The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow (The Crystal Calamity Book 1) by Rachel Aaron

Author:Rachel Aaron [Aaron, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aaron/Bach
Published: 2022-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

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The trip through the Deep Caves was much easier going out than it had been going in. The tunnels had once again changed their guise, replacing the round, black-scaled corridors where the Whitman and his dog-man had attacked them with a lovely passage of multicolored stone that gleamed like a rainbow in the light of Mary’s lantern. It was the sort of wonder her uncle’s letters had been full of, and if everyone hadn’t been in such a dark mood, Josie might have actually enjoyed the walk. It was nice to see that the caves could be something other than damp and terrifying, and there wasn’t a Whitman to be seen! Alas, even cheery colors couldn’t lift the pall hanging over Mary as she led them silently through the maze back to the squeeze.

That part was exactly as awful as Josie remembered. Worse, actually, because unlike packed food, crystal did not squish down to fit through the crack in the cliff that was their only way back. They ended up having to make trips to get everything through, dragging the blanket-wrapped crystal like tails behind them as they crawled on their bellies through the crevice.

The process took so long they were forced to make camp when they finished, which meant they ended up sleeping by the black lake after all. Not that Josie raised a word of complaint. She’d learned her lesson about putting off sleep, and after their run-in with the Whitmans, Bear Woman no longer seemed so terrifying. At least she attacked for understandable reasons like hating dynamite, not bells and excrement prophesies and all the rest of the bandit’s madness.

It probably should have been worrisome that the bar had fallen so low, but at least now Josie understood how everyone in Medicine Rocks had gotten so blasé. It was hard to get worked up over any one specific thing when you were assaulted by existential threats on an hourly basis. But numbness could be just as important a survival mechanism as alertness, so Josie embraced hers wholeheartedly, keeping her eyes on her feet this time and not the black water or the old dark blood that was still visible on the rocks as they walked back to the gap in the cliff that would return them to the Main Gallery.

At least Mary was starting to perk up again. As soon as they reentered the familiar Midway Tunnels, her cheerful demeanor returned just like she’d said. It was such a relief, especially since Reliance seemed to be going downhill.

Not that she’d ever been chatty, but Josie had thought her old friend was warming up. Once they started running into other miners on the Main Gallery Trail again, though, Rel had slid back into the worst of her new behavior, speaking only in monosyllabic grunts, snarling at everyone they passed, and muttering to herself with her hand locked onto the grip of her crystal gun. If she hadn’t been the one pushing hardest on them to make good time, Josie would have said the girl was terrified to go back to town.

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