Page 86 of Kept to Kill
It was only a moment or two later that she was able to open her eyes fully. She looked down at herself in awe as she watched the bruises fade and disappear. She looked back up at him.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said.
The Brother gave her a stony look. ‘We all have our curses,’ he murmured, turning away.
‘Get up,’ the other one next to him said. ‘We don’t have much time.’
‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked.
‘To your unit.’
‘You’re going to help me escape?’
‘We are.’
‘Why? Aren’t you the Scholar’s men?’
None of them answered. A dress was thrown to her.
‘Put this on,’ she was ordered, and she did as she was told, flinging it over her head.
It was torn and dirty and resembled a sack, but anything was better than being publicly naked a moment longer.
The third one, who was still watching the door, opened it and looked out into the hall.
‘Clear. Let’s go now.’
She was taken from the room and they moved silently down the hallway to the next door. The third one opened it nonchalantly and went through as if they had every right to be doing what they were doing. Lily heard a low tap on the floor, a signal perhaps that all was clear, because they moved forward again into the stacks. They strode around the perimeter of the library.
They saw no guards, and what few students there were simply gave them curious, fearful glances and were quickly cowed into focusing back on their work by the Brothers’ harsh glares.
‘Won’t they say anything?’ she mumbled from between them.
‘They know their places,’ one of the Brothers said. ‘If they know what’s good for them, they won’t say a word.’
Lily nodded. Clearly there was a hierarchy in this place that she knew nothing about.
‘Who are all these people?’ she asked
‘Students at the academy. They come in here for their studies from the building across the river.’
They walked down the corridor, away from the books. And then they were outdoors on the street, in the sun.
‘Thank you,’ she said, breathing deeply of the outside air.
The first of them nodded and the second said nothing.
The third snorted. ‘Don’t thank us yet,’ he mumbled. ‘Come.’
They walked down the main city road. The sun was high. And Lily saw that they were walking toward the docks, not to the safe house.
‘Where’s my unit?’ she asked.
None of them answered her.
‘Please. We are going to them, aren’t we?’
Lily was beginning to panic. What if they were going to put her on a ship? What if she was being taken somewhere else? What if she would never see her unit again? Her hands began to shake until one of them looked over at her, noticed her distress with a frown, and put her out of her misery.
