“We deal with the world as it is, not what we wish it were,” Erix said.
“Who said that?” I asked, teasingly.
“Me,” he said, grinning.
Night fell and we waited for the summer palace to settle. In the early morning hours we would sneak from our storeroom hideout.
When we ventured out it was surprisingly quiet. Unlike the city, which never seemed to really get quiet, the summer palace had a certain tranquility to it. So far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, I often had a hard time sleeping without the constant background noise of thousands of people going about their lives around us.
We both carried an empty box in our hands and kept our heads down as we walked. One thing we’d learned early in our lives was that slaves with empty hands were the ones who got questioned.
The summer palace was shaped like a square, a large courtyard on the interior, with wings leading off in all directions. Unlike the palace in the city, the windows and doors were built wider to catch any wind coming off the river. There were slave quarters along this part of the river, presumably because the smells of fish and other effluvia were too much for the noble palate.
We had electric lights, but the solar panels tended to fade the later it got into the evening. This late in the night, most of them were dim.
We walked down the hall that led to the docks, nodding at the guard on duty there. I knew his face but had no idea what his name was. Hopefully he didn’t know ours, either.
We walked down to one of the barges and moved out of sight of the guard. Erix moved to the skiff he had selected earlier in the day. It was a small raft, designed to move individuals across the water. It wasn’t one of the transport ships or ferries that brought the supplies needed for the palace.
Erix jumped on board, and I handed him the bag with our supplies. He roped it around his shoulder, then began gathering the long poles that would let us move soundlessly down the river.
I tried to step forward into the boat but felt frozen. I couldn’t seem to make my move to take that final step.
“C’mon, El,” Erix said, reaching his hand out to me.
“I…” I tried to breathe, but it was like I had a fist around my chest. “I want to, Erix… I’m just…” I was so scared. How could I say that to my brother? He was always so brave. Nothing frightened him.
Erix looked around anxiously, his eyes catching on shadows of movement.
“El, we gotta go, now!” he hissed.
“I— I can’t, Erix,” I said. How could he be so casual about leaving everyone and everything we knew? “I want to… but I can’t!”
Erix’s face looked stricken.
“You won’t go?” he asked, incredulous.
I shook my head. The look of betrayal on his face would haunt me forever.
“Fine. Coward.” He hissed. “Go back inside, maybe someday Daddy will make you a prince.”
I stepped back from the skiff as he angrily pushed away from the dock, tears falling down my cheeks in the darkness, his words cutting me to the quick. I didn’t want my brother to leave, and I certainly didn’t think my father would make me a prince. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the possibility that Erix and I were both Mageian. It had to be a mistake.
I stumbled my way back up the stairs in the darkness. I could just see the skiff pushing out to the middle of the river, moonlight shining on my twin’s white hair as he poled toward the middle of the river. I realized with a start we had forgotten to use the hair dye that would darken it.
Just then, a door opened a few feet away from where I stood. It led into the slave girl quarters. I heard the sound of quiet sobbing coming from the room, and I watched in horror, the anxiety building in my chest as I saw Maalik come out, tightening the belt to his trousers.
Even though all the slaves were supposed to be reserved for the King’s pleasure, Maalik had been visiting the slave quarters for over a year now. Male or female, he didn’t care. He just enjoyed causing them pain. He was truly his father’s son.
One of the slaves had complained to the Overseer about him taking liberties last summer, but she had disappeared without a trace. The other slaves were now too afraid to tell anyone about his visits.
He whistled as he shut the door behind him, and I leaned back further, trying to fade into the darkness and avoid his notice.
Some noise on the river must have caught his attention because I saw him look out across the water.
I saw the moment when he spied Erix and heard a whispered exultation of “I’ve got you now, you fucking bitch,” and then he was running down to the docks. Without thought, I chased after him.
“Guards!” he yelled, his newly deepened voice booming in the darkness. “Escaping Mageia!”
