Clouded Purity - Book 2 of The Trial

Clouded Purity - Chapter 2

Nameless grunted in pain as a bump in the road sent his head slamming against the reinforced wall of the vehicle. He growled and glanced at the barred grate separating him from the driver, wishing he could take a shot at Ol' Boggi, the village constable to remind him how to drive.

Boggi took the growl as an invitation to comment on Nameless's situation, which only served to aggravate him further. "You know, boy . . . it'll only be for a few years, then you can come back out, if'n that's what you want."

"Pfft . . . why would I ever?" Nameless replied, settling back into a more comfortable sitting position in the bed of the truck, becoming all too aware again of the darkness of his cage. He preferred the dark—with his dark hair and ebony skin, he could blend into the shadows with ease, making it easy for him to steal whatever he needed to survive.

A tiny sliver of light fed through the window leading to the cab where Boggi sat, spoiling the darkness for Nameless. He spat, trying to reach the window from his current position and failing. "Ain't nothing there for me now, Boggi," he said as the spittle hit the wall a foot below the window.

If Boggi heard Nameless spit, he didn't show it. "Sure they is, they's all there for you."

"They's? Not we's?" Nameless laughed. "If'n you think I don't know the dif'rence, you don't know nothin', Boggi." He smirked and rested his head against the wall again. "You can't wait to be leavin' me in Kob. I just keep on causin' you trouble. Well, I ain't none yours now, Constabli."

"Now, Jurka, there ain't no need for that. You's be welcome, when you's done your time," Boggi replied.

"My name ain't Jurka no more, Boggi," Nameless replied.

Boggi scoffed. "Who are you, then?"

Nameless didn't have an answer, not anymore at least. Jurka had never seemed like much of a name, and it wasn't even the one he'd received at birth. It meant 'brown-eyed', as unoriginal as the people who'd chosen it. Whatever his mother had called him died with her, when he was too young to remember even her face. Tobrig—a man claiming to be his father—had taken care of him for his first fourteen years and called him Jurka, but he later learned Tobrig had kidnapped him as a baby and raised him to do his dirty work.

Nameless hadn't minded, as at least Tobrig kept him fed. He'd also taught Nameless everything he knew about thievery and swindling, but Tobrig died a year ago after being caught in bed with another man's wife. Nameless didn't care for the name 'Jurka' after that, preferring to distance himself from Tobrig's memory in the eyes of his neighbors.

But that left Nameless without much of an identity, only a great deal of unsavory character, which his neighbors refused to tolerate regardless of any changes he made. Stealing to survive or swindling unsuspecting travelers were the only skills he had, but those skills didn't give him a name.

Boggi deserved an answer though, one fitting to the aggravation he caused Nameless. "I'm the nameless wind, and I'm gonna slip right through these bars, and I'm gonna cut you so good, you's be praying for a doctor, ya hear?"

"I been nothin' but kind t' you, boy. You stole eggs, that's a crime," Boggi replied in exasperation.

"Ain't no crime to feed yourself."

Boggi sighed. "You's stole enough eggs to feed yourself twenty times over, then sold 'em t' unsuspecting people 'cause no one else had them's eggs. If it'd been the first time you's had done somethin' the like, I mighta looked down the south road and let you's go north, but it ain't. You's a thief, boy, and it's time you's worked it off."

"Keep your backwash justice, Boggi," Nameless said. "I ain't talkin' t' you no more."

And he didn't, no matter how many times Boggi tried to start a conversation. In a few hours they'd arrive at Kobinaru, the regional capital of Tehir Province, the largest province in Ultaka. Nameless had never seen the ocean, but if he ended up indentured on the Kobinaru docks he'd get to see it. Tobrig had once said he learned his best tricks on the Kobinaru docks.