Echo • Six Of Crows - Kaz Brekker

31

Mavka could hear Inej's voice fighting to bring her back from the dark around them, the pitch black recesses of her mind.

She could hear it. She was sure she could. Her voice.

But it didn't bring her any sense of calm. It just brought fear. Regret.

As the girl prised her eyes open and came to, all she knew was that they were in a tiny dark room. Her jacket had been removed. No swords, no knives, no safety at her side. The weight was gone, replaced with heavy rope binding her legs to her chair, binding her wrists to the wooden arms, and a thick piece of cloth lodged between her teeth and tied at the back of her head.

When she tried to call out to Inej her voice would not work. The cloth stopped any noise leaving her mouth, even if she could manage it.

Her eyes screwed shut tightly. She remembered plummeting from a great height as one of the squallors dropped her, only to be snatched up by another - arms like steel bands around her, the air attacking her face, nothing but the sky around her, and then pain exploding over her skull.

Her fists tightened as she realised she didn't know where they were.

"Mavka," the girl's voice was a whisper.

She reopened her eyes, trying to keep her breathing even, but could not even see down at her lap let alone a door or a wall opposite.

She was close to Inej, she could hear her breathing. They were sat just inches apart. She was to her left.

The days passed by with Inej talking to her in an attempt to keep her calm.

After the first day Inej had managed to shuffle close to the girl and rest against the side of her chair. She had her limbs bound together, but for some reason Mavka was not even permitted to move and remained restrained to the chair.

A Suli man called Bajan often entered to give Inej food.

Just Inej.

The first day she had refused to eat if her friend could not. Bajan had been apologetic.

"I am just following orders." He had said.

"Who's?" Inej had challenged. "Petrovs?"

He had remained quiet. When he left, Inej kept apologising to Mavka who could not say a word.

Without the use of her hands to sign which would be all she could manage, she was unable to convey her words even more so.

The second day Mavka could tell the girl was starving, as was she. She nodded for her to take the food. She had attempted to stamp her foot, to move somehow to convince her that she had to.

By the third day she had no choice. She felt awful for doing it but Mavka would be more furious if she didn't.

Meanwhile, she felt her strength beginning to leave her. As the hours passed by painfully slow, Inej spent her time talking to her, telling her stories of her times on the high wire with her head resting against her leg. In secret it was not just for her sake. It calmed them both.

Inej had mentioned a vent she could attempt to crawl through and Mavka had nodded, done her best to convey that she agreed. If one of them could get out, it served a better chance than none.

One of the days Inej had attempted to remove the cloth around Mavka's mouth and feed her some stale bread. Bajan had retreated out of the room and they knew then that it was a mistake. He was being friendly, he was trying to get them to warm up to him to reveal the information they wanted, but he was still under the thumb of Van Eck.