"I don't care," I lied. I just wished I didn't care. I'm very good at holding grudges, though I always found it so hard to stay angry with Josef.
"When he woke and you weren't there, he ran off to look for you," Isen said relentless.
"Let's hope he found a hole to fall into," I said. I can be quite relentless myself when I want. And also a massive bitch.
"I don't know what you two said to each other last night," Isen said. "You might have protection from Prig, but Josef isn't protected from Lurgo, and that pig-tickler is a bastard of a foreman, too." There was true concern in his voice.
"Has he ever killed a scab?" I asked.
"No," Hardt said, his voice a low rumble. "Just likes to beat on them with that little club of his."
"Well, maybe Josef deserves a beating or two. I've got more important things to discuss with you." I lowered my voice. There were plenty of other scabs nearby, some even looking our way, and I didn't want them overhearing. "What if I had a way out of here?"
It has been my experience that there are two ways to get a man's attention. The first is to show them tits, and the second is to show them coins. Down in the Pit, things were a little different. Food was better than any amount of coin, and talk of freedom demanded attention, and the brothers already knew to take me seriously.
"No one has ever escaped the Pit," Isen said. "Everyone knows that. Heard it often enough, even when we were at sea. The other sailors used to say it as a sort of warning to us, uh, gentlemen of fortune."
Hardt nodded. "Deko and his thugs run this place, and even they know they'll never see sunlight again. The Terrelan army puts people down here to forget about them."
I grinned at them both, though it quickly turned to a wince as the wound on my cheek gave a twinge. "They put Josef and I down here to show us the error of our ways. The overseer has spent the last..." I tried to remember how long I'd been underground. Too fucking long. "Months trying to turn us."
"Well, that's good for you." Isen sounded less than pleased. "I don't think he'd be willing to let us tag along."
"I turned him down," I said. "Repeatedly. Seems yesterday he took the hint. That's why I needed Deko's protection from Prig. The overseer has given up on me."
"You have another way out?" Hardt asked.
I explained it to them. I told them about the crack, and Tamura, and the wind gusting in from above. I expected them to jump at the opportunity, to rush off and help me. Instead they looked sceptical.
"Fourteen levels above," Isen said once I had finished. "Fourteen levels of rock. That's a lot of fucking rock."
"But there's a crack..." My voice was a quiet hiss.
"A crack..." Hardt repeated. "I won't fit through a crack. You won't even fit through a crack, and you're tiny."
"So, we widen it," I said.
"With what?" Hardt sounded like he was entertaining the foolish whims of a child and I hated him for it.
I glanced around to make certain no one else was close enough to hear. "I stole a pick. We could steal more."
"And then what?" Isen asked.
"We dig," I said, incredulous the brothers were still not getting it. "Widen the fucking crack so we can fit through."
The younger brother let out an exasperated sigh. "I spend all day digging..."
"So, you'll be real fucking good at it," I hissed.
Hardt was shaking his head again. "Even if we did. It could take years."
I shrugged, and then clutched at my rib as a twinge of pain lanced through me. "Do you have something better to do with your time? Maybe another plan that will get us out?"
They were running out of arguments.
"Tamura is crazy as a two-headed bat." Isen's last ditch attempt to naysay me.
"I'm sure people said that about a scab who walked into the middle of the Hill all alone." I paused and tried out another painful smile. "I hear she came out of it alright."
The brothers shared a look and Isen shrugged. I soon came to realise that Isen almost always deferred to Hardt's judgement. It was obvious the older of the two was in charge.
"Freedom is rarely free," Hardt said. "I guess we could put in a bit of work to earn it. Wouldn't mind sleeping in a real bed again."
"A pint of ale would be nice," Isen agreed.
"A meal that isn't half blue and furry."
"Bury my face in a pair of tits." Isen froze and looked at me for the first time since we hugged back at the Trough. "Sorry."
I'd like to say the thought of Isen face deep in a pair of breasts didn't bother me. He'd certainly never have managed it with mine. However, I felt a strange pang of jealousy over the idea. I covered it with false indifference.
"Don't apologise. I'm sure a nice big pair would make for a comfortable pillow." There was more of an edge to my voice than I intended and the silence that fell across us was awkward and uncomfortable. It was a fucking stupid thing to say. Luckily, Hardt was there to break the tension.
"The least we can do is go and take a look," he said. "What about Josef?"
"I'll tell him about it next time I see him."
I didn't.
Chapter 16
Time's slow advance waged on. I didn't know it at the time, but the new year rolled around while we were underground. Year six hundred and twelve on the Orran calendar, not that the Orran calendar existed anymore. The year of the Blind Hammer Crab. I have no idea who named the years on our calendar, but they were certainly inventive. A hammer crab is a wonderful little beasty able to pulverise bones with a single punch of its claws. I can only imagine a blind hammer crab would be a true menace for all its underwater brethren.
Maybe I should have noticed a change in the temperature, the weather growing colder as the seasons moved onward, but deep down in the Pit, even the most severe changes were muted. You might think the deeper underground you dig, the colder it gets, away from the warmth of the sun. It's quite the opposite. In the bowels of the Pit was where it was warmest. Some of the deeper tunnels even filled with steam from time to time. Rather than feel the chill of winter, it was often uncomfortably warm and cloying down there.
For two weeks Isen, Hardt, myself, and Tamura all worked at the crack. We took it in turns, in groups of two. One person watching the intersection while the other hacked away to increase the size of the crack. I was always watching the intersection. I hated making the others do all the hard work, but I could barely lift the pick with my rib still healing, let alone swing it at something overhead. It galled me to feel so fucking useless, but I had to leave the labour to the men this time.
There was a strange tension between Tamura and the brothers. It went deeper than their inability to understand most of what he said. I was starting to get a grip of his madness, and even I found myself lost half of the time. But Hardt didn't entirely trust Tamura, and if Hardt didn't trust the old man, neither did Isen. I was not very good at fostering trust between them and at the time, I didn't care. As long as they continued to work together, as long as the digging was done, they could outright hate each other and I'd be happy enough.