It was late enough that Jay went straight to the back door of the church looking for his brother, the silver coin and five coppers heavy in his pocket. If he was lucky he would find Ken quickly and not have to deal with anyone else. The bracelet he was wearing made noise constantly and he was sure to get a scolding - or worse - if one of the sisters saw him with gold on his wrist.
Heaven help him if the priest saw all that shiny.
Why did it have to be gold? Why couldn’t Lord Fyre use a dull copper or bronze like every other cheap pimp pretending to be a noble?
"Jay?"
Jay sighed in relief at Ken's voice, darting through the pews to wrap his little brother in a hug. "Hey. I have big news."
"Good news?" Ken asked, bouncing on his feet as he held a polishing rag in his hand.
"Sort of," Jay offered with a slight wince. He wasn’t quite sure how Ken was going to take this and voices echoed in the empty chapel. It was a bit embarrassing to admit he’d taken up a semi-permanent job as someone’s pet. “Let’s go outside, and I’ll tell you about it on the way home. Are you finished cleaning?”
Ken nodded quickly and rushed to put the supplies back in their proper hiding spots. He peeked into a back room and waved goodbye to a few of the sisters while Jay ducked behind one of the many statues to keep out of sight. When Ken came bouncing back, Jay took his hand - using the one without the bracelet so the bells wouldn’t ring - and led his little brother outside. "So, the big news,” Jay said with a deep breath. “We aren't going to be working at the church anymore, and you won’t be going to school here."
Ken frowned, and pulled away from his brother with a pout. "Why not?"
Jay was afraid of this. Ken liked learning, and Jay had always encouraged that. Pulling him out of school was like taking away a treat. "Well. I got a big job,” Jay explained. “Bigger than any job I’ve had before, but it means we have to move. And my new boss said you could stay with someone close to him while I worked and go to school closer to where we’ll live now," Jay tried to explain. It was hard to feel good about what he was saying when Jay didn't really understand it himself, but he had to at least look positive for his brother. He didn't want Ken to worry. “You’ll get to learn even more there.” He’d explain the bit about them not living together later. Jay was having a hard time coming to grips with that himself.
"Is it a good job?"
"I really don't know," Jay had to answer honestly. Ken always knew when he was lying. Better to say it now. "I know it's not illegal, and I know I'm not hurting anyone. I'm helping them." Finding poison was keeping Lord Fyre from dying, and that was helping… right?
"But you help people now," Ken said. "You comfort them."
"That's right. But it's not really a good job, is it?" He lifted Ken in his arms and started walking through the graveyard behind the church. Most of the city folk found the small plot disturbing and avoided it, and even the clergy only came around during rites. Jay didn’t want to admit that he found the quiet comforting. Too many people would think it was the graveyard he liked and not the solitude, and would judge him for it.
He just didn’t find it creepy the way others did. The dead here were already long gone; there wasn’t anything to fear from the empty shells left behind.
"My old job doesn't pay very much, and I have to stay with the sick all the time. So it's a helpful job, a useful job, and one that's needed, but that doesn't mean it's good for us. What if I got sick from being around someone ill and then you got sick too?"
It took the five year old several quiet minutes to process this, and Jay used that time to slip out the back gate and onto the streets. He was grateful they hadn’t come across any of the clergy. It wasn't that he was afraid of them exactly - they'd never done anything to harm him - but how was he supposed to explain that he'd given up his freedom? That he was now in a harem for as long as Lord Fyre wanted to keep him? Even if it wasn’t like the pimps on the streets, harems were still seen as a noble’s exclusive brothel by too many.
Sounded like something a god might take issue with.
"Are you working for someone rich?" Ken asked.
Jay let out a soft laugh. "Yes. Someone who can afford to buy a dog for a long time. Which is why we're packing up and you're coming with me. We're going to see Captain Barkley tomorrow. He knows exactly where we're supposed to go." Trust Ken to get down to the important stuff.
Ken's eyes went wide. "The captain?" he asked. “But he’s a guard!”
Jay nodded. "That’s right. We won't stay with him. He's just taking us where we need to be." He set his brother down on the street and stretched. “You’re getting too big to carry all the time!”
Ken giggled. “You’re silly. I’m not big.”
It was true. Ken was small for his age. Aside from inheriting the natural small size of their father, neither Ken nor Jay had a lot of food. It made them smaller. “You’re bigger than you were yesterday,” Jay said instead. “I can feel it.”
“Nuh-uh,” Ken denied. “You’re just smaller. I can tell.”
Jay laughed. “People don’t get smaller, Ken. Not unless they use magic.”
Ken gave him a pout. “Did you use magic?”
“Nope,” Jay grinned as he took Ken’s hand and walked with him up the flights of creaky stairs towards their room. “Not a drop.” The mages used magic on him. It was different.
“I think you did. I think you got small,” Ken huffed. “Are we going someplace where they make you big again?”
“I don’t think so,” Jay laughed. “Listen, we’re not going someplace fancy. We still have to work hard and do our best. If they tell us there’s work to do, we need to do it. I might not always be there to help you, either.” They took the turn to go down their hallway with Ken almost dangling from Jay’s arm. “I’m going to be someplace I might not see you for a few days, maybe even longer.”
"And where's that?" grumbled a familiar voice.
Jay winced as he looked up and saw his neighbor, Terron, standing in the doorway of one of the drafty apartments. "Hey. Sorry. I didn't think we were being loud." Lorren was the more sensible of the two twins, and the one Jay trusted. Terron had a bad habit of being an idiot.
"Loud enough," the drunk man replied in a rumbling voice that Jay always thought was halfway to growling. "I got a warm bed. No need to stay away fer a few days fer that."
"No thank you," Jay said firmly. Terron was usually nice enough to leave it at that. He’d only gotten drunk enough to paw at Jay once before, but a firm reminder that Jay liked girls and Terron had the wrong set of equipment had the drunkard laughing hard enough to pass out. Jay had left him there.
"But I heard you say you's leavin'," Terron pushed. This time, apparently, he wasn't going to leave it at a simple no. “Ain’t you gonna say whens you be back?”
Jay pushed his younger brother behind his legs to keep him out of Terron’s line of sight. If it was bad enough the man was slurring and couldn’t even speak properly, Jay was better off just leaving.
Green eyes zeroed in on the chime of the bells, drawn instantly to the delicate sound. "You's little brat," Terron laughed. "Givin' the goods up to some rich bounty now?" The bottle he was holding dropped as he stepped forward.
Jay stepped backwards, pushing Ken towards the stairwell. "Ken, that man I told you we're meeting tomorrow? I need you to go find him, okay? Go find him and tell him Anubis needs him."
"That your new name, pretty?" Terron asked. "We's can have fun with that."
“Where’s your brother?” Jay asked. “Lorren certainly didn’t make enough for you to drink today.”
“Hims be gone alllll week,” Terron slurred. Then he whispered: “The guards got him.” He let out a big laugh.
Jay didn't wait to see Ken leave. He knew his brother would do what was needed. Instead he let his hand fly towards Terron's face and started a fight he knew he would lose.
He had to hope Barkley didn't hate him enough to ignore the message.
Comments (0)
See all