“Here, I got more food yesterday,” he said in his husky voice.
Yesterday, or hours or days ago, I’d asked him what happened to his voice. He told me King Irdelron poured acid down his throat. One of the king’s favorite torture techniques, something he did regularly. Explained why Jotun couldn’t talk, as well as most of the king’s guards, I guess. After that, I wasn’t sure I had the right to complain about bugs under my skin.
I was sitting against the conjoining wall already and shifted to reach my arm through for the goods.
“Are you sure?” It belatedly occurred to me to ask if he could spare the food.
“You’re still in the early stages, Ryn,” he answered. He knew I wasn’t a boy by now. “They only do routine torture on me. You need your strength.”
“Oh, goodie,” I said. “Routine torture. Something to look forward to.”
He chuckled. “Here.”
Our fingers couldn’t quite touch, and he had to push whatever he was passing to get it all the way to where I could reach it. Was it wrong that I longed to touch his hand? That even the tiny human contact of our conversation made me want to curl in a ball and cry like a baby?
“Why do they feed you double what they feed me?” I scowled—not at Ty but at the unfairness of an unfair situation.
Ty said in a hard voice, “Jotun seems to have taken a particular dislike to you.”
“Why?”
He paused. “You know Lord Irrik?”
This time a real growl rumbled from my lips. “I do.”
Ty began to ask more but then cut off his question, saying instead, “Jotun thinks the Drae favors you. I’d guess that’s why he attacked you. Usually he sticks to his torturing schedule like clockwork.”
I snorted.
“Lord Irrik dragged him away when Jotun smashed your head against the bars.”
“Really? I thought he joined in.” I frowned, trying to remember.
“Next time you see Jotun, take a look at his face. I hate the Drae as much as anyone here, but it was one of the better punches I’ve seen,” Ty said with a dark, rasping chuckle.
I quirked a brow. The Drae had acted strange at our first meeting, then violent, then strange, then he’d finished off my mother, then strange, then kissed me to take control, then emotionless. Which led me to his visit here. He hadn’t prevented a single bad thing from happening. The opposite, actually. He had another reason for doing these things, and I didn’t want to get caught in the games of the Drae and the king. I’d always had a clear set of rules for my life. Emperor Draedyn ruled the realm from his lands in the northwest. Within the realm were three kingdoms—Verald, Gemond, and Azule—their sovereignty given to the Drae emperor. We gave him all our capable men over twenty years for his war; we gave him and the other kingdoms some of our harvest. We worked each day to get enough food and to keep the guards’ attention elsewhere.
But those rules didn’t matter anymore.
“I’d rather Lord Irrik didn’t come down here again,” I said. “If that’s what happens.”
We fell into a heavy silence, and my eyes closed.
“Of course, me having more food could be because Jotun has a crush on me,” Ty quipped. “He’s a great admirer of good looks.”
His remark dragged a real laugh out of me, brittle though it was. “Now it’s all coming out. How long has your sordid affair been going on?”
Ty’s wheezy chuckle echoed through our cells. “It’s one-sided. I hold out hope he’ll move on. I get the willies when he pulls on his gloves.”
The willies. I grinned. “How old are you?”
He paused. “Twenty.”
Huh. I sat back, unwrapping the parcel he’d passed me. Flat bread. Hard, flat bread. Yummy. Ty was a lot younger than I’d pegged. He was almost my age.
“I thought you were my imagination the first time you spoke,” I confessed. I leaned against the wall, my head resting on the stone. “I called out for you when I ran out of food and water, but you didn’t answer.”
“It happens in cycles,” he explained. “The torture. They’ll go through periods of starving you, too. The key is not to take anything for granted. You have to store enough food and liquid so you’ll have it when they don’t give you any.”
I wanted to ask him how that was possible, but I didn’t want him to know where I hid it, just in case. “Al’right.”
We fell quiet again.
“Is there anyone on your other side?” I asked.
“No, you’re the first—the first one to survive. There are other prisoners in other wings, however.”
“Why are we separated?”
“Who knows,” he rasped. “Maybe we’re just special.”
Another horrible thought occurred to me. “How long have you been alone here?”
I heard Ty take a sip and wondered what he looked like, what had happened to him, and what would happen to me. I don’t know what my state of mind would be if he hadn’t been here to talk to.
He spoke again. “It is better now that you’re here, Ryn. Please stay alive.”
The rattle of keys at my door woke me, and I sat up, disoriented. Sleep had been peaceful, like before, and for a moment I thought I was home with Mum. But Jotun stood in my doorway, and the reality of my situation struck just before his hand connected with my face.
My eyes watered, but I bit my tongue, refusing to let a whimper escape my lips.
The guard grabbed my arm, a method he seemed to favor, and hauled me from bed. I scrambled to stand, but he yanked me one way and then another, throwing me off balance. I tumbled to the ground, only to be yanked back up and then out of my cell and down the stone hall.
I tried to get a glimpse into the cell next to mine, but all I could see was a lumpy mattress with heaps of blankets. Ty was likely buried in that mass, and his warnings drove thoughts of him away. There was only one reason Jotun would come to get me.
I thrashed, screaming and clawing at him. But Jotun didn’t flinch. When I fell to the floor, he dragged me over the unforgiving stone until my skin was raw and bloody and my shins battered and bruised.
He climbed the stairs, and I scrambled to keep up with him, deciding it was better not to inflict pain on myself. Each step was more difficult than the last. The screams of victims being tortured assaulted me as we crossed the landing, and I couldn’t help the sob that bubbled up my chest and out my lips.
“Please,” I begged. “Please, Jotun. You don’t have to do this. Please. Please!”
He didn’t even glance in my direction while I cowered at his feet. The tall guard unlocked the door, and his lips flattened as he stooped over to pick me up. He scooped his hands under my arms, like a mother picks up a child, but instead of pulling me to him and offering comfort, he slammed my body to the table, dazing me with the brutal impact.
He tilted his head to the side, waiting.
I knew what he wanted, and I gritted my teeth. “I’m not telling you anything.”
Time lost all meaning. I screamed until I had no voice. I was sure my skin was flayed. I was sure I was going to die. I wished I would.
13