Chapter Fourteen
Summer 522
Thick, stale air threatened to choke my waking breath before I could even draw it. Bright sunlight blinded me as I sat up in my tiny cell, its touch causing sweat to pool beneath my skirts and in my armpits. Judging from the position of the sun, it was just past midday. I pulled my linen shift away from sticky skin, seeking some relief from the unbearably hot room. Though the air outside was likely warm and refreshing, I had no such hope in here, for the prison was in the path of runoff heat from the kitchen fires. With so little time between the break of fast and the second meal, even in winter the air did not have time to cool. Perhaps that was by design to torture the prisoners, or maybe the gaol was placed there because no one would live in such conditions
