The sweltering heat dried up their throats. They tried to ration the water by regularly moistening the mouth without swallowing large sips, but the bucket contained only a few pints and it would be emptied very quickly.
Both physically and morally exhausted, they fell into an unhealthy lethargy from which they couldn’t escape. Even the rhythm of their breathing had slowed.
“Roland betrayed us.”
“Don’t say that, Bambino. He’ll get help and he’ll come back for us.”
“You know he’s not going to do that. He’ll just be happy to have escaped. He’ll go to the scrublands. Alone.”
“He’ll not abandon us.”
“He’s already abandoned us.”
Erma pushed on the stones of the walls, convinced that an old cottage like this would not hold up to a few well-placed shoves of the shoulders. But these walls ha
