Joshua and the Arrow Realm by Galanti Donna

Author:Galanti, Donna
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC
Published: 2016-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Oak set the sack on the floor and the kids pushed Charlie and me aside to hug him. The lines in his face softened as he smiled at them, wrapping his long, thin arms around as many as he could. They yanked on the sack but he shook his head and threw it over their heads to the side. The kids jumped on it, their long stringy hair hanging against dirt-smudged faces. One tall kid shoved the mob away, making them form a line. He started distributing food from the bag to the kids, and the crowd soon dispersed, darting off to darkened corners, hugging their meals with starved desperation. The rush of running water echoed around the sloped walls of crumbling rock along with the munching of food. I backed up into sharp stone, my feet crunching on scattered bread crusts and apple cores, and tore my hands away from the feel of slimy moss.

“Where’d they all come from?” I whispered, rubbing my fingers on my pants and sucking in musty air. They glanced at me with curious eyes as they fed their hunger. In all this ordered chaos, not one word was spoken, as if they’d been trained to be silent in the dark earth that hid them from life and death.

“Their parents are slaves of the WC,” Oak said.

“Like you,” Charlie said to him in a tight voice, then looked at me. “And your mom. C’est terrible.”

“Terrible, yes, but wonderful because they are alive … unlike my boy,” Oak said with a broken voice and red eyes.

“I’ve heard of the WC underground slaves,” Apollo said. “These kids get a second chance.”

“Second chance to what?” Charlie said, blinking fast.

“To live.”

In this moment, it seemed like weeks since I was zapped to Nostos, but I’d left barely four days ago. I came to free Apollo but there were so many here to free. With these lives at stake, one absolute truth filled me: I came here to save them all. Not in one realm this time—but an entire world. Every path I’d been on led to that truth. Whether I was this Oracle or not, I had a part to play on Nostos.

Apollo left our side to go to the kids. He walked the cave, stopping at each group to talk with them. Their conversations were too faint to hear, but he worked the room like a king with his royal subjects. He touched some on the head and the shoulder.

“Stay here with the others,” Oak said while watching Apollo with curiosity. “There’s food and water. An underground river runs through the back of the cave but stay away from it. You’ll be safe in the cave for now. Only the WC underground knows of this place. I’ll come for you after the raid is done.”

Oak turned away but I pulled him back. “You didn’t tell me about my mother.”

“There’s no time.” He placed a hand on mine. “I have to get back to my room. If they

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