“These men have all traveled the railroad like you,” the guide told Thal when he’d reached the shelf. “They will take you to your next stop.”
Thal looked around at the three dirty faces surrounding him. One of the men, a tall, bony guy with curly red hair and a beard to his chest, looked familiar.
“Are you going, too?” Thal said to the guide. Though he’d never gotten a clear look at his face under the hood of the cloak, and the two of them had hardly said a word to each other the whole trip, Thal felt comfortable following the guide and wanted him to go the rest of the way.
“Good luck,” said the guide, and then he scaled the rungs in the wall and disappeared back into the tunnel.
“So,” said the red-haired man. “We’d better get moving. We’ve got a long way to travel tonight.”
Thal
