‘You can’t do that,’ snapped Judd. ‘We weren’t present.’ He waggled one hand dismissively at Varklee, who laughed as he sat to carry on with his food. ‘And she’s Borough South.’
‘And now she’s mine. Still got the taste of her tongue in my mouth to prove it.’
A senior female guard in her forties, Miss Binnow, entered the canteen, and at once a hushed silence fell, and everyone went back to doing what they were supposed to do as she paced around like a predator examining prey, her pointy nose held high, death in her midnight-blue eyes.
Scarlen side-eyed her as she passed, sensing trouble. It was for the best if she finished her breakfast in silence. All the claiming malarkey would have to wait, but it definitely wasn’t going to disappear. No one was about to make her theirs, especially the Rebel.Fuck him and his silver eyes. He will never taste my tongue.
It was hard to eat while sensing people watching her, including a definite scowl from Kylar, but Scarlen did her bestto ignore everything, even when her bowl was empty and some quiet chatter had resumed.
Dionne nudged her as three loud pips went off. ‘That means we have a few minutes to get to our jobs, but as we’re only starting our sentence, we do the silent system for the first month. Follow me. I know where to go.’
Everyone seemed to know where to go, and as soon as the spoons were counted, they left. Scarlen didn’t notice where Bear went, not that she was paying attention or anything, just watching her back from kidnappers, so she told herself, more than once.
A male guardwas standing by a locked door that opened onto a small concrete yard. There were bleachers all around and a large, horizontal, nautical-looking wheel raised on a pole, its four metal handles thick and long.
‘You four on the wheel, the rest on cannonballs,’ he ordered.
Scarlen stared blankly at the guard, clueless to what that meant, but Dionne guided her to the wheel and placed her between two handles.
‘Hold on with both hands and start pushing it around when the guard says.’
‘And the cannonball thing?’
‘Up there,’ said the guard flatly.
Scarlen noticed people sitting on the bleachers, passing a cannonball to each other. Each person only free from holding a ball for ten seconds before another was passed along.
‘You stay silent out here, Smithson, or it’s the dark cell for three days.’
She lifted one finger slightly, unsure if that much was allowed. ‘Erm, what if I need to go to the toilet chamber, sir?’
‘Raise a hand, but you won’t be allowed for the first hour, so always make sure you go on your way here.’
‘How long are we out here for?’
The guard, Mr Kane, frowned. ‘Didn’t you get a timetable?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Wherever it says jobs, you come here.’
She was still confused. ‘I don’t understand what the purpose of this is.’ She tapped the wheel, noticing pretty-boy was more interested in his fingernails than her.
‘It’s punishment, Smithson. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re in prison.’
‘But what does it teach us?’
‘Not to fuck up in the future,’ said the blond lad in front of her. He tugged the sleeve of his green t-shirt as though it irritated him. ‘And it’s not only fledglings they get doing this shit. Just another form of punishment.’
‘Yes, well explained, Temple. Perhaps next time you’ll think before trying to make your own mead in the kitchen.’ Mr Kane glanced around, making sure no one was talking, then bobbed his head at the wheel. ‘You lot can start.’
The wheel moved before Scarlen was ready, the handle behind shoving into the base of her back, shifting her forward. She gripped her own handle and started walking while staring at all the high grey walls surrounding them. If only she could remember how long jobs lasted.
An hour had passed of slow and boring steps round and around in silence until Mr Kane told them to stop. At last, she’d get to sit for a while, at least have some water, but no. All he did was reach for the middle of the wheel and tighten the black screw there with some sort of star-shaped key. She figured it had loosened from all the pointless movement.
‘Start,’ he said, then went back to leaning against the side of the barred door while yawning.
The wheel was a little harder to turn, and Scarlen dug her heels into the hard ground to help her push, but still it remained stiff, so she raised a hand.
