In the middle distance was Ducktown, its homes and businesses clustered around the smelter and minehead of the Burra Burra copper mine. The mine and smelter stood on a hill above most of the town. There were a few—a very few—trees there. Many fewer than were inside the Soddy town limits. Ducktown did not have Soddy’s soot and black smoke, but the white smoke that billowed from the smelter’s chimney must be the source of that harsh, sulfurous stink that got through Anna’s shields. For a moment she wondered if her shields weren’t working—but Josh’s tearing eyes told her that those shields were successfully protecting her from the worst of it. And she realized when she saw him go pale—he probably wasn’t as sensitive as she was, because if he’d been strong in the Glory, he’d have been able to shield himself, but nevertheless, he was sensitive enough to be sickened by the poisoned earth around him.

Although the energies of the earth were distinctly skewed here, she quickly mustered enough to shield Josh as well, and the look of gratitude he gave her as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand made her flush with pleasure.

“Iffen I didn’ hev t’ pick up thin’s fer Maddie, I swear, I’d tell Cavenel t’ come git his own statchoos an’ headstones,” Matt mumbled, as the mule picked her way along the rutted road. “Whenever Preacher talks ’bout Hell, this’s what I think of. ’Cept with lakes’a fire.”

“Iffen they’s a Hell on earth, this’s it,” Aunt Jinny agreed sourly. “I promise y’all, Matt, me an’ Anna’ll be quick. We’ll prolly be done afore Josh gits done talkin’ t’ Cavenel.”

“I’ll jest let y’all down at th’ gen’ral store, then,” Matt replied. “I got some scrip t’be rid of at th’ Company store, an’ they’s a water trough there, so I’ll leave th’ wagon an’ mule hitched there. When y’all’s done, jest bring yer stuff thar an’ come wait with the wagon.”

The mule actually seemed eager to get to Ducktown now. Possibly it was thirsty; besides being unpleasant to breathe, the air was terribly dry. It picked up its pace to a fast walk, and they were passing between rows of Company houses sooner than Anna had anticipated.

In Soddy, all the houses had been a soot-stained gray. Here they were all bare wood with little flecks of whitewash, as if the rain had eaten away the paint. But they were just as depressing, because the wood had weathered to a silvery gray not far off in color from the gray of the Company houses in Soddy. The big difference was the lack of soot and smoke.

She wondered what on earth people burned in their fireplaces and stoves here. You’d have to go miles to get firewood. And unlike in Soddy, what came up out of the Burra Burra mine could not be burned. Another crippling expense then, as if miners didn’t have enough of those already.