With that, they both climb up the rope ladder, pulling it back up with them and closing the lid to my box. The rest of the night, I play the last few weeks over in my head. Repeating the same mistakes, wondering what I could have,shouldhave done differently. Now Nia and Elana are… I don’t even know. And I’m stuck… again. I punch the wall in anger, bruising my knuckles.
Fuck.
The next morning, I am woken by a chattering of voices above me.
“You talk in your sleep, you know,” a man’s voice shouts down. The crate door opens again, and the rope ladder unfolds, followed by two different men than yesterday.
“What? No, I don’t,” I say groggily, my voice hoarse from the lack of water.
The two men are similarly dressed, but one is tall and skinny with dirty blonde hair and fair skin. The other is shorter with a warm amber skin tone and short black hair, shaven close to his scalp.
The shorter of the two kneels beside me, handing me a flask of water. “Drink.”
Without hesitation, I grab the flask from him. Water spills down my tunic as I guzzle haphazardly from the flask.
“What’s your name, kid?” the man asks, handing me a bread roll wrapped in a swatch. I debate slapping his hand away but at this rate I’ll have zero energy to chase after Nia and Elana.
If I ever get out of here.
“Wyatt,” I reply, snatching the bread, not allowing him the chance to take it back.
“Easy there, Wyatt.” He chuckles. “Thought you were gonna bite my hand off. I’m Aron, and this shy sod next to me is Izaac. How are you doing down here?”
Terrible. Tired. Bored out of my tits.
“Fine.”
Aron cocks his eyebrow. “Sure you are.”
Damn, I must look worse than I thought. I guess days of unplanned travel will do that to you. Bet I smell a treat. I keep stuffing bread into my mouth to avoid any more questions, notthat it stops him asking. I ignore the best I can, but one stops me in my tracks.
“Tell me, Wyatt. This witch you mentioned, what was her power? I grew up in a town full of magic wielders, so call me curious.” Izaac’s shoulders drop in disgruntlement, shaking his head at Aron.
“She had… I don’t even know what to call it. It was something I had never seen before.”
“Hrm…” Aron said, “That just makes me more intrigued.” Izaac rolls his eyes, but Aron keeps going with this line of inquiry. “How did the guards know to look for her?” I shrug. “How did they find her? Was she using her powers when they found her, or did someone unveil her secret?”
With a piqued sigh, he says, “You have to tell me something, it’s killing me here.”
“They carried a weird compass that glowed near her. But it was probably the marking she had on her back. Showed she was a witch or something.”
At this point, I’d tell him everything to just get him to shut up. My head is ready to explode, and I’m bone tired.
Aron nods. “Now that you're fed and watered, Caelan wants a word. Come on.”
I groan, following them up the ladder.
The sun blazes down on me as we exit the mountain cave. I shield my eyes with my arm, catching a waft of my smell, gagging in the process. Either kill me at this point or let me leave, I’m so done with the waiting around.
The little village is busy, with folk of all ages mulling about with the farms and livestock. Digging up the dirt, fishing in the small river that runs through the middle of the hamlet.
We walk—I stumble, with how tired I am—into Caelan’s hut. My knees buckle beneath me, and I fall flat on my face. Gruntingin pain, I roll onto my back. I barely have enough strength to move.
“Haven’t we been feeding him? We’re not beasts,” Caelan shouts.
“Course we have. He’s just a stubborn little rat who doesn’t want to eat.” I recognise the larger man from the first visit I received. Forcing myself into an upright position, I swear the number of folk in this hut has increased twofold. Or maybe I’m just seeing double.
Caelan stomps in front of me, holding a plate filled to the brim with meat, bread, and cheese. I lift my eyes to him before I take it, to make sure it’s not a trick.
