Page 69 of Of Nine So Bold

More ways to make sure we never made it out of here.

Sinking down against the rock wall—it was best to keep the stone at my back so no one could come up on me from behind, I’d learned—I leaned my head against the rocks and struggled to repeat my mantra to myself, fighting to believe the words. It didn’t matter what the Aneirans did. How long it took. I wouldn’t die here. I would make it back to my treluria.

For her, I had to survive. To die would be to leave her with one less person to protect her, and I would never fail her like that.

A commotion rose as the guards returned with a single bucket of food. Tossing the contents through the bars, they laughed as the giants scrambled after the rolls of bread that tumbled across the stone floor.

I didn’t move, praying someone would miss a crumb or, gods help me, an entire roll in the chaos. I’d learned on the first day that chasing the food was a great way to get stepped on. As it was, I’d narrowly avoided that fate a dozen times that day, just trying to get something to eat.

Hungry people were desperate.

But I also hadn’t eaten in nearly two shifts.

“Here, boy.” Ignatius sat down next to me with a sigh and tore the roll in his hands in half. There was mold on the bread, but he barely seemed to notice beyond giving me the part with fewer of the tiny invaders.

I hesitated. My stomach felt like a gaping void made of hunger, but the scholar was one of the oldest people in here and he needed every bit of sustenance he could get. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Eat.”

I frowned, but I took the bread. “Thank you.”

He just grunted and began to eat, clearly too exhausted to respond.

My eyes closed in relief the moment I gulped down a bite.

“Pace yourself, son.”

Breathing heavily, I tried to slow down and do as he said.

“You’re holding up well,” Ignatius commented after a moment. “I admit, I didn’t expect you would make it this far.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond—or what that meant for how long I’d really been here. “Um, well, my friends and I mined in the mountains beyond Lumil?—”

A shriek interrupted me, and my attention snapped around to the opposite side of the cavern.

One of Norbert’s henchmen had a young female giant by the throat, while a skinny little girl cried at her side. His buddies laughed at the sight, and one of them shoved the child, sending her sprawling to the stone floor. Nearby, Brock glanced up, and tension flashed across his face—the most emotion I’d ever seen the big sandy-haired giant express. His eyes darted from the woman to someone else in the crowd, and his jaw clenched at whatever he saw.

Meanwhile, Norbert only smirked and rose to his feet. “Nadine, Nadine,” he chided. “Getting above your station now, aren’t you? Now why would that be?”

He looked in the same direction as Brock had, but still, I couldn’t tell why.

“She wasn’t trying to take more,” the woman pled. “I swear.”

Norbert made a tutting sound. “You calling us liars? The king’s own guard who act on his behalf?” He chuckled. “You know the rules. Disrespecting the king is punishable by death. You weren’t doing that, now were you?”

The woman clamped her mouth shut, her eyes wide with fear.

“Guess not.” Norbert smirked. “Brock, would you care to remind Nadine here what the price is for giving brats more than a quarter ration?”

Brock glanced again at the crowd. His jaw tightened, but after a heartbeat, the reaction vanished. Leaning back, he took a bite of his own roll and shrugged his brow as if to say he couldn’t be expected to speak with his mouth full.

The bully’s henchmen snickered. “Brock wants some of her ass too.”

Rage surged hot in my veins.

Ignatius caught my arm, stopping me when I started to shove to my feet. At my incredulous look, he only made a cautioning noise, shaking his head.

“Yeah, that bitch of his is all dried up,” Norbert agreed. “We’ll let him have the leftovers, how about that?”

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