Free Valor's Trial by Tanya Huff

crack in the wall. Pools at the floor.”
    Torin shuffled forward cautiously. Her outstretched fingers touched moisture. The actual dribble was a little to the right. She followed it down to a shallow pool that seemed no bigger than her two cupped hands. “There’s not much here.”
    â€œIt’s steady. Been here lots of times and always water there.” The water was his, and he was proud of it. “You can drink.”
    She’d feel a little better if she could have put it in her canteen first—any parasite or bacteria that survived the protections the Corps built into their canteens deserved a chance at the inside of a Marine— but her canteen had disappeared along with ninety percent of the rest of her gear. One hand braced against the wall, she lowered her head toward the ground, pursed her lips, and touched them to the water.
    It was lukewarm.
    And tasted slightly metallic.
    Odds were high it was a cracked pipe rather than a natural spring.
    The tunnels clearly continued on beyond the rockfall. Torin wondered if the Corps did.
    Kyster was right; it didn’t take long for the puddle—pool, she decided, was too grand a description—to refill. She emptied it three times and then moved back out of the way.
    â€œHow far to Colonel Harnett’s pipe,” she asked as Kyster drank.
    His swallow sounded unnaturally loud. “Day.”
    â€œAnd this is the closest water?”
    â€œ Only other water, Gunny. This. His at the pipe.”
    She settled with her back against a relatively smooth rock. “How did you find it?”
    â€œRunning from hunting party . . .”
    Running and hiding, Torin filled into the pause. She could hear the detail in the way his voice had quavered slightly, in the sound of his hands rubbing together in the dark. Terrified and alone, you panicked and ran until you couldn’t run any farther. In this case, the tunnels ended before your strength and, still panicked, you threw yourself into a hole in the rock to hide.
    â€œI saw the cave,” he went on after a moment. “Knew they couldn’t follow me—too big.”
    Of course they were. Harnett had recruited for an ability to intimidate.
    If we band together, we’ll make sure we get our fair share.
    If we control the access to the food, we control the tunnels.
    Make an example of anyone who stands against us.
    If you want food and water, you have to do what we say.
    What I say . . .
    Torin could understand how it had happened, the strong banding together to rule the weak. The strongest, the most ruthless rising to rule. That it had happened within the Corps, however . . .
    Hidden in the dark, her hands curled back into fists.
    â€œTime is against us,” she said calmly. “We have water but no food. Recon would mean nearly two days without food, and I need to be at full strength when I confront that bastard. I’d rather have a little more information before going in, but we’re going to have to play this by ear.”
    She heard Kyster turn, then felt him grab handfuls of her uniform. “You can’t go there. You can’t! They’ll take you, and they’ll . . . they’ll . . .”
    â€œThey won’t,” she told him, cutting off the rising panic.
    After a moment, he released her, slowly, and she knew that because she believed it completely, he’d started to.
    â€œHe kills you if you try to stop him,” he said so quietly she could hear the trickle of water behind his voice. “Killed everyone who tried.”
    â€œHe won’t kill me.” Privates did not question that tone. The whole purpose of the tone was to keep the junior ranks from questioning.
    The sound of his breathing changed as his nose ridges flared. “Promise?”
    Promise you won’t leave me.
    â€œI promise.” Reaching out, she wrapped a hand around his ankle— he’d moved as far from her as the cave allowed—and