Chapter 13 #2
Shade walks into the hall looking exactly as he had the day he left. He is still small and thin, with those unsettling pale eyes. Twenty-three years have passed in the world outside. But in the temple, barely any time has touched him.
Twenty-three years have changed me completely. I’ve grown tall and filled out with muscle. Scars mark my body and my face has hardened from my missions. At six-foot-four, I’m broad-shouldered and the softness of youth is gone from my features. My hands bear calluses from endless weapon work.
Shade is still a kid.
It is deeply awkward.
He stops when he sees me. Those pale eyes widen slightly, the most emotion I’ve ever seen from him.
“Wolf?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re different.”
“I’m aware.” We stare at each other. Twenty-three years of life experience separate us now. I’ve lived an entire adult life while he experienced six months. The boy I fought beside, the friend who claimed me in a courtyard covered in blood, he’s still there. But I’ve moved on.
“You’re tall,” he says finally.
“You’re not.”
Neither of us speaks for a beat. Then the corner of Shade’s mouth lifts slightly in what might be a smile. “I will be. Eventually.”
Shepherd laughs at our interaction. “Come on, both of you. We’re celebrating.”
“Celebrating what?” I ask.
“Shade’s out. Wolf’s the guild’s rising star. This is a good day.” He’s already moving toward the door, assuming we’ll follow. “I know just the place.”
The Gilded Lily sits in Tiamat’s pleasure district. Part tavern, part brothel, and a neutral ground where assassins can drink without watching their backs quite so carefully.
It’s the usual place Shepherd and I frequent. A place where the wine flows freely and the company is available for the right price.
We arrive to find the main room already busy. Shepherd finds us a booth away from the crowd and orders a meal. “Give the boys whatever they want, anything on the menu. My treat.”
Then he excuses himself, disappearing upstairs with a host he’s been seeing for years. Leaving me on babysitting duty.
I’m stuck with Shade, a kid in a pleasure house. Perfect.
Shade looks around the Gilded Lily with those sharp eyes, taking in everything. The workers in their silks, the private rooms upstairs, the thick carpets that muffle sound, the expensive art on the walls.
And the hanging cages.
Oh, the fucking cages.
The Gilded Lily’s owner is a noble named Petyr Ravence. He likes to display his newest acquisitions in gilded cages throughout the main room. He parades them for potential customers to inspect and purchase.
Indentured servitude laws in Tiamat allow for debt bondage. If someone owes enough money and can’t pay, they can be sold into service until the debt is cleared.
I’ve learned to ignore the cages and to avoid looking too long at the faces behind the bars. The guild has taught us not to care about things we can’t change.
I steer Shade to the bar where he’ll face away from the cages.
The server comes to take our order. I glance at the selection behind the bar and decide to take full advantage of Shepherd’s generosity. “Blackthorn Reserve. The aged one.”
Her eyebrows rise slightly. That’s easily the most expensive ale in the house. “Excellent choice, sir. And for you, sweetheart?” She turns to Shade, smiling at him.
“I’ll have what Wolf is having,” Shade says.
“He’ll have a milkshake,” I interrupt. “With a cherry on top.”
The girl blinks, then smiles wider. “Of course.”
She returns minutes later with a bright pink glass, topped with whipped cream and a bright red cherry. Shade looks at the milkshake, then at me. “Can I really have this?”
“Consider it repayment,” I say, taking a long drink of my ale. “For helping me fight for that chocolate when we were kids.”
“Thank you.” He picks up the milkshake carefully and takes a sip. His whole face lights up. “This is good.”
Despite the awkwardness, the strangeness of sitting across from a friend who’s both younger and not younger than me, I smile.
We sit in awkward silence for a while. Shade drinks his milkshake with careful concentration while I work on my ale.
“Wolf,” Shade says eventually. “What are those?”
He’s pointing at the hanging cages.
Fuck.
“Those are... displays,” I say carefully, hoping he’ll drop it.
He studies the nearest cage intensely. There’s a girl inside with brown hair and defiant eyes. She wears rags that barely cover her, and there are fresh bruises on her arms.
“Who is she?” Shade asks the bartender, who’s been polishing glasses nearby.
She’s an older elven lady who has worked at the Gilded Lily longer than I’ve been alive. “New acquisition. Daughter of Lord Ferryn. He gambled away the family fortune and hung himself last month. Left her with debts she couldn’t possibly pay. Ravence bought her contract from the creditors.”
“What will happen to her?” Shade asks.
The bartender shrugs. “Once she’s... properly broken in, she’ll work upstairs until her debt is paid.”
I try not to look at the girl too long. This is just how the world works. The strong devour the weak. Always have, always will. The guild beat idealism out of me years ago.
But Shade...
Shade is still staring at the girl in the cage.
I should notice the way his head tilts just slightly and how his eyes go distant. But I’m distracted, talking to the bartender about some contract rumor. I don’t notice when Shade slips away from the booth.
Not until I hear the screaming.
I turn to see Shade standing in front of the large bird cage. It’s been brought down to the floor. The gilded door is hanging open on broken hinges. He’s torn it off its hinges with his bare hands.
The girl inside is pressed against the back of the cage, snarling like a feral cat. Her eyes are wild with terror and fury.
“Come out,” Shade says earnestly. “You’re free.”
She just stares at him with those defiant, terrified eyes.
Shade holds out his hand. “Come out. Please.”
The girl doesn’t take his hand or move from her corner.
So Shade does the only thing that makes sense to his strange mind.
He takes off his coat. It’s new and well-made, a gift from Shepherd for surviving the temple. He holds it out to her through the bars.
“You’re cold,” he observes. “Take this.”
The girl stares at the cloak wondering if it’s some kind of trick. Slowly, she reaches out and grabs it. She wraps it around herself, covering the rags.
That’s when Petyr Ravence arrives.
The noble sweeps across the room draped in silk and jewels. He takes one look at the broken cage, at Shade standing there, at the girl wrapped in a cloak, and his smile turns savage.
“Well,” he purrs. “It seems we have a thief.”
“Let her go,” Shade says calmly.
Ravence laughs once, soft and disbelieving. He gestures and his guards move forward with clubs.
I’m already moving, but Shepherd appears on the stairs before I can reach Shade. He’s half-drunk and completely furious.
“Shade,” he mutters, his tone arctic. “What did you do?”
“I freed her.”
“You freed—” Shepherd closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Gods damn it.”
Ravence is already calling for the guild’s judges. Shade has broken guild-sanctioned contracts. There will be consequences.
Severe ones.
Another Arbiter arrives within the hour. A fae named Mara with cold eyes and a colder heart. She reviews the evidence and listens to Ravence’s complaint.
“One hundred lashes,” she declares. “For destruction of property and interference with legal contracts.”
Shade doesn’t flinch or react at all.
But I do.
“I’ll take half,” I say before I can stop myself.
Mara looks at me like I’m an insect. “You weren’t involved.”
“He’s my friend. Let me—”
“Silence.” She turns to her guards. “Take them both back to the guild. The boy gets his hundred lashes. This one—“ She gestures at me. “… fifty, for speaking out of turn.”
They drag us back through Tiamat’s streets, back to the guild compound. The punishment hall is the place where disobedience is answered with pain.
Other Grimsbanes are already gathering. Word has spread. They come to watch and remember what happens when you break the rules.
They strip Shade’s shirt and chain him to the post in the center. Mara requests to deliver the punishment herself. She doesn’t delegate this to subordinates or guards.
Shepherd volunteers to strike me. Better him than someone who’d enjoy it.
They chain me to a post off to the side.
The first lash falls across my back. Pain explodes like lightning.
I bite down on the leather strap they gave me, refusing to scream.
By the tenth, my back is on fire. By the twentieth, I can feel blood running down my spine, soaking into my leathers. By the thirtieth, I’m barely conscious.
Shepherd’s face is expressionless as he delivers each strike. When it’s done, they unchain me. I collapse, gasping. Every breath sends new waves of agony through my shredded back.
But I force myself to look and watch what happens next.
They bring out the punishment whip for Shade. It’s different from the training whip they used on me. This one has weighted tips designed to tear flesh.
The first lash falls.
Shade doesn’t scream. He merely stands still while the whip tears his back to ribbons. By the hundredth, I think he might die. The crowd is silent now. Even the Grimsbanes who came to watch look sick.
Only Petyr Ravence is grinning at the edge of the crowd with a satisfied smirk. Every lash that lands makes his grin wider. Mara catches his eye after the eightieth strike, silently asking if this is sufficient. He gives a slight nod. The debt is being paid.
When they finally unchain Shade, he collapses. I catch him before he hits the ground, cradling his destroyed body against me. His blood soaks into my clothes, mixing with my own.
The girl, Kitty is sobbing. She is still wrapped in his cloak with tears streaming down her face. They hauled her to the guild compound on Ravence’s orders. He demanded she witness the consequences of Shade’s actions.