There was too much heat in the stone. The low rumble stuttered.
Some instinct deep within him pulled at the heat. He didn’t do so alone. Others pulled and pushed, transferring the sudden energy from the stone to the room they sat in. Brandt found himself drenched in sweat, the room beginning to feel like an inferno. He thought he heard someone next to him grunt, but his senses were frayed and raw. He wasn’t sure what was real and what was false.
The lightning attacked again, and Brandt could think of nothing else as his world went white.
34
Alena fell asleep easily that night. Now that the Etari had promised her protection, she could finally allow her exhaustion to claim her. She didn’t even have the energy to pull out a blanket. A small cot was in the corner of the office. In moments she was drifting off to sleep. Her last thought was wondering if the secret would be less dangerous to her if more people knew it. Kye couldn’t kill everyone.
She didn’t wake until the sun was well overhead. When she woke she saw someone had thrown a blanket on top of her overnight. Alena went to see the woman she had negotiated with the day before.
The woman’s name was Sooni, and she led with some authority among the Etari here. Alena tried to remember what lessons she had learned about the Etari. She knew they were a nomadic people who had never been conquered, but that was all that came to mind.
Alena supposed she’d be learning more firsthand.
When Sooni saw Alena, she flashed a perfunctory smile. “We’ll be leaving soon. Are you ready?”
Alena almost laughed. Everything she owned was in the bag she’d been carrying around for weeks. Getting ready was simply a matter of picking the bag up. She barely managed to keep a straight face. “I am.”
“Good. When the time comes, I’ll discuss how we’ll smuggle you out of town. Be ready.”
For what little remained of the morning, Alena had little to do. She found an isolated corner where she wouldn’t attract attention and watched as the Etari worked, curious about their culture. The warehouse was busy with wage earners loading and unloading crates under their supervisors’ watchful eyes. The Etari didn’t speak as much as Alena was used to. She realized, though, that much of their communication happened through hand signs.
As early afternoon rolled around, the Etari dismissed their wage-earners for the day, promising a full day’s wages for less than a full day’s work. Alena narrowed her eyes as the Etari started hauling crates down to the docks, work that should have fallen under the wage-earner’s purview.
Sooni gestured for her to approach. She stood next to a long crate, more than large enough for Alena. A layer of straw coated the bottom of the crate. Sooni gestured. “Get in.”
Alena did, lying down. The Etari had bundled more straw near one end of the crate, which served almost as a pillow. Alena wasn’t too cramped, even with her pack by her side. Sooni bent over the crate, holding out a tube and a cloth. “You can put the cloth over your face. We’re going to cover you with straw and pack goods on top of you. They’ll be light, but it won’t be comfortable. Use the tube to breathe, and focus on taking slow, even breaths.”
Alena felt a twisting in her stomach, fear threatening to turn her insides into jam. But this was the way out of Tonno. Getting her past the guards wouldn’t be easy. She forced herself to nod, and pulled the cloth over most of her face. She put the tube in her mouth.
Then the Etari buried her.
The straw was hot and scratchy. Sweat dampened her clothes, but she couldn’t do anything about it. For a moment she hyperventilated. The tube was the only thing preventing her from suffocating under the straw. Just the thought of it terrified her.
They placed objects on top of the straw. Sooni had spoken true. They weren’t heavy, but it was uncomfortable. Alena was pretty certain that she could free herself from the layers of straw and trading goods that covered her. But the constant weight against her chest and legs made her fight panic.
The crate began to move, the faint stirrings of air through the straw a minor but welcome relief.
With her senses restricted, Alena became disoriented. She couldn’t see or feel anything besides the straw scratching at her exposed skin. She didn’t dare try to breathe through her nose, and her hearing was muffled by the layers of straw.
Alena focused on her breath. It was all she had in this confined space.
Deep breath in.
Slow breath out.
The crate paused and resumed its journey several times. Then it stopped and Alena thought she could hear conversation above her. The crate was jostled, and she imagined that the lid had been pulled off for inspection.
She slowed her breath, sipping from the tube while trying to remain as still as possible. Her exhalations were similarly gentle.
Muffled words were exchanged, and she thought she felt a shifting of the straw around her body.
She could well imagine a nosy guard, digging his hand through the crate to ensure everything was as it appeared.
Alena despaired. She waited for the discovery to come.
But the guard’s hand never made contact.
More words were exchanged overhead.
Alena would have given half the papers in her bag to learn what was being said above her. She couldn’t make anything out clearly.
Then she felt a repeated jolting through the crate. It took her a few moments to understand what was happening.
They were nailing the lid of the crate shut.
It had passed inspection.
She smiled to herself
She might be blind, deaf, and forced to breathe through a tube.
But soon she would be outside of Tonno, and hopefully beyond Kye’s grasp.
They released her from her prison later that day. She felt the vibrations as the nails were pulled out and the lid lifted away. As
