Luisa opened her eyes, she did not recall closing them.

She looked at Clearwater, asleep, her room lit by a single flickering candle. 

That was weird. 

Her rucksack was next to her. She rolled off the bed. 

Cataindar felt different to her.

Why didn’t they just tell me?

Putting her rucksack on she crept into the black corridor.  Following instinct more than anything else she guided herself in the dark towards the room where Thorne was being tended to.  Finally, she could see the candlelight framing the door and approached it silently.

She heard a quiet murmur of voices.

She put her ear to the door, and although she could not make out individual words, she could hear urgent whispers inside.

Strange.

 She pushed open the door to the white room. Chopland and a robed catain of the readers were inside, with Thorne laying motionless in the centre of the room.  The robed catain jumped at the noise, pulling a short blade from a scabbard on his waistband.

An armed reader?

Seeing Luisa he quickly secured his blade and bowed, his face showed he had been caught out, in what exactly was the question.  Chopland looked cold, her face a grim mask.  She stayed too still.

What was going on? 

“Who are you?” Luisa said to the robed catain, although she could see by his tunic he was a very junior reader.  He swallowed hard and spoke softly. 

“My name is Garner princess.  I am a reader.”

Luisa folded her arms.  “I can see that. What are you doing in here?”

Garner looked down and swallowed again before looking at Chopland. 

Chopland cleared her throat with an impatient smile said,

“Princess, dear Garner here, was seeking medical aid.  He has a severe cut on his arm and, as I am chair of the committee of volunteer medics, I was helping Dr. Carnduff.  Would you rather he bleed to death like Thorne over there?” 

Garner raised his bandaged arm with an apologetic half smile.

“Oh, I...” Luisa began to say, though something did not feel right, she looked down at Thorne and touched her arm.  Through her clammy fur her skin was cold.  The bandages around her middle were caked black with blood and smelt of a strong metallic tang.  She put her hand on Thorne’s chest; her heart beat soft and slow. A righteous stab in Luisa’s chest made her change her thought,

“So if you are covering for Dr. Carnduff… why haven’t you changed Thorne’s bandages?”

It was Chopland’s turn to look uncomfortable.  Luisa thought it better to act quickly before allowing Chopland to come up with more excuses.  She took off her rucksack and spoke quickly.     

“Both of you get out.  Chopland go and get Clearwater and Dr. Carnduff, bring them here right away.  You obviously need a rest.  Me and Clearwater will look after Thorne tonight, and we will get some different volunteers to tend for her from now on. It seems to me you can go back to the kitchens. I’ve been informed by Finn that the contravention will soon be over and Cataindar is starving. You have much work to do.

Chopland’s jaw dropped open for a moment, it was the first time Luisa had seen her speechless. Chopland quickly composed herself, and with the same smile began her reply.

“Princ…”

Luisa interrupted, with a flash of anger.

“Chopland.  Just do what I say. Go!”

Chopland took off her apron flung it on the chair and tottered out with a scowl, Garner followed her out facing Luisa to bow again before leaving.  His face looked grave.

Luisa peeled off Thorne’s bandages, the long stitched wound was covered in pus. It sickened Luisa to see the thick stitches going in and out of her stomach.  She took out the antiseptic bottle from her bag and some clean gauze.  After cleaning the wound as best she could she dressed it with a large sterile pad.  She did the same to the wound on Thorne’s leg.  It looked much better, at least to Luisa’s untrained eye.  She hoped it would help.

Clearwater entered.  Luisa ran to her and gave her a big hug, as she squeezed Luisa could feel Clearwater’s ribs, she had lost weight.

After letting her go Clearwater saw Thorne,

“Oh Dragons,” she whispered “Poor, poor Thorne.” She touched her gently, with reverence, as if touching an artefact. “Princess it must be so awful above.  The scougers are our true heroes.”   

Luisa and Clearwater sat down, waiting for Dr. Carduff.  Luisa noticed Clearwater looking at the rucksack she had brought.

“Help yourself, if you can eat, there is food inside.”

Clearwater inspected the zip, and smirked at the sound as she pulled it open.

“Oh Luisa, this invention is amazing.”

“Yeah.” Luisa said despondently with her head resting between her hands. 

Inside Clearwater’s paws pulled up the plastic bag that contained the apples and potatoes.  She took one of each and held them up to Luisa with a quizzical look.

“Eat the apple Clearwater… the green one.”

Clearwater bit into it and made a sour face.  She sniffed the potato instead and bit into it. 

“Delicious,” she said, mouth full.

Luisa shook her head and despite the morbid situation smiled to herself, Clearwater could always make her smile.

Before Clearwater could take another bite they heard a blood-curdling scream in the distance.  Luisa jumped up, the scream had shot through her like a bolt,

“Clearwater stay here, I’m… going to see what it is.”

“Princess,” Clearwater swallowed. “I think I should come with you.”

Luisa didn’t really want to go back in the dark corridors alone,

“Maybe that isn’t a bad idea.”

Luisa blew out the candle, she whispered in Thorne’s ear, “We will come back Thorne, just rest.” and they edged towards the door.  

Luisa took Clearwater’s paw in her hand as they made their way forward deeper into the corridor.

Luisa felt her hand sweat, what if it was ratains that had made it into Cataindar’s tunnels?

In the pitch black Luisa’s mind conjured up images of huge faceless creatures charging towards her.  She gripped Clearwater’s paw tightly.

“It came from this way Princess.”

They walked forward.  Clearwater suddenly stopped. 

“Princess do you hear that?”

Luisa strained her ears, she could hear nothing.

Clearwater’s ears and nose twitched.

“This way princess,” Clearwater said letting go of Luisa’s hand and breaking into a run.

“Oh bloody hell,” murmured Luisa as they ran through the darkened corridors. They pushed through some heavy glass doors, they were on the edge of the scouger’s area, that bordered with that of the reader’s. The contravention was still in full effect. No guards. No catains. They travelled down the corridor, at the end Luisa could see the brass piping framing glass doors in the gloom. They were in the reader’s quarters! They could see a flickering dim light at the far end of the corridor, she could smell smoke.

Luisa and Clearwater crept to the end of the corridor, breathing hard they peeked around its bend.

Clearwater’s paw found her hand and gripped Luisa’s tightly,

“Princess! Look!”

 --

Hello everyone!

Wow - this week has been an amazing week for Cataindar! Yesterday it hit the big 10K and 1K votes and today it just hit #19 in Action and #32 in Fantasy and... drumroll... is #3 on the Action/Fantasy Hotlist!! 

A book is only as big as the people that read it. So big love out there for everyone that has stopped by, read, voted and commented. Thank you to everyone that has been recommending Cataindar on your pages and in your stories - that is huge! There is much more Catain action to come;  we have just hit the half way point in Cataindar...  :-)!

Also some big mile stones for some of my amazing friends here too... @_Ahna_'s amazing The Fates is just about to hit 20K and is sitting at #26 on the Fantasy/Adventure Hotlist.

@JayVictor's excellent, dystopian fantasy also joined the 10K club this week and right now is sitting at #11 on the Adventure/Fantasy hotlist, and @SarahBensonBooks wonderful Born of Shadow is at #10 on the Adventure/Fantasy hotlist too.

Now... Let us get back to the dark corridors of Cataindar. Click that star and read on...