ATER Book 2: Air

Chapter 8: What's Lost is Found

Kaito's reply came the next day. I wasn't due to start prison duty until the day after, but even so, I was very anxious.

"Make sure that you can get a map of the tunnels as quickly as possible!" his note read. "That way, once you know where his cell is, you can see where any of the nearest tunnels are and get him out of there!"

And then finally, after another sleepless night, it was the day to give the prisoners their food. The Queen had relieved me of most of my duties, except cleaning all the fire places before i went down to the dungeons, and feeding the horses before bed. Apparently she thought that it would take most of the day.

With the 2 baskets from the kitchens tucked under my arms, I made my way down the spiraling staircase to the dungeons. Posted by the door was a single tall buff guard. After I had made my way around, I knew why there was only one.

I held my baskets of plastic wrapped sandwiches for him to see. "Just giving the prisoners their meals." He nodded and went back to sharpening his knife. The halls of the prisoners lined up in the shape of a square. The door and the guard were on the bottom side. There were no prisoners on that side.

But the other 3 were filled with them. I knelt down at the nearest door, but couldn't see a thing, so I snatched the torch off the wall and held it up to the cell door. The man inside sat on his bed, his face between his hands, his eyes looking at the ground.

He looked so depressed that I wanted to get the keys, and take him out of this cell and up into the world. But I couldn't. Instead, I pushed the food through the bars of the cell, and whispered, "You'll get out soon. I know it. Then you'll be happy."

The man looked up at me and gave me a weak smile. He took his sandwich and returned to staring at the floor. In fact, most of the prisoners looked like this. Some didn't even take their food. I almost didn't even notice when I came to Khanu's cell.

He was like some of the other prisoners. On their bed asleep or just staring at the wall. He had his back to me. There was something strange on his shirt. I held up the torch a bit closer. That's when I realized he only had pants on.

I wanted to scream then vomit. His back looked like...like shredded meat. It was as if his back had been used as a whipping post. I had a really bad feeling that those were whip marks. The whip had hit him so hard that it broke through all 3 layers of skin and gotten to the bone. There were huge amounts of pus forming over the cuts and dry blood everywhere. If it wasn't enough to look at, the stench of raw skin was enough to make my breakfast want to make a reappearance.

"Oh Khanu," I murmured. "What did they do to you?" Knocking on the wooden bars, I said a bit louder, "Khanu! It's me, Luna! Oh, please look at me. I've brought you food, Khanu!" I could feel tears falling when he didn't turn over. They wouldn't let him die, would they?

"Khanu!" I knocked harder. "Please wake up!" After a little bit, Khanu finally turned over to face me. His face was red with dry blood and cuts all over. His chest look virtually untouched except for a scratch here and there. He squinted his eyes, trying to focus in on me.

"Luna?" he asked uncertainly.

"Yes! Yes, Khanu, it's me! Oh spirits, what did they do to you?" He rolled off the bed, catching himself before he hit the ground. He winced in pain as he crawled over to the where I was. He held out a shaky hand, and I took it immediately.

"I must be dreaming," he whispered. I shook my head.

"You're not, I'm really here!" I passed the sandwich into his hand. "You're going to need to your strength when we get you out of here." Before I could get up, he grabbed my hand.

"Thank you for coming for me."

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I quickly fed the horses, getting the feeding done in record time. I ran up to our room and collapsed on my mat sobbing. Salwa was already in there. She shook me hard.

"Knock it off!" she hissed. "Gupta and Seychelle are going to have a fit if they hear you!" I tried to quiet down my sobs, but I only sobbed harder. Sighing, Salwa lined the walls with a thin layer of air, then waited for me to stop crying.

It took about 10 minutes, but I managed to cry myself out. "What-what's the air doing?" I hiccuped.

"It's a sound wall," she replied. "Keeps the sound waves from leaving this room. Now why were you sobbing so hard?" I took a deep breath, just to make sure I wouldn't start sobbing again.

"I found him," I said glumly. Salwa smiled. "But oh, Salwa, I wanted to cry! They'd done so much to him! His back and his face was a painting of cuts and burns. Salwa they whipped him, and whipped him hard." Her eyes got big and she began to pace.

"Do you know what this means?" she asked quietly. I shook my head. "It means they're not afraid to hurt innocent people. The Wu Li Shong are sending you a warning, Luna. They knew that Khanu was your friend. They're going to do it again."

I stared at the chest against the wall. It held a list of all the things the Wu Li Shong have done that we know of. I know exactly what I'm going to add next.

It was kind of a relief that I had gotten to sleep that night, but my dreams were none too sweet. Khanu kept appearing, telling me that I had left him, I'd betrayed him. Why hadn't I just let him be moody, why hadn't I returned his feelings, why hadn't I just said, "Maybe not now." I couldn't wake up. All I could feel was shame.

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"You're just playing with your food," Salwa pointed out. I was swirling my spoon in my oatmeal. I had been trying to mix in the blueberries, but the motion was calming, so I kept it up.

The door to the servants' meal room burst open and Seychelle ran in, bumping into the table. Seychelle usually served the Queen her breakfast at this hour. Why she would be in here was a mystery to me.

She pointed at me. "The Queen," she panted, "wishes to see you in the throne room in exactly 10 minutes."