41• LARICE

All hope had gone to nothing. Larice found herself kneeling along with Estevan, all bruised and beaten up after the hunters dragged them out of the dungeon. The fight was pointless; she realized—ten hunters, including Quarth, all against her? What was she thinking? But it surprised her when they didn’t kill her immediately in the dungeon. She thought they would torture her here with Estevan, but she had spotted no torturing equipment around.

The Black Solar spoke up to its name, revealing its gray-painted walls, dark ceilings with no windows, and floors of black quartz. At the center of the solar—a circular, iron plate with a meter in diameter—covered the lip of an iron tube like a large can. Larice had no clue of what the wide tube contained, but it seemed to be connected underground. Was this their punishment? Would the Emperor throw them inside that iron-covered tube? Whatever it contained, she had a very bad feeling about it.