“What?” he demanded.
“Shit smear,” I told him.
“What?”
I sucked in a deep breath and screamed at the top of my lungs. I was loud and scared beyond all reason, and my body delivered all the decibels I had in me.
The guard backhanded me across the face. The hit burned like he’d scalded me. I rocked back and stumbled. Something hot and salty wet my lips. Blood, this time my own.
“Shut the fuck up.”
The small kids burst into tears. I hadn’t heard the board breaking. There was no telling if they’d managed it, but it was too late to stop now.
“Shit smear!” I told him.
He grabbed me by the neck and squeezed all of the air out. Panic hit me. I wanted to claw at his hands, but I had to hang there, limp, instead.
The world was turning dark.
The upstairs door swung open, and Derog marched into the room, followed by a thickset guy who looked like he crushed bricks with his forehead for a living.
The guard let go of me and backed away with his hands in the air.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Derog snarled. “What in the honest fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“She provoked me, terr.”
I sucked in air and coughed. I was still alive somehow.
“How?”
“She was looking at me.” As soon as the words came out, the weasel-face realized that he’d made a crucial mistake.
“So you hit her because she was looking at you?” Derog asked, suddenly calm.
“She called me a shit smear.”
“She has the mind of a child, you moron.” Derog grasped my chin. “She doesn’t know what the words mean. She probably heard them for the first time today. Smile, Maggie.”
I blinked away tears and gave him a smile.
“She said it like she knew what it meant. And then she screamed.”
Derog studied my mouth. “You scared her. Of course she screamed. Your face isn’t scratched. She made no effort to fight you.”
The weasel-face stared at me.
Derog put his finger in my mouth and tested my teeth. I almost threw up in his face.
“She has teeth like a noblewoman, and she’s worth more than I pay you in a year. And you hit her in the face. What would we do if you knocked any of her teeth out? Would I pull yours out and put them into her mouth?”
The bruiser next to Derog stirred. “Apologies, terr, but his teeth aren’t pretty enough.”
The slavemonger turned his head and looked at the big guy for a long moment.
“Close your mouth, Maggie.”
I did.
