Chapter Forty-Three
I came down from the fourth floor, what felt like hours later, feeling centuries old as I dragged myself down flight after flight until I reached the first floor.
The rest of the crew, including the Hulfrin new additions, silently watched Vas, Tesal, Yesmic, the Raltven, and me come downstairs.
By that time, they had imprisoned all the masters and released all the slaves.
The freed men and women were gathered in the first-floor rooms, huddled in blankets, their expressions almost as blank as they'd been before.
The clients had been let go, hopefully with a new aversion to prostitutes.
I didn't have anything against people who paid for pleasure as long as those they paid were willing.
In this case, the clients didn't know, so they weren't held accountable.
But those men upstairs had known exactly what kind of evil they wrought upon those children.
That couldn't be forgiven. Maybe a court of teeth wouldn't have executed them for what they'd done, but that only made me feel more justified in my actions.
I glanced at Cesha. She was the only one covered in blood.
The rest of us had killed with fury but precision.
Cesha—not so much. I didn't want to know why seeing that horror had briefly broken her.
I was hoping it was simply the evil of it and nothing personal.
At least she had cleaned her face, but that was more for the children than herself.
The children had been freed, clothed, and herded downstairs with us. Which meant the blank looks we received quickly transformed into horror.
“Where were they?” Drellan, conscious once more, launched to his feet as we brought the children into the room.
“Mama?” The Shanba girl let go of my hand and went forward.
“Rilla?” A Shanba woman shot to her feet and ran for the child.
“Oh, fuck!” Drellan looked at the two embracing. “Fuck. No. No, someone fucking tell me this isn't what I think it is.” He looked at each of us before settling his stare on me.
I just stared back at him, feeling as if I'd been wrung out of rage only to give me fresh pockets to fill with sorrow. It took all of my will to remain standing and not drop to my knees to scream mindlessly.
“I'm going to skin that bitch alive!” Drellan roared.
The children started crying.
“Fuck.” Drellan winced. “I'm sorry, kids.
I'm so sorry. It's all right.” He held up his hands, claws retracted.
“I'm just angry at the person who hurt you.
I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. I—” Drellan fell to his knees with a sob, just as I wanted to do.
“Oh, Gods. Oh, great Gods, how could you let this happen?” He bent his head, covered his face with his hands, and wept.
“It's all right.” A little Argaiv boy went over to Drellan and patted his shoulder. “Don't cry.”
Drellan looked up at him, his eyes wide and wet, and then swallowed roughly.
“Thank you, little one. Come here.” Drellan picked him up and rocked him.
“Is your mommy here?” He turned with him to scan the crowd of freed slaves.
Several who'd been in the other rooms had come in at the sound of the mother calling for her child. “Does anyone know this boy?”
Heads shook even as more mothers and a few fathers ran for their children. Within moments, nearly all the children were reunited with their parents. Only the Argaiv and Ricarri boys were left.
“I don't have a mommy,” the Argaiv boy said. “My daddy brought me here.”
Tesal turned toward a corner and vomited.
I didn't blame him. I wanted to throw up as well. And then I wanted to find that son of a bitch and shove a blade up his ass. Over and over again.
“What kind of monster sells their child to a place like this?” Behez whispered.
“The kind that we destroy,” I said.
Everyone looked at me and went silent, even the parents who cradled their crying children.
“The people who hurt you will be punished.” I took the Ricarri boy's hand.
“We're going to get you home.” I looked at the Argaiv boy.
“Or somewhere that will become home for you.
Somewhere safe. And then we're going to see to it that the Spider never hurts another person ever again.
When we're done with that, we will search for those like you who need our help, and we'll help them too.”
The Ricarri boy looked up at me with wide eyes. “Are you monster hunters?”
I looked around at my crew and then back at the boy. “Yes, that's exactly who we are.”