“Don’t you understand? The only person who knows where we are is d’Ambray, and he put us here to slowly starve to death. Even if he changes his mind and decides to pull you out, since he has some strange fascination with you, he has no such relationship with me. I’m disposable. What few dealings I had with this man were abrupt to the point of rudeness. He clearly has no regard for me.”

“I promise you now that we went in here together and we’re leaving together. Curran will get me out and I won’t leave you behind.”

“To expect that Curran will somehow come and rescue you before we die is absurd.”

“You don’t know him like I do.”

“Kate! You are delusional!”

“This isn’t my first time trapped without food,” I said. “I used to have to do this frequently. We have water, which is a huge advantage. We’re not dead yet.”

He stared at me.

“I’ve survived the Arizona desert. I’ve survived in a forest scorched by fires. I’ve been starved, drowned, frozen, but I’m still here. The key to survival is to not give up. You have to fight for your life. You have to have hope. If you let go of hope, it’s over. Giving up is dying quietly with your hands bound in a hut where the man who tied you up threw you. Hope is kicking your way out and running ten miles across snow and forest against all odds.”

Ghastek blinked. “Did you actually do this?”

“Yes.”

“Who put you in the hut?”

“My father.”

Ghastek opened his mouth. “Why? What kind of a father does that to a child?”

“The only one I had. Don’t give up. Don’t let the troglodyte win, Ghastek.”

He shook his head.

His brain was too loud. He needed to stop thinking, because his mind kept running in circles, driving him deeper into despair. Despair was the kiss of death.

We needed to conserve energy, but if I didn’t distract him, he would fold on me. “You keep analyzing the situation and the more you dissect it, the more hopeless it seems. Try not to think about it. Talk to me instead.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know. Why did you decide to become a navigator? Did you always want to pilot the undead? Why didn’t you strike out on your own? Why the People?” There, that ought to keep him occupied.