Buried Heart by Kate Elliott

Author:Kate Elliott [Elliott, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2017-07-24T23:00:00+00:00

19

After some days my fever subsides and I resume my duties as water carrier. Even those days were too many for Djesa, although she does not complain. What point is there?

I’m shaky on my feet, persistently light-headed, and my wrist hurts if I put any pressure on it, but I am strangely hopeful. Maraya will come through. I’m so sure of it that I plot out a daring plan of attack, which I share with those I trust most: Djesa in the kitchen, Menesis and his cohort of laborers, Beswe and a few other trusted women, Anu among the boys, and Selukon and the other Tonor men.

“Whether we win or lose, my suffering will soon be over,” Selukon confides with philosophical cheerfulness. “I just wish that I could smash a rock into Lord Gargaron’s face in payment before I go. We had a decent life in Clan Tonor.”

I’m no longer feverish but my brow is puffy, and I can’t decide if that means the inflammation is getting better or worse, although the head cook—the closest thing the mine has to a healer—covers it with a salve every evening. I keep moving. Our hidden caches of discarded stone tools grow. I’m no longer worried about supplies for the journey; I’ve worked out how to deal with that.

If Maraya comes through.

She will because she’s the cleverest of us girls. Because she’s also one of Father’s daughters, the firebird’s heirs, who subsist on air and courage.

When the supply train arrives for its next scheduled visit I hang about in the shade, and I’m not surprised to see Polodos. This time I’m smarter. I go straight to the lavatory courtyard and wait in a shadowed corner amid the stink until he appears, alone, looking cautiously around.

“Jessamy?”

It’s so sweet to hear my name. “Here.”

He pulls a leather pouch from his sleeve. It’s small enough I can hide it in my vest. “She said to tell you that under no circumstances should you touch the powder with bare skin or else you too will be poisoned. It acts quickly and will incapacitate most. Many will die. The rest you must kill. Can you kill people, Jessamy? Have you really thought about what this means?”

“If we are merciful and let them live, they’ll raise the alarm and come after us and kill us before we can hope to escape. I see no other way.”

“So I fear. Add extra spice to cover the taste. Make sure you burn or bury the pouch. Let all the dead look as if they have been killed by violence so no one suspects poison was involved.” With a disquieting frown, he touches my forehead, just above my inflamed eye, and slips a tiny sealed pot into my hand. “She says you must use this salve on your eye.”

“How is she?”

“Her position in Lord Menos’s household protects her. For now we are safe, as you are not.”

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