HAWK

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: BIRDCAGE (6/6)

In the hours Kas had been sitting in the corner of her cell, she hadn't moved an inch.

While before she would have welcomed a little light, she had now buried her face in the crux of her bent arm to block out the harsh glow that attempted to suffocate her every time she cracked her eyes open. Every panel in the room was now illuminated, though they weren't merely lit, otherwise Kas might have managed. No, Swanne had turned every panel into identical monitors that each showed the same horrific image.

Astell's lifeless body.

Kas had bit her lip until it bled. She could deal with physical pain - a great deal of it if she had to - but this kind of mental anguish was something she didn't know how to handle. Even though she'd told Swanne what she wanted to know, the governor seemed determined to break her down to her core and she was going the right way about it.

Kas had been rethinking her actions over and over again, trying her best to console herself in knowing that she'd made the right decisions... but somehow, she still blamed herself. If she hadn't chased that stupid signal into the asteroid belt, Astell wouldn't have followed her there and all of them would still be safe and sound back on Lysan.

What did you expect...?! You followed a signal across the solar system that probably has something to do with Selva's destruction, and now you're feeling sorry for yourself because it didn't turn out too well...? Great work, Kas...

She sat there cursing herself until her self torment was interrupted by a small voice.

'Hello again.'

Kas took her face away from her arm and squinted. Though her vision was blurry, she could see one of the lambentile panels had turned off and there was now a small yellow glow in its centre. It was the firefly, she realised, the first of her hallucinations to return.

'Hi,' she replied.

'What's wrong?'

'I think I'm going insane.'

'Is there anything I can do to help?'

'Not unless you can get me out of here.'

'Hmm. That won't be easy.'

'That's OK. Don't worry about it.'

'I will have a think and see if I can find a solution.'

'Thanks. You might be the only friend I have here.'

'I'm your friend?'

'Sure.'

'Thank you. I don't have many friends.'

'Well, now you've got me.'

The firefly began fluttering around the room, surfing the lambentile panels on her way towards Kas. Each panel flickered and dimmed as she passed through them. She arrived at the one next to Kas and stopped. Kas could faintly see two small wings beating either side of the little ball of light.

'Where would you go?' the firefly asked.

'Where would I go?'

'If you managed to escape.'

Kas shrugged. 'Home, I guess.'

'Where is home?'

'Lysan. I've got an apartment there, though I haven't been there in a long time.'

'Is Lysan nice?'

'Parts of it are. Others... not so much.'

'Are they worse than Eidol?'

'You know what? Right now, I'd take the worst city on Lysan over this place.'

'I'll do what I can to help you, but I can't guarantee anything.'

'Thanks.'

The sound of her cell door being unlocked startled them, and in an instant, the firefly disappeared and Kas turned to the open doorway.

Three soldiers entered and blocked the exit. There was no doubt in Kas's mind it was the same three soldiers who had killed Astell. They even had nightstrikers clutched ready in their gloved hands. She scanned their faces but their nitroglass visors were impossible to see through. She would have had an easier time reading Hik.

'Stand up,' the one at the front said. Kas decided it was a man.

'You gonna kill me, too?' she asked.

'I won't ask again.' His grip on the nightstriker tightened and Kas knew he'd only be too happy to use it. She shifted her weight onto her feet and tried to stand, but hours of being curled up on the floor had locked her muscles tight and her legs practically screamed at her when she dared to disturb them. Just the effort sent a rush of pins and needles through her feet worse than any she'd ever known.

'I can't...' she said, but it was the wrong answer. The soldier took two short steps towards her and reached out for her with his free hand. He grabbed the front of her jumpsuit and lifted.

Kas screamed. Her legs felt like rubber bands coated in splinters. The pins and needles morphed into razor blades and barbed wire and filled her lower body with exquisite, white-hot pain. The sudden elevation drained the blood from her head, sending her eyes rolling back and taking all colour and shapes with them. She was plunged into a deep, dark lake where all feeling and thought were left behind to float forgotten on the surface. Her pain faded as fast as her vision and the blissful arms of sleep wrapped themselves around her and pulled her under at last...