by Dana Davis
“Wha—” The whore’s face grew hot and her bosom heaved beneath the low cut dress. “You’re not specters. Intruders!”
“Quiet!” Saldia ordered, her patience waning. “No, we’re not specters. We’re Gypsies.”
Valda’s brown eyes widened and her mouth dropped. “Don’t kill us. Please!”
“We’re here for your cooperation, Valda. Taniras, bring her.”
The wolf singer latched onto the whore’s arm and forced her from the room.
“Lacy needs me.” She tried to pull out of Taniras’s grip.
“She’ll be taken care of.” Saldia nodded to Thad.
“That a promise.” The healer smiled at the struggling woman as he stepped around the others and into the bedroom.
“No! You can’t go in there!”
The wolf singer had little trouble keeping her grip but Valda might injure herself trying to get away. “He won’t harm Lacy,” she said in an attempt to keep the whore calm. “He’s a healer.”
“You can’t go in there.” Valda struggled against Taniras’s grip again then stopped suddenly and narrowed eyes behind Saldia. “I know you. Ebbi! You little snit! You brought them here.” She grabbed onto Ebbi’s cloak and the girl squeaked.
Taniras yanked the whore around to face her and flipped off her hood to reveal those black, reflective eyes. The two stood about the same height. “Ebbi is one of us, now. If you don’t cooperate, then I’m certain we can find a nice place to tie you up.”
Valda’s eyes widened. “The townsfolk will come here to check on us,” she said a bit too fast in her slight accent. “They will. We have deliveries in the early morning.”
“You lie.” The wolf singer’s smooth voice gave Saldia chills. “You live here, isolated, and make up specter stories so the others won’t bother you.”
The woman turned on Ebbi again. “Did you tell all of our secrets, you little—”
“Enough!” Saldia snapped. “We have work to do. If she doesn’t come along quietly, tie her up somewhere.” She gave her best impression of Ved’nuri and glared at the whore. “I prefer your cooperation. We have this nasty weather contend with and we’re running out of days. I have no patience for squabbling women. No one will harm you. But I guarantee you won’t enjoy being tied to a bedpost. Now, which will it be?”
Valda stared at her with mouth open. She stammered a couple of times before finding her voice. “Gypsies. This weather. It’s your doing.” She pointed an accusing finger.
“No. The weather is a side-effect of something we’re trying to repair.”
“I knew it! I said to Lacy just last morning there were strange goings on. It’s magic, right?” She appeared all too eager now.
“We’re still trying to determine that.”
Thad stepped from the room. “Saldia? You might want to see this.”
“What now?”
She motioned to the others and together they followed the healer into the large room, where several hanging lanterns had been lit against the setting sun. Lacy lay on the elaborate bed, mumbling and circling her hand over her heart. Saldia started to chide Thad for the delay but she stopped suddenly at the sight in the far corner. Pim stumbled into her, and she steadied the girl with one hand as she gazed on several small children of differing ages huddled against the stone wall.
Valda somehow got away from Taniras and scrambled past to stand in front of the children with legs and arm spread wide. One hand held a heavy candlestick. “You won’t harm them. I’ll die right here before I let you touch any one of these children.” From the determined look on her flushed face and the way she held the candlestick out in front of her, Saldia believed her.
“We’re not here to harm your children.” She softened voice, so as not to spook them. “I thought you said they lived alone.” She turned to Ebbi but the girl had gone to the little ones and cradled a boy in her arms. “Ebbi?”
The plump girl held up the arm of one child and pointed to a heart-shaped birthmark. “Same mark. Kirena’s babe. But she dead.” Confused eyes gazed up at Valda. “Birthdead.”
“That’s what we wanted everyone to believe, Ebbi.”
Lacy scooted from the bed, past Thad’s objecting hands, and joined Ebbi on the floor. She scooped up the smallest child, no more than an infant, and cuddled her, while the others huddled close.
Valda watched for a heartbeat then focused on Saldia. “I was taken by a man when I was younger than Ebbi. We can’t fight the men here. Goddess knows we’ve tried. There are too many of them. But we do what we can to protect the children. The whores who get pregnant come to us for birthing, and we take as many babes as we can without raising suspicion. We send a message with the mothers that they died.” A dark-skinned child of about four or five ran to her and hugged her skirts, and she absently stroked the thick black curls. “Why do you have to be Gypsies and not specters?”
Saldia was taken aback by the harshness in Valda’s voice but soon found her tongue. “We won’t tell anyone about the children. In fact, we want to help them. Help all of you.” She wouldn’t go into what else her kin wanted. Not just yet.
“You’re bloody blazes right about that,” Cass said. “We will help you.”
Ebbi stood and carried the little boy on her hip a bit awkwardly as she stepped to Valda. “That one.” She pointed to Cass. “She save me. Ebbi not a whore. Ebbi a child.”
Valda gave Ebbi a sympathetic look and stroked her hair. “We tried to get you out, Ebbi. You know that. But they search for those already whoring.”
“Yes. Men not want me go.”
Valda turned a hard face back to Saldia. “Those men have had their way with many of us since we were children. This hamlet used to be a thriving place. A safe place. Especially for little ones.”
“Then he came,” Lacy added. “The scum crawling—”
“Little ears,” Valda chided in a singsong voice.
The younger woman blushed and pinched her lips together.
Saldia studied the two women, who acted anything but whores just now. “Who came?” Her kin had gathered and listened much like villagers at story night.
“Thombrele.” Valda sounded as though she had tasted something very sour. “He fooled our grandmothers. Wormed his way into their trust and bedded many of them. When the men found out and went after him, he distracted them and told them there was gold to be found, enough to make each man wealthy for generations. He even showed them some of the gold and persuaded them to dig in the forest, near the old stone wall. Greed took them and they created a large mine below the ground. Then one day, while they were all down there, the place caved in. “Thombrele claims it was an accident but we know he caused it. He was the only one to survive, the only man from an entire hamlet.” Her eyes went from solemn to angry. “Somehow, he made the ground collapse. The men were killed and Thombrele sold our mothers into whoring.”
Cass uttered a string of curses.
Valda raised a brow and stroked a child’s hair with purpose until Cass gave her an apologetic look. Then she said, “My mother, as well as Lacy’s, told us the stories of how this place went from a thriving, self-sufficient hamlet to that of lost miners. They didn’t want us to forget what had happened so that one day we could fight back. My mother didn’t lie with Thombrele, though. She was a lucky one. Too young when he took the hamlet.” Lacy took in a long breath, and Valda gave her a sympathetic look. “Lacy’s mother wasn’t so lucky.”
Lacy shifted the smallest child on her lap and focused on Saldia. “After our grandmothers were gone, Thombrele took all the adolescent girls, those who had their cycles, and lay with each of them. My mother was one. Afterward, she ran away.” Her upturned face hardened. “She didn’t get far, though, and Thombrele beat her in front of all the children. Told her if she tried to run away again, he would kill her, and the same would happen to any others who ran off. Moons later, my mother gave birth to his child, a girl. The little one had several deformities. Her lips hadn’t formed
correctly and she couldn’t suckle. She didn’t live long. Thankfully.” The child in her arms whimpered and she crooned.
These women seemed anxious to tell their stories. Probably been waiting for years for someone to care about them enough to listen.
Valda glanced lovingly at them then focused on Saldia. “Other men, strangers, came here and Thombrele forced the women and girls to whore for them, taking the men into his servitude as payment. Even some of the boys were sold for favors. No one was spared. The men formed hunting parties and brought back girls from all over, orphans mostly. Some spoke different languages, like Ebbi here, and didn’t understand what was expected of them. Many were beaten into submission.”
The child had quieted and Lacy stroked its hair. Hard eyes found Saldia’s group again. “After my mother’s babe died, she was discarded from Thombrele’s home and forced to marry a tavern owner. He kept her whoring and eventually I was born. She didn’t know which man was my father. She caught a lung ailment when I was ten and died. She had no other children but me so her husband put me to work in her place.”
Saldia’s stomach tightened at the women’s stories and she glanced at Cass, who offered a tiny wave of her hand. The truth-seeker’s face was taught and her mouth drawn into a tight line.
Valda folded her arms and stared at Saldia. “Thombrele always keeps one girl for himself. No man, save him, is allowed to touch her while she lives in his home. We tried to get to one, Margeri, when we were adolescents, find out if she would help kill him, but she refused to talk to us. He must have bought some of the children off as spies because he always knew where everyone was. Anyone who got too close to him was beaten in front of the others. Then, one day, Margeri appeared in one of the taverns, the way all Thombrele’s chosen ones eventually do, and was given to one of the tavern keepers, a hard man with a quick temper. The next morning, she disappeared from the hamlet and no one ever saw her again. That was long ago and we never learned what happened to her.” Valda glanced at each member in Saldia’s group, pulled her body straighter, and took in a long breath before speaking again. “Thombrele disappears now and then but he always returns. The last time he went away—when was that, Lacy?”
“Mmm. About two years ago, I believe.”
“Yes. The tavern keepers deny anything, of course. They always tell us he’s busy in his home with important tasks, and they’re always quick to carry out the old idiot’s laws. Several of the tavern whores we talked to hadn’t seen him during those moons, either, but begged us not to ask any more questions. We didn’t want to push the matter. They’re frightened and someone would have turned us in if we continued meddling. The men would have come here and found the children.” Valda’s face grew hard. “Less than a moon ago, Thombrele returned with more men and fresh whores. He kept one of those girls, not much older than Ebbi here.”
“The taverns,” Lacy said in a blunt tone, “keep a list of all the girls and when they get their cycles. Thombrele chooses a new whore every so often and keeps her locked in his home until she has his child. His babes never make it, though. Probably some inbreeding from his parents, I imagine. Or the fact that he’s just plain old now. If the girl survives the childbirth, he marries her off and chooses another.”
So, Thombrele uses girls until they spit out a sickly child, then discards them. Saldia had heard of men who blamed their wives for a babe’s death or disfigurement. Was this man so arrogant as not to see that every child he sired was born with some affliction? Certainly that could have nothing to do with the poor girls he forced his attentions on. She glanced at Cass again and got a nod from the angry, pinched face. No doubt, Thombrele was the stench Cass sensed here.
“Right now that awful man has Mwerynde.” Lacy’s moist eyes turned to Cass. “We believe Ebbi would have been his next choice, if you hadn’t saved her. She got her woman’s blood a few moons ago.”
“I serve Cass.” The plump girl shifted the weight of the little boy on her hip.
Cass touched Saldia on the shoulder. “These women tell the truth. I believe they’ll help us.”
Saldia nodded and focused on Lacy, who wiped at the corners of her eyes with a crying cloth. “Valda. Lacy. Will you help us? We want to clean up the hamlet. Stop the whoring.” She wanted to kill Thombrele too, but wouldn’t say that. Bel’keive looked absolutely sick and twisted that gold ring in her nose.
Lacy stood with the smallest child and stepped to Valda. “They know about us, now. We could use their help. Anything to stop the whoring.”
Valda narrowed eyes on Saldia. “How do I know we can trust you?”
“Because I give my word as a Gypsy.”
“Humph.”
Saldia raised her brow. “You also have no choice in the matter. We can sequester you here and get on with our task. Or you can help and we can free the children that much sooner.”
Both whores studied each other and Valda nodded. “All right, Gypsy. But if you break your word—”
Taniras growled. It was a true growl, animal and dangerous, and the two whores stepped back from the singer. “Gypsies don’t break their word.”
Saldia placed a restraining hand on Taniras’s shoulder. “Are there any more living here?”
“No,” Valda said. “We saved as many as we could.”
“All right.” Saldia nodded. “The upper floor then. We’ll all go.” She motioned to Valda to lead.
The woman took up two lanterns, gave one to Lacy and the other to Saldia. Saldia then ushered Lacy and the children ahead of her. No sense allowing the women a chance to change their minds. They should be oathed as soon as possible.
She only wished she could perform that task herself. Adelsik had so thoughtfully brought up the request during one of her Netherworld visits, and Ved’nuri vehemently denied it. That girl certainly had mettle when she wanted something. Saldia handed the lantern to one of the twin guards and held up her skirts as she ascended the stone stairs behind the whores and children. She quelled a groan. The light had completely disappeared outside. Elder Finlor and the others would no doubt be worried by now. Why did middlings have to be so difficult? She wanted to create an orb to light the way but thought better of it. No sense making these women any more afraid.
When they reached the third floor, Valda took up a sulfur stick from a tall chest and lit the wall lanterns. This floor, which consisted of a single, large room, caught Saldia off guard, and she stood dumbfounded with others of her kin. Four child-size beds stood against the wall farthest from the single window that was covered with thick draperies. The remaining area had been turned into a children’s play yard, complete with a rope swing, which hung from the center rafter over a large tapestry rug. Seven rag dolls, three finely made and the rest of old stockings and straw, sat on a child-size bench against one wall, while the opposite had several wooden horses, carts and a tiny stable nearby. Colorful needlepoint scenes, similar to the art Saldia had seen downstairs, hung on the walls. Some were excellently done, others rough works, like a small child might do.
“What is this place?” Cass said in a hushed voice.
Lacy turned to her. “It used to be the nursery. When my grandfather owned this home.” The child in her arms wriggled to the floor and wobbled to the dolls as two of the older children, not more than four or five, followed. “My mother and her brother played with many of the toys up here. The rest we made. The older children sleep here but we keep the younger ones in our bedroom at night. Since they’re not allowed outside, this is the only safe place for them to be. We keep the curtains open in the daylight but close them after dark. The little ones know to keep quiet so no passers will hear them. And the taverns usually cover any noise they might accidentally make.”
Saldia was impressed by the ingenuity of these women. They would make excellent Gypsy servants. Adelsik would have a fit when she found out what they’d done all their lives. It had taken the girl nearly a year to accept Saldia as her kin, and she had merely worked as a tavern kitchen servant.
Adelsik could be as stubborn or courageous as anyone, though, and Saldia secretly admired her strength.
Taniras stood at the window with the thick curtains pulled back slightly. Gray light filled the sky from the setting sun. “I’ve told the wolves our situation. Kin are in place.”
The singer’s wolves understood language, and they had worked a system of signals to communicate with other Gypsy and Sage kin. Limited as that method was, it was all they had just now. Tsianina crossed to stand with Taniras. The island woman wore no flowers over her ears. There were no flowers to gather. And she looked uncomfortable bundled up against the cold.
“Finlor is calling a meeting with the hamlet council,” Taniras announced.
“Yes,” Tsianina said in her lilting, island accent. “I see them, gathered at the end of the street.”
Saldia allowed her awareness to take over her senses for a heartbeat and felt the hot pulses of kin. She also felt the wild pulses of wolves meandering around the perimeter. Two were with the kin. She wondered whether Snowy ever got jealous of his wife’s abilities to communicate with wolves. He stood by the door now with one of the twins. There was no hint of discomfort on his features as he studied his wife. Lacy and Valda watched everyone with great interest and a slight amount of awe lit their faces.
“The hamlet council has arrived.” Taniras frowned. “They’re not happy Gypsy women aren’t for sale.” She paused now and then, as she translated. “Finlor and Xiath have been invited to speak but not the women kin. Not even Elder Siri.” A low growl formed in her throat and Snowy advanced to her.
“Calm, love.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Their prejudice won’t last long.”
Taniras turned to him, and Saldia realized just how dim the outside light was now. “I look forward to that, Snowy.” She turned back to the window. “Seems the council is split on accepting our money.”
Tsianina nodded. “Yes. The large one steps from foot to foot. He appears anxious.”
“Any chance of doing this without a fight?” The two whores jumped at the sound of Saldia’s voice and she hid a smile. Before she became a Gypsy, she wanted more than anything to intimidate others. That ability came in handy now, but she wanted those around her to like her, as well, especially when she needed something from them. Fear would take middlings only so far in their loyalties but she enjoyed the respect she now received.