A/N Regular text - Story

Italicized text - Thoughts

Chapter 2

5:00 pm

It was a dream; it had to be. Because for the first time in a while, there were no screams, no flashes of waking terrors, no cold sapping the warmth from my toes. Instead, there were strong arms around me. Not aggressive, not holding me down, just comforting and protective. They were thickly muscled and darkly tanned. The embrace was cozy and snug. The smell of steel and the sea swept over me with every even-deep breath he took. His heart was beating hard and steady under my ear; I had never known peace like this. Just as I was sinking deeper into his arms and the dream, it suddenly shifted, and a different set of arms was holding me. These were slimmer but still well-muscled; the fingers holding mine were longer, more dexterous. The scent of heavy spices and smoke rose from him like perfume, and the smell calmed my suddenly shaky nerves. His breath was soft and warm on the nape of my neck.

I basked in the dream. I was feeling my way through many different moments with these two men. The gentleness and affection they showed me made me nearly weep. I couldn't remember the last time anyone had handled me so gently. Even though I never heard their voices, never saw their faces, I knew they were somehow mine. That they would keep me safe; this dream gave me hope. I knew that there was a chance that this was no ordinary dream. Fallnia had always been known for its tourism and the brief war. The lesser-known wonder of Fallnia was, in fact, a plant, the soothsy flower that grows at the border between the beach and forest. Soothsy also used to grow around the perimeter of our prison, planted by the late queen's great-grandmother. When inhaled, the flower releases pollen that causes visions of the future.

My mother always said we could see farther than anyone else when our family inhaled the soothsy. It allowed us to find the loves of our lives and prepare for droughts, famine, and war. As I became wrapped in the scents of spice and smoke, steel and sea, I knew this was to be my home. It caused a deep ache in my heart as I felt the yearning for the unknown and the desperate need to help those I love safe began to war within me. I also began to feel a sense of deep shame. All I had done, all that had been done to me. How could I ever be worthy of such an extraordinary fate? The fretting started to warp the dream, and I had just lost the sense of belonging when a commotion roughly roused me from sleep.

Loud clanking ripped me from my waring emotions and the warmth and comfort I had felt back into the cold and dampness of my conscious world. Was it five o'clock already? I asked myself as I harshly rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Crankily, I cracked my eye open and squinted toward the door. Jane was wheeling in a heavy tray. While the food was steaming, the smell was almost enough to turn away from the meal altogether. Usually, it was only watery soup with the occasional carrot or celery slice floating at the top and more fat and bone than actual meat. After eating it for so long, I probably wouldn't be able to identify anything else. At least the ale was always strong. Strong enough to dull the senses so we wouldn't put up too much of a fight when they came for us in the night and strong enough so that the one who gets chosen won't feel so much.

I watched Jane make her way through the room. I watched Nami notice her, too. Her face flushed quickly with anger, and she balled her fists in her lap so hard her nails bit into her hand. I saw her coil herself tightly, preparing for a confrontation.

"Hey!" She hopped up from her spot at the foot of my bed and flew at Jane. She raised her hand and smacked Jane with everything she had in her. Jane fell to the floor without a sound, much like a puppet that had just had its strings cut. "You bitch, how could you do this to me? How could you do this to anyone?!" I ran at Nami and grabbed her around the waist. I quickly yanked her away from Jane before she could kick her in the side.

Nami continued to rant at Jane as I pulled her farther back into the room. Jane silently rose to her feet and continued to push the cart as if nothing had happened, not even bothering to wipe at the blood from her split lip, a single drop dripping off her chin and staining that immaculate beige blouse of hers.

I pushed Nami onto my bed and held fast to her shoulders as she tried to get back up.

"Nami! Stop. We can't act like this. I dread what's going to happen when Fredric or Henric see that swelling on her cheek." She continued to struggle weakly, and fresh tears filled her eyes. Nami's stare remained fixed on Jane as the latter wheeled from one bunk to the next, passing out this evening's helping of gruel. Maybe we'll get butter with the stale bread; wouldn't that be a treat?

Nami glanced over at the still-open cell door, and I saw the idea take root in her eyes and gripped her bicep as I felt her start to jump back to her feet.

"Don't." My voice was stern. It froze her like ice. Without moving, she let out a frustrated scream.

"But she left it open. We can escape." Again, she made to jump up, and I again yanked her back down.

"Do you see that band of metal around Jane's wrist?" Nami glanced over at the bright red light that blinked in an unsteady rhythm. Turning back to me, she nodded. "That is a signal that allows her to pass through that doorway. If someone without one of those tried to pass through that doorway when the security system is enabled, the floor drops out and opens a pit." To prove my point, I grabbed a dirty goblet off a nearby table and lobbed it through the doorway. It skittered a few feet before a trap door opened, and the cup dropped from sight with a loud clang.

Her eyes became comically large, the pupils not seeming to know if they wanted to constrict or dilate. "What's in the pit?" her voice trembled.

I gazed toward the cell door forlornly before answering. "It's a spike pit." Nami gasped and stopped trying to get up. "The last girl who tried to escape was named Polly," I paused and took a deep breath to steady myself. "She had only been here maybe three days. Some traveling salesman's daughter wandered too far from the harbor and into Jane's shop. Much like you did. She was pretty and petite, exotic, I guess would be the way to put it. I think she didn't even speak the language, which made it harder for her. On the third day, the first after her first night with Marcus, she was inconsolable, sobbing in her bunk all day. At dinner time, Jane left the door open, like she has today; I was too far from Polly to stop her as I did you when I saw her start getting ideas. I saw her grab a plate off Jane's tray, smash it into Jane's head, and dash for the door. We were all in shock, watching her bolt out the door. She made it a handful of steps before the floor gave out. She was impaled through her leg up through her chest."

"How terrible," Nami said, voice laced with horror.

I smiled ruefully at her. "The worst part is that she didn't die, not immediately. We had to listen to her cries for help for days. When it finally stopped, Marcus strolled to our door and, from its frame, told us that that would be our fate or worse if any of us ever dared to try to leave again. He left her there. We had to hear her die and then smell her rot. I'm assuming her bones are still there." Her brown eyes widened even further. I swear her eyes are going to fall out if she opens them anymore. "When was this?"

"About five years ago." Wiping her head around, she searched my face for what I'm not sure. A lie, maybe. Gulping and wetting her lips, she asked, "How long have you been here, Lavender?"

"Since the war." a dry chuckle crawled out of my throat. A single tear slipped out of my eye as I shook my head to clear to sudden fuzziness behind my eyes.

"But Robin said that was eleven years ago."

"Then, I guess I've been here for eleven years." Unexpectedly, Nami let out a sob and threw her arms around me, squeezing me tightly and tucking her face against my shoulder. I could feel those tears that had finally decided to leave her eyes running down her bare shoulder.

"I'm getting you out of here," she whispered, her breath hot against my hair. Unsure of what else to do, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and let her cry—almost convincing myself that the specks of tears on my top came from Nami and not from my own eyes.

I pulled away from her when I heard the cell door slam shut. It was time to prepare. The other girls were already deep in their cups. The two barrels of ale Jane had left were already half gone. Reaching for my goblet, I suddenly remembered hucking it and released a deep sigh. "Well, damn."

Nami's dreary gaze swept to me, a question on her face. "I threw my cup. Gotta wait till one of them is done to use theirs."

"Why?"

Not wanting to answer, I got up to get food from the tray. Sighing, I saw the watery soup I was expecting. Not only with no butter but no bread either. Marcus must want us to lose weight. Rolling my eyes, I snatched two bowls and headed back to Nami. She swirled her spoon despondently, and I quickly slurped mine down.

We ate in silence for several minutes. Both trying to process the events of the day, dreading what was to come tonight. While I finished gulping down what had to be mostly water with a little beef bouillon for color, I began to think back on my dream. Given that Marcus had destroyed all the Soothsy within a mile radius of the castle, I shouldn't be able to have a dream, and certainly, no one was going to be slipping me Soothsy tea within the walls of this castle.

As I thought, my eyes drifted to where I'd left Nami's clothes piled on the floor. It was a pale blue t-shirt with some band logo I'd never heard of and a very short tan skirt with odd circle patterns on the side. Both were rumpled and dirty with dust and bits of blood, but as I stared, I noticed a bright yellow-orange smudge on the collar.

A genuine smile fluttered across my lips. Nami. Nami had brought the pollen. It wasn't much, but that one small accidental act of kindness made me like and appreciate my new friend even more. She'd given me the precious gift of a genuine, sweet dream when all I'd known for so long was nightmares.

I turned back to her to say something conversational, maybe to tell her about the Soothsy to pass the time, but she spoke first.

"Sanji would die if he saw me eating this," Nami said before bringing a spoonful to her mouth with a grimace.

"You mentioned him before. Is he your lover?"

Nami choked on her soup with a laugh. Taking the napkin, I held out for her face, "No, he's the cook on our ship. I mean, he's practically family. I do love him, but not like that." A smile looked good on her. It made me feel smug to know that Marcus would never see how stunning she was, not with how he treated us.

"What are they like? Your crew?"

Nami's eyes took on a misty hue as she thought about them. She told me tales of her boisterous captain, the stoic but loyal swordsman, the most fantastic chef from the east blue, a sniper who was a kind-hearted liar, the reindeer doctor, and the mysterious archaeologist. She spun tales and stories about their adventures, how they had met, and how they had become each other's family. The soup was gone when Nami was wrapping up their Alabasta adventure, and my cheeks hurt from laughing. It took me a moment to realize that the sun was down. The happiness from earlier dissipated, and dread started to boil in my gut. I slammed my bowl down and stood so suddenly it upset Nami's bowl, which shattered on the stone floor.

"Hey! What? What is it?"

Staring at the door, I waited for shadows to show under the wood. "It's almost 6." The rowdiness of the other girls slowly petered out as they also came to that realization. Tara and Jezza crawled over to their beds and promptly passed out. Lazy skanks. So sure, it's not their turn; they let their guard down and got too trashed. Turning my head, I saw the crybaby, Sady, from last night hiding between her bed and the wall, like that would help. Wendie had positioned herself by Alice. I smiled fondly, always to the motherly protector. The other girls I didn't know as well all prepared themselves as best they could.

Standing with my legs pressed to the foot of the bed, I tried to hide as much of Nami as I could. "What happens now?" The anxiety in Nami's voice was palpable. "Now, we wait for the shadows."