Silently, I groaned. Kestra responded to threats by tightening up on her secrets. Trina should have learned that by now.
My approach was gentler. "There's no future for you here, whether you help us or not. But if you keep your promise and tell us where the Blade is, we'll keep our promises to you. We'll rescue everyone in the dungeons and ride out of Woodcourt tonight, together. You'll get Darrow back, and Celia if you want her. And then you're free."
Kestra met my eyes, and I felt her resolve weakening. If Trina sensed it, then she misinterpreted it in the worst possible way.
"She's playing you like a game, Simon!" Trina said. "Don't give in to her." She marched toward Kestra, yelling, "Tell us where the Blade is--or else!"
She raised a hand, and when Kestra raised hers in defense, I caught it. Her palm opened and I saw a cross burned into it, reddened and beginning to welt. Where had that come from?
"Is that a burn?"
Kestra squeezed her hand back into a fist. It would have stung fiercely to do that, so she must've wanted to hide it. "It's nothing."
"That wasn't there when we were in the dungeons." I forced her fingers open again and studied the burn. "What caused it?"
Kestra's brows pressed together, as if this was nothing of interest. "What causes any burn?"
She knew what I meant. "From what fire, Princess? It's the middle of the day."
Trina cut in. "Aboveground it is, not below." Her tone darkened. "Maybe you went into the dungeons, hoping to find the Blade."
"You're wrong--" Kestra started.
Trina continued, "You took one of the torches for light and burned yourself."
Her eyes filled with tears. "I tried--"
I stepped closer and lowered my voice. "So the Blade is in the dungeons?"
Now her first tear fell, one she had been trying to hold in for some time. "There was an entry in the diary where my mother mentioned having been in the dungeons during the war, and that what she did down there would have eternal consequences."
"The Pit of Eternal Consequence," I mused. "You told me that name before."
Kestra nodded. "If Risha Halderian's servant, Anaya, was held in cell number four, then wouldn't Risha have been kept somewhere worse?"
I instantly understood her meaning. The cell where they had placed me when I was eleven, the one at the lowest point of the dungeons, was the worst of them all. "Risha threw the dagger into the pit, thinking it was bottomless. And no one has searched down there because they fear the stories about the spirits that roam there."
"This was my idea too." Her breathing was becoming irregular again, just thinking of it. "But I can't go down into the pit. You know that."
"I'll go into the pit." Trina spoke more kindly than I'd have expected. "When the Halderians kidnapped you, they kept you in that box. That affected you--of course it did. We understand. You can't go into that pit, but I can."
"Do what you must." Kestra seemed calmer already. "I only want Darrow back. But we'll all leave Woodcourt together, because once we find the Blade, we can never come back."
The girls both looked at me. "We'll leave after dark," I said. "Free the prisoners, find the Blade, and all of us escape."
Simon returned to the hallway to resume his guard duties, or to pretend that his reasons for watching my door were about keeping me in, rather than waiting for the right time to get me out. I told Trina that I was exhausted, which was absolutely true, and took to my bed for a nap. I assumed she went back to pacing, or, at least, that's what she was doing when I awoke several hours later.
I sat up in the bed and felt my hair, which was a mess again. Before she realized I was awake, I removed the pins myself and began combing out my locks with my fingers. It wasn't as neat as her work, but I had to learn to care for myself. After I left Woodcourt, I'd never have servants again.
When she heard movement, Trina stared at me, breathless and face flushed. "What if the Blade isn't in that pit? Once we get into that cell, we'll never be able to come back."
"Pray we should never come back here," I said, wishing my words could soothe her. "Besides, if we don't find it, we're no worse off than before."
"I will be." Trina's eyes were empty, desperate for comfort, like a lost child's. I actually felt sorry for her.
"Tenger won't hold you to that agreement," I said. "Surely you've proven your value to the Coracks."
She shrugged. "This mission is the only major thing I've done for them. If I return empty-handed, Tenger will accuse me of sabotaging it out of sympathy for the Dominion, like my father would've done. If the Coracks reject me, where will I go then?"