Masters of the Sky

Chapter 13 Little Rats

15 years ago

Celia felt numb. When the men dragged her away through the dusky grates of sea-level alleys, she didn't even protest. Her mind went blank as it couldn't comprehend the sheer horror of what had just happened. She was sure they would kill her too. Any second now. She hoped they would. What difference would it make if her life had already collapsed? It barely hung on at the last hinges, and now all the support beams broke, and she fell into the depths of dark and murky sea.

It caught her by surprise when she was thrown into some dark room, and her captors left with a heavy thud of closing doors. Celia blinked as her consciousness slowly came back to life. The room was tiny, without any windows, the darkness dispersed only by a lone candle in the corner. A miserable wailing sound broke the silence, and as her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she could see a few small shapes huddled together on the floor.

Children, and some of them smaller than her.

"I want my mummy!" a little girl sobbed, her wet hazel eyes glistening in the candle flame. "Do you know where my mummy is?"

"I..."

"Are you here to get us out?" the boy, sitting on her right, perked up. "We've been here for hours! I'm starving!"

"I'm not...." Celia mumbled, still confused.

"Leave her. She's been dragged here, just like us," a calm voice said. Celia turned her head to the boy. His red hair was starkly visible in the sparse light and contrasted strongly with his freckled, pale face. At closer inspection, he was so gaunt that one could count all the bones sticking out through his skin. He wasn't looking at her, and his green eyes were focused on a small metal trinket in his hands. Celia had no idea what that was, and the little light in the room certainly didn't help. But among all the terrified kids, he sounded oddly calm about all this.

Celia slowly made her way towards him, tripping on the outstretched legs of other children, causing outraged cries, which she ignored. She crouched in front of the boy.

"Do you know why we are here?"

He raised his head to look at her. Sweaty hair plastered to his forehead shadowed his green eyes, which seemed dull and empty.

"We are slaves now. Whoever caught us... they could do whatever they wanted with us. We are the dregs of Iron Shore, and no one cares what happens to us."

"Slaves?" The word echoed in the room, causing even more cries of distress. Celia felt something heavy lodged in her chest that made her breathe hard. She knew the term because she had eavesdropped her parents' conversation a few years ago. Father said that because so many people were left jobless, the city rulers agreed that if people's debts were getting too high, they could be turned into slaves and work for their debtors for as long as they could to repay it, or till the end of their lives. Celia didn't understand it back then, as it didn't sound much different than any other job. But now, it started to make sense.

The boy misread her question and explained in a tired voice as if he had done it many times before. "It means they owe us. Your life is no longer yours. You can't have anything. You do what you are told to do."

"You know a lot. Have you..."

"Been one? Yes, most of my life. I'm still surprised they keep selling me instead of getting rid of me."

Before Celia responded, the heavy door opened with a screech of metal scraping the stone floor.

"Come on, little rats! Time for a walk!"

Celia squinted her eyes in the sudden light flooding from the outside. She expected to see another brute. The voice was still rough but definitely female.