‘You know why we’ve come to talk to you, don’t you, Possum?’ Pigspit said, raising his whining voice for the benefit of everyone watching him.
‘I don’t—I don’t,’ Possum whimpered. ‘Don’t hurt me, Boss. I didn’t do whatever.’
Boots sank a kick into Possum’s scrawny ribs. Chase heard the crack and the yelp. ‘Possum,’ said Boss, mimicking concern, ‘Possum, please don’t make Boots have to hurt you like that. I just want a simple answer, Possum, just a simple little answer.’
Possum was lying on his side, face against the dirt, clutching his ribs. He gasped for air, and wheezed, ‘Boss, I don’t know. I don’t know what you want.’ Boots sank a second kick into Possum’s stomach. Possum jerked into a ball and started sobbing.
‘Boss wants an answer, you snivelling little wretch,’ Pigspit snarled, almost dancing around the heaving heap of human misery and rags.
‘I don’t think Possum wants to be very helpful,’ Boss announced theatrically to his fascinated audience. As he finished, Boots and Dogger grabbed Possum’s arms, wrenched him off the floor and carried him to the sewer channel. They held his arms rigid and pushed his shoulders down until his face hung a handspan above the stinking liquid. ‘Now, Possum, have you got an answer for me?’ Boss asked with sadistic calm.
‘Anything!’ Possum screamed. ‘Any answer you want, Boss! Any!’ His legs kicked frantically, until Pigspit pinned one to the ground with his foot. ‘Please, Boss! Please!’
‘Then what’s the answer?’ Boss asked.
‘I don’t know!’ Possum screamed. ‘I don’t know what you want to know! Don’t do this, Boss! I’ll do anything! Anything!’
‘Not the answer,’ Boss declared, shaking his head sadly. Dogger and Boss pressed down on Possum’s shoulders and buried his face in the sewer. Possum kicked and writhed, but he couldn’t break the hold of the three men. His face jerked out of the liquid, and he screamed, but Dogger and Boots forced him down again, strangling his cry.
‘Isn’t anyone going to do anything?’ Chase asked, rising to his feet.
‘Sit down, lad,’ Sunlight advised, reaching up blindly with his bony hand. ‘No one will do anything. Don’t get yourself involved. They’ll just do the same to you.’
Possum’s head twisted and jerked, until Boss stepped forward and pushed down on his head with a boot. Frantic spasms later, Possum’s body drooped and Dogger and Boots let him collapse into the muck. Boss wiped his boot on the dead man’s back before he led his gang back to the gates where a prison guard passed a ladleful of water through the bars in turn to each of the four men. The onlookers started talking quietly as they turned from the corpse at the centre of the cavern and went to their familiar places. Chase sat. ‘What did he do to deserve that?’
‘Who knows?’ Sunlight replied. ‘In here, you don’t have to do anything to be killed.’
‘Did you know him?’
‘No. I just heard his name sometimes. I hear names sometimes. Because I’m blind now, no one talks to me anymore.’
‘What was his name?’
‘Carpenter Brokentree. Outside of here that’s what he was called. He was sent down here because he burned down a factory office after he was sacked. I overheard that when he was first brought in. New prisoners either come in silent or they come in talking. He was a talker. That’s what attracted Boss to him.’
As Sunlight explained, Chase returned to observing the four men at the gates. They were like the rich men in the city—powerful and a law unto themselves. Human life was a means to an end for their own profit, but not valuable in itself. He learned that from growing up in the Foundry Quarter where Kerwyn factory owners used young Shessian men and women to stoke their foundry fires and pour the metal into moulds and cart the bricks from the kilns. The workers got barely enough payment to feed themselves, while the owners pocketed mountains of gold coins from buyers that would pay for enough food to feed the entire city. His father had worked in the metal foundry, pouring the liquid golden metal from the vats into the moulds for export to other cities and other lands, until he was scalded to death when a vat tipped liquid gold onto him. Chase started in the foundry aged six, carrying sacks and small metal bars, learning his father’s trade, but his father’s death when Chase was eight angered him so much that he quit the foundry and took to the streets to rob money back from the rich who robbed it from people like his father in the first place. Thieving had no legal honour, but it suited his sense of justice in a world where the law was owned by the rich and out of the reach of the poor. He recognised how Boss fed on the fear he inflicted on the other prisoners. Their lives were of no value to anyone except to him because their deaths were his meal ticket.
‘Are you listening to me, lad?’
Chase looked at Sunlight, who was awaiting an answer. ‘Yes,’ he murmured hopefully.
‘Well?’ the old man persisted.
‘Well what?’
Sunlight shook his head. ‘Can we talk again? Is anyone listening to us?’
‘It’s safe,’ Chase reassured him, checking how close they were to anyone who might eavesdrop.
‘Then listen carefully,’ Sunlight ordered, ‘because I will tell you a terrible secret.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
Chase watched the crowd push toward the gates to begin the meal ritual in the evening torchlight. Boss and his cronies, at the head of the group, culled the line by pushing unfortunate individuals back and favouring others. He’d been too focussed and naive the first evening to notice their presence or methods, but he decided to wait until most of the prisoners had collected their dollop of gruel before going up for his share because he was intent on avoiding Boss’s attention.
His mind was abuzz with Sunlight’s wild revelations. The old man revealed a plot by the Seers to overthrow the king and the eldest prince to enthrone Prince Shadow. Once that had been achieved, they would combine their full magical potential to call upon the Demon Horsemen, who would ride into the kingdom to destroy everyone who was tainted with sin and stood against Jarudha. They would establish Paradise on earth. The price of the Seers’ aid to Prince Shadow was to be twofold. First, under his order the city would be subjected to fundamental religious sanctions favoured by the Seers. These included the sanctioning of Jarudha as the only god and city religion, the commitment of the eldest son of each family to holy orders for training, the banning of women and children from all public places including markets, the requirement for all people to wear the yellow robes of Jarudhan disciples when abroad, and a host of additional restrictions and punishments aimed at curtailing the freedom of the people. Second, the Seers would be Prince Shadow’s royal advisors in all civic and personal matters, having unlimited privilege. The great secret sounded like utter lunacy to Chase, and he was convinced that the old man was mad, but he felt sorry for him.
When the commotion at the gates was dwindling, he sauntered across the cell and reached through the bars for his share of the food being doled out by the guards. As the gruel filled his cupped hands, he realised that Boss was watching. He returned slowly to Sunlight and sat and, aware that Boss was still watching, he lifted the gruel to his mouth and feigned eating it. Boss was distracted as a guard whacked the wrists of a prisoner who was trying to get a second share of the meal and in that moment Chase dropped the gruel into his lap. When Boss looked back at him, he was licking the remnants from his hands as if he’d eaten everything greedily. He leaned against the wall and put his hands behind his head, as if he was content with what he’d consumed, and waited patiently for Boss and his cronies to shift their attention elsewhere. ‘I’ve saved you some food,’ he whispered to Sunlight as the feeding guards withdrew, the overhead vents were closed and darkness spread through the gaol.
‘How?’ Sunlight asked.
‘I’m a thief. Trick of the trade,’ Chase replied. He scooped the gruel from his lap and placed it carefully in Sunlight’s hands. ‘There. Enjoy.’ Sunlight ate in silence while Chase watched the shado
ws of prisoners moving and settling into the familiar spots where they slept every night. A dark lump was still lying in the sewer. ‘When are they going to take the corpse?’
Sunlight swallowed before saying, ‘They’ll leave it for a few days. They like us to get a good look at our fates. Then they’ll take it and any others that have accumulated, usually at about midnight.’
‘Do they bury the bodies? Or burn them?’
‘They dump them over the cliff for the sharks,’ Sunlight explained. ‘I saw them doing it when I was gaoled upstairs in the Lockup—before they put me down here.’
‘So why have you told me all that stuff about the Seers and the Horsemen?’
‘I need you to do me a favour.’
Chase chuckled, and said, ‘I thought there’d be a catch. But I don’t see any favours possible to be done down here.’
Sunlight sighed. ‘I thought you said you wouldn’t be staying here?’
‘I won’t be. If I don’t find a way out before they come to chop off my arm, I’ll be out after that anyway.’
‘That’s a positive view of your circumstances.’
‘Always like to look at the brighter side of things,’ Chase quipped. ‘So what’s the favour?’
‘You have to stop the Seers from summoning the Demon Horsemen.’
Chase stifled a laugh. ‘Oh, is that all?’ he asked with unmasked sarcasm.
‘Yes.’
‘Not a problem,’ Chase announced. ‘Got any clues how I might do this little favour for you?’
‘It won’t be easy,’ Sunlight warned. ‘If anyone finds out what you are trying to do, there’ll be men trying to kill you.’
‘And the clues?’ Chase persisted. Footsteps and a shadow approached. Chase put his hand on Sunlight’s mouth to keep him quiet until the prisoner passed. ‘Sorry,’ he apologised when he removed his hand. ‘He’s gone.’
‘No. I thank you,’ Sunlight rejoined. He coughed sharply and continued. ‘My granddaughter, Crystal, lives in her father’s house, which was meant to be my house before I joined the Order. It’s in the Northern Quarter, overlooking the bay. If you ask anyone in the Northern Quarter for the directions to Crystal Merchant’s house, they will tell you how to find it. The walls are whitewashed and the roof has grey slate tiles. There’s a water fountain shaped like a dolphin at the front. I want you to go to my granddaughter and tell her that I sent you. Tell her you have my permission to go down to the cellar. She will know what I mean. Ask her also for the opal kangaroo tooth. I gave it to her to wear for protection from evil when I learned that the Seers were coming to take me away. She thinks it’s charmed.’
‘What if she doesn’t believe me?’ Chase asked.
‘Tell her this,’ Sunlight replied, and he leaned forward. ‘The platypus’s name is Brightwater.’
Chase stared at the old man. ‘Platypus?’
‘You don’t know what a platypus is?’
‘No.’
Sunlight shook his head. ‘You’ve lived your whole life in the city. You need to get out into the countryside, son.’
‘That’s your answer?’ Chase protested.
Sunlight coughed. ‘A platypus is a small creature that lives in streams. It has a bill and a furry body like a wallaby. You would have to see one to understand.’
‘Why is the platypus’s name important?’
‘Crystal saw one when she was a little girl and she wanted to keep it. Just tell her the name if she doubts you.’
Chase scratched his cheek, bemused by the old man’s story. ‘Why the cellar?’
‘Under the house are tunnels built by smugglers who brought in illegal goods from the coast—my grandfather and my father included. My father even smuggled goods for Prince Future once, in the Rebel War. I explored them all when I was younger than you. You have to go along the old tunnel that heads north. It’s the longest tunnel in the system. Make sure you have water and food. It will take three days to traverse its length there and back. At the end you’ll find a door. It will be locked and apparently barred from the inside, and you won’t be able to open it.’
‘What’s the point of that?’
‘It’s designed to fool anyone who isn’t meant to be in the tunnels. It’s not a door at all. If you search the wall on your right, however, you’ll find a small dent which perfectly fits the shape of the opal kangaroo tooth. It’s a key. Place the kangaroo tooth in the depression and a door will open in the rock wall. That way you enter the cave beyond it. In the cave you will find a canvas bag. You have to take the bag to Prince Inheritor before the Demon Horsemen arrive if you want to save the city. Will you do this?’
‘What’s in the bag?’ Chase asked.
‘An ancient magical weapon—the only weapon that can kill the Demon Horsemen.’
‘Magic,’ said Chase in disbelief. Sunlight nodded. Chase snorted and scratched his head, perplexed by the rush of information. ‘Can you really do magic?’ he asked.
Sunlight quietly chuckled, and ended in a cough. After he recovered his breath, he said, ‘No one else has survived in this place longer than I have. After me, a handful have lasted perhaps three years before disease, starvation and dehydration have finally worn them down. Without a Blessing I would never have lasted this long. You tasted the water earlier. Every time I go to the trough, I use my Blessing to make the water drinkable.’
‘Then why haven’t you used your Blessing to escape? You could turn yourself invisible or something and walk out.’
‘The pity of it all is that one Seer alone can do very little. Heal a wound. Cure a simple disease. Purify small quantities of food and water. Mend tiny broken things.’ Sunlight sighed. ‘I can’t escape this place. It’s too hard, too difficult. That’s why they put me down here.’
‘Shhh,’ Chase hissed. Boots crunched on the rough cobbles and a shadow loomed in the gloom.
‘Get up, Bilby. I want to talk to you,’ Boss ordered, and walked on.
‘You’d better go,’ Sunlight urged. ‘Be careful.’
‘I’ll come back,’ Chase said. ‘You have to tell me why you chose to tell this stuff to me.’ He rose and followed Boss’s back along the wall and through into the adjoining cavern. At the farthest wall, Boss stopped. ‘This is where you sleep from now on,’ he announced.
‘Why?’ Chase asked. A hand snapped shut around his throat and shoved him roughly against the wall.
‘You don’t ask why, Bilby,’ Boss snarled. ‘You just do as I say. Got that?’
Chase’s defensive instincts flared and he fought them savagely in the instant between question and necessary answer. There was still strength in Boss’s grip and arm despite the deprivations of the prison life, but Chase was sure that he could match it. A quick twist, a low kick and he could have Boss at his mercy, like in the streets. But at what cost in a prison? And there’d be Boss’s colleagues to contend with immediately after. He gasped, ‘Yes, Boss,’ weakly, and rejected the temptation to retaliate.
‘Good,’ Boss growled, without relaxing his hold. ‘I thought you might learn quick, but you don’t seem as smart as I pegged you for. So I figure you need to sleep over here at night and in the daytime you can come and sit near me and the lads, until we know we can trust you to be a good Bilby. You got that, Bilby?’
‘Yes, Boss.’
Boss released Chase’s throat and brushed his hands against his grubby prison rags. ‘You seem to like talking, don’t you, Bilby? That’s why I decided you should sleep over here. There’s plenty of lads to talk to around this section of the gaol, if you really need to talk. But you don’t need to do no more talking to Cockatoo. Got that clear, Bilby? And if I decide, sometime in the future, that you’ve been a good Bilby, I might let you talk to the old man once or twice. Depends on how good you’ve been. That sound fair?’
‘Yes, Boss,’ Chase dutifully answered, but the words nearly choked him. He heard a brief commotion in another part of the gaol, and someone’s startled cry was cut short.
‘
Just some of the lads letting off steam,’ Boss remarked. ‘Nothing to trouble you, Bilby, because you’re going to bed now, eh? I’d tuck you in, but seems there’s no sheets or blankets in here. That’s a shame, really. You’d like to be tucked into bed, I bet.’ Chase stayed silent.
Boss laughed as he swaggered towards the main cavern. ‘Have a good sleep, Bilby,’ he called from the gloom. ‘Remember to say your prayers to Jarudha.’
The cavern echoed with the ragged snores of sleeping men. Hunched against the cold wall in the dark, Chase was unable to sleep because his mind raced with frenetic thoughts, issues and people jumbled together, flashing and evaporating like brief torches in the wind. He had to find a way out of the gaol before they came to take his arm. With one arm, not only was he branded for life, but his options for survival were significantly reduced. For one, he wouldn’t be able to ply his thieving trade. He relied on his relatively anonymous appearance to avoid attracting the attention of authorities or his victims. None of the merchants would offer work to a one-armed man and begging was a miserable alternative. He had to get out before they crippled him.
He was worried about his sister, Passion. She prostituted herself for money to feed her little boy, Jon. She also provided for Runner, the errant nephew dumped on them by their older half-sister, Swift. Chase hadn’t seen or heard of Swift since she ran away from home and he couldn’t even really remember what she looked like. She vanished into the city when he was barely four, and then, twelve years later, Runner turned up in the streets claiming to be Swift’s son. Passion, herself barely fourteen when Runner appeared, took in the street urchin, but Runner was rarely at home, and when he did come home it was for food and a safe place to sleep for a night or two before he vanished back into the streets like his errant mother. Chase saw himself as Passion’s protector, the person she could rely on to get her out of difficult circumstances when customers tried to cheat her or force her to do things she never offered. With him locked up, she was vulnerable.
Prisoner of Fate Page 11
