My mouth dried up and my tongue felt like sandpaper.
Merrick pulled out a black cloth bag from his pocket and placed it over my head. The darkness hid the post and the prying eyes of the Targs. It brought me some comfort until Draks ripped it off.
“Not her. I want her to see each lash coming,” he said.
Merrick nodded once and took a few steps back.
“For trying to escape!” he shouted. “Let this be a lesson to all slaves that there is no escape, except death.”
Draks handed him a leather whip, and I lowered my head. He cracked the whip twice while I closed my eyes and waited in fear for the first strike.
A loud snap echoed in the air. I jolted forward from the force of the leather whip, cringed at the sound of it slicing my flesh, but the sting was no more than the slap of a child. I was so surprised, I almost forgot to cry out.
~~~
Hour after hour, I waited, chained to the post. My blood dripped from my back and collected in dull puddles under my heels. Eventually it dried and turned into cracked scabs. I became tired, bone numbing tired, but not for sleep.
After Draks cleared the compound of slaves, Merrick appeared from behind one of the Acadia trees, carrying a tray filled with bowls and straps of cloth. He knelt behind me and gingerly washed my wounds. Afterward, he applied a soothing oil and unchained me. I collapsed from the heat and exhaustion.
He lifted me in his arms. “You did well, Fives. I’m very proud of you.”
I didn’t know how to feel. I was alive, but was it really over? The Targs were gone and my master was pleased with me, but what would tomorrow bring?
I clung to him like a frightened child and cried.
~~~
Later that afternoon, Indigo came into my room carrying a tray of hot soup and a slice of bread. My sores still seeped blood, and I lay face down to keep off my back because of the constant stinging pain. I rose on my arms, but Indigo put a firm hand on my shoulder and pressed me down.
“Let’s not reopen those wounds, child. Don’t worry, I’ll feed you.” She pulled up a chair and gave me a sly smile. “I stole you a slice of banana from Merrick’s lunch as a treat.”
We both laughed, and she checked my bandages. “Merrick calls himself a man, but he’s no better than the Targs.”
She lifted a spoon filled with chicken broth to my lips, and I took it. I didn’t feel like eating, but I did anyway to please her.
“It’s been fifteen years since I last saw him whip another slave like this.”
“Who was the other one?”
“A slave called Mattock who tried to assassinate him and gave him his limp.” She motioned her head to the window. “Merrick left him to hang on that post until he died of his wounds.”
Her eyes caught one of the vials Merrick left on my nightstand and she lifted it up, turning it like a precious artifact. “Strange.”
“What’s strange?”
For a moment, I thought Merrick was trying to poison me. From what he did that day, I wouldn’t put anything past him.
“This oil is very rare and very expensive.”
“Is he trying to hurt me?”
“No.” She shook her head. “But why would he whip you like that, then go to such lengths to heal you?”
“Indigo.”
She jumped and Merrick’s stern face appeared inside the doorway. He rushed forward and snatched the vial from her. “I’ll finish feeding her. You’re needed in the kitchen.”
She bowed her head. “Of course.”
His eyes followed her. When she left, he closed the door.
I focused my gaze on the window to try to keep from hyperventilating, wondering what he would do to me next.
“Be careful of what you hear, Fives. Indigo knows many things, but there’s much more to you than she realizes.”
He dipped the spoon into the soup and put it next to my mouth. I clenched my teeth and refused to open my lips.
“Is it too hot?”
“I’m not hungry.”
He raised his free hand and shifted in his chair. I flinched, fearing he was going to strike me. My eyes moistened, and I fought to keep tears from forming. Indigo was right. He was a monster, but I didn’t want him to see me afraid. I was done being afraid of him.
“Leave me alone.”
His shoulders relaxed and his eyes widened. “Fives, I had to whip you today. I didn’t want to, but I had no choice.”
His eyes pleaded with me, but I couldn’t stand to look at him anymore.
“I said leave me alone!”
He paused for a moment before standing up. His head hung low, and he shuffled to the door. “I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow.”
After the door closed, I broke down and wept. I put a hand over my mouth and kept it shut to muffle my sobs. My whole body heaved with the force of a person vomiting on all fours. Each forced yelp driving burning spikes of pain into my back, but I didn’t care.
For the first time in my life, I challenged him, and that day I won.
CHAPTER 5
The next day, Merrick dressed and tended my wounds. He tried to talk with me at first like nothing had happened, but I didn’t respond. As the days passed, he continued to come and heal me. I remained silent. How could someone be so barbaric one moment and then gentle the next?
Weeks passed, and after one sunrise, a soft melody awakened me. A happy tune, filled with birdlike chirps and rolling sighs, and it stirred a memory deep within me.
I know that song.
I left my room, drawn by the sound coming from Merrick’s office.
He was inside, looking out a window and playing a wooden flute.
My flute?
Rage filled me, and I rushed forward.
I won’t let him have it. It’s mine.
I snatched the flute from his hands only to see the carvings were different.
“Is something wrong, Fives?”
“I… I didn’t know you played.” I handed it back to him and turned away.
“Wait. If you like, I can teach you this song. Lumenara used to play it when you were a baby.”
I turned back to him. His eyes pleaded with me. I wasn’t about to forgive him for what he had done, but maybe I could allow myself this small pleasure.
“I’d like that.”
~~~
Music brought me closer to him again and after my back healed, we resumed our training. Merrick said we could wait no longer. This time, however, it was different. I had found a strength I didn’t know I had and during our pain sessions, Merrick’s skull star glowed as brightly as mine. He said he wanted to use the experience to give me guidance and help me endure my pain.
Merrick also continued to teach me the forbidden knowledge of our planet. Now that Draks had taken an interest in me, we had to do it before dawn in the cellar of Merrick’s home, so he wouldn’t suspect anything.
He showed me how to unlock a secret passage disguised behind a wooden pantry shelf. It led to a stone chamber with row upon row of books set on shelves carved into the rock walls.
In addition to science, mathematics, and engineering, he started teaching me literature. It was then I learned we spoke the language of the Targs. That they had forbidden all slaves from learning the language of our forefathers, so that we would never discover the truth of who we were.
Merrick taught me to read, write, and speak English and Chinese. He gave me a few of the books, which I treasured, and only read at night, always keeping them hidden from the prying eyes of the Targs. My favorites were about couples who fell in love and had children. It all seemed so natural and different from our world. A solitary question arose and troubled me from that time forward.
Where are all the babies?
One early morning, after I turned sixteen, Indigo nearly caught us in the cellar while he taught me. She claimed she was in the kitchen pouring a glass of water and heard noises. After Merrick dismissed her and sent her upstairs to her room, I challenged
him.
“Why must I keep this a secret from her?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to get us both killed?”
I cocked my head. “That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only answer I can give you right now.”
“And if I tell her anyway?”
He snatched my arm and gripped it like a vise. “Then I’ll have to deal with her, and what happens after that will be on your head.”
I turned away and sulked. That outburst was foolish of me. For all my youthful bluster there was still nothing I could do, and he knew it.
Several times after that, I caught Indigo and Merrick together. He helped her cook or make repairs around the house. Each time his eyes always seemed to find mine. I got the feeling he was doing it intentionally to keep a closer eye on the both of us.
The strangest part was, it looked like she enjoyed the extra attention. I had never seen her smile so much and she always had her hand somewhere on him.
Then one afternoon, while I pealed potatoes with another house slave called Spoons, she tried to give him a kiss.
He pushed her back. “Stop it.”
She threw herself at him and he grabbed her hands and forced her away.
“I said stop!”
“Why? Why can’t we be like it was before?”
“You know why.” He turned around and marched toward his room.
She got in front of him and he twisted away. “It’s because of her isn’t it? After all, she’s no longer a little girl.”
He whipped around, his face red with fury. “You keep her out of this.”
“Or what? Will you whip me as well?” Her face formed a wicked smile. “Maybe you enjoyed whipping her. Maybe,” she walked her fingers up his chest, “somewhere deep inside you, it turned you on.”
He struck her with the back of his hand and she yelped. She collapsed and held her check. “I’m sorry,” she said between sobs.
Merrick looked around at the rest of us. His eyes locked with mine and he licked his lips. “Get back to work,” he said. “All of you.” He marched down the hall with her reaching out to him and locked himself inside his room.
I didn’t know what to make of the scene. Clearly, they had a history, but before then I was almost certain she hated him.
“What was that all about?” I asked Spoons.
“Indigo was his first wife until he banished her.”
“His first?” My stomach clenched. I couldn’t believe it. “Did he love her?”
She shook her head. “No. She was a gift from Draks so he had to accept her, at least at first.”
“What happened to them?”
“Lumenara came and changed everything.”
Indigo rose and ambled towards us. I turned back to my job and pretended not to notice her. Yet out of the corner of my eye, I could feel her watching me.
~~~
Soon after the incident, I mastered hitting the three blue areas with my staff, knee, tailbone, and armpit, all in one fluid motion while dodging Merrick’s attacks. After I did it three times in a row, Merrick was elated. We celebrated by taking the rest of the day off, and he showed me how to catch fish in the forbidden river.
When I caught my first one, he cheered and hugged me. Back up at the house, on the second floor, something flashed inside the bay window like the flap of a swan’s wings. I could’ve almost sworn I saw a fleeting image of Indigo’s face pressed against the glass.
The next day, I arrived to see another slave dressed in the same clothing as Merrick, with blue patches on the knee, tailbone, and armpit. In his hands, he wielded a staff like mine. Merrick told me I needed to spar against both of them. On my first attempt, Merrick and the slave defeated me easily. My heart sank. It was like I had taken three steps forward only to be knocked back two steps.
Merrick encouraged me, telling me to pick an opponent and be aggressive while using my superior agility to dodge the other. It took me six months before I managed to defeat both of them. Merrick was so proud, he gave me a week off.
We spent part of our time taking long walks in the flower garden. Often, he lingered by Lumenara’s grave for a few moments before continuing on.
“How did the two of you meet?” I asked.
He sighed and bent his head down. “When I was only a few years older than you, I heard a young girl’s voice humming from the back porch. I was going through a bad time in my life and that voice was so cheerful and sweet I had to investigate it. So, I opened the door and saw a new house slave peeling potatoes for dinner. The sun was setting, and she faced the flower garden oblivious to me. Then she turned around and smiled. Her face radiated a glow so strong, the darkness of my world just drained away. That’s how I came up with her name.” He stared aimlessly, as if lost in thought.
“Do you still love her?”
He smiled. “Yes, very much.”
I cocked my head. “Then why do you have so many wives?”
“As an overseer, I’m… required to have them. It’s not that I don’t care for them, I do, it’s just…” He pressed his lips together. “It’s not the same.”
He took my hand. “Come, let me show you her favorite flower in all the garden.” And he led me down the path.
After our week was up, I returned to the training room and froze in my tracks. A second slave stood inside, a staff in his hands.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Three against one?
“No,” I said, and I turned away. “I won’t do this.”
“You must.” Merrick slipped in front of me. “It’s vital to your purpose.”
“I don’t care. It’s not fair. It’s impossible.”
He put a gentle hand under my chin and lifted it up. His blue eyes were kind, but determined. “Nothing is impossible for you, Fives.”
I jerked my head away. “How can you ask me to do this?”
He got on one knee. “What if I take turns as the lone combatant and we learn together?” His eyes met mine. “If I’m brave enough to fight against three, I know are you are as well.”
“Same rules?”
“Same rules.” He handed me my staff.
I smiled. “You go first,” I said and strolled into the training room, anticipating where I would strike him.
After training, Merrick and I retreated to the cellar where we both mastered our skull stars. I became adept at banishing the pain to a corner of my mind. Eventually, I surpassed Merrick and could fight, read, and even sleep while ignoring the pain. When I teased Merrick about it, he warned me not be cocky. That the Targs could invoke far greater pain spikes than he could. Sometimes, while we trained, I’d unleash the pain and use it to fuel my fury when it was my turn to spar against them.
Once I had learned English and Chinese, he taught me how to read ancient Egyptian. I didn’t like it. There were no books to help me study, and the language was based on interpreting hieroglyphs instead of reading words and forming sentences. For months he pressed me to understand it, stressing the language was central to my purpose.
“Come Fives.” He waved me over to a tarnished metal box. Inside were several cracked, rolled up sheets. Scrolls he called them. “These are the oldest books on Earth. They came from an Egyptian tomb not far from here. I want to see if you can translate this one.”
He picked up a ragged, tan scroll and stretched it out for me. I squinted to see the faded hieroglyphs.
“For Gaia has escaped… from the wild nether-lands or maybe outer darkness… and journeyed into the light of Ra. She became his consort… and gave birth to all life on Earth. Then she slept from her labors… and waits to be awakened by her children.”
“Good,” Merrick said. “Now this one.”
He pointed to a drawing of a volcano with the symbol of Gaia above it. The hieroglyphs were almost completely washed out and stood above a triangular boulder on a plateau overlooking it. I angled the parchment into the glare of the light to read them. “The tiger stone… poi
nts the way?”
Merrick’s face beamed. “Well done, Fives.”
“The way to what?”
“When you’re ready, you’ll know.”
“Master, how did you learn your knowledge?”
“I was taught by my father, and he was taught by his father, and his father before him.” He placed the scroll in the box and set it on the stone shelf. “Our ancestors built this place to safeguard this knowledge so that one day we might use it to regain our freedom.” He turned to me and seemed to see right through me. “Treasure what you have learned here Fives, and one day pass it on to someone else.”
CHAPTER 6
Each day, after I finished my work, Merrick searched for me. We practiced our flutes, he taught me how to create pencil drawings, and we took long hikes in the mountains. Out in the wild, he showed me how to navigate at night using the stars. How to camouflage myself with the plants and make fire with flint and steel. He had me practice these skills whenever we could and said one day they might save my life.
Seasons passed, and the more time I spent together alone with him the more our bond grew. I wondered if this is what love was and if Merrick was just grooming me to be one of his wives. After all, I was his favorite.
Each time I returned, Indigo sneaked into my room with a bright smile on her face, wanting to know exactly what we did. Whether he held my hand or hugged me? Most of the time, I told her, and we both frolicked on my bed and giggled at my excitement.
Sometimes, however, I remained silent until she teased it out of me. I was embarrassed to admit that despite all the time we spent together, Merrick never kissed me. He was always a perfect gentleman which only made him even more enticing, like staring at a dessert you couldn’t have. I started to wonder what was wrong with me. Was I not pretty enough? Maybe my body wasn’t developed enough?
“Don’t worry about it,” Indigo said. “Merrick can be a hard man to understand. He’s been through a lot of pain. I should know.”
HIDDEN: A Dystopian Science Fiction Adventure Page 3