Page 100 of The Prison Healer

Kiva couldn’t believe she was thinking it, but she wished Princess Mirryn or Prince Deverick could have found a way to help her again, despite Rooke’s warning about no more interference. Even if Mirryn didn’t have any water magic, she could have helped in some way. And Deverick ... well, Kiva assumed he didn’t have any water magic either, since he already had air and fire, like his sister. Butstill. Any elemental magic was better than the nothing Kiva had. Not even Mot’s potion would help her—without having to swim for her life, she wouldn’t be facing muscle fatigue and cramps. What she really needed was an elixir to make her breathe underwater, and that, she knew, didn’t exist.

Kiva was a survivor. But ... for this Trial, she feared that wasn’t going to be enough.

“Do you understand your task?” the Warden asked.

Kiva couldn’t reply verbally, so she nodded, and looked down over the cliff into the quarry again. Her head spun with the realization that they weren’t hiking any lower, that it was from this height she would be falling into the water.

“Guard Arell, would you do the honors?” Rooke said.

Kiva’s heart leapt in her chest as Naari loosened her pincer-grip and moved into a crouch, reaching for the coiled rope and tying the end closest to the boulder around Kiva’s ankle. Realizing this was her last—and perhaps only—chance, Kiva waited until Rooke was issuing a command to one of the other guards before she bent and whispered in Naari’s ear, “It’s poison, Naari. They’re not sick, they’re beingpoisoned.”

She didn’t have time to say more, to explain about Olisha and Nergal and the “immunity booster,” because Rooke turned back and narrowed his eyes at her, asking, “What was that?”

“I told her she’s hurting me,” Kiva lied. “The rope is too tight.”

“It needs to be tight,” Rooke said. “We can’t have you undoing it while you’re down there. And besides, how will we fish you back out if it slips off?”

Kiva didn’t respond. But she did look at Naari as the guard slowly rose, her amber eyes alight with understanding. And horror.

“You’re sure?” Naari breathed.

Kiva looked at Rooke, then back at the guard. “Yes.”

“I told you, it needs to be tight,” Rooke growled, oblivious to Naari’s true question and Kiva’s answer.

The Warden grabbed Kiva’s shoulder and pointed to the boulder, indicating for her to pick it up. When she did, uttering a quiet“oof ”at the solid weight of it in her hands, he seized the other end of the rope and shuffled her toward the edge of the cliff. A sound similar to a collective indrawn breath came from the audience above.

“I’m not sure how deep this is,” Rooke said, scratching his short beard as he looked down at the water. “Guess you’ll have to find out for yourself.” His voice lowered so that only she could hear, the smallest hint of empathy in his tone, but Kiva knew better than to believe it was for her—he was just worried about losing his best healer. “This is the part where you hold your breath. Ready?”

No. Kiva wasn’t ready. She wouldneverbe ready. But she didn’t have a choice, so she quickly called to mind everything she knew about lung capacity and controlled breathing, and slowly began to hyperventilate. She knew doing so could reduce her blood pressure enough to cause hypoxic blackout, but if she couldn’t expand her lungs before entering the water, she was going to fall unconscious soon enough anyway. She had to do everything she could to give herself a fighting chance. If free-divers could do it, maybe she could, too. She had to at leasthopethere was a possibility of success, otherwise she might as well give up now.

“On three,” Rooke said.

Kiva focused on her breathing, vaguely aware of Naari stepping up beside her, the guard trembling slightly—whether from what Kiva was about to face, or the poison reveal, Kiva wasn’t sure. She didn’t have any room left in her to be afraid, couldn’t spare the oxygen required to feed her anxiety. All she could do wasbreathe.

“One,” Rooke said.

Kiva inhaled. Exhaled. Inhaled. Exhaled.

“Two.”

This was it.

Kiva filled her lungs, sucking in more and more air, her diaphragm extending to the point that it was painful, lightheadedness making her vision spin.

“Three.”

The Warden shoved Kiva from behind, and she struggled to keep her mouth closed on the air she’d so carefully trapped, every part of her wanting to scream as she plummeted down the side of the cliff face and—

Splash!

Into the water.

The shock of it had her dropping the boulder, her hands rising to cover her mouth, her nose, as she was pulled under, under,under. She could barely process the pain of her body slapping into the surface, the height of her fall nearly forcing the breath from her. But she didn’t yield it, nor did she release anything but the smallest of bubbles as she descended down into the quarry depths, the turquoise water turning darker the lower she was pulled, the sun struggling to penetrate this deep.

Kiva felt as if her ears were bleeding, the pressure of her swift descent like daggers stabbing into her brain. And the cold—the cold.

She hadn’t noticed in those first few seconds, adrenaline and pain from her brutal landing driving away all thoughts other than to keep holding her breath, but as that shock faded, a different kind of shock set in.

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