The scent of her mother’s perfume still lingered where it had covered the scent of illness even as the body collection tube closed around Ismaeli Akitane. Sayana Akitane stood to one side, her too small outfit pinching her skin as she watched the doctor speak with the man she’d been told was her father. Jarmin Stolbrook was a thin, balding man with a narrow face. He was not that attractive, and Sayana couldn’t see what her mother found appealing about him, unless it was his money.
She’d heard that Jarmin was extremely wealthy. He was a tradesman, or so her mother had told her, who specialized in luxury goods. He was exceedingly good at business. He was well respected in the community as well, or so the servants commented as they went about their business in the courtesan wing.
Not that Sayana or any of her siblings ever saw the wealth. It was reserved for his wife and his two true-born sons. His courtesan and her five illegitimate children were left with the scraps of his favor.
“The body of course will be returned to Treolia.” The doctor made a note on his pad. “Her academy will see to her burial at no expense to you. Will you be arranging for the children to follow their mother to Treolia as well?”
“Why would I do that?” Jarmin asked irritably.
“I only assumed that, without their mother, they’d be sent to the courtesan academy to follow in her footsteps.” The doctor frowned. “That is the traditional outcome for a situation such as this.”
“I’m supposed to let the academy see all the profit from them when I’ve been the one to pay for their upkeep all these years? No, I’ve something else in mind for them.” Jarim glanced over at the five grieving children, a sneer on his face.
“Very well.” The doctor made some additional notes on his pad. “I’ll see to it that Ismaeli’s body is sent back to her academy.”
“Good,” Jarim grunted.
“Saya, scan father,” Kallam whispered.
“What?” Sayana hissed back.
“Scan father. I want to know what his plans are.” Kallam glared daggers at the man.
Sayana carefully lowered the barriers over her mind and reached out a delicate probe. Her psychic powers were the one weapon their father didn’t know about and couldn’t counter, so he was unaware when she slipped into his mind. She didn’t have to dig. It was in his surface thoughts, which was good. She’d learned that digging deep caused pain. She saw what he was planning to do with them and felt sick. He turned and walked out of the room, leaving them alone in the place where their mother had died.
“Kal, he’s selling us.” Sayana tried not to vomit. “The man isn’t nice. He does horrible things to children. Father doesn’t care. He just wants the credits.”
“When?” Kallam asked. “Did you get an idea of that?”
“Tomorrow.” Sayana swallowed. “He was just waiting for her to die. He’s been planning this for weeks.”
“Okay, we’re going to get out of here tonight.” Kallam looked towards the door. “We’ll run away. Father can’t sell us if we’re not here.”
Adjira burst into tears. “Where will we go?”
“I know a place we can hide.” Kallam put an arm around her shoulders. “Before father banned me from leaving the house, when mother got really sick, I used to go out with some of the servants. There’s a place one of them showed me a long time ago. I know it’ll work to hide us all.”
Ethian and Eon were crying as well. Sayana put her arms around her younger brothers’ shoulders. At nine, Sayana had been more a mother to her brothers than their own mother had been this past year when Ismaeli’s illness had gotten so bad she could barely take care of herself, let alone her children. “Kal, father’s sure to have us watched. How are we going to get away?” she asked.
“Remember how you made old Pelham forget we took the cookies? Or that witch Anthia forget we were the ones who got her into trouble?” Kallam looked at her expectantly.
“You mean fuzz people?” Sayana asked. Kallam nodded. “I don’t know. That’s a lot of people, Kal. I don’t know if I can do that many. And you know it gives them a headache. What if someone realizes what’s going on?”
“We’ll leave in the middle of the night. There won’t be that many people around.” Kallam seemed sure of himself.
“How are we going to get past father’s security system? Even if I do fuzz the guards and servants we see, we still have to deal with that.” Sayana knew her father had more than just human protectors in his house. Her mother had often talked about them.
“Leave that to me.” Kallam pushed Adjira over to Sayana. “Keep Addie and the others quiet. I’ll be back.” He slipped out the door.
“Saya, why would father sell us?” Adjira asked. “Doesn’t he love us?”
“No Addie, he never loved us.” Sayana saw this distressed her sister even more. “Don’t worry, Addie. Kal and I will take care of you. We won’t let father sell us to that man.”
“How can you stop him?” Adjira sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
“Kal has a plan. He’ll explain it all when he gets back.” Sayana released her brothers and gave them a gentle shove towards their beds. “Why don’t you, Ethian, and Eon lay down for a bit? See if you can nap? If we’re going to be up late, I don’t want you three falling asleep on us.”
“Okay Saya.” Adjira went and curled up on her bed. Eon and Ethian went and followed her example. Soon the three youngest children were sound asleep.
Deep inside Sayana wondered if they would be all right. Kallam and Sayana acted older, but they were only eleven and nine respectively. What did they know about living without an adult taking care of them? How would they survive? Get medicine? How could they hope to care for a six year old, a five year old, and a four year old on the streets of Daraphel? It would be five years before Kallam could legally find a job. What were they supposed to do until then? Her father was a well-known man. Would people hunt for them at his request even if they did escape?
Sayana raised her shields and waited for Kallam to return. She busied herself tidying up the rooms they’d shared with their mother for lack of anything else to do. She avoided her mother’s room and instead focused on the areas where the children lived.
Kallam returned a few hours later. The younger three were still asleep. “Let them sleep. They’re going to need it. It’s going to be a long night.”
“Kal, what are we going to do?” Sayana looked her brother in the eye. “I don’t dare use my psychic powers out there too much. The Psi Hunters would find me and then what would you do?”
“I don’t plan on you using them much if we can help it, Saya.” Kallam beckoned her over. “Come look at what I’ve got here.”
Sayana left her brothers and sister sleeping and joined Kallam at the table. He laid out several devices for her to see. She recognized the jammer and the two vibroblades but couldn’t identify the fourth item on the table. “What’s that?” Sayana pointed to the one she didn’t recognize.
“It’s a lock pick. We can steal what we need and jam the security systems while we do it. I don’t like the idea of stealing but it’s what we’ll have to do until I’m old enough to work.” Kallam seemed both pleased and disturbed by his afternoon’s work.
“I don’t like it either.” Sayana stared down at the devices. “What if we get caught?”
“That’s when we’ll use your psychic abilities.” Kallam sounded reluctant. “We’ll fuzz them and run. They can’t identify us if they don’t remember what we look like.”
“Where will we live, Kal? There can’t be too many places a large group like us can hide in the city.” Sayana tore her eyes from the electronics and looked at her brother again.
“I told you, I have a place in mind.” He scrunched up his face. “It was big enough for a bunch of people, as long as we don’t all go through massive growth spurts. Given the other three will still be kids when I’m old enough to work, we should be fine.”
“What is it?” Sayana tilted her head to one side.
“It’s a spot where Wylla used to hide things she stole until she got caught and sent to prison.” Kallam’s expression shifted to mischievous. “I was the only one she showed it to. It’s out of the way. It’s not likely a homeless person would have moved in because of where it is. It’s going to be fine, Saya.”
“If you’re sure, Kal.” Sayana wasn’t at all sure this sounded safe.
“Trust me.” Kallam gave her a confident smile. “Father will never find us.”
“Okay.”
Kallam handed Sayana one of the vibroblades. “Here, hide that on you somewhere. You and I have to be armed at all times. I know you don’t know how to use it. Neither do I. But this is what’s going to save our lives out there.”
Sayana tied the blade to her arm under her sleeve and made sure she could reach it by grabbing the handle and pulling it out. She practiced several times pulling it out and switching it on until she had it down to one fluid motion. As Kallam said, she didn’t know what else to do with it, but at least she had some kind of protection. She’d have to be sure she stayed between Adjira, Eon, and Ethian and any danger on the streets because they wouldn’t have any kind of protection without her and Kallam.
Adjira and the boys woke up a short while later and were told to keep silent about what they knew. If their father found out they’d learned his plans, he might escalate and sell them that night instead of waiting until after breakfast. That would ruin what Kallam and Sayana were trying to do. Adjira and the boys nodded and went over to where their toys were. The boys played quietly together while Adjira read, silently wiping tears away as they thought of their mother.
Dinner was served and Kallam told them to eat as much as they could because breakfast was going to come late the next day if it came at all. They might not get anything to eat the next day and would have to wait until the next night when Sayana and Kallam could go out to find them some food.
“Kal, we could steal a little from the kitchen before we leave,” Sayana whispered. “Just enough to give the kids something to eat tomorrow.”
“You’re right, Saya.” Kallam frowned. “Do we have any bags we can carry it in?”
“We all have packs. Remember? Mother bought them for us a month ago. I think she thought father would send us back to her academy and bought them so we could take some clothes with us.” Sayana wiped her eyes as the sorrow returned.
“Pack some clothes and a blanket in them for you and the kids.” Kallam looked over at the younger three. “I’ll do the same with mine. We’ll shove some food in our packs when we sneak through the kitchen tonight.”
Sayana packed for herself first, then packed for her brothers and sister. She took one toy each to give them something to do while they sat in hiding. Then they waited.
The aging servant who tended to them came in that night to find them all already in bed. “Poor things,” she mumbled. “Jarim’s a bastard.” She tucked them in and shuffled out.
Sayana and Kallam threw off their blankets and got up. Adjira, Eon, and Ethian waited for their brother and sister to say it was safe. It was after midnight when Kallam whispered, “Time to go.”
Adjira, Eon, and Ethian got up and put their shoes on. Kallam opened the door. There were two bored looking guards at the end of the hallway. “Why are we watching the door again?” they heard one ask.
“So the children don’t slip past us in the night and get away.” The second guard was obviously bored by the job he’d been given. “Jarim will be very angry with us if they’re not here in the morning. He’s got a lot of money riding on these children being here and ready for their new owner tomorrow.”
“I still don’t like it, him selling the children like they were slaves.” The first guard sounded almost angry. “Slavery’s been outlawed in the empire for centuries now. Those children have a right to a fair and decent life.”
“Who’s to say they won’t have a fair and decent life with their new owner?” It was clear the second guard didn’t care about them at all.
“I know who he’s selling them to. They’ll have short, miserable, pain-filled lives and then they’ll die horrible deaths. It’s wrong.” The first guard knew a great deal about their future, and he wasn’t happy.
“You can report Jarim if you want. But it’s your word against his, and there’s no proof those children exist.” The second guard now sounded more irritated than bored.
“Except for the birth records. Ismaeli recorded their births each time one of them was born. She had to. It’s the law.” The first guard’s tone made it sound like he felt he was explaining something to an idiotic child.
“You’re not that smart, are you? Jarim will have thought of that already. He’ll claim Ismaeli lied on the birth record, or he’ll say the children died. It’s still your word against his.” It was clear the second guard thought just as poorly of the first guard’s intelligence.
“I still think it’s wrong.” The first guard stubbornly refused to back down. Sayana felt a sense of thankfulness someone in this awful house felt her father was in the wrong, even if no one else did.
“Okay Saya,” Kal whispered. “Put them to sleep.”
Sayana reached out with her psychic abilities and fuzzed the guards’ minds. She held them in a stupor as the children made their way past. Once they were safely around the corner, she let them wake up. Both rubbed their foreheads as the mild headaches that always came about when Sayana did that technique hit them, but neither of them realized they’d been psychically attacked.
Kallam turned on the jammer and the children ventured into the rest of the house. The younger three had to rely solely on their older siblings to lead them through the maze of corridors in their father’s house. The older two had been allowed out of the courtesan wing. The younger three had not.
They made their way to the kitchen. “Wait,” Sayana hissed as Kallam was about to open the door. “There’s someone in there.”
“Get rid of them,” Kallam hissed back.
Sayana reached out with her mind again. It was one of the cook’s assistants, still pottering around in the kitchen long after the rest of the staff had gone to bed. She was fixing herself a late-night snack. Sayana instilled in her an urge to go check on something on the opposite side of the house and a few minutes later, she gave the all clear.
They slipped into the kitchen, and small articles of food were shoved into the bags to provide a meal for them for the next day. Sayana made sure the younger children’s bags weren’t too heavy. She and Kallam took the bulk of the weight on their own thin shoulders. Then they eased out into the yard.
Now it was Kallam’s turn to lead. He alone knew the way through the winding streets that would take them deeper into the city. Once they were clear of their father’s property, Kallam switched off the jammer and led the way through maze-like streets until he found what he was looking for.
He pushed a panel of the wall open and motioned for everyone to move inside. It was small so they all had to crawl inside, but once they were in, Kallam joined them and slid the panel in place behind them. Dim lights shone from the base of the walls surrounding them, not enough to see clearly but enough so it wasn’t cast in total darkness.
“Okay everyone, this is our new home.” Kallam pulled his bag off his shoulders and set it on the ground. “Use your bags as your pillows, wrap up in your blankets, and try to get some sleep. We’ll stay here tomorrow and then Saya and I will go out tomorrow night to try to find some more food for us.”
“What will we do while you’re gone?” Adjira asked.
“You’ll hide in here and wait for us to come back.” Kallam looked back at the hatch. “I’ll rig a way of locking the panel in the morning. You’ll lock it when we go out and unlock it to let us in when we get back.”
“Okay.” Adjira pulled out her doll and her blanket and was soon asleep. The boys were right behind her. Adjira whimpered as she shivered in her sleep.
Sayana reached into her sister’s sleeping mind and directed her dreams into something less troubling. Adjira fell silent. “Nightmares?” Kallam asked.
“Bad ones. She’d have woken up screaming in a few hours if I hadn’t interfered.” Sayana pulled her blanket out of her bag.
“Get some sleep, Saya. I’m going to take my own advice and try to get a few hours myself.” Kallam curled up in his blanket, pillowed his head on his bag, and closed his eyes.
Sayana copied her brother but did not immediately fall asleep. Her mind was whirling with everything that they’d done. They’d pulled off their escape from their father. However, what was to stop him from pursuing them into the city? He could post a reward for their safe return and then double what he was charging the man to make it back. He could send his own people to watch for the children and then report back where they were so he could send his guards down to retrieve them.
Eon woke suddenly with a gasp. Sayana sat up and went over to him. “It’s okay, Eon. We’re safe. Go back to sleep.”
Eon sighed and curled up in his sister’s arms. She held him until he fell asleep again before laying him down with his head on his bag. She returned to her place and laid down again.
“Saya, quit thinking so much and go to sleep.” Kallam’s voice was slurred with sleep. “It’ll all be fine.” “Okay Kal.” These were all tomorrow’s problems, Sayana decided. They’d escaped him today and if luck held, they’d continue to elude him. She closed her eyes and tried to relax. Using her psychic abilities as much as she had that night had worn her out more than she expected and soon she was sound asleep along with her brothers and sister.
A/N: I also recorded myself reading chapter 1 if you’re interested. See the link below. As you listen, if you have any questions about the world, politics, general questions about my writing style/methods, feel free to ask them below. When I hit 10 videos on YouTube I’ll take all the questions and do a Q & A video.
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