Chapter 4:
Lessons resumed, Tristan and Tashfin. Tristan was seen to be well behind to begin with, but Haru pushed him, and it didn’t seem long before the subjects for the day were told that the boys would be learning the Spell of Pain.
Shirley told Valencio afterwards, “Tashfin, the bastard. Treen told me he was a bad one, and it really showed this morning. He did it first go, and loved it! He wanted to keep on doing it. Haru let him, too. Ten of us, and Haru allowed him ten goes.” She looked at Valencio’s face, and said hastily, “Not for more than a few seconds each. And Tristan couldn’t do it at all. Haru finally said they’d come back to it in a year or two, when he’s older.”
The next day, Valencio was included, plus three of the younger women. Haru instructed, “Tashfin, the Pain Curse. The subject is to be Valencio. Watch for my signal, and stop immediately when I indicate.” Sometimes, the boys found more difficulty with the tall and strong male prisoner than they did with the women, and Haru had done this before, as if he was a test for the student. Two extra guards, two of the younger ones, looking very alert and with wands in hand. They had no excuse to put him under semi-paralysis or restrain him, as he never tried to resist or run, as some did. But there were always extra guards when he was to suffer under the Pain Curse.
Valencio merely stared into the distance until Tashfin said the words and he was on the floor. Just a few seconds, and Tashfin was being commended. Competent. Haru marked a list and said they’d be moving on to the next thing.
Valencio stood, again assuming his mask of indifference. The guards lowered their wands. Valencio allowed his gaze to drift over Tristan, briefly meeting his eyes. Tristan looked away and swallowed. He was looking a bit sick.
There was more gossip, brought to them by Nikola, from Shar-kutsu, who still asked for her whenever possible. Two girls had been kidnapped, not medj girls for the enclosures, but freia from another family, to breed Kobi children for them. Tristan and Tashfin were to get them pregnant.
Treen said, “At least we’re free of Tashfin for a week. He’s horrible.”
“Tristan?”
“Tristan’s no particular problem. In other circumstances, one could think he was quite a nice boy!”
A few weeks later, there was another blow to the Kobis. Again, Nikola was the source of their information. That Tristan’s mother had taken him away, plus the two kidnapped girls, who were both pregnant, plus three younger children, all there were aside from Tashfin. The kidnapped girls rescued, and the children - “Shar-kutsu said abducted, but I’d say rescued, at least in the case of the little girls. I’d hate to be a Kobi girl now, they’d be made to have a child a year probably, to make up for all those lost.”
It was reported that investigations were continuing, but that there had so far not been a trace.
Tashfin’s lessons continued, a long series of Vidi-Curses, which he mastered quickly and easily. Tashfin was talented, cruel, and seemed destined to become a fierce and powerful fighter. If he was the only one, it was probable he’d become leader, maybe just as soon as he was adult, even if he had to kill Suma. Valencio concluded that if there was ever the slightest chance, it would be well worthwhile to kill Tashfin. It was most unlikely he’d have the slightest chance.
Three new girls of barely twelve were brought in for Tashfin. Kaede told Valencio that she’d leave Arabic for a while this time, but that he should continue with Japanese in the afternoons for Ingrid, Treen, and the four others still trying to memorize his list of words. Valencio was relieved not to have to face the new girls. How could he try and be encouraging to twelve-year-olds waiting for rape? He didn’t think there had been new girls brought in so young since Margaret, nearly all of them at least fourteen, most as much as sixteen, a few even eighteen, though there had been younger ones in New York, he knew. Tasha told him he couldn’t do anything, and Hilde told him sternly that talking about bloody wizards in front of Abensur, was no longer allowed.
He apologized, and she patted his shoulder, “It cheered them up anyway. Carol passed it on to the girls,” and she quoted, Bloody Kobi wizards get themselves killed in duels all the time and they’ll probably live to see him dead.”
Before breakfast the next morning, Valencio was close to the fence between enclosures, where no-one from outside was likely to be watching. There were two six foot fences crossing each enclosure, their purpose to prevent irritating flights by frightened prisoners. Nearly always, the gates stood open. Like the other fences, they were not only protected by spells that made them unclimbable, they would cause pain to any prisoner who held them for more than a few seconds. Valencio was practicing jumping them, the only one of them who could. There were never many of the Enclosure 1 women around before breakfast, but this time as he jumped, got over cleanly and rolled on the grass, there was a clap and a cheer. He looked around. Three young girls, looking actually happy. He rose to his feet. Two blonde girls and one with black hair, who smiled at him and announced, “Tashfin’s dead, just like you said.”
“He is?” He grinned, “That was quick.”
One of the others said, “You’re Valencio?”
He nodded and was introduced to Evita, Brigitta and Inge. He looked at Brigitta’s right wrist, puzzled, and she said, “Abensur claimed me as Favorite, but said not until I’m older.”
“Evita and I have a few days off,” said Inge. “But Helene says nearly all of them don’t try and hurt, and anyway, we’re not virgins any more, and she says it won’t hurt like the first time.”
“Who killed Tashfin?”
“No-one knows. They say there wasn’t a mark on him, so it was probably the Killing Curse.”
“They did us all a big favor then. The weaker the family grows, the better for the rest of the world.” On the other hand, the weaker the family grew, the more likely they’d be killed off. Valencio looked closely at Abensur the next time he saw him, trying to know whether it was coming. Abensur looked back at him and a guard raised his wand.
Valencio looked away, wishing he could know his mind. And still, there were no hints of a coming cull.
Abensur was putting some thought into it. He didn’t want to clear Enclosure 2, but Suma could order it, or Haru. Ryuichi as well, as manager, and Fudo, as head of the fighting forces. He could even do it on his own authority. It would be a challenge. How would he go about it so that they were not frightened or hurt? Valencio would have to go first, but Valencio might look at him and know. He certainly wouldn’t shirk the job, as Kosin had done in Japan. He’d heard about that. An incompetent had been left in charge, and Keresta had acted totally without imagination, with the result that the killing had been done to the accompaniment of screams and panic! The poor slaves hadn’t deserved that! Even Zhang had managed better than that when he’d disposed of the ones in New York. It was hypothetical so far, but Abensur regarded the slaves as his responsibility. They might have to be killed, but they would not suffer.
Helene and Carol schemed to reduce the likelihood of the ones in Enclosure 2 being killed as useless. The women in Enclosure 1 were doing their best, playing up to particular men, trying to become the ‘favorites’ of those in a position maybe to oppose the ‘clearing’ of Enclosure 2. The terminology was from the wizards, when Ingrid turned big blue eyes, swimming in tears, to one of the guards recently arrived from Japan, and asked if her friends were all to be killed. Pitono assured her that he’d heard no word that Enclosure 2 was to be cleared.
“Cleared? Is that what they call it when they kill us?”
Pitono said stiffly, “There’s no need to talk of things like that. And certainly, Enclosure 1 is still needed.”
Pitono didn’t ask for Ingrid again, and when Marietta referred to the possibility, he was brisk. “Lie on your back, open your legs, and keep your mouth shut!”
Helene gave instructions that more subtlety was needed, and no other wizard was irritated by a slave asking about the possibility of imminent death.
The
re was more success when they took greater care not to irritate or offend, and Helene was able to tell Carol they had eleven now, who were ‘favorites,’ going to the man’s own bedroom, nearly every night. The men tended to loosen up in their own bedrooms and talk more. Helene started to refer grandly to her ‘Spy Network,’ though she laughed to Carol that it was not really that good, but made her feel better that they were doing their best. She said, “Brigitta still wears Abensur’s wristband, and he seems to be getting away with it. I’ve asked her to play up to him, carefully, that she may be in a position to help us all. She promised to try. She says he seems kind.”
They looked at each other, sadly. Abensur may appear to be kind, but he could not be trusted.
There were fifty-nine women in Enclosure 2, and two men, all of them acutely aware they were expendable.
Valencio was a tower of strength for some. He was teaching several of them Italian, and entertained as he taught. He laughed away fears and said that wizards were too stupid for words and had probably forgotten they were there. And for hours every day, he sat beside one of the large decorative rocks, and sharpened pieces of glass. It was inevitable that one day, there would be a cull. All the women he deemed not likely to go into a flat panic knew the various hiding places of his arsenal, as he, too, thought the first thing Abensur would do if the enclosure was to be cleared, would be to render him either helpless or dead.
He put his own mind to the problem, and decided that if he was doing it, he’d have a few sitting at a table, helpless under a Freeze Spell, and then ask others in, one by one. They’d be reassured by the unharmed ones, and therefore unprepared for a death spell in the back. Probably no need for even that. Probably one day they would just go to bed, exactly as normal, and die in their sleep. No doubt they could organize that. Still, one had to be prepared. There was no excuse to stop trying.
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