Kre stopped in his tracks and he felt Kitalia’s hand leave his arm suddenly. She took two additional steps before stopping. “Where did you go?” she asked angrily.
“I’m sorry,” he replied, and actually meant it. He waved his hand out in front of him and somehow found her hand in the darkness. “I just… what did you mean, she’s hunting me?”
She tightened her grip, causing a squeak of protest from Kre, and pulled him along as they marched slowly down into the unknown. “I believe the statement is pretty self-explanatory. Red wants you. Why? I do not know, so please refrain from asking.”
“That doesn’t make any sense…” he muttered. “Why me?”
“I said not to bother asking. I gave up trying to understand Red and her motives. She has always been useful to me and I to her, so ours was always a business relationship. This though… this seems like a personal thing she has. Pure emotion. She has never operated like that before. Not in the years I have known her.”
“How long have you known her?”
“Admittedly, not more than two years. She was referred to me once I started to wander through this part of the land and knew that I might need some aid from time to time.”
“What sort of business do you engage in, exactly?” This was a question that he had always been hesitant to ask. He just wasn’t sure if it was because he was afraid of upsetting her or because he was afraid of the answer he might get, but he did know that the common theme here was fear. Here in the darkness though, the fear of such a question seemed small by comparison.
“I have been wondering when you would get around to asking me that,” she said, almost chuckling.
“I think I asked before, just not directly.”
He wasn’t sure, but he felt like she might have squeezed his hand once. Maybe as a sign of solidarity or as a gesture of comfort.
It took him about four of their slow, tentative steps before he realized that she had deflected the question yet again.
“So, what work were you doing for Red this last time?”
“That is not important right now,” Kitalia said, trying to reassure him. “What is important is that we…”
She stopped mid-sentence as her foot stepped down onto a hard stone, causing a loud clack to echo around them.
“Rock,” Kre said, kneeling down and feeling it with his hands. “Very smooth.”
“Odd,” Kit murmured, yet still pulling him along. With a hard, flat surface underfoot, they made better time than they had when it was uneven piles of dirt and clay.
Another thirty steps or so and they came to a stop. “No…” Her whisper was barely more than an exhale. “No, this cannot… no…”
With their hands still linked, Kre could feel Kitalia’s hand start to tremble slightly. “What’s wrong? Are you cold?” he asked her.
She gave no response but simply remained perfectly still.
“Kit,” Kre probed again, concern growing. “Is everything okay?” He took a step forward and felt with his free arm in front of him and stopped when his hand rested against a flat vertical surface. He ran his fingers up and down, feeling cracks and seams spaced pretty evenly apart every few inches. “Feels like a brick wall,” he commented.