Ryke strode in to find her still beside the armchair but staring at the ceiling above. Whatever was up there surely wasn’t half as fascinating as him and Badh, who had followed him in. A collarless woman was jarring. Wasn’t natural to see a non-Mekker so...undressed, though the rest of her undressed state pleased him.
Badh had brought clothes and he tossed the opened packet onto an impressively pretty cabinet that occupied half the right-hand wall, next to the bed. A red dress spilled from the packet but it was the cabinet that grabbed his attention. It sat on wheels and was constructed of some sort of vegetation material. Trees? He recalled the word. The material was brown and polished to bring out a fine gold-green thread. The semi-open, lower section had appeared to be thin black slats, but wasn’t. Nudging with his knee proved it was metal. Piles of ancient linen were stacked inside.
If this was a cage, it was a beautified one.
“Looks like Doctor Baxx did good work.” Badh walked to Gio then circled her. Though she watched, turning her head, Gio stayed mute. “There is a huge problem, though, with dyeing her hair and nails. One I should’ve thought of when you mentioned this idea.”
“And that is?” Idly, he opened one of the cabinet doors, noting the bolt or key-locking mechanism. He had no key. A pity. Perhaps it was here somewhere? The things he might do with a cage on wheels.
“I want to speak to you in private.”
Without Gio? The concept that she might somehow benefit from knowing his secrets was novel. Who could she tell? Ahhh, the rest of the Underdeck, once allowed out.
“Go out.” He gestured. “Do nothing that would displease me. And here. Put this on for me.”
For me. It was unusual word usage for him and he wasn’t sure why he’d said it that way.
He tossed her the red gown, the fabric floating as it flew, flourishing outward like some mythical deep-space creature. Like blood flowing through water.
An omen? For a second, he felt cold in his veins. Down in the Underdeck omens sometimes came true. Dismissing that feeling took some doing. If he’d inherited mooshiness, as he called it, his mother was to blame.
She donned the dress, letting it cascade down her body. As she smoothed her hand over the gown and picked up a fold to let it slide through her fingers, a smile slowly came to her, a big smile that stretched her mouth and was so utterly pure that something inside his chest responded. And ache? A twinge? Heartburn? Frowning. he put his palm there.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
The words were so foreign to him he didn’t at first recognize them.
“You like it?” The thing did cover her in a tantalizing way – a little see-through, caressing the points of her breasts, clinging to thighs and mons, making a man want to rip it off her just to see what was underneath.
“Yes. I do. Can I look for mechlings here? There must have been some. They might help clean the residence.”
Again with that fucking smile.
“Yes, you can. Go.” He flicked his fingers again, indicating the door, then watched her flow to it, and out, exiting from view.
“I can see why you didn’t abandon her to Ormrad, or whoever wanted her.”
“It wouldn’t matter if she were a thousand years old and my worst enemy.”
“Duty to the king? I see. She won’t find any mechlings here. What records we still have say all were released to us when the king vacated, except for those installed in locks or fused-on casings.”
Ryke grunted. “What is the problem you spoke of?” He hauled himself backward and up onto the cabinet then lay back against the wall, careful not to set the wheels in motion.
“You can dye her hair, dye her nails, but as soon as any decker sees her, and especially if she speaks to them, they will know what she is. Her face says not Mekker. If she’s not Mekker, she has to be slave. Her accent and knowledge will say not Scav or grounder. They’ll figure out what she is – human – within hours, maybe a day, depending on how much you let her interact.”
He grunted, thought that through. “True. Obvious.”
He’d let the severity of recent events blind him to anything but the chaos he’d left upstairs...and her, she too had preoccupied him.
“I was stupid.” Hands bent over the edge of the cabinet, he flexed them, heard the cabinet cage creak in protest. “Ideas? If we’re stuck here, I want to, at least, let her scan the deckers. Otherwise I may as well give up on my job. Ormrad will have won.”
“You’re sure that he was the one involved?”
“In trying to catch her? The men had his house mark.”
“Then it’s simple. Keep her inside, ask her your questions, just abide by my rules.”
“I wish I could. It would be abandoning my purpose to isolate her. How else can she look for a new portal mage?”
Badh walked back and forth for a while, dodging the furniture, clearly thinking. Ryke left him to it. There was no reason to hurry his conclusion, except that Gio was off looking for mechlings. Getting into trouble here, inside the residence was unlikely. They might not have taken the towels or art works when this place was abandoned, but he knew the weapons were gone. He’d found the armory during his own explorations. An inventory on a desk, the text stained with age, had detailed what had been taken down to the last gun. Some of those weapon models were ancient and unknown to him. Even if left behind, they probably wouldn’t have still functioned.
If she found a knife to stab him with, he’d take it off her. Plus, there was always the cage. Ryke smiled. What better reason to keep her in there?
“Why are you smiling?” Badh asked. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. This is your answer: Ask the king. You are his man. He will save you from all this trouble with a snap of his fingers.”
“If only. Not a bad thought though.” He nodded. “There’s a rumor the king changes soon. The Gathering approaches.”
“Early? Already? And it could be Ormrad? Ahhh. I see. There is no other man you trust to ask?” Badh pointed upward.
“I don’t ever speak to the king. I speak to Gyle, his advisor. But Gyle...I’m unsure of him now. Never was before. Ormrad shouldn’t have known about how we gained the girl. The blood-snack room was a secret.”
Badh swore. “Fucking blood-snacks? The poor girl. I really don’t want to know more. Okay. I’m lost. This is beyond what I can decide. The mess above filters down to us but I cannot understand. You must decide.”
He had. Decided. He would speak to Gyle via a screen and see if meeting him was wise. He caught Badh’s gaze, held it. “I think I will take her outside, undyed, after I speak to the deckers. I convinced you, convinced Doctor Baxx. I can convince the others. We are deckers at heart and stay loyal to each other as long as it does not interfere with our duty to the king and our people. Yes?”
It was the basic tenet to life in the Underdeck.
“Yes.” Badh put his hands on his hips. “Though if you’re wrong, if one person betrays you to the Above, you may find yourself fighting a battle you can’t win. Ormrad and the kings in waiting will all be sniffing for her.”
“I’ll take that chance. I do my job and fuck all who interfere.”
“You’ve more courage and more stupidity than I would ever lay claim to, brother.” He laughed.
“You’d do the same, if you were me.” Ryke slid from the cabinet. “I’ll let you out then go find my lost girl before she does something stupid too.”
“Finding her? Only? That dress looked fucking remarkable.” His eyebrows waggled. “Are you not allowed to –”
“Fuck her? I can, I have done. Now though, I’m playing a game called make her love me enough to tell me all her secrets.” He was boasting but he rarely had the opportunity to do that. Above he was a dark secret wrapped in a hood, lurking in corridors, buried in his rooms, warded by the blue marks of the decker on his face.
The whores he’d fucked had probably scrubbed for days afterward.
“You are so smug and arrogant. You fucked a human? You’re going to tell me the details, soon. She’s a slave. Make her say whatever it is you want said.”
If only it was that simple. “She won’t break. Come.”
“Oh now?” Badh whistled. “Break? I know that’s what the King’s Own Lawgiver must do but my brother? You make it so difficult to remember the you I...”
The way that trailed off hurt more than a little. The you I loved. He’d evoked love from his brother and now he wasn’t even sure what the word meant. He was stone, metal, all things hard and ungiving. To survive above, he had to be. Turning stone back into flesh was impossible.
“Of course,” he mumbled, unsure what the two words really referred to.
He wouldn’t elaborate on breaking. He definitely wouldn’t tell Badh how much he enjoyed breaking the females. That was a hobby few down here would appreciate.
The oddest thing? This new arrangement he had with her, whatever it brought, he was anticipating the fuck out of it. The rules he’d agreed to could be manipulated.
There was so much leeway.
No fucking? He would make her scream for saying that.