Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“Jus’ that I won’t be worth the silver to take all the way. She gives her a handful o’ copper instead.” Nella shrugged. She didn’t seem to register Kerrigan’s horrified expression. “My sister went for two silver piece. I went for one.”
“Your … mom sold you to Flavia?” Kerrigan asked, trying to suppress the horror in her voice.
“Course. She couldn’ feed us all.”
She said it so matter-of-factly that Kerrigan didn’t know where to begin.
“And what is her plan for you?”
Nella shrugged. “Suspect same as my sis. The matron said she put her in a wealthy house, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of babes.”
Kerrigan had no way to know if that was true in the least. A person who purchased humans might have lied about what exactly she did with the people once they were purchased. And where exactly did that put Kerrigan?
“And me? Do you know what she has in store for me?”
“Don’ right know,” Nella said. “But they’re all in a fuss ’bout it.”
“Why?”
“ ’Cause you look like a … Doma,” Nella said, lowering her voice even further on the last word. She looked frightened to even mention it.
Kerrigan had heard of Doma before. When she’d been only twelve, Cyrene had shown up, proclaiming herself a Doma—a human with powerful magic. She’d competed in the Society dragon tournament and won. She’d taken the dragon and her powers and left a power vacuum in its wake. The start of all their problems. Or maybe just the fire that had lit the fuse that had already been there.
But she didn’t understand it in this context. Kerrigan didn’t look like Cyrene at all. She was only half-human and her magic had come from her half-Fae heritage. Maybe the word meant something else entirely here.
“What’s a Doma?”
Nella looked at her as if she had sprouted a second head. “How hard did you hit your head?”
Kerrigan bit her lip. “I don’t … remember. I don’t remember anything about my past.” Easier to play dumb to get answers than to complicate things.
“Doma are … they’ve the …” She squeaked slightly as she looked around in fear. “The …” She gestured to the sky. “The on high.”
Kerrigan furrowed her brow. “Gods?”
“That’s what my mam said,” she said quickly. “They rule Domara from the capital in Carithian.”
“Carithian. Do you think that’s where they’re taking us?”
Nella shook her head fervently. “No, gods no. We be weeks from Carithian.”
“What’s the closest city then?”
“Three days to Eivreen. I been once when we gots salt from the mines. Went with Pa before he pass.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“He was a right bastard but kept food on the table. Mam had more trouble wit’ him gone. Though plenty a trouble wit’ him.”
“I see,” Kerrigan said.
The girl didn’t seem bothered by any of it. Only young, so young for someone who seemed to be very accepting of being sold into servitude in another city. The only fear she’d displayed was having Felix or Flavia overhear them.
Kerrigan wanted to ask so many more questions. She just wasn’t sure that Nella actually had any more information for her. The way she kept glancing warily up at Felix, as if he might come back and beat her for speaking at any moment, Kerrigan was reticent to keep her talking.
Luckily, a half hour later, the horses began to slow, and Felix pulled off onto the road under the first copse of trees they’d encountered. He grunted as he dropped onto the rocky ground and put feed bags on the horses. He checked on Flavia first, who dismissed him after he provided her a meal.
“All right,” Felix said, swiping a hand across his sweat-soaked forehead. “I’ve got some crusty bread, cheese, and a dribble of wine for you.”
He came around the back, mechanically reaching for the lock, when he noticed Kerrigan sitting up and vigilant. He jumped in the air, released the lock, and let it tumble into the dirt.
“By gods,” he breathed. “What are you doing awake?”
“You mean, after you drugged and kidnapped me?”
Felix looked flummoxed by that assessment even though that was exactly what had happened. “You shouldn’t be awake.”
“Well, I am.”
“Flavia isn’t going to like this,” he grumbled under his breath. His eyes cast past Kerrigan to where his matron was stuffed inside the stuffy carriage. “Nothing to be done.” He pulled the door of the cart open. “You do your business quickly if you need to, and then I’ll give you provisions for the rest of the way.”
Kerrigan slipped her feet over the edge of the cart and dropped down onto the ground. Her knees buckled, and she crumpled forward into the dirt.
Felix stared down at her with a sigh. “Magic hasn’t completely worn off. You need to take it easy.”
He grasped her under the armpits and hefted her back to her feet. She clutched the edge of the cart on unsteady feet. This was worse than she’d thought.