My heart starts pounding. He’s holding the key to my freedom, to Mani’s. “Will you help me?” I ask. “My brother is in trouble and I have to get to him.”
Kavi nods slowly as he says, “He who has a full belly has a big heart.” I wish there weren’t bars between us so that I could grab him and hug him close. He’s an odd little boy, but if he can help me escape, I will forever be in his debt.
He presses the key into my palm. “The guards will come in a few hours to put out the torches. You can leave then.”
“Aren’t you going to come with me?”
“Nah,” he says. “They never keep me for very long. Just a few days now and then to teach me a lesson. I’ll be out in no time.”
“What lesson are they trying to teach you?” I ask.
He sighs. “That a person will more easily believe a sweet lie than a bitter truth.” He scratches his head. “And that I shouldn’t sell either one.”
I reach through the bars and touch his cheek. “Thank you, Kavi. You have no idea how much this means to me.”
He grins at me. “You have no idea how much the bread means to me.” It seems that a loaf of bread and a boy’s life can’t compare, but I’m grateful for Kavi’s help.
The next few hours are some of the slowest of my entire life. I pace circles around my tiny cell until a woman shouts out, “Hold still, girl! You’re making me jumpy.” The last thing I need right now is to draw attention to myself, and so I sit and pull my knees to my chest. I run my fingers along the smooth metal of the key. The hope I had earlier is draining away. I don’t know how I will get out of here, or if I can find Mani, or how I can possibly overcome the Naga if I do. I wish I at least had Deven to make the journey with me. But I don’t know anymore if he’s trustworthy or if he only pretended to help me so that I would end up here, locked in the dungeon to pay for my crimes. What will the Raja do to me if I’m caught trying to escape?
Finally the door at the top of the stairway creaks open and the guards come to put out the torches. As soon as the prisoners hear them approaching, the dungeon bursts into a cacophony of noise. The woman who yelled at me earlier begins chanting at the top of her voice, several of the men start arguing with one another, one man mutters as he slams his head against the bars. Kavi bursts into tears.
The guards ignore the whole scene and dispassionately walk down the corridor extinguishing each torch with large metal cones. When all the flames are out, they make their way back to the staircase. Once their handheld torch disappears up the stairs, the dungeon is plunged into darkness. Panic fills my chest. How will I get the lock open if I can’t see?
Once the door clicks closed, the theatrics of the prisoners die down. I press my face against the bars of Kavi’s cell.
“Are you all right?” I whisper.
“Of course I am,” he says without a trace of sadness in his voice.
“You were crying pretty hard.”
“It’s good to remind them that I’m only a child,” he says. “It gets me released sooner.” With the way Kavi talks, I think I need reminding that he is a child. “Good luck tonight,” he says.
I sigh. “I’m not sure I can get the lock open in the dark.”
“Give your eyes a few minutes to adjust,” he tells me. “But even if you can’t see, it will be okay. I can usually do it by feel.”
My mouth drops open. “Usually? You’ve done this before?”
“Yep. I stole the key when I was here the time before last,” he tells me. “I like to go exploring at night.”
“Exploring?” I say incredulously.
“Quit yakking over there!” someone shouts. “Some of us are trying to sleep.”
Kavi lowers his voice to a whisper, but I can still hear his indignation. “I told you before. I get hungry.”
“But why not just leave if you have a key?”
He doesn’t answer for a moment. “It makes them feel better to think they control me,” he finally says. “If they thought that I had outsmarted them, they would try harder.” I sit with that for a while. It makes me think of Iyla. I wonder if that’s how she felt—wanting to let the Naga think that they controlled her, but playing by her own rules. Voluntarily staying in a prison she knew she could leave whenever she wanted. I wonder where she is and if she’s happy. Even after everything, there’s a part of me that still cares about her.
“You’d better go,” Kavi says. “The guards are changing shifts right now, so you don’t have to worry about them checking for a while.”