Such were the things that crept into his mind now during the long hours of caged solitude. Each time he realized that he was daydreaming-and further realized where he was-it was like suddenly remembering something so bad that he could not believe he had forgotten it even for a moment. There really had been an entire sea full of corpses! He could have dived in among them and swum from one to the next to the next and never reached them all, not even if he came up for breath a hundred times. Long had he feared the Lothan Aklun; now he wished desperately that he had gotten the chance to speak with even one of them. Perhaps it was silly, but he could not help feeling they might have had important things to tell him about the world he was now trapped in.
When and how would word of this reach Corinn? Surely the Ambergris had sailed with news of the treachery. He did not have her gift for political wrestling, so he knew not how she might choose to respond. A small group sent back to parley with the Auldek? An army prepared to invade? What would the league men tell her? Even if they told the truth, the league did not know what had happened to him. In addition, they had every reason to transform the entire situation into some fanciful version that would suit their needs-whatever those were. Though Dariel worked himself into knots thinking about it, he could not imagine what was happening on the other side of the world. When he thought of Mena or Wren being told that he was dead or missing, it filled him with anguish.
Mor had come to him a second time. She entered, rigid with control, moving deliberately. Tunnel hovered near him, almost seeming like a protector should Mor attack him again. She said something to him in Auldek. The large man responded in the same language, shrugging as he spoke, ending with something that must have been a joke, since he grinned at his own words.
Mor did not acknowledge any humor. Dragging a stool in front of Dariel, she sat down and faced him directly. She switched to Acacian. "If it were up to me alone I'd just as soon feed you to the snow lions."
"Is that an option?" Dariel asked. "Are there lions around here? I'm not saying I'd want to be eaten, but it's possible the lions would treat me better than-"
He flinched when Mor reached for him. She clamped her hand over his mouth and said, "Shut your mouth and let me say what I must. Then I'll go, and you can prattle on in your ignorance. Tunnel will listen. Won't you?"
"He makes good prattle," Tunnel said, tugging on one of his tusks.
"You cannot tell me anything right now," Mor said. "Let me tell you a few things. Will you be quiet?"
Reluctantly, Dariel nodded. He would rather listen to whatever she had to say than have her turn away in anger again.
"Good." She drew her hand from his lips. "I am going to assume that you know nothing. Let's start at that point and nothing will be missed. You are in Ushen Brae, the place you call the Other Lands. We are in the tunnels beneath the city of Avina. I'm not entirely clear what happened when your party met the Auldek, but I can tell you that your people were slaughtered. A handful fled back to the league boats, but not many. You're the only one we have. And who are we? We're not the Auldek. I am Mor of the Free People. You know Tunnel and Skylene. We are all of the People. The 'People' are those you might refer to as quota. We are the slaves you sent here. Many of us are still in bondage. Some of us fight it." She pressed her hand to her chest. "We are those who fight it. The Free People. You may think that this side of the world is just a place where you discard unwanted children. We don't think so. Not anymore. Ushen Brae is the world. It's here we make the future."
"Wait." Dariel tried to gesture with his hands, but as they were bound, he used his shoulders instead, shrugging apologetically. "Just wait a moment. I will stop interrupting. I will, really. I just mean for you to know that I am not your enemy. I'm an Akaran, yes, and… you are quota. I know that is a terrible crime of my family, but it's nothing that I started. If anything, I hoped I might stop it. That's why I came-to help." Lest this sound too meek, he raised his chin as he concluded. "You do me wrong by chaining me."
When he stopped, Mor continued as if he had not spoken. "You are a prisoner, Dariel Akaran, of the very children your family sent to slavery. We've grown up. We don't stay children forever. In the coming days, we will decide what to do with you. Some believe you are here to save us. Some know better. But the elders of the Free People are patient and just. You will be tested. Perhaps-though it's not likely-we will find some value in you. But if you can be no use to us, you will feed the earth, and none here will weep. That's all I have to tell you right now."
With that, Mor jumped up from her seat, sending it crashing over behind her. She turned and was halfway out of the room before Dariel spoke.
"Wait!" he said.
Mor froze.
"I'll listen to it all," Dariel continued. "Test me also, if that is my fate. Kill me after that, if you wish, but let me die knowing. You won't understand me, but I know-in more ways than you even consider-that I have walked the world half blind. That was the way of my people, but it doesn't have to continue. My brother, if he had lived and had met you-would have asked for the same. But he isn't here. I am. So, in his place, tell me everything. Please."
"Your ignorance would take a lifetime to erase."
"I am not the only ignorant one in this room."
Mor snapped her head around. "You resort to insults?"
"Following your example," Dariel quipped. "You were a child when you left-"
"When I was taken, not left."
Dariel conceded the point with a curt nod. "When you were taken. That's true of you. That's true of every human living in Ushen Brae. You know nothing of the Known World, nothing more than a child would."
"Generations of People have grown old here, lived, and died."
"Yes, but the People never know more about the Known World than what children of seven or eight can tell them. You may get old and grow wise in your way, yes, but you know little about Acacia."
Mor kicked the stool that was in her way, sending it twirling inches from Dariel's head. It clattered to the floor.
Dariel fought to contain his frustration. "We should be speaking to each other, not attacking each other. I want to know about life here. I want to know what's been done in the Akaran name. I inherited it, too-just as you did. It's the fact that we don't know each other that has allowed this crime to go on."
"How pathetic you are to claim to want to help us now. Now that you're nothing-"
"Mor, I have lived years knowing that there was something foul at the heart of my family's empire. I knew some of it but not all of it. Tell me all of it. Show me. And I will tell you everything I can about the world you came from."
"I know you will," Mor said, threat laced in the words. This time, she turned and left the room before Dariel found the words, or the heart, to stop her.
In the days that followed, his testing began. It was not so much a matter of any one challenge to meet. It was like no other tests he had ever taken. It was a matter of opening himself as completely as possible and giving, giving, giving. The elders, according to Mor, wanted to take him up on his offer to educate them about the Known World. They wanted to know everything they could about the land that had sold them into slavery.
At first he spoke hesitantly, unsure whether or not he was betraying his people. But this was what he himself had asked for. Half of it, at least. Sometimes Mor questioned him, a thing Dariel found both exhilarating and unnerving, but she had other duties that took her away for days at a time. More consistently, Skylene directed the course of his days. She seemed to have more freedom with her time than the others. Most could only steal a few hours every few days away from the chores their masters had for them.