To Garan's credit, the treatment of Dellian prisoners did change after that. One particularly laconic man, after a session in which Fire learned positively nothing, thanked her for it specifically. "Best dungeons I ever been in," he said, chewing on a toothpick. "Wonderful," Garan grumbled when he had gone. "We'll grow a reputation for our kindness to lawbreakers.

Why are you still here?" she asked. "Shouldn't you be in a cave somewhere inspiring people?

That's interesting," Bitterblue said. "You think a conscience requires fear?

Garan snorted. "Now that we know about his indigestion, we can torture him with cake.

Then she marched to the pillows and beat them mercilessly until they lay puffed out like obedient clouds.

There isn't a simple person anywhere in this world.

She didn't want to go far, just out of the trees so she could see the stars. They always eased her loneliness. She thought of them as beautiful creatures, burning and cold; each solitary, and bleak, and silent like her.