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1035 Words
Something had changed.
I paused, earning a shove forward, and stumbled farther inside as I realized the problem. Silence.
The first level was usually quiet, most people focused inward, but there was always some kind of audible evidence of their presence: sighing, scuffling, coughing. Something. But now it was so silent I might have wondered if I’d suddenly gone deaf—but I could hear my footfalls just fine. And Yarrow’s.
I glanced at him, questioning.
He acted like nothing was wrong.
As I approached the first cell (seven steps), I half expected the man inside to be dead. Just one body on the floor. But there was no one.
No one in the next cell, either. All nine cells that had previously been occupied were empty. No Aaru, no Gerel.
Forty cells. Zero people.
Yarrow opened my cell. The ring of iron was horribly loud.
“Where is everyone?” My question sounded too loud, too.
“Gone.”
“When are they coming back?”
“Get inside the cell.”
My heart pounded. I didn’t want to confine myself to that small space again, especially after the taste of freedom in the bath, but the baton hung from his hip, and the crossed maces on his uniform were a constant reminder that he was stronger and faster. Even the best fighter from another island couldn’t defeat a warrior while on Kyhan.
So I went inside my cell and dropped my bundle onto my bed.
“Galadriel Minkoba.” My full name sounded strange.
I wanted to say something smart, but I couldn’t shake the sensation of something awful creeping up around me, so I just looked at him.
His face was hard. Lean. Predatory. His narrowed eyes met mine as he said, “I hope you use this time to reconsider your refusal.” Then, he tossed a small sack at my feet and shut the door—a second too-loud ringing.
His boots thumped down the hall, and he was gone.
I was alone.
Off-balance at this sudden isolation, I picked up the bag and took it to my bed. There was food inside, and a container of water.
I couldn’t believe he’d moved everyone away.
At least, I hoped he’d only moved them.
What if he’d killed them?
This was because of me. Because I’d refused to give him the locations of the missing dragons.
My mind boiled over with visions of Gerel fighting for her life, Aaru being slaughtered, and Tirta being led from her bath to her death. And what about the others? I could almost hear Hurrok’s howling, crying, begging for mercy. . . .
A slam echoed down the hall. I jumped, spilling my food across the floor.
Just as I bent to gather everything, the noorestones went out.
Darkness.
Complete darkness.
And silence.
No whimpering. No screaming. No tapping from the next cell over.
The panic rushed in, overwhelming; I waited and waited, counting seconds and minutes and hours.
The lights did not come on again.
PART TWO
AFFINITY FOR DRAGONS
THE DARKNESS WENT ON AND ON.
Long after the first wave of panic passed and a constant, low-grade terror settled in, the darkness persisted. It became a force, a pressure that squeezed me in on myself, until I awakened huddled under the bed, praying for the light to return.
But even the hole between my cell and Aaru’s became a threat in the dark. I could feel the emptiness of his space leaking through to mine, swallowing my existence.
Soon, I would not be real.
MY FOOD WENT quickly.
I gathered everything as soon as I regained my sense of self. Before-the-Pit Galadriel wouldn’t have thought to do that. She’d have stayed perfectly still, wondering if the noorestones were broken, assuming the lights would return. But In-the-Pit Galadriel knew better.
The Pit had made me hungry. Sharp. Aware of how quickly a vague sense of wanting to eat could turn into hollowed-out agony.
My food had scattered everywhere, so each expedition into the cell was slow and careful, because if I crushed anything, I might render it inedible. And I needed every bite. I would never again waste food, as I’d done my first day.
Using the bed as an anchor, I reached out, patted the floor, and found an apple. I stuffed it into my bag. Then I repeated the process, shuffling forward until I’d checked as far as the opposite wall. I retreated to the bed to begin again.
In the end, I had four apples, two small loaves of bread, a big wedge of cheese, seven pieces of dried meat, and a single container of water.
This was more food than usually came in the bag. And that meant . . . What? How long was I supposed to make it last?
I took my bag and hid under my bed, as if the darkness couldn’t reach me there.
OUTSIDE, ON THE surface, the moons and stars kept the true darkness at bay. Even on the rare nights both moons were new, stars still littered the black sky with silver and gold. On those nights, the faint pink shapes of faraway darkdust glowed a little brighter.
Underground, the moons and stars blocked from view by layers and layers of earth, there was no ambient light. The noorestones were out, and the darkness was complete.
Five things I learned about the dark:
1. There was something physical about complete blackness, like the absence of light granted extra substance to the air around me.
2. The inability to see made even a formerly known room suddenly unknown. It challenged the dimensions of the space, obscured everything, so that even without moving, I was lost. 3. Without the light to show me where my body ended and the rest of the world began, sometimes I felt as though I’d expanded to take up the entire cell. Other times, I felt as though the darkness shrank me and I became smaller and smaller, ready to collapse in on myself. Most of the time, it seemed as though there might not be a firm boundary between where I ended and the darkness began; we’d melted together.
- Writer
