Book Two - Chapter Twenty-Nine

Crash. Bang. Crunch. Screaming. All those sounds and more cut through Ariya’s dreams like a knife, bringing her mind crashing from rainbow-colored meadows and riding ponies with Lusya, Ander, Mama, Papa, and even Jak to the pure darkness of her own eyelids.

Her eyes fluttered open to catch a split-second glimpse of her cell. Then, they drifted shut again. She started to fall back asleep. She could almost smell the sweet scents of the flowers again. But the noise didn’t stop. Just when she seemed ready to plunge back into dreamland, the clamor dragged her right back out.

She started to drift off again, only to be stopped twice more. Finally, she gave up on sleep, and her eyes stayed open. Her senses took a few seconds to readjust to the cold, dark cell. The only light was from the moon filtering in the few windows. She and the other prisoners were lying on rough straw with a thin blanket over it as their bed.

With slow, languid motions, she managed to sit up and rest her back against the wall. She looked at the door and tilted her head.

Flaven was on duty watching her and the others, though he wasn’t watching them at the moment. Like her, he was staring at the door. His whole body was taut, legs wide and ready to move. He held one hand in a claw-like pose just over his sword’s hilt, ready to draw it at a moment’s notice.

There was a rapid scuffle of feet on the dirt outside. Flavel tensed.

“Shit, she’s here!” Boss exclaimed as she burst through the door to the prison, letting in a rush of the cool night air. It was almost summer—actually, it might have been summer by now—so it wasn’t cold, but it was far from warm, and the suddenness drove Ariya to shiver. Boss hastily slammed the door shut behind her, driving another burst of wind through the room. She hesitated, staring at the door like it might try to eat her for a second.

Rather than draw his sword, Flavel screamed in terror and practically jumped out of his skin when the door opened. Once his initial panic had passed and he realized who had entered, however, he let out a relieved sigh and relaxed his body.

“‘She?’” he asked.

Boss groaned as she started pacing in front of Ariya’s cell, her hands balled into tight fists at her sides. “That damn girl! The reason we took this one.” She jabbed a finger at Ariya. “She’s found us, and she’s cutting down those idiots like she’s trimming a hedge.”

For once, Boss wasn’t wearing any armor. She just had a beige sleeveless shirt and some brown pants on. She had tied her hair back, but it was a messy job, with several loose strands that were obviously meant to be in the tie.

“You don’t think…” Flaven said.

“She probably killed those guys,” Boss said. She sounded more annoyed than sad about her friends dying. Boss was the worst. “No way she didn’t meet them on the way here. What could have happened, though? No warning, no negotiating, practically torturing her victims. She wasn’t like this before…”

Ariya yawned. The cool air had helped stir her, but her head still felt like it was stuffed with cotton. Gradually, as she looked from the door to Flaven to Boss and back to the door, confusion and irritation fought their way through the fluff. All the awful noise outside—the screams, bangs, and clangs—had woken Ariya up. Well, she thought so, at least. She wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t dreaming. What was happening out there? Just when she had started to get used to sleeping through the demons’ noises too. Come to think of it, maybe that was why it had been so hard for even this much commotion to wake her up.

“Well, she might be pissed off about you taking the girl,” Flaven said.

“This much? After two weeks?” Boss asked. She shook her head and let out a heavy breath. “Something else must have set her off.”

She continued pacing, muttering to herself and occasionally touching where her severed ear had once been and wincing. Ariya couldn’t make out what she was saying. It might have just been nonsense.

“Can you beat her?” Flaven asked.

Boss glared at him, and he shrunk away from her, raising his hands in a defensive posture.

“Of course I can,” she said. “Who do you think you’re talking to? But I’m not going to come out of it in top shape, and I’m not going to have much of an army left by the end of it at this rate.”

Wait a second. Were they talking about Lusya? Was Lusya finally here? Yes! Ariya had known Lusya would come. Now they were going to be sorry for everything they’d done. In fact, it looked like Boss was already feeling pretty sorry. She’d said she could win, but they both knew that wasn’t true. Lusya didn’t lose. All that noise must have been Lusya fighting. Ariya took back every bad thing she had thought about the noise. It was…well, maybe not great, but it was worth putting up with. A sign of great things to come.

Ariya couldn’t contain her excitement. She sprang to her feet and dashed to the cell bars.

“I told you Lusya would come,” she said with a hint of smugness. “I told you so. Now you’re gonna get it!”

Boss whirled on her and snarled, jabbing an accusatory finger at Ariya. “Shut up, kid! I’m trying to think here.”

Ariya stopped talking but couldn’t keep herself from grinning. Just a little bit longer. It would just be a couple more minutes that she had to put up with these guys to avoid getting herself or anyone else hurt. Then she could talk back and tell them how wrong they were all she wanted. She could even make fun of them for it. Not that she would, that would be mean and two wrongs didn’t make it right, but it was the…printable? Princess pull? Principle, that was the word she was looking for. Look at her, remembering big girl words so fast. Sure, she’d struggled a little, but she’d gotten there in the end. Lusya had taught her so much.

“Boss,” Flaven said, holding his arms up and miming pushing something down, “calm down.”

Boss whirled again, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him into the air.

“You do not tell me what to do,” she growled. She gave him a rough shake. “Got it?”

Flaven nodded desperately as he gasped for air, prying at the hand on his neck and kicking his feet to no avail. Boss let him go, letting him drop to the ground and fall to his knees. He coughed and hacked, trying to catch his breath. She clicked her tongue and went back to pacing.

“We have the girl, don’t we?” Flaven said. “Can’t we use her to get our of this mess? Isn’t that part of why we still have her?”

Boss glared at him again, as if the mere act of asking her questions was an affront. He flinched and backed up until he was against the wall, trembling like a leaf in the wind. It did look a little funny, considering he was several inches taller than her, but Ariya couldn’t help but feel a little bad for him. Even if he was horrible like all the rest, it was hard not to be sympathetic when he looked so scared.

Boss sighed. “You’re right, but I’m not sure I want to go that route.”

Flaven took a deep breath. “Why not?”

“I’m not sure how far we can take it,” she replied. “We can’t keep taking the girl hostage and running. We don’t have anywhere to run to this time. It’d be a different story if the one outside was like last time. She was strong and merciless, but I wouldn’t have called her violent. Right now, I’m not sure the same tactic will work at all.”

Flaven pursed his lips. “Sounds like we’re in a jam.”

“You can say that again,” Boss said. “On top of that, we don’t have much way to exchange the girl while ensuring our safety. Who knows what that one will do if she gets the sense we’re just stringing her along? And somehow, I don’t think she’s just going to call it even and leave even if we hand the girl over.”

“So, what do we do then?” Flaven asked.

The noises outside were getting louder. Or closer. Maybe both. Boss and Flaven must have noticed too, with the way they glanced at the door, like it might have opened at any second. Pale and brow furrowed, with her lips drawn into a thin line, Boss looked at Ariya. Smiling and standing tall—well, sitting straight—Ariya stared back at her. Boss scowled and snarled, but Ariya just couldn’t stop smiling. Well, she did stop when a particularly painful-sounding noise, like a loud, strangled scream or a visceral crunch, filtered in, but her smile always came right back the next second. She felt a little bad for that, since people were getting hurt outside, but she was just so happy. Lusya was here to save the day!

Ariya and Boss’s little staring contest went on for almost a minute. Flaven kept looking from one of them to the other, but it seemed he was scared to say anything now.

Finally, Boss let out a frustrated groan and turned away, toward the exit. She stalked to the door, then stopped to look to Flaven.

“There’s not much choice but for me to fight her,” she said. “You hide in here. You can try to run if you think you see a chance.”

Flaven gasped and brought a hand to his heart. “Boss…”

“Don’t misunderstand and get all sentimental,” Boss said. She grimaced like she was nauseous and clicked her tongue. “You’re still trash, but even I’m not gonna tell you to go out there and die for no reason. That’s all.”

Flaven frowned and nodded.

Boss opened the door, and the cool night air blew in for a third time, coaxing Ariya further awake. She was sure this wasn’t a dream now. Lusya had come to save her like always. Ariya had been tempted, she had wavered, but her faith had never gone away. And she had been right. Her trust was being rewarded. Everything was gonna be okay. Boss stepped out the door and shut it behind her. Flaven grimaced, then got on his chair and peered out the window.

Ariya went to where she had been laying, turned to the woman next to her, and gently shook her.

“Hey, wake up,” Ariya said, keeping her voice down.

The woman groaned and shifted but didn’t open her eyes or sit up. Ariya glanced at Flaven, but he wasn’t paying attention at all, too busy watching whatever was happening outside. So, Ariya tried again, louder.

“Hey, Miss, wake up.”

She wished she could have used the woman’s name. Just calling her Miss seemed a little rude. But Boyan was still the only other prisoner whose name Ariya knew. It was so awful that he hadn’t made it because of her. But Ariya couldn’t let that drag her down. Just like Ariya had waited for her, Lusya had come for Ariya. Ariya wasn’t going to let her down.

“Hey, come on, wake up!”

The woman finally sighed and opened her eyes. She looked up at Ariya with a mix of exasperation and resignation.

“What is it?” the woman asked.

“Help is here!” Ariya said. “Don’t go back to sleep.”

Rather than light up with hope, the woman’s eyes narrowed with skepticism. That was fine, she would know she was wrong soon enough. And it didn’t really matter, as long as she got help. Regardless of her suspicion, she sat up and started staring at the floor.

Ariya moved on to the next person and started trying to get them up too. She had to wake up as many people as she could, so they would be ready to go when Lusya was done. Some of them had to be awake already. There was no way they were all such deep sleepers. But none of them had roused. Anyone else who had woken up seemed to be pretending to sleep still. That wouldn’t do at all.