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“I have to go to town,” Lana said finally. “I can’t seem to cure the flu thing. So much for being the Healer. But I can at least deal with the usual broken bones and burns and so on.”
“Of course,” Sanjit said and stood up. “I’ll let you go.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t come with me,” Lana practically snarled.
Sanjit suppressed the smile that wanted badly to break out across his face. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Chapter Seventeen
33 HOURS, 14 MINUTES
“DEKKA. WAKE UP.”
Her eyes opened. She blinked up at Sam. It was full daylight. Not even early morning, later. She had slept a long time.
A sharp intake of breath. She jumped up and began patting her body, probing, pushing, feeling for anything that shouldn’t be there.
The divot in her shoulder burned like fire.
Her stomach growled. Her feet ached. Her scraped shins hurt. So did her back from sleeping on a rock.
“I hurt all over,” Dekka said.
Sam looked concerned.
“I mean, that’s good. Hunter couldn’t feel much of anything, right?”
Sam nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. So I guess burning a hole in you was actually a good thing?”
“Not quite ready to find that funny, Sam. Where’s Jack?”
Sam pointed toward the top of a hill. They were in a very dry and empty place. The hill wasn’t much more than two hundred feet high and was more of a dirt mound than a mountain.
Jack was at the top, shading his eyes and looking to the northeast.
“What do you see?” Sam yelled to him.
“There’s a place over that way that looks like it’s all burned.”
Sam nodded. “Yeah. The hermit’s shack. What else?”
“Bunch of rugged-looking hills, all rocky and stuff,” Jack yelled. He started to climb down but the dirt was loose, so he slid and slipped and fell. Then he stood up again and jumped.
He jumped thirty feet and landed very near Sam.
“Dude,” Sam said.
“Huh,” Jack said. “I never realized I could do that.”
“There might be other ways you can use that strength, too,” Sam said.
“I wish I could use it to find some water.”
“Dekka, what do you think? We climb those mountains or go through the burned zone?”
“I kind of hate climbing.”
“The mine shaft isn’t too far from the shack,” Sam pointed out.
