Chapter 53
The cages, perfect cubes that are Lucan’s height and a half, almost look small in the center of this vast room.
The floor is bare rock and compacted soil.
The walls are stone and completely devoid of embellishments in the harsh, too-bright lamplight.
The entrances to the three cages make a triangle shape, but the corners don’t touch.
“In.” The prelate opens one of the cages and gestures. We share a look, then both move. “Only one person per cage.”
I go first. Lucan is put into the cage to my right. I don’t miss how she almost seems to hesitate for a moment, as if reconsidering what she’s about to do. I hope she feels guilty. Lucan gives her a glare, sharing my hatred for her.
She locks his door and then comes to mine.
“You’re very good at locking me behind iron doors,” I say under my breath, staring up at her.
The prelate ignores my remark.
“Isola?” Saipha’s voice echoes in the room. “Lucan? What’s happening?” Two inquisitors escort her over, each with a hand on her elbow.
“Into the cage with you.” The prelate gestures to the final cage.
“What?” Saipha takes a step backward. “Why?”
“The three of you are under suspicion of being dragon cursed. You will be kept sequestered until the next challenge.”
“Until the next challenge?” I step forward, gripping the bars. “That’s days from now.”
“We are aware of the length of the Tribunal.” The prelate casts me a withering stare over her shoulder, tipping her head up enough that I can see under her hood.
This time, one of her eyes is golden. Did I see incorrectly down in the Undercrust?
A trick of the light? I certainly wasn’t in my right mind…
“Will you feed us? How will we go to the bathroom?” Saipha asks.
“You will be taken out as needed to attend to such matters. Supervised, of course,” the prelate says.
“As needed” may not be often if they’re not giving us very much food or water.
My grip on the bars tightens. “Let my friends go. We both know I’m the one you’re suspicious of.
” I wish I knew what I did to make her hate me so much, but I suspect she’s probably just like Cindel and believes I’m not really Valor Reborn.
“No.” She smirks slightly.
During our exchange, Saipha is locked in the third and final cage.
“Those keeping watch, stay. The rest of you to your posts,” the prelate commands. She follows a group out of the room and up the stairs the way we came, rather than through the secret door Saipha and I found.
Five other inquisitors remain and assume positions along the outer edge of the wall. Their cloaked forms are stark silhouettes against the pale walls turned almost white in the harsh lamplight.
“They can’t— You can’t really leave us in these cages.
” Saipha is trembling like a leaf. How I wish I was able to get her some food.
She goes to the back of her cage, closest to the wall, trying to get an inquisitor’s attention.
“This is just some kind of test, right? Isola’s right: we’re not cursed! ”
“Saipha,” I say firmly.
She ignores me, voice pitching higher. “If we were cursed, you would’ve seen it by now.
Between the challenges and what we’ve been through here…
” She moves from bar to bar, as if testing to see that each one is sturdy, her movements becoming frantic.
I’ve never seen my usually steady friend look so terrified.
A cool unease washes over me. Saipha is the blood of dragon hunters. She’s destined for Mercy. She’s always been calm under pressure. If this place could break her down, what chance do I have? I need her to be my rock.
“Saipha,” I repeat, firmer.
“Talk to us!” Her voice rises to a shout, echoing in the empty room. “We’re not animals. We’re not cursed. We’re people just like you. You can’t treat us this way.”
“Saipha!” My yell has the crack of a whip behind it. She flinches and turns her wide eyes to me. I immediately soften my expression now that she’s paying attention. “It’ll be all right.”
“But…”
“As you said, if we were cursed, it would’ve shown by now.” My own doubts have been nearly completely silenced with the reassurance of my parents and all I’ve endured without succumbing to the curse. “This will not be easy, but hard doesn’t mean impossible. Don’t fear difficult.”
She swallows and nods.
I move to the door at the front of my cage and sit. No cage is close enough for us to reach out and touch one another, even at the corners. But I’m at least a little bit closer this way.
Lucan takes the unspoken invitation, moving forward as well and sitting at the front of his cage.
We both look to Saipha expectantly. She finally, somewhat begrudgingly joins us.
I hold in a sigh of relief. My attention drifts over her shoulder and back to the inquisitors against the wall. None of them have moved.
Her panic can’t bode well for her. The sooner we can get her calm, the better. Hopefully, if we hold our composure, they might let us out early.
“Lucan, do you know End-to-Beginning?” I ask, knowing Saipha does.
“The letter game children play?” Lucan’s surprised.
I nod. “You both want to play a round?”
“Right now?” Surprise seems to draw Saipha from her terror.
“Sure. We have time,” Lucan says.
I force myself to snort in amusement at that, trying to relieve some of the tension.
Saipha was clearly hesitating, but she’s drawn in by his enthusiasm. I cast him a warm glance as a thank-you. “What’s the theme?”
“Clothing,” I say. It’s a simple enough topic that it’ll be easy to think of many things, but also nothing that could bring us back to dragons or our current predicament. “I’ll start: vest.”
“Tailor,” Lucan says, using the last letter of my word.
“Tailor isn’t a type of clothing,” Saipha objects.
“She didn’t say types of clothing, just ‘clothing.’ Which means it could encompass all things related,” he counters.
She rolls her eyes and relents. “Fine. Rag.”
“Rag is definitely not clothing related,” Lucan says.
Saipha throws her hands up. “It’s made of fabric, isn’t it?”
“That’s the most tenuous connection I’ve ever heard.” Lucan leans back. “You just can’t think of a better word.”
“Robe.” Saipha narrows her eyes at him, instantly looking more like herself.
“Earmuffs,” I say after a moment of thought.
We go around like this, saying a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word, until one of us can’t think of anything—Lucan is the first one out. Saipha and I continue going until she gets the better of me, letting out a triumphant, “Ha!”
The next round, the theme is “building materials.”
The one after is “things you’d find in a library.”
It’s a good time-killer. When we’ve exhausted that game, we move onto the next one we can think of to play from afar. And then the next one…
Eventually, Saipha lets out a monumental yawn. I’m not far behind. It’s impossible to tell how much time has passed in the basement. The lights are just as harsh as they were when we first came in. I’d guess it’s somewhere around noon, now? Not that it matters.
“I think I’m going to take a nap,” Saipha decides.
“Another round?” Lucan asks me.
I shake my head. “I’m going to get some sleep, too, I think.”
“But it’s the middle of the day.” He seems genuinely disappointed I’m not going to stay up and play games with him.
“Perfect time for a nap.” We need to keep our strength up, and we’ve been up all night, our nerves clearly preventing us from sleep.
I doubt they’re going to let us sit here and play games for days on end.
“I don’t suppose we could dim the lights?
” I say loud enough for all the inquisitors to hear.
None of them move or react. “Yeah…didn’t think so. ”
“By the way”—Saipha sprawls out on the floor, still near the front of her cage—“where were you two last night?”
“I went for a walk.” It’s not a lie, just not the whole truth.
“I heard her leave, and when she didn’t come back immediately, I got worried.” Lucan lies back, putting his hands behind his head.
As I stretch out in front of my cage door, resting my cheek on my biceps, I stare at Lucan, thoughts of last night returning to me.
Without him, I would’ve died… What really happened when I fell?
I try to think back, but everything is a hazy blur or a complete void in my memory.
There are two sensations that stand out from the rest:
Foremost, the feeling of his arms enveloping me. Clutching me as though it was both of our lives on the line.
The second is the strange wind and what almost seemed like smoke blotting out the night.
I think harder, trying to remember what happened.
And when that fails, I think of Lucan seeing me go out onto the ledge and being afraid of what would happen and running to a room below.
I imagine him smashing through the window, a golden aura surrounding him.
Then he catches me, and my body doubles over.
What good timing he had… I yawn. There was the wind as he dragged me in over twisted iron and broken glass.
Does it all make sense? It doesn’t have to.
I’m safe, and he saved me. What matters more than that?
I’m too tired to think too much on it, especially when the thoughts of what followed are deliciously distracting.
The sensation of safety in his arms carries me off into a light and dreamless sleep.
When I wake, I blink several times, not convinced that I’ve managed to open my eyes. The whole room is as dark as if they were shut. No. Darker. At least if my eyes were shut, I’d see the faint glow of the harsh lamplight from the other side of my lids. There is nothing.
They killed the lights.
“Saipha. Lucan.” I don’t know why I whisper their names. I can’t get to them. And the inquisitors will know we’re awake.
I stand, hearing movement from their cages but no response.
It’s then that I realize:
I’m not alone. Someone is in the cage with me.