Chapter 2

Imprisoned in a mountain cell, the narrator receives a return lark bearing a mysterious response that matches handwriting scratched into her cell walls—suggesting a child was once held here and escaped. The message "No you don't" sparks renewed hope and determination to find a way out.

The narrator sits shackled in a cramped, filthy cell beneath a mountain, tormented by guilt over hiding a call to arms in her signature on a message she sent to the Scavenger King. She fears she has implicated her uncle Kaan or aunt Pah. A lark repeatedly visits her cell, and she initially mistakes it for a dream. When she finally reads the message inside, she discovers the handwriting matches letters scratched into her cell wall—crude writing that appears to have been made by a child held in this same cell who somehow escaped. The lark's message, "No you don't," responds to her despair and becomes a turning point: she realizes she has survived cages her entire life and that desperation can forge solutions from unlikely sources. Determined to escape and fix her mistakes before they reach their destination, she resolves to eat her revolting meal to regain strength and promises the lark they will get out together.