It was time for him to check his injuries.

         The Red Robes had kicked him in the ribs; he could tell by the hitch when he breathed. That no bones protruded through his skin was a good sign. Perhaps none were broken or, if they were, were clean breaks that would heal. 

         Gingerly, he touched the top of his head. The lump wasn’t as big as he feared, but it was big enough. His hand came away sticky. A hard blow, the blood had yet to congeal. The blood in his hair had stiffened, as well as the crust that covered one eye. He picked at the scab; bits of brownish red fell into the straw. He spit in his hand, cleansing the socket with his own salvia. He wasn’t blinded, but the swelling limited his vision.  

         Oren pushed himself up with his good hand, his marked hand, and managed to stand. He took a step, then another, slowly measuring his cell. Roughly four and a half feet by ten. 

         He walked to the door and leaned (lightly) against the bars. Across from him sat a fat rush candle in a black iron sconce. Right below the sconce was the key to his cell hanging on an overlarge nail. The rush would burn for hours, in which time he was meant to imagine freedom.

         Hope was the best torture. Elymas knew what he was about.

         Oren began to hobble about his cell. Big enough to imagine life, small enough to promise death. His vest, spattered with old blood, was now soaked with his own, and his buckskins were stiff. Had he not been so broken, he could have knocked down the door. Oren had been known to do inexplicable damage when enraged. Once he’d crushed the skull of a wolf that had been worrying a herd of sheep. Now, if he lifted his left arm, he might puncture a lung and drown in his own blood.

         Those assigned to this cell could only stare at the key with no way to reach it; the smell of hope was a three-day fish and Oren, like those before him, was a starving cat. 

         Hatred rose from deep within for Elymas and his red-robed minions.

         Oren threw back his head and howled.