Well, after experiencing the seemingly limitless wealth of the Aurelians, I realize I’ve been very far from thriving – but at least I haven’t gone to sleep hungry since Darr took me under his wing. I haven’t felt that gnawing pain of unrelenting thirst since he welcomed me to his table at The Stag.
“Yes,” I murmur. “They didn’t touch me.”
Darr stares, and I realize he isn’t sure whether to believe me or not. It sickens me that he would put me at such risk, if he truly thought that I might have been raped by Aurelians.
“They didn’t, Darr,” I repeat. “They’re not all like the rumors.”
He scowls, then shrugs those big shoulders of his – shoulders I’d once thought of as huge, but now seem so… small compared to the muscular frames of those towering Aurelians.
“Fuck em,” Darr grunts. “They think they’re better than us.” Then he turns to the bartender. “You deserve a beer. Johny! Bring us another fucking ale!”
The bartender brings over piss-colored ale in a dirty glass. Darr clinks his half-finished beer against mine, causing it to slosh across on the table. I take a drink. It calms my nerves.
Then, I feel Darr studying me – in a different way than he’s ever done before.
“You’re growing into a fine woman, Mia. A fine woman indeed. How old are you, now?”
“Twenty. Well, I could be off by a year – I don’t have my birth certificate.”
“That’s right,” he snorts. “You don’t. You owe it all to me, Mia – and don’t you ever fucking forget it.” He slurps his beer. How many has Darr had of those today?
He burps, then growls: “You’d be lucky to have all your appendages if I hadn’t take you under my wing. You know what they do to thieves when they catch ‘em here.”
He’s exaggerating. You don’t start losing digits until a third offence, but there’s no way in hell I’d contradict him now.
“I do, Darr, I do.” I pause. “I’m… I’m worn out after the job. Can I go sleep, now?”
He nods. “Of course, of course, Mia – go to sleep.”
For a moment I see a hint of tenderness in his red, puffy face.
I don’t know how he views me anymore. He’s got a sick, twisted protectiveness of me, but it doesn’t stop him from putting me into dangerous jobs.
I finish my beer, and then take the creaking stairs down to the residences – small, underground rooms rented out to thieves and scum like me. I close and lock the door of my room behind me, and suddenly I’m back in my little home.
This room has a partly wooden floor, some of it rotted away. I pull up a loose piece of wood and dump the contents of my pockets into the concealed safety of my stash.
Then, I stare down at the mass of credits. It doubled with the proceeds from this job.
In fact…
I don’t even need to wait for Darr to fence the watches. If I wanted to, I could take the next ship off Deemak, headed to Oasis.
I’ve only been up for a few hours, but I’m deadly tired. It’s the adrenaline dump – when your body finally registers safety and stops pumping the ‘fight or flight’ chemical into your blood like a natural stimulant.
Through the escape from the market, my heart was pounding and my breath was ragged. Now that I’m safe, I cover up my stash and lie down on my thin pallet. It’s nothing compared to the feather bed that the Aurelians gave me, but it’s what I deserve.
I was stupid to think that I could somehow have made a life with the Aurelians, even for a moment. No, there is only one chance for me to get away from Deemak; and in a few hours I’ll take it.
First, I’ll need to book a flight to Oasis. If I do that? I might not be able to work when I arrive on the binary planet. I’ll have no identity papers. Nothing remains of my past except my name, vaguely remembered. I don’t even know if I got it from my parents – who I’ve never met – or from the other urchins I used to roam the streets with.
If I’m going to Oasis, every last credit will count. I really do need to wait for Darr to fence the watches. I’ll spend a few weeks in this room, coming out only for food, water, and the necessities of survival. He won’t make me work, I know that. We always keep a low profile for a while after pulling this sort of job, just to see how much flack we’re going to get from it.
As a maid for rich families? I was barely noticed. They didn’t pay attention to the help, the haughty bastards.
However, the Aurelians did. They paid so much attention to me that I feel cold without the intense heat of Cyrus’s smirk, or the warmth of Gallus’s protective hand, or the shining steel of Varian’s stare.
I can remember every detail – like the way whenever they looked at me, it was as if they were imprinting every detail of my body and face into their memory.
So, unlike any other mark we’ve stolen from before, they know me.
Those Aurelians know me deeply. They know what I look like, they know my first name, they even know what I smell like when I’m aroused…
…but nothing else.
They don’t know where to find me, or my association with Darr. With any like, I’ll remain hidden in the darkness of Deemak’s slums, and they won’t find me before I finally escape to Oasis.
There, I’ll break free.
My eyes dart once more to the lock of my room, making sure it’s clasped. Then, exhaustion finally finds me. I close my eyes and let myself escape from my stress – if only temporarily – in the comforting darkness of sleep.
14
Gallus
I contain my smile. It’s unseemly of an Aurelian. We are raised from birth to conceal our emotions, which are viewed