by Lisa Daniels
Rus neatly folded back into his human body, still wearing clothes. “Always takes some concentration to keep the clothes on just right,” he said, brushing off imaginary dust from his suited sleeves. “You will relinquish control of your servants within the hour. We will be looking into your house and searching for any other evidence of abuse or potential tax fraud. I do hope we won’t meet again.”
He patted Kelsey on the back, before giving her a brisk, one-armed hug. “There. You’ll be out and free. No more abuse.”
“Won’t… won’t I be sent back to the Undercity?”
“Of course not. Unless that’s what you want, of course.”
She shook her head furiously, falling mute as he steered her out of the room, unable to shrug off the feeling that she’d done something terribly wrong. That she shouldn’t dare hope that life under the thumb of Lord Feylen was over.
She didn’t dare say anything else to him. And kept her gaze once more affixed to the floor.
Chapter Two – Perran
Perran Rus hated weak, passive people. He hated the ones who turned them into shadows of human beings, and hated how they perpetrated their own misery afterwards. Humans were predators, after all. If they sensed weakness, no matter how nice they might have been, it was just too easy to take advantage of the weak. So when he saw them, he was simultaneously aware of the abuse inflicted upon them, and furious at them for not standing up for themselves at the same time.
He’d seen too many cases of abuse during his time at Skytown Police services. They were mostly the cases he got sent on. Abusive husbands and wives, exploitation of lottery winners, the poor who thought their luck had finally changed with a winning ticket, and the poisonous, tax-avoiding rich ones who thought they could get away with everything.
Now he had a whole host of servants in his possession who needed rehoming. He bundled them all up on his skyship now, noting how some appeared disgruntled, others lost. Kelsey slunk aboard as if she was some beaten animal, and the other servants eyed her like predators. Yes… people always sensed the weak ones in a group and picked on them. Human nature to do so. The more he observed Kelsey, the more he became convinced that if she was thrown into another unknown household, she’d have a miserable time.
His parents said that the weak couldn’t be cured of their weakness. There had to be predators, there had to be prey. The natural world demanded this.
Prey like his sister. Who married a man and refused to admit she needed help or that he was terrorizing her. Who didn’t even transform into her dragon self to defend herself from assault, and ended up dead.
She could have defended herself. She could have stood up for herself. She had the power within her to do so. But she didn’t.
Perran glared at Kelsey for longer. By the time the ship was loaded, and the lord tucked away in prison, his mind had been made up.
Kelsey would be his new pet project. That cringing pile of weak would be transformed, one way or another, under his care. He’d need to bring other people into this little project, too.
“Sir,” Officer Haut said, appearing slightly flustered. He saluted as Perran’s attention settled on him. “The lord is detained, though he’s threatening to bring down charges upon our department for humiliating him.”
“Let him do so. If he wasn’t such a bastard, then he would never have found himself in such a position to begin with.” Perran walked past Haut, asking for them to lift off and touch base on Azarus Isle. The island of the royals, and the one with the most traffic in and out, which meant the sooner they got moving, the better. No more cases for him to attend today, at least. Lord Feylen was a special case the precinct wanted to crack down on for a while—people like him stopped those below wanting to come to the isles, and the lottery did help fund the islands, so… it made sense from a pure business perspective.
The air witch, Luan, didn’t like talking much. Her face was heavily tattooed, and she made no gestures with her hands at all when she lurched the ship forwards, manipulating the winds to carry them to greater heights towards Azarus. Most people disappeared below, but Kelsey remained on the top deck, clinging to the side railings, the breeze whipping her dark hair into a frenzy. He didn’t want to talk to her, really, not when he knew the kind of responses to expect. Still, she should probably know he intended to adopt her into his household. Might be nice.
He made his footsteps deliberately loud, so she wouldn’t startle, and she turned around to face him as he approached on the starboard side.
“Hello,” he said, lips spreading into a smile. “How are you feeling?”
As expected, she flushed and looked down at the ground. Which made him internally scream and want to shake her like a doll. “I’m o-okay. Still can’t really believe that I’m not in the master’s house.”
“He’s not your master anymore. All his servants will be going to new places.” He really wished she’d stop shrinking into herself, as if expecting to be beaten.
“And… me?”
“You’ll be with me,” Perran said, forcing a smile. “And I’ll be teaching you to grow a spine.”
Her eyebrows puckered slightly. “Excuse me?”
“Look at me. There’s no punishment awaiting you if you do.” He coaxed her gently, and soon her dark brown eyes were fixed upon his. “That’s it. I don’t want you constantly looking away or down every time someone speaks to you. I’ll consider it impolite.”
With her cheeks going a deep, ugly red, she nodded. “Okay.”
He contemplated her for a moment. “Why did you let yourself be treated the way you were?”
“I don’t...” she hesitated, now appearing confused. “I’m a servant. It’s my duty to do my work. And to be punished if I don’t do it… correctly.”
“Perhaps,” Perran said. “But it also depends on what can be classified as good work and bad work. The punishment must be just. So must the definition of good and bad work. For example… if you steal from me, I would consider that exceptionally bad work.” His voice dipped to a hiss, and she shivered. “But if you look me in the eyes, that’s nothing. It’s just normal human interaction. That’s not a crime. And I’m… let’s just say I’m not the most impressed with your master for treating you like a pile of dirt.”
Her eyes flickered downward, and he reminded her to look at him again. She cleared her throat nervously, her legs moving from side to side like a restless dog. “He… I didn’t want to be sent back to the Undercity. Not with how… useless I am. I’d be a burden, earning no money. Doing nothing. Being stupid...” Tears pricked her eyelids. The words in her seemed to be some monstrous force, stuck in her throat, so that she needed to hack them out. “Whatever happened to me, I deserved it. He’d… make me see. How selfish I was.”
Perran closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. “Sweetling, that’s what brainwashing does. He stamps on you and strips away every last part of you, until there’s nothing left but a vessel that leaps to do his every bidding. So when he’s not around, you feel empty, lonely—like you’ve lost all meaning to your life, and you’re too frightened to change it.”
Images of his sister swam to mind. How he’d tried so hard to get her out of there, but she broke down in front of him, sobbing hysterically, even as she tried to hide the bruises on her neck. Saying she loved him. She deserved this. She just needed to be a better person for him. A better wife.
If only you came with me. If only you’d listened.
But they never did listen, did they? They nodded and said yes, and agreed with you in the moment, but as soon as your back was turned, they went slinking back to their little cesspits of misery.
When Kelsey said nothing, but stood there dumbly with a blank expression, Perran added, “You know he was a bad man, right? Don’t you?”
After a glacial, awkward pause, she said, “He did some good things.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that he’s a bad man.” He reached out to hold her by the shoulders, wondering if she’d flinch
away from him. When she didn’t, he attempted a smile. “You understand that, don’t you? The good things he did were just a way to stop you from running when he did the bad things. They were blackmail. He wanted you to believe that if you just behaved well, then you would see more good things.”
Her blank expression persisted, but he felt the sharp intake of breath and something shudder inside her. Tears spat out of her like a broken dam, and her face contorted into graceless crying. Startled, he brought the sobbing, snotty woman against his chest, suddenly stiff. He didn’t offer a good, warm hug, but he settled for gently patting her on her head, trying to decide if he was embarrassed by the emotion, or pleased to see her bawling it out. He continued patting her on the head, before freezing in his comforting motion. Lightning crackled in front of him. Small, static blue and yellow flashes, under a clear and cloudless sky. Every hair on his body stood up on end, tingling with unseen static. This wasn’t exactly a normal, everyday thing, and the harder Kelsey blubbed, the stronger the crackles became.
“Um,” he said intelligently, but she ignored him, continuing to wail as if everything she’d ever known had been burned to the ground. Maybe he partially related to that feeling, but he didn’t lose family when Serpent Isle fell. Just his home. And then his sister, Emilie.
“I’m so stupid!” she choked, digging her hands into him so hard that if he wasn’t wearing a thick fur jacket, she might have drawn blood with those nails of hers. “I’m so sky-cursing stupid!”
Some of the lightning zapped him, and his arms jerked reflexively from the pain. “Kelsey,” he said urgently, now trying to peel her off him. “You’re shocking me.”
“I—huh?” She blinked in teary confusion, just in time to see the flickering cloud of lightning around them. “What’s happening?”
“You,” he said, now holding the underside of her elbows. “I think… you’re the one causing this.”
He stopped her from backing away in surprise, given that it might just tip her over the edge, and he wasn’t entirely sure if Luan would be paying enough attention to haul Kelsey back on board. “I’m a witch,” she said, and her expression went from surprise to horror. “It’s true. I’m—he called me one...”
“It’s a very good thing to be a witch in the Six Isles, trust me on this, love,” he growled. “Keeps the world going around. Makes ships move, people live. So whatever he’s been saying to you—forget it all right now. Own your witchiness. Skies know I’d like to be one myself.” He stroked her once under the chin, before seizing his handkerchief out of his inside coat pocket for her to wipe away the snot and tears. He was pleased to see she wasn’t trying to look away from him now, or hunch into herself. Good start. Maybe she’d be an easier target to retrain than he thought.
Something his sister could be proud of.
“You know,” she whispered, mouth and nose hidden behind the handkerchief, as the last of the lightning vanished, “I used to get a lot of static shocks. Especially when I was emotional. I’d wake up with odd burn marks in my mattress. I used to get in trouble for that… I thought I was cursed.” She took a great sniff. “Guess I am.”
“It’s only a curse if you’re stupid.” He began to push her towards Luan, hoping he’d manage to get some whole, comprehensive sentences out of the tattooed witch. They shuttered themselves in Luan’s alcove, a small, arched seating area sheltered from the outside on three sides, and Luan looked up from the picture she was scribbling. The short-haired, tattooed witch, with duplicate inked sets of three severe black claws coming from her eyes and down her cheeks, gave a great sniff.
“Luan, how nice to see you. Listen, this is Kelsey. Formerly a slave of Lord Feylen, now shortly to be under my employment. She’s just discovered she’s a witch.”
“And?”
Well, this was promising. “I was wondering if you can help her out. I don’t think she knows a lot about the witch stuff. You were a lottery winner from the Undercity, right?” he asked Kelsey, who nodded mutely, eyes nearly popping out of her head at the ominous sight of Luan. “Yes, they teach them to be afraid of witches down there.”
Luan’s mouth curved into a sardonic smile. “They should be.” She sniffed at Kelsey. “Storm witch. I can smell the static from here. Not bad… could make a killing with that kind of power. Literally.”
At this point, Perran could tell that Kelsey was on the verge of exploding with all the information shunted her way. Transformation from abused servant to all-powerful storm witch didn’t happen in a day. But he also didn’t plan to ease her into it gently. It was more of a shove into the deep end, and see if she started swimming or drowning. “Great! I’ll leave you two together and bring you some food. Luan’s a good air witch, Kelsey. She usually helps in apprehending criminals alongside sailing the sky ship. She’s also just fantastic at extracting a confession from them. Her specialty is sucking the oxygen out of someone’s lungs. Does wonders in getting them to talk.” He winked at Kelsey, who gaped at him with eyes that begged, please don’t leave me alone with someone like that, and he promised to be back shortly to get them food. Kelsey, of course, so used to obeying instructions, would stay here, since he’d insinuated it. And she probably didn’t want to upset her new master.
Perhaps he was cruel, but he felt a sudden, wild urge to burst out laughing as he walked away from them.
Sink or swim, little one, he thought with a smirk. Sink or cursing swim.
Chapter Three – Kelsey
“Oh, come now,” Luan said in a low, sultry voice. “I won’t take the air out of your lungs yet. You’ve not done anything wrong.” She wore one of those cruel, teasing smiles, the same kind Kelsey was used to seeing on Charlotte and the other servants. People who took sheer pleasure in watching someone else sweat.
She felt herself shrinking further and further into herself, wishing she could disappear. First, being taken from Master Feylen’s house, separated from the other servants. Next, that police officer talking to her, telling her all those things… then that storm inside her, so overwhelming, like she’d never cried in her life…
And then finding out about her cursed powers. I’m a witch, like he said. I’m a witch. That knowledge sent a cold shiver inside her, compounded with fear since she sat next to a witch who quite clearly wasn’t opposed to the whole torture and killing aspect of her powers.
“It’s rare to see a storm witch so old and untrained like you,” Luan continued, running a tongue over her bottom lip. “You must be, what, twenty or such? They usually get discovered really young.”
“Twenty-one,” Kelsey murmured, edging backwards on the seat, as if a few more inches of distance might somehow protect her from an air witch’s grisly wrath.
“You must have been practically sleepwalking through your life, then,” Luan said. She gave Kelsey a disdainful, contemptuous glance, which automatically made Kelsey want to shrink even more. “Having all that power and not using it is just asking for bad treatment.”
Kelsey said nothing to this, only closing her eyes and blocking out the air witch, so she didn’t have to look at her strange face any longer. In the meanwhile, her whole body felt as if the strings had been cut. Everything she’d worked for had vanished. Her poor parents, so delighted, so elated at Kelsey winning the lottery. Waving her goodbye. She was happy then. Full of joy, full of hope for the future. So happy to be able to provide for her family, and maybe one day move them up to the sky with her.
She had… forgotten how that happiness felt. And she did feel every bit as empty as Perran Rus described. Nothing driving her other than the constant need to try and please someone else.
Someone who couldn’t be pleased.
Would it really get any better with new people? Or would they just be more of the same, with an air witch who sucked life out of someone’s lungs, and a man who could transform into a dragon?
“You got family back in the Undercity?” Luan asked then, cutting through the swirl of thoughts. Her tone was less harsh than bef
ore, less cruel. “People who you want to visit?”
“My parents.” Kelsey opened her eyes to examine the woman, who looked oddly sinister in the dimmer lighting of the alcove. Luan didn’t smile. Kelsey wondered if the air witch even could. “They think everything is perfect, however.”
“You lied to them?”
“I didn’t want them to know the truth. They’re getting a lot of money from me working up here. I don’t want them to feel like it’s… dirty money or something.”
“You really are stupid,” Luan said. “But the nice kind of stupid, I suppose.”
That sounded like both an insult and a compliment at the same time. “I’m… scared of being sent back to the Undercity.” Or getting a new master that costs me everything I have to please them.
“Only way you’re going back to the Undercity is if your island falls out the sky. Though at this rate, we might be losing a few. Can’t turn your back for a moment until the Creeping Rot makes an appearance somewhere. Even with that fancy cure they’ve engineered and all.”
“I’m sorry. What?”
Luan stared at her, unimpressed. “What d’you know about the Creeping Rot?”
Kelsey gave a helpless shrug in return. “I don’t know what that is.”
“What about the Six Isles and how it runs? What about the different types of witches that exist up here?”
Again, the shrug came, and Kelsey’s cheeks reddened in shame for her lack of knowledge.
“Damnation,” Luan said. “You need some learning. Take it your wonderful lord didn’t see fit to attend to your education?”
“My parents gave me one,” Kelsey said, trying to show she wasn’t completely ignorant. “I can do counting, reading, and other such things.”
“Not good enough. Okay.” The air witch firmly grasped Kelsey by the hand, dragging her away from the alcove. “You go and find Lord Perran. Tell him I said you know bird crap about anything, and you need tutoring. He’ll hit you up with someone.”