Too Young to Die by Michael Anderle

Author:Michael Anderle [Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642029628
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2020-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-Seven

“I want to say,” Zaara called over the wall, “that if I die by falling through the floor, I’ll be really angry about it.”

“Only briefly, though,” Justin responded. “Look on the bright side.”

“Very funny.” She grunted, followed by the crack of wood. “Ow. And no, I didn’t fall.”

“That’s good to know.” He sat cross-legged and drummed his fingers nervously on the floor. “Let me know when you’re down.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Are you waiting for something?”

“I’m having an argument with my better sense,” she muttered in a rough and strained tone. From the sound of it, she was halfway through the hole and held herself up on her elbows. “This is beginning to seem like a very bad idea.”

“Leaving on our own seems like a much better idea than letting them send us out,” Justin told her. “They’ll keep something we care about to make sure we come back, and I’m kind of worried that something will be you or Lyle.”

“So the ‘we’ is you?”

“In this case, yes. They did come to speak to me.”

“For all you know…” Zaara panted and he waited. “They talked to Lyle too. Good gods, I wonder if he sold us out. I’ll stab him if he did. All right, here goes nothing.” The sound of ripping cloth preceded an oath, a thud, and another muttered expletive.

“Zaara? Zaara!”

“Ow.” He heard limping footsteps. “Ow, ow, ow. They couldn’t put pillows down, could they? Nooooooo…”

Justin’s mouth twitched. He decided to focus on that as he inched toward the edge of the floor. While he’d asked Zaara what she was waiting for, the truth was that he was none too eager to do his part. He thought of asking her to sneak up the stairs and let him out, pictured what she would say in response to that, and decided to take his chances with the several-hundred-foot drop instead.

Cautiously, he stuck his head over the edge. “Are you ready?”

The area below their cells was one large chamber and she stood under where he lay. She took a careful step to the side and gave him a thumbs-up. One sleeve was ripped down the side and a nasty bruise was already visible but otherwise, she seemed fine.

“Okay,” he said. “Right. Okay. Right. Okay.” He maneuvered his legs to the edge. “Right.” He lay on his stomach and stared at the grain of the wood. “Okay.”

“Justin?”

“Yep. I’m, uh…having an existential crisis.”

“I don’t know what that is.” Zaara sounded exasperated. “Are you worried about falling off the tower?”

“Yes.”

“Well, get over it.” She didn’t sound particularly sympathetic. “Now-ish would be good.”

“Maybe this plan was a mistake.”

“Right, I’ll jump through the hole in the floor again, then.” She came to peer toward the edge of the ledge. He couldn’t see her, of course, but he could feel the force of her stare. “Are you kidding me, you good-for-nothing, pot-lid-wearing—I don’t even know…useless, fireball-slinging donkey-wrangler?”

Justin sighed. He was fairly sure he could hear the AI laughing and that annoyed him. “Right. I’m coming down. Grab my hand, right?”

“Oh, you mean the goal is to stop you from going over the edge? Huh.

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