The Girl From the Never Realm (l.garmadon)

Eight

The next morning, it felt like Corrupted Frost was seeping into my very bones. I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I could barely open my eyes. I could do nothing but lay there, my jaw clenched and my body trembling.

But the sound of a cell door slamming startled me upright. I leaned against the wall of my cell.

Did they just throw someone else into the dungeon?

I heard nothing, so at first I thought I was just hearing things, or something had just fallen over.

Until I heard Kataru's voice, "Welcome to the Ice Emperor's dungeon, Lloyd. I am Kataru."

Lloyd? Who was Lloyd?

"Kataru?" echoed another young male's voice, which I assumed belonged to the one called Lloyd. "Akita's brother? The bear?"

The cold suddenly left me as I heard those words. I scrambled to my feet quietly, pressing my cheek up against the bars, but I could see no sign of the newcomer. He was in the cell next to Kataru's, making the bear Formling in the middle of us.

"My sister was frozen along with the rest of my people," Kataru snapped.

"No! No, she's alive!" Lloyd said. "We came across the ice together!"

My eyes widened. So she was still out there.

"Do you swear it?" Kataru asked. "Do you swear she's alive?"

I could hear the hope swelling in his voice.

"Yes, she's alive!" Lloyd said. "Actually... she thought you were dead."

Kataru rapped on the wall between our cells. "Y/n! Are you awake?"

"There's another here?" Lloyd asked, quieter. "How many?"

"I'm awake," I said as loud as I could, which still wasn't very loud, but Kataru could hear me with his keen ears.

"It's just been us two," Kataru told Lloyd. "We've been here for... a long time. She's been here longer than I have."

"Time is difficult when you're locked in a cold cell," I said, trying to force some humor in my voice, but I wasn't sure it worked.

"There's no escape from this place," Kataru agreed.

"There's always a way," Lloyd said confidently.

I heard the rattling of icy chains, footsteps, and slow clapping approaching the cells.

"Now that's the spirit!" Vex's insufferably smug voice said. "So hopeful, so confident! But, alas, there are a few troubling details you don't know... such as the shackles around your hands. They are made of Corrupted Ice. If they can prevent a Formling from changing shape, then I think they can also contain your powers..."

Powers? What powers did Lloyd have if he wasn't a Formling?

"You coward!" Lloyd lashed out. "You liar! I don't know how you tricked Zane into believing you, but he'll see through you eventually! He'll see what you are!"

I could almost hear Vex's smile. "What I am... I'm his trusted advisor. While you are nothing but a traitor and a rebel spy. And sooner or later, I will deal with you as I deal with all who stand in my way."

The general laughed as he walked away, tapping his fingers on the frozen bars of Kataru's and my cells as he passed. He stopped in front of mine, and for once, I was standing in the light. His bright blue eyes bore into me with his signature evil smirk.

"Y/n, I do hope you find your new fellow prisoner— hm, how should I say this— entertaining."

And with that, he was gone.

"I am sorry, my friend," Kataru said to Lloyd. "I wish I could give you some hope. But there is none in this place."

I hated how true his words were.

"There's alway's hope," Lloyd said.

"Not when you've been stuck down here as long as we have," I said. Even a deaf person could hear the bitterness in my voice. "All our hope has long since fled us. We're chained. We can't use our powers. There are more guards than ever."

"Akita's still out there," Lloyd reminded us. "My friends are still out there."

Who? He had friends out there?

"And if I know anything, it's that ninja never quit! They never give up. Ever."

I almost laughed at his optimism.

"You're naïve," I noted. "You might've been in some bad situations before, but there you had a way out. Here, there is none. I'm sorry. But you might want to get settled in for a long stay."

Kataru sighed and leaned towards the crack in the wall. He lowered his voice. "Don't you think you're being a little harsh?"

I rolled my eyes. "This place is nothing except harsh. You know that."

Apparently, our voices weren't low enough.

"I can hear you," Lloyd warned. "You've never even tried to escape?"

"We have," I admitted. "It didn't go as planned. And as punishment, we got these lovely Corrupted Ice chains, containing our powers."

"Kataru's a bear..." Lloyd remembered. "So what are you, Y/n?"

"Falcon," I muttered. "It's a rare Form. Not very useful."

"Don't listen to her," Kataru said. "I'd wished I was a Falcon a thousand times more than I wanted to be a Bear. You get wings!"

"A lot of good a small set of feathery wings will do you against an ice dragon," I pointed out. "At least as a bear, you get warm easily."

"Not anymore," Kataru said.

"So, the first thing we have to do is get these chains off," Lloyd said.

I snorted. "Good luck. We've been trying for... years, I think. Quite possibly years."

I heard a bunch of rattling and grunts from Lloyd's cell, but judging from his following sigh of defeat, he'd had no luck either.

"Since we've got a lot of time on our hands," Kataru started. "How about you tell us how you got into icy water with the Ice Emperor, Lloyd?"