SECOND SKIN If you love Fourth Wing then discover this enthralling fantasy novel by Bentley Sue

Author:Bentley, Sue
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books Fantasy & Science Fiction, A Joffe Books Company
Published: 2024-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

The chain around Aledra’s neck chafed as she and Jubal wielded their bone picks while other workers dug out the loosened soil. She ached all over and her hands were blistered, but she was better off than most. The slavers had not been fussy; many of those on the earthworks were old and sick, others little more than children. The work was backbreaking and unremitting. Anyone who could not keep up was left to lie where they fell. Often as not, when they were dragged away it was too late.

On the way here, she’d managed to get a few moments alone with the big Drakkoni who had been at the trading post, hoping to bargain for their escape. But he’d laughed, cutting her off mid-sentence. ‘Drakkoni? With those scalp-locks and this toy bow and arrows? Good try — for a skark!’

He’d broken her beautiful bow and stamped the arrows into the mud, while she gaped in distress. The shell she’d found in the river with its interior of mother-of-pearl, met the same fate. It had been Drale River’s totem, real to her despite its actuality being built on lies. She’d have leaped at the slaver if she hadn’t been chained. Would it have made any difference if he’d believed she was Drakkoni? She thought not. There were many of them working here, kept in firstskin by charmed chains. Jubal didn’t know of her hurried conversation with the slaver, so remained unaware of her true persona. This was not the time to tell him; they needed to be united in purpose if they were to survive.

On the great slopes that loomed high above them, hundreds of workers crawled. Digging, earth-grubbing and stone-carrying they shored up the walls of the new defences encircling Brakeford Castle. Seamed and layered in colours of ochre, sienna, umber were the earthworks, and those who battled to construct it were coloured the same. One morning after they’d been at the earthworks for almost two weeks, a voice rang out.

‘You. Over here!’

Aledra watched in dismay as Jubal was singled out for a work party.

‘Keep your head down. Do nothing to bring attention to yourself,’ she whispered.

‘I will not,’ he promised. ‘You do the same, my brother. Until I return.’

Coldness gripped her hearts as he was marched away. What if she never saw him again? She stared after him until the work party faded from sight. He had to return. She could face anything as long they were together.

Fear for him was a haunting presence throughout that day. People disappeared all the time. At first she’d noted the faces of those who toiled beside them. She’d smile, exchange a word here, but the faces changed so often she’d stopped looking. It hurt too much to keep losing people and to be reminded that life here was cheap. It was a miracle that she and Jubal remained uninjured and fit to work. But for how much longer? The earthworks were a harsh mistress demanding the sacrifice of too many lives in her construction.

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