Page 3 of Scaled Hearts

It makes me want to kick myself for letting her go off into the mines by herself. If I had told her to stick with me, she would never have found that stupid gemstone.

Cursed stones are always thought of as urban legends, anyway.

They are rumors passed down from miner to miner that no one takes seriously. Especially when it’s the elders who are always babbling on about finding one back in the day or knowing someone who has found one with no proof of it being real.

Unfortunately, Kara and I have become acutely aware of how truthful those rumors truly have been this entire time. One touch of that gemstone we’ve hidden away sent the rash up her arm.

We finish packing up and head out of our hut and down to the mines once more.

Nervousness churns in my stomach while we walk in the hot sun. I glance over a few times at Kara’s bandaged arm, knowing that as soon as one of the orcs spots it, they’ll be demanding to know what’s under there.

Kara nudges me gently with her shoulder. “I’ll be okay.”

I try to give her a smile, wrapping my arm around her to pull her into a side hug.

“I love you, Kara. I hope you know that.”

She smiles brightly. “I know you do, sis. I’ve never doubted that.”

I let her go once we reach the entrance to the mines and leave her to go grab her a set of gear.

There isn’t too much that the orcs allow us to have down there in terms of protection, but at least we have hard hats and gloves. As for eye shields and masks that help us breathe through the dust, that part is up to us to make and provide.

When I walk back over, I wait for her to secure our breakfast into the small pouch at her hip before taking the gear out of my hands. I make sure that her gloves are buckled tightly at the base of her elbow. At least with these on, her bandage isn’t so obvious.

We get onto the elevator and take the rickety ride down.

My hands clutch the railings tight enough to make the joints in my hands ache the entire way down and I breathe out a sigh of relief as we finally reach the part of the mine our group had been assigned this morning to work on.

“Is it sad to say that I kind of missed it down here?” my sister jokes with me as we step off of the elevator.

I nod to the operator before turning back to her. “I love your sense of humor.”

She laughs, catching the attention of Broswin immediately. “Brockhurst! Get back to work!”

Both of us jolt and quickly head over to our section of the mineshaft. “Jeez, you weren’t kidding.” my sister mumbles to me. “He is in a bad mood.”

I grab my axe from where I’d propped it up before I left.

“I told you.”

Behind us, we hear Broswin begin to yell at another set of miners a few yards away from us. I look over to see where they are, noticing that it’s the Solange siblings that are now incurring the orc’s wrath.

“Hey, did you get the water rations yet?”

I turn back to look at my sister. “No, I forgot. Let me go grab them while Broswin’s distracted.”

Setting my axe down once more, I quickly jog around the other miners and over to the small lantern and cooler that have been placed at the mouth of the mineshaft.

Normally, our water breaks are broken up into five minute intervals between pairs—something that is surprisingly considerate given that we aren’t expected to provide the water ourselves. But I have a theory that the orcs only do this so that we aren’t dropping dead of dehydration every day.

It at least forces them to providesomethingto keep us alive.

I unhook my canteen from my waist and open the cooler to dip it into the fresh water inside, careful to use the handle on it and not let my dirty fingers dip into it by accident and contaminate the water any further than it already is.

I fill my canteen up completely and latch it back onto my hip before flipping the lid of the cooler closed once more.

“Brockhurst! What did I say about getting back to work!”

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