5
Twenty-thousand years.
I had never heard anything so absurd, not even in the stories the varjans told me as a child. Who was that woman, and why did she look so much like Airelle?
My footsteps echoed in the empty hallways that seemed to never end. Would I have to count out twenty-thousand steps before I found an escape from this accursed place?
There had to be a way.
I stalked down halls, looking for doors or windows, waiting to feel a swirl of fresh air. Any window I did see was an accursed Rix-made screen – I took great pleasure pulling these off of walls, but there were no windows hiding behind them, either.
What hell was this that I was trapped in? And how could I get out?
I found a place where animals were all in cages. Some of them I recognized – the number of feet were the
