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Or maybe it was the lingering residue of the last batch of poison forced on me that was making me feel this way. It was easier to succumb to their wills than to fight through pain.
I allowed the Augur to lift the cup to my lips, hatred seething inside me like a storm. He lifted it patiently until I had drunk every last drop.
The hatred abated, leaving a cold bitterness in its wake.
“If only you could be this obedient all the time,” he said, mouth downturned at the corners. “You’ve made our lives so difficult, you ingrate.”
I wanted to tell him that it was impossible to be grateful for being constantly drugged and beaten, but words were too difficult.
I didn't notice him leave, floating on a mental sea in a fog. At least the pain was gone again.
The next time someone appeared in front of me, it took me a moment to understand who it was.
Yana knelt before me with a tray of food. My stomach growled, and I wondered how long it had been since I’d last eaten. Food just didn’t seem important when I was not myself.
But she didn’t hum, or smile, or give any indication whatsoever that she recognized me at all.
“Yana?” I whispered. My tongue felt thick, but at least I wanted to speak.
She said nothing, dipping a bit of hard bread in a cup of broth until it softened. She held it to my lips until I took a bite.
It was stale bread and bland broth, but hunger roared to life in me. I devoured the entire heel of bread as fast as I could, which was difficult with Yana bringing it to my mouth.
She looked even more drawn than she had the week before. Even though she was hardly twenty, fine lines seemed engraved in the corners of her eyes, and her eyes were dull.
“Yana, speak to me,” I begged, keeping my voice down.
When she did speak, her voice was as dead as her eyes. “What is there to say?”
This was not my Yana. Not the one hummed to ease me when she healed my hurts.
A horrible suspicion grew inside me. The Father had always treated her badly, but she’d been off-limits to the town men because she was his daughter. “He didn’t sell you, did he?”
The tiniest spark of something flared in her gaze, then died just as quickly. “No.”
She looked the way I felt inside, like I was already a withered husk and nothing would bring me back.
But I could hold on through the effects of the poisoning. I knew something good was waiting on the other side of this misery.
Yana looked like she didn’t have a single prayer left in the world.
“I got out of here,” I said softly. “And everything they told us is a lie. I can get out again, and I’ll bring you with me. Just… please, Yana. Unlock these chains and we can leave together. I promise there is something better than this out there.”
She stared down at the tray of food, unmoving. After a long moment, several tears dripped from her chin and fell to the floor, where they were immediately absorbed by the packed earth.
Yana shook her head. “There’s nothing out there for me, Salem. I’m already dead.”
She got up and left, leaving the tray behind.
* * *
Another half a daypassed before anyone came down into the basement. By then I’d stopped worrying about Yana so much, more concerned with the gnawing pain in my stomach that the poisoned tea was no longer suppressing.
Part of it was the bruises left by Oleg, and the other part was just plain hunger. The heel of bread hadn’t held me over for long.
The still-full bowl of broth made my stomach growl, just out of reach. There was even cheese we hadn’t gotten to.
It was torment to stare at the food within arm’s reach that I couldn’t grasp.
