She didn’t believe him. There was something in the way he answered that was practiced, fake. She clenched her teeth. “I’m going there. I’m going to get the rest of the boys.”
“No!” Thomas said. He shook his head frantically. “You won’t come back.”
Sympathy swept through her. How much agony had they known? “Did the bishop take you from your family?”
Thomas scowled. “Me mum sold me ta ‘im.”
Mercy was horrified. What kind of mother would sell her son? “As a slave? What did the bishop do with you?”
Thomas looked down, his lips pursed.
Mercy looked at the other boys.
Rafe scowled fiercely and the other boys looked away.
“It’s alright. It doesn’t matter,” Mercy told them. “You don’t have to tell me.” It was enough that they were prisoners. She didn’t need to know the horrors they went through. “It’s alright.”
How was she to get to the castle without being noticed? She looked at Thomas. Then her gaze swept Rafe and the other two children. They had escaped. They would know how to get in. She dropped to her knees before Thomas. “He has my boy. I have to go to the castle and find him. I have to find Kit.”
Thomas shook his head in disapproval.
“It’s not just Kit. There are others there,” Rafe said quietly.
Mercy looked at him over her shoulder. “How many?”
“I don’t know. We were never allowed to see each other.”
“They kept us in separate small rooms. Until the bishop wanted us,” Thomas said quietly.
Like animals, Mercy thought.
“There was one time he brought us out. He made us line up,” Rafe said. “I remember how happy I was ta see the sun. There were maybe six or seven others.”
Thomas nodded, but there was no happiness in his face. Only a haunting coldness.
Mercy swallowed. “Thomas. Rafe. You escaped. How did you do it?”
Rafe and Thomas exchanged uneasy glances. “I used to go exploring at night,” Thomas said quietly.
“If you were bad, the bishop would make sure you had a guard,” Rafe explained. “Or if there were visitors. The bishop didn’t want us seen. He would make sure we didn’t leave our rooms by putting a guard there.”
Thomas nodded. “In the beginning, you have an escort. Until you get used to the rules.”
“But you are not allowed to leave your room. Ever.”
Both boys were silent for a long moment, remembering.
Mercy looked at the younger boys sitting on the floor. “What if you were caught?” she wondered.
“You were punished,” the smallest boy whispered. It sounded like a shout in the small cave. He sat in the corner of the cavity; his knees pulled up to his chest.
Both Thomas and Rafe looked at the boy.
“They caught him out at night once,” Thomas said quietly.
Rafe went and sat next to the boy. He looked at Mercy. “Will was in the room next to mine.” He looked back at the small boy. “We talked through a hole in the wall. I promised him I wouldn’t leave without him.”
The boy nodded, looking at Rafe with adoration. “And ya took me with.”
