Chapter Eleven. Eban
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EBAN
I climb back up into the loft to retrieve some dried meat and salted cheese from my hidden stash to split among the three of us.
I’m as ravenous as a bear and I’ll bet the girl, Gin, hasn’t eaten in quite some time.
I rarely take pity on anyone, yet I find myself offering her the last of my own portion.
When I hand it to her, she hesitates, then accepts it reluctantly. “Thank you,” she says at last with a small smile that briefly changes her face. She doesn’t look as tough or hard anymore, and when her eyes shine, I can’t look away.
That bit of sustenance raises all our spirits. Vergel starts a small fire outside, near the cliff. “If you warm it up, it tastes better,” I tell her.
“Won’t we be seen?” she asks.
I shake my head. “They can’t check them all.” I point below us, toward the center of the Sleeve. The sky is thick with gray smoke.
“I’ve never seen it from above like this,” she says quietly.
“Yeah, it’s even uglier from this view,” I laugh.
“No, I mean—over there,” she says, pointing to the grand palaces on the hillside.
We sit around the fire, eating quietly and watching over the estates, which somehow manage to look both small and intimidating from afar.
We watch as droves of people emerge from the estates in the distance.
One by one, they exit from the iron gates and begin walking back down the road that leads into the southeastern edge of the Sleeve.
None of us comment on it—we all know the tiny figures are Ophir like us, leaving their night shifts at the high houses of Lacon, where they toil through the night, serving our wealthy overlords.
Gin looks especially uncomfortable with the scene.
I’m used to it, but maybe because of the relics we’d uncovered, or the near escape, I find myself more bothered by it than usual.
Our once-great people, a proud folk who lived centuries ago on a floating island paradise, now mere servants, begging for scraps in the gutter.
The thought fills me with rage—I want to march down the hill and ambush one of the estates.
Break some windows. Take whatever I can grab.
Burn it all down. But then, I think, I’ll be just as bad as the Laconians.
She stops eating and stares at the tiny chunk of cheese left in her hand. Her jaw clenches. At first it seems like she’s simply as angry as I am, but there’s a slight quiver in her chin. She’s trying not to cry.
“I know the food’s not fresh, but I didn’t think it was that bad.” The joke doesn’t help. She focuses on the cheese in her hand, expression unchanged.
I look to Vergel for some assistance, but he’s lying on his back with his hands behind his head. I try another tack. “Look, I know we don’t know each other, but I know how you feel. We’re all suffering. We’ve all lost something. Or someone. Or both.”
“I’ve lost everything, not that I’ve ever had very much,” Gin says suddenly.
Vergel and I both look at her, surprised by the personal disclosure.
She doesn’t look directly back at us. Her eyes are locked intently on the scene below.
“But whatever.” She lets out a sad half laugh. “Tonight I almost died. Twice.”
Twice? Vergel and I exchange glances.
“A part of me wishes it had been an actual execution,” she mutters. It’s clear she’s just talking to herself, that she’s forgotten she’s around other people.
“Actual execution?” Vergel asks. “Excuse me?”
I toss a bad bit of meat into the fire. The scrap of flesh crackles when it hits the flames. I want to know what she meant, too, though I know better than to press and cause her to shut down.
“Well, it was supposed to be a real execution, but I was saved at the last minute.” She laughs softly.
I can’t resist. “And why were you … what happened?”
She doesn’t answer right away. She probably isn’t willing to say any more, which doesn’t surprise me. Secrets are all anyone really has.
“The usual Ophir story. My childhood was as cruel and difficult as anyone’s—I’m sure yours was, too.
” She cracks a small stick in half and tosses it into the fire piece by piece, as I had with the meat.
The fire snaps. “But I knew I wasn’t cut out for the Sleeve.
I’m not strong enough for that life. I did it for years, working as a thief and a mercenary. It was better than the alternative.”
“Seems like you’re pretty good at it,” I say. “I mean, you landed the same job we did.” Vergel nods.
Gin shrugs. “I hated being good at it. I hated every part of it. I wanted out of night work. I got lucky, I got a job as a kitchen maid at a pleasure house.”
Vergel and I don’t say anything. Everyone has to do whatever they need to do to survive.
As if she could sense our thoughts she shakes her head.
“No, it wasn’t like that. I worked in the kitchen.
I thought I was finally safe. At least the work I was doing wouldn’t end in me getting arrested or sentenced to death.
” She scoffs. “So much for that. I ended up being kicked out because I slapped a customer. Let’s just say he mistook me for one of the courtesans, and wasn’t polite about it. ”
“Is that how you ended up a thief again?” I ask her. I pull up small pieces of weeds and toss them back onto the ground.
She shakes her head. “Sort of. I was kicked out but someone picked me up. A nobleman. The heir to House Eternal.” There’s pride in her voice when she says this.
“Great mark,” Vergel says.
I nod; I was thinking the same. “Yeah, good work.”
“No, no. I didn’t rob him,” she says, voice raised. Something we said struck a nerve. “Actually”—she reaches out and picks up another stick to break—“we were friends.”
I feel a strange tightening in my chest. Anger, mixed with a sick sort of feeling.
It’s ridiculous, but for some reason, her saying that almost makes me …
jealous. “Guys like that aren’t friends with Ophir, they think we’re less than trash,” I say sharply.
“Not that … I mean, it’s not you, it’s just how they are. ”
Her eyes narrow. “No. He was different. He’s not like them. He saved me from the streets. Took me to the House Eternal. Gave me everything—clothes, food. A place to live. His bed while he slept on the floor.”
“And everyone was fine with that? With an Ophir girl lounging around in the palace?” I can’t help but scoff. “His mother, Lady Ariadne, known far and wide for her cruelty even among cruel people, she was welcoming to the street rat, was she?”
Gin’s nostrils flare and her hands clench into fists. Rather than hit me, though, she looks down at the ground, shaking her head. “Obviously not. I stayed there in secret. The palace was big enough; I went unnoticed.”
“So, essentially, you ended up being a courtesan anyway,” Vergel says. I try to shut him up with a piercing look, but it’s too late.
Gin’s head snaps up. Her eyes flash with fury. “No, it wasn’t like that. Never.”
Vergel puts his hands up in mock surrender. “Sorry.”
“In fact,” Gin continues, even more indignant, “this morning, when Lady Ariadne discovered us together, and commanded me to hang, Rollo risked everything to save me. He bribed the guards and switched me out with a ruse. The whole thing was a sham so his mother would believe I was dead. The girl was paid; I got away. Everyone was happy. He saved my life.”
“That was you,” Vergel says. “We heard there was an execution at House Eternal today. You were the girl.”
“I was, but I lived. I told you, Rollo saved my life.”
This annoys me. I’d saved her life, too. But then I catch myself—why am I so concerned with what she thinks of me? I don’t even know her.
“Saved your life and tossed you back out on the streets, sounds like a real hero,” I snort, highly irritated.
She huffs.
The fire crackles in the silence that follows.
But my annoyance only grows. I don’t hold it in anymore.
“Forget him. He’s never going to sacrifice his comfort to save you.
He has everything he could possibly want in his palace.
He felt guilty, so he saved you, to make himself feel better, that’s all.
He only did it to make himself look good. The rest is a fantasy.”
She looks shocked, as if I’d slapped her across the face. I soften my approach. “Look, all I’m saying is, you don’t need him.”
“You don’t know me, you don’t know what I need,” she snarls.
“So is that what you want? To go back there? You’re Ophir. Why would you want to live in their shallow houses of gold?” She opens her mouth to protest but I continue. “We belong to the sea. That’s our true home. That’s my goal—to get home. To the Lashing.”
Gin’s eyes suddenly light up. “Wait, you’re going to the Lashing?”
“Yeah, after we take care of business here, that’s where Vergel and I are headed. Why?”
“I’m headed there, too.” She hangs her head. “I can’t stay in Lacon. If Lady Ariadne finds out I’m still alive … then I’m dead for sure.”
“It’s not going to be easy to get there,” I warn.
She nods. “I’m aware.”
“And first, we’ve got to get to Zagar. If we can keep him quiet, we have everything we need to leave this life behind.”
No one disagrees with me.