Page 10 of The Omega Slave

Tsaria started chewing the disgusting mouthful and nearly spat it out, but then he heard Tam talking to someone else. “Now little fella,” he whispered, and Tsaria heard the squeak of what sounded like a mouse.

He shut his eyes because he wasn’t fond of rodents, and if Tam was insane enough to talk to one, he might as well try to sleep so he couldn’t hear it.

Chapter five

Tsaria’s eyes shot open in panic, and it took him a long, disorientating moment to figure out he was still in his cramped cell, and another moment to work out that the noise from the guard shouting at the kid in the next door cell was what had woken him.

He turned his head and his heart clenched. The boy was on his own. He didn’t know where his mam was, but it didn’t look good. And the guard that was shouting was one of the regular bullies. Not that they weren’t all bad, but this one seemed to take great enjoyment in it.

“I said,” the guard shouted, banging on the bars with his stick. “Shut the fuck up or I’ll give you something to cry about.”

“Put him in here with me,” Tsaria croaked out before he thought better of it, and the guard turned to look.

“Means if he continues to make that annoying fucking noise, it’ll be you that suffers,” the guard said, and his smile showed a row of rotting yellow teeth.

Like I wasn’t already.

Tsaria nodded, expecting even the tiny movement to hurt, and was surprised when it didn’t. Then memory flooded him.Tam.The emir. Wait, something about a mouse? What the hell had been in that stuff he gave him? By the time he’d decided that he didn’t care what it was, he grunted as a smelly bundle of nothing but bones and tears hit him. The guard had tossed the kid right on top of him.

Tsaria’s arms came around the boy automatically and he ignored the guard as he sauntered over to his rickety table and took a swig out of the jug that was on it. By the goddess he was thirsty. Juggling the boy, he sat up cautiously, noticing Tam was absent. But in the shadows of Tam’s empty cell he saw a clay pot, the type they used to hand out the swill they called beer in here. Cheaper than water anyway. Only the posh people in the city could afford it to be brought clean from the country.

“What’s your name?” Tsaria whispered.

“Jael,” the boy mumbled.

“Tsaria.” And he hesitated. “Where’s your mam?”

Jael shook his head and buried it in Tsaria’s shoulder. “She didn’t talk,” he whispered. “After the men came. Then they took her this morning when she wouldn’t wake up. "

Tsaria closed his eyes in despair. “I need to go use my pot. Can you wait there for me?”

Another nod, and Tsaria put him down on the pallet, managed to stand and walk to relieve himself, then thanks to the dim shadows keeping him mostly hidden, he crossed to the opposite corner next to Tam’s empty cell and reached for the clay beaker, thin enough to get through the bars. By the goddess, it was still full, but almost as if hidden. Had Tam left it for him?

Then he remembered what else he had said. It couldn’t possibly be true. He took a quick couple of sips, then returned to the pallet and whispered for Jael to drink quietly but finish it.

He sat back down and pulled Jael close, not attempting to fool himself that it was just Jael that needed the comfort and they both dozed for a while until the opening of his cell door jarred him awake.

“Get up, you’re wanted.” He got a flash of yellow teeth. Tsaria hesitated a second too long, but instead of the guard’s cane striking his legs, he hit Jael and the little boy cried out and tried to draw his bare feet away from the monster who had just lashed out at him. Tsaria jumped up and stood in front of the boy and the guard grinned, tying Tsaria’s hands before leading him out.

Tsaria sent Jael what he hoped was a reassuring look, even though he was trying not to visibly shake. He wasn’t sure he would survive another beating. Then a second guard stepped in behind him and picked Jael up, a hand over the boy’s mouth to silence him.

“What—” But Tsaria’s thoughtless words were cut off by another blow and the guard sneered.

“Told the sarge you might not squeal if they hit you, but I doubt you’d keep quiet for the rat.”

A sudden chill swept through his body, and he could feel the blood draining from his face. What had he done? He couldn’t let Jael be hurt, which meant he was stuck. What if the emir didn’t want anyone to know? What if that was why the nobleman was doing this to him? Would it put the emir in danger? He wasn’t so stupid that he didn’t know even the rich and powerful had enemies, maybe more than the poor. And it hadn’t occurred to him that his silence might be protecting the emir, not just himself. What had Tam said? His thoughts from last night were fuzzy, but he was sure—as ridiculous as it seemed—that the emir was trying to find him. But how did the ruler of the whole country not know who was in his own dungeon?

Of course he doesn’t.Of all the addle-brained thoughts he’d had since he woke, that must make the top of the list. Since when did rulers care who they trampled on?

He was dragged up a short flight of stairs and into the room he remembered from all the other times he’d been made to see the nobleman. He tried to swallow down his dry throat, convinced the small amount of beer he’d drunk was about to make a reappearance. Instead of being dragged past the desk, another guard halted them.

“What’s he doing out of his cell?”

The third guard sitting behind the desk grunted in annoyance. “I’ve gotten an order saying his lordship wanted him, and Simms here thought the lad would provide added incentive.” Tsaria could feel the guard holding him puff up a little, as if he was being praised for threatening a child. The other guard frowned in annoyance.

“That doesn’t make sense. He’s in a meeting.”

And then Tam’s words hit Tsaria harder than the guards’ fists. He was getting out. Somehow the miracle was happening, but Jael? He couldn’t leave the child.

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