They ran for ten minutes but what felt like twenty. Some slaves dropped down along the way, and since Orion was already full-handed, they stayed down. Eventually, the stench of rotten food and human excrement replaced that of salt and fish.

“Where are we going?” Orion asked. He was lost, as it was, in the day, let alone under the veil of darkness.

“The den,” Ginger replied, his voice soft and strained from panting.

“What? I thought the Saltrocks were returning with more people? Why are we going to the most obvious place?”

Ginger smirked. “It’s my land, I ain’t gonna lose there,”

“Are you mad? It’s stupid to do this,” Nanlong added, his looming figure sneaking in between the two.

“No worries, twice the gold for yer,”

“Pfft,”

“Three times?”

Nanlong grunted and backed off.

“What’s the point of killing any more of them though,” Orion said.

“Else, they’ll make trouble for us later. Ain’t having that; might as well end them now,”

The pale Seeker opened his mouth, then closed it and turned away. Ginger was clearly adamant about another battle, and it was now too late for Orion to back out. Either way, even if the fight turned sour, he and Kora could escape, though it would make what they had just done a waste of time.

Due to Nyrtia’s blessing, there were no ambushers awaiting them when they arrived at the base. Dawn wasn’t far off and Visgamar’s famous fogs rolled out across the city, enveloping the buildings and people in another veil. Straight away, the Sticky Fingers and Nanlong’s mercenaries lit bright lanterns around the fort and took their positions, a few of them even armed with crude crossbows.

The slaves were forced into a central building and put under the Seeker’s watch. As much as Ginger wanted the Seekers to man the walls, considering the aftermath he had seen on the deck, he knew it was best not to sneak any additional clauses into the deal.

Orion leaned against the doorframe as he watched Kora reapply Skitters’s bandages. She then moved onto two of Nanlong’s mercenaries who were severely injured, and then the slaves. As for why there were no Sticky Fingers with them, Skitters had told them in the building by the docks that the gang couldn’t afford to take care of anyone too far gone. Instead, they helped you complete the distance.

After being rebandaged, the thief lay on the ground with his eyes shut. He hadn’t mentioned Orion trying to knock him out to anyone, nor had he brought it up with the Seekers. You couldn’t survive the streets without common sense and Skitters had far more than others, enough to keep quiet about the incident. All he knew was that the two were like storms once fighting and that the mage had croaked Zakari to Jax.

Orion had blanked out for a few moments, or minutes, when he saw Kora dressing the unconscious foreigner’s wounds. While it would have been impossible in the dark, now with a clear view of his skin, Kora seemed as intrigued by the man and the mage’s torture as Orion was.

“How strong were they?” she asked. She ran her finger across the angular cuts drawn into his skin – the runes.

“Novice work, but probably the strongest the pig had,”

“Mmm,” She nodded, checked the man’s eyes, then moved on.

The hours went by, and it was past dawn by the time a Sticky Fingers came in.

“The boss wants y’all to come,” he said to Kora. She woke her dozing partner and everyone but the foreigner.

They made it down the rubble-strewn paths and into the open aired hall, fit with wild vines growing the cracked walls and a circle of dry dirt amidst the trampled, sickly grass. There was a large fire on the dirt over which a stew was bubbling. Ginger and Nanlong sat around a smaller fire, the spaces between them filled with the higher-ups of each group, including Thimble. The slaves were made to wait by the larger fire as the Seekers and Skittles were motioned to the smaller one.

“Ahh, time yer got ‘ere,” Ginger said.

“Shouldn’t you be watching the walls? Or is it over?” Kora said.

“It’s alright, Miss Kora. We got watchers out there,” Thimble answered.

“Besides, they’d be fools to attack in this light,” Ginger finished.

Nanlong put down the bread he was chewing on and strode to the Seekers. “We heard about the Mage,”

The mood fell, mostly from the Sticky Fingers around the fire. Ginger had his face downcast, the shadows from fire creasing his face.

“But you killed that bitch before anything else. This isn’t much but take it as thanks. Since I don’t know, and don’t want to know, what would have happened otherwise,” he continued, drawing three gold coins from his pockets and handing them to the Seekers.

“Anyway, yer both earned yor place beside me at the party. Yer’ll get to see Rats,” Ginger said while facing up. “But, right now, I’ll also give yer another reward for murdering that whore,”

Kora yawned with no intention to answer, and seeing this, Orion looked around and then behind him.

“Could you take care of the slaves?”

“As slaves? Sure can,” Ginger said, urging a round of laughter from the surrounding men. “As free men an’ women, I dunno,”

“What can I do then?” Orion asked.

“Yer? Nothing. Them, it depends on them,”

Ginger stood, picked up his sword and walked over to the larger fire, everyone else following. He stepped in front of a slave.

“Yer, will yer join the Sticky Fingers?”

The emaciated man looked from the brown-haired gang leader, to the glint of the blade, to his own pathetic reflection in Ginger’s eyes.

“The Sticky Fingers?” the man replied, stumbling back in fear, only to bump into one of Ginger’s thugs.

“Forward, mate. Boss asked yer a question,”

“Us, we’re the Sticky Fingers,” Ginger explained.

“Ugh…” The man gulped and looked at the blade again, at how sharp it looked. “…Yeah, Yeah I will, I’d love to, please don’t kill me,” he said as he broke into tears, collapsing onto his knees.

Orion tried to move but Kora caught his shoulder and stopped him.

“Good,” Ginger said, moving onto the next person. “What about yer?”

“Sir, please, I’ve got a family; I’ve got to get back to them,” the man pleaded. It was the last words he spoke as the blade struck, ripping flesh off his neck. He fell face-first, a mixture of blood and mud pasted over his eyes.

Orion tried to force his way out of Kora’s grasp but she held strong, fingers digging into his flesh. “You wanted him to look after them, well, he can only look after the ones who’ll survive these ends,”

Orion wanted to ask, no, shout why Ginger couldn’t let them go then? Why did he have to kill the ones with a past to get back to? But the answer came as quickly as his anger, because if he let one go, the rest would also want to go. Ginger was a cutthroat leader of the streets; he was cruel because that was how he survived each day, and the morals Orion had were simply luxuries for the brown-haired gang leader, decadent luxuries.

Nonetheless, this didn’t quell Orion’s anger. What did was the question he asked himself: how else was he supposed to save the slaves? By taking them under his care, restricting his options, and risking his entire vengeance? Choosing a few strangers over the House of Zakari? No, he couldn’t, and as much as it pained him to admit, it was better for them to be under a man who would toughen them up than for them to be free in such a vicious city.

Ginger moved on. “What about yer then?” he said as he swung about the bloodstained sword.

“Yes,”

…

“Yeah,”

…

“Please, I need to find my daughter, I’m begging you,” a woman said. “I’ll let you do anything to me, just let me find my daughter afterwards,”

While a few of Ginger’s thugs cheered at this, their leader was having none of it. He slashed as he had done before, and another corpse hit the ground as before.

…

“Yeah,”

…

“Of course,”

It carried on until Ginger had asked every slave. Only two of the 30 had said no, and only two now lay on the ground.

“Messy business done with, how about we eat now?” Ginger said. His men and Nanlong’s mercenaries cheered for him, while the slaves sombrely thought on their fates.

“Wait, Ginger, come here,” Kora said, while the rest of the people queued for their stew.

“What’s it, Kora?”

She put her hand out to shake, and he did so, although confusedly. One of her nails sliced his skin and drew blood, which she rubbed between her fingers and licked. Orion glared at Ginger throughout.

“There’s another one, the dark one, the foreigner. Take good care of him,” she said.

Ginger wore an incredulous expression.

“If you don’t, I don’t know, maybe you’ll start to feel ill or such,”

Orion knew Ginger would say yes the second he felt the air thicken. The gang leader’s eyes widened and he looked at Kora in shock, before placing his hand on his forehead. He wasn’t new to this game; he knew how things worked.

“You did something, you wh—”

“And I can do much worse if you tempt me,” she said, revealing her perfect teeth.

“Fine, I’ll make sure Thimble, that piece of shit, looks after that burnt corpse yer picked up,”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” she finished with a cheerful tone.

He smirked, then paced away. He would have hidden his fear too, had it not been for his visibly quivering hands and rushed steps.