Page 110 of The Prison Healer

“Stoppedwhat?” Kiva asked, fearing that she already knew.

Something like this went around years ago, soon after I first became the Warden.

Naari’s throat bobbed. “They’re expecting a record number of prisoners come spring. The winter has been harsh, all across the continent. So much more crime than usual, especially with the rebel uprising bleeding into the other kingdoms and rumors of war on the horizon.”

Kiva felt like she’d missed a step. “So?”

Naari held Kiva’s eyes, openly sharing her horror at what she was about to reveal. “Zalindov is already past capacity. So Rooke decided to enact his own form of ... population control.”

Population control.

The two words echoed in Kiva’s mind, her fears confirmed.

The prisoners were being poisoned.

No, not just poisoned.Executed.

It was deliberate.

And it came from the top. From Warden Rooke himself.

Something like this went around years ago, soon after I first became the Warden.

He was murdering prisoners now, just as he’d murdered them before.

Nine years ago.

Warden Rooke had killed her father.

Kiva felt as if she’d been kicked in the gut and then trampled to keep from getting up again.

Was that why she was locked away in the Abyss? Not just because of Jaren’s interference with the Ordeal, but also because, after Naari had confronted Rooke, he’d realized Kiva might find a cure to his poison, ruining his plans? Or had he decided to get rid of her before that, when he’d seen her holding the vial, and Jaren’s rescue in the quarry gave him the excuse he needed to lock her away before she could stop him?

With sudden clarity, Kiva now understood. He’d never wanted toprotecther—he’d wanted to keep her close, to make sure she remained his submissive puppet. And as soon as he knew she wouldn’t ...

Rooke didn’t answer to any single kingdom, he answered to all of them. But if they didn’t know what he was doing, if word never left Zalindov’s walls, then Kiva would have been his only threat. So he’d sent her to the Abyss, along with any chance of a cure.

Was that what he’d done with her father? Had Faran Meridan figured out the truth nearly a decade earlier? Kiva had assumed the sickness had taken him, but now she wondered if he’d learned of Rooke’s treachery—and paid with his life.

Fire ran through Kiva’s veins, her entire body trembling.

“It gets worse,” Naari said.

Kiva didn’t know how that was possible.

“We were in the infirmary when I spoke with him,” Naari continued. “He’d come to check on Tilda, wanting a report on her condition, as if hoping to get some scrap of rebel information from her while he still could.” The guard fiddled with the luminium beacon, but then made herself stop, clutching her fingers together instead. “Tipp was in the quarantine room, Olisha and Nergal weren’t around. I thought we were alone.” She paused. “I didn’t know Cresta had come to drop off another sick quarrier, that she’d hidden and overheard everything.”

Everworld help them.

If Cresta knew—

“By the time the news began circulating, it was too late,” Naari said. “There’s nothing to be done now. The prisoners know they’re being poisoned, they know who’s doing it, and they know it’s still happening, since Rooke doesn’t care that he’s been outed. He hasn’t changed his plans. As long as no one outside Zalindov knows, he’s safe.”

Safe. When no one else was.

“The inmates are terrified. And enraged. I’ve never seen them like this, all of them rallying together, rebels and anti-rebels alike. The other guards are beating them into submission, but it’s three thousand against a few hundred. I’m not sure how long before full-scale violence unfolds.”

Kiva’s trembles had turned to shakes. She could already see it playing out in her mind. There had been a number of riots during her time in Zalindov, each of which had been terrifying to live through, but the worst ones—the ones that left dozens, sometimes hundreds dead—had only occurred twice. Kiva had suffered nightmares for months after both, fearing every small sound would launch the beginning of another deadly riot, and the mass executions that followed.

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