Page 48 of The Iron Hex

Without pause, the witch proceeded to tell Rhona everything she’d just heard out of the Corisian’s mouth, proving the prisoner hadn’t been lying. “Why are you asking, Rhona Mayhew?” She tilted her head as she questioned Rhona.

“For the protection of the Iron Empire,” she answered before thinking—before remembering.

“That is not the truth,” the witch cackled, pushing away from her desk to stand and stepping toward the bars of her enclosure.

Shit. Itwasthe truth... but was it the whole truth?

“A friend wanted to know, and... I am helping them,” she amended her previous statement.

“That feels like the truth, the Flow says it’s the truth.” Esther tilted her head and reached for Rhona’s hand. Rhona cringed away, both at the use of the Flow and because she was too overwhelmed to be touched.

“Who is the friend?” Esther asked.

“I am not answering your questions, witch.”

“So, they are important enough to be hidden, but not important enough to be able to know this information. Interesting,” Esther said, a wide smile blooming across her face.

It unsettled Rhona.

“Esther,” Rhona started, “is there anything going on that I should know about?”

“Why would I tell the monster that captured me and trapped me here?” Esther mused.

“Because if the Iron Empire is lost, you will never be free,” Rhona answered.

“Rhona Mayhew, the Iron Empire is the reason I am not free.” The woman’s words hung in the air between them,forcing Rhona to truly think about what she had done to this woman’s life.

And Esther was right. Rhona needed something to convince her, to show her that the witch could trust her. “The friend is a witch, and she has seen you in danger.”

Esther blinked, eyes lost in thought for a second before snapping back to Rhona’s. “You’re working with a seer? Here? At the capital?” she whispered, the cacophony of prisoners screaming around them making it almost impossible to hear her. “I thought they were all dead.”

“What have you seen or heard?” Rhona asked again, dodging the witch’s question. Anything she said was up for scrutiny from the witch, and Rhona didn’t want to put Maeve in danger.

She watched the witch ponder, considering whether or not to trust Rhona. “I hear the guards talking about soldiers going missing, but it is not just soldiers. It’s prisoners. Every other day a man in white, a wraith in this dark dungeon, comes through to pick someone. And they leave and are never heard or seen in the prison again.”

Soldiers were going missing? Prisoners too?

“That is helpful. Anything else?” Rhona pushed.

“Not much happens down here, if you can believe it.”

Rhona could.

“The friend has been asking about you too. They wish to know if you’re okay,” Rhona said.

“Do I look okay?” Esther scoffed.

“Not really,” Rhona answered honestly.

“The truth,” Esther said, a hum escaping her lips. “I am alive. That is what matters,”

“Thank you,” Rhona said, handing the witch another sandwich from in her bag.

Rhona left the alcove where the witch was kept and quickly headed back to her post to suffer through the screams of the Iron Empire’s most dangerous enemies for another four hours.

26

Hugo