Despite the fact that Polo was tossing her into prison, Maela had to admit that he was at least nice about it. He told the guards to treat her well and to give her food for the journey, even as they were to lock her up in the most secure prison of the guild.

Maela wasn't even sure where the Harvest Guild prison was located. It wasn't under Harvest House. Other guilds had their prisons deep under their guild towers, but Harvest House seemed too small and vibrant for a stone prison.

She sat in the darkness with a loaf of bread in her hands as the locked and barred coach started down the road. The road led in three directions—toward Trader's Bridge and the center of Ness, to the Northeast and the Outer Fields, and to the Southwest and the Silo District. Figuring the prison was most likely out beyond the Wall in the Outer Fields, Maela sat back for a long ride.

The clip-clop of the horses hooves on the cobblestones was calming at first. After an hour or so, however, she was finding the persistent knocking annoying, and two hours after that Maela was ready to never ride in a coach again, the repetitive sound driving her crazy.

At one point she heard the sound of rushing water and assumed that the coach was crossing the North Fork, far to the north of the Outer Fields. It made sense to her as no one in Ness would ever go out that far, and its seclusion would be a good place for a prison. She expected the maddening sounds of the hooves to end soon.

Much later, as Maela sensed that the coach was climbing a hill and had traveled so far as to be well past the Outer Fields, it hit her—The prison was in the mines. It made so much sense that Maela couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it first. The mines were under the control of the Harvest Guild, and the mines themselves were made up of dozens of passages. All the Harvest Guild had to do was find some shaft that was no longer producing ore and turn it into a remote prison.

For the first time during the entire mission, Maela was frightened. She had the arrogance of the Thieves in her—that every prison in the city had some method of being beaten. She and Ralan had proven that when they broke Alard free from the Knight Guild prison. But a solitary cell deep in the mines seemed outside the capabilities of even the Thieves.

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Her fears were confirmed when the coach stopped, and the door was opened. She looked out on a dim cavern lit by torches. The guards helped her down and, to her relief, continued to treat her well. Escape was out of the question—they were deep in the mines and even if she got away from the guards, where could she go? There was one way in and out, and she was quite sure it was heavily guarded.

It was a short walk to her cell, which was a cube cut out of pure rock, with heavy iron bars at the front. She entered and turned as the guard closed the door and locked it. An armed guard wearing a flowing green cape walked up.

"We are to treat you well, but that luxury will be lost if you try to escape or you treat your guards with disrespect." He turned to leave.

"May I ask a question?" Maela replied.

The guard slowly turned and walked back. "One question."

"When will I be released?" Maela pondered how angry Polo could be. He knew that she was not trying to harm him, so perhaps he just wanted to teach her a lesson.

The guard stared at her for a while and then shook his head. "I assumed you knew." He stepped forward, and there was kindness in his voice even as his words were spoken with the force of a command. "You are to live the rest of your life in this cell." He looked at the shock on Maela's face and continued with a sigh, "If you would prefer to end your life I can provide a rope or a knife. You may ask your guard at any time."

The guard turned to leave, but paused and turned back to Maela. "I had forgotten. Guildmaster Polo told me to give you this." He reached into a small pouch, pulled out a single red rose, and tossed it on the floor at Maela's feet.

And without another word, the guard of the Harvest Guild turned and walked out into the dim light. Maela looked around her small cell. No one knows I'm here, she thought. With that sobering thought in her head, Maela focused on assessing how she could escape.

When she had been trapped or imprisoned in the past, she could always find hope or opportunity. In the bowels of the Harvest Guild prison all she could find was solid rock. And a single red rose.

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