Shadow Weaver (Back on Wattpad 2020!)

Chapter 10

High up in the enormous bazaar, daylight shards through slit windows, like swords vanishing into a pool of blackness. Low in the Pit, the only light comes from fire lamps embedded in the deep walls and men carrying torches. A cloudy gloom hangs across the indoor market. Men bargain and haggle over the goods they sell from portable stalls or from their own persons. But the real attraction is in the center of the arena. Raised on great platforms as far back as the eye can see, sit rows of wooden cages.

I hold Kel's hand, both of us stunned. Tug and Brin press against us, one on either side. The escorting guards follow behind. The nearer cages contain wolves, wolverines, falcons, and eagles. As we progress further into the murk I see animals I don't recognize. Beasts with scaly skin, creatures that appear familiar, like deer, but their coats are striped and tinged blue.

A screeching cry pierces the arena. For the space of a single breath, the Pit falls silent to listen. Kel's hand becomes bone-cracking tight around my own. A flap of enormous wings beats in the sudden hush. Twenty feet away, a magnificent creature rises to the air. It shrieks again, wings pounding, cries echoing off the high black walls. It launches into the top of its huge prison, bashing the wooden bars. A heavy chain clangs around its webbed foot. Its mind comes to me in wild, enraged flashes of madness. It knows it cannot escape, yet it tries over and over, refusing to be tamed. Refusing to give up.

I have never seen a velaraptor, but my father told me stories of their existence in the glacial mountains. Almost impossible to catch. Carucans believe they are mystical creatures, with magical powers. Its wingspan is over six feet, the limbs featherless, muscular. Its enormous beak and wide lizard eyes give the impression of a bird crossed with a reptile.

Movement snaps my attention back to the remaining cages. The next forty feet of the Pit contain slave men, women, boys and girls. Lots of girls. Young, dishevelled, bruised figures, with dead eyes. The bargaining over them is ferocious and turnover quick, with two girls and one boy being paid for while we pass. Slaves are against the law in Caruca, but it is a law Pa says no one enforces. The vast majority of people wealthy enough to keep slaves have them.

Every part of my body screams to get Kel out of there. I should not have saved Tug from the knife of that gang member. A hard blade between the ribs would have resulted in a slow and painful death. A death Beast-face deserves. A death I fantasize about offering him myself.

Our group stops. For a second I'm confused. There are no more cages. The guards direct us down a dark passage leading into the Pit walls.

"Take the boy to the top of the stairs and wait," one of them says. They hang back as we advance. Around the corner lies a flight of open metal stairs. Kel's legs knock together so Brin lifts him and carries him up. From the first stair, I turn to Tug. Blood seeps through his shirt, but he does not try to staunch it. Almost level with his eyes, I glare at him.

"One day," I say, disgust, fear and outrage seeping through my trembling voice, "far from now, I will make you suffer. You think it is no longer possible. But I will find a way."

He stares at me without a single emotion. He knows I saved him with that peasant's rusty knife, but shows neither surprise nor gratitude. He understands it was an act of immediate necessity. "Revenge is a fool's dish," he says, a large hand clamping down on my arm, pushing me around, and up the stairs.

At the top of the stairwell, Brin and Kel wait in front of a cage door that gives access to a web of interlocking metal bridges, platforms and individual enclosures. Billows of drifting smoke rise from the Pit below, shrouding the cages in cloaks of gray. Fingers of daylight reach in from the high slit windows and bleed through the murk so it is just possible to fathom this horrific world. Most of the suspended cages are empty. But a handful of shadow children with sparkling eyes crouch in the darkness.

A guard accompanied by a small, shuffling man, clangs across the intricate weave of bridges. I kneel and pull Kel to me so I am blocking the door from his sight.

"Listen to me, Kel," I say, holding tight to both his arms. My heartbeat thrums so hard my chest hurts. "Whatever happens, don't give up. I will find you. I'm going to find you."

A faint smell of urine tells me Kel has wet himself. His face is slack with shock. I'm not sure he can even hear my words, let alone believe them.

"Kel, promise me. Promise me you won't give up." I cup my hands around his cheeks. His eyes lift to mine. "That's it. You're strong, Kel. You are strong like Pa. You are Uru Ana and I will find you. No matter how long it takes. No matter how long it takes. You hear me?"

"How?" he whispers, his bottom lip trembling. "How?"

"I don't know. But Ma and Pa are out there waiting for us to return. They will never stop waiting for you."

"What if they take the mist berries and forget?"

"Pa's never taken the mist berries. He's never forgotten anything. He will never forget you. And neither will I. "

"Mirra, don't let them take me." My brother's long wet lashes blink in panic. I'm afraid I will fall apart right there in front of him.

"I love you," I say again and again. He hugs me so tight, I stop breathing. His little arms cling to my neck. His face pushes into my hair, the tip of his nose cold and wet against my skin. Tears spill from my eyes. I brush them aside.

Keys rattle in the barred door. I catch the guard's wary expression. The small man's beady eyes watch me with interest. I imagine stolen glitter-eyed children don't hug their captors goodbye. Tug leans in close.

"That's enough." There's warning in his voice. To all appearances, Kel and I do not look related, but if the guard or the clerk starts asking questions, Tug may force me to leave the Pit, and I will not see the man who buys Kel. Then how will I track him?

I prise off Kel's arms. "Let go now," I whisper to him. "You have to let go."

"Please don't leave me, Mirra. Please."

"You have to let go." I unclasp one little arm and at once, Tug has Kel in his grip and is lifting him and handing him over to the guard. I force myself to watch, in case my brother needs to see me standing strong. Not hopeless, not despairing. But as the huge guard carries him across eighteen-foot-high metal platforms towards the cages, Kel doesn't look back. It cuts like a knife to my heart.

The scrawny man with the beady eyes produces a book of string bound pages. He scratches words with a feather nib, gets Tug and Brin to sign something and then produces a metal bracelet. Tug gestures that Brin will wear the bracelet. It is locked onto Brin's wrist with a key from around the man's neck. The man hands Brin a metal disc and then Tug is pushing me back down the stairs.

Hi! Next chapter will be up on Tuesday 24th March 2020. Hope to see you then! :) Thanks for reading, voting and or commenting :)