Luthradi leaned against the bars of her cell. It was dark outside, but she knew what sleep would bring her tonight. It had not been a good day in the unstable block. Someone had screamed things that she was only too able to imagine. Someone had started hurting themselves against the bars, too. She hadn't seen it, but she had heard the 'thump-thump-thump'.
They had been dealt with.
The guards told stories of a hatching gone very strange. She could only imagine the cries of dragons and the rage of the death of one of their own. She had never seen a hatching, and didn't know very much about dragons, as they were in person and not in stories.
But her imagination was very fertile.
Rumors of a gold dragon- A ferocious warrior who would stir up trouble.
A weyrwoman meant little to Luthradi. It would change nothing here.
But a troublemaking gold dragon, who- she heard- had made a few passes over her block.
If dragons were telepathic- if they could talk to minds, would that explain the golden voice of a few days ago that whispered of wild glee? Would it be why unstable block had become a little more unstable?
Or was it an illusion? Was she going mad, or had she been mad all along? Did it matter?
Bottom line, it had not been a good day for her imagination, and she knew that if she slept it would run wild. She didn't want nightmares. She really, really didn't. She saw enough living ones. And she certainly didn't want to be alone with her thoughts.
"Machi?" she whispered to the cell across from hers and a row down. She could see the faint moonlight gleaming off of his pale hair and skin, could see the glitter of his eyes. She would fear him, she knew, if they were uncaged.
"are you awake?
Or, rather, 'do you want me to think you are awake?' because he probably was. The person directly across from her was deep in sleep, peaceful now. They would be twitching in nightmares when awake. Others, too, were asleep. It was late.
Machi wouldn't have been her first choice of conversation, but he was far from her last choice.