They dragged Aery back to the chain after they'd both had her fill with her. By that time she had cried so hard that she simply didn't have any tears left. They rechained her and left her, to regather their whips and distribute slices of bread before the next work-shift.
They skipped Aery again, laughing as she bowed her head and shivered. Again, Aiden tried to pass her a bite of bread; again he was whipped for it.
During the workshift, her hands were shaking so badly that she couldn't even lift the pickaxe, much less chip any salt out of the deposit she was working in. The guards teased her about being "a little sore, darling?" and laughed. The whip cracked down on her back again and again, ripping flesh out of it. She fell and the wounds pressed in the salt, stinging like fire.
By the end of the shift she could barely even stand, and it took both the overseers whips and Aiden holding her up from behind in order for her to climb up the tunnel to the spot where they were kept.
Still no food, but this time she got a couple of mouthfuls of water. The guards mercifully left her. But they also took the thin linen sheet that served as her only blanket.
Shivering, convinced she'd die of cold before morning, she curled into a ball, praying that Rowan and Silly would get there soon.
And there was no rest for her. An hour later a guard roughly grabbed her. She panicked, fearing another guard seeking "entertainment", only to go limp with shock when she saw Aiden being unclipped too. He looked at her, his eyes wide in panic.
They took them to another room carved out of the salt. Shackled Aiden to a red-stained block of salt on the floor. In a panic Aery knew that it was an executioner's block.
She was shackled to a wall where she would be forced to watch everything. The salt wall burned her back, but she didn't care. The male guard chuckled. "It is a dangerous thing to bring royalty into the salt mines, where their presence can create hope. And spreading rumors of their presence is even worse." The guard took Aery's pickaxe from the pile that was in here (she knew it was hers by the bloodstained handle from the abrasions on her palms) and raised it as if to hit Aiden in the back.
But he didn't bring it down. He chuckled. "Oh no, that would be too merciful. No, your beloved Aiden is going to suffer horribly. I myself favor a type of execution originally from the Western Wastes. The Blood Eagle. Perhaps you've heard of it." She had. "And what more fitting for an execution of someone in the league with The White Eagle than an eagle of red?"
Aery fought the urge to throw up as the ritual was carried out. She couldn't see for the red spots of hatred and terror and sadness in her vision, was desperately glad she couldn't hear Aiden screaming.
The ritual took two, three hours. Aiden was left dead, chained to the salt brick. Aery was taken back to the chain gang, shackled in place. The others in the gang were taken away one by one, and the increasingly bloody guards brought no one back.
They were all killed, to break Aery.
Well, consider her broken.