“Does it?”
“Yes,” he said. “Did you have a plan to escape?”
A plan? Oh, yes. The rats. Half a plan at best.
But even as she thought it, the rest began to coalesce. Only one hitch, she was far too weak to accomplish it. Maybe Kaelan was right. Maybe she was dying.
“Magda?”
“Yes,” she croaked. “I had a plan.”
“Tell me.”
“It won’t work.”
“Let me decide that.”
In halting, too-short breaths, she explained it.
He was silent for a time after she finished talking. She drifted, skimming the edge of consciousness.
“Well, that might get one of us out,” he said.
His voice pulled her back to their dark, stinking cell. A mad thought flitted through her head. Why not tell Endreas where she’d sent Kirk? Then all of this could be over—one way or another. But who was she kidding? This would be over, and soon, if Kaelen was right.
“I don’t know who you are or why you’re here, but you should go,” she said.
“I would, believe me,” he said. “If I could communicate with the rats like you can, but I can’t.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t think I have it in me—”
“I can help you.”
A brittle laugh escaped her. “The last man who said that to me shoved an iron nail into my leg.”
“They haven’t fed me in days, Magda. We’re both going to die in here if we don’t do something. We... have to trust each other.”
Her eyelids resisted her attempts to keep them open. “I’m thirsty. I don’t think I’ve ever been so thirsty.”
“Focus, Magda. I don’t know when they’ll be back, or if they’re coming back. Obviously, they didn’t kill you, so they didn’t get what they wanted.”
“No...” She gave up. Her eyes closed and she began to sink into that quiet inner darkness.
“Magda.” Something hit her in the head.
“Ow.” She grimaced, snapping back to wakefulness.
“You can still feel pain, so you’re still alive. Can you come closer to me?”
A spark of fear flared up in her. “To the iron?”
“Yes, to the iron. And to me. Open your eyes. Look at me.”
With what felt like her last ounce of strength, she peeled back her eyelids and shifted her head.
“Here,” he said. “I am here.”
Her neck protested, but finally, she found him. Through the film of exhaustion and the swaths of darkness hanging heavy around them a pair of vivid green eyes shone. Slowly, the rest of his face emerged. Something about it struck her as familiar—the upturned eyes under a straight, low brow, the steep elegant cheekbones. Yes, something was familiar, and yet, she didn’t know him. A face like that she would remember.
