The Prison Healer

Kiva rushes back to the infirmary. She has many questions for Tilda, but she cannot ask them with Naari and Tipp in the room. Tilda struggles with her speech, as she did the last time she was lucid. Kiva asks her about her health, but Tilda wants to know why her trials have not started. Tilda wants to die, and Kiva avoids telling her that she has become Tilda’s champion. As Tilda weakens, she requests that Kiva retell the story of her parents’ meeting.

After Tilda falls asleep, Kiva lingers in the infirmary and tests the rats. Tilda soon slips back into delirium. Kiva plans to visit the aquifer early the next morning to take more samples before her Trial by Water, but before she can leave, a cartload of new prisoners arrives. After the prisoners leave, Kiva finds a note in their clothes that reads only, “Oakshollow”: the place where her family members are living. Kiva realizes that her family does not think a rescue will happen, but they hope that Kiva can survive the trials and join them.

Olisha comes to the infirmary to get more supplies, saying that she has been instructed to store what she believes to be an immunity booster. However, Kiva smells the substance and identifies that it is poison. Olisha tells Kiva that she has been handing out the “immunity boosters” all winter to anyone who visits the infirmary. Kiva realizes that prisoners are being poisoned deliberately. Suddenly, Warden Rooke comes to take her to the Trial by Water. She tries to get him alone to tell him what she knows about the origin of the stomach sickness, but he tells her that her news will have to wait until after the trial. As Kiva follows Rooke, Naari joins her. Kiva realizes that they are not going to the aquifer; instead, they are going to the abandoned quarry, which is “a flooded deathtrap. The perfect place for her Trial by Water” (308).

Warden Rooke states that Kiva will be submerged for 15 minutes before she is pulled up. If she is still alive afterward, she will have succeeded. While Naari is tying the rope around Kiva’s ankle, Kiva whispers that the prisoners are being poisoned. Warden Rooke makes Kiva pick up a heavy boulder. Kiva takes a big breath just before Warden Rooke pushes her off the cliff and into the water. Kiva sinks deep into the water, not releasing more than a few air bubbles at a time. The water is ice cold, and her limbs immediately go numb. Eventually, Kiva begins to suffocate and inhales water. Then “it was over. The fight left her. Oblivion took her” (316).

Kiva wakes to the sound of Jaren demanding that she breathe. When Kiva opens her eyes, she realizes that she is still beneath the water. She and Jaren are in a pocket of air with a small air funnel leading from it to the surface. Jaren tells her that he will explain, but first she needs to get warm. Then a circle of flames appears around them. Kiva tells Jaren that she does not understand, but he insists she does. He tells her that he could not let her die.

Kiva suspects that Jaren is an anomaly—someone born with elemental magic outside the royal bloodline—but they are out of time for any explanations. Jaren pleads with her not to tell anyone about his magic, because only Naari knows about it. Just then, the rope is pulled taut. Jaren releases the magic keeping them protected. When they are pulled to the surface, Warden Rooke tells Kiva that he warned her against receiving outside help. Jaren protests, but Kiva tells Rooke that she asked him to dive in after her. At Warden Rooke’s gesture, the guard holding Kiva releases her, and she hits her head and loses consciousness.

Kiva wakes in a cell in the Abyss, the punishment block. Kiva is terrified. A guard opens the door and tells her that her presence is required. Kiva is brought to a larger cell, where Jaren has been flogged. The Butcher tells her that she arrived just in time for the best part. He makes her watch as he lashes Jaren with a whip, and Kiva screams for him to stop.

The Butcher drags her from the room, saying that although Warden Rooke told him not to get physical with Kiva, he is allowed to psychologically torture her. Kiva asks the Butcher if he will kill her, but he tells her no. He also adds, “But when [Jaren] wakes up, he’ll wish I had” (327). Kiva is thrown into a cell that swallows her in complete darkness.

Kiva sees a crack of light; this is only the sixth time that this has happened in what feels like weeks. The door is opened just long enough for someone to deliver a tray of food. Otherwise, Kiva is left in total blackness to be tortured by her own thoughts. Suddenly, the light comes again, but it does not disappear instantly. Naari is on the other side, and she says that they only have a few minutes to talk.

Naari reports that Jaren is healing and says that Kiva has only been in the cell for six days, even though it feels like a lifetime to Kiva. Naari tells her that she went to Warden Rooke about the poison, but he already knew about it. She reveals that Zalindov is expecting a record number of prisoners in the spring, and because Zalindov is past capacity, Warden Rooke administered the poison as a brutal form of “population control.” Kiva realizes that Warden Rooke is the one who killed her father.

Warden Rooke sent her to the Abyss so that she could not find a cure to his poison or reveal his secret. Naari shares that Cresta overheard Naari’s conversation with Warden Rooke and outed him to the entire prison. Rooke is unbothered, because as long as no one beyond Zalindov knows about his actions, he is safe. Naari also rode into town and sent a letter to King Stellan and Queen Ariana; she assures Kiva that the king and queen will stop this injustice. Kiva retorts that the king and queen will not care about what Naari says, as she is just a prison guard.

However, Kiva belatedly realizes the truth of Naari’s situation. Because of Naari’s words and the fact that Jaren has elemental magic, Kiva realizes that Jaren is Crown Prince Deverick and Naari is his golden shield, or bodyguard. Now, Naari reassures Kiva that the Vallentis family will stop Rooke’s poisonings as soon as they find out about it. Before Naari leaves, she tells Kiva that Warden Rooke intends to leave her in this cell in the Abyss until her final ordeal is set to begin.