Burnt (13 page)

The next week passed much like the ones before it. Amorette did speak to him. Sort of. It was, of course, what he wanted. Except the only times she said anything was when she tried to convince him to sleep with her. Not every night but most. He managed to scrape together enough self-control to say no, but it was always a near thing. And it got harder each time, especially when she started crying herself to sleep after he refused her.

He missed Amorette.
She was right there, across from him every night. But, even if she was willing to talk to him, Kaie found it increasingly difficult to find something to say. Each morning slipping out to avoid her grew a little easier. He wanted her so bad he ached with it. All he ever needed to do was say that one word. But saying anything else seemed impossible. And that was what he missed: their conversations. He resented her for taking that from him sometimes. More than sometimes, when he was being honest with himself.

No matter how difficult the mornings were, Kaie
always returned before the girl came to get Amorette. Her arrival was the best part of every one of his days. His puzzle. She would watch him, those big blue eyes half hidden underneath her mass of white-blonde hair. Some days she would talk to him, some she wouldn’t. She refused to give him any hint about how he might earn her name, but she was quite good at giving him enough encouragement to try the next morning. He told her jokes, shared his favorite stories and asked her all manner of caring and considerate questions. But she did not budge. It was wonderfully frustrating.

Vaughan came every other day. Always just after the sun reached its highest point. The boy was more regular than bowel movements, and Kaie found he appreciated that more than he expected.
He was surprised to discover how much he looked forward to those visits. They were almost as important as the time spent with the boy’s sister.

So
when the blanket over the front of the house lifted, Kaie expected it to be Vaughan. He looked up from a design he was making in the dirt in front of him, anticipating another enlightening conversation about the sister. But it wasn’t Vaughan. It was the woman who put the brand in his shoulder.

Kaie was scramb
led backward, his hand seeking anything that might serve as a weapon, before he consciously processed this new development. His fingers wrapped around one of the bowls his neighbors gave them. Knowing it for perhaps the most absurd defense ever attempted, he swung it in the space between them as warning. The woman’s nose wrinkled in what could just as easily be scorn as laughter. She made as though to step across the threshold, the hand not holding back the blanket clenched in a fist.

“Thank you, Josephina. That will be all.”

The voice came from outside, well beyond his scope of vision. It was soft and unassuming; he barely heard it over the pumping of blood in his ears. But it snapped the woman straight in an instant. She tilted her head to the unseen speaker and then dropped the blanket back into place, obscuring Kaie’s view completely.

He crept forward, not at all certain he wanted to find out what was going on, clutching the bowl like a lifeline.
Just as he reached the halfway point the blanket was jerked open again.

Kaie found himself staring at what was once a beautiful woman.

She was around the same age as his mother, he supposed. Older, probably, but not much. Her long brown hair was pulled back from her slender face in a style that managed to look both ornate and simple at the same time. Her rich brown eyes were framed by wrinkles, as were her full lips. Despite her age, she was far from ugly. Age was coming on her gracefully. She was, his father would say, quite handsome. And despite the fact that her beauty was clearly fading, she didn’t make any attempts to hide it with garish makeup or flashy clothing the way some older women of his tribe were known to. Her dress was obviously of fine make but it was not bedecked with beads or feathers, or anything else intended to distract from the one wearing it.

She didn’t belong in his
new world.

She seemed oblivious to the inappropriateness of her presence as she stepped into his house with a dainty grace he imagined must take years of practice. He gawked as she surveyed the room without a trace of disdain or disapproval. When she was done, she fixed her gaze to him once again. “I imagine you are wondering who I am.”

It was the same soft voice from before. The clues snapped into place. He set the bowl down cautiously and climbed back to his feet. It wouldn’t do to cower before this woman. “You’re the Lady Autumnsong.”

He thought he caught a slight lift to her right eyebrow, but it was gone before he could be sure.

“Yes. Do you know why I am here?”

“No.” He bit back everything else he wanted to say, not quite ready to see how far he could push the one responsible for his enslavement.
There would be time for that later.

She gestured to the doorway. “I am going for a walk. You will accompany me.”

He wanted very much to argue. Compliance would mean he accepted her ownership of him, and that was most certainly not true. But he was curious. And a little bored. And, honestly, he wasn’t sure he was ready to make an enemy of this woman. He didn’t know enough. Not yet.

She did not glance back to see if he was following. Kaie struggled to swallow his irritation at her arrogance as he trotted along like a dutiful dog.

“This area is very quiet now, isn’t it?”

It took him a second to decide if she was asking him or simply making an observation. “
Uh, I guess. Are other places different?”

She shot him a backward glance informing that she, in fact, was not speaking to him before. The expression wasn’t angry. Not exactly. But it did make him feel distinctly uncomfortable. “Yes. I make it a habit to visit my holdings regularly. Most of them are quite vibrant.
I do what I can to make them bearable and the residents make them home. This place though…”

They were at the well. She stopped and turned around, crossing her arms over her chest and look
ed through him. Kaie got the feeling she was caught up in some unpleasant memory. “You met my niece, Luna. She is a brilliant girl. Anything she sets her mind to, she accomplishes with a flourish.

“
Unfortunately, last month that was stirring up trouble here in East Field. By the time I realized what she was doing, the people were rioting. Two overseers were killed before I could accept that there was no peaceful solution. Half the people – twenty-one men, twelve women and four children – were put down before the instigators surrendered. At least one person from every family. And, to ensure that things did not get out of control again, I’ve cut rations in half for East Field. No personal effects are allowed. No gatherings of any sorts. Everyone is escorted to and from their duties.

“
It is a terrible burden on everyone living here. Especially, I imagine, the new arrivals like yourself. You are being punished for things you did not even know about. But if I lift the punishment too early, I will seem weak. It will invite more disturbances. From Luna and the residents both. I must continue this punishment for another six months, I expect, before she stops paying attention.”

“Oh.” What was he supposed to say to that? Did she expect him to apologize that she was forced to make his life so miserable?

“My niece is a difficult girl to live with. A fact I expect you do not find hard to believe. She grows bored and then I find myself entrenched in one of her games. Losing would be disastrous for me and my household, but also for her. I’m not sure if she fails to see that, or simply doesn’t care. But I have learned, at great cost, that the only way I can protect myself from her ennui is to root out every one of her schemes before it can come to fruition. Those less harmful I allow, so that she does not suspect, while I defuse the worst of them.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Again, Kaie was at a loss of what to say. It did make sense. Locking the girl in her room would work better, but he didn’t think that a very apt observation to make.
He couldn’t figure out why in the world this woman was talking to him. “What does this have to do with me?”

This time he was certain he saw her right eyebrow twitch upward. He decided it was out of surprise, not annoyance. If only because he liked the potential consequences of that a little more.

“You aren’t afraid of me, are you?” she said.

“Of course I am,” he answered honestly. “But you don’t seem interested in me
falling to the ground and licking your boots.” Her lip quirked just a bit. He couldn’t tell if it was with distaste or humor. This woman was difficult to read. “You expect everyone to be afraid of you?”

“I hope,” she murmured, “that those who serve closest to me recognize that I do not enjoy cruelty. But yes, I suppose I have grown accustomed to most people I encounter having a bit of trepidation during our interactions. Even the free ones. My family is quite powerful, and it does inspire a great deal of that.”

“Well, it seems like you want something from me. So I might as well be a person instead of the broken animal you people want.”

She tilted her head and looked on him with an intense scrutiny.
It made him very uncomfortable but Kaie didn’t shy away. He pushed – harder than he meant to – and he wasn’t about to back down and act submissive now. “You are surprising. I expect some of that is because you are so new to this life. But not all, I think. Most in your place fall to their knees, weeping and begging for my mercy. Some spit and hurl curses as though the gods would come avenge them personally. I’ve never met someone with such… daring. I do hope you find a way to hold on to it. I think I would be sad if you were to become one of those broken animals.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

She nodded, like it was a matter decided. Kaie found himself believing she meant it. It was a jarring thought, from the one responsible for the destruction of his home and enslavement of his people. He didn’t know what to make of it.

“You’re correct. I do want something from you.”

“Of course I’m right.” The words were out before he realized he was saying them. She was letting him get away with a lot. He imagined his luck was just about up. “People like you don’t have conversations like this unless you’re trying to get something out of it.”

She
nodded, no visible sign that she was tiring of him. That would change quickly, if he wasn’t careful. Kaie knew that from experience. No one put up with his talking back for long. “My niece is very interested in you, Kaie Zetowan. And I would like to know why.”

He scowled, battling down the urge to snap at her about his name. It was an insult – a deep one – but he didn’t believe she intended it so.
And he was trying to be careful. Drawing in a slow breath, he swallowed the irritation and set it aside for another day. “I don’t know. No one bothered to tell me why they set me aside for her.”

She uncrossed her arms and flipped her hand in the same dismissive gesture he’d observed in her niece. It niggled at his control, his temper looking for an excuse to
escape no matter how he told it this was not the time. “She is testing a theory about her concoction and the effect it has on people with different traits. Red hair is something of a rarity, and the Cat’s Legion is always watching for it. Along with a handful of other rarities. She was quite satisfied with the other one, though. That’s not what I mean at all. She wasn’t interested at all in you last week, so far as I know. But this week, she can talk of nothing else. Why?”

Kaie scratched his head as he thought. The hair growing back was itchy.
“I truly don’t know.”

The woman began her sharp scrutiny again.
“The one Luna has; I’m told he took the Lunin for you.”

It was hard
keeping his face neutral. Harder, keeping his voice level. One word, and it took everything in him to keep it from coming out a choked sob. “Yes.”

“
You’re going to try to tell me it was because you are a part of his tribe or some other nonsense, aren’t you?”

“Would it work?”

“No.” She folded her arms again. “My son, you met him as well. Peter. He would not tell me everything that happened in that room. But he said enough for me to know better. That boy took the collar for
you
, not another boy of his tribe.”

“I thought,” he said with a good deal of struggle, “that you do not enjoy cruelty.”

A tiny wrinkle appeared between her brows. If he wasn’t watching her so closely it would be too small to notice. He didn’t know what it meant, but it was another miniscule clue into this perfectly poised woman. Whether he ever needed insight into her was inconsequential. He needed it now and that was enough to make it a good idea to assume he would later.

“I am not trying to be cruel.
I am asking what that boy knows about you that would capture my niece’s interest.”

Kaie’s stomach dropped. “Nothing.”

The line grew a little deeper. “I see. Well. That nothing has made her very determined. I told her that, as you refused her already, any further attempts to take you for one of her experiments might be seen as a breach of her agreement with the Empress. That has stalled her. For now. It was not intended to stop her forever, though. Just long enough for me to determine how harmful this scheme of hers is.”