To Break a Covenant by Alison Ames

Author:Alison Ames [Ames, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Published: 2021-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

The back of my shirt was soaked through with sweat by the time we reached the entrance of the mine. I was already nauseous and a little dizzy. I slung the bag I was carrying onto the ground and dug for a water bottle, twisting the cap off and drinking about half before offering it around.

“Okay,” said Lisey after she’d taken a sip. She turned away from us, sat on the edge of the entrance, and kicked her feet down to the first rung. She pulled out the little camping lantern we’d brought, clamped the handle between her teeth, and then disappeared from view with a flash of white hair. The three of us stood there and looked at each other. Piper fidgeted with the end of one of her braids, and Nina rocked back and forth with her hands in her back pockets, eyes flickering around.

“Okay!” Lisey’s voice floated up faintly. “Nina!”

Nina blew her bangs out of her face, resituated her backpack, and clambered into the mine. Piper and I watched her go. I reached out and squeezed her hand. It was clammy, even in the stifling heat.

“We’re gonna find him, Pipes,” I murmured, releasing her. As the words left my mouth, I wondered if I actually believed them.

She looked at me but didn’t say anything, and as soon as Nina called up she was gone, vanishing over the ledge without a backward glance. I looked at the entrance to the mine, nausea still roiling inside me. I had the bizarre thought that the square frame was crooked somehow, like it had been set into the earth wrong. It made me feel off-balance. I tilted my head, trying to lessen the effect, but it seemed to move with me. I closed my eyes and opened them, and it seemed better. I blinked again and it was crooked. My stomach lurched. I closed my eyes again and kept them shut until I heard Piper’s voice, and then I shuffled forward to the mine with my gaze fixed on the ground. I could feel the entrance tilting around me as I slid over the edge, and my hand slipped as I started down. I yelped, dirt and rock crumbling away under my fingers, and flattened myself to the wall.

“Clem? You okay?”

“Great,” I called down, trying to slow my breathing. If I threw up now I’d fall and die. And then your body would rot down here, my brain whispered. You’d be part of the mine. I coughed sharply, like I could expel the thought from my body, then climbed down as fast as I could. I let go when my toes were still almost three feet from the mine floor, landing in a crouch and stumbling onto my hands and knees. My hands felt like they were crawling, like I’d shoved them into something rotting and slimy, and I couldn’t touch the wall of that mine shaft for another second. I scrubbed my hands against my shorts, trying to rid them of the sensation.

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