Maryk had more pressing duties to consider.
Yes, sir. Shall I return to Raej and obtain the list?
Yes. By the time you return, Lord Maryk will be here with the slaves. Well keep any that may be of interest to the High Priestess and send the others back to Raej to sell on the last auction day.
The guard saluted smartly and left.
Krelis rubbed his hands over his face. Maryk should be back by nightfall, the task completed. Then, perhaps, he could get some sleep.
Chapter Five
His stomach growled and threatened to chew his backbone.
Jared ignored it.
His muscles ached and begged to be stretched.
He ignored them, too.
The fierce need to piss had him swinging his legs over the side of the narrow bed. He pushed himself into a sitting position and fuzzily tried to remember what came next.
Rubbing sleep-crusted eyes, Jared looked blearily at the dark-eyed, dark-haired boy sitting cross-legged beside the bed.
Davin? Jared said hoarsely, knowing it couldnt be even before the boys expression turned wary. His youngest brother would be nineteen now, not the ten-year-old hed cheerfully said good-bye to before hed torn his life apart.
Im Tomas, the boy said. Theres no Davin here.
Thank the Darkness for that.
There was something peculiar and faint about the boys psychic scent, but Jared was too preoccupied to figure it out. Where
Were in the guest servants quarters.
Jared shook his head and tried again. Where
Dont know what Territory
Wheres the damn chamber pot?
Oh. Tomas pointed at a door in the wall. Over there.
Despite the urgency, Jared hesitated, finally awake enough to realize he was naked and only had a wadded sheet covering his groin.
Tomas grinned. Theyre all outside, and Ladies dont care if you show your dangle to other males. He scratched his head. Other males dont care either.
Sometimes they do, Jared muttered, remembering confrontations between pleasure slaves that had turned bloody because desperation had pushed someone over the edge. Sometimes they care very much.
Tomass grin faded. His face paled. He scrambled to his feet and bolted for the door. The jerky movement and the fear that now filled his dark eyes told Jared more than the fading bruises on the boys bare arms, more than the old scars on the stick-thin legs that poked out of a pair of ragged short pants. And he realized what the boys diminished psychic scent meant. Tomas was a half-Blood.
Having too much psychic strength to be landen but not enough to be Blood, half-Bloods were outcast bastards, wanted by neither society. If the Blood sire thought the unclaimed offspring showed potential, the child might be taken in and raised as a servant, maybe even trained to become an overseer for a landen village. Most of the time, half-Bloods became the slaves that looked after, and were used by, Blood slaves.
And sometimes there was no one cruder than someone who was, himself, enduring cruelty.
Cursing under his breath, Jared followed Tomas.
The bathroom had two toilets, three sinks, and two bathtubs. There were no partitions to give anyone the illusion of privacy, but at least the toilets were better than stinking privy holes.
Sighing with relief, Jared took care of business and tried to ignore the boy standing next to him. Tomas might have learned fear in the slave quarters, but the boy was just too brash to have learned caution.
You aint wearing a Ring, Tomas said in a hushed voice.
Its invisible, Jared replied curtly, hoping that would end it.
You sight shield a Ring so people dont know youre a slave, youll get your back whipped off for good.
Jared clenched his teeth at the honest concern in the boys voice and pulled the chain to flush the toilet. Its not sight shielded, its invisible.
Well, I can see that.
How could he explain something he didnt understand himself? Its an Invisible Ring.