Drowning (Kaz Brekker)

i - Awful Company

When the door first opened, Asra had felt something slip from that fortified spot in her mind and fill her every inch. It drowned her mind of sense, unfurled in her stomach like a knot, lit her nerves like a bonfire. She was suddenly wild, a child in a dank and dark room, system full of clearance and not a clue where she was. She swept her feet out and knocked the first man she saw off her feet. The bindings suddenly didn't matter. Asra blinked and she was atop the man, sprawled out on his front, biting. The Dog Girl, the other children had whispered. Some had giggled. Most had been too scared to even look at her.

Someone grabbed her. Two sets of strong hands gripped her, one each arm, and lifted her up. Asra was too crazed to thrash, or maybe too crazed to remember, but all the same they shoved her to the wall. A hand on each of her shoulders, another on her throat, the last collided with her stomach.

Jan Van Eck, with the help of another guard, there were four she could see, got to his feet. He brushed the dirt off his immaculate black suit, touched his hand to his ear. It came away wet with blood. Van Eck scowled and turned to Asra, who glared.

"Must you always be so violent?" He said.

"Maybe stop kidnapping me and I'll consider being civil." She bore her bloody teeth in something almost passing for a smile.

Van Eck cringed and wiped his hand on a handkerchief someone had passed him. He pressed it to his bleeding ear tenderly. "You're like some feral beast." He said.

Asra's smile was as genuine as it ever got. "And you some pampered pup, merch."

He frowned, handed the bloody handkerchief back to a guard, and strode into the room. "I was trying to be civilised with this deal -"

"Oh yeah, kidnapped, tossed about like a ragdoll, blind folded and bound. Real civilised, Jan." Asra rolled her eyes.

The merchant simply shrugged. "The deal is the deal. Your mother wants you returned, I want money. You people have a saying for slavery, don't you?"

Men are money, women have worth, and that is power. "Those words are not meant for people like you." They were made by the slaves, the indentures and nameless, the taken and sold, those with no one but themselves. The knowledge of those words was something Asra wished she'd never learnt.

Van Eck shrugged. "Very well. Now -"

"What about Brekker?"

"What about him?"

"He'll want me back too." I want you, his words were a taunt in her mind. Asra refused to pay attention to it. "He'll be coming."

"Oh, yes, I did give him the chance to broker a trade for your safety. But he does not seem to be making an appearance." Van Eck said, hands tucked behind his back.

"What was the trade?"

"You for Kuwei Yul-Bo."

"You'd have better luck just paying him. You know, like you agreed to. The deal is the deal, after all." A smile touched her lips, twisted and mocking.

Van Eck frowned. "You aren't a businesswoman, girl, you're a trade."

"Yet here you are, about to ask me for information."

"What makes you say that?"

Asra shrugged. "You haven't said my name, gave any hints as to how long it's been, came in flanked by probably your best guards. You insist on reminding me of my less-than-human status. These aren't your words, Van Eck, they're my mother's. She's told you how to deal with me, and rule number one is to keep me isolated. You've gone off script coming in here, so you must be really desperate." She laughed, a sound like a dog's snarl.