Page 7 of Daughter of No Worlds

I was lucky. That stunt probably would have gotten me whipped with any other owner. Now, I looked back and cringed because I didn’t even realize how lucky I was — lucky that Esmaris was, and has always been, genuinely fond of me. He had looked down at me then with a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth, even as his dark gaze remained typically sharp.

“You are worth far more than fifty silvers, Tisanaah,” he had said.

“Seventy-five, then,” I countered, and he had sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You are worth one thousand gold,” he told me, at last. “That can be the price of your freedom.”

At the time, I couldn’t even comprehend that kind of wealth. Even all these years later, that was still a struggle — even now that I physically had it in my possession.

I watched the slave trade closely in the years since. I now knew that one thousand gold was actually grossly over-value for what I was. I had seen real Valtain, with uninterrupted albino skin and pure silver hair, go for nine hundred. No matter how hard I worked at my magic or my dances, I was still Fragmented. That one green eye and splotches of golden skin reduced my value significantly. But I wanted my freedom more than anything, and if Esmaris wanted one thousand for that, well then, I would just have to make it happen.

And I did. Somehow, I did.

“He was handsome,” Serel mused. “That guest. You should have found him afterwards and thanked him.” He caught my eye and grinned, winking.

I scoffed. “That was all for show. He was more interested in you than me.”

“Really?” Serel sat up, shocked. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? That never happens.”

“You don’t want to get tangled up in that.”

“Yes I do!”

“Fine. I’m sorry. I was distracted.” I turned my head to meet his tired blue-eyed stare. “At least now you know for next time he’s here.”

“He probably won’t be invited back, after that display,” he sighed. What both of us knew but didn’t say aloud was that it was probably for the better. Dalliances with the wealthy were extremely risky for people like us. I had learned that the hard way, once, and was rewarded with a broken heart and ten lashes to the backs of my thighs. I could still count every individual strike in the scars.

If Serel was ever caught with a wealthyman?Death. No question.

There was a long silence. I had thought that Serel had finally dozed off, until he asked, quietly, “So what now? The Orders?”

I nodded. “The Orders.”

“I’ll be honest,” he whispered, “I never thought it would happen.”

Neither did I, I wanted to say, but as a rule I didn’t dignify uncertainty out loud.

“I’m proud of you, Ti. If anyone deserves it—”

“You deserve it. All of us deserve it.”

Deserve. I hated that word, even though I had spent so much of my life clinging to it.

“We’ll get there.” He said it so simply, so matter-of-factly.

I sat up, swinging my legs beneath me, looking down at him as he lay there with his hands behind his head. It was always so easy for him to assume the best in people, in life. At first I had thought it was a mask he slipped on, the way I slipped into my flirty dances and practiced my confidence until it was a begrudging part of me. But soon I learned that he really meant it — reallybelievedit. Even though his story was just as bloody as mine.

I had recognized that kindness in him the very first time I saw him. I had traveled with Esmaris on a short business trip to a neighboring city, and I had sat behind him and watched as rows of slaves were marched through the marketplace. It was awful. The pain and terror in the air was unbearable, tearing through my head and my muscles as if I were experiencing the worst day in the lives of dozens of people, all at once — and on top of that, vividly reliving mine, too.

But even through that tangle of emotions, Serel had caught my eye. He had stopped to comfort a young girl beside him — younger than I was when I stood in their place — and even though it had earned him a shout and a vicious lash from the slaver, he had still offered that child such a genuine smile. Serel was tall and muscular, but all I could see were those big watery blue eyes, those features that were so kind and delicate that they were almost childlike.

If Esmaris did not purchase him, he would have been bought by a mercenary faction. He would have become one of the men that yanked my family from their beds that night, years ago. And I couldn’t bear to see that happen. “What about that one?” I had whispered to Esmaris. “He is just what you’re looking for.”

If Esmaris had given thought to why I had such an interest in this one handsome young man, or had any assumptions about why that might be the case, he didn’t show it. After a moment of thought, he raised his palm, and Serel was his.

I had spent a long time in his bed that night, as if he expected compensation for ceding to my request. But it was worth it, because Serel quickly became the best friend I had ever had — before slavery or after.

Now, I watched my friend with a lump rising in my throat, suddenly emotional for reasons I couldn’t explain. For a moment, the idea of giving him my money — buyinghisfreedom — crossed my mind. He was better than I was. Deserved it more.

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