61 - Muddy to the Ends of Their Hair

Verpiccaus set to cline the tiny area defined by Ky. That much mud he could handle at his level of training. It sublimated even as Ky went deeper into the tube they were cutting into the mud, water steamed away, evaporating, flowing out from under, the mud became dry dirt, then dust, then blew away completely.

Ilax and Kyrus were working together as if they’d done it all their lives, both of them holding nothing in their hands but air as they carved square blocks out of the side of the mound. A dozen people took the solid bricks they were cutting and hauled them away. Four other air holes were being driven down, to try and reach the survivors, Ky was only vaguely aware, his attention entirely on his own task. Air, they need air, they need air... was the refrain in his head, echoed by the tightness in his own chest.

A long, hot, sweltering time later, Ky’s tool hit something more solid than mud and his cut stopped because it was unexpected -- cutting earth not wood. He dropped to his knees and pounded his stick down against the wood blocking him and was rewarded with a banging from inside and a muffled shout.

“Stand BACK!” he yelled into the hole and drew back. 

“Verpiccaus? Do you have a small enough piece of the wood down there for you to work?”

Ver, his normally petulant face drawn white and exhausted, nodded shortly and pulled in a deep breath. Ky got up, staggering and moved back. Franghad was just as ghastly, pale skin covered with splotches.

“Here, children... rest...” One of the Milari, someone he knew came to take the pole out of his hands and he barely remembered to let go the idea of cutting before it hurt someone and it became mere wood once more. Another Bey came to help Verpiccaus and a See came to make the hole they’d bored into the mud more stable. “They’re through! They’ve got air!”

“Go on over to sit, youngster. You need water and some rest... you can come back in a bit. Good work.”

Someone had set up a place for diggers and manders and cliners to rest. “I wish we had the great manders,” Franghad said, shivering and wrapping her hands around a cup of tea. “They would just have lifted the whole slide and dropped it in a valley somewhere.”

“That’s just a feathered dragon story,” Verpiccaus said from where he was lying flat on the ground, just breathing. "It was probably some person moving a boulder and the tale grew in the telling."

Someone called from the digging. “There are three classrooms... and the private lessons people... we haven’t gotten through to everyone yet but we think they’re all right.”

“Oh good,” Ky said, tiredly. “Oh good.” Franghad burst into tears of relief, water cutting tracks on her dirty face.

Haraklez staggered over and collapsed next to them. “I don’t know where Maks is. Ilia’s down there, but she’s all right.”

“He’s probably in a different section of the building.”

“Yes.” She looked at him and at the toiling people who had not yet come to the limits of their strength, people coming up to take their places. Ilax and Kyrus still working. “So, Ky. That man on the mountain... you know him. Who is he?”

Ky rubbed hands over his face. Even though he didn’t feel so naked as he used to without the veil, he wished for it desperately, even as the muck flaked off. “I...” he looked over where the two were finally giving over to another pair of men who continued their tunnel burrowing into the mudslide toward the biggest group of survivors.

“...um...”

Both Ilax and Kyrus accepted water and then tea... and sank down next to the group of children. Ky swallowed and took another deep drink of water. “I... can’t answer you, Haraklez. I...”

“Good work, children,” Ilax said quietly as he settled down, interrupting Ky. “Very very good work. People have air and we’re getting close to getting everyone out." He gathered Haraklez under one muddy arm. Ky thought he should be grown up about things, but his father gathered him in a hug under one arm anyway, without asking.

Werfas’s mother sat down beside them as well. “We’re getting there. We need to get our strength back and get back to it.”

“Yes, Zazh,” Ilax said quietly. “We’ll be on our feet again in a moment or two. I know, you have...” He was silenced by a tense, hissing argument between the Rumon and the Nadumarian who ended up throwing off both their robes at once. Ilax started up, obviously afraid they had come to some kind of breaking argument, but rather than drawing their weapons they clasped hands and wrists, as stiff and bristling as if a strange dog and a wild cat were asked to sit together.

Ilax rose all the way to his feet with more calm. “I’ll be right back, Hara.”

“Sure, Pa.”

“What are they doing?” Ky whispered to Kyrus. “Do you know?”

Haraklez looked back at them, moved to sit next to Ky. I shall die of mud-covered embarrassment, except my father surely knows about this girl. He suddenly felt her warm weight leaning against him on the one side, and his father’s arm around him from the other was the most right thing in the world.

“It looks like the two ambassadors have some skill that might help us, if they can set their differences aside. Pa is going to try and smooth things out.”

The three people stood in a quiet circle, speaking low enough that Ky couldn’t hear a thing. He thought he could tell the problem, the Nadumarian kept crossing his arms and standing tall as if he could actually get taller than the Rumon woman, who overtopped him by a bare three fingers. She and Ilax were both waving their arms around at the disaster... people trying to get up to help too soon, someone carried off the slide, fainting.

Everyone was the same colour the same texture, all coated in mud. Everyone who was not muddy to the ends of their hair were only so because they’d gotten clean to make drinkable tea and were working on a clean broth that would be hopefully needed to combat shock and give diggers and workers some of their energy back. The mud slide had made everyone the same.

It was a long moment before Ilax touched the Rumon on the shoulder and she dropped her hands, but not in frustration, just letting him do his job. The surdeniliarch pointed out another of his people who had collapsed and was being carried away. His hand indicated the whole extent of the slide... the number of people available to provide rescue. The Nadumarian finally relented.

“Everyone pull back! Get down!” Ilax shouted and the cry was passed on up the slide. People looked up, startled but moved off onto solid ground when his call was repeated. 

“We’re going to try something.” It was obvious, but people liked to hear their thought confirmed.

“Oh, my.” Kyrus said, his voice a rumble in Ky’s ear. “It looks like we might have everyone out in a few minutes if they can get that to work.”