Breakwater (14 page)

o say the night passed in companionable silence would be a lie. Belladonna slept on the bed, and I lay beside her wide awake and staring at the ceiling. Listening to Ash’s slow even breathing as he sat against the doors. Guarding them. I pulled out the thin knife he’d given me, tucking it under my pillow. Just in case he decided to come at me, at least I wouldn’t be fumbling with my vest.

My mind whirled with questions and possibilities, the darkness of the night seeming to urge my thoughts into the worst possible scenarios. Why had Ash really come? Was he telling the truth? Something about what he’d said didn’t sit right with me and that was the core of my unease. He wasn’t honest. I felt it with every breath I took.

Ash lied, and that truth ate at me.

Beside me, Belladonna rolled over, her face peaceful in sleep. The morning sun spilled in around us, backlighting her and making her hair glow. Here was the sister I remembered. Not the sister she had become. I touched her forehead, smoothing back her hair, wondering if the damage Cassava had done could be undone. Like the mother goddess had done for me.

“No, I don’t want to,” she whimpered, her face crinkling up and tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. She jerked away from me, her eyes opening, but she didn’t see me. I knew that look. I’d seen it in the mirror more than once. Belladonna saw her past and she didn’t like what she looked at, saw all that she couldn’t escape, no matter how far she ran.

I spit out the first thing that came to my mind. “You want the shower first?”

Scrubbing her hands through her hair she nodded. “Yes. Come help me out of this dress.” There was really no need to help her, but we still had to discuss our plan and see if we could find a way to survive the Deep.

My eyes were dry and crusted over with dirt, salt, and flecks of gore still. I stood and stretched my arms over my head, limbs protesting the long night unmoving. I glanced at Ash.

He still slept. His head leaned against the door, eyes closed.

I headed to the bathroom attached to our room.

Belladonna was already naked and scrubbing herself under the flow of water.

Half the room was set up as a shower, the walls tiled in pale blue marble flecked with black streaks, but the base of the shower was a pure white sand. I slid a hand over the marble to the dangling handle next to the shower. Guessing, I pulled on it.

Water poured out like a miniature waterfall. I stepped under the flow, gasping at the temperature. Not hot by any means, the water was clean, fresh, and smelling of rain. It beckoned. I couldn’t help opening my mouth and gulping down a few gallons, finally quenching my thirst. I scooped up handfuls of sand from the bottom of the shower and scrubbed it over my skin and hair while the water pounded around me.

Finally feeling refreshed, I stepped out of the shower, but let it run. I grabbed a towel for myself and handed one to my sister. She wrapped it around her body and we tucked our heads close together, the rushing water drowning out our words.

“I’m going to find Ambassador Barkley, or whatever is left of him. You make friends with Requiem. Take Ash.”

She nodded. “Be careful, Lark. We only have each other.”

I flicked the pull handle of the showers, shutting the water off and turned. Ash stood there, watching.

“Ambassador. Your presence is requested.” He stepped to the side. Behind him was a human slave. The first we’d seen.

Belladonna sucked in a sharp breath and I struggled not to do the same. Skeletally thin, I wasn’t even sure if I looked at a man or a woman, an adult or a child. Draped in a thin white cloth, the material only accentuated the jutting bones and jagged hollows where flesh should have been.

The slave held out a silver platter, arms shaking with the effort. He spoke, carefully. “Requiem would like to eat you. Eat
with
you, I mean.” I darted forward and grabbed the platter. On it was a single note with Bella’s name written across it in bold script. I handed it to her. She cracked it open.

“Requested to dine with him. Again.” She threw the letter down, strode into the other room, and grabbed two pieces of fruit. “Here, eat this. Your body offends me.”

She shoved the fruit at the slave who stared up at her, then fell to his knees as he jammed the fruit into his mouth. Crying, he ate, and I couldn’t look at him. This was the ugly truth of the Undines. Even without Requiem at the head, they thought nothing of having slaves. Even that old man I’d met the night before, he’d seemed kind. And yet, he likely had his own set of slaves to tend to him.

I dropped my towel and went to grab my clothes. Which were no longer on the floor where I’d left them. Scooping my towel back up I wrapped it around my body, tying it off along my chest. The flash of white cloth slipping through the door caught my eye.

The human slaves were quick with their chores it seemed.

“They’ll bring them back,” Ash said. “The slaves are very good at what they do.”

My jaw dropped and Belladonna elbowed me hard. “Of course they are. See, Lark, they even brought us clothes to wear.”

On the bed were two outfits. Or what passed in the Deep as outfits. A swath of black silk lay stretched across the bed next to a pure white swath of silk. White was what the slaves wore.

I picked up the white silk, knowing what it meant to put it on, to admit I had no value. Requiem knew I was a bastard. “Want to guess which one of us this is for?”

Belladonna sucked in a sharp breath. “He wouldn’t go so far.”

I shrugged. “We don’t really know him other than the fact he tried to kill us at least twice and me three times.” I hated to admit I didn’t understand the games and politics, but Belladonna knew this world better than I did. My jaw tightened, but I managed to speak. “Do you think I should wear it?”

She fingered it. “No, I think I will wear it. It’s a better color on me, black is too harsh.”

Ash grunted softly. “What are you up to, Belladonna?”

She batted her eyes at him. “Whatever do you mean, Ender? I wish only for Requiem to see I serve him while I am here. Do you not think the white is fitting?”

Clever, clever girl. Lips twitching, I fought back the smile as I helped her wind her body into the white silk. She was right; the white did look fantastic against her dark hair and smoky eyes. Her hand went to the griffin tooth still around her neck. “This is too crass with this silk. You wear it, Lark.” She all but flicked the necklace across to me. I caught it and slid it over my head. Why had she given it back? Perhaps she really didn’t like it, maybe she really did think it clashed with the white silk.

Of course, she didn’t know that it was magical either.

Dressed as much as she was going to be, Belladonna held out a hand to Ash. “Come, take me. Let us explore this place.”

Ash hesitated, glanced at me still in my towel then took her hand. “Of course.”

So well trained as an Ender, he didn’t think of breaking the rules. Of turning down a command from someone superior to him.

The door closed behind them and I dropped the towel forgetting the slave who’d brought us the message. He cleared his throat. “Lady, do you need help with the silk?” I nodded.

“Yes, please. I didn’t think to ask for help before they left.”

He moved to my side and I wondered how long he had before he would be dead. Even with the influx of calories he’d just had, I knew he didn’t have the strength to last more than a few days. Yet, his hands were still deft as they wove the black silk around my body, pulling it tight and tying it off at my waist. “There you go. Right as rain.”

“What is your name?”

He smiled, his eyes going distant. “Don’t know if I remember anymore. It’s been so long.”

I licked my lips. “Has it always been this bad, for the slaves?”

“No, lady, it hasn’t. It will get worse, though.” His brown eyes flicked over me. “You should leave. While you can.”

With a wobbly bow, he began to back out of the room.

“Wait. The cells, where are they? How do I get to them?”

The slave paused and then pointed down to the floor.

“Please,” I begged. “I’m trying to make things better.” A half truth, but I would say anything to make him trust me.

He closed his eyes, trembling where he stood. “The slave quarters. They reside above them. But I’ve heard there is a secret entrance, on the same level as the kitchen. That is all I can tell you.”

I reached under the pillow and pulled my one dagger out. Ash still had all his weapons, not one was removed from him. Yet another strike against him, as much as it hurt to admit.

Digging around the closet, I came up with a studded belt. Too big for my waist, I slid it over my hips at an angle. From it, I hung the dagger’s sheath. Stepping out of the room I headed left. Ayu would be of no help, and other than Dolph, I didn’t know anyone else. The cells would be on the lowest levels. That made sense, but the secret entrance . . . That might be my best bet.

Searching the hallways was a strange thing because there was no one around. No one except the same old man I’d met the night before. We passed each other several times with nothing more than a nod here and there.

Once I caught him asleep on a bench that rested across from the kitchens. There was no one to stop me as I slid my fingers along the edges of the walls looking for a cut in the rough material. Hours passed and the heat rose. Sweating freely, the black silk stuck to my skin, clinging tightly to my body.

“Ender Lark?”

I turned slowly to see Urchin, Dolph’s boy, behind me. How much could I trust him?

“Urchin? That’s your name, isn’t it?”

He nodded with that strange purpling of his cheeks that seemed to be the blush of an Undine with his coloring. I put a hand against the wall and took a slow breath, the silk tightening across my chest, no time like the present to try one of Bella’s tricks. Urchin stared, his eyes all but hanging from their sockets.

“Close your mouth, boy, they’re just breasts.”

“I’m sorry, I just . . . our women don’t dress like . . .”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Like what?”

All the fire went out of him. “Like humans.”

The restraint it took not to slap him had me shaking. He thought I was dressing like a human because I had to? “They would if all they had were pieces of see-through material to choose from.”

He swallowed hard and stepped back. I reached forward and grabbed his chin in my fingers. “Where are the cells the prisoners are kept in?”

“Why would you want to go there?”

Tightening my grip, I pulled him closer to me. I had to give him credit, his eyes stayed on my face as they flickered with a barely suppressed anger. Perhaps there was more to him than at first appeared.

“Urchin, I need to get to the cells.”

“Requiem doesn’t want anyone going there. I can’t help you. I’m sorry.” He stepped away from me, and I let him go. There was no point pushing . . . fear only went so far when it came to getting what you wanted. I knew that.

There had to be another way to find the cells, to find the ambassadors. But how? I turned in a slow circle, as the thought wove through my mind. If I were thrown into the cells, could Belladonna talk me out of them?

More importantly, did I trust her to stand by me and not leave me in the cells to rot if I went through with my idea?

Only one way to find out.