The Princess and the Blood of Eternity

Chapter 25: Deliverance

"I'm still alive," Lilith whispered as reassurance, though her predicament made survival feel more like a liability. She'd been in this cage for days.

Time had lost meaning now that she could no longer keep track of the days passing from inside a dark cabin. Or maybe it was her life that had lost meaning. Her life, her mother... That last bit, she didn't want to think about, at least not yet.

The cage they'd put her in smelled like feet and rotten fish. These sailors—they lacked the peace of mind to keep their cabin clean. The wooden floor was littered with dirty plates, empty liquor bottles, and stained clothes with what she hoped was grease smears. The walls creaked and whined like the wood was old and reused.

A wave battered the outside of the hull, causing her cage to rattle and shift awkwardly beneath its own weight. The large, bleach-white rib bones had sharp metal spikes and heavy wiring to hold it together. Some bones had snapped edges that left them with sharp points she had to be weary of. The inside surface of each bone was smooth and cold to the touch, almost like stone, and on the outside, carved into the surface, was an odd writing.

They had her inside a bone cage. It was a concept which made her skin crawl being both excessive and unusual. The small pile of leathers that served as her seating had long since molded to the hard and uneven surface. It left her struggling to find a seating position that did not leave her back and butt feeling like it could be broken. An impossible task. She often spent hours on her knees to give her backside a rest. The exercise lasted until it felt like her knees might break. The cage itself was too small for her to stand. To extend her legs, she found she had to angle herself awkwardly into a corner.

Discomfort she could deal with. Her distress came from the tarp they kept draped over the cage. Having her days pass in near darkness was almost too much for her to handle, and they kept the edges tucked under the corners to keep her from being able to remove it. Any disturbance to the cover was met with swift reprisal. One sailor had threatened to confiscate her clothes or he would dump a bucket of icy seawater on her head.

And so, she treated the small tear in the leather as a portal to the outside world. The bit of sensory stimulation was the only thing that let her hold on to her sanity.

Imprisonment was one thing, but why the cage? Did they think she would try to escape or sabotage the ship? They were in the middle of the ocean. Where would she go?

Her mother had given her over to a man in a long cloak. Lilith hadn't seen him since he'd tossed her in this cage. Had he stayed behind? His indifference to life and violence, she didn't want to think about what he would do to her home or friends.

The ship, from what she could tell, had at least two men. More if she could trust her ears in determining voices. Mostly, they avoided her by staying on the deck. Unless they fed her or emptied her waste bucket, which they did irregularly, leaving her to wonder if they'd forgotten about her after no one showing days on end.

Her food came in these tall porcelain bowls that had their bottoms scratched. Their shape made her think of them as giant, odd shaped cups. And the food... The food was white porridge, flavored with fish paste. The result was unsurprisingly unappetizing, but the irregularities of her feeding saw her eating the food regardless of taste by shoving the slippery chunks into her mouth with a pair of dirty fingers.

The hands-off treatment struck her as odd. Did they know she was a princess? Or used to be... Did they care? The need to remain anonymous could explain why the skinny one had acted so terrified, and yet it felt like it was more than that, like they were truly afraid of her. An idea so preposterous it might be comical if it wasn't the best theory regarding the awful treatment.