Page 40 of Throne of Ice and Blood
“And besides,” Lavendera continues. “How else were they supposed to keepan entire racecontained inside just one single city? If we could have multiple children, we would outgrow the city and the resources it can provide.”
I feel like the entire foundations of my world are breaking. Desperately blocking out the torrent inside me, I try to keep it from shattering completely and burying me underneath so much rubble that I will never be able to climb back out. I can’t consider the full implications of this right now. I don’t even know if it’s actually true. If it was, we would have known. Wouldn’t we?
“How do you know all this?” I ask, my voice strained from how hard I’m trying to keep it together right now.
“How do younot?” She shakes her head at me, almost as if she’s disappointed in me. “Have you never thought about it? If we truly could only produce one child, our species would have gone extinct long ago.”
“But then… won’t we go extinct now?”
“Since we live for so long, it will take a while. And I assume the Icehearts are planning on lifting the restrictions once we run the risk of inbreeding.” She gives me that look of absolute disbelief again. “Have you seriously never questioned any of this?”
“No,” I snap as a wave of embarrassment and anger crashes over me. Because deep down, I know she’s right. I should have questioned it. But instead, I reply, “I was… busy worrying about other things. Like how to survive. And eat.”
A harsh laugh escapes her mouth. Then she gives me a nod, as if conceding the point. “Yeah. That’s how they do it. Distract you with?—”
She abruptly stops speaking in the middle of her sentence. Her eyes go vacant for a second. Then they snap back in focus. A snarl rips from her throat, and she shoots up from the floor. But since the ceiling of the cage is so low, it only makes her bang her head against it. She crouches down and rakes her fingers through her hair, and then begins pacing bent over like that.
“Stop,” she growls. “It’s so crowded. It’s so fucking crowded.”
I stare at her, completely stunned by the abrupt change in behavior.
“Yeah, she does that,” Alistair says, and heaves a deep sigh.
Lavendera continues pacing while furiously raking her fingers through her hair. My heart beats hard in my chest as I watch her. I don’t know what suddenly triggered it from one second to the other, but I suppose I do understand it. If she truly has been living out in the thorn forest all her life, like people say, any kind of confinement must feel crowded. And this in particular.
My gaze shifts to Isera, who is still sitting immobile in her cage, staring at nothing. Then I flick another glance at Lavendera before I at last return my gaze to the blond fire-wielder in the cage to my right.
Alistair is right. We’re in bad shape. When I snuck in here, I thought that I would be able to recruit both Isera and Alistair to the resistance. But it looks like Alistair is the only one sane enough to actually help.
So I block out all the awful things I have learned in the past few minutes and instead focus on my mission. I can’t change what has happened in the past. And I don’t even know for sure if Lavendera is right. It’s still only her speculations. I need to focus on the things that I can change. Which is the future. I’m going to take down this whole fucking dynasty if it’s the last thing I do. And for that, I’m going to need help from Alistair.
However, when I turn back to him, I only find suspicion in his green and orange eyes as he locks them on me.
“You know, you never really answered my question, Soulstealer,” he says, using the nickname he and his friends used to call me back in the Seelie Court. “How are you here? If you managed to sneak away from Draven, why did you come here instead of escaping?”
Hesitation pulses through me. If we were back in the Seelie Court, Alistair is the last person I would trust with a secret as dangerous as this.
My gaze drifts down to the collar around his neck and over the thin blanket wrapped around his half-naked body.
Determination pushes out the hesitation. Alistair and I might have had our differences in the past, but right now, we want the same thing. So I decide to be honest.
His eyes widen as I explain about my escape and my meeting with the human resistance and the planned heist to cripple the Iceheart Dynasty.
“I will get you out of here,” I finish. “I promise. After the heist, I will get us all out of here. So you have to hold on. For just a little while longer.”
Sitting there at the back of the cage, he watches me in silence for a few seconds. My heart pounds as I wait for him to say something. To tell me that I’m an idiot. That I should have run when I had the chance. That I should try to steal the keys to theircages from Bane and Jessina and just get us all the hell out of here. But to my surprise, he doesn’t.
Drawing in a long breath, he instead says, “What do you need?”
“Maps,” I reply. “There are places that I can’t get into. Like the royal wing. I need to know the layout so that I can figure out where the treasury is and how to get there.”
Alistair grimaces, but then nods. “They keep us blindfolded when they take us out of these cages. But I’ll see if I can overhear something.”
“Thank you.”
He glances away and runs both hands through his curly blond hair. “Just… promise you’ll make a plan to get us out of here. Quickly.”
“Of course. I’ll…” I trail off as I notice something.
