Exile: The Book of Ever

19: Flashpoint

The Marmack they had left on the cellblock door—a toothless, low-ranking boy who didn't appear to be able to speak—came in the moment Acel started yelling.

"Go!" Acel yelled. "Get help! There's something wrong with her! She won't wake up!" The boy, barely Acel's younger brother Darl's age—14, maybe 15—gaped comically when he saw Ever's limp form lying across the floor of their cell.

"Get Vost, damn it!" Acel shouted, coming to the bars. The Marmack boy looked at him, made an uncertain noise, and then started running when Acel yelled at him again.

Several long minutes passed before Acel heard boots in the hallway again. Vost stormed in, flanked by Piker, the boy, and another Marmack he thought was called Dereg.

"What now, godammit?" snapped Vost, his eyes taking in the situation in Acel's cell quickly. They widened for a moment when they saw Ever, but narrowed again just as quickly.

"What's this, then?"

"She just collapsed," Acel said, trying his best to sound panicked. "I'm not sure if she's breathing." He crouched over her for effect, placing his hand gently on Ever's throat.

"Just collapsed, eh?" said Vost, raising an eyebrow. "How convenient. I suppose you'd like me to let you out of your cell, maybe get her a nice feather bed and a cool cloth for her forehead." Vost shook his head and turned to leave.

"No, I'm telling you," said Acel, pleading. "She was—she said something about Thayne, and reaching out to him, and then she sat down and started talking—almost like she was having a conversation with someone who wasn't there."

Vost stopped. He looked at Acel sidelong, then down to Ever, then back to Acel, considering.

"Open the gate and take her out," he said after a moment. "Just her. Find that old crone that mixes herbs and bring her to me."

"Prophet won't like that," Piker said, not moving. "Said he doesn't want anyone—"

"I don't remember asking for your opinion," interrupted Vost. "Just do it. Thayne will like it even less if she dies." Piker gestured to Dereg, who produced a ring of large keys and approached the cell door.

"If you're lying to me, boy," Vost said in a low voice, "I'll cut off your virgin balls."

Dereg swung the door open just enough for Piker to slip in.

"Back against the wall, sweetie," Piker said, grinning his rotten grin. When Acel had backed against the cell wall, sharing a worried glance with Rolan, who was watching from his own cell, Piker squatted beside Ever and prodded her roughly with one finger. She was lying with her right side toward the front of the cell, her body partially on top of her left arm. When she didn't respond to his poking, Piker leaned in closer, putting his dirty ear near her mouth.

Acel drew in one long, quiet breath and time seemed almost to slow down. When Ever brought the chunk of concrete out from under herself and smashed it into Piker's right temple, Acel pushed off the wall and leapt toward the cell door.

* * *

The hallways of the courthouse basement seemed to form a rectangle running around the central wing with rooms on either side. Jared turned the corner at the end of the hallway and saw a Marmack emerge from a narrow staircase up ahead and run in the direction of the commotion. He didn't look in Jared's direction.