Read Online Mystic by Jason Denzel - Free Book Online

on the wall of a small alcove, propped up in odd ways with smaller boards as if somebody had tried to hastily repair them. Inside, a cluster of ragged men and women huddled closely together, clutching one another. They wore torn shirts and filthy pants. Each man wore a long, scraggly beard that clearly hadn’t seen a razor in many years. Pomella’s hands shook. All of their heads were shaved.
    Unclaimed.
    â€œOh, shite,” Sim whispered.
    Not speaking a word, each man and woman dropped to their knees and placed their forehead on the cavern floor. Pomella fought the urge to flee. She found herself taking half a step backward. She’d never actually seen one of the Unclaimed before. Her mind boggled as she imagined the terrible crimes each of these people must’ve committed. You couldn’t be born Unclaimed. Even the rare child born to an Unclaimed woman was taken away and given to commoners to raise.
    â€œMercy, Lord,” one of the women said. “Mercy, Lady.” To the Unclaimed, everyone was a lord or lady, even commoners like Pomella and Sim.
    Sim backed away from them, keeping his sword raised. “I think we should leave,” he said.
    Pomella agreed, but a new thought stopped her. Maybe these men and women hadn’t committed a crime. Or perhaps their crime had been something as simple as leaving their barony without their baron’s permission. She stared at the dirty figures with a new, horrifying revelation.
    This was what she could soon become.
    â€œWhy are you here?” she found herself saying. She hadn’t expected to speak the thought out loud.
    One of the men spoke without lifting his head. “Shelter. Not fit to be looked at.”
    Sim took Pomella by the arm and pulled her away. “Come on. We can’t do anything for them.”
    Pomella let him lead her away, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the disheveled men and women prostrated before her. Each lacked a name, and a place in the world.
    Sim moved ahead to shuffle through the chamber’s wreckage. Pomella continued to stare at the Unclaimed. Her foot caught on something, and she jumped back.
    A dull gray shaft protruded from beneath the chamber’s smashed table. At first Pomella thought it might be some kind of thin, dead tree branch, but then she realized what it was. A bone. Piled atop more bones.
    Pomella swallowed. “Sim?”
    She turned to see Sim gathering long planks of wood from the table.
    â€œWe can use this as a ladder,” he said. “Let’s go.”
    Pomella leaped to help, silently thanking Sim for having the presence of mind to figure out a solution. She helped him lift the wood, and together they exited the chamber from the way they’d come in. Pomella gave one last glance at the Unclaimed, who still remained prostrated.
    Working around the old bones, she and Sim stacked as many planks of wood as they could and struggled back up the tunnel. Managing the uphill slope proved to be a challenge, as the runoff from the rain slickened the terrain. Both of them fell at different times, and Pomella cut her ankle on the side of one of the stone steps.
    At last they made it back to the open pit. The rain pounded harder than before, filling the hole with deep puddles. Water cascaded over the edges above. Pomella inhaled deeply, relishing the fresh air. It cleared her mind, washing it free of the dark thoughts the Unclaimed had brought forth. Still, despite the clean air, she was beginning to really dislike the constant rain.
    â€œYou should climb out,” Sim said, wiping water from his brow. “You’re lighter than me, and I can help steady the boards.”
    Pomella tilted her head back, feeling unsure about the slippery twenty-foot climb.
    â€œI don’t know, Sim. I’m not very good at—”
    â€œPomella,” Sim said, his voice sincere. “‘ Don’t let me give in, ’ right?”
    The rain splattered on her face.