Page 43 of Between Despair and Hope

Neither of us had any idea where Rainier might be within the dungeons, but we took off at a run to find him. I grabbed a blade from my bandolier as I ran, trying to wipe the handle so it was dry, but nothing helped. It hadn’t been long when I could finally decipher the word being screamed above us.

Fire.

I heard people running, and I wondered if Emma had set the whole gods damned wing on fire. I smelled it a second later, my senses dulled by the stench of the river. Shade and I took off down opposite directions, and the empty cells gave way to occupied ones. Part of me thought I should free them, especially if there was a fire, but Rainier came first. I heard a dreadful roar from above and worried about our escape amidst the destruction. There was a woman who held onto her bars, screeching for help, and I almost ran past her until I saw the ring of keys near her door. I grabbed it, sticking in one after another until her cell unlocked.

“I’m going to let you out, but I need to know where the King of Vesta is. Do you know?”

The woman nodded but didn’t speak. All she wore was a shift, blackened with filth, and I could see every bone in her body. They must have been starving her. I opened the cell, and she ran, pushing past me. I panicked, running after her, thinking she conned me.

“This way!” she called out over her shoulder as she turned down another row of cells, and I followed. She stopped when we came upon some stairs, pointing past them. “Down there,” she said. And then she was gone.

I ran as I called out his name, grateful I hadn’t met any more guards other than the one Shade killed.

“Dewalt?” I heard his voice, a croak of disbelief, as I ran toward the end of the corridor. Chills ran down my spine; I was so gods damned relieved.

Someone in clothes I belatedly realized belonged to a Myriad novice went sprinting past me, but they paid me no mind before turning down another corridor. I kept calling Rainier’s name, but he’d stopped answering. I opened the slit in several doors, peering in for my friend and growing more nervous as he remained unresponsive, save for that first shout.

When I finally found his cell, I looked in and felt my stomach drop out of my ass. A puff of air which stank of the most pungent draíbea wafted through the small opening as I fumbled for the keys. No wonder he wasn’t answering me—I’d be lucky if he was even conscious.

Rainier was lying on the ground near a pile of what I assumed was his own sick. He was thinner, features gaunt and pale—skin ashen. He had cuts all over his gods damned face like someone tried to shave him in the dark with their eyes closed. That wasn’t even the worst of his appearance, his jaw and brow swollen and bruised from a recent beating. The clothes they’d put him in hung off his frame, and his pants looked loose on his hips.

“Rainier, you awake?”

He blinked at the hole in the door, blinded by the torch I held next to me, before pushing up to sit. I noticed the censer hanging from the ceiling, out of reach, as it emitted noxious fumes into the air. I was already feeling something from it, and I wasn’t even in the room.

“Are you—” He cleared his throat. “Dewalt?”

“Yes, friend. It’s me. I’m going to get you out of here.”

He grunted, and I didn’t waste another moment as I shoved each key into the lock.

“I swear to the gods…” He trailed off, mumbling something incoherent.

I dropped the ring of keys onto the ground, my slimy fingers not able to grasp them properly.

“Ciarden’s crusty ass, gods damn it.” I bent over to pick them up and was rewarded with a chuckle I hadn’t realized I missed.

“How long has it been?” Rainier stretched as he spoke.

“Uh, Winter Solstice is in two weeks.”

Finally, I found the right key and swung his cell door open.

“I missed your birthday then. Happy birthday, D.”

“Leave it to you to say shit like that and somehow make me feel worse,” I said.

He was still on the ground, and I worried that once he actually stood, the true toll of what he’d been through would be so clear on his body that I wouldn’t be able to hold my shit together. I put the torch in a bracket just inside the room and took him in. He was thinner than me, and it wasn’t right. Everything about the way he looked was wrong. The way he was wishing me happy birthday like he hadn’t been in a gods damned dungeon this entire time was wrong. Fuck.

“We should have come sooner. Shivani wouldn’t…” I trailed off as he shook his head, and I stepped into the cell. The weight of the lava rock bore down on me, making it hard to breathe. They’d had him in this dampening cell the entire fucking time. We’d be lucky if his divinity didn’t kill us once he was free. I stilled as I noticed what sat along the far side of the cell.

“The rack? He put you in the fucking rack?”

That was why he had yet to stand. He probably couldn’t. Rainier didn’t reply as a voice bellowed from the hallway.

“HURRY! WE NEED TO GET THE CHILDREN OUT BEFORE IT COLLAPSES!”

We both jumped as we heard the shriek and a stampeding of feet as three novices ran past, headed toward the stairs. I was shocked they spoke, even in a situation like this, and I shrugged. Good—I was glad Emma was destroying everything.

---