From Ashes and Snow

Silver and Gold

Chapter 28: Silver and Gold.

Greydon was the perfect cell-mate.

He was silent when silence was needed, he spoke when the boredom threatened to drag us both down into the depths of despair. When my mood sank too far, he was prone to singing and honestly, for a human, he wasn't bad. I had grown used to the smooth, ringing tones of the Elves but the rough, deep tone of a human male was pleasant.

He was one of the first humans that I regaled stories of my childhood to. I didn't like telling people about my childhood – the poverty always made me feel embarrassed. As if I had control over how I was born. I knew it was stupid, but it made me feel vulnerable.  It let others know that I was not only Aviana Birchwood, the trained Dratlan Elf...I was also, Aviana, the beggar child.

As the days passed, I grew sicker. Greydon knew it too, his expression pinched in concern when a cough rattled my chest. It was getting harder to keep my eyes open, the lids heavy and cumbersome. I didn't want to die like this – chained to a wall. When I died, it would be ending the creature with the amethyst eyes.

My leg was immoveable. My toes twitched with effort, but the knee was inflamed and swelled grossly. Their healing had been sloppy and untrained- to fix it properly, a healer Magin would have to break this heal.  I would take the pain if it meant I could walk and fight again.  Knowing that the soldiers were still alive gave me purpose – revenge was something that could slip so easily through my fingers. An abstract concept that one day, I would achieve, but staying alive for those soldiers, like Tamas, was a pressing concern.

"I see something beginning with an s."

"Straw?"

"Oh, you are good." Greydon chuckled roughly. "I see something beginning with c."

"Chains?"

"Hmm, nothing gets passed you."

My dry lips cracked into a painful smile – which promptly died when the bolt slid across the lock. Light flooded in as the door was thrown open and I clenched my eyes shut against the harshness, shrinking back as I waited for the first strike.

"Divine," A beautifully familiar voice gasped.

Heavy lids fluttering, I tried to quash my hope. Blinking rapidly as my eyes struggled to get used to the light, boots appeared in my vision. The toes were splattered with fresh blood.

"Wonderful."  I groaned. I was hallucinating – this was a man's boot. A man who recently killed someone.

"Nothing about this situation is wonderful, Miss Birchwood." A deep, condemning tone lectured. 

Catching my chin, the Captain titled my face upwards. Dark, cobalt eyes flickered over my face, his broad mouth tightening as he examined me. I didn't have the energy to pull away from his hold, my heavy head sagging against the hold. 

Displeased with whatever he saw, he rose again quickly. There was only a single chain holding both wrists tight to the wall – I couldn't exactly run away, but they didn't want me getting near Greydon.

"Where did you get that key?" I croaked as the cuffs popped open. Across the cell, Fyr was opening Greydon's cuffs and his gaze didn't waver from her, lips pressed tight against a smile even though her cheeks flamed red.

"From a man lying with his throat slit open in the corridor." Mahon held out a hand to me, and I took it, letting him pull me up onto my feet. My weight rested solely on my good leg and I clutched his hand tight.