After a few yards, I was half dragged up steps, my feet slipping.
At some point, they untied my hands, pushed me forward, and then slammed a door shut. My heart was pounding so hard that I thought I was going to throw up. I was afraid they were still there, fearing another blow, but when nothing happened for a while, I pulled the cloth off.
I blinked several times as if my subconscious had expected light, but the room was gloomy, although not completely dark. It was a small room; the two windows were boarded up on the outside so thoroughly that the sunlight only entered in one place. The strip of light fell right in front of my feet. Apart from that, there was an old wooden table and two chairs, nothing more.
I stood there for a few seconds, one hand on the throbbing spot where the blow to my ribs had landed. From below, I heardthe thuds of heavy boots. Men were talking to each other, but I couldn’t understand them, and a few were laughing, and one was coughing heavily. My courage sank and my fear paralyzed me. No matter where I was, Isaac would make sure that no one would find me. Maybe I would die here. Alone. In some house, in some place.
I didn’t know how much time had passed. Maybe two hours. Restless, I paced from corner to corner. Several times, I had stood on my tiptoes and peered through the cracks in the boards, but all I could see were the branches of bald cypress trees, a sliver of gray sky, green water, and a narrow porch. Maybe this strip of nature would be the last I would see of the world. I didn’t know where they had taken me and fear had distorted my sense of time. We could have been on the road for twelve hours or only six, and maybe we had left the bayous, but the view told me otherwise.
I stood on my tiptoes again and looked out, one hand pressed to my ribs. I was certain Isaac was going to kill me, but I didn’t know when. Or how. I couldn’t think about either if I didn’t want to lose my mind. Maybe Nathan would find me first. He knew the bayous.
But hadn’t he said that they were a maze if you were searching for someone here on a whim?
It could take months…and maybe they had seriously harmed him.
With an ice-cold feeling in my bones, I stared at the tiny piece of sky and tried hard not to think about how pale and lifeless he had lain on the edge of the swamp.
Please, let him be okay! He has to be okay! He has to be fine!
I blinked back my tears. I had to think of something nice. Like our first night in the cabin, when we had escaped fromthe wild boars and made love. In my mind, I conjured up the swampy smell of the damp earth, the warm coolness of the night, and Nathan’s sweaty skin on mine. Our deep, endlessly deep kisses.
I thought about the few times I had seen Nathan actually laugh. How young he looked when he did and how it made his sea-gray eyes shine. I thought about the colorful light and shadow magic of the Palace of Shards, and about my dad. His comforting hugs and words.We’ll get through this, Willa Mouse. Be brave, my child!
I had almost forgotten the last words, but it was certainly not a good sign that I remembered them now of all times. I sank back onto the soles of my feet and tried to breathe shallowly so that the pain in my ribs didn’t sting as much. I tiptoed to the door, listening for footsteps on the creaking stairs, but it remained silent. I wished that it was already over and I wished that time would stand still and freeze forever.
When the door opened, I hadn’t heard a sound. It caught me by surprise, probably by design.
“It’s evening, little lady. We’d better get started.” Isaac stood on the threshold, behind him waited Billy and Maury with their legs apart and their arms crossed—his own private army. This time, they weren’t carrying weapons, at least none that I could see, but my eyes flew back to Isaac anyway.
He was dressed in black and dark green, which made his yellow-topaz eyes glow like a fire in the forest. He was pale, perhaps the first sign of his illness. He gestured invitingly to a chair. “Sit,” he said almost kindly.
I hesitated but obeyed for it was an order no matter how nicely he uttered the words. Sitting, I hooked my feet together and clasped my hands in my lap so that my fear was less obvious.
Isaac sat across from me. The atmosphere was like an interrogation; the light coming through the open door bathedme in brightness while Isaac’s face remained in the shadows. But, during interrogations, prosecutors demanded information and I had no information. There was nothing I could tell him.
“You know you’re going to die here, don’t you?”
The simple sentence spoken so casually catapulted me miles away even though I was sitting stiffly in my chair. Even though I had suspected it, even though I had read it in Nathan’s eyes, it made my chest tighten and my heart felt as if it were shrinking.
Isaac smiled indulgently. “Don’t worry, little lady, you still have a little time, after all, we’ll definitely need something from Daddy first.”
“You…you said he would never turn himself in.” I didn’t know how I even managed to utter a sensible sentence after he had told me I was going to die. My mind was stuck in a swamp, but of course, part of me still clung to the hope that he was just trying to scare me or that Nathan would get me out of here in time.
Isaac leaned back, relaxed. His dark hair fell wildly over his forehead, just like it had on the Agamemnon, almost covering his striking eyes. Why had I never noticed the color? “That’s true,” he answered coolly. “He’s too proud for that. He’s just trying to string us along. He’s definitely searching for you.”
What he said renewed my hope. Dad was looking for me. Maybe his unit would be able to track me down here after all.
Isaac stared at me, but I couldn’t read his expression. “We’ve been asking for something else for a long time. Something Nathan never wanted.”
“Money.” I sounded bitter.
“What else could he offer us?”
Fearful, I looked past Isaac to his soldiers behind the open door. Their faces were emotionless, which increased my fear. I would never get out of here. “I could get you money too if that’s all it takes,” I heard myself say. “And quickly. The bankers inNew York know me; I could cash out as much money as you want. Your patients could afford any treatment, any medicine, anything they need.”
“No banker in the world would give you a cent without papers. And you don’t have your identification with you; besides, you would certainly promise anything to save your life, but it doesn’t change anything.”
I swallowed. “Why not?” Isaac remained silent as he examined me. My face, my arms, my upper body. Even my throat. His gaze burned me like glowing lava. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I blinked them back. “Why not?”
