Chapter 47

Conspiracy

I try to bully more out of him, I really really do. Sadly Xael remains stoic in the face of my attempts to interrogate him. All he does is repeat that I have to leave until I’m gone. Frustrated at being stymied by the foreign boy I make my way out of the manse the same way I came in, Just you know faster. I still don’t have a good explanation about what I’m doing here after a night in lockdown. So I really need to get back out into the compound before people start waking up.

Kalon is gone from the kitchens when I head back through them. Thankfully so is his mother and the domestics pottering around in there are smart enough to just stay out of my way and not make eye contact. I suppose beating up their leader might have had that effect. Charik too ignores my passage but I doubt that’s because he finds me intimidating.

I still want to go on my morning run if I get the chance. I haven’t been working as hard as I feel like I should have since my chest injury, and it actually feels sort of normal this morning. So I’m hoping to work up a proper sweat a few times before my match tomorrow evening. The mystery of what happened to Gori feels more pressing however and if I don’t get some sort of answers soon I’m confident it will be distracting me all day. Fortunately, however, I have a plan.

I make my way back into the youth barracks which is properly coming awake now. I doubt there is a single boy asleep in hall three after Gori got brought in, but the other two halls are stirring now too.

First I stalk back into my own hall and check on Gori. He’s breathing but that’s about it. The amateur efforts my hallmates have made to patch him back together aren’t great, but I think he’s still breathing. For a few heartbeats, I consider slapping the Antlered boy awake and just getting the information out of him. Obviously, I dismiss the idea and let him sleep, even if I can wake him up I don’t know how lucid Gori will be, and that's if he doesn’t just die.

Instead, I look around for some of the younger kids in my hall. I’m hoping to ask them for the name of the kid I’ve seen Gori with from time to time. If I can find that kid I might be able to get some information about Gori’s movements of late and hopefully piece things together from there.

I instantly encounter a hitch, however. The four or so kids in my hall who are ten or younger aren’t here. It isn’t like them to rush out and start the day of training, maybe they have some prank planned? Or are you going to try and beg for extra food from a sympathetic domestic?

It’s a little annoying but they didn’t know I was going to need them. I might rule hall three but it's a loose sort of rule. I do my thing, everyone else does theirs and I shout when something important happens.

Well, there isn’t really much for it. I’m going to need to head into hall two and find him myself. That thought makes my heart quicken a little. I’m not banned from the other halls exactly, but you don’t just wander into the other halls without invitation. A grin flashes across my mouth as a thought that is equal parts comforting and amusing hits me. Morean isn’t here, they won’t do a fucking thing.

Buoyed by that I square my shoulders and head into hall two. It isn’t far, just a little walk down the hallway outside my own room. Yet when I cross that threshold into the other hall the boys react like mine did to Gori charging in last night. There is shouting as they scatter, or climb up onto cots to stay out of my way. Before long some of the older boys have made a sort of defensive semi-circle in front of me with Tota at its center.

“Uhh hey North,” he says awkwardly glancing about at the commotion I’ve caused. “What’s up?”

I offer a little chuckle at the absurdity of it all. “ I need to talk to one of the little kids from here” I reply, whilst turning my head to glare at a boy who is trying to flank me.

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“I challen-” A dark-haired human boy starts to say before Tota smacks him mid-sentence and shoves the boy back behind the semi-circle.

“Idiot” he snaps before turning back to me. “Sorry about that, now you want to talk to one of the little kids? What for?”

Obviously, I’m not planning on telling him or anyone else the truth, so I took a moment to prepare for this question before I came in here.

“I think he saw a fight between a pair of my boys.” While I’m not exactly known for micromanaging my hall it is a believable excuse. If two of my boys are telling conflicting stories about something that happened between them it isn’t uncommon for someone in my position to do a little investigation. If nothing else so that we can keep track of who beat who and maintain the loose hierarchy that forms in the halls.

“Right,” says Tota nodding. “ sorry to say I don’t think we can help you .”

I frown a little at that. “And why not?”

He runs a hand through the spikes on his head the same way Xael does it with his hair.

“We don’t know why,” he says with another look around. “ But all of the kids aged eleven or younger are just kind of ..” he shrugs. “ gone.”

‘What?’

“Gone?” I ask slowly.

“Yeah since last night, before the lockdown I think.”

I feel my eyes go wide and actively force my face into a mask of neutrality.

“Weird,” I say in perhaps the most suspicious tone of all time. My voice even cracks a little, drawing a quizzical look from Tota and some of the other boys.

“Yeah…” says Tota indicating with his eyes towards the door behind me. I might not be some sort of social genius but I’m pretty sure I get that message loud and clear.

‘Take the information you got, and get out.’

It isn’t unfriendly of him, just good sense. So I grunt my thanks and bid a hasty retreat. I wanted to anyway as I can feel my snicker welling up. A fit of it bursts out when I’m in between halls, prompting me to stop and try to collect myself.

It doesn’t really work. In fact, the more I think about what I just heard the more nervous I get. I’m not willing to try my luck in hall one as well, but I’ll wager every coin I have stuffed under my cot they will say the same thing. Somehow every one of the smallest youth pit-slaves have been whisked away out of the compound. I doubt a single one of them has a Forspoken stone now that I think about it. Unless they are training or in one of the halls most of the youngest pitters are chained together or to railings around the compound. I’m not sure why BloodRock holds off on putting Forspoken stone in all of us, knowing what the substance truly is now. Maybe there is a limit to how many of us he can track at once? Whatever the reason whoever stole the kids has made a clean getaway.

Well almost clean. It seems that Xael and Gori know something about what happened. Probably Illexa too, I imagine. Still, they are playing that information close to their chests. So close in fact that Gori who I personally have never considered particularly tough stood up to a whole night of torture rather than reveal it.

Even the implication that they might somehow be involved getting back to the houselord could easily be worth their lives. Maybe even the lives of any slaves closely associated with them. Slaves like that girl Talullah, slaves like me.

After a little thought, I decide my only real option is to leave it that. I can’t risk the guards getting suspicious after every last kid from the halls has vanished. I’ve already taken more than enough risk today. It is absolutely the time to act normal, and not ask any more questions.

So I go for a run. It is a decision I quickly regret, and now I’m truly left alone with my thoughts. A mass breakout from a Far Mantyian compound isn’t something I’ve never heard of happening but it is rare, really rare. I’m not sure when the last one happened, but I recall the escapees were all reported found and killed within a week.

See it isn’t enough to escape the compound, you need to escape the city. Despite their rivalries, and even occasional skirmishes the trade houses of Far Mantys come together with shocking solidarity whenever something like that happens.

Each and every one of them will have soldiers and informants out looking for the runaways. Not to mention the specialized SlaveRunner hunters from House Tariff that are always chomping at the bit for a chance like this. Whatever it is that Xael and his fellow conspirators have done I hope for their sake and mine they planned it out well.