Lost in thought, he did not see the shadowed figure standing along a wall. The solid punch landed square in the middle of Hilko’s back, sending him to the ground.
“Boy, you are slow tonight!” A familiar voice laughed at the sprawled figure lying on the cobblestone among the trash and filth.
Hilko quickly sprung up toward the larger figure with his stiletto at the ready. Silna laughed again, her low voice becoming high pitched as she raised her beefy arms in mocking surrender.
“Please don’t hurt me, oh, master of the tunnels!”
The thin man glared at her.
“One of these times, you’re going to get gutted when you do that.”
“Come on, don’t get mad. I’m here to help.” The young woman’s white teeth showed from her false smile.
“Regaar’s wants you.”
“Curse the Nalith; I’m not his little puppet,” Hilko replied as he jabbed the knife back in his belt. It remained mostly hidden under his half-length hooded tunic as he grumbled at Silna.
“You work for him more than I do. What are you doing away from your work? Regaar won’t like you hanging with me if his girls get hurt by a customer.”
Silna took her friend by the arm and pulled him toward the tunnel. “I’ve got them taken care of. A friend owes me a favor,” she told him. “Now come on, Regaar told me to get you. I’m sure he’s got something good on his mind.”
“Stop it. I don’t care what the pufta wants,” Hilko snapped as he broke away from the woman’s firm grip.
“He should have thought of that before he jerked me around on the Chara work. The pufta can go lick himself.”
Silna grabbed his arm again, holding on hard enough to hurt.
“If he hears you call him a plague wench all the time, he’ll cut your tongue out. Yeah, he smells like the sewer, but he’s still the boss. Come on, we talk.” She firmly steered him to the end of the alley.
Hilko resisted but finally stopped. He knew he wasn’t strong enough to stop her from dragging him along. The woman stood nearly a head taller, and she outweighed him. She also had a punch like the thugs employed by Regaar.
Silna called herself a freak because of her size and strength. Keenly aware that she did not fit in as a proper lady, she became an enforcer over the girls of the Pleasure Tunnel. Still, she was his friend, even his protector. When Silna could not intimidate one of her prosties into having sex, Hilko occasionally became her backup lover.
The odd pair took a shabby, deserted cobblestone path near the old tunnel entrance. As they passed a group of out-of-work miners huddled around a dice game in the narrow street, one whistled catcalls at Silna. Usually, she confronted such men with her club in hand. This time, she just glared at them and pushed her friend through the main door of Buckall, their regular tavern.
Inside, the woman went to the bar, where Hilko watched her talk to a slave. The new man rubbed his neck, where his new collar rubbed into the skin. Hilko looked away when he noticed the slave was about his size and age.
Buckall stood near the door; the tavern owner watched the street for any trouble heading toward his shop. The fat man liked young men for his bed, but he also enjoyed making money. Hilko knew the story. Buckall would send his slave upstairs after the tavern closed with the drunks who wanted sex with anything young.
Hilko recognized the slave handing out the drinks, but he forgot the name. It didn’t matter. The slave was another tunnel rat who made a poor deal with Regaar. Too small to fight, maybe too honest to steal or rob, Hilko expected the young man owed an unpayable debt.
Yet, Hilko knew such debts seldom happened without Regaar’s involvement. He wondered if the slave would end up like Buckall’s last boy. Another casualty of many who committed suicide when they realized their hopeless situation. Such was the world of Charax.
Hilko pulled away while Silna went to get the drinks. He took a seat on a bench close to the wall near the back of the room. Experience told him to stay close to the exits in his business if the wrong people showed up. He always faced the door as well.
As he sat there, Hilko tried to remember how long he’d known Silna. The woman became his protector and friend around the last Olnal festival. He whistled to himself.
Silna came back with two tunnel waters, known as sangers. Hilko hated the drink, but he knew the big woman would get her way. Besides, there wasn’t much else available on their island level without some major hamar, gold coins used for trading. Hilko seldom had any in his money pouch.
Hard to believe it’s been that long!
Silna worked for a fat Amryno merchant who accused Silna of stealing from him after fighting him off during an attempted rape. Like him, she never came from the tunnels. Unfortunately, Silna ended up with those on the bottom of the island by fighting back against her would-be rapist.
Hilko first saw the woman from his stinking, crowded cell inside the central Charax prison. It was Hilko’s second time inside the Guryo jail, and he learned to carry a thin dagger inside the seam of his breeches after his first experiences. A weapon was the small man’s only hope of keeping the thugs from overpowering him.
The main stone building that housed the prisoners once was part of the original fort that surrounded the island. Any accused men, women, and children found themselves stuffed together with little room to sleep or even sit. With laws favoring the nobles, sentences came from the lord sheriff, who arbitrarily decided how long a prisoner would stay. Bribes were common on Charax, so those with enough hamar got out of the wretched cages sooner.
For Hilko, he nearly finished his jail time for casing a home for an upcoming snatch. Leaning against the bars, he watched as three new prisoners entered the vaulted hall. Like others who experienced the brutal life inside the jails before, Hilko immediately noticed her demeanor from across the room. Despite her size, her passive behavior made her a target when Silna walked into the iron cages clustered in the middle of the room.
Amryno guards encouraged the meanest prisoners to abuse newcomers in the overcrowded jail to make it worse. With an open bucket used as the latrine and fed one meal a day, captives fought for everything. The sickest prisoners fended for themselves, often dying long before their release.
Women and children provided the guards with the best opportunity for prisoner barter. The more desirable a prisoner appeared, the more likely the jailer traded them like slaves to a new master each night.
Still, all the new prisoners went to a particular cell called the Stage. The smaller cage sat in the middle of the high arched room, where all the other cages could view the events. Those gangs controlling their cells bartered with the guards for rights to stay inside the Stage when new prisoners arrived.
Hilko could predict the next turn of events. One particularly large thug, leader of the Targ gang, waited in the cage with the others. They had their sights on a tall male wearing merchant clothing. Immediately attacking and pummeling the new prisoner, the vicious criminals beat him nearly unconscious. After they stripped him of his clothes, the gang found dried gamgee leaves in the clothing which the new prisoner brought inside to barter his way to food and drink.
However, robbing the young man wasn’t enough. The members of the gang dragged the tall victim to a corner where they started raping him. Hilko paid no attention to the scene as he looked at the big woman with fear covering her face. He knew it was only a matter of time before the gang turned their attention to Silna.
However, the gang members miscalculated in believing she would act like the subservient male. When one of the thugs finished raping the merchant, he walked over to Silna. With a grin, he told her to strip.
Recognizing her plight, Silna suddenly attacked the prisoner. She used her quick reflexes and size to compensate for her lack of fighting knowledge. The woman struck him in the groin, then went for his nose, sending blood across his mouth and chin. His pained howl from the onslaught caught the attention of everyone.
As he looked at the battle, Hilko found himself impressed. Her initial resistance kept away others inside the cage. Hilko enjoyed it when Silna went after another prisoner who tried to grab her arms from behind. He enjoyed watching the man get pulled into her vice-like grip with one arm around his neck as she slammed his face into the cell bars. However, the rest of those inside the cage finally stopped their abuse of the male and turned their attention to the woman.
Worse for Silna, Amryno guards came closer and began placing bets on the fight’s winner. Enraged by this action, the gang prisoners inside the Stage grouped together when they went after the woman. They overwhelmed Silna, penning her to the bars. Then, the leader of the Targ joined the fight. He threw savage shots into the woman’s back and ribs.
From his vantage point, Hilko looked straight into Silna’s eyes, seeing her quietly plead for help with each punch. Yet, he remained powerless, watching her slide to her knees, where they beat and kicked the woman until she barely moved. After the victors stripped her garments as trophies, the leader mounted the nearly unconscious woman as his sex trophy.
Hilko turned away as his impossible hope came back to the reality of his world. He heard the moaning and groaning, along with the catcalls and remarks, as the victors took their turns to rape and humiliate the vanquished. The gang would use their victims, then sell them to other prisoners or the jailers for food and drink. It was the price of admission inside the Stage.
He looked over the prisoners in his cell, who continued to enjoy the abuse they witnessed. The smuggler noticed the twisted mob’s expressions held a combination of depravity and relief. Those who watched were happy they were not the victims this time. Yet, they did not mind witnessing the mistreatment as a spectator sport.
On that day, Hilko decided the doomed ones deserved their fate on Charax. Despite witnessing the spectacle multiple times, the entire scene sickened him to the point of rage. Hilko finally shouted at the two Amryno guards, settling their bet while ignoring the cries for help from a few feet away. He hurled colorful curses with taunts focused on their small rod size caused by inbreeding with Faters. The sudden laughter coming from the prisoners, who launched their own insults, sent the guards after him.
I should have known better.
