Treasure of the World by Tara Sullivan (free ebook reader txt) 📕

I know I need to drink, but my stomach still feels stretched with what I already had. And as for going to the bathroom, Yenni’s absolutely right—there’s no way I have enough water in me to be able to pee.

I shake my head.

“Okay. You can share our bed for tonight.” She points to where Santiago had sat while she cleaned me up.

And though there’s much to say, I find that all I have the strength for is to take the two steps across the room and collapse onto the bed, Daniel’s angel clutched to my chest.

I half wake to the sound of raised voices.

“Santiago!” A man’s voice, gravelly and powerful. Though I don’t open my eyes, I get the feeling that this is not someone I would like to be in trouble with. “Who is that? What’s going on?”

“Um . . .” I hear Santiago, sounding slightly panicked. Then Yenni’s smooth voice cuts in.

“This is Ana, Papi, the girl that went missing from the other side of the Cerro. She was trapped in a cave on the mountain, so we got some rope and pulled her out. She needed a place to rest, so we brought her here.”

“She needs to go back to where she came from.”

“Of course.” Yenni’s voice is soothing. “Don’t even worry about it. She’ll be gone before you get home tonight. Here, I’ve got your things all packed for the day. You’d better hurry. You don’t want to be late first thing on Monday morning, and I have to get going, too, to make it to the city on time.”

There’s a grunt and the sound of the door closing. I drift back to sleep.

When I wake again, it’s to bright midday sun hitting my face. I prop myself up on my elbows. I’m still in Yenni and Santiago’s bed, and I have a blanket wrapped tightly around me. I’m alone in the house.

I untwist myself from the heavy wool and struggle to my feet. When I stand up, my head swims, and I sit down again quickly, light-headed. After a few steadying breaths, I try again, more slowly this time. I shuffle outside, my knee twinging at every step. I find the ravine Yenni had mentioned and am delighted to discover that I’m able to produce a tiny trickle of urine. It’s really dark, but it means that my body has begun to process the water from last night.

Even though it’s only about ten steps back to the door of the house, when I reach it, I’m winded. I take a moment leaning against the doorway to catch my breath before I head in and sit on the bed again. I see someone has left a glass of water near where I was sleeping, and I drink it. I can slowly feel myself coming to life.

Sitting there, drifting in and out of sleep, I lose track of time—my brain is still not working very well—but eventually I hear Santiago in the distance. In minutes, he’s arrived, dusty and smiling and carrying a school satchel.

“You’re awake!” Santiago bounces over to me. “How are you feeling?”

“Better.” I smile at him without even thinking about it. “Thank you again for saving me. If you hadn’t found me in that cave, I’d be dead by now.”

Santiago beams, his wide smile showing off his buckteeth and the impressive gap between them.

“Can you walk?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say, feeling proud of myself.

“Good! Let’s get going.” He slings his satchel into a corner.

I wobble to my feet. “Where?”

A frown pulls Santiago’s eyebrows together. “Yenni said I needed to bring you to her before Papi gets home. She said if you woke up before school, I could walk you home, but that if you didn’t wake up until after school, I needed to help you get to her.”

Between my overall weakness and my hurt knee, I don’t know if I can manage a long walk. Also, it kills me that, if I have to put in the effort of walking, I can’t go home instead of to wherever Yenni is.

“Why can’t you take me home now?”

“Yenni said you live way the other side of the Cerro,” he says. “I wouldn’t be home on time and Papi would be mad at me. Besides, it would be dangerous walking in the dark when neither of us really knows the way.” He looks at me curiously. “Where do you live, exactly?” he asks.

“A little house off by itself. I’m about forty-five minutes downhill and an hour west of the El Rosario mine.”

Santiago’s face falls. He shakes his head. “That really is too far. It would take at least five hours to walk around the mountain to get you there.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I say. Even though I really wish things were different, I owe Santiago my life. I’m not going to ask him to do ten hours of walking and get him in trouble. I take a few more swallows of water to fuel me for what’s ahead. “Take me to Yenni. If you’re sure I can stay with her, I’ll find my way home from Potosí tomorrow morning when I can walk in daylight.”

“Great!” He grabs my hand and starts towing me toward the door.

I smile. I really do like Santiago. He’s so cheerful. So different from his dour father. I wonder what his mother is like.

“How far away is her work?” I grit my teeth against the discomfort of making my tired body move.

“Not too far,” says Santiago, pulling me forward with a smile, “and it’s all downhill. Come on!”

With a sigh, I follow him out the door.

12

Holding tight to Santiago’s hand, I descend the scree-lined slope, my knee complaining the whole way. It was so strange to look out of Santiago and Yenni’s house and see the crumpled brown rock blanket of the mountains stretching away into the distance instead of being able to see the city.