didn’t even turn around.
Vordius clutched his head. Their enemies were getting closer, and he knew he didn’t have enough time to get them all safely away in a boat. A wave of nausea hit him, and something was pounding inside his left temple.
“I found some oars. They’re heavy!” puffed the Vuravian as he ran up, holding his elegant pants up with one hand.
Fenia cried out. When they turned to the sound of her voice, they saw her waving frantically. “Here! Here’s a boat!”
“Did you check if it’s sound?” Vordius asked as he jumped in. In the next instant, he realized she had already untied the rowboat from the dock. It buckled and slid away from the bank.
“What about me? You forgot me!” Sorgius cried out, standing on the bank with an oar under each arm. He turned around and saw the first of their enemies running down the landing.
“Jump, you fool!” Vordius screamed with all the love he had for his friend. He couldn’t imagine losing him so stupidly, right when they were about to triumph over some of the capital’s most hardened criminals.
Spurred on by this wise counsel, Sorgius, who was out of his mind with fear, made a pitiful face and leaped as far as he could – which wasn’t quite far enough. His oars almost knocked Vordius into the next life, but the guardsman managed to dodge the blow and grab hold of them, leaving Sorgius suspended above the water.
“Give me the oars! I need to row!”
“What am I supposed to hold onto?”
“Grab the stern, you clown!”
Fenia tried to help the ridiculous pair, stepping gingerly in their direction with an outstretched hand, but her added weight made the stern too heavy.
“Get back to the bow! Just sit tight and don’t move!” Vordius groaned weakly. He was praying that the ruffians weren’t armed with multi-shooters, and that there weren’t any other rowboats in the vicinity, and – for good measure – that he and his friends could just vanish into thin air. The way things were going, he feared they could all end up dead without any help from their enemies.
Sorgius finally let go of the oars, and Vordius quickly put them to good use.
“Hold on, do you hear me?” he ordered his friend, who was being dragged along behind the boat like a log. “Once I put some distance between us and them, I’ll help you get in. Don’t do it yourself. You’ll just turn us over!”
It was difficult to pick up speed with Sorgius holding on to the stern, but the friends had taken the only sound boat in the area. They did not know that, however, so Vordius pulled for the middle of the river where it was dark and he could rest a little.
“Give me your hand and crawl in slowly,” he said as he hauled his friend into the boat. “It’s so dark out here I can’t see a thing!” With Sorgius finally in the boat, Vordius let out a sigh and lay down in the bottom. “Praise the Heavenly Deity, we’re all alive!”
“Watch where you put your feet. You aren’t the only one in this boat!” Fenia reminded him from somewhere in the dark.
“Ah, our redheaded beauty. How could I forget? Is that all you want to say, my dear? Don’t you have any gratitude?”
“You need my gratitude like the Heavenly Deity needs a torch,” the girl said with a cynical laugh. “You wanted to ask me about your friend, is that right?”
“I believe we already asked,” Vordius shot back. “Now tell us everything you know. We’re listening most attentively.”
“Let me get my pants off first. They’re full of water and I need to wring them out,” Sorgius broke in.
“I don’t care if you dance naked, just keep your mouth shut!” Vordius growled.
Fenia tittered in the dark.
“Don’t get distracted,” the guardsman said, keeping her focused on their grim reality.
“Of course. The poisoning. Why do you think it was me?”
“Sorgius, did you get your pants off already? Let’s tie her up in them and toss her in the river. I think she’s forgotten that we just saved her life.”
“I was just asking a question. Don’t get sore.”
“I saw you pour something on his food,” Sorgius bluffed. “I thought it was a spice, but it obviously wasn’t.”
“I didn’t know it was poison, either. May my eyes never see the Sun again if I’m lying!”
Vordius whistled. “What are you saying?”
“They told me it was a laxative.”
“And you believed it?”
“I didn’t care, honestly. Two hundred leros is serious money.”
It was Sorgius’ turn to be shocked. “Good grief! That’s an enormous amount of money for a prostitute.”
“I’m not a prostitute!” Fenia cut him off. “And don’t you dare call me one!”
“I can call you whatever you like, but it’s all the same.”
“You don’t know anything about me, and it’s not your place to judge!”
Sorgius smiled. “But of course. You just look for men to be friends with. Money’s got nothing to do with it!”
“Listen, Fenia,” Vordius rejoined the conversation. “This isn’t an official interrogation, but whether you meant to or not, you almost caused the death of our close friend. You have to tell us about yourself, your ties with Asp and who gave you the cistrusa!”
For a while, the only sound they could hear was an occasional fish splashing. Finally, the girl took a deep breath.
“Fenia is my real name. It’s a common name, so there’s no reason to hide it. I never had a family. I made up my last name, Brazelo. I was adopted by the Iron Carp gang before the Iristenians killed them all. Rich men hired us – pretty little girls – for parties and other events. We danced for them. Sometimes they told us to just stand around smiling like nymphs. People at the parties told us we were beautiful, and we were glad if they gave us something to eat. We slept together on rough mats, and when it was cold at night, we huddled together for warmth. We were always hungry, but…” she paused, “…it was the best time in my life. The nightmare started when the Iristenians took over the port. They murdered all the Iron Carps and made all of us sisters sell our bodies. If a girl tried to refuse, they would beat her and then rape her. All of them.” Fenia was silent for a moment. “They couldn’t make me do anything, so they tossed me, beaten and bloody, onto the trash heap for the dogs to finish off. I still see one of those dogs when I close my eyes. We stared each other in the eye, each of us trying to survive. It wanted to fill its belly and the bellies of the other dogs with my meat. I wanted to force it to find easier prey. I don’t know how, but I won that staredown and the dogs left the trash heap. For a while, I lived there, eating whatever I could find. I was thirteen when I killed my first dog and ate it. I still remember it.”
She
