Page 83 of Freedom Mine
Chapter Eighteen
ALLI
Alli hid under a tarp in the back of the landglider. Jace would never have let her go with him to town, even if she’d reminded him that it was her choice. Jace respected her freedom as much as Kayo, but Jace would have pointed out that off the property she was vulnerable. But she needed to see Kayo, to make sure he was okay.
For two days, she had poured through the books on the local law in Kayo’s office, finally finding a way to help Kayo. If the identity of a man was in question, a request for verification could be submitted.
Jace filed the necessary paperwork calling into question the identity of Griz Aldor, Tieg’s alias. A day later, Jace had received a notice to appear at the Magistrate’s office.
Even though she was a slave, there was always a chance the Magistrate might listen to her if the formal request alone wasn’t enough to sway him to release Kayo. It was a long shot, but she couldn’t stay behind, not if there was a chance she could help Kayo.
She followed Jace, at a discreet distance. Town was busier than she had remembered, and the man moved fast, making it hard to keep eyes on him as he darted through the throngs of people. In the distance, she heard the bellow of the auctioneer advertising his latest shipment of slaves and harkifa.
Alli froze at the sound of his voice. It felt as if hundreds of eyes were on her, ogling her, preparing to buy her all over again. In reality, only a few men and women gave her a cursory look and that was because she’d stopped moving in the middle of a busy street. With her hair pulled back in a braid and the new yellow dress she wore, she didn’t look like a slave, but if she stood there much longer, someone would question her, or worse, scan her.
Despite the growing panic at having lost sight of Jace, she forced herself to keep moving. She looked for Jace’s white shirt, tan pants, and brown boots. Unfortunately, more than half the men dressed similarly to Jace, in workman’s clothes.
Alli screamed as a man grabbed her from behind and dragged her into an alley.
“You shouldn’t have come, Blue,” Jace said, his face filled with anger.
“I have to see him, to make sure he’s okay.”
“He’s not okay, he’s in a damned cage.”
“You’ve seen him?”
“No, but I’ve been to the Magistrate’s office before, and I’ve seen where they keep prisoners. It’s a cage, one too small to even fully extend your arms.”
Her stomach rolled as images of cages she’d seen used in punishment rooms flashed through her head. The cages were often too small to move or sit. Rarely was there a space for a toilet, leaving a slave no choice but to live in his own waste.
Some overseers draped material over cages to keep the punished slave in the dark, or they wrapped most of the cage in plastic to raise the heat to unbearable levels. Overseers never lacked creativity when it came to torturing their slaves.
Of all people to put in a cage. . . Kayo didn’t do well in small spaces.
Jace pulled her along by her hand. “I can’t leave you alone in the glider, and it’s too late to take you back to our property. You say nothing, do nothing, just stand immediately at my back at all times.”
She knew the routine. If it meant she’d get to see Kayo, then it would be worth lowering her eyes and deferring to the orders of those around her.
They entered the First Lead’s office. It was nothing more than a large room, the size of the first floor of Kayo’s house, separated by a brick partition that was level with her head and ran the length of the room. On the one side, four desks neatly lined the wall. Behind each desk sat a man in a black uniform with a gold emblem on the left shoulder, indicating the Office of the Magistrate. Local men and women were seated at the desks, discussing their issues, and more citizens waited in benches along the far wall. Jace frowned at the long line but headed over to a woman with a tablet to give her his name. She directed him to sit on the bench.
Jace pointed Alli toward the other side of the room, past the rather high partition. She lifted on her toes long enough to see two guards talking, but not the cages or prisoners.
“You can walk over to the cages, to let Kayo see you, but don’t talk to him or anyone else. And don’t be surprised if he doesn’t recognize you.”
“Why wouldn’t he recognize me?”
“Kayo’s been caged before, as a slave. It’s why he has trouble in small spaces. I don’t know what condition he’ll be in, Blue.”
Jace left her standing at the wall while he took his place in line. Alli took a slow, deep breath to prepare herself and passed the divider.
Jace hadn’t been exaggerating about the size of the cages. The cages were impossibly small, not even granting the men the room to stand or lie down.
In the first cage, the prisoner laid on his back with his legs propped up against the back wall, the only solid and smooth wall in his prison. The other three walls each had vertical bars covered in two-inch long barbs. A shiver ran through her as the man’s head moved perilously close to one of those barbs.
Despite the urge to call out to the man, to warn him of the barb, she remembered Jace’s warning and kept her mouth shut as she passed the first cage in search of Kayo. The two guards that had been talking earlier eyed her. The heat of their gazes caused her to avert her eyes.
The next prisoner, clearly drunk given the smell of alcohol, thrust his hand through the jagged bars, slicing his hand open. He swore and pulled his arm in.
