As she walked around the room, looking at the activity in both sections, she nearly ran into someone.

“In trouble again, Miss Lita?”

“Hello, Lloyd.”

The man didn’t look at her, continuing to evaluate a sparring match. They were at the farthest mat on the west side of the hall. Lita winced as the woman ended up on her back and barely got her knee up in time to keep the man from pinning her.

“I’m on duty, Lita. It’s Captain.”

You’re always on duty, and you’re worse than Sheldon about the rules.

“Captain, then.” She grimaced and crossed her arms. “Any recommendations? They all look like torture to me.”

“For someone who endured rigorous acrobatic training, you’re very good at whining about physical exertion.”

“I was a child, acrobatics were fun, and I had no other responsibilities beyond eating.” She airily waved a hand. “What are you watching for?”

“We’re trying to develop better techniques for our women enforcers to defend themselves. Evaluating their advantages over both men and demon opponents then capitalizing on them.”

She looked sideways at his stoic, arm-crossed profile. “You’re doing that yourself? Don’t you have people for that?”

“Let’s say I have a vested interest in the topic.”

She opened her mouth and then snapped it shut as understanding dawned.

“This is about Trisha.”

He didn’t answer.

“Hmm.” She bit both lips and crossed her arms to watch as well. “She’s lighter than her opponent,” Lita said casually. “She might move faster. Maybe learn to dodge differently? Maybe use similar rolls and moves as an acrobat? And a smaller weapon. Something a little bigger than a pairing knife. That might give her a better advantage up close.”

Lloyd’s expression didn’t so much as crack as he glanced at her and then back to the ring.

“Or not.”

“No, they’re good ideas. I had thought of her weight and size being an advantage but never thought of acrobatics. I’m just trying to envision it.” He glanced at the large clock on the central pole. One of the only two clocks in the entire Palace. “A new set of drills will start in twelve minutes. Join that one.”

“Ugh. Can’t I just keep watching with you and join one only if the Mistress shows?”

“We will not disobey the Mistress.”

“But I might have more good ideas. You never know.”

“We will not disobey the Mistress,” he repeated firmly.

“Come on, Lloyd,” she whined. “She didn’t say I had to do it the whole time.”

“It’s Captain, Lita. And it is what she meant.”

Lita stuck her tongue out at the man. He didn’t move. Not an inch. Stupid, loyal, argh!

“Fine,” she spat and pouted at the floor. “I’ll join the next set.”

She didn’t see him glance at her, shake his head with a small smile, and return his attention to the match.

***

Lita was seriously considering going straight to bed once the demons’ dinner was over. Her hand shook as she served the demons at one end of the table, then withdrew to the cart for more.

No one looked at her as they continued to whisper together.

About food resources, she gathered after a few minutes of listening. She put another plate in front of the two demons to Diana’s left.

“The population is getting out of hand.” One of them rapped the table next to his newly placed plate, ignoring Lita. “We’re already seeing signs of food shortages. If we let it keep growing like this-”

“Then we should do a culling.”

Lita had returned to her cart and froze, back to the table of demons. Her heart pounded, body aches suddenly forgotten as she exchanged a look with the one other servant in the room. Nakos grimaced and picked up another set of plates.

“We have this discussion every fifty to a hundred years,” sighed a third demon. “Half the population is under contract, which prevents extreme culling measures.”

“And previous attempts at stunting population growth has resulted in larger headaches.”

“I don’t know.”

Aridon, the demon in favor of culling, lazily sat back in his chair. Voids it! Lita realized too late that the way she and Nakos had been working up the line, she’d get this demon. Great. At least Nakos got Clophas, though she wasn’t sure which one of the two was better.

Can I just go to bed now?

“Forcing human birth control measures was successful last time.”

“It resulted in a revolt that killed nearly half the population, Aridon.”

“So,” said Aridon with a fanged smile, “it was successful, yes?”

“It also resulted in fewer-” The demon who was speaking abruptly broke off and looked at the two humans in the room. He pressed his lips together. “Resulted in less than optimal conditions for ourselves.”

“Do any of you have a better idea?” drawled Aridon. “If not for the conveniences that the creatures bring, I’d say just destroy them all and be done with it.”

Lita was finally putting plates in front of Aridon and Diana, who was sitting next to him. She nearly dropped the plate on his lap as he spoke and didn’t see him wrinkle his nose.

Then abruptly the demon grabbed her wrist and she squawked in surprise.

“Now, what is this?”

He turned her wrist over and sniffed her hand. Her skin prickled and she fought the urge to yank her hand away.

“Let her go, Aridon,” said Diana flatly. The demoness picked up her wine cup.

Instead of letting her go, Aridon tightened his hold on her wrist and grew claws to dig them into her skin. Not enough to puncture, Compulsion wouldn’t allow it, but enough to make her nervous.

Aridon raised an eyebrow at her. “Is this how you keep track of your pets, Diana? She smells like a rancid cat carcass.”

“What does it matter to you?”

“It matters when the thing stands too close to me.”

All I did was what the enforcers do every day and you don’t complain about them. Lita gritted her teeth.

With a sigh, Diana grabbed her wrist from Aridon and smelled it, too. “So she does. Human, finish serving the food and go take a bath.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Then come see me after your evening meal.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Yes, Mistress.”

Diana let her go and waved her away.

“We could just banish a selection of the population.”

“And let them take information about us to the Outside?”

“Can’t we just have a meal and save this for the official discussions?”

The argument continued long past serving, and Lita escaped. Mouthing a ‘sorry’ to Nakos as she headed for a servants’ door.

She was just out of earshot when Aridon proposed a new topic that would cause nightmares for weeks.

When demons created the baths, they separated them into two main chambers with large pools with each chamber getting water from the same spring.

The pools of water had spells etched into the sides, above the benches inside the semi private alcoves. (With most of the symbols covered over to keep the humans from studying them.) Those spells were supposed to heat the water.

The problem was that lighters had become scarcer.

Not because they didn’t exist. But if they become curious and are caught studying spells and trying to create new ones, demons often execute them right away.

It was a dangerous job fewer and fewer people were willing to risk doing.

Meaning there were too few of them to light the heating spells of a mere servants’ pool.

The upside was that no one lingered longer than they had to in the frigid mountain spring. Privacy.

Lita felt dizzy for a while after lighting just one spell, then huddled close to that wall to stay as warm as she could.

It wasn’t so bad. When it was warm. She even started to doze and regretted having to get out. But she didn’t dare miss seeing the Mistress. And she might as well eat if she had to stay up. With a sigh, she got out and dressed.

The servants’ meal had already started when she arrived. She squeezed in with some kitchen maids and relaxed as food was passed down the length of the table and people chatted about the day.

It was a comforting, familiar rumble of a lot of voices in the cavernous space.