Fourteen year old Kai skirted the thick crowd. He glanced up at the sky. The sun hung low along the western horizon. His heart rate accelerated and he picked up his pace. Nya expected him home now and he still hadn't left the docks. She was going to kill him. Hopefully the apple and hard cheese in his pockets would decrease her fury.
Shaking his head Kai looked at the swarm of people before him. It would take over an hour to get home if he kept to his usual route. His gaze darted to the broken cobblestone paths leading between buildings. There was a reason most people avoided those. Kai ran a hand through his hair. Get home a half hour sooner, or possibly not get home at all?
'Oh what the heck.' Kai darted down the side street, keeping a clipped pace. Probably not his smartest choice, but what Nya didn't know wouldn't hurt her. 'Unless it gets you killed.' The small, occasionally rational, part of his brain hissed. With practiced ease Kai ignored the words.
The alleyway felt unnaturally quiet, especially since the crowded street was only a block behind him. Something felt so off about this place that Kai started to backtrack toward the main road when a muffled whimper came nearby. The crack of skin on skin abruptly cut off the sound. Kai cringed, expecting a scream to follow, but the heavy silence returned. If anything that was more disconcerting than a scream would have been. The person on the receiving end didn't expect any help.
Kai half turned, ready to dart back to the relative safety of the crowd, but his foot caught on a loose stone. Unable to catch himself in time Kai fell to his hands and knees. During his mad scramble to get up, he found himself near a building with a small window at his current eye level. Before he could move, a man's voice burst through the window from the room below.
"-no good, two timing brat!" Another crack resounded and this time the whimper came again. "You should be grateful for what you get! Pull another scheme like that and I have half a mind to sell you to the Fangpyre the next time they ask. At least then I'd get my month's worth from you."
A blow that might as well have been physical hit Kai's gut. The Fangpyre gang specialized in passing goods on the black-market. "Goods" that included selling humans as chattel to a fate worse than death. Kai shook violently. He had to get out of there before anyone noticed him-
His plan died as soon as his frantic gaze caught a glimpse of the occupants of the basement.
A giant bear of a man stood in the middle of what barely could be called a room, the space dark and dirty brown. His fist was raised above his head, the sleeve of his shirt falling to reveal a blue snake tattoo on his forearm. Seeing the man's affiliation with the Hypnobrai sent a jolt of adrenaline through Kai again, but what really stayed his planned escape was the figure huddled beneath the irate man.
A boy.
A tiny little thing, looking no older than three. Even through the flimsy piece of cloth and the dirt that clung to the boy, Kai could see bruises and cuts littered about his body. He was covering his head with his arms in a feeble attempt to ward off the much larger man's blows. All at once the boy's eyes cracked open and he looked toward the window, his emerald eyes so full of pain freezing Kai to the spot.
Something inside Kai snapped. Whatever the boy had done he didn't deserve this fate- no one did- but especially not someone so young. And, though Kai and Nya were barely scraping by, Kai resolved right then that he was going to rescue the kid. Somehow.
The man stepped forward, blocking Kai's view of the child. The trance holding Kai in place broke. Gritting his teeth Kai knew he had to leave for now. He couldn't do anything with the man present- that would only be signing his own death warrant- but when night came, he was going to rescue that boy.
A hammer to the skull would have been kinder than the headache that greeted Kai as awareness trickled in. Groaning Kai let his head loll to the side. The pain increased exponentially and Kai stopped. 'Whaaa?' It hurt too much to think. And, now that he had some level of consciousness to notice, it hurt to breathe.
Content to lay where he was, Kai tried to pull together the garbled thoughts and images running through his mind, not at all helped by the vivid dream, well memory, playing in the corners of his brain. Why did he hurt so much? Kai took mental stock of what else hurt. Besides his head and ribs his face also throbbed in time with something in his back. Using what felt like a superhuman effort, Kai cracked his eyes open.
For a terrifying moment Kai wondered if he had gone blind. After a few frantic blinks Kai's eyes began to adjust to the darkness around him. Stone walls slowly came into view, and dim shadows along the floor of crisscrossing bars. Anxiety slammed into Kai. Ignoring his pounding head and torso, Kai struggled upward.
Cold metal bit into his ankles and wrists. The rattle of chains that accompanied the effort confirmed Kai's fears. He looked down to see dull gray shackles connected to each other by a short length of chain. On reflex he jerked his wrists, but the metal only dug further into his flesh. 'No! No, no, no, no!'
Memories from- how long ago had it been? Kai had no way of telling how long he'd been unconscious- assaulted his mind. The princess, Captain Pyth... his guards. Kai's already shallow breaths came in gasps.
He'd been arrested.
Though fuzzier than his other memories, Kai remembered being hauled to the palace. There he'd been led to the dungeon away from the princess. Then the guards... the numerous bruises scattered across his body all flared in agony. So much for the princess's order to leave him alone.
Kai slumped against the wall, the burst of adrenaline overwhelmed by sheer exhaustion and pain. Trailing the room with his eyes Kai could make out a barred door, more of a gate, across from him. A narrow window sat high on the wall above his head. The only light came from flickering torches down the hall.
A skittering sound came from the corner. Kai suppressed a shiver. Just because the guards called him a street rat did not mean he affiliated himself with the real ones. He tugged again at the chains, with no results.
Kai blinked back the sudden prickling in his eyes. 'Nya, Cade... are they okay? And if I'm gone-' Kai shuddered at that thought. He was their main provider. Not that they didn't have street smarts, but Kai did everything he could to keep them out of the guards' way... If Kai's head wasn't still pounding he would have slammed it against the wall in frustration.
'But it was inevitable. The guards were going to catch up at some point.' The thought did nothing to help the nausea churning in Kai's stomach. He took a couple deep breaths, wincing as his ribs cried out in protest, and tried to settle his thoughts. Easier said than done, especially since he still had no idea if Cade and Nya were okay.
"Kai!"
Oh great. Now he was hallucinating Cade's voice. The guards must have clocked him harder than he originally thought.
"Kai!" His name came again, louder and more insistent this time.
Kai huffed a sigh. Even in his head Cade was still obnoxious.
"I know you're awake now! Will you answer me already?"
Now that didn't sound like something a hallucination would say- not that Kai could admit to having auditory hallucinations before. Maybe this was how they worked.
"Cade?" He called out cautiously. Though it came out more of a croak. He coughed, his throat drier than the desert.
"Oh thank goodness!" A soft scratching sound came from above Kai, where he now could pinpoint Cade's voice coming from.
Kai dragged his head upward. Though still dark outside his window, he could make out a shadowed figure against the window bars. 'You have got to be kidding me.'
"What are you doing here!" Kai hissed.
"Oh you know, I love visiting the palace dungeon at night- What do you think I'm doing here?!"
Kai clenched his teeth. How did he manage to have the snarkiest brother in the world? But he couldn't help admit hearing his brother's voice helped calm him- until he realized said brother was now illegally inside the palace talking to a prisoner. Oh he was going to throttle Cade if - when - he got out of there.
"Cade!"
"I was looking for you." The 'duh' tone heavy in Cade's voice. "What did you expect when you weren't home?"
Comforting and concerning to know Cade had come looking for him. "How'd you find me?"
"The guards talk a lot." Some of the bravado in Cade's voice disappeared and Kai heard the tremor in his words.
"What have they been saying?"
Cade scoffed, his momentary vulnerability buried. "The guards were excited. They finally caught 'the rat' that's caused so much trouble. Especially since the princess tried to come to his rescue. Half the palace knows by now, the rest probably within the hour. That part the guards didn't like!"
"Okay but why are you here? You need to get away before someone finds you!"
"Puh-lease, you know me. I'm easy for them to overlook."
Kai suppressed the urge to groan. "Not if you're talking to a big shot prisoner."
"Think of yourself so highly do you?"
"Oh for the..." Kai caught himself and took a deep breath- only to grimace again. 'Gotta stop doing that.' "What happened this afternoon? Where were you? Are you and Nya ok?" Having been so caught up in the events of the last couple hours he hadn't had much time to think of his sister. Now the worry returned with a vengeance.
"Calm down we're both fine. There was a lot of guard activity today-"
"You don't say," Kai deadpanned.
"-so we had to take it slow. Then by the time we got close to home they were swarming the place." Cade's voice dropped as he continued, "We couldn't get close to warn you. We were too late. I-I wanted to come after you but Nya said we had to play it smart."
Kai released the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Good. I'm glad you stayed away. Pyth knows there's people who hang with me and I don't want him getting his hands on either of you. Where's Nya now?"
"At Jay's. After we saw what happened we went back there to try and figure out a plan. But then they just kept talking so I came to find you."
"That was stupid."
"Hey!" Cade whisper-shouted indignantly.
Kai shook his head. "Brave, but stupid. And being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble. You need to get out of here now. The guards will probably be around soon and I can't have you getting caught too."
As if on cue, the sound of marching feet came down the hall.
"You know where I am, now go!"
Cade didn't have time to respond before a guard entered Kai's line of vision. Kai could only hope Cade would obey orders for once. Though if the past was anything to go by, the likelihood of that wasn't very high.
With a creak part of the barred gate swung out, and the armored guard walked in. The guard- 'Captain' Kai corrected himself on seeing the man's armor insignia- wasn't one he was familiar with. He'd have remembered seeing someone with that white of hair, brighter than even Cade's natural color, around here. The man stopped a pace away from Kai and studied him silently. Kai prickled under the man's gaze, unsure what the man was contemplating. There was also the uneasy question of what was going to happen now that Kai had regained consciousness.
The man's hand went to his belt and Kai flinched. However, instead of his sword the man withdrew a water skin. Kai's dry throat silently cried out. Talk about rude, coming here to add insult to injury-
"Here." The man held the water skin out toward Kai.
Kai didn't move. His eyes flicked quickly between the man and his outstretched hand. The captain waited until slowly, awkwardly with his hands restrained, Kai reached for the container. It slid into his grasp without resistance. Narrowing his eyes Kai popped open the cap and sniffed the contents.
"As the name 'water skin' indicates it merely contains water." The captain's voice was matter-of-fact. "Not only is poison against the code of Ouroboran guards, it is a decidedly underhanded, barbaric tactic."
Kai wasn't sure what to say to that, and his throat desperately ached, so he took a cautious sip. A little musty, but true enough it was water. In three gulps the bag hung empty in his hand, but the ache in his throat and head had lessened some.
"Thanks." Kai muttered and handed the water skin back. "So," a lump rose in Kai's throat but he forced the words out, "what are you gonna do to me?"
The captain's face twitched in a way that might have been a frown. "You are convicted of several felonies within the Ouroboran borders. What makes things change the course of our due process is the fact the princess herself is advocating on your behalf." Kai felt his brain freeze. Sure Skylor had stepped in for him when the guards surrounded them, but she was still making an effort to help him even now? "As such the King's own advisor has devised a way for you to make restitution."
Something about the words sent shivers down his spine. Maybe it was the gleam of disgust in the captain's eyes that didn't seem to be directed toward Kai. Though how Kai knew that, he had no idea...
"What did he have in mind?"
"The Royal Advisor did not delineate the details to me. He said that he needed to know if you would accept an opportunity to clear your record, or stand before the magistrates for the crimes you've committed."
Well that was hardly fair. Potentially sign away his soul to do something (really vague and totally not comforting) or almost certainly be convicted and either locked up for eternity or possibly even executed. Not to mention the whispers that Clouse dabbled in the dark arts.
Taking a deep breath, and wincing from the action, he locked eyes with the captain. "What do I have to lose?"
A lot actually. But the less any of the guards knew of said lot, part of whom may or may not still be lurking way too close for comfort, the better.
"I hope, for your sake, not much." With those comforting words the captain left Kai's cell.
Kai rested his head against the wall. A sinking feeling in his stomach made him wonder if he'd just made the worst mistake of his life.