Chapter Ten
‘There was a boy at the temple,’ Lucy said, trying to put her thoughts into foreign words. ‘He was older than me. If he had been of normal parents, he would have studied with a doctor. It was his joy to tend to hurts and to make the sick more comfortable. But because he was a half person like me—’
‘You are a whole person,’ Cedric interrupted.
‘Yes,’ she said quickly. ‘Yes, I know.’ But she had grown up thinking of herself as a half. It was hard to adjust her words.
‘Good,’ he said, his tone gentler. ‘Now tell me more about this boy.’
‘I was older then. No longer watching children and catching thieves.’
‘How old?’
Old enough to have breasts and hips. Old enough to know how men would have looked at her if she dressed provocatively, which she did not. And yet some people still saw. And since her status as a half person was stamped upon her face, many thought that gave them permission to do as they willed with her.
‘Old enough to know better,’ she said. ‘We do not go out at night,’ she said, meaning all the half people like her. It was too dangerous. ‘But I was making money for the silk merchant. Iwas bargaining between him and a ship’s captain outside of the official halls.’
She saw his face tighten down. He understood that all commerce occurred in specified halls in the Thirteen Factories district. And every transaction was overseen by the emperor’s men. They watched every exchange with foreigners, and naturally, they took their cut from every bargain.
So it was that greedy merchants and whites alike wanted to make secret deals without the interference of the overseers. And if she were willing to help, then she too could make a lot of money. But it was against the law, and the emperor’s men protected themselves.
Black market sales were profitable, but they were also very, very dangerous.
‘You were caught?’ he asked.
She nodded. ‘I trusted the wrong person. He said the officials would not be there that night, but he lied.’
‘What did they—’ He cut off his question, then rephrased it. ‘How badly were you hurt?’
‘Not as bad as you fear. The monks taught all of us half—’ She caught herself at his arched look. ‘All of us children to fight. It is not normal to teach anyone but the monks, but one of them believed we needed to know. Especially the girls. We needed to defend ourselves.’
‘He sounds like a good man.’
‘Yes.’
His expression softened. ‘So you were able to fight them off?’
‘Not all. My arm was twisted, but I ran.’ She demonstrated how her shoulder had been wrenched in her escape. ‘I stumbled because…’ She swallowed. She’d never forget the stunned shock of having a knife sink hilt deep into her thigh. At first the pain hadn’t even registered. She only knew she couldn’t scramble to her feet as usual.
But she had to run. She was dressed as a boy. If they discovered she was a girl, then that would be the end of her. In the most hideous way.
‘How bad?’ asked Lord Cedric, his voice a harsh rasp.
She looked up to see a sick fear on his face and she was quick to reassure him. ‘A knife in my leg. The scar is there still, and I can no longer run fast. I might have died from the loss of blood, but I still ran. And ran. And ran.’
‘You escaped?’
‘Yes. But I could not go back to work in the morning. They would know who I was because I could not walk. They would know what I had tried to do.’ She looked back out at the dark water. ‘I worked so hard to become a trusted worker in the halls. I had found a place. I made money. I had respect despite my face.’
‘They would never fully respect you,’ he said. ‘Not as a woman.’
‘They thought me a boy.’ A half boy, but still one of them. ‘In one night, I lost everything because I wanted money.’
‘But you needed the money. You needed to survive somehow.’
‘All the more reason to follow the rules.’ But she had been greedy.
He sighed as he joined her in staring down at the water. ‘What did this boy tell you?’