by T R Tells
“You can’t just leave us here, you know what kind of man Flint is. He’s going to—” Before Thea could finish her sentence, Clodovicus peeled his hand out of her grip.
“No offense, Thea but you all aren’t my problems. While I don’t agree with what Flint is doing, I’m staying far away from him and the bullshit he and his crew started.”
“B-But you have that large sword!”
He cracked a grin and snorted. “No, I won’t use Ashrune on these assholes. I might be strong, but a man should always know their restraints and limits. There are a good fifteen pirates here, I might take six down with me, but I’ll only get myself killed in the end.
Thea frowned as the realization in his words dawned on her. She knew there was no other way to convince him and she knew it was selfish of her to ask a stranger to help them – even if it was for a good cause.
Thea looked down and stared at her feet. “It’s fine, I’m sorry.”
Clodovicus didn’t say anything as he looked down at Thea. For a moment, he admitted he felt sorry and angry for the position that Flint had forced the children into, but this wasn’t his business, and he had long since closed off his heart to anyone – only Audalai had managed to break down some of his walls.
“Thea, look at me,” Clodovicus’ rough voice said, making Thea look up at him, there was a seriousness in his eyes that Thea couldn’t place. “Don’t let anyone scare you into submission. No matter what any of these assholes do to you, say to you, or do to others; never let them see your tears. Never let them see you angry because they can use that to their advantage.”
“That sounds similar to what Flint said to us some months ago . . . that life is meaningless and—”
“And they have no soul because of that,” Clodovcuis interrupted her. “You can use that to your advantage and mask your emotions. Never show the world your tears, your fears, or hopes for the future. They will use anything to make you give in to the dark side and there is no way of escaping it once you do.”
Thoughts of Dominya, Jiran, Maggie, Freya, and even Eddie popped into her mind. She had already lost one person; she couldn’t let anyone else she cared for and loved ones cease to exist.
“Just keep surviving and never let the enemy see your weakness,” he said to her, and the two shared a brief look. “You’ll be fine, I’m sure of it. Perhaps we shall see one another again.”
Clodovicus reached into his pocket and dropped two gold coins in her hand. Thea didn’t say anything as he, grabbed the knob and turned, leaving out the door without another word.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
As the year of Bifrost grew harsh throughout weeks, so did Flint’s strict training. To be an assassin and a prostitute, one is subjected to any kinds of vile acts, such as poisoning. In those long, grueling three weeks, three had died from poison.
Thea scratched her arm furiously as the red welts on her arm began to irritate her skin. Flint’s orders strictly told them that they had to handle the pain.
“Maggie, what are you doing?” Thea asked, she had walked down the stairs into the basement, where Maggie sat on a stool by the small furnace with her back to Thea. When she walked around, she saw that Maggie was sharpening a dagger and several others were laying neatly in a row together – they were already triangular, pointed steel tipped blades.
“I was assigned weapon duty. I’m finished though,” Maggie said, she blew onto the blade, making sure any metal dust was not on it. She turned to look at Thea with a grin, spying her scratching her arm. “How are the welts?”
Thea snorted and rolled her eyes, she grabbed a stool in the corner and pulled it over to Maggie. The little bit of warmth from the furnace warmed Thea from the chill that she had.
“I feel like shit and him not giving us any cream isn’t going to make us tougher. Flint’s process of ingesting poison for the purpose of being immune is going to kill us all.”
Thea couldn’t help but feel a wave of depression sweep over her. The three that had an allergic reaction to the poison and died were all twelve and younger. It angered Thea that Flint didn’t even care as they gagged for breath and their eyes enlarged from the pain as they tried to scratch at their throats. Anyone who attempted to help would receive punishment, and all Thea could do was stare, helpless and defenseless – she also couldn’t summon an inch of her magic.
“At least, they’re in a better place,” Maggie mumbled. Thea had realized throughout years that despite Maggie ’s innocent exterior, there was a thick layer of darkness slowly started to mask it. Thea shivered at the thought.
“M-Maggie, Thea!”
The two turned their heads at the sound of Freya’s unsteady call. Thea was the first to get up and notice how much Freya’s hands shook as she opened and closed her hands repeatedly into a clenched fist. She licked and bit her lip, all the while looking at her every so often.
“Freya, what is it?” Thea couldn’t help the shaky voice that came out as she spoke. She took Freya’s shoulders in her hands, making Freya look directly into her eyes. “Did anyone touch you?”
Thea found herself gripping onto Freya’s shoulder as she watched her flinch, she saw that she slowly shook her head.
“I . . . I didn’t mean to come into the room, I didn’t know it was occupied I swear!” Freya shouted.
Thea frowned. What had she seen? “Just calm down and tell me what happened.”
Thea felt Maggie’s presence behind her and saw her stringy brown hair out of the corner of her eye, but her attention was focused on Freya’s darting eye and hitched breathing. But before Freya could get a chance to say anything, a deep male voice shouted from the top of the stairs.
Immediately, Thea looked up at the ceiling as the sounds of heavy footsteps made the floors creak underneath the person’s feet. Thea narrowed her eyes as she followed the sounds of the person’s feet.
“Freya, stay down here, I’m going to see what’s going on,” Thea told Freya, she could hear Maggie say something incoherent behind her; she assumed it was to calm Freya down. When Thea climbed the flight of steps and opened the door, there were already several people gathering; Flint was one of them.
“What happened?” Thea asked, not meaning to make her presence known, but made several eyes, including Flint’s, look at her. It was the pirate with a significant gap in his teeth, whose name she had forgotten, who spoke first.
“I’ll tell you what happened, that one eye cunt interrupted me!”
Thea clenched her hand and frowned in anger at the man’s curt words toward Freya. As she began to think of a snarky response, she was interrupted. Flint laughed. He shook his head and scratched the underside of his chin.
“Now let’s not call names, Shaw. Yeah?” Flint’s grin immediately disappeared and looked around the room looking for Freya, but when he didn’t see her, he turned to look at Thea. “Where’s Deadeye?”
Hypocritical bastard. “She’s fine, and I think you should check your mate, Flint. Freya’s only a kid, and she would never try and interrupt anything she wouldn’t want to see, even though Shaw shouldn’t be screwing with anyone here,” Thea mumbled. Flint walked over to where Thea stood with his hands in his pocket and stared at her.
She spotted a shadowy presence from the corner of her eye. Flint’s outstretched hand smacked her hard across the cheek, jerking head to the side. Flint propelled his fist into Thea’s nose, sending her to fly backward. The sound of bones crunching together echoed in the air. She felt the searing, white-hot pain that shot up her nose and down her spine in her entire body as she collided with the floor. Thea felt disoriented and weak, her vision was somewhat blurry, and the room spun. Tears threatened to spill, and she glared at Flint.
“Never let the enemy see your weakness,” Clovis’ words began echoing in her head.
“That curt habit of yours is going to get you into a world of trouble, Thea,” Flint said casually, the look in his lidded eyes filled with boredom. “Now go find me the damn the girl—”
“Thea!”
Maggie rushed to Thea’s side and wrapped her arms around Thea’s shoulder, squeezing her tightly.
“Well, speak of the devil!”
Shaw walked over to Freya, and a creepy grin appeared on his face that made Thea’s stomach church. Thea watched as he grabbed Freya’s hair, who hid behind the door and dragged her to the center of the room. He ignored her cries of pain as he tugged at her hair.
“Hey! You’re hurting her!” Thea shouted, she slowly stood to her feet, with Maggie’s help, and watched as Shaw turned to look at her with a sarcastic grin on his face and a brow raised in the air.
“Aye bitch I would stay in your place if I were you. She gets what she deserves for being a peeping tom.”
“Actually,” Flint said with a sigh, “I’ll decide what Deadeye’s punishment is, not you, or have you forgotten who is Captain?”
The grin on Shaw’s face disappeared as he quickly shook his head. Flint gestured his chin toward Freya’s hair, indicating to let go, and Shaw released his fingers from the length of Freya’s hair.
She immediately scrambled over to Maggie and Thea, and Thea wrapped her arm around the girl's body as she burrowed her face into Thea’s neck.
“Now before we start enacting punishments, who were you with, Shaw? You know as well as anyone that there’s a schedule for things. I don’t want to wear out my prodigies and if you're breaking my laws and hurting my investments there will be hell to pay.”
Shaw knew that the Captain was angry and whatever punishment Flint had in mind was something that Shaw didn’t want to experience. He couldn’t tell Flint who he had been with, the captain had claimed the boy and whatever the captain wanted was his for the taking.
“It was . . . One of them girls, Captain. I don’t know their name, they’re thick boned though.”
“Really?” Flint asked, he was scratching under his chin again, but he wasn’t smiling. There was a slight twitch in his slightly narrowed eye that made Thea think he knew Shaw’s words were lies.
“Honest, captain! I-I... you know I couldn’t help it; my body needs the sexual activity. Otherwise, I’ll go insane, and the girl was just right there, then that one-eyed bitch spied on me the entire time! Now you know I would never lie to you.”
“Maybe, maybe,” Flint repeated and nodded his head. “Are you sure that they were female? Remember you’re under Flint’s Oath see and I will not have liars in my guild. Now, Shaw, was it a female?”
Shaw tried to stay calm and not look around the room. A bead of sweat slowly trailed on the side of his head.
“Yes!”
Flint sighed and looked away from Shaw, shaking his head. Thea wasn’t sure what was going on and furrowed her brow at the exchange between the two men.
“I had hoped that you would be honest, I did enjoy your colorful tales and stories.”
“Captain?” Shaw asked in confusion.
Flint looked up at Shaw this time and smirked. “You would think you would be able to control the volume of your voice when you speak. You should have also known that my little rats tell me everything.”
Before Shaw could even think or speak, Flint lunged into Shaw’s chest with a hidden blade in his hand. Shaw sputtered out a gasp and instantly coughed up bits of blood. The children gasped with wide eyes, but every last one of Flint’s men just stared as Shaw weakly grabbed onto Flint’s shoulder, his legs starting to quiver just before his knees gave out.
“Edward, can you please come here,” Flint coyly said. Thea saw movement from the crowd, it was Eddie. He wore a long-sleeved hooded brown shirt and pants that were tattered and had several holes. The look on his pale face indicated that he was sickly — he had dark circles under his eyes, and his lips were cracked.
“You see, Shaw, my rats, know how to come back to me when I tell them a command. They tell me anything that I want and I need to keep an eye on, especially if you screw around with what is mine.”
Thea heard something squishing together, followed by the sputtering cry of pain from Shaw’s lips. Thea saw a dark red stain on the back of his shirt just as the silver tip of the blade slowly made its way through Shaw’s backside, only to disappear. Flint snatched the knife out before backing away and letting Shaw fall to the floor where he began to convulse and bleed out on the floor as blood started to circle him.
Thea stared at the body as Shaw’s moving fingers became still and the blood spread out further, reaching Flint’s shoes. Thea felt Freya and Maggie grip tightly to her as they stared in horror.
Good riddance, Thea thought.
“Damn that blood stain ain’t going to get out easily,” Flint said in a carefree manner as if he had done this before. “Now, you, Deadeye. Yes, you. You’ll need to reap the consequences too. I don’t show favoritism. Stealing from me is wrong, but I believe you had other duties to attend to, yes?”
“I-I was only cleaning; I didn’t mean to peek!” Freya frantically shouted Thea could hear her brittle voice breaking as she spoke.
“And did you knock? Did you think to tell me what Shaw was doing instead of keeping it quiet to yourself?” Flint questioned her, Freya pressed her lips together and shook her head. Thea felt her trembling as Freya sniffled.
“Exactly, then you wouldn’t have gotten in trouble. Now, you’ll receive your punishment in the other room, twenty lashes even.”
Freya gasped and backed up as Thea pushed her behind her back. The pain in Thea’s nose was still throbbing, and it made it harder to smell, but her attention was focused solely on Flint. She couldn’t let him beat Freya, for the girl was already skinny, and twenty lashes may very well kill her.
“She shouldn’t deserve something that was a mistake! This was all your man’s fault, he screwed around and messed with Eddie, not Freya. So what if she didn’t knock, all of you intruded on our home! She was only doing what you told her to do, so I’ll take the lashes for her.”
Thea hadn’t meant to lash out, she could feel her heart thrumming in her chest and her adrenaline pumping fast into her veins. The pain in her nose had subsided as the anger began welling inside of her. Thea thought she saw something move from the corner of her eye but only assumed it was the people surrounding her.
“You’re one of the most infuriating but interesting creatures I know. Isn’t she, boys?” Flint asked his men, they made sounds of agreement and nodded in response. “But again, I can’t have a mouthy little brat doing what she thinks is right. You’re already defying me by not killing, I won’t stand for this insolent behavior.”
Flint moved out of the pool of blood, tracking blood as he stalked over to Thea, who felt a heavy presence surround her, she found it almost impossible to breathe.
“You will receive your lashes,” Flint said as he looked to Freya first, who gave a tiny yelp in response. He then turned to look at Thea with an amused look in his eyes. “Since I like you so much Thea, she’ll only get five lashes, Maggie here will take the other five, and you’ll take ten.”
“What!?” Maggie and Thea shouted together, the hold on Thea’s arm tightened, but Flint held up his hand to silence them from speaking any further.
“I’m going to break your spirit, one step at a time, Thea. I love a challenge, and you certainly are it. You’ll be giving the lashes to your friends. There is no easy life here. You make a mistake, you get punished; you get out of line, you get punished.”
Thea clenched her fist, she felt a warm feeling in the center of her chest, and she wanted nothing more than to throw Flint clear across the room. She just needed to concentrate enough.
But Flint saw amber illuminate Thea’s eyes, giving her away, and he knew she’d try to use her power against him. “I wouldn’t if I were you, I’d hate to start killing my investments. Now, are you going to be a good little rat?”
All Thea could do was clench her teeth and reluctantly nod—the seething, burning hatred grew hotter in her chest as she wanted Flint to suffer by her hands. Someday.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Again.”
Wuh-pussh! The crack of the whip sounded and created a small sonic boom in the air. The cries of pain echoed as the strap met flesh, the leather coil left angry red marks on her pink skin.
“Again.”
Another wuh-pussh and another cry of pain. The whipping continued three more times and Thea felt like her hand was ready to fall off from the force of the whip connecting with skin and her guilt that she caused pain to Freya. Thea felt the tears run down her face, even though it had not yet been her turn.
With every slap, she felt the pain across Freya’s delicate cream-colored skin.
Freya collapsed on the floor and curled into a fetal position. Immediately, Thea dropped the whip like it was a hot iron and went to Freya in hopes to comfort her. But the moment she looked up from where she was lying, Freya scooted away.
Thea felt like a sudden stab of pain in her chest.
“Don’t coddle her, she needs to understand that to be stronger she’ll need to handle pain.”
Thea gulped. Pain that you made me give her. But she knew better than to speak and just watched as Freya sniveled on the floor, with her naked back bleeding from the five lashes.
I’m just surprised she made it this long, the girl is weak as Flint said.
Where is your shame! That is Thea’s friend—she’s devastated!
“Alright, next person,” Flint called out the door opened, and Thea turned around to see Maggie. She slightly grinned at Thea but bent down to Freya and touched her back. Freya flinched at the touch but looked up to see Maggie, who helped her carefully stand to her feet.
“Hurry up, we don’t have all day.”
Maggie ushered Freya out of the room and when she came back, the look on her face was a knowing one, and she nodded at Thea as if Maggie could sense the guilt that radiated inside of her.
“It’s okay, Thea, don’t hold back – I can take it.”
