I can't believe how LONG ago I started to write this. I think it was in the first year I joined OWF, which is fairly scary... *eeks*
Anyway. Just tying off loose ends on this chapter - every now and then I manage to elbow the Kiravai and Nyen and Vuls out of the way and write a little more of it, and maybe things will get moving again soon. :P
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Keff turned to Jan; “Go see if there’s anything in the bathroom we could use,” he said, softly.
“What am I looking for-?”
“Use yer imagination,” Keff growled, softly. “Odd blessed yer with a brain, didn’ he?”
Mildly chagrined, Jan scuttled obediently away, through the small door to the latrine facilities. He still wasn’t sure what it was that Keff was meaning, but guessed – hoped – he wanted something to clean up the scratches and bruises on Aura’s skinny body. It hadn’t escaped any of their notice that in spite of the fact Management were feeding her and looking after her fairly reasonably, she was growing skinny, gaunt-looking. Jan wasn’t sure if emotional stress did the same to sligs as it could do to mudokons, but she certainly looked smaller than last time he’d seen her. Hell, not just smaller, she looked broken since he’d last seen her, all those weeks ago; he’d kept her as uppermost in his mind as he’d been able to, and from the vibrant, vigorous, argumentative youth he’d accompanied away from Khufa she’d become a husk. Shrunken, battered, skinny, aged prematurely by abuse and bad food.
There wasn’t much through here that was steal-able, Jan found; most was at best bolted down and at worst far too heavy, but then the room was sparse anyway, little more than the bath, the latrine, a wall-mounted heater and a tiny cupboard close to the ground. He snatched up everything that was loose and looked like it’d do – soap, painkillers, antiseptic, a reel of old bandages and a tin of plasters, and hoped it’d do. The only other cupboard was locked – it looked like a medicine cabinet, but there was something written on it in unintelligible Vykker handwriting and he doubted any contents would be helpful. He just hoped it wasn’t something they were using on Aura, because she wouldn’t be getting it shortly if it was…
While Jan gathered supplies, Lar tended to Aura.
Keff leaned closer to his underling, and asked, softly; “well?”
“Alive,” Lar confirmed, quietly. “But not looking too good., ‘specially not after what she used to look like. Her mind’s probably took the worst of it.”
“Like the last one?”
“Yeah, boss. Mind you - least she ain’t dead.”
Keff watched as Lar took Aura’s small hand, and checked her pulse; reedy and shocked, but it was there. “Do you think she’s, eh…”
“No, boss, she ain’t pregnant,” Lar intuited Keff’s question. “They probably got her on hormones to keep her that way. Don’t want no unsuitable males causin’ problems before they got the breeding program up an’ runnin’, right?” He carefully eased Aurora up off the mattress, into his arms. “Hey… hey there… can you hear me, sweetheart?”
Aura just lay there in his arms, unresisting, her head slumped backwards and her hands trailing by her sides. “Just get on with it,” she told Lar, faintly. “The sooner you get your fun, the sooner I can get some kip…” her eyelids fluttered, and her eyes closed. “Some nice sleep, all for me..”
“Hey, c’mon, kid…” he gave her a gentle shake and her eyes reopened, briefly. “We’re here to get you out. And away. Like you wanted.”
She managed a tired smile. “That’s what the last one what shot his rival said, an’ all… Seemed to think it was fun, seeing me get all hopeful, like that…”
Over by the door, Keff turned his attention to Jan. “Got much?”
The young mudokon shook his head, tightly, a bundle of tied towel slung over his shoulder. “Soap, painkillers. That’s about all there was.”
“It’ll do. Lar?”
“She’s okay to move,” Lar agreed, curtly, rounding the bed with her in his arms. “Here, you best take her, kid…”
“I can’t carry her, I’ve already got-” Jan complained, briefly, but Lar had already pushed her closer and he took her anyway. “I feel like the pack-elum.”
Lar took the bundle of towel off his shoulder, as an exchange, with a tired glare. “Happier?” he asked, darkly. “I got to be the advance guard too, remember? Can’t very well carry heavy arms and her too.”
“All right, all right,” Keff growled and gestured toward the door. “Let’s get on. There could be any number of guards comin’ chasing after Lar’s gunshots.”
Lar had already gone to the door. “Coast’s clear, boss,” he pointed out.
Keff gave Jan a gentle push from one broad handfoot, toward the door. “Then let’s go.”
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