Rirth scoffed, shaking his head as he bit into a meaty leg of some sort of cooked bird.
Culiar said, “Peltos was my friend.” His tone was threatening.
I set my wooden cup down and lifted my gaze to give him a dead-eyed glare. I said nothing.Then you deserve the same fate if you consider a fiend like that a friend.
“You’ll get yours,” Culiar promised, slapping the table and standing. “Come on,” he bade Rirth. “Let’s get away from this cursed slut before she rubs off on us.”
I had half a mind to slam my wooden cup against Culiar’s face. I resisted.
Rirth glanced over at me. “It’ll have to be in the ring, Cul. You know how Master takes a fancy to this one.”
Culiar laughed as they left the table with their food, their threats clear as day. They headed for a crowded section with other hungry boys, their friends.
I continued eating in silence. The boys and men here believed Master Lukain was coddling me. At the same time, he gave me the honor of dispensing punishment on Peltos for his rape of the girl Helget. News of that was already getting out.Lukain is allowing me to build my own reputation,I realized.He’s giving me the tools to make myself seem greater than I am. The boys either hate me or fear me.
In the case of Culiar and Rirth, I figured it was a bit of both. A small smirk came to my lips, which I hid behind my cup as I drank.
Despite Master Lukain’s casual cruelty and penchant for alarming violence, I was starting to appreciate him. I wanted to know more about Lukain and learn from him.
What does that say about me?
I finished my food and was ready to exit when Antones appeared in the wide archway of the eating chamber with a gaggle of newcomers behind him. The group of five younglings wore the same rags and chafed wrists I had when I’d first arrived.
Looks like Master has stayed busy buying more property.
I sighed and stood—
Then froze as my eyes landed on the girl furthest back from the group, a wide-eyed expression in her eyes.
It was Jinneth of the Diplomats. The girl who had gone missing just when I had started to know her.
The girl whose brother I murdered, which landed me in Dimmon’s tent, on the auction block, and in the Firehold.
Chapter 11
I approached Jinneth for the first time a week later. I had to be clandestine about it so I didn’t reveal my relation to the girl, since I had a target on my back with boys like Rirth and Culiar.
Jinneth didn’t seem to notice me whenever we entered the eating hall around the same time, after getting let off from our respective duties.
It made sense she wouldn’t recognize me—that she wasn’t putting on a front—because there were dozens of new faces for her to work through during eating hours. I also kept to myself in the far corners of the room where I wouldn’t be bothered.
While Jinneth remained oblivious to my existence in the Firehold, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She seemed skittish and downcast these days. It was no wonder why.
I wondered where she had gone between the time the Diplomats got rid of her—spying on Jeffrith and Dimmon’s discussion told me she had been sold at auction—and arriving at the Firehold.What horrors did you face, my poor friend, between then and now?
Another part of me feared speaking with her because of what I had done. Jeffrith had gotten that wicked glint all young men seemed to get when lost in the throes of lust, when their want collided with their need. He had surrounded me in the alley with his friends because he thought I would be an easy target to defile.
I had proven him wrong when I killed him.
And that was the part that scared me—eventually having to tell Jinneth the story of her brother’s death and my part in it.Does she even know he’s dead? Would she ever forgive me if she learned it was done by my hand?
I hadn’ttriedto kill Jeffrith. I had simply chosen a perfect point to stab him once he scarred Baylen. The dagger did the rest.
Still, it was time. I was too curious about Jinneth’s situation not to speak with her and, honestly, I was lonely. I needed another girl to talk to. Weeks of utter silence on one hand, and constant training and lambasting from Lukain on the other, had turned me into a social pariah.
I hardly knewhowto speak to anyone unless it was to threaten them or defend myself when Master Lukain quipped at me during our sparring sessions.
When I saw Jinneth enter the eating hall, my body tensed with anticipation. It felt like I was on a job with Baylen all over again, snatching purses from humans at the bazaar in the Temple district.
