“I asked if the pumpers get allocated extra rations,” Naari said as they headed down the next passage, the sounds of moving levers and strained moans fading the further they traveled.

Kiva tried not to reveal her shock at what Naari had just said. “And?”

The guard shook her head and repeated, “I hate it down here.”

It was only a short walk between the pumping station and the aquifer. As the narrow passageway widened and the reservoir came into view, Kiva’s heart began to beat faster in her chest. The luminium beacons were spaced intermittently enough to provide only limited light, but there were still enough spread throughout the underground chasm for Kiva to acknowledge just how far the body of water stretched—further than she could see—with the darkness indicating an equally nightmarish depth.

“Is something wrong?”

Kiva turned to find Naari studying her closely, so she asked, somewhat nonsensically, “It’s here, isn’t it?”

The luminium beacons cast shadows over Naari’s face, but not enough to hide her puzzled look. “What’s here? The origin of the sickness? Isn’t that what we’re trying to figure out?”

Kiva shook her head. “No—tomorrow’s Ordeal. Is it being held down here?”

It was still her best guess, enough that she felt queasy as she took in the seemingly endless underground lake.

Naari’s features cleared with understanding, and she glanced out across the aquifer, as if looking at it from a new perspective. “I don’t know.”

Kiva wasn’t sure what her face must have shown, but when Naari looked back at her, the guard was quick to say, “I swear, Kiva. I didn’t know what the last two Trials were beforehand, either. If I knew what tomorrow’s task was, I’d tell you.”

Her tone was so earnest that Kiva believed her. A few weeks ago, she never would have had the courage to even ask, but somehow Naari had become one of the people Kiva trusted most in the world. If the guard said she didn’t know, then she didn’t know.

But that still didn’t help Kiva, at all.

“How long do you think it’d take to swim across?” Kiva asked, crouching beside the nearest edge of the water and scooping some into a flask, careful not to lose her balance.

“Frankly, I don’t want to think about it,” Naari said, a shudder in her normally unwavering voice. Seeing Kiva’s expression, she hastily added, “But I’m sure it won’t take too long, if that’s what you have to do. And it’s freshwater, so there’s nothing nasty living down here, no sea monsters or crocodilians or any other saltwater beasts.”

That idea hadn’t even crossed Kiva’s mind. She yanked her hand from the water and backed away quickly, half expecting a maw full of teeth to come raging out of the surface.