Page 12 of Freedom Mine
He raised an eyebrow at that. “More for me then.” He pulled her glass over and downed it fairly quickly. “How about you tell me something about yourself instead. Like your name.”
When she shook her head, he poured himself another drink and leaned back and put his feet up on one of the two empty chairs. “You know I’m going to keep asking your name. I like a challenge, but mostly, I’d like to know your name. How bad can it be?”
She stared at him. He’d already named her. What did it matter what her birth name was? It’s not like it meant anything to anyone, except her.
“Take the men here, for example. There’s Masher, Diggs, and Runner. They earned their names based on the jobs where they were slaves. Masher was in charge of crushing stone at a quarry, Diggs, well he dug a lot of graves. Rather morbid work, but I guess someone has to do it. And Runner, he’s fast and lean and the best way of getting messages to neighbors or even town when the landglider is out. And then there’s Eight. Almost forgot him. Not sure how I could forget him.”
“The alcohol perhaps,” she said, cursing herself the second she said it.
He quirked a brow but didn’t strike her. Nothing about how he held himself, relaxed, casual, indicated he wanted or even considered harming her. Huh.
“As I was about to say, Eight was the eighth man on a team that went into scrubbers to clean them. Apparently, the higher the number the shittier the job in the scrubbers, and those are ten-man teams.
Occasionally, a slave uses his given name though. Like Ranth. He doesn’t take crap from anyone.”
Kayo leaned forward, so close she could smell the brandy on his breath. She could smell what lay beneath the alcohol too. He had an earthy smell to him, like the woods, and spices, from cooking no doubt. And soap. That surprised her, but it was nice to see a man who liked staying clean.
Those deep brown eyes stared at her, a little too long sometimes, like now, but then he’d turn away, as if his mind was elsewhere. She wished she knew what he was thinking, and if she could believe anything he told her.
“So, Blue, who has the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen, if and when you decide to tell me your name, I’ll be ready to listen.”
They weren’t talking about names anymore, were they?
There was a loud knock from the front of the house. “Boss,” someone called.
Kayo set his glass down, picked up the bottle as he rose, as if to take it with him, then he set that down too, his finger circling the neck of the bottle for a moment before he pulled away, his hand clenched at his side.
“Blue, I know we haven’t discussed chores, so let’s see how you are at cleaning. Would you tackle the kitchen?” he said, and stood there waiting for an answer.
Gods, he’d asked her, not ordered her. Maybe she had been wrong about him. But that stable hand had referred to her as the ‘new slave.”
“I’ll clean it,” she said.
Kayo treated her to a grin, and it was a treat. Even if he was her owner, there was a genuineness in that grin of his that made some of the tension float away each time she saw it. He brushed by her chair on his way out, mumbling something barely audible as he passed. It almost sounded like,‘Please, stay.’
Alli scrubbed and cleaned the kitchen for hours until it shined, hoping the work would keep her thoughts off of Kayo. His words haunted her.‘Please, stay.’It made no sense. He owned her, it’s not like she had a choice to leave. Or did she? Maybe she really was free to leave.
She’d have to test her theory, go beyond the pylons when she was alone. The chip would paralyze, kill, or let her pass unharmed as before.
He could be playing games with her. It wouldn’t be the first time an owner had done that. Was it worth risking her life to find the answer?
No, she could wait a bit longer, try to find her answer another way. The conditions here were not bad, not yet. If they turned bad, if she got desperate, then she wouldn’t hesitate to pass through those pylons.
The day had been long, mostly because she was in a new place, with a new owner. It always took a few weeks to settle into a new household. Routines became apparent over time, as did personalities and rules. Rules didn’t seem to exist here, except for having to pitch in and do whatever it took to keep the mine running.
Exhausted and ready to sleep, Alli pushed the door open to her room,. She hadn’t even showered, unsure where to go. She’d quickly used the facilities, when Kayo was out, mostly because she saw no alternative. She’d have to ask him tomorrow where she should go to shower.
She tapped the control panel and light filled the attic. There in the middle of the room, where her makeshift bed had been on the floor, stood a real bed with a mattress with sheets, blankets, and a pillow with a blue pinstripe border. . . the bedding she’d seen in Kayo’s room.
