[Why did I make this book so long? I have terrible self control with my plots!]
Emerald had followed the bandits who took Royal at a distance, trying to stay out of range of sight or sound.
She wondered if their scouts would see her anyway, but since no Grimm came to attack her, perhaps they never suspected anyone was moving through these woods.
The wind kept making an eerie whistling sound in the treetops that gave her the creeps.
The bandits finally went up some more gravelly path.
Emerald didn't see them go in the door because she was shadowing them from such a distance, so when she did see the waterfall, they were gone.
She squinted at it.
Something shiny caught her eye in the water.
She used her scroll's zoom feature to get a closer look.
Glass. Black glass. It was hardly visible against the rocks--you'd never notice it if you weren't looking right at it.
Cinder.
That had to be the door. It must be behind the waterfall then. That made sense anyway--where else would you hide it?
Emerald didn't see anyone else around, but that didn't mean no one was watching.
She focused.
If people were very close, usually she could sense their minds, in a way. Minds gave out energy of a sort, though it was faint. If anyone was farther than 20 feet, though, she wasn't usually that accurate. Unless maybe they were the only living thing in the area. The Grimm lands used to be like that.
She didn't sense anyone right off here.
But she held still against one of the trees.
Her clothes luckily blended in pretty well with it. She was glad she'd never submitted to the Argus color code of white and blue to fit in.
A few tedious minutes ticked by while she wondered if she could try to find the door or if that was too dangerous.
She did take some pictures, and then she realized that her scroll had service.
That should have been impossible...unless there was a tower of sorts in the area.
Was it possible? Then bandits had scrolls, didn't they? If they could use them here too, that made sense--but no way they could through the rock...so they'd have to have it outside and step out to make any calls. But it was just possible they had a small device to send signals.
Even so, the service wasn't that good, and she didn't know if any of her messages would have carried far. They could be delayed. But at least she could send the pictures of the front here.
She started to sneak around the waterfall, up the hill it was in. The whole thing was made of rock without a lot of foliage on it.
She was sneaking around to the other side when suddenly she saw movement.
Pressing herself against another tree, she crouched and looked.
Some bandits had just come out of some other crags in the rocks and scrub bushes.
A back entrance!
Of course, no one would have a hideout with only one entrance.
Then she saw it was Mino and Hypnosia and the same others she'd seen with them before.
"Why not just take a tunnel farther out?" one of them grumbled.
"I still don't trust those tunnels to be stable," Mino huffed.
"They've held for decades--I think they could hold a few more hours," the others replied crossly.
"Just be quiet," said the fourth. "You'll rile up the Grimm."
"Big deal."
"Both of you be quiet," Hypnosia said, pulling her hood up more. "I want this to be short. I've been running all over today, and my lag is getting really bad. Don't push me."
They snorted but didn't dare piss her off too much. She was too powerful.
Emerald watched them.
None of them noticed her. They stole off over the hill to wherever they intended to go.
Then she saw some Grimm flying down to them, and they got on them and flew away.
Gross.
Suddenly she sensed something behind her.
She'd been so distracted, she hadn't noticed it creeping up on her.
She whirled around with her knives ready just in time to block a dart coming at her face.
She saw a dim figure sitting in one of the trees.
With a glance, it was easy to hide herself from their sight.
"What the...?" the figure spoke in a low voice.
It was a man, not an old one.
Emerald raised her guns at him. He couldn't see her now. She had a clear shot.
Then he jumped to a different tree.
She had to adjust.
The figure jumped to the ground and looked where she'd just been standing.
"Spooky," he remarked. "Better call in help."
Emerald looped her knife chain around his neck while he still couldn't see her.
"Ah!" he choked.
But he saw nothing, not even her hands.
"What is this...a ghost?" he gasped.
A ghost, huh?
Emerald had an idea.
She projected into his mind a very spectral sounding voice:
"Don't struggle. It only makes me angry."
The bandit froze. He was starting to sweat.
"Wh--what are you?" he asked.
Emerald had to choke back a laugh. If he only knew what she was doing...
But no time to be distracted--anyone else could come by at any time for backup.
Now, what would work...? Maybe if she played into some old legends kind of material.
"The angel of death," she replied, in an ethereal sounding voice, "come here to visit the judgment for your deeds on the Baba tribe."
She used some words she'd read in the holy book there. Ir sounded more impressive that way.
And it worked. The fancy language spooked the guy even more.
"Wh-what?" he sputtered. "No, really, I'm not so bad. I've done less than the others, really."
"What is your name, mortal?" Emerald replied.
"It's...Shep Nottingham."
Weird name. But she was no one to judge.
"Shep Nottingham," she said, "you have committed many atrocities under the name of the Baba tribe."
"They made me do it..." he whimpered.
No way to know if that was true or not, and Emerald wasn't super interested in the answer right now.
"If that is true, then prove your worthiness," she said. "Lead me to the mortals responsible for turning the innocent into monsters."
Shep swallowed. "You mean...the doctors?"
"If that's what you call them." Emerald figured it was better to be vague.
"But they won't like it if I leave my post..." Shep said.
"You're refusing?" Emerald yanked harder and made that echo threateningly in his head.
"N-no!" Shep was cowed. "I'll take you there. It's just in that entrance..."
"Lead the way then, mortal." Emerald relaxed her grip just a little but made sure she still had him.
Since he couldn't see her anyway, he had no way to slip out of it.
Shep seemed to buy this anyway. Clearly the bandits were as superstitious as bandits were known to be.
He meekly led her to the rocks.
There was no door that she could see there, but then he pressed one of the rocks in the ground and said, "Sesame."
A panel slid aside under them, so flat you'd never see if if you weren't right over it.
Inside was a small, stone staircase.
Shep lead her inside.
The darkness seemed to put him more on edge...and made it easier for Emerald to hide herself.
The hallway was empty of any other bandits, thankfully.
If there were more than two or three, she'd never be able to hide herself long enough to get anywhere.
And could she sneak back out of here?
But it was too late to second guess this plan. She just hoped that she could find somewhere to hide in the camp.
She thought their chances were better of getting away if the bandits didn't know at least one of them was there. And she could hide the best... She could wait for the others to show up outside, but it could take ages, and what if that was too late for...her friends?
If she could get them out, then the tribe would be crushed without any risk to them at all...right?
She had a bad feeling that Mercury would have told her this was a bad idea...but he was caught.
Suddenly the tunnel opened into a big cavern.
Of course it was not the same end of it that the others had entered through. This was more secluded; it was in a different part of the cave altogether.
But it still had the Grimm claws all over the place--they might even have been thicker here. And the smell of sweat, blood, and Grimm was thick.
Also of other things, things like drugs, perhaps.
Shep was veering towards a curve in the wall that was like a small cave. It had actual doors built into it.
There were guards here. But it was so dark that they hadn't seen Emerald yet, and she quickly hid herself from them too.
Her head was starting to hurt again.
"Nottingham, what are you doing in this area. Aren't you supposed to be standing watch?" one said crossly.
"You should warn them." Emerald had another idea. "If you have not lied, then you will be spared from my wrath, but they might not."
She let go of him and stepped back.
Shep was shaking.
"Fellows," he said, "there's a spirit in this place."
"A what?" said one.
"Are you off your head?" said the other.
"I felt it." Shep felt his throat. "It was choking me. It said it was the angel of death here to visit judgement on us."
"That's preposterous," said one. "You must have eaten some bad food or drunk some bad alcohol."
"Did you have an enhancement yet?" said the other. "It's a common side effect of them, to have hallucinations."
"It is?" Shep said. "I was never told that."
"Well, it's just what I heard around," said the guard. "I've never had any hallucinations."
He sounded like he was lying to Emerald.
"You both have weak heads," said the other guard. "Angels are not real."
"But I could swear I have marks..." Shep felt his throat some more.
"Let me see." The second guard held up a light more. "Hey...it is red there."
"He keeps touching it like a mindless idiot," said the first guard. "There is no spirit. That's all rumors."
Emerald got behind them while they were distracted.
Then, with a smirk, she sent an image into all three of their minds.
It was a huge, ghastly shape without a real face--just glowing eyes and long claws and fangs. And it made a terrible screeching sound.
After all her time with Salem, it was easy to think of something like this.
But they reacted even more than she thought.
Perhaps they hadn't been as skeptical as they'd tried to seem, but when they saw it, they screamed like children and dropped their torch.
Shep went white and took off running as fast as he could, and the other two followed him, crying "No, don't kill me! I never meant to do anything wicked!"
Emerald dropped the illusion.
She panted. No telling how long they would run...and they'd probably bring people back to investigate. But if they were all that skittish, they might be hesitant.
Even so, she had to hurry.
She opened the doors carefully.
It was lit inside by dust lamps, some brighter than others.
It seemed like some kind of medical cave...but a closer look at the things in there, and they had a more sinister look. She didn't even know what they were...but she saw syringes laying along one table. They were empty, but still...
So...this was where they did it. Where they made people into houses for Grimm.
She felt like she might throw up. But she choked it down.
Someone moved, and she quickly hid in the shadows on the wall.
It wasn't anyone who was really dressed like a doctor, but he had gloves on and an apron.
"That's odd... I know I heard the door open," they muttered. "Did those idiots leave it again?"
He moved to shut it.
"Who is it, Lovecraft?" someone called. [If you know who that is, you know that the name fits a person who would be making monsters.]
"The door was just opened, but no one's here that I can see," Lovecraft replied.
Emerald was hidden from his view.
"Someone probably just leaned on it funny then. Are you done taking samples from the slayer?" the other voice, a woman's, asked.
"Patience, Morgan, some of this is delicate work...and he's coming to."
"I'll put him back under... I just wish Mala would let us kill him once we're done. Whatever she says, I think it's unwise to have any of these people alive here. He could still escape."
"We can ensure that he doesn't. Those metal feet, for example--what's a cripple worth even if they have magic eyeballs?"
"How diabolical, Doctor," Morgan replied, with a devious kind of glee. "But that's what they get for trying to cross us."
Emerald was still leaning on the wall, keeping out of both of their lines of sight.
It was almost too easy... Wasn't anyone else here? But then how many people could be staying in this part of the camp? They couldn't need that many with such small numbers.
"I thought I felt a draft though..." Morgan said suddenly.
"With the door open...but then again..." Lovecraft suddenly began to look around more closely.
He couldn't see Emerald, but if he noticed anything else odd, she might get caught.
Further in, she saw different sections of areas were here also... Some had straps and tools for tying people down. She had to guess this process wasn't painless...or maybe it was for other horrid things they did.
Lovecraft, seeing no one, gave up and concluded it was just a draft.
The Grimm claws were in here, Emerald noticed...but they didn't attack her.
They usually had to have an incentive to attack someone, she recalled. And she was far from being greedy right now. Her heart was pounding so hard.
Lovecraft moved toward one of the sectioned off areas.
Emerald saw the woman there, Morgan.
She was watching someone. It had to be Mercury.
"He's twitching more," she said disdainfully. "But here's the sedative." She held one up.
This explained how Hypnosia had known how to use those... Gross.
Emerald was pretty close to her, still unseen.
Lovecraft joined her. "There's all kinds of things we could do, endless possibilities," he said, with a greedy tone in his voice. "But first, to make sure those weapons are disabled." He was taking out some tools.
"You should have done that first," Morgan said, disapprovingly.
"I know, but I got so excited about the samples, I just had to start that," Lovecraft replied with a look that made Emerald feel sicker.
But no time for this.
She moved closer, and, with a swift motion, she had her knives out.
Lovecraft didn't even know what hit him when she thrust them into his back.
He gasped suddenly.
Morgan gasped also.
Blood appeared.
But it was a clean hit.
However, Emerald wasn't ready for what happened next.
Grimm arms appeared on Lovecraft...or had been there already and were just visible now.
They snatched at Emerald, but she jumped back before they could grab her.
"Leave me alone, you demons!" she said, Aura flashing into view.
The claws stopped short and shuddered.
Emerald cut through them.
"You!" Morgan said strangely. "How did you get in here?"
Lovecraft was already dying, though he was still squirming. He had fallen into a tray of equipment, which only hurt him more.
Morgan tried to stick the sedative into Emerald, but Emerald vanished from her view, and then she rammed her into the wall next to this area that was made of stone.
She gasped. Grimm were on her also...but Emerald sliced through them too, and they became smoke.
Morgan fell down. "Not...fair..." she said. "I wasn't ready..."
Emerald looked down at her.
"I would have tried to help you," she said, firmly, "but after what you did to them...I really don't think I could have. I hope you have more mercy than you deserve when you meet your Maker."
Morgan glanced up at her strangely, but then she just slumped over.
Emerald had no time to waste thinking about them. [And that had to be one of the most graphic deaths I've ever written...but I can't say I feel sorry for either of them. Morgan was a reference to Morgan LeFay, by the way.]
Emerald had to clean her blades off before she could put them away.
No telling when anyone else would get here.
Mercury had been twitching this whole time, though she hadn't had time to look at him.
To her relief, she didn't see any real wounds on him, just places where they'd already taken blood samples, but hopefully not that much.
He blinked and tried to sit up but had been tied down.
"Get off me, you b-----ds!" he cried.
"Mercury, it's okay." Emerald held up her hands, moving closer. "It's me."
"Is that an illusion?" Mercury said warily.
"Could an illusion do this?" Emerald came up and hit him in the arm.
"Ow!" Mercury said. "Maybe, but I can't see why it would attack me if I was supposed to fall for it."
Emerald started untying him. "I don't have a lot of time to explain, but I snuck in here. I scared some of them, but smarter people will come here to check, and they'll find those other two dead. Maybe they'll buy that it's a spirit of judgment, but they also could realize it's us. We can't be here... Where's Hazel?"
"You're asking me? I'm still groggy," Mercury said. "What happened? They hit me with that drug, right? D--- it! I could have taken them out."
"That's why they hit you first," Emerald said, finally finishing. Then she hugged him. "I thought they were going to kill you... I'm almost glad they were such perverted psychopaths that they had to test you first... It gave me time to find you."
"Uh...well..." Mercury felt awkward. "I guess silver lining to being kidnapped by crazy, Grimm-using freaks?"
"That was too close, though," Emerald said. "Plus we're not out of here yet."
"And you really came in here alone? To get me?" Mercury shook his head.
"Just evening the score," Emerald said, kissing him.
"Why does this keep happening?" Mercury muttered.
He tried to stand up.
"I heard them talking even before I could move..." he said. "They're... Oh, they're dead."
"Dead or dying."
"Wow...you actually killed them. I'm surprised."
"I..." Emerald looked down. "I had to. I didn't like it, but they were going to..."
"Em, I'm not blaming you. I'm impressed. It's been a long time, and I thought you'd hesitate if it came to the point because you'd want to spare them, but you knew it was no good this time. That's a big relief."
"A relief, huh? " Emerald said. "That's weird."
"It would be more weird to watch your boyfriend get mutilated by some creep and not want to kill them," Mercury said.
"Well, yeah, true," Emerald agreed. "But it was disgusting... I think I might throw up actually..." She rubbed her stomach.
"No, not now," Mercury said. "Throw up later--not on me, though. We have to find Hazel. He could take half of them on his own. If he's..."
"I hope so...but he seems like such an obvious person to kill," Emerald said. "Unless they want leverage to use against Raven."
"Maybe... By now they must figure we're looking for them."
Emerald helped him get up.
"Trying to have a moment while there're dying people, gross," she said.
"Wow, killing bad guys and then making jokes about it, that takes me back to the old days," Mercury said.
"Please don't."
"It's a stress reaction. What do you expect me to do? I'm not exactly Mr. Sunshine."
"Whatever...just don't say that when the others find us."
"If they find us."
"They have to," Emerald said. "I'm sure they're going to try...but should we just try to get out? I know where the exit is...but it's more forest with bandits in it."
"If they are going to find us--" Mercury rubbed his head. "--I'd say our chances are better of just hiding somewhere till they do... And where's Royal?"
"Royal...he tried to throw them off so I could escape," Emerald said.
She paused to look in the other sections...
To her surprise, she found Hazel in one.
Hazel was awake, but tied up and gagged.
"Oh, gosh!" she gasped.
"Whoa," Mercury said. "Wow, who had the nerve? I'm amazed they didn't lose their hands."
He yanked the gag off.
"How did you two get in here?" Hazel demanded at once.
"I was dragged. She snuck in," Mercury said in a low voice.
"We'll untie you," Emerald said. "Crap, this one seems a little more complicated...heavy duty, I guess."
"I can get them off," Mercury said.
"No, you two should just go now," Hazel said.
"We can't leave you here," Emerald said.
"And you're kind of useful," Mercury agreed.
"I'm too easy to spot," Hazel said. "I heard what you were saying... Your chances are better if you leave me here. Wait till help arrives, then come back...if I'm even still here."
"No," Emerald argued. "They might kill you... What if they blame you for what I just did to the others?"
"It's crazy to stay here," Mercury said. "Who are you, Cinder?"
Emerald glared at him.
"What? If the shoe fits," he said.
"Speaking of Cinder... I saw her glass outside," Emerald said, "but not her. She has to be close...if she's still here at all."
"I was listening to them longer than you," Hazel said. "Those scoundrels mentioned that 'Fall woman' would probably be given 'treatment', but I don't think they meant the shots. Probably some method to make her more docile...something else heinous. They wouldn't want to give her more power."
"Unless they would, to mock us," Emerald said. "But...can we even be Grimmed?"
They looked at her strangely.
"I don't know," Mercury said. "I'd think...I couldn't be. Not with the Silver Eyes."
"It's not necessarily that we can be," Hazel said. "But that doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt us. It could turn our bodies against ourselves, perhaps. There are things that do that."
"That's better than being controlled by it," Emerald shuddered. "But I don't want either. But if it just tortures us...they might do it to her just to torment her... Oh...I don't want to think about it..." She trembled.
"You can't focus on that," Hazel said.
"Say what you will, big guy--" Mercury kicked hard at the locks and finally knocked them off. "--but if you're going to hang around here, you at least got to have a fighting chance... I guess if you want to lurk in this creepya-- room, that's your call. I want to be as far from those Grimm on the wall as possible."
"Uh...that's gonna be a problem," Emerald said. "They're everywhere."
"Oh..." Mercury said. "I could fix that."
"No, not yet," Emerald said. "If we blow cover now, they'll be all over us. But even if they think it really is a spirit or something, they'll be back any second. We have to get out of here."
"Just go," Hazel said. "I can handle myself..."
Mercury gave him a long look.
"Let's go." He took Emerald by her arms.
"What? But..." she protested.
"We can't wait, and we can't make him, so let's just go," Mercury insisted.
He hustled her back out through the door.
Thankfully no one was here yet.
Emerald led Mercury to the tunnel she'd come in through, and they crouched inside it.
Nothing to do but wait for any signs of change.
It would at least give Emerald more time to replenish her Aura after all that usage, and Mercury to recover from being knocked out.
They locked hands and leaned on the wall.
["King And Lionheart"--Of Monsters and Men]
* * *
[Trigger Warning: Some suggestive content about sexual assault. It won't actually happen, but if you're sensitive to even the idea of it, I recommend skipping further down to where Esmeralda comes into the scene.]
When Cinder was taken away the second time, they took her back to the cells...but this time, Striker pulled out an Aura zapper and hit her with it.
The shock was nearly enough to knock her out, but she was a bit more ready for it after the last time.
Striker shoved her into the cell. "Now, I don't think you'll be able to do anything to stop us," he said.
Kate gasped. Which made the other bandits look toward her.
She backed up into her cell.
Cinder's head felt light, but she had a thought: NO!
"Do what you like," Striker told the other two. "Mala doesn't care. I have to go see to the others. By now, the doctor will have results."
Doctor?
Cinder managed to move her hand over the ground.
There, she found it. The shards of the shoe she'd already broken apart. Always sharp.
Give me the strength, she thought.
Striker left, and one of the other guys came into the cell again.
Cinder had the glass shard behind her back.
She gave him a hostile look.
That didn't stop him. He came right at her.
Cinder sprang up like a panther and rammed the glass into his back, right below his neck.
Kate gasped again in shock.
The other bandit winced.
The one in front of Cinder fell down, probably already dead. That was a well aimed kill shot.
Cinder stepped on him to get to the edge of the cell.
"You want to try?" she spat at the other one.
He looked at her in surprise. "Witch! You shouldn't be moving!"
He pulled out a short sword.
This would be more of a problem.
And he was blocking her way out of the cell.
Cinder thought that maybe if she just got away from here and hid in the cavern somewhere, she would fare better.
Suddenly a chunk of hard dirt hit the second bandit in the arm.
He and Cinder were both equally surprised in different ways.
They turned.
Kate was leaning on her cell wall. Shaking.
"Leave her...alone," she said in a weak voice.
"Why, you little b---h!" The bandit turned towards her savagely.
Cinder moved after him, and the Grimm claws over the top of the cell moved at her.
Cinder saw them in the blink of an eye, and suddenly she had an inspiration.
She lunged and grabbed the bandit by the back of his clothes before he even saw her do it and yanked him back with all her remaining strength.
The claws went right past her arm and latched onto him instead.
He yelped, as the Aura was drained out of him, and then collapsed.
Cinder stabbed him also.
It was odd--before, she'd felt mixed about doing this, but not this time... These people no longer seemed human to her after the last several hours.
Kate sank to the ground of her cell and started to cry. "That was terrifying."
"Oh...but I had to--" Cinder began to feel a little more uncertain.
"Not you, them," Kate replied. "Well, you also, but in a good way... So this is what a huntress can really fight like? They looked like oafs compared to you."
She had a good point. None of them seemed that well trained.
Well...it wasn't like the tribe was recruiting hunstmen. Mostly it was people with a grudge. Of course they would be weaker fighters--they relied on taking out people's strength in order to be able to hurt them.
Cinder stumbled up to Kate's cell and unlocked it.
"What are you doing?" Kate asked.
"No one's here right now," Cinder said. "You can run."
"Where would I run to?" Kate asked. "I wouldn't get far. My only hope is if your friends did arrive to help."
She had an oddly practical streak for a prisoner.
But she also had a point.
"Cinder!" Esmeralda suddenly startled them both.
They whirled toward her.
Esmeralda limped around the dead guards without more than a quick glance. Seeing dead people was nothing new to her, and she liked neither of them.
"It took me a while," she said, with some fear, like they might be angry.
"Did you find out anything?" Cinder didn't acknowledge the remark.
"Mala separated the handsome fellow to...well, I thought to interrogate him, and I didn't dare follow her," Esmeralda explained. "I followed the others. A silver-haired fellow, they called him a Grimm slayer."
"Mercury?" Cinder blanched.
Royal was bad enough, but strategically, Mercury was worse--or just as bad--for their chances.
"Is that his name? He and a really big guy, they were both drugged, but I'd say it was going to wear off soon from how they were twitching," Esmeralda said calmly, as if this was normal... It must have been to her.
"Ugh," Kate shuddered. "They do awful things to people they drug."
"Everything you say about this tribe ends with that statement," Cinder said. "Is there anyone they don't do awful things to?"
That was supposed to be sarcasm, but Esmeralda answered. "The elite fighters. Mala's 40."
"What?" Cinder said.
"Everyone else in the tribe comes and goes as she loses patience, but her main, most loyal members are the 40. Most of them are the best fighters," Esmeralda explained. "Sand and Toro are two of them. They get special privileges."
"I thought Sand was a new one," Cinder said.
"Newly chosen, yes," Esmeralda said. "That's only because she's so useful. Mala doesn't normally favor anyone, but if they can provide a service no one else can... Sand is almost unbeatable as long as she's not fighting more than 5 people. She beat half the others in one fight. That's why she was chosen to be one of the 40."
She shifted. "Despite that, she's not as bad as some..."
"How many people are in this tribe?" Cinder asked.
"I've never seen all of them at once, but aside from the 40, there must be at least 30 more who I've seen around," Esmeralda replied. "But they tend to get killed off quickly, so it changes. The 40 also blame the grunts for their mistakes. That doesn't help. They've blamed me for them too."
"Were either of those two idiots there the 40?" Cinder pointed to the ones she'd just killed.
"No," Esmeralda said. "No offense to your skills...but I don't think you'd have done that so quickly if they were. They were pretty new, too... The new ones usually guard the prisoners. The others think they're too important for that. The 40 get first pick of the spoils. They get the most Grimm-using weapons and toys, and the most Aura-draining ones, though a lot of them don't need them. Mala gets more than them. Also she has her 8 within the 40 who are even more dangerous."
"Good to know," Cinder said. "I've been dreading asking this since you said it, but what happened to those two men?"
She thought she already knew.
"They were taken to the doctor," Esmeralda said instead. "He'll test them...maybe try the implants... Some people don't take to it so well as others. The screams from that section are the worst. That's why it's the only room with big, solid doors."
Kate looked ill.
Cinder hid her own disgust. "So they aren't dead?"
"Probably not yet, soon maybe," Esmeralda said. "It takes a while to finish up that...but it took me a while to sneak back here. The thing is, I heard people yelling, not like in pain, but in fear (you learn to tell the difference). Something about angels and spirits and death. I didn't catch it all. I wonder if the Grimm went berserk again."
"Again?" Cinder said.
"Every now and then the Grimm here get restless," Esmeralda said. "And that's when they have to feed them."
"Feed them?" Cinder said.
Kate leaned on the bars. "Yes..." she said. "I think that could be what happened to...some of the others. I never was told, but with all the Grimm here...I wondered."
Cinder stared at both of them in horror.
Esmeralda still wasn't that fazed, but she shook her head. "Mala says that the Grimm give us all our power, so we have to give them something in return," she said, "or they'll attack us. They aren't content to just serve the tribe forever--they're creatures of pure destruction."
Cinder leaned on the cell.
"Even Salem..." she muttered.
Salem had done some twisted things...maybe...well, but this was just...when it was people doing it...
Then again, could you really say bandit tribes didn't just basically let Grimm eat people anyway? In the towns they left in shambles, it was a given.
Why did cutting out the middle step make it seem so much worse?
"I just don't think that would have scared them so much," Esmeralda went on. "So I thought maybe it was the prisoners themselves. But how could they have escaped without being seen?"
Cinder knew one person who could do that.
But if Emerald was here, on top of the other three, this was hopeless. Mala wouldn't let that slide.
And that reminded her...Mala had leverage now. No way she wasn't planning to use it, so why hadn't she yet?
If she was hoping to make the person more malleable before trying to use them...
But what did she want Cinder to do anyway?
She glanced at Esmeralda. "Hey, what would your sister want me to do for her? Why me?"
"I don't know," Esmeralda replied. "But whatever it is, if you do it, she wins."
"Cinder," Kate said, "those people they caught are friends of yours, aren't they?"
Silence.
"I take it that's important?" Esmeralda said. "People you'd want to protect? That's not good. They hate that here."
"Is that so?" Cinder kicked the dirt. "So none of them ever have anyone special here?"
"I guess there are some of them who have a different kind of relationship or are family," Esmeralda mused. "But over time, it really doesn't seem like they're that different either. And the elders say that it's a distraction and don't usually encourage them to work together. Caring about people is a weakness."
She said that mechanically.
"You say that--" Cinder looked up. "--but if you didn't want to care about anyone, you wouldn't help people who are weaker than you just so you wouldn't be lonely."
Esmeralda raised an eyebrow. "Is that what I'm doing?" She shrugged. "If it is...I guess it's not that surprising. I'm already weak. But I don't know. I don't care about my sister, and aren't people supposed to care about their family?"
"I think yours is an exception," Kate said. "My brother would never do anything to me like what she does, nor I to him. She's the weird one, not us. Most siblings aren't like that."
"So you're saying that most people don't feel that way?" Esmeralda said.
"This tribe is fricked up," Cinder said.
"I see..." Esmeralda said. "But...you know, if you're going to survive her, don't you have to play by their rules? You want to live...and people who are weak, even if it's as unusual as you two think, are still going to lose to them. I have to go. I can't be over here too much."
"Wait," Cinder said. "Show me where they took the others. At least point me that direction."
"That's a bad idea," Esmeralda said.
"I didn't ask," Cinder said.
That was so much like something Mala would say that Esmeralda snapped to attention at once and motioned for her to follow her.
Kate watched them go, looking frightened.