A cool unease washes over me. Saipha is the blood of dragon hunters. She’sdestinedfor Mercy. She’s always been calm under pressure. If this place could break her down, what chance do I have? I need her to be my rock.
“Saipha,” I repeat, firmer.
“Talk to us!” Her voice rises to a shout, echoing in the empty room. “We’re not animals. We’re not cursed. We’re people just like you. You can’t treat us this way.”
“Saipha!” My yell has the crack of a whip behind it. She flinches and turns her wide eyes to me. I immediately soften my expression now that she’s paying attention. “It’ll be all right.”
“But…”
“As you said, if we were cursed, it would’ve shown by now.” My own doubts have been nearly completely silenced with the reassurance of my parents and all I’ve endured without succumbing to the curse. “This will not be easy, but hard doesn’t mean impossible. Don’t fear difficult.”
She swallows and nods.
I move to the door at the front of my cage and sit. No cage is close enough for us to reach out and touch one another, even at the corners. But I’m at least a little bit closer this way.
Lucan takes the unspoken invitation, moving forward as well and sitting at the front of his cage. We both look to Saipha expectantly. She finally, somewhat begrudgingly joins us. I hold in a sigh of relief. My attention drifts over her shoulder and back to the inquisitors against the wall. None of them have moved.
Her panic can’t bode well for her. The sooner we can get her calm, the better. Hopefully, if we hold our composure, they might let us out early.
“Lucan, do you know End-to-Beginning?” I ask, knowing Saipha does.
“The letter game children play?” Lucan’s surprised.
I nod. “You both want to play a round?”
“Right now?” Surprise seems to draw Saipha from her terror.
“Sure. We have time,” Lucan says.
I force myself to snort in amusement at that, trying to relieve some of the tension.
Saipha was clearly hesitating, but she’s drawn in by his enthusiasm. I cast him a warm glance as a thank-you. “What’s the theme?”
“Clothing,” I say. It’s a simple enough topic that it’ll be easy to think of many things, but also nothing that could bring us back to dragons or our current predicament. “I’ll start: vest.”
“Tailor,” Lucan says, using the last letter of my word.
“Tailor isn’t a type of clothing,” Saipha objects.
“She didn’t say types of clothing, just ‘clothing.’ Which means it could encompass all things related,” he counters.
She rolls her eyes and relents. “Fine. Rag.”
“Rag isdefinitelynot clothing related,” Lucan says.
Saipha throws her hands up. “It’s made of fabric, isn’t it?”
“That’s the most tenuous connection I’ve ever heard.” Lucan leans back. “You just can’t think of a better word.”
“Robe.”Saipha narrows her eyes at him, instantly looking more like herself.
“Earmuffs,” I say after a moment of thought.
We go around like this, saying a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word, until one of us can’t think of anything—Lucan is the first one out. Saipha and I continue going until she gets the better of me, letting out a triumphant,“Ha!”
The next round, the theme is “building materials.”
The one after is “things you’d find in a library.”
