The General's Daughter

Chapter 16

The tunnel really wasn't too bad. It weaved through the massive wall around the kingdom. Cracks in the stone allowed enough light in so that we weren't in total darkness like the last time.

Actually, it was mildly comforting. Not that it was a nice place or anything, but at least for the moment, we were making real progress without having to worry about being seen. But it was a while before we found the exit. Even if I'd known where we started from, I wouldn't have any idea where we ended up. Which was probably the idea. Someone trying to escape this way would want plenty of distance between where they disappeared inside the kingdom and where they wound up on the other side of the wall.

As expected, when Reed and I emerged through the opening, nothing was familiar. This definitely wasn't any place I'd been before, and it wasn't any place I'd want to be again. It was the slums. An alley in the slums, to be exact.

I hadn't even known the kingdom contained this sort of area, but that was stupid. After all, the lower class had to live somewhere. I'd just never given it much thought before.

Which was yet another reminder of how spoiled and self-centered I'd been.

"Lovely..." Reed mumbled, taking in the piles of rotting garbage and puddles of mysterious liquid that I hoped was just dirty water. The smell was unbelievable.

He glanced at me. "Well let's not waste time, sight-seeing."

If it wouldn't have taken precious oxygen, I'd have responded. Instead I nodded and hurried after him.

I was accustomed to the hustle and bustle of the busier areas of the kingdom, but I'd never seen or heard anything like what I was experiencing now. It was just so...lively and loud. Many of the people were crude. I suppose while the upper class was present, the other classes behaved with more civility. But this...I'd never even heard some of these words. Of the ones I could distinguish, at least.

There were beggars and brothels, and men who were obviously drunk, staggering around or passed out. Scantily clad women solicited themselves from doorways despite the fact that it wasn't even dark yet, and dirty, bedraggled children ran every which way. Everywhere you looked, someone was hustling somewhere or shouting.

I didn't want to prolong my time in this place, especially since it was getting close to sunset, but several times I stopped and stared, only realizing I was doing it when Reed would pull me along.

I couldn't seem to help it. It was all so astonishing and terrible. I'd realized that one building was a brothel by the activity that was easily seen through the window. One woman on the street was slapping a child and screaming at him for losing a penny. And perhaps the most shocking of all was when I saw the child who couldn't have been more than six-years-old, pick the pocket of an unconscious man in the street, and then with a vicious kick, scurry off before anyone else even noticed him.

My parents would probably be horrified if they knew where I was, and I was utterly grateful to look nothing at all like myself.

I was also glad that I wasn't carrying Cara's basket any longer. Once the food was gone, there hadn't been much reason to carry it. Reed and I divided up the few things that had been left, and put them in our pockets. Then Reed had advised me to tuck the dagger away where it wasn't so obvious. I wondered what sort of target I'd have been if Reed hadn't thought ahead.

"Out of the way, clumsy fool!"

I was roughly shoved backward and nearly lost my balance on the dirt road. Shocked, I stared at the large woman who had pushed me, forgetting Reed's advice to not make eye contact.

"Nearly run me over!" she barked. "Try watchin' where you're goin'!"

As this woman was probably close to three times my size, I thought the danger of me running her over was pretty slim.