CHAPTER 8
The blood refused to come out. I scrubbed and scrubbed, but the stain had settled into the grout between the stones. I would need bleach. Did they even have bleach in Rellas?
The horror of what had happened loomed in my mind, like a terrifying dark ghost that bent over me, watching me scrub the grout. Falling apart to deal with it wasn’t an option, so I ignored it and kept scrubbing with a blank look on my face.
The younger kids had started crying the minute the door leading upstairs closed behind Derog.
The older teenage girl tried to calm them down, then another man came down the stairs, told them to shut up, dropped into a large chair in the corner, and propped his feet in beat-up boots on an old wooden trunk.
He was about Talpot’s age, but where Talpot was thick, this guy was leaner, with a face that reminded you of a weasel, and skin so pale it was slightly green.
His longish brown hair was pulled away into a sparse ponytail, and the jerkin he wore over his bare chest had burned patches on it.
I hadn’t counted on the kids being watched. That altered things.
The oldest girl led the three younger children to the latrine, then brought them back.
The boy crawled onto his bunk and sat there, watching the weasel-face.
He was eleven or twelve, thin, small, with dark tan skin, short brown hair, and very dark eyes.
From where I knelt on the floor, his irises looked almost black.
I kept scrubbing.
Derog and his revolting crew showed up in the second book, in one of the later chapters.
A talented young thief who went by River Fog traveled to Kair Toren at the request of a prominent noble family.
They hired him to steal a child from Derog.
It was a particular child, and Derog had referred to her as a “custom order for a special customer.” The family had tried to purchase her, but the slavemonger refused to sell her even at a sky-high price, which meant whoever had hired him to obtain the child in the first place had to be powerful enough to scare him.
A lot of that chapter revolved around River Fog scouting the house and remembering all the terrible shit that happened there, because years ago, he, too, was one of the children sold through it.
At some point he encountered Talpot on the street, and it took all of River Fog’s will not to murder him.
He stopped only because it would jeopardize his job, and he took pride in being a thief who never failed.
He could pick any lock, steal the object he wanted, and vanish without a trace.
In his reminiscing, River Fog also shared that he had once run into another of Derog’s child victims. The man, by then an adult, told him that he had loosened a board in the latrine and dug a hole through the wall into Derog’s escape tunnel.
He worked on it for weeks, removing the board to work on his tunnel, then sliding it back in place until one night he realized that only a single stone stood between him and the escape.
A good push would have knocked the stone free and opened the way to freedom, but he was exhausted, and it was almost morning.
He decided to make his escape the next night.
But during the day one of Derog’s roughnecks noticed the loose board and nailed it in place, never realizing there was a tunnel behind it.
Every night for the next week the boy would go to the latrine and stare at the board.
He was too weak to pry it free, so he would have to break it.
It was old and would splinter from a kick, but the sound of the snapping board would bring Derog’s guards.
He never got the courage to kick the board and several days later he was shipped out to a country estate, where his life became a living hell.
That should have been a big obvious clue that the children were watched, but I had read right over it.
I thought he just had an irrational fear.
In my defense, I usually skipped that chapter during my rereads because in the end, once River Fog delivered the child to the prearranged place, an assassin murdered him and the girl.
The whole thing was one giant setup by River Fog’s employer, who had wanted the child dead.
I hated reading about child abuse and murder.
I could read about horrible crap as long as it happened to adults, but crimes against children skeeved me out, so I had only read that chapter two or three times.
As far as I could remember, Derog, his nephew Talpot, and the bookkeeper, Lasa, were the only people mentioned by name.
I had no idea who the guy guarding us was.
I was reasonably sure the escape hole was already dug, because the man who’d made it mentioned it was during the cholera outbreak. The city had been under quarantine, which was why he had been stuck with Derog for so long. The outbreak had happened four years ago.
I had to find the tunnel and figure out how to break the board without alerting the asshole in the chair.
I wrung the rag out, straightened, and lifted the bucket.
The oldest girl jumped off her bunk. “I’ll help you.”
Perfect.
She grabbed the other side of the bucket’s handle. Together we carried it to the latrine, passing the boy on his bunk. He glanced at us and went back to mad dogging at the guard.
The latrine had a sink and a simple shower on the left and a wooden box on the right with three holes cut out, one for an adult butt and two others smaller.
We set the bucket down. I turned, trying to bring the guard into my view without looking obvious.
He was conducting a fascinating study of his own nails.
I turned to the girl and held my finger to my lips.
Her eyes widened.
She was a pretty girl with round eyes somewhere between blue and green and braided hair on the darker end of blond.
Swirls of old bruises covered her face, no longer purple, but a sickly greenish yellow.
She was maybe five foot six or five foot seven, and strong, not fragile.
I had gone to high school with girls just like her. They played volleyball and ran track.
I kept my gaze on her, moved to the first latrine, and gently knocked on the board next to the hole. Solid.
She watched me.
Second hole. Solid.
Third. Hollow.
The girl blinked.
I motioned her over with my hand. She dragged the bucket over and began slowly pouring the bloody water into the hole, blocking me from the guard’s view. I bent, trying to find the edges of the board. It wasn’t hard since I had a helpful cluster of nails to guide me.
Neither she nor I would fit. The rest of the girls were too young. It would have to be the boy.
“What’s behind there?” she whispered.
“A hole that leads to Derog’s back door.”
The board was nailed well. I’d need a pry bar, which I didn’t have. No, breaking it was our only chance. It looked thin enough.
“Does the guard ever come into the bathroom?”
“Only when he has to go,” she whispered.
We needed to do it now. The longer we waited, the higher the risk that Derog would ship one of the kids out during the night.
“What’s your name?”
“Clover.”
“Are you good at kicking?”
She glanced at the board and nodded.
“Get the boy,” I told her.
She walked over to the sink. I followed her. We stood side by side.
“Kaiden, bring me the girls’ laundry.”
He didn’t respond.
“Kaiden!”
“Do what she says,” the guard growled.
Kaiden slid off his bunk, went over to the wicker basket in the corner, picked it up, and carried it to us, looking like he wanted to punch somebody.
“Bring it over here,” she told him, pointing at a spot between us.
He set the basket down with a sour look on his face.
“Don’t react,” I whispered.
He glanced at me.
“Show me your left hand.”
He glanced at Clover. She made big eyes at him. He showed me his left palm. Good. He knew right from left.
“The last latrine by the wall has a hole behind the board,” I murmured.
“I’m going to make some noise. When I scream, Clover will kick the board.
You’ll crawl into the hole. There is a loose stone at the end.
Push it open and crawl out into a tunnel.
Turn left and run until you find a door. Open it. Nod if you understand.”
He nodded.
“Remember, turn left. If you see the stairs, you’re going the wrong way, straight to Derog. Open the door and come right back. If they notice you are gone, they might kill the lot of us. You’ll have to be very fast. Do you understand?”
He nodded again.
I washed my hands under the water. There was a child’s blood under my fingernails. I shook my hands, wiped them on my dress, turned, and walked into the room. My heart was beating so fast, it actually hurt a little.
I needed to draw attention, and then I would need to hold it for at least three to four minutes.
I crossed the room and stood in front of the guard. This was a stupid plan. I would regret this.
I stared.
The guard looked at me.
I stared some more. Most people didn’t like to be stared at.
“What the fuck are you looking at?”
I stared.
“Are you fucking deaf?”
I stared.
He kicked the trunk out of the way, jumped to his feet, and started toward me. Well, that was easier than I thought.
“So, you’re gonna eyeball me now? Is that it?”
I opened my mouth.
“What?” he demanded.
“Shit smear,” I told him.
“What?”
I sucked in a deep breath and screamed at the top of my lungs. I was loud and scared beyond all reason, and my body delivered all the decibels I had in me.
The guard backhanded me across the face. The hit burned like he’d scalded me. I rocked back and stumbled. Something hot and salty wet my lips. Blood, this time my own.
“Shut the fuck up.”
The small kids burst into tears. I hadn’t heard the board breaking. There was no telling if they’d managed it, but it was too late to stop now.
“Shit smear!” I told him.