“But normally no one takes care of me. I care for myself. Or I did before I was taken.”
“Taken?”
“From the shores of Penticar by men who had no business taking anyone. They were bad.” I snicker. “Back home, I was the one that did everything.”
He calms, his chest slowly rising and falling, no longer frantically bursting. “Do you mean to say that to your people, you are strong?”
I nod, not wanting to risk his wrath.
He exhales what looks like a sigh of relief. “I was right then. When I saw you on the beach, you looked like a leader.”
“You saw me on the beach?”
“When you tore off your filthy rags and stepped in the water. Not a smart thing this time of year. The ribbons grow colder.”
“You-you saw me naked?”
His brow scrunches, and I decide not to press the matter, but the revelation brings with it a whirlwind of emotions. Even the slavers never saw me naked.
Tears flood my eyes.
“Are you crying?!?” Grixis barks.
I try to blink back my tears, but one escapes and rolls down my cheeks.
“Unbelievable!” Grixis looks downright offended.
“I don’t understand why you’re getting so mad. What am I doing wrong?”
“You take pride in your weakness!”
“Haven’t you ever cried before?”
“Not since I was a youngling, before it was clubbed out of me.”
My hand flies to my mouth. “Oh…”
“You should head back to the beach, to your people.”
“They’re not my people.”
His expression turns contemplative. “Then what are they to you?”
I don’t want to tell him the truth, but I’ve seen how he acts when he’s angry, and lying would make him very angry.
“I’m their servant. Or at least I was. I refuse to be anymore.”
“What is a servant? Is it like a slave?”
I bite my lip, afraid of how he’ll react when I tell him I waited on people hand and foot. Surely it’ll anger him even more than it already has, and that’s a lot.
But I can’t risk him catching me in a lie. Not one so easily disproven by the people on the beach.
“It means that I worked for others. I cleaned up after them. I did what they asked.”
“Like a slave?”
“No, not a slave…but close enough.”