Within the Bone

X. A Dangerous Proposition

Tears turned to dry sobs and then to a crushing silence. More than anything, Mara wished she could just hug Aallotar and never let go. Anything to ease the ache, both from the transformation and the guilt. Unfortunately, they were chained back to back, arms fully extended to either side so there was no slack for them to tamper with manacles. Mara couldn't even look into the wildling's eyes and promise that the attack on her father's guards had changed nothing. All of that helplessness twisted like a knot of fire in her stomach. The hate still burned in her like a beacon to all thoughts dark and bloody. Her resistance to becoming a kinslayer vanished: her family had thrown them in the dungeon to either rot or perish.

Mara intended to do neither.

"Aallotar," she said, voice raw from thirst. It was impossible to know how much time had passed chained in this windowless tomb, but it had to be late at night by now. "Talk to me. Please."

There was no response. If it weren't for the warmth seeping through fabric into Mara's crooked back, she might have thought she was just imagining her friend's presence.

"Aallotar, it wasn't your fault," Mara pressed. "You are not the beast."

The body against her back stirred. "I am," Aallotar rasped. Her tears and sobs had left her with only shreds of a voice. "I can't stop it."

"Not yet," Mara said as soothingly as she could while chained to the point of straining. "Once we break your curse, it will never take over you again. I'm here and I'm not going to leave you. I promised I would break it."

"How?" Aallotar said, a sharp edge of desperation in her voice. "We will die down here in the dark."

Mara took a deep breath. Aallotar had always been a creature of the wilds, free to roam wherever she wished. Imprisonment was something she couldn't even have conceived of, and it was Mara's doing that had introduced her to it. You should have kept her from coming with you, the huntress thought bitterly. One more mistake to add to a long tally of failings. "We'll find a way out," she said with all the confidence she could muster.

There was a soft gurgling sound and a whisper of movement beyond the bars. Mara's stomach twisted into a knot, turning her head to gaze through cold iron. There was barely enough light coming from a torch down the dungeon's hall to see a dark liquid seeping into their cell from beneath the bars. The smell of copper, so intimately familiar, meant it could only be blood.

Aallotar sucked in a deep breath and caught the scent, drawing a keening sound from her throat. No doubt the smell drew her back into the memories of her own savagery. "Mara..." she whispered in ragged tones. "Something is there."

Mara closed her eyes for a moment and pulled her focus together, then opened them again. "If you're here as an executioner, you might as well come in here and show yourself," she said sharply, pouring in all the air of command she'd seen her father and uncle use. It wasn't terribly intimidating given that she was chained hand and foot.

A dry, rasping chuckle was her first answer. "I am here for you," a deep, resonant voice said, its timbre dark and devoid of any warmth. "But not to kill."

"Then why are you here, stranger?" Mara asked, lifting her chin. The answer terrified her, but she refused to show the man any fear. She could see him now, the barest suggestion of a silhouette all but lost in shadows cast by the distant torch. Flickering illuminated his hands as they closed around the bars, both coated in blood. She caught the gleam of claws and shivered slightly in her chains.

"The men of Sjaligr have decided to destroy what they cannot control, what they cannot understand," the stranger said. "I aim to preserve you, Spell-Breaker, and your companion, from this injustice."