tried to hide her disappointment, but it felt heavier than the boulder she leaned against.

“Then we better go now.”

But instead of turning around, Miranda grabbed Steph's hand and darted ahead. Delighted, Cassie hurried after them across narrow chasms and long stretches of unseamed rock, excitement building in her tummy.

A pounding noise forced its way into her awareness, the ground vibrating. She slowed, uneasy by what she felt but could not see. The water flowed faster by her side, as if it were scared, too. She looked ahead and saw Miranda and Steph stop where the water disappeared over the edge of smooth pale stone. Mist billowed up around them.

That's it!

Cassie rushed closer, exhilarated again, as the sound of the falls grew louder and the ground vibrated even more. But now it seemed to shake the fear from her body, filling her with the sweetest anticipation.

She looked out over the edge and watched the river whiten where it exploded more than twenty feet below. It surged into a wide, emerald-colored plunge pool. Mist now coated her skin with its soothing velvety touch. She'd never felt that before, only hard rain, and then only rarely. The cool moist air was calming, like she was standing in the middle of a cloud. Her face felt clean and wonderfully alive.

She stared at the waterfall so intently that she startled when Miranda grabbed her arm.

“Watch this!” the older girl shouted above the roaring river.

She jumped, fully clothed, but raised barely a splash in the churning water at the base of the falls.

Cassie waited nervously for her friend to surface. So did Steph. The mute girl took her hand for the first time, a firm grip that didn't relax until they saw a head full of dark hair bobbing up. Miranda cleared it from her face, smiling ecstatically.

She swam to the middle of the pool, where she stood with bubbles eddying around her chest. Steph released Cassie's hand, and the towhead wanted to take it back. She liked Steph, even though the girl hadn't said a word to her.

“It's really deep, but there's a tiny island I'm on,” Miranda shouted above the waterfall. “Kind of like a stalagmite.”

Cassie didn't know what she meant. “I want to jump!” she yelled back, even though her stomach fluttered at the very thought.

Miranda shook her head forcefully. “No! You'll drown. Wait till you can at least swim underwater.”

But I can. You showed me.

The older girl floated on her back, gazing at a wide streak of white stone in the high ceiling. When she neared the far side, she swam forcefully to a large round stone and pulled herself out. Then she scaled steps that had been pounded out of a rock wall, and made her way through a stretch of small sharp rocks to the two of them, who stood watching.

“Where's the river go?” Cassie asked. She couldn't see any water beyond the plunge pool, only the end of the enormous cavern catching scattered streams of light from small openings.

“It goes underground for five miles. You can see where it gets sucked under when you're over there. That's another reason for not just jumping in till you're a strong swimmer.” Miranda walked closer to the falls, dripping on the mist-covered rock. “We've
got
to go.”

Cassie also paused for one last look at the waterfall, then the three of them dashed back through the caverns, Miranda and Cassie hooting and hollering. Their echoes chased them all the way to the garden. The farmers looked up as the girls burst into the bright sunlight and raced madly past the raised beds. They didn't stop till they reached the encampment. Cassie thought she'd keel over from breathing so hard—and she'd been one of the strongest runners on the caravan.

Eleven adults were congregating around the stone bench where she'd eaten breakfast with Miranda and Steph. Four boys stood outside of the gathering. Only one looked about Cassie's age, and she noticed he was taller.

Sam, Yurgen, and William had washed and changed into fresh clothes. Cassie realized they must own two pairs of pants and shirts.
Maybe more.
But the adults looked worried, except for Sam, who smiled so warmly at Cassie that she thought of her mom again.

Sam had her sit on the bench. Miranda and Steph settled to her right.

“We have to ask you some important questions,” Sam said to her, “but do you need anything before we get started? Are you hungry?”

Hungry?
Cassie shook her head, amazed that Sam had offered her more food; she'd eaten a few hours ago.

The woman crouched in front of her, as she had by the catacombs, and pushed long white curls behind her shoulders. “Do you know how many people you were traveling with?”

“A lot,” Cassie said. She wasn't sure. There were three little babies, and Leisha and Kaisha.
How do you count them?
“Maybe thirty?”

“Do you know how many were children?”

“Most.” She stared at her hands, as if counting her fingers. “Twenty? I think that many. I don't know how you count Leisha and Kaisha. They have two heads, but just one body.”

“Conjoined twins?” William asked, scratching his sparse beard. His dirty canvas bag still hung from his shoulder, even after he'd changed clothes.

“Yes, that's what they called them,” Cassie said. She noticed everyone was paying close attention. Even the boys.

“Were you the only one who got away?” Sam asked.

Cassie told them about Maul. It hurt to think about him. Sam said she was sorry to hear about her old friend, before asking what the caravaners had been doing for food.

“We had lots.” Cassie described the provisions they'd taken from the Army of God. “It was all stuffed in the van.”

“Were people pretty healthy, or were some of your friends sick?” Sam asked.

“Mostly, everybody was okay,” Cassie said, but with a questioning lilt. “Sometimes Ananda was kind of sick. She was tired a lot. But she was the only one. Her mom was the leader with Burned Fingers.”

Yurgen asked about him.

“He's a marauder, but now he's a good guy. He's got two burned fingers.” She showed them which ones. “But he sure keeps things moving.”

“I've heard of him,” Yurgen said. “And you're sure he's helping you?”

“You bet he is. He burned down the whole Army of God. I saw him do it with my own two eyes,” Cassie said, clearly awed.

Sam smiled. “Do you know why you guys were heading north?”

“Green things. They grow up there, like down here.” When no one responded, Cassie sounded a panicky note: “They're growing stuff there, right?”

“We don't know much about the North,” Sam said. “We just know that somebody doesn't want anyone going there because every time people try to cross the desert, they're attacked. You're the second girl we've rescued. Steph was the first. Up till then, nobody ever got away.”

“Are you going to rescue my friends?” Cassie asked.

Sam took Cassie's shoulders and held her eyes with an intense stare. “For a long time, almost a year, we've been planning to stop what they're doing up there. It's cruel. And if we don't stop them, sooner or later they're going to find out what's going on down here. We're living on borrowed time. Do you know what that means?”

Cassie shook her head.

“It means every day counts because they could have found all this,” Sam glanced around, “a long time ago. Tomorrow night a lot of people are going to be up there for a big party. They're really bad people. Have you seen the City of Shade?”

“No.”

“It has a huge, heavy roof over it. We're planning to drop it down on all of them.”

“But my friends!” Cassie cried. “Ananda and Bliss and Leisha and—”

“We know where most of your friends are, so they should be okay.”

“How do you know where they are?”

“We can't tell you that,” Sam said.