“He is my master. I am bound to him. Unless--” He sucks in a breath and hops up. “You could be my master!”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’ll be bound to do anything you say.”
“That’s it? Is there some kind of catch?”
He shakes his head with a gleam in his eye I don’t deem altogether trustworthy. “Are there other people out there like me? Noughts?”
“Noughts. There are loads of them.”
“There are?” He makes a noise of surprise when I pick him up and shuffle toward the bedroom. “Where are they at?” I ask, pointing up at the map.
“They are not here. They arebeyond. But I know someone who can take you to them.”
“Beyond…beyond this map?
He nods.
“Who?”
“My former master.” He wriggles out of my hold and perches himself on my shoulder. “I can take you to her. And she can take you to the noughts.”
I bite at my lip. “Do you think she would do that?”
He nods eagerly. “She would.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s stuck in the Wastelands. You must make yourself my master, and then I could take you to her.” Something in his eyes is too eager, too wanting.
The Wastelands?That’s what he called Eden. “I don’t know…” Not sure I should be making deals with a creature that looks suspiciously like a demon… “Let me think about it. First, I need to find a way out of here."
I tear the chambers apart and put them back again. My efforts don’t turn up much at all. Once I’m certain there isn’t a single rope anywhere in the nooks and crannies of these chambers, I set to work cutting my blanket into strips and braiding it into a cord I hope turns out to be strong enough to hold my weight.
The thing that is not a demon doesn’t turn out to be a great source of information or even…companyfor that matter. He’s too easily distracted, prattling on about returning to his former master, which he mysteriously won’t tell me anything about, sometimes breaking into tirades that don’t seem to be aimed at anyone but himself.
Even worse, he sniffs out the rolls and toast I stashed in the vase and tears through those as well. Only shrugging when I ream him for it.
My blanket does not prove to be enough material to make a very long cord. I sneak back into his bedroom and steal a couple tunics from his closet, too afraid to take any more than that lest he notices before I make my escape. I also cut one of the two dresses he’s provided for me. Even with the blanket, the two tunics, and the dress woven into the cord, the rope barely reaches the next balcony.
When I retreat back into the chambers the creature’s scarfing down my lunch that’s been slid under the door while I was out. I tear the plate away with a curse. Not only did I miss my chance to question the person bringing the food again, but he’s eating up all of my escape supplies.
“I’m saving these!” I huff, tearing the two rolls off the plate and stuffing them back into the vase. “Don’t eat them.”
“I don’t have to listen to you because you’re not my master,” he says tauntingly. “But if you make me your master, then I will have to do as you say.”
I let out a bedraggled sigh, my options unbearably slim. “You can have the rest of this, but I have a favor to ask of you. If I tie this rope from the balcony and climb down, could you fly up, untie it, and throw it down to me?”
He nods. “If you were my master, I would.”
“What does that entail exactly?”
He buzzes into the air and disappears into the bedroom, flying out seconds later, a pencil lodged under his arm and a piece of paper trailing behind him. His body dips with the weight of it. Settling onto the coffee table, he uses both hands to scrawl something across the paper.
I edge forward trepidly. It’s a slow process for the small creature as he uses his whole body to scratch the pencil across the paper. He finishes, tosses the pencil down, and disappears back into the bedroom. This time, he comes out holding a small piece of chalk.
“You’ll have to move this stuff.”
