The Given Children

Chapter Two

“Yes Governor Pontius, we caught these orphan-serfs at the fair. That one-“ He pointed to me and I put on my stoniest look when the governor glanced over at me. “Was making some sort of paste-must’ve been magic- because she was putting it on a cut the boy had and it healed right up! Wasn’t even a scar or mark there.”

I swallowed the guilt I felt rising in me for getting us caught, it was my fault we were here. Lapis and Daven gave me reassuring looks when they saw me stiffen in response to the comment.

“How fascinating.” The governor whispered. He walked up to me, studying me as well. “I’ve never seen one of the Given Children without their uniforms, away from their Witchlord like this.”

He spoke in an offhand tone as though I was a creature to be observed and not a human with free will. This wasn’t unusual though, if someone spoke directly to us it was in a one of disgust or mocking. Daven grit his teeth at the rudeness still though. It had been a while since we had been treated like Given Children.

“Yes.” He continued, oblivious to our reactions “It’s not often that Given Children run away from their Witchlord, or at least succeed in doing so. How interesting...”

The captain was trying to tell him about how heroic he’d been in catching us when the governor came to Daven and spoke to him.

“Tell me, Given Child, why are you not with your master?” The governor looked at him expectedly with his hands behind his back, looking at Daven like he was a misbehaving boy. Daven squared his shoulders and looked him in the eye, his voice steady and strong.

“I have no master.” Lapis and I tensed, worried by how the governor might react but he just smiled in amusement and shook his head a little. I couldn’t help smiling a little too at Daven’s declaration though for a different reason. There was a pride that we had built up over the past two years on our own, an independence that we cherished, and Daven was the one who was always reminding us that we belonged to no one, we were our own people.

“Your Mark clearly shows that you belong to the Witchlord Solis and the House of Sol. You should feel loyal to him! What happened that made you so contrary?”

Daven opened his mouth and then closed it, a look of frustration and fury coming over his face when he tried again to speak but couldn’t. He glared at the governor with loathing, hands shaking at his sides, who only smirked in response. I curled my hands into fists, grinding my teeth in anger, my smile quickly gone.  It had been a test. He knew we couldn’t talk about what we did for Solis or what went on in his House, our Marks stopped us, gagging us from betraying any our Witchlord’s secrets or speaking anything regarding what we knew about magic.

“That’s cruel.” We all looked over in surprise at Lapis, whose lovely, soft voice had spoken. Lapis didn’t talk back or confront anyone, she was usually too scared. She only did so when she felt Daven or I was in trouble or feeling hopeless. She still did look terrified at having spoken up and blood rose to her cheeks as we all looked at her. She clutched at her arms, but couldn’t do much else as we were all still being held fast by the guards.

“You look too fragile to live like this, far away from your home and Witchlord.” The governor spoke softly, leaning forward to stroke her cheek with back of his hand, his head tilted to the side as he looked at her with pity.

                Daven lunged at him but was quickly stopped before he could move a foot by another guard who had stepped forward to help. The two men were holding his hands behind him and had forced him to his knees. I gasped but the governor didn’t even glance at him. Lapis clenched her eyes shut, leaning away from his touch. He slid his hand down her face once more and she cringed back, biting her lip. I wanted to throttle him for scaring her. Lapis was already a bit of a nervous wreck and she hated being touched, even sometimes by me and Daven.