Westhaven by Rowan Erlking (ebook audio reader .txt) 📖

if you are taking him back to Roan. His state may reflect on you. Governor Shillig has been hyper critical lately about the state of the slaves we keep.”

General Gole grunted. “Huh. Governor Shillig forgets that he only governs Calcumum and the plains around it. He can set policy there and keep out of the Wede Mountains.”

“Yes, yes,” the sergeant said. “But Governor Shillig has the Sky Lord’s ear these days. You may want to curry favor with him. You know what the governor thinks about brown-eyeds.”

To that the general snorted. Kemdin heard it as he watched the general’s lifted chin as a blue-eye hefted the child up and slung him over his shoulder like a potato sack, carrying him out of the room and into the front of the Sky Child governing office towards the automobile.

General Gole said, “I did not get to my position by pandering to politicians. I earned it though merited hard work, which the Sky Lord knows well of. It would foolish to forget that. And you, if you ever get the chance, remind Governor Shillig of that also.”

“Yes, sir.” But the sergeant had that smug tone that said he valued the color of the demon eye more than work.

Perhaps the general noticed it also, because he turned and said, “Remember, my skills are not easily acquired by the gift of touch. Many have tried. And they all failed. You may have knowledge, but I have wisdom and cunning, and those are attributes that you cannot steal.”

“I wouldn’t think of it,” Sergeant Lugan said.

Sky Children always spoke coldly. Kemdin never saw one that acted any more than that. They didn’t have hearts, some people said. And as the blue-eye lifted open up the back of the automobile and dumped Kemdin inside the trunk, slamming it shut and locking it, he had no doubts of that truth.

In the darkness, hearing the mournful murmur of the people of his village and then the shaking rumble of the automobile’s engine as the vehicle started up, Kemdin pulled his arms and legs close to his body and closed his eyes. It would be the last he would see of it, for no one escaped the blue-eyes and returned home.

 

It was hours later when Kemdin emerged from the darkness blinking and squinting as the light from the hot afternoon sun flooded into the trunk and the blue-eye yanked him out. The demon driver was muttering something under his breath in a language Kemdin did not know, dragging him over by the scruff of his shirt back. One of the words he did say that Kemdin did understand was ‘heavy’, perhaps implying the weight he had to drag around. General Gole was nowhere to be seen. The entire view in the blinding sunlight was the porch of a building styled differently than those in his village—more blockish and tall with straighter roofs lacking ornamentation. The most prominent difference was the carved railing that blocked most of the traffic from the road. Kemdin looked around and noticed that most of the buildings in this village cluster were like that—not native built but Sky Child in construction. He was now way beyond home.

“What’s this?” a voice from above asked.

“A new acquisition. Not trained, so you better not touch or he’ll bite your fingers off,” the blue-eye said.

Kemdin blinked up at the proprietor, swallowing as he saw the second brown-eyed Sky Child of his life. This one was not dressed as primly as all those soldiers that had come to his village. This one wore an open teal vest over a yellowed shirt with the button ties dangling rather than properly knotted. Both tops hung open so that his chest covered in black hair showed all the way down to a plump gut that hung over his belt. Sweat stains discolored the fabric underneath his arms and around his neck as heavy moisture dripped down his thick and flabby skin, even dribbling into his eyes from his brow. Wiping it, the demon snorted then spat on the ground. “You getting a room?”

The blue eye driver nodded. “Two rooms. And we need a cage for him.”

“I got a hog pen, but they’d eat him alive. You want me to chain him to the post?” the smelly proprietor asked. He hocked another lump of phlegm.

Kemdin made a face and turned to look away. His mother had always said to avoid such ill-mannered kinds of men.

The blue-eye snorted and started to laugh, walking inside and dragging Kemdin with him. “The kid’s got better taste than you do. Nah. I’ll take him up to the room for now.”

“We don’t house humans,” the proprietor replied with a glare, making his dark brown eyes look murderous.

But obviously the blue-eye knew he had nothing to fear from this brown-eyed Sky Child as he said, “You do now.”

The blue-eye dragged Kemdin up to the doors and right through to the stairs where several blue-eyes in even fancier yet odd clothes were talking. They all turned, watching the soldier drag the human child up the stairs, giving them all a nod as he passed by. One rose from his seat.

“Are you bringing that in here?”

The blue-eye soldier nodded. “I am. He’s General Winstrong’s new slave, and I don’t trust that brown-eye outside to not to lose him.”

The other blue-eyes nodded in approval, and the soldier turned again to drag Kemdin up the stairs. Kemdin heard one say before the walls muffled all words: “So, that General is really acting like a true Sky Child. Good. So many of those brown eyes are a disgrace to the name of the Sky Lord.”

There were a great number of steps, more than Kemdin was used to. He tripped on them as the blue-eye dragged him up. On the upper floor the blue-eye hauled Kemdin to a room then lifted off a sign from the front of the door. The door opened strangely. Instead of sliding to the side like in his village homes, the door pushed in like the shop door. And the room was entirely bizarre. Their beds were off the ground and super padded with puffy bed covers. Their pillows were huge. Lamps had no wicks or oil, and the windows, they were like those in the sergeant’s office—glass and entirely see through. Cloth hung in front of it from a rod at the top, pulled to the side like the way girls pulled up their skirts when they waded in the lake.

There was a table to the side of the door with a chair like in that sergeant’s office. The blue-eye driver dragged Kemdin over to it and looked around the room as if irritated, muttering, “Don’t take too much of the kid’s energy or you’ll kill him. How am I supposed to keep him from running? He’s not broken yet or anything. The kid looks like he had rabies.”

Kemdin shuddered, watching the blue-eye jerk out drawers from the desk searching for something to use. The demon slammed them shut then turned over toward the bed. A flicker went across his eyes. He suddenly grinned and nodded to himself.

“I got it.” He grabbed another hold of Kemdin and dragged him over to the bed, setting him next to the post of the bed leg. Pointing at him, the demon said, “Don’t move.”

Of course Kemdin didn’t dare move. The demon could suck him dry.

With a grunt, the blue-eye hefted up the corner leg of the bed then kicked the chains to Kemdin’s leg irons under it. Immediately the demon dropped it down so that the chains were looped around them, hooked on them so Kemdin could not move away.

“There you go,” the demon said to himself, wiping his hands off as if he had completed an enormously hard yet satisfying task. “I’m done with that. Now for a break.”

The blue–eye marched from the room closing the door behind him with much confidence that the child would not escape.

The moment he had gone, Kemdin groped over his ankle chain. He dug his fingernails into the cracks where they shut to see if he could pry them apart, but of course they would not budge. He tried pulling his feet through the gap in the shackles, pointing his toe, trying to make his feet smaller somehow, but his ankle and heel were too large. He even tried to lift up the corner leg of that bed, but he could hardly get it move. Panting, he dropped to the floor.

Kemdin stared up at the ceiling. It was only a matter of time before the demon that bought him would start beating him. He’d seen it with his father at the iron road the Sky Children were building. All slaves were beaten. He knew it was inevitable.

It was hours before he saw either the blue-eye or the general. Both of them entered the room looking more relaxed as if they had just eaten. The general had rubbed his belly, sighing as he walked into the room.

Waving to Kemdin, General Gole smiled to his driver. “Good job. You really do think outside the memory. I like that in a soldier. Ingenuity is what made our ancestors great, you know.”

“Thank you, sir.” The blue-eye looked honestly pleased, lifting his chest.

Kemdin cowered, suddenly watching the older Sky Child crouch down to look him straight in the eye. General Gole’s voice was deep and sonorous.

“Boy. You understand that I am your master now,” he said. “When you obey me, you will be fed and remain unharmed. If you disobey me, you will be punished. It is very simple.”

Kemdin withdrew towards the end of the bed.

“I’m getting on in years, and I’m tired of doing some things. So you will do them for me.” General Gole stood up, still looking down at him. “But really, I am sparing your life when I really ought to punish you for helping out our enemies. I have been trying to bring order to this world. Your kind has been perpetuating an age of darkness. I am here to bring light and progress.”

He turned and reached over to the lamp then twisted what looked like a peg. Almost immediately the glass ball inside the lamp glowed, but not like fire. It was steady and bright.

“See that? That is electricity,” the brown-eyed demon said.

“I don’t think he knows what electricity is,” the blue-eye cut in. “Look at him. His eyes are bulging out.”

And Kemdin was staring at the glass ball that glowed like a toy sun. He blinked at it and then stared at the two demons. General Gole was smiling though the blue-eye shook his head as if he thought the general was asking for too much.

The general twisted the peg again and the light went out. No smoke. No smell. It was just gone, though the globe was still there, glass like any old lamp though there were strange little metal pieces inside.

The demon twisted the peg again, and the light was glowing once more.

Kemdin drew in a breath, but still kept his distance. Somehow he knew they were playing games with him, perhaps luring him in for something nasty. Tricking him, teasing him before sucking the life out of him. It was like those demons to do that.

But General Gole switched the light on and off once more, then on again before leaving it on. He gestured for his driver to go, to which the blue-eye was happy to do shaking his head as he left. The general closed the door then sat down on the bed, sighing before looking at Kemdin again.

“I’m not feeding you today. You need to know what hunger feels like to understand your position in this world. You earn your bread,” the demon said. “Tomorrow I will give you just enough for the ride south. If you behave, I may give you more. If you kick out and cause my man or myself trouble, you will go without.”

Kemdin clenched his teeth, glaring up at him. But that only made the