Page 42 of Four Ruined Realms (The Broken Blades #2)

Tiyung

Idle Prison, Yusan

I survive my first sleep with a cellmate. Ailor didn’t try to kill me, which, frankly, I find a little strange. I suppose he is actually a prisoner like me. Or he’s lulling me into a false sense of security, into complacency.

But there’s no need for that. I’m mostly a useless nobleman, even though I am a murderer. I’ve thought about the men I killed every day since Oosant. The ones I cut down without hesitation in the warehouse. I’m not a dangerous man like Mikail, though—that’s a person you’d have to catch unaware.

As soon as I think it, I realize that’s who Ailor reminds me of.

“Something up?” he asks.

I was staring. I lit the lantern as soon as I woke, and he can see me from his spot across the cell.

“I’m sorry. You just remind me of…someone.”

He arches his scarred eyebrow. “Someone this witty and handsome? Impossible. There can’t be two of us.”

I laugh. He doesn’t look anything like Mikail. He’s shorter than Royo, maybe five foot seven and built stockier like him, but it’s strange—his mannerisms are similar to Mikail’s.

“You know, son,” Ailor begins, “you don’t seem like the type who’d wind up in this place.”

“It was a surprise to me, too, I assure you.”

His eyes are brown, I think, and they search me.

“You’re a hostage, then?” he asks.

I nod. “Something like that.”

I can’t figure out if he’s trying to get a read on me or if he’s a spy hoping I’ll say something incriminating. Then again, I’ve been talking to another spy this whole time.

Hana still hasn’t reappeared, though. I hope nothing happened to her. It’s only recently dawned on me that she might be in trouble herself. Spies are rarely safe, and neither are assassins, but I can’t imagine a survivor like her or Sora could succumb to anything as ordinary as danger.

“I’ve been thinking about it. I figured you were noble, but I’ve only seen that type of big necklace on one guy—the Count of Tamneki,” Ailor says.

“All counts wear collars as part of their formal dress,” I say. I shift the gems that sit on my shoulders and string across my chest. “It goes back to ruling the four old kingdoms.”

I touch the sapphires. The west wears diamonds, the north opals, and the east emeralds. The king wears blood rubies. The stones are all from over a thousand years ago, but they’ve been reset for each family.

Ailor’s lips quirk. “You’re a little young to be a count, kid. From what I remember, they’re all older than me.”

“My father is Seok, the Count of Gain,” I say.

Ridges mar his forehead. “Oh, so you really are a hostage.”

I nod. “What did you do?”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know.” Ailor coughs and then stretches his legs in front of him. “I was at home, and then suddenly the palace guard arrived, and I was taken and brought here. I don’t claim to be an innocent man—it could be any number of things from my past. But I’m not sure what I did to warrant Idle or why I was put in the cell with you. I take it you didn’t have anyone else in here before.”

I shake my head.

“I wonder why the special treatment, then. I would think it has something to do with my boy, but if that were the case, I would be dead.”

“Who is that? Your son?”

He smiles. “I’d rather not say.”

I have to respect that. I have people I want to protect as well.

A prisoner wails in the distance. It’s a high-pitched scream that makes me shudder for how brief it was. Chills run along my arms, and Ailor turns toward the noise as well. Whatever is being done to the man is doubtlessly horrific. All prisons are a type of torture. Some are just more direct.

“I take it not every cell comes with lanterns and cheese and privacy,” he says. “Perks of your status?”

“A friend on the outside,” I admit.

I still don’t trust this man, and I want to protect Hana as best I can. That prisoner’s scream was a harsh reminder that there were other ways to get information out of me. Hana chose kindness because I saved Nayo. Although I suppose “saved” is the wrong word. Even a month forced to serve as a pleasure boy would be beyond saving for me. But he is free. “Saved from worse” is more accurate.

“Can that friend get a message out of here?” Ailor ventures.

“I don’t know,” I say. “Truthfully, I don’t know if they will return.”

“I guess we will hope they do.” He coughs again and leans against the wall.

He puts it so simply that I can’t help but think it’s the only thing to do—to hope.

Hope is the first thing that flees from a place like this. Either Ailor is a spy or he is an incredible coincidence, because for the first time since I received Sora’s letter, I feel some optimism. Like there is reason to hope. Like I might just survive. Like we all might make it.