The White Fox by James Bartholomeusz

Author:James Bartholomeusz
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
Published: 2011-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter IV

resolutions and preparations

Jack rolled over in bed. Light filtered through his window in a broken block, highlighting the spiralling sheets of dust sifting through the air. From outside, the drifting noises of bustling crowds and the protestant grunts of machinery signalled the start of a new day.

Someone screamed.

Jack sat up straight in his bed and listened. There was another scream. He hoisted himself out of bed, threw on a tunic and a belt, and rushed out of the room.

Lucy’s door was open. She stood, looking horror-stricken, staring at her own reflection in the mirror.

Adâ joined Jack in the doorway. She didn’t look very pleased.

“What the hell did you do?” Lucy shouted at her, indicating her altered body.

“It’s necessary for your disguise,” Adâ said, sounding a little wary for the first time.

“Put them back!” screamed Lucy. She looked as if she had been about to point to her breasts, but realizing Jack was there, had thought better of it.

Both Jack and Adâ stared in silence. Then, when Lucy didn’t speak, each slowly backed out of the doorway in opposite directions.

“Be quick. We’re having breakfast with the king.”

Jack returned to his room and put on the pair of boots. They were extremely thick and at first hard to walk in but quite comfortable. He shuffled out of his bedroom, trying not to trip over himself. The other two were waiting outside, Adâ impatient, Lucy seemingly quite a bit happier. Looking at her now, Jack thought, she must have dropped at least a size. There was obviously some compensation.

A female dwarf was waiting at the end of the corridor, ready to descend with them into the administrative chaos of the colony-city-fortress. Just as the previous day, the hallways were throttled with people, and it looked as if the refugees had spent the night there. Only a narrow stream in the center allowed for the free movement of guards and miners. Weaving down the path of least resistance to the floor below, their guide led them finally to another pair of large double doors. She conversed with the guard for a moment.

He nodded and pounded his axe upon the floor as the one outside had done. In the same way, a five-foot-high door sprung open out of the larger one.

The dwarf headed through it, followed by Adâ, Jack, and Lucy.

This next chamber was roughly the size of the entrance chamber—another cavern that seemed to be hollowed out of the innards of the cliff. Rows and rows of hefty wooden tables filled its floor space, surrounded by dwarves in lines, eating, drinking, and talking. Magnified a hundred times by the cave-like ceiling, the cacophony was astronomical; the roar of voices, clinking of goblets and cutlery, creaking of benches and noises from the other hallways and chambers echoed all around them.

The dwarf guided them down the aisle between the two central tables, passing a multitude of dwarves. Jack noticed a definite segregation here—separate tables for fine-tunic officers, other guards, male and female miners, others in overalls, and several more who appeared to be scribes or civil servants.

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