I felt a rough push in my back with an elbow.
“Come on, Puke,” one of the guys said. He led me toward a large woman with a mass of black hair twisted into a knot and piled on top of her head. She stood by a huge walk-in refrigerator and shouted at a guy who appeared to be one of Ciardha’s slaves.
“What do you take me for? A fool? You think I don’t know what’s going on in my own kitchen? I see everything that goes on here, you got that?”
She didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, she walloped the poor guy across the ear.
“I know you been stealing food from me, don’t try to deny it. You two – come here.”
She was talking to the thugs that were in charge of me at the moment.
“Take this one and teach him a lesson ’bout stealing from my kitchen.”
I swear I saw the larger guy actually lick his lips.
“No prob, Corina. And here, we got some new meat for you. Nice and tender, too. We call him Puke.” He laughed out loud at that as he pushed me toward Corina.
“I don’t care what you assholes call him. When he’s in my kitchen, I’ll call him whatever I damned well please, got that?”
“Yes, ma’am,” one of them said.
“And ’bout time you brought me down some fresh blood. Most of these dullards are slow and as likely to die on me as put in a day’s work. Well, come here. Let me have a look at you, then.”
I stepped a few feet forward, close enough that I could smell the sour stench of her breath and the pungent odor of her sweat. Corina was no more than five and a half feet tall, but with her mass of hair piled onto her head, she seemed taller. She was a hefty woman, her hips as wide as two grown men, and her breasts hung down to her belt line. Like all of Ciardha’s crew, her eyes were as black as black gets. There was no spark of light in them.
Corina was a fat demon of a woman. And after one look into those soulless eyes, I felt sure that she wouldn’t hesitate to make me into a meal if that’s what she fancied.
“Coming to me already too skinny,” she said as she eyed me up and down. She grabbed my arm and felt my bicep. “Strong, though.”
She looked into my eyes with her creepy black ones. I tried not to look directly into them for fear that she’d somehow suck me into the black hole of her soulless body.
“Yep, he’s still got the damnable human nature in him. Well, you brought him to the right place. The master knows I’ll stamp that right out of him, now, won’t I?”
The two dumbasses that had brought me to Corina didn’t answer her question. They stood there, waiting, I think, for Corina to tell them what to do.
Corina answered her own question. “Oh yes, I will. I’m good at ridding his slaves of their delusions that they are anything more than filthy animals. That’s why the master trusts me with the most incorrigible ones. I can see from your bloodied nose and bruises that you are one of the bad seeds. Hard to break are ya?”
She didn’t wait for me to answer.
“Don’t matter none even if you are ’cause it won’t last long down here. Well? What are you two cretins waiting for? Take that one out of my sight, and don’t bring him back until you’ve shown him what happens to anyone who steals from the master’s kitchen.” She pointed a chubby finger at the slave man that she’d been yelling at.
They didn’t say anything back but followed her command and roughly dragged the guy from the kitchen. I felt a shudder of cold run through me and prickles run up and down my spine.
I’ll never see him again.
“You,” Corina said. “Follow me.” Corina took me over to a huge stainless-steel sink filled with dirty pans, whisks and cooking utensils.
“I don’t know where you came from or what life you think you had before. Now you belong to the master, and when you’re in my kitchen, you’re mine, see? You don’t talk to no one ’cept for me, and you only talk to me when I ask you a direct question, got it?”
I nodded, then felt the sting of her hand across my face. If they keep hitting me in the face, I’m going to start building up scar tissue. Corina could have taught the big guy a few lessons about how to hit. Her small hand hit me with enough force to fill my mouth with the coppery taste of blood and make my nose run with fresh blood.
“Didn’t your mama teach you no manners? You say ‘yes, ma’am’, got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You don’t talk to no one, you don’t look at no one, you don’t eat, you don’t shit, you don’t piss ’less I tell you to, got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And you don’t take nothing, not even a piece of moldy bread. None of this – nothing – belongs to you, see? He owns you now. You own nothin’. You get to eat only when I say you can and only what I say you can, got it?
“Yes, ma’am.”
I had the urge to wipe the blood that ran from my nose onto my lips, but I thought better of it. I’d wait until she left me to clean myself up a bit.
“’Cause if I catch you stealin’ food … Well, you know you ain’t goin’ ta like what happens to ya if I catch ya stealin’ food.”
“Yes, ma’am.
“Right, then. You know how to wash dishes, don’t ya?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Don’t just stand there with your freaky eyes lookin’ at me. Get to those dishes. They’re not goin’ ta wash themselves.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
As soon as she turned her back to me, I wiped my face on my hand.
I don’t know how many hours I stood over that sink, scouring industrial-sized pans. Every time I thought I was to the end, someone would wheel over a cart filled with more. No one looked at me or said a word. Whoever pushed the cart of dirty pans my way wouldn’t look up at me. They’d leave the cart by the sink and scurry away. Even though people surrounded me all day, it was just about like being alone.
Who in the world are they cooking all this food for?
There wasn’t anyone to ask these sorts of questions. I was sure that if I dared to ask Corina anything, she’d belt me again. As it was, I could feel my lip swelling from the pop in the mouth she’d given me earlier, and it had taken quite a while for my nose to stop bleeding.
Swollen lip, broken nose and I bet I’ve got two black eyes. If Emily came, would she even recognize me?
Finally there were no more dishes or crusty, greasy pans. As I finished drying and putting the last pan on a cart filled with clean cookware, a shadow person came over and told me to come with him.
I was led to the back of the kitchen, where there was a long table surrounded by metal chairs. He pushed me forward, and I took a seat. A fellow slave was ladling a foul-looking liquid into small bowls set around the table. I noticed that not one person made any kind of move to dig in.
Aren’t they starving? I’d been in that kitchen for probably twelve hours, working my ass off, not eating a thing. In fact, I couldn’t remember when I’d last eaten. The stuff the guy was dumping into the bowls looked like dishwater filled with garbage, but at least it was food.
I grabbed my spoon and got ready to chow. The guy got to me and ladled the crud into my puny bowl. It smelled fouler than it looked. I don’t think it was an exaggeration when I said it was dishwater filled with garbage. I was pretty sure that’s exactly what it was.
But even that foul bowl of garbage was enough to make my stomach turn back on itself with hunger pains. I was about to dig my spoon in and take a bite when I felt a sharp kick in my leg.
“Hey! What the–”
Before I could think about the stupidity of speaking when I wasn’t asked to speak, three guards came over to me.
“You, there. What’s going on here?”
“Well, I was getting ready to dig into this lovely feast when I felt a kick, and it surprised me, so I accidentally hollered out, that’s all.”
The guard’s eyes immediately went from me to the small woman sitting next to me. Her eyes were surrounded by dark circles, rimmed in red and w
ide with fear. Her skin was pale, and her clothes hung on her like she’d once been two sizes larger. She’d been in Ciardha’s prison long enough to become a shell of her former self.
She looked at me, briefly, and sort of hung her head and shook it ever so slightly. Disappointment, maybe regret, played upon her face.
“Kickin’, huh? No one told you to do no discipline. Up with ya.”
The guard pulled the woman up roughly by the arm, and without another word, he escorted her away from the table and out of the kitchen.
Another person that I’ll never see again.
I’d lost what little appetite I’d had for the bowlful of swill in front of me. I put my spoon down and tried hard not to puke into the bowl that already smelled a bit like it was filled with vomit.
She kicked me because she was trying to get my attention, but I didn’t get that. I was too hungry and tired and scared to get hints.
No one moved. No one ate. No one looked anywhere but ahead and slightly down.
Corina’s voice boomed as she walked heavily into the room.
“Okay, you lazy lumps of flesh. Go ahead and eat, though none of you deserve the bounty I’ve set before ya. But I gotta keep you alive at least long enough so’s I can get new blood, so eat up.”
At the command, everyone around the table raised their spoon and began to slurp noisily and eat. I picked up my spoon and looked down at the bowl of garbage in front of me. I actually felt a little puke come up into my mouth. As hungry as I’d been five minutes earlier, I was sure I wanted nothing to do with that bowl.
“You, there. New meat. I said eat. Now eat!” Corina bellowed.
I kept looking at the bowl, and the smell of rotted food filled my nostrils. The bile rose in my gullet. I scooped some of the soup and pulled it to my mouth. The liquid was grey. I couldn’t make out the things floating in it, but I was pretty sure it was the refuse from the real food that had been cooked and served to people that were apparently, in the mind of Ciardha anyway, worthy of a real meal.
I didn’t look up or around. I knew that would earn me another bash to the head. But I could hear Corina’s heavy footsteps coming toward me.
“Go on. Eat it. Or do I need to make you?”
Put the spoon in your mouth, Jake. Come on. Man up. It’s just a bit of dirty water, that’s all.
As the spoon approached my mouth, the putrid smell hit my nostrils.
Eat it.
I opened up and shoved it in. I tried my best not to smell. I closed my eyes, thinking that maybe if I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t smell it either. Try as I might to swallow without chewing or tasting, my tongue experienced the taste anyway. How can I describe the taste of rotten garbage to a person who has never eaten it before?
It was like this. Imagine that you had to scrape the stuff clinging to the insides of your garbage disposal and eat it. That’s the taste of the ‘bounty’ Corina had given us to eat.
I couldn’t hold it back any longer. As soon as that bite of crud hit my stomach, it all came back out. I hurled bile-filled puke right into the bowl of garbage they had served me.
“Feel better, new meat? Now I see why Melita calls you Puke.”
I nodded, but quickly followed it with, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. Then eat your dinner.”
No one made a move to clear that puke-filled bowl away. No one set a new one before me.
Corina stood across from me, staring down at me with her black eyes. Her lip curled into a small smile as she stood with her arms across her chest, waiting.
They’re all sadistic sons-of-bitches.
My mind raced with calculations of risk. If I tried to eat a bowl filled with my own vomit, I’d likely spew it up again, and she would probably enjoy watching me do that all night. Puke and eat. Eat and puke.
Or I could defy her, refuse to eat it, and suffer what I could only imagine would be severe physical torture. She’d have me flayed or flogged or whatever they were doing to people who they deemed disobedient.
Since I’d entered that kitchen, two people had been dragged out of it to someplace that I felt certain they’d never come back from. If I was dragged out of there, maybe I’d never return either. Maybe it would be over for good.
If I was dead, I was no help to her.
If I turned, I was no help to her.
Eat it.
So I lifted my spoon.
23. I Still Hate Riddles
Emily
The last time I’d been in the Netherworld, I’d meditated until my butt was callused. I’d endured Madame Wong’s cane and occasional gashes from her sword. Madame Wong hadn’t taken it easy on me because I was young. She had believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. She’d believed in me when I hadn’t given her much cause to believe.
She’d helped me see the true nature of myself (a lesson that turned out to be all too easy to forget once I was back in the human world). When I’d discovered that I was one with Akasha, it had been the most joyous moment of my life. I hadn’t wanted to leave the Web of All Things.
If Madame Wong sends me there now for a lesson, will I come back? Wouldn’t it be easier to become one with the Web of All Things for good and leave all this crap behind?
“Miss Emily could do that. Take coward’s path. Leave behind big mess.”
I kept forgetting she knew my thoughts.
“You don’t need to remind me of the mess I’ve made.”
“Someone must.”
I didn’t need her to throw the harrowing world I’d left behind into my face. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw images of people with black eyes and vacant stares. The red, puffy eyes of people who cried themselves to sleep over the loss of their dearest ones. The images filled my head even though I tried to push them aside in an attempt to keep the darkness at bay.
“Darkness. Miss Emily understand true nature of dark?”
“You mean dark, like nighttime dark?”
“You know true nature of night?”
“Sure. The sun goes down, and the sky goes black. Not much of a mystery there.”
“Ah, dark is merely absence of light?”
“Yes. Like at night you flip a switch and, voila, it’s light. But if you flip the switch again, you’re in the dark. Darkness is just a lack of light.”
“Is it?”
“Dammit, Madame Wong! Enough riddles. Give me straight answers.”
“Riddles make Miss Emily crinkle up face.”
“Yeah, ’cause I’m pissed as hell. He’s got my dad and Jake. He’s got Taisha’s daughter Brianna and other children. I don’t have time for your games.”
“Not games. Sometimes Miss Emily not ready to hear answers when given. Sometimes journey is answer.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. ‘It’s all about the journey’, blah, blah, blah. I think you’ll agree that time is running out for all of us. So why don’t you give me the direct route.”
Madame Wong cackled. I hate it when she laughs at me.
“Miss Emily no change since first time met Madame Wong here, brought by Hindergog. Still same as youngling.”
“Madame Wong, if I destroy Ciardha, do you think Hindergog will return to normal?”
“Madame Wong not know. Maybe. Maybe not. But Miss Emily not destroy Ciardha.”
“You mean you don’t think I can destroy him?”
“Oh, maybe can. Maybe can’t. Shouldn’t more like.”
“What the heck are you talking about, ‘shouldn’t’? He won’t stop until he has sucked out the soul of every living thing on my planet. And he won’t stop there. He’ll go from planet to planet until the Universe is nothing but Dark Energy, not a speck of light left.”
“True, Miss Emily, all true.”
“Then why shouldn’t we destroy him, or at least try to?”
“Miss Emily more powerful than the Goddess?”
“No.”
“Wiser?”
“No, of course not.”
“Why you try do s
omething the Goddess not do?”
“I know she failed to destroy him, and I know I’m not as strong as her, but I have to at least try.”
“No, Goddess not fail to destroy. Goddess not try destroy.”
“What are you talking about? I was there. She was trying to take him out, but he was too strong.”
“Goddess not try destroy. Try contain.”
“Maybe that explains why it went wrong. If she hadn’t gone so easy on him, she would have won. She held back.”
“Miss Emily very wrong.”
“I am? Maybe Brighid has love for him. He is her brother, after all. Maybe she held back and he seized the opportunity and took advantage of her love for him. Love was her weakness.”
“Love never weakness. Madame Wong ask Miss Emily question. Why not Ciardha destroy Brighid, hum? He not love. Agree?”
I hadn’t thought of that. It was true. Ciardha was incapable of love. He’d had the opportunity to destroy Brighid, but he didn’t. Why hadn’t he?
“What answer?” she asked.
“I agree he has no love for Brighid. In fact, he’s like the complete–”
“Absence of love.”
“Exactly.”
“Now, Miss Emily see?”
“See what?”
“Ah, what I say before. Answer given and still not see truth before eyes.”
I let out an exasperated breath. “I don’t see any truth, just more friggin’ questions,” I yelled.
“Calm self, youngling. Madame Wong may not have body, but can still teach lesson or two Miss Emily not soon forget.”
Madame Wong’s orb turned a darker color and seemed to pulse itself larger. I didn’t know what the orb of light that held her essence was capable of, but I didn’t want to find out.
“I’m sorry. I’m trying to understand; really I am. It’s just that I’m–”
“Impatient.”
“Yes, and–”
“Impertinent.”
“Sure, that too. But I’m–”
“Fearful for the ones you love.”
“That more than anything.”
Even in the form of pure energy, Madame Wong’s tone could go from stern to soothing in a nanosecond. And when she brought up my loved ones, it broke my dam of tears open again. My eyes exploded with salty liquid.
The Akasha Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set: The Complete Emily Adams Series Page 68
