"I know it," she said, after a moment, folding her arms. "But I do not know that I am inclined to live as a prisoner, merely because I am one. They may do as they will with me, but they will not take that from me." Not again. She lifted her chin as if there was no doubt in her, as if she felt as certain as she sounded. As if she had not been warned of the Avoxes, did not fear that as she had feared nothing in her life before.

But that was exactly why she was so adamant. She was living in fear, and she hated it. To back down on this, on anything, so obviously felt like giving in to that fear. And if she began to let it in, it would consume her.

"In any case," she added after a moment, with another hard look at the crab-beast, "it seems passing strange that they should be so fearful of a knife, and yet give you free rein with that thing."