by Ben Wolf
“Quiet, all of you,” Luggs hissed. His voice had an edge to it when he spoke. “Not another word, hear? Next one who talks gets a thrashin’.”
“Come on,” Roderick said from ahead of them. “We’re halfway there.”
Within a few more hours, Colm’s prediction came true. Lilly’s boots squelched in the muck under her feet, and the stench around them changed from death to that of bile, feces, and urine. They’d reached the sewers. Lilly wished she could reach her nose to pinch out the smell, but while walking upright, her chains and shackles didn’t allow it.
The clanking of their shackles gave way to the ever-present dripping of something in the distance, splashes and squelches through puddles, and the skittering of something—probably rats—all around them. Lilly shuddered at the thought, but she pressed on. She had no other choice.
A couple hours later, something heavy and metal groaned, and Luggs guided them up a short staircase and over a hump of some sort. A breeze of fresh air relieved Lilly’s nostrils, and she sucked in the clean air in big gulps.
“Where are we supposed to meet ‘em?” Luggs asked.
Roderick replied, “Follow me.”
Another fifteen minutes of walking, and they ordered the slaves to halt. Someone yanked Lilly’s blindfold from her head so hard that it tweaked her neck.
Luggs. She glared at him, but he didn’t even bother to look her in her eyes. He just moved on to Sharion and tore off her blindfold next.
At least he wasn’t leering at her anymore. Perhaps Roderick’s numerous warnings that she wasn’t to be touched had finally gotten through his thick skull.
They stood inside a large room big enough to house a fleet of wagons but empty except for a few bales of hay, a small platform topped with some wooden posts, and several torches, only two of which burned. Brown planks of wood formed the large room’s walls, and the ceiling reached at least thirty feet at its highest point. A warehouse of some sort.
“Child, are you alright?” Colm whispered from her right.
Lilly nodded.
Half the warehouse away, Roderick spoke to a white-haired man in a red robe. Silver rings adorned his fingers, and a large silver medallion with what appeared to be a large ruby in the center hung around his neck. He laughed a raspy laugh and shook Roderick’s hand, then Roderick placed a bulging pouch into his hand.
“Who’s that man Roderick is talking to?” Lilly asked.
“If memory serves me correctly, his name is Wandell Thirry. I’ve not dealt with him personally, but his reputation is known in what you’d call Kanarah’s underworld. He’s sort of a go-between. He helps slavers get from Trader’s Pass to auction houses. Arranges other things too, like auctions for stolen goods.”
And slaves, Lilly realized. “So that’s where we are? An auction house?”
“Yes. A secret place for the purpose of selling questionable merchandise.”
“Us,” Sharion grumbled. “They’re gonna sell us.”
Lilly’s heart drummed in her chest. “Now?”
“Not until later. It’s too early in the evening, yet. These types of deals are arranged in the latest of hours just before dawn.” Colm sighed as he looked around. “I have only bad memories of this place.”
“Don’t get too excited, Angel.” Roderick’s velvety voice slithered down Lilly’s spine as he approached. “No one’s getting their hands on you until tomorrow night. We have to notify our usual clients that there’s an auction happening first. Colm forgets these little details in his old age.”
As much as Lilly wished she could punch Roderick in his throat, she just exhaled a quiet breath through her nostrils and reminded herself that she still had an entire day to find a way to escape. The slave traders may have managed to corral her while on the road, but this was a new environment, and that meant new opportunities for escape.
On his way out the door, Wandell Thirry gave Lilly a lingering look, and he raised his eyebrows. Though Lilly actually found him quite handsome for an older man, his occupation and the lascivious kiss he blew her soured her stomach.
“Come on,” Roderick said to Luggs and the other men. “Let’s get these darlings to their cells, and then we’ve got interviews to conduct.”
Lilly turned to Colm and eyed him.
“New recruits,” he said. “Replacing the ones they lost on our way here.”
“Enough chatter.” Luggs pushed between Colm and Lilly. He nodded to three other men, two of whom were Adgar and Gammel, and they took hold of Lilly, Colm, and Sharion. He gave Lilly a crooked yellow smile that made her cringe. “Time for bed.”
The slave traders shoved the three of them into an adjoining hallway, down some stairs, and into a dark corridor lined with barred cells. The place reeked almost as bad as the sewers, and several moans sounded from the cells as they passed.
Forlorn faces of either Windgales or humans—Lilly couldn’t be sure since none of them wore capes—Wolves, and even a Saurian pressed up against the bars as the slave traders escorted the three of them past. A few dying torches mounted to the stone walls between the cells provided mediocre light for the space.
Luggs unlocked a cell in the middle and shoved Lilly, Colm, and Sharion inside. He removed their shackles while Adgar and Gammel watched.
“Do we get anything for dinner?” Colm asked.
“What makes you think we’d give you dinner?” Luggs spat on the floor. “Feel free to lick that up if you’re hungry.”
“The last time I was here, we had a feast. Roasted duck, boiled potatoes with butter and bits of ham, fresh vegetables and fruit, and the dessert was—”
“Last time you was here, things was different, wasn’t they, Colm?” Luggs huffed. “But you’re where you belong now, you thieving derelict.”
“That I am, Luggs. That I am.” Colm’s smile wilted into a frown and he bowed his head.
Luggs left the cell and locked it behind him, sealing them inside.
“Come on, boys.” Gammel nudged Luggs’s belly. “We’ve got ale to drink.”
Luggs shoved him. “I’ll come when I’m good and ready.”
Adgar grinned and clapped his hand on Lugg’s shoulder. “And wenches to woo.”
“Good luck with that one.” Luggs chuckled. “You couldn’t pay a woman enough coin to spend the night with your ugly face.”
Luggs had a point, Lilly decided. Just having to listen to them prattle on was miserable enough.
Adgar’s jaw tightened. “Look who’s talkin’. Your face looks like a bear mauled you.”
“That’s her fault.” Luggs pointed at Lilly. “And you all know it.”
Adgar grinned and raised his eyebrows. “I wasn’t talkin’ ’bout the gash on your forehead. I was talkin’ ’bout your face in general.”
Luggs swung for Adgar’s head, but Adgar sidestepped the blow and darted up the corridor. Luggs gave chase amid a slew of profanity, and Gammel followed.
“At least it’s not cold in here.” Lilly squinted at the cell’s contents: a few tattered rags that could double as blankets, plenty of hay, and not much else between the stone walls and the bars.
Sharion snatched one of the rags and dug under a mound of hay like she always did. With another furious scratch of her head, she curled up and started to snooze.
“For now, anyway,” Colm said. “At least we’re not here in the winter.”
Lilly eyed him. He’d made an awful lot of comments about having been here in the past. But if that were the case… “Colm, when you were here last time, were you a slave?”
Colm’s lips curled into a sad half-smile. “No, Lilly. I regret to say that I was one of the slave traders.”
Lilly’s hands balled into fists, and rage erupted in her chest. She had come to trust Colm, even to admire him, only to find out now that he’d been a slave trader himself.
The revelation shouldn’t have come as such a shock to her, given how he’d managed to convince some of the slave traders to share extra food with him i
n exchange for whatever trinkets or coin he managed to pilfer from the guards. And he’d known a surprising amount about what to expect at various points along the way.
Still, Lilly became an inferno at the thought that she’d ever been close to him. She physically took a step back to separate herself from him.
“This whole time,” she began, her voice low but furious, “you’ve been helping me, but you used to be one of them? You used to capture people and sell them? And the women—”
“I never touched any of the women, child.” Colm held up his hand. “That flame inside of me extinguished a long time ago.”
“But everything else… you did those things too?” Lilly glared at him.
Part of her refused to believe it was true, but he’d admitted to it openly. Her stomach churned with bitterness and anger. She’d been betrayed by the only person she’d come to even remotely care about since her capture.
Colm exhaled a shaky sigh. “Yes, child. And I regret my decisions every day.”
“You told me you were better off being in here, that the Overlord wanted you here so you could do good.” Tears burned the corners of her eyes. “Was that all a lie?”
“No. Not a single word. If I’m in here, I’m unable to hurt people out there. People like you and Sharion and others caught in this life.” Colm stared into her eyes, pleading with his own.
She gave him no quarter in her heart. Lilly would listen to his miserable tale, but it wouldn’t make her forgive him. As far as she was concerned, he was just as guilty as Roderick and the others, and he always would be.
“I know what I did was wrong,” he continued. “I tried to expose Roderick’s entire band to Captain Fulton, one of the local officers in the King’s army, but when I did, he betrayed me and handed me back to Roderick, who locked me up.
“That was almost a year ago. Roderick has tried to sell me as a slave twice since then, but no one wants an old man like me, much less one only trained as a thief.” He gave a mirthless chuckle. “Apparently, the slave market in Eastern Kanarah is already saturated with enough old thieves.”
Lilly narrowed her gaze at him. Her anger had begun to give way to a deep profound sadness instead. “I trusted you, Colm, but I shouldn’t have. You’re a thief and a liar. For all I know, you’re lying to me now.”
Colm shook his head. “I wish I could convince you otherwise, but you’re exactly right. I’m a thief and a liar, and that’s all you can be certain of.”
She’d sat next him, shared her warmth with him while he shared his cloak with her. They’d shared food, shared long conversations on boring wagon rides, shared dreams of freedom in the evenings. He’d even asked her to call him “grandfather.”
No way that would happen now.
Colm reached for her. “Lilly, I—”
“No.” She pulled away. “I have nothing more to say to you.”
“I understand.” Colm’s hand sank to his side and he nodded. “I’ll leave you alone, then.”
Lilly hugged her knees and leaned against the far wall, as far away from Colm as she could get.
From now on, all they would share was a cell.
Later that night, a commotion sounded down at the end of the corridor. Lilly opened her eyes, having only flirted with the idea of sleep, but she didn’t move. She recognized three familiar voices: Luggs, Gammel, and Adgar, all of them drawing nearer to her cell.
Why would they have come back? And so late? Lilly bristled at the possibilities, but only one of them mattered. She knew what these three were capable of.
Luggs led Gammel and Adgar into the corridor, each of them swaying to the rhythm of inebriation. They guffawed and laughed, oblivious that some of the slaves might be trying to sleep. Luggs stopped in front of Lilly’s cell and stared inside, his eyes scanning for her, and he grinned when he noticed her.
“There she is, boys. Roderick’s sack-o’-gold.” Even from several feet away Lilly could smell the stink of alcohol on Lugg’s breath.
Gammel and Adgar chuckled. Lilly tried to recede deeper into the hay, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off them.
“Drunk again, Luggs?” Colm stirred from his spot across the cell and sat upright. “The drink has never once served you well since I’ve known you.”
Luggs slurred, “No one’s talkin’ to you, old man. So shut up.”
“I will as soon as you let me get back to sleep.”
“Then you’d better learn to sleep through noise.” Luggs pulled his key ring from his belt, wobbling on unsteady legs.
Gammel clamped his hand on Luggs’s arm. “Roderick will kill you if you touch ’er. The auction’s tomorrow.”
Luggs yanked free from Gammel in overdramatic fashion. “Don’t touch me. I know the auction’s tomorrow. Why else you think we’re here tonight?”
“I—I don’t want to face any more wrath from Roderick.” Gammel rubbed his bald head. “He’s still mad ’bout that she-Wolf breakin’ free before we reached the pass.”
“He’s not mad at you.” Adgar leaned against the bars and folded his long arms across his chest. “He’s just not all that personable to begin with.”
“You ladies really ought to take your conversation elsewhere,” Colm said. “I’m sure it’s fascinating to you dimwits, but we’re not all that interested.”
Luggs pointed a stubby finger at him through the bars. “What’d I say? You need to shut up.”
“Doing my best, Luggs.” Colm leaned back against the cell wall. “But you make it so easy to sling stones that it’s hard to resist.”
“You’ll do better, or I’ll smack you. No one’s gonna buy you anyway, so it don’t matter if you’re beat-up and bruised.”
“I still don’t think we should go in there.” Gammel shook his head. “Plenty of wenches back at that tavern lookin’ to share a night with you or anyone else.”
“That’s exactly why we’re here.” Luggs smiled his wretched yellow smile through the bars at Lilly as his stupored fingers continued working the key into the lock. “Because she ain’t like those wenches. She’s cleaner. Prettier, too.”
Lilly’s heart thudded faster. Trying to escape tomorrow wouldn’t matter if they came at her tonight.
They were drunk, though, so perhaps she could outmaneuver them and run away once the cell opened? Or maybe she could get ahold of the dagger hanging from Lugg’s belt and use that to fend them off?
Across the cell, Sharion peeked out from under her mound of hay, then she promptly disappeared back under it.
“And that’s exactly why we’re here,” Luggs repeated as he finally inserted the key into the lock and twisted it. The lock clunked, and the door inched open. Luggs turned to Gammel. “You don’t like it, then get outta here. Crystal?”
Lilly stood up, her fists balled. Her muscles tensed. She would bite, kick, scream, scratch, shout, and thrash to get away from them. And if they gave her the chance, she would run.
Luggs stepped inside the cell with a twisted grin on his face and his hands on his belt. “Hey, cutie.”
Colm stepped between him and Lilly. “Luggs, don’t—”
Luggs lurched forward and grabbed Colm by his shoulder.
Shick.
Red spattered on the stone floor between them. Colm staggered backward, his mouth hanging open, his hands clamped over his stomach.
Luggs stood in place, his dagger in hand instead of in its sheath at his belt.
Its tip dripped with blood.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Colm slumped to the floor, his eyes wide, his stomach wet with blood.
Emotion overwhelmed Lilly, and she shrieked and rushed to him and clutched him in her arms. “Colm? Colm!”
Luggs huffed and wiped the blood from his dagger with the corner of Colm’s cloak. “I warned you not to touch me.” He spat on the floor near Colm’s face but didn’t put his dagger away.
“You stabbed him!” Lilly shouted. She cradled Colm and helped him to lean up against her, and he moaned.
His blood stained her undergarments, her skin, her hands. She tried to put pressure on the wound, but it continued to bleed. “Get some help—please!”
Gammel took three steps.
“Stay where you are,” Luggs snapped, and Gammel stopped. “We’re not done here.”
“Yes, we are.” Gammel scowled at him. “I’m getting’ Roderick. You just killed some of the merchandise.”
“I didn’t kill nobody. Just pricked ’im a bit,” Luggs slurred. He wobbled even more, but he caught himself on the cell’s bars and stabilized his footing.
“That’s no prick, Luggs. Look at all that blood, you idiot.” Gammel shook his head. “He won’t survive that, old as he is.”
Lilly’s heart plummeted into her churning stomach. Colm—not going to survive?
Luggs grabbed Gammel by his shirt and threatened him with the dagger. “You tell Roderick, I’ll run you through like I done to him.”
“You really think Roderick won’t notice anyway?” Gammel shot back. “You kill me, it’s two deaths on your head. He’ll skin you alive.”
“Fine. Go tell Roderick. See if I care.” Luggs shoved Gammel against one of the cell walls.
“Tell Roderick what?” A deep voice filled the cellblock.
Luggs whirled around, his reddened eyes wide.
Roderick stood outside the cell, his gray eyes fixed on Luggs. His gaze shifted down to Lilly and Colm, and he frowned. His deep voice flattened. “Come out of the cell. All three of you.”
Luggs sheathed his dagger and followed Gammel and Adgar out, staggering. “It ain’t what it looks—”
Roderick backhanded Luggs. “Did I say you could speak?”
Luggs rubbed his reddened cheek. His head slumped forward. “No.”
“Gammel, what happened?”
“Well, uh…” Gammel hesitated. “We came in here after a few ales at the tavern and—”
“Give me the short version.”
“Short version?” Gammel glanced at Luggs. “Well… Luggs stabbed Colm.”
“He attacked me,” Luggs said. “I had to—”