Love Lady Larla
Chapter 1 – Beast’s Belly
Shine had just enough time to raise her fists before the first thug punched her square in the jaw. The second cuffed her above her eyes and ripped out the stale loaf of bread that she had stowed in her rags. The biggest of the lot shoved her to the ground, landed a few kicks to her ribs for good measure, before retreating into the darkness with the others.
Cursing under her breath, Shine pulled herself to the nearest wall and leaned against it. Bruises and cuts lined her skin, her legs lay sprawled unevenly across the ground, and each breath teetered between a groan and a hiss.
Yet even now, as always, dumped in a random alleyway, she smiled.
And even now, as always, Kat poked out her head from around the corner and approached her. The sight of Kat eased the pain within Shine.
“Kat, you shouldn’t be here.” Shine tried to move, but her muscles refused. “I can’t help you tonight. They took my rations.”
Kat dropped to a squat and prodded at Shine’s bruises. The pain made her wince and smile even more. “I saw it. Why you, though?”
“Same as always. I smile. They hate it and I smile more, so they do things like that. You should go. Go on.” Shine tried to move again. She pressed her palms to the ground and twisted herself around, shoulder against the sleek alley walls that reached high up to the roof of The Pit. A pair of dim lanterns, one at each end, stretched silver light across the alleyway that dimmed Kat’s ginger hair to a dull grey. Her skin swum like ghostly waves.
“I’ll help you up.” Kat found Shine’s arm and wrapped it around her neck, giving it a tug.
“Kat. No. Don’t. I’ll manage.”
“Come on. One, two, three.” She gave a great tug and Shine, victim to inertia, swivelled onto her aching feet. “I’ll bring you home now.”
“Kat, please. It’s fine.”
“I’ll take care of you at your place. It’s alright. No need to thank me.” Kat held a hand around Shine’s waist to account for the size difference. The tender hold carried a need. Shine relaxed.
“Did something happen?”
Kat said nothing.
“Did your parents fight again?”
Again, nothing.
They must have looked a ridiculous pair as they made their way into Main Street, with Kat supporting someone twice her size.
The light snaked between the gaunt stone towers, emphasising the gruffness and weariness of the citizens: silent, eyes forward, composed into four lines that rolled down the street and to the Apostiates’ thrones at the far end. Shine had waited in this same line for three hours for her daily loaf of bread, only to get careless just two streets out from the hovel of her hideout.
Kat guided her out from Main Street and into the shadows of another alleyway, away from the scrutiny of the citizens of The Pit. She found the scratched X on one of the bricks, counted three to the right, two down, and wiggled the loose brick out from its hold, opening to a small tunnel. Kat snuck in first. Shine followed, scrunching up her legs and shoulders to fit through. She could hardly fit inside her own house anymore. She slid the brick back in its place after her.
The tunnel led to a small room: three walls of stone, with a fourth wall lined with snapped and bent iron bars that ran from roof to floor. Through the bars, the house opened into a hallway lined with similar rooms.
“Can I read your books? Can I? Can I?” Kat tugged at Shine’s shoulder.
“Quiet, Kat.” Shine slumped onto the mouldy blanket that she used as a bed. “They’ll hear you.” She gestured to the roof. “For a moment I thought you helped me here because you were worried about me.” But Kat had already disappeared through the bars, humming a tune to herself. The small girl returned with a thick, dusty tome with half its pages missing, and started reading. She sat by Shine’s side with her legs crossed and the book split across her knees.
“What’s this word?” Kat pointed. Shine groaned as she shifted herself to look at the pages, which detailed a small brief on sacred minerals.
“Emerald.” Considered the most sacred substance in the world, according to the book. “You remember about sounding out the syllables, yeah?”
“I remember.” Kat fell silent, read for a few minutes, and stopped. “What about this?”
“Kingdom.”
“What does that mean?”
“What book are you reading?” She lifted the cover. Coriolo and Lands Adjacent. “Oh. Well, way back, there used to be these people called kings and queens, and these kings and queens owned all this land, and I think that’s what a kingdom is. Dad said that he didn’t know whether it was true or not, because his dad’s dad’s dad never seemed to mention it.”
“Oh.”
“Kat, can you help me real quick and fetch some water for me?”
“I’m reading.”
“Please? And there are some bandages by the bucket, too.”
“I’m reading.”
“Kat. I think they split the skin above my eye. Don’t spill any.”
Kat groaned, made a great deal of fuss about slamming the book shut, and dragged her feet through the gap in the bars. She returned a minute later with a half-filled bucket of water and a tattered roll of cloth that Shine had made from the remains of a rag she had found a week ago. She dipped the roll into the water and pressed it to the bleeding cut above her eye.
“Um, Shine, are the things in this book true?”
Shine shrugged. “Suppose it must be. Or some of it. I think it is. Probably through the tunnel hole where the Apostiates come from. They must come from somewhere, right? Somewhere where they get that bread, and those fine clothes, and water. I think it’s real, the land of the sun and the trees and kings and queens. I think Coriolo is real, too, and all the land around Coriolo.”
“Why do they want us to mine emeralds for them?”
Shine shrugged. “Whatever it’s for, they aren’t happy with how little we’ve been finding. They gave me hardly half a loaf before. No wonder the thugs stole my portion.”
“I wonder what’s out there.” Kat, book splayed across her lap, leaned into Shine. They fell into a deep silence, disturbed only by the brush of Kat’s fingers across the pages, and a sudden, raspy cough.
“Alright?” Shine pulled Kat closer.
Kat nodded. “I forgot to ask, but I hope it’s alright … can I stay here? I don’t think my parents want to see me anymore.”
#
Waiting in the line to the Apostiates proved itself a practice of pure misery.
Four hours for a scrap of food. Shine shuffled along, wincing with every step. The line trailed out from the city of The Pit and its gloomy towers to the Apostiates and the tunnel behind them.
Clangs of pickaxes against stone echoed all around her from the far reaches of the cave, reminding her of where she had once laboured. After her father had died and she had escaped her mother, she used to drag the carts full of emeralds back and forth with a unit of other workers in exchange for a place to sleep. She never returned once she found her hideout.
“It’s that smiling girl again.” An Apostiate looked down at her from his throne-like chair. His white robes dusted the earth, and a mantle of jutting bones punched the damp air. Five of them sat in a semi-circle surrounding a pile of food and other materials. The dismembered hands of people who had tried to get another helping or two hung from the Apostiates’ armrests. “Got attacked?”
“Yes, Apostiate Markov.” She dropped to a knee and placed a hand over her heart. She hated doing it, but her stomach pained more than her pride.
“Suppose it makes sense. You’re a funny looking thing.” He leaned out and beckoned her closer with a finger. His once kindly look shifted sour and his needle-like fingers pricked at the skin of her neck. “Recite it to me. Recite it. Spilgree’s Condemnation of the Wicked. For those who engorge themselves and treat themselves to more than their portion to the detriment of all others.” He nodded to the dismembered hands that hung from his armrests. The sight and the pressure that Markov asserted made her smile harder. She always smiled.
Shine swallowed. “The greedy rot in the purgatory within the world beyond, for they have rejected Spilgree, and have scorned his guidance. They shall suffer for a thousand lifetimes. They shall have their skin flayed, their muscles stripped, veins torn off and tied into ribbons, organs removed, and have themselves put back together, to be dissembled once more. Only then shall they have a chance to repent.”
“Good. Excellent. You have learned the words well,” Markov said. “Most of the other dolts here stumble by the second word. Know this: it is a mercy to cut off a thief’s hand. Take an extra portion. I permit it.” He showed his hand to the pile with a smile, as if daring her to take it.
“Thank you, Apostiate Markov.” She bowed and stepped to the pile. She picked out a half loaf of stale bread and let out a small gasp. The moment Markov turned his attention, she snatched out, her hand a blur, and found the cool weight of a small, smooth amber as round as a ball. She stuffed it inside the bread, praying nobody had noticed, and trailed back towards the city, trying to move as naturally as she could. Tension prodded at her back as she moved, fearing that one of the Apostiates had noticed. Why did she even take it? What could she even do with a crystal like that?
She kept the loaf hidden under her tattered dress and kept well out of sight of any thuggish looking men prowling the streets and side streets. She snuck back into her home to find Kat on her bed, curled up, clutching her chest, face burning red and shaking with each cough.
Shine dropped to her knees, bread tumbling onto the floor, and lifted Kat’s head onto her lap. She stroked Kat’s hair.
“Kat, what’s wrong? Are you alright?”
“I’m okay,” Kat breathed and cleared her throat. “Just had a bit of a cough. It’s fine. Ahh, is that food?”
Shine tore off a small chunk and handed it to Kat, who snatched it and put it into her mouth. The small crystal tumbled out from the loaf and stopped at Shine’s feet. Kat’s eyes lit up like orbs.
“I found it. Looks pretty, doesn’t it?
“Wow. Imagine how much food you could buy with that.”
Shine held it close to her eye. There was a soft, almost unnoticeable lustre to it. “I don’t think I want to sell it.”
“Is it glass? I read that they can blow glass like a bubble and it’s so clear you can see through it, just like that.”
Shine shook her head. “My mum had a shard of glass that she would use to cut pieces of bread. It’s not like that at all. Here.” She handed it to Kat, who cupped it in both hands and held it as if she had never held something so heavy in her life. “I wonder how it came to be down here.” She stared at the far wall. Her eyes glazed over and grew distant.
“I wonder,” Kat began, “what it’s like to be anywhere but here.” She laid a hand on the thick book. “An expanse of green, a roof of blue. Water as far as the eye can see, more food than you can imagine. A jewel of shining yellow. I want to see it all, Shine.”
Shine pulled Kat into a hug, who coughed again a few times, making her whole body shake. Shine didn’t dare tell her how vain such hopes were.
The next morning, Kat coughed more than she ever had in her life. In The Pit, children rarely made it to their teenage years. Shine had seen it all before and knew, from Kat’s tiny, emaciated frame, that she would be one more inconsequential life claimed by The Pit.
She sat by Kat’s side all day, only leaving to collect the daily rations. She read Kat stories from the pile of books until her throat turned raspy and it pained her to talk.
But, as always, Shine continued to smile. She smiled as she cried in secret. She smiled as Kat cried in pain. She must have looked ridiculous. For a moment, she didn’t mind the fact that those thugs had beaten her up. She would have beaten herself up – smiling and crying, as if she couldn’t make up her mind.
Kat’s health degraded fast, withering away before her eyes, always clutching to the crystal for comfort.
“Shine, is it alright to be afraid?” she asked as Shine closed the book she had been reading aloud and set it down.
“Of course it’s alright.” Shine ran a hand through Kat’s scratchy hair. She held the orb closer to her chest, and for a moment, that soft, golden lustre seemed to pronounce itself.
“I really wanted to see it, Shine.”
“See what?”
“Whatever’s out there. Can you take me there … somehow?”
“I can’t Kat. I’d leave if I could.”
“Find a way out of here. Show it to me, will you?”
“I can’t—”
“Promise me. Please?”
Shine hesitated. “I’ll try.”
With a surprising burst of strength, Kat twisted around and cupped Shine’s cheek, running a thumb across the cut above her eye. “I know that type of smile, Shine. I like that smile. That sad, sad smile. Why smile like that if you’re not happy?”
“My lips do it on their own.”
“That’s not what I meant.” But she said no more. She slid down and curled into a ball; her eyes peacefully closed. She held the crystal against her chest. Shine watched over her as she slept.
A few hours later, Kat’s arms grew limp, the ball rolled from her grasp, and her body stilled.
Chapter 2 – Shine Bright
The next day, muscles still sore, Shine hauled Kat’s doll-like body onto her back, crawled out from her home and carried her down the streets. The other citizens of The Pit didn’t bat an eye. What was one more dead body? On the far side of The Pit opposite of the Apostiates, where the clusters of stone-grey buildings ended, a path paved down to The Hole.
Some people cluttered around The Hole, some crying, most passive, with dead eyes and a dead stare. She wasn’t alone, everyone had bodies to dispose of, but her blazing smile made her stick out.
“W-what? Kat?” A distraught looking woman stared at her, aghast. “What is she – is she dead? Who are you? What are you doing with my d-daughter’s body? Why are you smiling? What’s so funny? That’s my daughter. Who are you?”
“I’m Shine. I’m Kat’s friend.” Her stomach rolled inside of her. She didn’t want to face Kat’s mother. Kat had sought out Shine to escape from her parents, after all.
“But I – I told her not to follow you. I – and now she’s dead. You … you must have killed her. That’s why you’re smi—”
“She fled your house,” Shine said, swallowing the rush of anger. “I treated her the best that I could. Cave-air-strangulation. No one murdered her and I won’t stand for the accusation.”
“You killed her!” The mother’s cheeks purpled and her eyes pierced Shine like arrow tips. She bellowed a half-scream that alerted the people by The Hole. Shine steadied her breathing and fought to swallow her ever-widening smile. She would never be able to reason with the woman. Her fingers ached, begging to curl into a fist, but her mind resisted.
“She grew sick. Cave-air-strangulation. I already told you.”
“Liar!” The woman stomped up to Shine and spun a fist, clocking her on the cheek. The force of the blow knocked her dizzy and she dropped to the ground, where Kat’s body slipped from her grasp. Around her, some onlookers groaned while others clapped and cheered. “Think this is all a joke? That’s my daughter.” The woman followed with a hard stomp to Shine’s stomach that had her curl up from the pain. She could sense the follow up of the other foot—
“Stop. You’ll kill her.” A man held a palm to the mother’s face.
“She killed my daughter. I’ll kill her!”
The man kneeled by Shine. She could feel him prod at her skin and her hands. “This is no murderer. Someone blind could tell you that much. She showed such exceptional care for your daughter’s body. It’s right there, you know. You’re stepping on her arm. Didn’t you notice? Poor girl, to suffer such a mother.”
The mother yanked her foot away. “Don’t you dare start criticising me. That’s my dear Kat there.”
“Then treat her like your goddamn dear Kat and show the dead some respect.” For a moment Shine thought that the man would attack the mother. Instead, he turned to Shine. “Are you alright?”
She could only make out a blurry image of the man as he helped her up onto her feet and forced her to talk beside him. Her head spun and swirled; strange shapes twisted about. “What about Kat?”
“That woman will figure out how to dispose of her.”
“But – Kat.”
“I’m sure Kat knows that you’ve done more than enough for her, wherever she is. Come on, slowly, slowly. Along this way. Don’t worry about the onlookers, they’ll lose interest.”
Her vision began to clear. The man stood a hand or two taller than her and despite everything that she had come to know in The Pit and had both a clean face and clean clothes. Her insides snapped cold, and as she moved to shove him away, his fingers clamped down and held her closer to him. He stooped his neck and breathed into her ear.
“You know what they say about making a scene, right?” he said. “Not that it’d matter.”
“You’re one of those … those Appreciators. Aren’t you?” she struggled out the words.
“Yes. I think that’s the title we’ve earned. Arnloch Grimlet will be most delighted to see you. I can see it now.” He took a step back and held his hands out in front of him, framing the space in front of him with his fingers. “Pained hubris. The smouldering smile. The – what’s your name?”
“Shine.”
“Family name?”
“Uh?”
“Should have expected it. No matter, no matter. How about this: Shining Bright?”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Well, you’ll see soon enough. I’m Falt. No family name.”
Back within the clump of stone and streets, they circled upon one of the drab towers. Just like all the other grey slabs of soulless stone, Shine had passed by the place countless times but had never walked up its steps.
Falt dragged her up by her elbow, nodded to the club-wielding men that stood guard, and pushed open the door. Shine couldn’t help the gasp that escaped from her lips. Luxuries that betrayed its gaunt exterior decorated the rooms inside: moth-eaten carpets, chipped painting frames (often empty), and unlit chandeliers. Riches beyond riches.
But the true horror waited beyond a pair of double doors.
She only caught a few brief glimpses of the room as Falt forced her through to the far end. Four cages waited in the hall, two to each side, each containing a different subject: A bearded man stood at half her size; a pair of identical twins pressed tight together in the confines of the cage, limbs tangling with one another; a man with half his head and chest covered with burn marks watched her as she crossed the room; and a girl clutched to the roof bars of the cage with her feet and dangled like a bat.
Hand like a vice, Falt marched her across the hall and opened the doors that led to a large study. A gaggle of men and women lay across the soggy and dirty couches that stretched across the room, whispering, and giggling with each other, except for one man who stood behind an easel at the far end, painting the scene. He turned to Shine and Falt when the door shut.
“Welcome to my gallery. I am Arnloch Grimlet,” the man behind the easel said. “And you?”
“Shine.”
Arnloch carried a sophisticated weight about him. He bent the rules of The Pit with his fine clothes and alight gaze, and he carried himself with distinction. She had expected someone ferocious, yet he eyed her with something akin to respect. No, not respect. Appraisal – appreciation. The man turned from her to Falt.
“You have a good eye. What does she do?”
Falt jammed an elbow into Shine’s ribs. The force of the blow made her stoop forward and clutch at her ribs before Falt yanked the back of her neck to force her to face Arnloch. “See?”
“She smiles, I see. Shine, stay right there.” Arnloch set his half-finished canvas on the ground and fetched up a new one. Shine sidled closer to get a better view of his desk which lay cluttered with finished paintings. She had never seen such vibrant meshes of colours before. Strange people in strange positions occupied the frames. She saw some depictions of the twins, or the small man, and even the girl that dangled from her feet. Underneath the pile, she saw a corner of some sort of mix between a rat and a girl.
“Impressed by all this?”
She nodded.
“It’s an interest of mine. Painting. It took a lot to get these, you know. I see your eyes roving about – never seen a carpet before? That thing you’re standing on.” He pressed a brush to the blank canvas.
“No.”
“Didn’t think so. Deruvian wool. It’s rare. Tough, too. I made a deal with someone, you see. They like my art, and they reward me for it. You know, I could put some good clothes on you. Falt?”
“Right away.” Falt swept out from the room, leaving Shine to shift her feet and twiddle with her thumbs.
“The rest of you, clear out.” Arnloch waved his hand about. The men and women ushered out. As if Arnloch had caught Shine staring at his jacket, he held out the cuff of his sleeve. “This? Leather. Deruvian on the inside. These buttons? Skebreeze metal, believe it or not – see how it refracts the light? Made in Podswollomp. But you wouldn’t know where or what that is.”
“It’s in the southern highlands.”
Arnloch paused, raised an eyebrow, and did a few cursory flicks of his brush. “How would you know that?”
Shine grimaced. How foolish was she? Why did she give away that sort of information? Silently reprimanding herself, she answered. “I read some books.”
“Don’t let the Apostiates know about them. For your own sake.”
Falt returned, arms full of dresses finer than Shine had seen all her life. Even torn and with the colour smudged out, Shine wondered whether anyone else outside of this room had ever seen such beauty and wealth before.
“Show her a few, Falt. I want one that really shows off that smile.”
Falt pressed a silky dress lined with white and blue stripes against Shine’s shoulders.
“Soolian silk, that is. That one over there is wool. That’s something called cotton. Beautiful isn’t it. And the people out in the streets? They’ve probably never seen so much as a swish of this fabric. All this – it doesn’t belong in The Pit, yet it is mine.”
Arnloch furrowed his brow, deep in thought. He raised a brush to the canvas, paused, and pulled it back. “Why not try that one?” He pointed at a black dress mixed with greys, and a splotch of scarlet red that reminded Shine of blood.
Shine bent to pick it up and paused. Why? Why should she do that? She didn’t want to be with Arnloch or Falt or any of them, but then again, she had never seen such vibrant riches before. But it wasn’t about the riches. Compared to her home, this was everything she had ever wanted, ever imagined.
But no, again that wasn’t true, either. She had imagined so much more than fraying dresses and dusty carpets. She and Kat had obsessed over those books. The fields of green, the expanse of blue. Kat had made her promise, but what good was a promise to the dead?
Her stomach churned. She felt hideous, and with that feeling of self-hatred, she smiled even harder.
No, Shine. Focus. The world out there – it didn’t matter. The Apostiates guarded it. It wasn’t for her to experience. She wasn’t one of the lucky ones. Whatever waited out there was for other people, not her. Her stomach squeezed with hunger. Her lips cracked with thirst.
She picked up the dress and held it out in front of her.
“That’s right. Try it on, I think it would look excellent on you, especially with that dazzling smile of yours.”
“Why?” She thought of the weirdos trapped in their cages. “Are you going to imprison me, too?”
Arnloch smirked. “Imprison? I would never do such a thing.”
“Then—”
“They are there of their own volition. They are on display. I pay them for their stay. I do not keep them there. I treat them well if they continue to satisfy me. You look awfully hungry yourself … but if there is anything else I can help you with … I’m sure we can come to an agreement so long as you continue to pique my artistic interest.”
They met each other’s eyes.
“Well?”
Shine sighed. “Food and water, please.”
“Deal.”
Shine slipped the dress on. The splotch of scarlet on the black fabric lined with her heart, as vivacious as a rose.
“Excellent. Hold still. There is a masterwork inside of you waiting to break free.” As Arnloch worked, his lofty expression darkened to astute concentration. What followed was a painful, quiet pair of hours as Arnloch had her keep still. Shine’s feet pained from holding the position for so long, but eventually that pain subsided, and she didn’t know what to feel or think anymore.
Standing there, with the dress worth more than ten of her lives upon her shoulders, she found herself dwelling on those books. She felt so utterly cold upon the stone, but the books had told of the yellow jewel – the sun. So warm, so bright. Incandescent. One author had talked about its feel as if it were a lover’s caress.
What would it feel like upon her own skin?
Arnloch lifted his brush, shifted back to get a better view, and nodded. “Excellent. Come look.”
Free from her sore muscles, she looked over and gasped. Not because of the skill of the artist, but of how disorienting she looked. The dark dress threw her scratchy blonde hair – matted and unkempt – into stark contrast. Scabs and bruises turned her white skin into a range of dark purple browns to sharp pinks. Arnloch commented on her yellow eyes, likening it to flames, something that she had only ever read about. But her smile, her damned smile. Where there should have been misery was an expression of joy. Or was it a grimace? It was some sort of sad, twisted mix of emotions that warped her face into some mockery of emotions.
“Not happy with it?” Arnloch frowned as she turned away.
“I look weird.”
“So do my other subjects. That’s the charm. That’s the excitement. King would love this.”
“King?”
“A name that does not concern you.”
“Is he related to the Apostiates?” The pieces clicked into place. How else would Arnloch have gotten all this stuff? White hot anger struck through her. How could he work with people like them? How could he gloat his wealth and prestige as if he did not earn them on the back of everyone’s suffering? Her hand snapped to a fist.
“Apostiates? Don’t make laugh.” Arnloch boomed out with laughter.
“Huh?” Her fingers loosened. “Then who?”
“I think you’ve asked a few too many questions for today. Falt, show her to her room. Give her something to eat. Remain interesting and worthy of painting and you may live here as long as you please.”
Falt detached himself from the wall. She had forgotten about him. As he led her back through the hall and into another door, she contemplated her good fortune. She would never go hungry again. No longer would she have to squeeze herself back through the hole and into her hideout anymore. She sighed. This was all a good thing, right? She blinked and saw Kat, sprawled out across the stone floor, her mother carelessly stepping on her limp arm. She had seen so many people come and go within The Pit, why did she care so much about Kat?
Find a way out of here. Show it to me, will you?
Falt struggled with the door to her room. He rammed his shoulder against the surface a few times before it swung open. She should have felt glad, ecstatic, at the sight in front of her. Instead, she felt hollow. Was this all the world had to offer to her? Her eyes roved over the straw bed, felt blanket, and chipped stone desk.
She didn’t want all this. She crossed the room to the bed and pressed a hand against it. It would be nice sleeping on a soft surface for once, but she didn’t want this. She wanted more. So much more. She wanted warmth.
“Alright, eh?” Falt asked her.
“It’s great. Thank you.” She didn’t look back at him. She waited for him to close the door behind her with promises of a satisfying dinner. She sat down on the bed and noticed a square wooden board on the stone desk. About as wide and long as the length of her hand, straight lines and markings crossed the surface. A series of white and black chips lay to the side.
Curiosity compelled her to inspect the board. It was some sort of game, like stone throw or finger break, but condensed onto a small, flat plane.
“Falt,” she said, “I know you’re still listening in.”
A shoulder rammed the door, and it swung open to reveal a sheepish looking Falt. “Caught.”
“What is this?”
Falt smirked at the question, as if hiding something humorous. “You are not the first to be interested in this.”
“It’s the only thing in here I can be interested in.”
“Not your lovely new bed? The prospect of a pleasant sleep?”
“They are impressive, but not interesting.”
“What do you think of Arnloch?”
Shine tilted her head. “Does this relate to the question?”
“It does. In a way.”
“I think he is a more charismatic man than I have ever seen, and cares more about his passion and possessions than anything else. But he is not as cruel as the Apostiates. And … well, he seems nice. He gave me a comfortable place to sleep. I won’t go hungry.”
“You won’t go hungry as long as you interest him,” Falt corrected. “I am sorry about that friend of yours. Kat, was it? It’s never easy losing someone, and I apologise for taking advantage of you.” But of course, Shine realised, Falt also had to satisfy Arnloch in some way if he wanted shelter and food. Finding her was part of his job. “Look. Don’t lower your guard around him. I’ve seen him lose interest in the most curious people, and good things never follow.” Falt tapped at the board. “But Arnloch loves this game.”
“What am I supposed to do with that information?”
Falt shrugged. “Whatever you please. I’ll teach you how to play.”