Fever: An Uncommon World Novella by Alisha Klapheke

Author:Alisha Klapheke [Klapheke, Alisha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780998737928
Publisher: Alisha Klapheke
Published: 2017-04-07T05:00:00+00:00

6

Avi

Radi elbowed me and jerked his chin toward the other cells. “A new prisoner.”

“We have to focus on how we can get out of here.”

The man they threw into a cell two down from ours had shoulder-length black hair. I squinted. Something about him plucked a string in me.

I hurried to the far side of the cell and looked again. Dirty tunic. Definitely not from here. From Jakobden. But the fabric. The little red spots—

“Pomegranates!”

The noise of the training field—yatagans banging together and horses galloping—covered my outburst.

Radi eyed me like I’d gone as mad as the man humming in the corner. I grabbed the front of Radi’s kaftan and shook him.

“That’s my brother-in-law!”

I pushed away from him to go see again, to make sure. It was impossible. But I was almost sure.

Radi came up beside me. “Don’t yell to him until those guards leave. You’ll draw the wrong kind of attention.”

“But that guard is here all the time. What about him?”

“He’s a middle-caste guard. He won’t care as much as the high-caste ones.”

I did notice the bells on the permanent guard’s shoulders. But a shout built up behind my lips regardless. I had to call out to Calev, to get him to turn around, to see if it really was him. The high-caste guards traded words with the middle-caste guard, and they grumbled. One made some sort of joke and they all laughed before the high-caste ones stalked away, heading toward the city’s back gate.

“Calev!” I hissed. My bones pressed into my skin, into the bars, like I could squeeze through if I only tried hard enough. “It’s Avi!”

Radi kept an eye on the guard, who scraped something off the bottom of his boot and spit into the dirt.

The cell between us and the man I thought might be Calev was crowded. Eleven people milled about the space, blocking my view.

“Move!” I waved an arm at them.

One woman glared at me and chewed her thumbnail. Everyone else completely ignored me.

I growled and bumped the bars with the bottom of my fist.

Radi began speaking to the people in the next cell. The foreign words sounded so beautiful, though I didn’t have time for beauty right now. Several faces looked up at him. Most shifted to the front of the cell.

The man I hoped was Calev had his arms crossed and his back to me. His body was coiled with anger, probably frustration.

“Calev!”

He spun. Familiar eyes widened. Inside me, joy opened her arms and threw happy tears down my cheeks.

Calev flung himself against the bars, his face pale. “What are you doing here?” His words were a shaking sail in an undecided wind.

“Me? What are you doing here? You should be honored. You’re doing the amir’s work. And the chairman’s. Why did they lock you up?”

Calev’s gaze flicked between me and Radi. “Because I’m an idiot.”

“I’m going to need more than that.” I pressed my forehead against the metal.

As he ran hands through his hair, a purple bruise showed along his forearm. And another under his cheek.

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