Book Two - Chapter Eighteen

The cell door swung open, and Ariya looked up to see Flaven standing there. He seemed to be one of a few people in charge of the prison, and he was there most often. It didn’t really matter who was there, though. Every one of them was as mean and dirty as the last. He looked over her and the others, sneering.

“All right, you lot, time for work,” he said. She had heard him say the same thing, word-for-word, to the other nine cells. He wasn’t very creative.

The others stood with slow, languid motions, like they were half-asleep. The people from the other cells had moved the same way. He stepped aside to let them file out the door. Ariya stayed seated where she was, staring at him.

“Oh, right, it’s your first day on the job, isn’t it?” he asked with an awful grin.

She didn’t answer him, instead choosing to fix him with a silent scowl and stay seated. If he was going to mean, she wasn’t going to bother with him. Mama said ignoring was rude, but bullies were different. Ignoring them was best. With a huff, Ariya crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. A second later, she saw him looming over her out of the corner of her eyes.

He grabbed the collar of her dress and hauled her up, making the front of the collar press against her throat, then roughly slammed her down on her feet. She coughed as he released her, her eyes watering. Lusya was so hearing about that.

“Let me explain how this is going to work,” Flaven growled. “You’re going to do some chores for us. A girl like you’s done chores before, right?”

Ariya frowned, silent.

“Answer me when I talk to you, girl,” he said.

She gave a stiff nod. “Yes.”

Sometimes she helped Mama cleanup or make dinner. She had wanted to help Papa chop firewood too, but he had said she was too small to hold the axe. Well, the joke was on him, now she got to go on an adventure and do way cooler stuff. It might have hit a snag, but it was only temporary.

“Good,” Flaven said. “And I’m sure your parents get mad at you, give you a little slap on the wrist if you try to get out of your chores.”

“Yeah,” she said.

That had only happened once, though. She didn’t want to leave Mama and Papa in the cold when they needed her help. Sure, there had been other times when she’d gotten distracted, forgotten, or fallen asleep, but all it took was a simple reminder to get her to do whatever she was supposed to.

“Well, this is going to work a lot like that,” Flaven said. “Except, instead of a slap on the wrist, we might give you a punch in the gut. Maybe take off an arm or a leg, gouge out an eye. Stuff that’ll make that little boost I just gave you feel like a cozy hug. Got it?”

She nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Of course, the same goes if you try to run,” he said. “You should be grateful. Since the boss wants to keep you around, what I’m saying is we’ll be going easy on you.”

Ariya flinched and shied away at the descriptions. She wasn’t sure how much he was exaggerating. None of the others in her cell were missing any limbs or eyes, and she doubted none of them had ever gotten in trouble. She hadn’t seen any like that from the other cells when they’d been led out, either, but she had kind of stopped paying attention halfway through. It had been both boring and sad just watching them trudge out the door over and over. Plus, not seeing it didn’t mean it had never happened, and she could have just missed something. And they could still have hurt her plenty. She knew now that you didn’t actually have to do a lot of damage to cause a lot of pain.

Of course, Lusya was coming to save Ariya. Ariya knew that. But getting hurt, or worse, now wasn’t going to help Lusya.

“Do you understand?” Flaven prompted.

She nodded. “Yeah, I get it.”

“Good girl,” he said in a mocking tone. He patted her head, but it wasn’t like how Papa or Lusya did it. He was practically slapping her. “Then come on out and I’ll give you your first job. I’m sure you’re excited.”

He walked out the cell door and, after a moment of hesitation, Ariya followed. He led her out of the shack that served as the prison and into the yard of the bandits’ base. Ariya had seen it on the way in, but she hadn’t been paying that much attention.

It wasn’t much to look at. Just a big, flat circle of the same dirt that made up the prison floor with what could have been called buildings scattered throughout, surrounded by a wall of vertical wooden spikes. She was pretty sure there was a word for that, but she couldn’t remember what it was. The buildings ranged from little more than tents to actual wooden structures, but even the latter had a sloppy, ramshackle look to them. There was what looked like a well tucked between two buildings, and some wooden dummies set up near the wall on one side of the base. Ariya had seen drawings and read descriptions of those before. They were for practicing sword fighting and stuff, but no one was using them right now.

There wasn’t any grass or anything, even though she had seen plenty outside when they had brought her here. They must have made a point of getting rid of it for some reason, but she couldn’t guess what it might have been.

There were a few cages set up at the edge of the camp, to the right from where Ariya walked out. There were more of those weird animals from the village inside. Ariya had overheard Lusya saying they were demons. It seemed like demons really came in a lot of different shapes. The ones in the cages looked like big cats or dogs with some spikes or horns, maybe weirdly shaped legs or tails. They were making a ruckus, barking and growling as they scratched at the metal bars of their cages.

She didn’t know how hard getting all this set up was, but she knew almost none of it looked impressive. Except for the wall and maybe the cage, it was all shabby and cobbled together, not to mention brown. The tents were brown, the wood was brown, the dirt was brown, a lot of the bandits wore brown clothes or leather armor. Way too much brown. Ariya was glad she was wearing her gray dress. Despite everything, it was a secret base, though. That was kind of cool no matter what. If it wasn’t being run by bandits, it might have been really cool.

Flaven led her over to a large tent, with several tables and chairs underneath. Most of the tables were round, but a row of long, rectangular ones separated most of the area from what looked to be an extinguished fire pit with a pot hanging over it. It looked kind of like an open-air version of an inn’s dining room. And, of course, all the furniture was unpainted wood. So, more brown. Someone needed to tell these guys there were other colors.

“This is the kitchen,” he said.

They lingered for just a second before he started walking again, leading her over to the well this time.

“Your job is to draw water out of here and bring it to the kitchen,” he said. “After that, you stay here, and wait for me to tell you somewhere else that needs water.” He smirked. “It might be a little hard, but you should be big enough to manage. And don’t think you can slack off or try to run just because Boss and I aren’t watching. Everyone here’s gonna notice, and they’re not all as nice as me. Got it?”

She nodded.

He snarled. “Enough with the silent treatment, girl. Answer me when I’m talking to you.”

“I got it,” she said, sighing. She hadn’t even been making a point of being quiet, she had just thought a nod was a fine answer.

He smirked. “Good. Then get to work. Three buckets to the kitchen, now.”

He walked away, and Ariya turned toward the well. It wasn’t as built up as some, but it wasn’t just a hole in the ground either. There was a short wall around it, and a bucket and rope for getting water. The wall was made of a bunch of rocks, and some of them were even colors other than brown, like gray or beige.

Ariya had never had to get water from a well before, but she knew basically how it worked from watching Papa do it. She lowered the bucket down, let it fill with water, and pulled it back up. It was easier than she had expected. Not effortless, but more than manageable.

The worst part of it was the demons. It didn’t seem like they could get out of their cage, so they were harmless, but they were so annoying. She had thought they had been acting up early, but it seemed like that had been them being calm. They constantly threw themselves against the metal bars of their cages, teeth gnashing, howling and roaring. They were chained to the back walls of their containers, but the chains were plenty long enough to reach the bars. It got even worse whenever someone passed in front of them. They screamed almost like people and slammed against the bars, adding loud clangs to their cacophony, and even reached between them to try to swipe at whoever was there. Sometimes they would claw at the bars themselves, filling the air with a horrible screeching that sent shivers down Ariya’s spine. Nobody else reacted much to them, but they sure stayed far away from the cages.

The hard part of her actual job came when she had gotten the bucket all the way up and needed to carry it herself. She grabbed it, and then lurched forward as the weight almost pulled her into the well. With a mighty heft, she managed to get the bucket out and onto the ground. She untied it and picked it up with both hands, then trudged across the yard to the kitchen.

The demons just kept on making noise. Some random guy walked by them, and they went back to just growling for a little while, making the area almost quiet, but then they went right back to being loud when he was out of sight. Ariya assumed he, or someone else they acted the same way with, had been out earlier.

There were bandits and other prisoners scattered around the yard. The prisoners were doing work and didn’t pay her much mind. Most of the bandits didn’t pay any attention either, but a few stared at her. Some were lazing around, some were sharpening weapons. The way they looked at her made her skin crawl. There were fewer of them than she would have thought, considering the size of the base and how many buildings there were. Maybe some of them were still out causing trouble.

As a man grinned at her while sharpening a sword, or a woman stopped a conversation to snicker at her, the situation started to sink in for Ariya. She was in danger. These people didn’t care if she got hurt. They wanted it, if anything. They were scary and vicious.

Lusya was coming to save Ariya, that much was for sure. But what was going to happen in the meantime? Even if Ariya did her best to keep them happy, what if something went wrong? For that matter, they’d been hurting people for no reason all this time. What was stopping them from doing the same to her?

As she was carrying her third bucket toward the kitchen, lost in those thoughts, a woman crossed her path. Ariya didn’t pay her much attention. They didn’t seem on course to collide.

Then, the woman suddenly slowed, allowing her foot to linger behind her mid-step. Ariya’s foot caught on the woman’s, and Ariya fell forward, the bucket falling from her hands and spilling its contents onto the ground. She couldn’t catch herself while trying to hold onto the bucket, so she fell straight down, smearing dirt all over her front.

“Oops,” the woman said, grinning, and not at all sounding apologetic. She let out an exaggerated cackle. Ariya assumed it was exaggerated. She felt bad if that was just the lady’s normal laugh. “Sorry.”

Ariya stood up, dusted herself off, and grabbed the bucket. She frowned at the woman and went back to the well without a word. The woman, obviously having been looking for a bigger reaction, scowled and continued on her way.

There was no need to be scared of these people. Those men in the alley had been scary. Biggs the demon had been scary. Captain Kadel had been scary. Lusya had saved Ariya from them all. A bunch of adults in dirty clothes playing tricks like Jak were nothing. They were dangerous, for sure, and she needed to be careful, but they were not scary. They were…They were bees. They could sting if you really got careless, but, for the most part, they were just tiny little bugs trying to look tough. As long as you didn’t push them to the point of getting stung, you were fine.

Boyan passed nearby as Ariya was raising the refilled bucket. He was carrying a sack of some kind. It smelled awful, but Ariya couldn’t tell what was in it.

“You’re handling yourself well,” he said.

“Thanks,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “What’s in the bag?”

“Horse shit,” he said, holding it up. She hadn’t needed him to do that. It was gross, damp, lumpy, and smelly. “I’m putting it by the entrance. I don’t take it out, but I’m assuming it just gets tossed.”

She grimaced. “It stinks.”

“Well, it’s shit,” he said. “Besides, this whole place smells like something died. You get used to it.” He sighed. “Unfortunately.”

“The demons are so loud, too,” she said.

“Demons?”

She pointed to them.

He looked and his eyes widened. “Is that what those are? I’d been thinking they were just some strange breed of beast I’d never seen before. How does a girl like you know that?”

“Lusya told me,” Ariya said. “She takes care of me, and she knows about a lot of things. I’ve even seen her fight bigger demons.”

Well, she hadn’t seen most of the fight, but she had been there. And she was sure there had been more after she’d shut her eyes and covered her ears.

Boyan nodded, then sighed again. “Well, same story. You just learn to tune them out eventually. Thank the gods they go to sleep at night like the rest of us. Some nights, at least.”

“Yeah, that’s lucky. Wait, do they just do that all night sometimes?”

“About half the time.” He nodded and looked her over. “I meant what I said before. It might be your first day, but I’ve seen people several times your age do worse. But that’s just going to make it worse, you know.”

“It’ll be okay,” Ariya said.

He sighed. “And why’s that? Why are you so calm?”

“I was right before” Ariya said. “They’re just bullies. And compared to demons, bullies aren’t scary.”

He let out a joyless chuckle. “You’ve got a point there. Just be careful. They can still cut your head off if you piss them off.”

“Hey, you two, quit slacking off!” a bandit Ariya didn’t know shouted. He was standing next to a tent nearby. “If you have time to chat, maybe we need to get you some more work.”

Boyan sighed. He gave Ariya a quick nod and started walking away.

“I know you’re right,” she said before he got too far. “But all I have to do is play along until Lusya shows up. I don’t have to let them win.”