Imprisoned Read online

  “Well, I don’t know the exact measurements of the damn thing but I do know it’s called a ‘ceiling’ for a reason, so I do,” Wheezer remarked. “I heard the Yonnite Mistresses talking when they met here for council right before it was put in place. It’s meant to cover the entire rec-yard, as I understand it, and run a few meters out on the sides for good measure.”

  “Oh…” Ari whispered. The panic inside her had turned to dread—dread as cold and heavy as a lead weight in her stomach. The transport balloon she’d paid so much for was structurally strong but vulnerable to projectile weapons and beams. In other words, if she and Jak tried to escape in it, they’d be fried and burned exactly like the hapless bird she’d seen lured down by the huge inmate.

  Goddess of Mercy—how are we ever going to get out of here now? she thought, feeling sick. And where is Jak anyway? I have to see him…have to tell him…

  “But watchin’ Wayboid eat birds isn’t why I came to find you,” Wheezer said, breaking her desperate train of thought. “I told old Mukluk that you’re a fixit and he was real pleased, so he was. We’ve been needing another fixit around here for some time.”

  “Oh, thank you,” Ari said vaguely, hardly knowing what she was saying.

  “And I found that Blackthorn fella that you were looking for,” Wheezer went on.

  “What?” Ari rounded on him, her heart in her throat. “Where is he? I don’t see him out here in the yard anywhere.”

  “That’s because he ain’t in the yard.” Wheezer looked suddenly grave. “I’m afraid he’s in the hole, Ari-lad. And according to what I heard, that’s where he’s bound to stay for a time yet.”

  “The hole?” Ari asked. “What’s that?”

  Wheezer shook his head and chuckled.

  “You really are green, aren’t you lad? The hole is solitary—way down in the dungeons-like. They stick you down there on nothin’ but protein paste and water and you don’t never seen sunlight. Cramped up in a tiny cell—smaller than ours even—in the dark with no light or companionship. It ain’t much fun, I can tell you that!”

  Ari was horrified.

  “So he’s locked up in the dark with hardly anything to eat and nobody to talk to?” she exclaimed. “How can anyone survive like that—it would drive you crazy!”

  “Most often it does,” Wheezer said seriously. “The good news is, though, that this friend of yours has only been in the hole five or six solar months.” He frowned. “I knew there was a reason I hadn’t seen him around lately.”

  “Five or six months!” Ari cried. “That would feel like an eternity with no light or anyone to talk to! That’s…that’s cruel and unusual punishment!”

  Wheezer shrugged. “That’s Yonnite Mistresses for you. Sorry, lad.”

  “But…when can I go see him?” Ari asked. She looked around wildly, wondering if she could go right now. She would probably get into trouble if she snuck out of the yard early but—

  “Oh, you can’t see him, I’m afraid.” Wheezer shook his head, his cracked glasses winking in the weak sunlight. “Nobody’s allowed down in the hole but the prisoners stuck down there and the guards. You get caught down there without having some official business or a damn good reason to be there and you’ll likely be thrown in the hole yourself. Worse luck for you.”

  “So…Jak’s stuck down there and I can’t even see him?” Ari demanded.

  “I’m sorry, lad.” Wheezer patted her shoulder awkwardly. “You were that close, were you?”

  “I…” Ari shook her head. She couldn’t answer, couldn’t even begin to form words. The pain and disappointment and panic were still too raw—too fresh and new to process. Shaking her head again, she wandered away from Wheezer in a daze.

  Jak’s down there—down in the hole and I can’t get him out—can’t even see him. And even if he was out in the general population again, there’s no way I can save him or myself. I’m trapped—stuck here in BleakHall and there’s no getting out.

  The thoughts ran over and over in her mind—an endless loop of fear and pain and despair as she wandered aimlessly in the vast Rec Yard. She didn’t even realize that tears were dripping down her cheeks until a deep, familiar voice said,

  “Ari? What are you doing? Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be out here?”

  Though Lathe told himself he didn’t care what Ari did or where he went, he couldn’t stop himself from keeping an eye on the boy, even when he was supposed to be working out. The yard could be a dangerous place if you wandered into the wrong territory and Ari had already proven he was good at that.

  In the meantime, Lathe had a lot of frustration to work out and exercise was a damn good way to do that. He pumped the heavy steel-bricks with a single-minded purpose, trying to purge himself of the unwanted emotions that rose inside him like dark currents in the waters of his psyche.

  It didn’t matter what Ari thought of him or his fangs, he told himself as he pumped, lifting the heavy weights over his head as the wooden bench strained beneath him. It didn’t matter if the boy refused to be healed. There was always the chance that the orbital fracture would heal on its own once the swelling went down. But he didn’t have a lot of hope for that—a trapdoor fracture was nothing to fool around with and—

  Lathe became suddenly aware that Ari was out of his line of sight—the boy must have wandered off while he was preoccupied with pumping.

  With a grunt of effort, he came up, still holding the bar full of heavy weights, and deposited them carefully on the ground in front of the bench. He never used a spotter because no one else at BleakHall could lift as much as he could. Like every other aspect of his prison life, Lathe was alone when it came to working out.

  Alone until Ari came along, whispered a little voice in his head. But where was the boy? If Tapper was anywhere near him…

  Then he saw Ari, wandering out in the middle of the yard where he wasn’t supposed to go. The prisoners were supposed to keep to the perimeter for the most part, leaving the interior of the vast rectangular yard free for the guards to keep an eye on them.

  Of course, that was how it worked in a regular prison staffed with humanoid guards. Since the Horvaths hated the outside so much, it would probably take them some time to come out into the middle of the yard. But once they did, Ari would be in for a world of hurt. Any of the lizard-guard forced to come out under the open sky to retrieve a prisoner was going to be short on patience and generous with his pain-prod.

  “Ari?” Lathe jogged over to the boy, whose back was to him. “What are you doing?” Lathe demanded. “Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be out here?”

  Still the boy didn’t answer.

  “Ari!” Fed up with the silent treatment, Lathe took him roughly by the shoulder and spun him around.

  What he saw shocked and worried him.

  Ari was crying. Not outright sobbing, thank the Goddess, but his large, dark eyes were filled with tears that were rolling silently down his flushed cheeks. He looked utterly miserable…and utterly vulnerable.

  “Gods,” Lathe muttered harshly, looking around to see if anyone had noticed the boy’s state. Tears were dangerous at BleakHall—they were an obvious, outward sign of weakness. Crying anywhere—especially in the yard where everyone in the whole damn prison could see—was like hanging a “fuck me up and rape me” sign around your neck.

  “Ari, you have to stop,” he told the boy urgently. “I don’t know what started you off but you can’t cry in the fucking yard. It’s dangerous.”

  The boy looked up at him, his face full of so much sorrow and misery that Lathe’s heart ached for him. He understood suddenly that the boy couldn’t stop. He was in the middle of an emotional upheaval as unstoppable as any physical urge. In fact, it might only be a matter of time before things got worse—a whole hell of a lot worse.

  “Here…” Lathe put an arm around the boy’s shoulders and for once Ari didn’t pull away. “Come on,” Lathe muttered, leading him away from the middle of the rectangular fie