Home > The Broken Raven (Shadow Skye #2)(7)

The Broken Raven (Shadow Skye #2)(7)
Author: Joseph Elliott

I know what’s good; I shush up my mouth.

When we arrive at the mountain there’s hek loads of people there. Mostly rotten folk like me and my mother — those with no pennies and no hopes. All of the children have their first ink, which means they’re at least fourteen. I’m bettin they had theirs done proper, not like mine. I raise my hand to my face, the side with the ink. It’s been a couple of weeks since it was done, so it’s not as burnin like before. Whatever’s happenin here, it’s only for people who have their first ink. Must be the real reason why my mother paid all our money to that cheatin grotthief: so she could sneak me in here. But sneak me into what? What the skit’s happenin here?

We pass by the entrance of Sterkr Fjall. Granpa Halvor ses the mountain’s empty now. Cursed by Øden. No one’s been in since after the shadows killed evryone. It’s just bats what live there now. We walk all the way around the mountain to another one what’s behind it. The next mountain’s got a tunnel you can go in too, and that’s where all the rottens are leadin.

Inside it’s hek dark, sept for blue fires here and there what light it up. I haven’t never been inside a mountain before. It’s hek skittin and smells harsk as hell. There’s dirt all over, in big piles like whoever was diggin hasn’t finished it yet. We walk over and around the dirt and then farther in, until the tunnel opens into a big cave room. In the middle of the cave is a circle of blue fire. People in charge are takin all the kidlins and linin them up against the wall on the other side. I look at my mother. She smiles at me, though it’s sorta drunken.

A man grips my arm and ses to my mother, “I’ll take her from here.” My mother lets me go and nods at me strange. Now the man’s pullin me. I’m sick of evryone always pullin me. He leads me over to the wall with the others and tells me to stand between a boy with scraggin hair and a girl with a dirty face. They’re both taller than I am, and they don’t neither of them look too happy. The boy’s first ink is a ship sailin on his cheekbone, which is for courage. The girl has a blade above her eyebrow, for cunnin. The boy is starin at my face, at my wreckmess raven with its broken neck.

“What you lookin at?” I say.

He turns away. More people come in. There’s maybe thirty of us kidlins now, all against the wall around me. The adults wait on the other side. They’re millin and itchin like they’re nervous or somethin. Makes me get the jitters too.

“What’s happenin?” I say to the girl next to me, the one with the blade ink. “Why we here?”

She flicks her eyes at me but doesn’t answer. She looks scared. Evryone goes quiet then cuz there’s new people comin in from deeper in the mountain. The tallest is an ugly man with a scar from his mouth to his ear. He stops in fronta the first boy and squeezes his chin in one of his thick skittin hams. Then he shoves the boy’s face away and moves down the line, and he’s proddin and pokin like he doesn’t give two hells about nothin.

When he reaches me, he stops. He’s lookin at me all close like. He’s peerin at my new ink and the harsk dead raven on my face. I wonder if he knows it wasn’t no proper tatovmaðr what did it. I look straight back at him. If he’s starin at me, there isn’t no reason not to stare at him too. His scar is hek ugly. It goes across his face right through all his ink. One of his inks is a goat, and the scar cuts across its poor scraggin neck, makin it look sliced dead, same as my raven. Maybe that’s what he’s thinkin: our poor twin animals, both with their necks snapped, both stuck bein dead forever.

“She’s a good girl. Well behaved, does what she’s told.” It’s my mother sayin that, shoutin it from the other side of the cave. What’s she shoutin that for? Some of the others mutter and one woman spits. The man with the scar tuts his teeth and moves on to the next kidlin in line — the girl with the dirty face and the blade ink. He doesn’t look at her much. He grabs her arm and ses, “You’ll do,” and then he’s pullin her away. She starts shoutin and tryin to grab her arm loose, but he’s a giant of a man so she’s foolin if she thinks she can break free.

“Stop making it so difficult,” he ses, and with the back of his other arm he smacks her thuk! right across the back of her head. Then he drags her some more and she’s sobbin and her legs are scramblin to keep up.

“Let her go,” I say, and I run at him and kick his leg as hard as I can. I don’t know why I did that. It was a hek stupid thing to do. The man shouts out and lets go of the girl.

“You little bikja,” he ses to me. He swings his arm at my face, but I duck out the way. Someone else grabs me from behind, and then more people are talkin and shoutin and it all goes batcrazy.

“Silence!”

The voice is loud and deep, but I can’t see who said it.

“I ask you to do one simple job, and what do I get? This anarchy.”

“Everything is under control, Your Supremacy.”

What? Your Supremacy means the king, but the king is — Oh. Wait a cheatin moment. There is a man in the shadows. I can’t see him too proper but now I’m lookin, I can just about make out the antlers what grow out of the crown on his head.

Konge Grímr.

I thought he was dead. Evryone said he was dead.

“What happened?” he ses.

I don’t know who he’s talkin to. He sure as muck isn’t talkin to me, but there’s no one else replyin so I say, “This oafogre with the scar was hurtin on this girl here when he shouldn’t of been, so I kicked him to make him stop.”

Konge Grímr starts laughin. It’s a deep laugh what sounds like the earth is breakin. “So you were bested by a little girl, were you, Bolverk?” he ses. He laughs more and other people start laughin too.

The giant man with the scar — Bolverk — is next to me, starin daggers. His nose is flarin like a wild horse and the veins in his neck are pumpin solid.

“The situation was under control,” he ses.

Konge Grímr stops laughing. “Bring her to me,” he ses. “I think we’ve found the one.”

“You can’t seriously be considering . . . ?” ses Bolverk. “You don’t want this one, Your Supremacy. I can already tell she’s nothing but trouble. And her fyrst ink has been botched by some cheap fraud.”

“Do not dare to tell me what I want,” ses Konge Grímr. His voice echoes around us.

There’s a silence, and then, “She’s mine,” ses my mother, and she’s wavin her arm manic-like. She looks proud. My mother hasn’t never looked proud of me before. Tears start comin to my eyes. I made her happy, even if I don’t know why. She stumbles a bit from all the drink she necked earlier. “Where’s my money?”

Wait. What money? What’s she sayin money for?

“You’ll get paid,” Konge Grímr ses.

I’m hek confused what’s goin on now. This whole mornin’s been confusin as hell and it sure isn’t gettin no clearer.

“Come toward me, child,” ses the king.

Whoever it is what’s holdin me lets go. I shake out my shoulders. Bolverk makes as if he’s gunna push me, but I don’t need him shovin. I go toward Konge Grímr on myself. “What you want me for?” I ask him.

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)
» The War of Two Queens (Blood and Ash #4)