/Much?/ What little, murky light crept through the slats in the wooden wagon they were trapped in got lost somewhere before hitting Worth's face, so he couldn't see her expression as they rattled and banged along the road. /It's not your fault./ "But I trusted him." the boy slammed his fist into the ground, glaring into the darkness. /You didn't know any better./ "He said he could give you your voice back. And I... I had to try." Worth was silent, waiting for him to continue. "So I betrayed her. I showed him where she lived, where /we/ lived." Ascar had told him he just wanted to be reunited with his sister, and Much had told himself that he believed him. (There was a little voice, deep inside, though... and unfortunately he ignored it.) The human boy swallowed, shaking his head to rid himself of the image of Maethor, in iron chains, being taunted. "I knew I would find you." Ascar had said. "The boy led me right to you. Isn't that right?" Much hadn't been able to meet Maethor's gaze so he stared at the floor instead, at the little cracks running along the edge of the roof that they were standing on. He wished they would expand and swallow him whole. "As for you two," Ascar had kicked Worth in the ribs, sending the already-shackled girl to the ground. "It's the Ender's cart for you. You're not worth enough to be sold in the market." All children in Dust City feared the Ender, who rode in the moonlight to collect his dues, black cloak billowing behind him (it?), clinging to his thin shoulders like a shred of night. When Much was small, his father, Eirik, used to whisper to him to be a good boy, or he'd give him to the Ender. Not to cry, or he'd be given to the Ender. In fact, Eirik's final words to his children, shouted drunkenly as the man lurched on the doorstep, empty rum bottle in his hand, had been, "Get out, and Ender take you both!" Much shuddered, Worth's hand on his shoulder bringing him back to the present. /We're in this together, Much./ she reminded him. He stared bitterly back. "We're at the end of the world, Worth. The end of the world. Itari save us now." ~~~ So Ends Book One (I feel like I owe you guys (not sure if I have any readers left at this point) an apology- no chapter for a third of a year. Scratch hasn't been loading for me, life has been busy, and I've had the dreaded Block *audience gasp*. I promise I'll try to do better, and try to make the abridged version I post on here make sense. It's going to be a while since the second book isn't done yet. Thank you guys for bearing with me and I promise the story only gets better from here)
