Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
SOFIA
S ofia spent the next few days after Fox had delivered the salve forcing it on the others as they each returned from their interrogations. Her entire body ached, the medicines Fox had brought doing just enough to take the edge off the pain. But she’d survived worse, and she’d survive this, if only to kill the general and chief commander slowly and painfully.
Sofia hadn’t been taken back in for questioning, but every other Dragonborn had. And General Ocon made sure she saw them as they returned, bloody and broken. Each time, he’d sneer down at her, reminding her that this was her fault for not giving him the information he wanted. She could stop it all.
Fox hadn’t appeared again, and she tried her hardest not to think too much of his absence. She couldn’t even tell if it was disappointment or relief she felt every day she went without seeing him. If she was being honest, she didn’t know if she trusted him. He’d seemed in earnest when he’d come with the medicine, but going against orders to give her the pain tincture was much different from committing treason against the king gods. Either way, he hadn’t come back to ask about the prayer, and all she could do was wait. That thought alone was enough to make her mind scream in the middle of the night as she woke from nightmares.
On the worst nights, she dreamed of waking up in the cells, everyone around her dead. Flor’s hair would be splayed out, matching the blood trickling from her head. Micael would be crumpled on the ground, an old man instead of the fighter she knew him to be. It was always just her left alive to sit, steeped in blood and death.
She was pulling herself from such a nightmare when she heard the distinct clatter of steps and chains that announced the soldiers were back from their latest interrogation. Sofia didn’t understand what the general expected after a week of interrogations. No one had given them anything. Most of the supposed resistance fighters who joined them in the cells were nothing more than families caught with too much meat or an altar in their house. But what did that matter? This was all an excuse to pare down the number of Dragonborn in the slums.
As Micael was haphazardly thrown back into his cell, Sofia noticed the trail of blood he’d left behind in his wake. A deep cut crossed his face, nearly bisecting his eye. He’d be lucky to not lose it.
Bile rose in Sofia’s throat and she didn’t bother swallowing it back down.
“Fucking king’s spawn.” She spit the words at the general who was speaking with his men.
She nearly jumped when one of the soldiers turned, his familiar face jarring. He stepped toward her, fist raised as if to hit her through the bars, but his comrade stopped him with a hand to his shoulder. Yet, as the others filtered out, he stayed behind, waiting until he was alone to turn fully to Sofia again.
“Vato,” she said, voice soft as a whisper. Happy to see the man again after three days of nothing.
He didn’t smile, face tight with contrition. “The messages were sent out. I have a few direct allies in the city and a few connections across the wall, but we’ll see who can rally and make it. I gave them until the new moons, but I don’t know if it will be enough time.”
He spoke the words softly, eyes focused on the door the other soldier had just passed through.
“Any news on your distraction?” he asked.
Sofia answered before anyone else could, “No, but I…I think there is still hope he’ll follow through.”
The young man’s bright green eyes flickered to her briefly and narrowed. “You want to tell me who it is you’re trusting?”
She bit her lip. They’d been through this already when Vato had first found them in the cells, but she wasn’t ready to give Fox’s name up. Whether it was to protect him or protect herself when his loyalty inevitably fell through, she wasn’t sure. He definitely didn’t know that her planned distraction was a dragon.
“Scales, you’re a stubborn one,” he said when it was clear she wouldn’t answer. “No wonder—” he stopped himself with the shake of his head and looked away.
“What’s the plan if we don’t get all of our allies rallied in time?” he asked.
“Then I murder as many Dereyans as I can on my way out of here until I’m across the wall or dead.”
Vato’s eyebrows rose only slightly, ever the good soldier trained to hide his emotions.
Flor gave a small huff from the cell beside her. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” she said. “But either way, if you can smuggle us weapons, we’ll have more of a fighting chance of breaking out.”
“I can get as many weapons to you as possible,” Vato said, addressing Flor. “Inventory is taken weekly, so we’d have a maximum seven days to collect enough for everyone.”
“Do it.” Micael’s voice was strong, despite how he leaned against the wall, still bleeding from his interrogation. “Sofia’s right; we either die on our knees or we die fighting. I’d rather die fighting.”
“I’d rather escape and live,” Flor said, voice falsely bright. “Just as a heads up. So if we could focus on that plan first.”
Vato’s lips gave the smallest hint of a smile at this. “Very well. I’ll start smuggling you weapons after the next inventory count. Until then, stay alive.”
After he left, Micael and the others started whispering plans back and forth—paths out of the city, strategies for fighting without armor. Sofia half-listened, her mind still caught between planning their breakout and praying that Fox followed through.
What did it mean after everything that she was still hoping he could help them? His father was the reason her back was a twisted knot of scars and scabs. He was the reason Javi’s blood-mother was dead and all of them were thrown in prison. He’d told her himself that he still wanted revenge for the murder of his brother. He’d watched her as she was tortured.
Still, he’d been the one to offer help. He’d been the one to say he was wrong and wanted to make things right. She wanted to trust him, even if only because she still remembered the feeling of his fingers in her hair and his lips on her skin.
Sofia pressed the palm of her hands into her eyes until she saw stars, pushing the thoughts from her mind. And then she turned back to the others, ready to make plans. She’d told herself the chief commander would never make her feel helpless again, and as she looked across the barred cells at the friends and allies she had, she knew she wasn’t. Because no matter if Fox came through or not, Sofia wasn’t alone.