Flight of the Outcasts by Alister E. McGrath

Author:Alister E. McGrath [McGrath, Alister]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-310-41017-1
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2011-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

10

Peter’s knees buckled under the sting of the whip, and the next thing he knew his face was pressed into the rocky sand of the road. His back felt as if it had been slashed in two, and the pain took his breath away.

He gasped for air, trying not to cry out, and felt Julia’s hands on his shoulders. “Peter,” she was saying. “Peter, get up. You have to get up. Let me help you …”

She was interrupted by the guard, who gave a swift kick to Peter’s side as he growled for him to rise. “Up, scum,” he snarled. “Thought you’d take your time, did you? Thought you’d take a nice stroll back to the mine? On your feet, boy.”

Peter planted his hands on either side of his shoulders and pushed himself up. The stinging spread like a fire across his arms, bringing another gasp of pain to his lips. Julia had her arms around him and lifted him to his feet, stumbling under his weight.

“Come on,” she whispered. “Come on. It’s not bad. You have to keep walking.” Peter grunted and took one step, then another, trying to put his mind to anything but the agony in his side and across his shoulders.

The road to the mine felt ten times as long as it had before. Every shuddering breath was another stab where the guard had kicked him, and the air Peter drew into his lungs seemed even more foul than it had before.

The smell of sulfur grew stronger as they approached the mines once again. Coming to the end of the path, the guard gave both Peter and Julia a non-too-gentle shove in the direction of the cistern, where the older children were filling their water buckets.

“To work,” he said. “You won’t be trying to escape again, and if you do you can be sure that the Gul’nog will make you regret it. I’ll be watching,” he promised.

Peter and Julia bent to pick up buckets that were standing ready by the cistern, dipping them into the stagnant pool. Julia, for her part, could hardly believe how heavy a full pail of water could be, but she looked at Peter and saw that he was hefting the rope handle onto his shoulder. She could see by the way he was gritting his teeth that it was hurting him. A year ago he wouldn’t have been able to do it, she thought. The pain and the weariness would have been too much for him. But when it came to that, a year ago she would have been just as helpless. Julia slung the ropes over her shoulders and, along with her brother, joined the masses of weary prisoners.

The two children moved among the captive people of Aedyn, lifting ladles full of water to cracked and thirsty lips. With each dipper of water Peter and Julia whispered the good news they brought with them. “The Deliverers have returned. The Lord of Hosts is calling you back. Cry out to him—he is already answering.

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