Rapunzel: Retold (Book 1)

Chapter 3

Now, there lived in that same country, a young man named Kole who had lived a life of misfortune. He was born a slave in a neighbouring nation, where such things are lawful. The man who owned him was a wealthy landowner, who had bought Kole's parents from a slave merchant. Kole's father worked the land, along with the other males, while Kole's mother worked in the kitchen and saw to the livestock. 

Kole was born into a life of drudgery and servitude, serving variously as spit-turner, dishwasher, fruit-picker and chamber boy. So might it have continued save for the happenstance of circumstance that upsets many lives without warning.

The landowner fell into debt. Kole's owner sold off his estate and his possessions. The boy and his parents were sold off, but separately. Kole was never to see either his mother or father again. At fourteen, Kole was indentured to work as a serving boy in a fabulous House of Pleasure, the Abode of The Seven Moons, one of the foremost in the capital of that nation. It was here that gentlemen of wealth and leisure came to spend their seed and their gold. Both were received with pleasure. There, Kole learned much, and not just cooking.

The Captain of the House was a cruel man, and hated Kole because of the colour of his skin.

"Blackamoor," the Captain would snort. "You are only an animal. And as an animal is how you shall be treated." He gave Kole the very worst jobs, the Captain being quick to find fault. Kole was often beaten when he did not meet the Captain's standards. These punishments were dealt late at night in Kole's subterranean basement room, only a closet with bare walls and an earth floor that Kole shared with rats.

This, too, might have been how Kole ended his days, except that Time passes on, and with that, all things change. Kole grew tall and strong; the more he grew, the more the Captain resented him. It didn't help that passaging years shrunk the Captain to a shadow of his former might; the Captain's belly swelled up, his skin turned yellow, his bones bent and his muscles wasted away. Some of the other servants said it was because of the bottle of rum the Captain took to his bed every evening.

Losing his potency seemed to drive the Captain into greater rage and Kole's suffering at the Captain's hands multiplied until it became too much. One night, when the Captain attempted to exert his authority in the usual way, Kole stove the man's head in. And fled. Slaves had no right to justice in that land. They would torture Kole to death.

So it was that Kole arrived, having snuck onboard a trading ship at dark. Kole survived the passage by catching and eating the rats that he shared the ship's hold with. This nation, ruled by a Mage Emperor, had no custom of slavery. Here, all were free to come and go, to prosper and live, or fail and die, by their own talents, or lack of it. In the capital city, Kole was just one of thousands gathered from all across The Known World to make their fortunes, or lose everything.

He lived on the streets and soon attracted the attention of a band of criminals who styled themselves The Black Hand. Kole learned to thieve, starting first with picking pockets then progressing to house-breaking. For the first time, Kole had something akin to a family. The thieves were a rough bunch, for sure, but they shared their gains in fair proportion, which was far more than Kole had ever received.

He would have happily lived the rest of his life in this way, but young Kole nurtured a deep ambition: to rise above the squalor and struggle of street life, and to make something of himself. He had seen how the rich lived, been splashed with ditchwater by their racing carriages, run his hands over the silk sheets in their unoccupied bedrooms. Kole wanted that, and more. So it was that he approached a fence, a man that rumour said was a representative of the infamous Brotherhood of Thieves, that shadowy organisation that ran much of the city's unofficial commerce. There was no aspect of organised crime that did not have the Brotherhood's hand in it.

The fence, a wizened old man from the Distant East, had shaken his head.

"The Brotherhood will not admit just anyone, laddie. To become an apprentice, ye must bring something to them that has great value. Something you have gained through your own skills. Alone. Unaided. That shows them ye have ability."

Kole's face had fallen. "But what? What kind of thing? Gold? Jewelry? Pearls? I know of-"

The man shook his head again. "Nothing so ordinary. The Brotherhood does not bother with burglary or petty thievery. No, ye must bring something of unusual value. What exactly? Well, ye'll have to figure that out for yourself. Consider it part of the test." The fence winked. "Rest assured, I'll let the Brothers know of your success. IF it happens."

A crackdown by the Constabulary meant The Black Hand had to be disbanded for safety. To keep body and soul together, Kole took a job as a porter in the fish market. It was sweaty, dirty, stinking work, but no worse than he had been used to as a child. From the fishwives, he learned the art of patter. So skilled did he become at trading barb for barb that he won many over, what with his good looks and charming manner. One of these was a travelling trader, who had occasionally bought some of The Black Hand's acquisitions to sell on elsewhere in the country for profit. It was the trader who told Kole of Lord Verimli's country estate, some leagues from the city near the forest that covered the foot of the mountains.

"Some say," the trader said, leaning in, "the house is brimming with occult artefacts. Lord Verimli is a collector." He paused, glanced around, before continuing. "If you come across something, I might know a witch or two who could take it off your hands. Magicians are always in the market for the arcane. I could put you in touch. For a cut." He ended with a wink before taking his mackerel and disappearing into the crowd.

With nothing to lose and much to gain, Kole made enquiries, then set out on foot, taking all his bare belongings in a rough sack.