Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [67]
And that made this situation all the more dangerous.
She closed her eyes and checked on the sword. It hovered in the gray mist, ready for her to use. Annja opened her eyes and felt the wall closest to her hand. No, she thought; there would be no sense in trying to hack her way out of the cell.
She realized that she’d completely ignored the door to her cell, which was carved out of stone just like the rest of it. She could see no locking mechanism and figured it must have been bolted on the other side. A small slit cut into the door opened out beyond, but had a shutter on it.
Annja scampered over to it and tried to push the shutter back so she could look out.
It was locked.
She slumped back. So they were doing their best to keep as much information from her as possible. That was smart, Annja reasoned. If she had prisoners, she wouldn’t want them knowing anything about their surroundings, either.
But it frustrated the hell out of her. She wanted to know what was going on. And for that, she needed information.
Annja’s throat ached. She needed some fresh water. She glanced at the walls and the water running down them. She took a sniff and then put her lips to it.
She spat the water out when she tasted the salt in it. As tempting as it would be drink the salt water, she knew it would kill her. If she took in too much of it, her liver would shut down and she’d die within a day.
Annja sat again and tried to calm herself. She began doing some deep-breathing exercises.
She had no idea how long she sat that way but eventually she heard a noise. Footsteps approached her door, echoing along the length of the corridor.
She heard a click and the shutter was drawn back. She saw a hand slide a tray of food and a container of water into the room.
Annja dashed for the door, but the shutter slammed shut.
“Wait!” she called out.
The footsteps receded, but Annja could hear that they had gone to the right. At least she knew something. If she escaped the cell, she would go right instead of left.
Annja looked down at the tray of food. A simple ham sandwich with lettuce and cheese. An apple sat next to it. And the container of water was a small sixteen-ounce bottle.
Annja grabbed at it and tore the cap off. Her subconscious registered that there was no safety seal on the bottle and Annja froze.
What if they had drugged the water? What if they needed to keep her doped up for some reason?
She frowned. She needed the hydration. I’ll have to risk it, she thought. And then she drank deep, feeling the cold liquid slosh down her throat. Another two gulps and she gasped as she brought the bottle away from her lips.
Thank God.
The water hadn’t tasted funny, which buoyed her spirits some. She looked at the sandwich and then lifted the slices of cheese to see if there was a hidden surprise.
Nothing.
Annja tore into the sandwich and chewed it up while washing it down with more of the water. She would need to save some for later, knowing that it was never a good idea to simply assume that if your captors fed you once they would do so again.
But the food tasted wonderful and the apple was juicy and helped replenish her, as well. Annja chewed it slowly, welcoming the cleansing effect it had on her mossy teeth.
Before long, her meal was finished and Annja felt content at having ingested water and food. She tried to snuggle up to one of the dry parts of the wall and wrapped the blanket around her. She shivered and started to doze off.
As she relaxed deeper, she could hear other ambient sounds that drifted to her, bouncing from wall to wall. She thought she could hear the sounds of machines humming somewhere far off in the distance.
She wondered if they were generators or other machines designed to keep the drains flowing. If she was underwater in some sort of weird cavern, then they would need to keep the water under control or else the entire place would flood in a second and kill them all.
“Did you eat well?”
Annja’s eyes snapped open. There was no one else in the cell