Chapter 5
Fingers tapped his elbow. Selati glanced at Tahahi, who jerked his chin up, white eyes locked on the exit of the mine. “Now,” Tahahi breathed.
All ten of them shifted over to the baskets. Six crude picks rested heads down and four good sized rocks were tucked in the bottoms. Jawidi pulled the picks out and passed them off to the biggest of them, but when he tried to hand one over to Selati, he shook his head and pointed at Nausai. Jawidi didn’t ask questions.
Selati stooped, keeping the groan of pain stuffed down, and retrieved two of the heavy rocks. One he handed over to Tahahi and the other he tucked close to his chest. Tahahi budged up under Selati’s arm on his good side, wrapping an arm around Selati’s ribs and copying Selati with his own rock, kept in the upward curl of his free arm.