by Victor Poole
Chad followed the train of boys into the house. The young women had established themselves in a corner; they glanced up nervously at Ajalia. These young women were too plain to have found protectors among those wealthy enough in Slavithe to have bought the terms of their service; they had broad faces, and wide mouths. Ajalia had looked at their figures, and thought that there was much to be done to enhance the attractions of her new possessions. Many of the finer women in the East were large and broad, and Ajalia had some experience in dressing women who were far from petite. She handed the three coins to the largest and oldest of the ragged boys, and told them to arrange the other boys into neat rows.
The three largest boys leapt into action; in mere seconds, the whole group of boys, which numbered nearly two dozen, were piled into long rows, sitting on the floor. They nudged each other hard in the ribs, and wiped their noses. Ajalia watched the boys, and tried to get a sense of their natures.
Chad had come in behind the boys, and he shut the door now. Ajalia shot Chad a look.
"Get out," she said. Chad's eyes widened. A flush crept over his cheeks.
"Oh," he whispered, "I have to do that thing." He opened the door a crack, and slipped outside. The boys had stopped talking to each other when Ajalia spoke to Chad; they looked at her with some approval, especially when the young Slavithe man had gone out.
"We don't like Malkos," one of the oldest boys told Ajalia.
"He has an honest face," Ajalia told him.
"So?" the boy said.
"So the people here think well of him, because of his simplicity. It is useful to carry such a plain face with us," Ajalia told them. The boys all began to sit up with attention. She saw that they had noticed her use of the word "us". The five young women had their heads together in the corner, and were whispering quietly. Ajalia turned her back on the double line of boys, and approached the young women.
"Do you know how to take measurements?" Ajalia asked one of them. The young woman she had spoken to glanced sideways at her companions in embarrassment; another of the young women spoke up.
"I can take measurements, miss," she told Ajalia.
"Do you have anything to write with?" Ajalia asked. The young woman shook her head quickly. Ajalia drew a tiny coin out of her waist. The young women all watched the coin avidly; Ajalia saw that their eyes took in the place where the coin had been, and one of the young women licked her lips.
"Which of you can buy a measuring cord, some paper, and a pencil with this amount of money?" Ajalia asked.
Two of the little boys sprang to their feet and almost ran at Ajalia.
"I can," they shouted simultaneously.
"I did not say steal," Ajalia told them. "I said buy."
One of the little boys made a mulish face. The other grinned triumphantly.
"I can buy the things," he boasted.
Ajalia handed the coin to the young woman who had spoken to her, and drew another cluster of money out of her clothes. The room went utterly still. Ajalia thought that the young boys and the woman had surely figured out that Chad had no money for them to steal. She raised her hand up into the air, so that each of the Slavithe servants could see the coins.
DANIEL AND NAM
"I have money," Ajalia said. "I have more money than most of you have ever seen in your lives."
A shudder convulsed a few of the boys; Ajalia thought she could see their thoughts unravelling over their heads.
"Do you know how I got this money?" she asked the room at large. The young women politely shook their heads in the negative. The little boys elbowed each other. The oldest of the boys watched Ajalia's handful of money with a gleam that she thought hinted at the desire to attack her.
"Most of my money," Ajalia told them, "is not in my robe."
She watched the older boys; she saw that the clever ones knew what she meant; she meant that to rob her now meant forfeiting the greater portion of the money.
"Do you know what I am?" Ajalia asked the boys.
"You're a slave," one of the thickset young women blurted out. Ajalia looked at the corner of young women; she saw that they were glancing covetously at the small coin clutched in the fist of the young woman who knew how to measure.
"How did I get this money?" Ajalia asked the room at large. The boys were silent. The young women glanced uneasily at each other. "Where did I get this money?" she asked again, more loudly. The oldest boys shifted uncomfortably.
"Do you think my master gave it to me?" she asked the largest boy. He shook his head. "What do you think?" she demanded of the smallest boy. His face turned bright red; he hid his face in his knees. Ajalia selected a coin from her fist, and held it in front of the boys.
"What if I gave you money to talk?" she asked. "Would you tell me what you think, if I paid you for it?"
"You stole the money!" one of the boys shouted out. His face was smudged with dirt, but his eyes were clear and sharp. Ajalia examined his face.
"Name?" she asked. The boy glanced at the young women in the corner
"I don't have a name," he said.
Ajalia turned towards the young women.
"What have you done to my boys?" she asked. The young women regarded her with blank expressions.
"We don't understand what you mean," the young woman who had received the coin said. Her voice was polite and calm. Ajalia drew her knife. She crossed over to the thickest young woman, and put the blade of the knife in front of the young woman's eyes.
"Take your hair down," Ajalia said.
"My name is Eisle!" the thick young woman cried out, her hands flying to the braid of dark hair that was pinned above her neck.
"What about the boy?" Ajalia asked, gesturing to the dirty-faced boy who had answered her question. Eisle shot an agonized glance at the other young women.
"Are any of you honest?" Ajalia asked the five young women. Again, they glanced nervously at each other. Ajalia sighed. She put her knife into the sheath, and went to the dirty-faced boy who claimed to have no name. She put her hand on his elbow, and drew him into the door that led to the kitchen. She saw the boys and the young women craning their necks to see her.
"I already have a special boy," Ajalia told the dirty-faced boy, in a voice the others could not hear. "You will never be my favorite. You will not be my second favorite. You may, however, have a chance at being third."
The dirty-faced boy glanced up at her swiftly from beneath smudged brows.
"I may be a slave," Ajalia told the boy, still keeping her voice low. One of the young women was edging imperceptibly closer to them, her eyes fixed on Ajalia's lips. "I may be foreign," she told the boy, "but in three minutes' time, you will wish that you had chosen to trust me."
"What are you going to do?" the boy asked fervently. Ajalia saw his eyes travel unconsciously towards the group of young women.
"You will see," Ajalia told him, "but by the time you see, it will be too late to gain my goodwill. Now, do you want to be on my side, or do you want to be on their side?"
The boy glanced again towards the young women. Ajalia saw, out of the corner of her eye, one of the girls making a swift sign with her head. Ajalia smiled a smile like that of a predator about to kill. Something in her eyes made the dirty-faced boy shiver.
"I choose you," he said hoarsely.
"Good," Ajalia said briskly. She pulled the dirty-face boy by the elbow into the center of the room.
"This boy," she told the others, "is now in charge. What is your name?" she asked the dirty-faced boy. His face was turning ruddy and hot.
"My name is Daniel," he muttered.
"Daniel is now your leader," Ajalia told the boys. She looked fiercely at the older boys. "If you harm Daniel," she said clearly, "I will harm you. If you disobey Daniel, I will sell you. Do you understand?" The older boys stared at her with grim eyes.
"You can't sell us," the oldest boy said. "We're servants. We aren't for sale."
"You are no longer in debt," Ajalia told him. "I have dis
charged what you owe."
The oldest boy sneered at her.
"That's impossible," he said. "No one has enough money to pay what my parents owe."
Ajalia went into the kitchen, and retrieved the sheaf of papers from a shelf. She crossed back into the front room; she sat on the corner of a ragged table.
"I got you from the quarries, from the man called Scero," she told the oldest boy. He nodded grudgingly. "Your mother's name is Annel," Ajalia continued, reading from the sheaf of papers. "Scero purchased the use of your mother and yourself from Gevad, who had cleared your father of debt in the exchange. The debt is now attached to you, as your mother is dead." Ajalia looked up at the oldest boy. "Is this information correct?" she asked.
Again, the boy nodded.
"Gevad transferred his properties and debts to me in an exchange," Ajalia said. "Now, boy, how much did your father owe?"
The boy named a number. One of the other boys whistled.
"Before her death, did your mother succeed in paying any of the debt?" Ajalia asked the boy. He stared at her mutinously, his lips sealed into a line.
"Yes or no," Ajalia said.
"No," the boy spat.
"Have you, yourself, paid any of the debt?" Ajalia asked.
"No," the boy said through gritted teeth.
"Well," Ajalia said. "You owe so much," and she named the number the boy had said. "Or," she added, "your father owed so much, before he sold your life to Gevad."
"He did not sell me!" the boy shouted. "I will not be a servant for long!"
"You are not a servant now," Ajalia told the boy. "Your debt has been paid in full. However, under the terms of your sale to me from Scero, I do, in fact, own you. In effect," she added, "you are a slave."
"There are no slaves in Slavithe," one of the young women told Ajalia. The young woman's voice was harsh and snobby. Ajalia continued to stare at the oldest boy.
"That's impossible," the boy whispered.
"Possible," Ajalia told him.
"How?" he demanded. "How could you pay it off?"
"I thought you would be interested in the details," Ajalia told the boy.
"She can't buy you," the same young woman said imperiously to the oldest boy. "She's lying."
"Come, Daniel," Ajalia said. "And you," she told the oldest boy. Daniel followed her to the doorway to the kitchen, where she could see the boys and the young women, but they could not easily hear what she said.
She spoke to the two boys for several minutes, her voice low, her eyes moving casually over the room full of Slavithe children. When she had finished, the oldest boy's face had cleared. A hard look had come into his eyes, and his jaw had become fixed.
"My name's Gull," he told Ajalia, his voice low and sure. "I'll help you with the others," he added. Ajalia gestured towards Daniel, and the older boy swallowed.
"I'll help you with the others, Dan," Gull said. Daniel nodded, and the two boys went back towards the cluster of boys sitting on the floor.
"Now," Ajalia said, clapping her hands and approaching the five young women. "Let's get to work."
"What are they talking about?" the measuring girl demanded, her eyes on the group of boys, who had clustered together into a knot, and were now holding a heated discussion. "What did you say to them?" she asked Ajalia impudently.
"There aren't any slaves here," one of the other young women told Ajalia again. Her chin was lifted proudly, and her shoulders were thrown back.
"What are their names?" Ajalia asked Eisle. The thick young woman licked her lips, and glanced at the other four. Ajalia saw one of the young women make a tiny nod, and Eisle took a deep breath, turning back to Ajalia.
"I'm Eisle," the thick girl repeated, "that one is Ossa. She's called Nam," Eisle said, pointed at the measuring girl, "and those two are Clare and Sun."
"Well," Ajalia told the five young women, "unfortunately, there was not enough money to clear any of your debts. You are still servants."
The five young women glanced at each other. Some of them smiled.
"You don't seem to understand," the one called Sun said kindly. "You're from somewhere else. We don't have any slaves here."
"You do now," Ajalia told her. Sun closed her mouth with a snap. Her chin was turned up haughtily.
"You can ask anyone," Nam told Ajalia. "Slaves aren't allowed here."
"You are Nam," Ajalia said. "You were going to be sold to the family on the market street."
Nam's eyes blazed; her cheeks turned a brilliant red. The other girls were glancing at her; Nam kept her eyes fixed on Ajalia's face.
"So?" she demanded hotly. "I wasn't taken there."
"Do you know that the family wanted you for their son?" Ajalia asked.
"I would have been a servant," Nam said through gritted teeth.
"One of you has a sister," Ajalia said to the five. "Which one of you has a sister in service?"
The five young women looked at each other guiltily.
"It's not us," Eisle explained. "It's Pirra. She's still out in the long row house, cleaning. Chad didn't tell her to come."
"Pirra has a sister," Ajalia said.
The young women nodded.
"And how many children does Pirra's sister have?" Ajalia asked.
"That doesn't matter," Nam exclaimed. "I wasn't put there. It doesn't matter."
"How many of those children are from the same father?" Ajalia asked.
The five young women regarded her mutinously. Their eyes were hard.
"That doesn't matter," Ossa said, speaking for the first time. "Those kinds of girls aren't like us. We're clever."
"I see," Ajalia said. She turned back towards the boys, who were deep in discussion. The boys had migrated to one wall, and were throwing pieces of stone from their pockets out of the window.
"Daniel," Ajalia called. Daniel trotted over to her. Gull's eyes followed Daniel's movements; after a brief hesitation, Gull followed. The two boys stood in front of Ajalia.
Ajalia drew several coins out of her purse. She handed them to Daniel.
"You are now in charge," Ajalia told Daniel, whose eyes had grown enormous at the sight of the money now clinking in his hands.
Gull was staring at the money, his lip rolling gently between his teeth.
"You are responsible for feeding everyone," Ajalia told Daniel. "If you manage your money well, you will have excess." She turned to Gull. "You are Daniel's second in command," she told the oldest boy. "You will enforce his orders, and you will protect him from the others. If the boys steal from Daniel, you will punish them."
Ajalia took a second, larger pile of coins from her purse, and put the money into Gull's eager palms. She saw Daniel comparing the two piles, and glancing at his own, smaller pile.
"If Daniel makes a mistake with his money," Ajalia told Gull, "you will be responsible for the difference. If the other boys steal from you," she warned Gull, "I will not punish them. Show me you are clever by protecting what you have. Gull wants your position," Ajalia told Daniel. "Protect your position. Do not trust each other." She watched the two boys. They stared at her, Gull's mouth working, and Daniel's eyes narrowing. The boys glanced briefly at each other.
"You can't tell them what to do," Nam told Ajalia suddenly. Gull and Daniel's eyes flicked towards the group of young women; Ajalia saw hatred in the boys' eyes.
"If you show disrespect to Daniel again," Ajalia told the girls, without turning around, "or to Gull, I will cut your hair. The whole city will see your shame."
The girls regarded Ajalia silently; she turned and looked them over.
"I am meeting with the Thief Lord at noon," she told the room at large. "Feed and clean the boys," she told Daniel. "Have them back here before the Thief Lord arrives. Make your money last until the next full moon. If he runs out," she warned Gull again, "you will feed the boys. Make sure Daniel does not run out."
"I won't run out," Daniel said swiftly.
"He won't run out," Gull said at the same time. T
he two boys glared at each other, and then bared their teeth at each other in matching ferocious grins.
"Do not become friends," Ajalia told the two boys.
"We won't," the boys said together, and laughed. The sound of their laugher was like angry dogs.
"Get out," she told them, and the two boys drove the group of little boys out of the house. When the boys were gone, and the door was shut behind them, Ajalia turned once again to the group of girls.
"I can see," she said, "that you have formed an alliance. I can see that you will protect each other from me. However," she added, turning away from them, and going to the window, "I have time, money, and experience on my side. Also," she said, as an afterthought, "I have Chad."
She looked at the five young women; she saw that they could see no threat in the mention of Chad. Their innocence brought a wolfish smile to Ajalia's face. One of the girls though, the one called Sun, began to squirm a little.
"Do you know why Chad is a threat?" Ajalia asked Sun kindly. Sun shook her head vigorously in the negative, and looked down at the ground.
"Do any of you know?" she asked them. The other four girls regarded her stonily. Their eyes were like shallow glass. Ajalia sighed.
"If not a single one of you," she told them, "has the sense of self-preservation, the barest whiff of desire to be more than you are, I would advise that one of you to speak up now. My patience with this charade is wearing thin; in a few minutes I will be impelled, by forces that none of you understand, to make an example of one or two of you."
"What would that look like?" Nam asked boldly. Ajalia smiled a cheerful smile; Nam sneered at her.
"I see that you, none of you, have ever been in real danger," Ajalia said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Sun was still shifting uncomfortably where she sat. Ajalia kept her eyes fixed on Nam and the others.
"I see," Ajalia said, "that however poor you have been, someone has protected you from the vicissitudes of life."
Ajalia was standing near the window; she drew the curtain closed, and then locked the front door securely.
