Queen Of The Great Underworld

41

Bophans were setting Hartans on fire? My stomach turned over and I wanted to be sick, but I couldn’t stop listening.

“It is a great insult to my people, dying like that, your shadow snuffed out.” She shook her head, braids sliding across her clothes. “After riots across Bopha, the Twilight Senate met to discuss a course of action. It was proposed that Hartans should return to Harta for their own safety and the well-being of Bopha. For a year now, Hartans have been accused of destroying the land.” She paused and frowned. “For centuries, wealthy Bophans have hired Hartans to come tend fields and farms. Even after the Galadriel Treaty, many Hartans chose to remain.”

Like Jan’s father. My parents had hired him as a gardener when Jan was just an infant, and he’d stayed with us after the treaty. He always said he liked working on the prominence, and he was so, so good at it.

“But recently, fields have gone fallow, and not even the most gifted Sparrowcan make them fertile again. Or, as many Bophans believe, they won’t make those fields fertile. All across Bopha, my people have accused Hartans of poisoning the land.”

That was outrageous. Hartans would never harm the land.

“During the discussion,” Chenda went on, “I stood for Hartans. Many have lived on the Isle of Shadow since childhood. They have nothing in Harta. No promise of work, no place to live. My opponents insisted that Hartans are loving people: they will gladly take in their fellow Daughter-born. But I said that we cannot count on that. For centuries, the Twilight Senate blocked Sparrowindependence, and as people who committed such a grievous wrong, we must do everything in our power to make it right.”

I nodded. Her words rang true.

“The Twilight Senate said the people of Bopha could not bear the burden of their ancestors’ guilt. They said Harta had been independent for seventeen years—most of my life—and I could not begin to understand how different the world is now.”

I’d often heard the same words from the Luminary Council.

“In the High Tower, in the center of the Shadowed City, we argued the matter for days. Meanwhile, protests and riots broke out all across the island. Suddenly, before the fifth day’s meeting, I was arrested and taken from my home. They said I had been feeding information to a Sparrowrebellion on Bopha—through my Sparrowlover.”

I gasped.

“They claimed he had started a riot that killed fourteen Bophans, including three members of the Twilight Senate. They claimed he had burned them alive, slaughtering their shadows. They claimed I had told him the time and location to do this. I knew this could not be true. Nevertheless, he was ripped from his home and beaten to death during the arrest. No proof could be found of my involvement, but my association and defense of the Sparrowpeople was enough to earn a sentence to the Pit.”

My heart was pounding and my knuckles pale around the metal grille.

Chenda met my eyes, and for a moment, I thought I saw a spark of recognition. Like she knew me. Like she remembered me. But I had no distinctive markings, and I was so changed from the Hopebearer version of me. Maybe she didn’t know me.

She said, “I am here because I stood up for what was right.”

She was so brave. I wouldn’t have had the courage to stand up like that.

As the evening crawled toward lights-out, I sat in the center of my cell, trying to imagine myself saying the things she’d said, defending the people she’d defended, losing someone I loved like she had. I tried to imagine myself retaining my composure and strength after such heartbreak.

And mostly, I sank beneath the crush of understanding: we’d both defied our governments and tried to do what was right. The Luminary Council’s betrayal was one thing, but the Twilight Senate as well?

I’d been na?ve to think my parents would be able to persuade the Luminary Council to free me, or that the Pit would take prisoners just temporarily. The Pit was for life.

No one was coming to get me.

I WAS ON my own.

If I didn’t want to stay in the Pit the rest of my life, this dark threat of Yarrow’s hanging over me, I needed to do something about it. I needed to escape before he could pry out more secrets.

But not right now. It was almost dark, and I didn’t want to be caught in it.

First, I found my silk square and fastened it over my hair. Second, I checked to make sure my pillow and blanket were under the bed, where they belonged.

“Are you all right?” Gerel sat on her bed already, arms looped around her knees. Showing off, clearly. The normal sleeping location held no terror for her, after all.

“It doesn’t really matter, does it? I can’t change anything.” The words came out colder than intended.

“You spent all last night crying and kept me awake. So yes, it matters. You need to learn to overcome your fear, that way the rest of us can get some sleep.”

My chest stung from her comment. I hadn’t spent all last night crying. Just . . . some of it. “Sorry to inconvenience you. Try sleeping during the day while I’m working.”

Before she could respond, I spun around like I had somewhere else to be. At that moment, the lights went out.

Panic stole my breath. The darkness disoriented, but I kept my numbers: I took the two steps to my bed, knelt, and scurried to the safety of that small space.wn the hall, Hurrok opened his lungs and released his terror into the hall. The sound echoed, filling the cellblock like liquid. As much as I hated his screaming, it was a reminder: this was normal darkness, filled with other people. This was not alone darkness. Isolated darkness.

Still, I found myself counting, gathering my numbers until there was nothing else.