“Korac! Korac, you fell asleep again.”
I stirred on the floor, exhausted. My new admirers paid extra for an additional hour of my company. Without the briefest of breaks between hours, I barely made it to my cell at the end of the night.
The L. Capra girl woke me on one such attempt. “Triss is on the warpath since that new Lyrik arrived. Best stay on her good side.”
I sat up to collect myself, proud my face no longer bore the bruises that covered the girl’s eyes. I was master now.
“You were crying in your sleep.”
Well, that deflated my puffed chest. I wiped the drying tears from my face.
She straightened her shift to cover every inch of her russet skin and moved her green curls to hide the handprints on her neck. Gently, she pressed as if in need of a distraction. “What were you dreaming about?”
Cold caves and caverns. Blood-curdling screams. Swords and arrows. But what made me cry was the permeating hope. Someone believed this would end, and they would live to see it.
Atheneum.
She brushed a fresh tear from my cheek. I flinched from her touch. Eventually, she tried another avenue. “If you could be anywhere else, where would you rather be?”
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Could I answer this? Without giving away a weakness? My secret longing felt precious. I wasn’t sure I wanted to share—
“My home boasts the most beautiful underground cities carved of salt. It twinkles in the artificial lights. We made it from our acid. I wish the wardens let me keep mine. Instead, they removed my glands and left me with nothing.” She curled her knees closer and hugged them. Her entire body coiled into an uncomfortable, tight ball, and I recognized the position.
Defensive. With her hands on her head, she could protect against most blows.
A soft sound escaped her. And another. Her shoulders shifted with her silent sobs.
I could share if it would ease her. “In Oleen’s bedroom, there is a painting of a mountain covered in snow. I want to see it one day. I think I hail from a place like it. My people are from a place with snow.”
She raised her head enough for me to see her eyes through her bangs. They were a soft blue. “It sounds pretty. Can I come with you?”
Feeling a stirring—a warmth—I agreed. Conditionally. “Only if I can see your cities.” I stood, a little wobbly, but still I held out my hand for her.
With a beaming smile, she took it. “Yes. My cities, and your mountains.”
The girl followed me back to my cell. The wardens left them unlocked since we couldn’t escape. The lifts required Lyriks to operate them.
I let her into what little privacy I was granted. Without an exchange of words, she retrieved Elden’s Verse, laid on my bunk, and patted the plank at her side. I joined her. It was the only pure contact in my life. No sex or pain. Just two kids taking a nap together.
Or so I thought.
The girl from L. Capra bestowed a few more wonders on me that night. She opened to the first page and sounded the beginning to me. “‘I was the first. I consumed the first outsider and with him, I consumed a wondrous gift.’ Now, you try.”
That’s how I learned to read.
She never treated me like a contaminant. I’d forgotten her until that recent memory walk with Kyle. The only authentic kindness I remembered from my childhood. And I failed her. It was easier to forget her when it hurt so much to remember.