The Slave Breakers, 7/15

[maculategiraffe]

Previous chapter


Bran stood with his back against the wall, half hoping to escape notice. Holden closed his eyes for a moment as his daughter disappeared up the stairs, then opened them and saw Bran.

"Bran," he started.

"No, no," Alix interrupted. "You're tired. Leave the boy. Come to bed."

Holden turned to her, smiling. "Will you soothe my fevered brow?"

"Don't I always?" Alix kissed her husband quickly on the corner of his mouth. "Kiss me, Greta. Are you staying up?"

"For awhile, I think, mistress," said Greta. "I'm not tired."

"Well, don't sit up too late. You know Val will want to drag you somewhere in the morning and tell you all her troubles, and you don't want to be yawning your head off. Spoils the illusion of maternal interest."

Greta smiled. "I won't."

"Make Bran go to bed at a reasonable hour, too," said Holden over his shoulder as Alix started up the stairs with her arm firmly laced through his.

Bran had never felt less tired in his life; caffeine still zinging through him, he looked at Greta.

"Come on," she said. "Keep me company. I'll make us something hot to drink."

"There's coffee," said Bran.

"Mmm. Bad idea. I'll heat up some milk."

"Already going into mommy mode?" Bran asked without thinking, then bit his tongue. Yeah, coffee was a bad idea.

Greta laughed. "Right. I could use a dress rehearsal before I try to talk to my daughter. Come on."



Sitting at the kitchen table with Greta was easier than sitting there with Yves, whether because Bran wasn't under orders to talk to her or because she didn't seem particularly curious about Bran's own mood. Or because Bran wasn't jealous of her, he thought moodily as she sipped her milk, looking lost in thought that had nothing to do with Bran.

"The master looked tired," he said, not particularly interested in getting lost in his own thoughts at the moment. "I mean, even aside from the whole daughter thing." The coffee had loosened his tongue, he knew, but he wasn't worried about Greta; she was quiet and always had a gentle smile for Bran, and as far as he could tell she hardly ever even spoke to his master. Bran still hadn't entirely adjusted to the shock of learning they had a mutual daughter.

"He and my brother had a fight at dinner," said Greta. Bran thought she looked grateful to be recalled from thought herself.

"A fight?" Bran tried to imagine a slave fighting with a noble, even one who didn't directly own him. Bran himself had once yelled "Stop" at one of Dunaev's friends, but he didn't really think that counted.

"Well, not really a fight. They just don't get on." Greta sighed. "They never have."

"How well do they know each other?" A thought struck Bran. "Your brother's a twin, is that right? Were you sold off at the same time?"

"Yes. We really gave Alix her start." Greta smiled. "I mean, the mistress. I called her Alix back then. She and I talked sometimes at the market when I was a kid-- she was twenty or so, which seemed ancient to me at fourteen, and she was sort of like the big sister I never had, you know, asking me about my life and about Kai-- that's my brother. Kai and I were very, very close, back then. Well-- I guess she got to feel a bit protective of me. Then my fifteenth birthday was coming up, and I had to tell her I wouldn't be coming to the market any more. She was so kind and worried that I cried a bit, because I knew they'd separate me and Kai-- we didn't look enough alike to get sold as a set-- and I was scared. She didn't say much, just hugged me and told me to be brave and it would be okay. I didn't know what she was talking about. I had no idea she had the kind of money lying around that it would take to buy both of us."

"Why did she?" Bran asked. He had never talked this much to Greta. "Where'd she get it? I mean, she's not noble, is she?"

"No. And she really couldn't afford it, not properly. She had some money in the bank and was living on the interest, but she had to take out about half her capital to get me and Kai. The master was furious. This was before they were married, though, so he didn't really get a say."

"And then they got married? And he and Kai didn't-- and is that why they sold him?" Bran didn't know exactly why the thought chilled him. Such things happened all the time; people got married and rearranged their households. But if Alix had spent money she couldn't afford to keep the siblings from being separated, and then sold Kai anyway-- because she got married? What did that say about Holden, exactly?

"Not exactly," said Greta, looking curiously at Bran, who tried to look calmly interested. "They got engaged about a year later. Kai didn't take it well. I didn't either, to be honest. The master's mellowed out a lot now, but back then he was-- you didn't want to belong to him."

"Really?" Bran asked. "Why?"

"Oh-- he was just sort of-- impatient, I guess. And possessive. He's still possessive, but-- he didn't like me; he was jealous of how much Alix-- the mistress loved me. He said she spoiled me. I suppose she did. When I first came here I was-- quite inexperienced, I'd sort of spent my whole life wrapped up in Kai, and I'd never been with a woman, and I was-- shy. So she didn't touch me, and she wouldn't let him touch me either, until I was ready, and he raved at her about how I was keeping her fascinated and playing her like a fish and--" She gave a deprecating little laugh.

"He must have been really insecure," said Bran, trying to imagine it.

"Well, yes, I think so," said Greta with an odd little smile. "Kai hated him. When the mistress told us they were engaged, he begged her to sell us before she married him. She'd agreed that if she ever sold us it would be to someone who wanted us both. And Lady Galenova would have bought us both, but I-- I didn't want to go. I was happy here, despite-- and I adored her, and I thought things would be okay once they were married. As soon as she told me-- I went to him and offered to sleep with him. I knew I had to-- surrender, to satisfy him. I thought it would satisfy him, to know I accepted him as my master."

"Did it?" Bran asked.

"No. But it did get better. Especially after she bought him Yves. It took a bit of pressure off. But he still fucked me like he was planting a flag." She took a deep draught of milk. "When I got pregnant, I thought he was going to kill me."

"But why?" Bran asked. "He'd know it was his, right?"

Greta shook her head. "He'd know it couldn't be."

Something clicked gently into place. Bran's mouth opened.

"He was a slave," said Bran, stunned. "Her slave. Before she married him. Wasn't he?"

Greta smiled patiently at him. "Yes."

"I can't believe I didn't figure it out before. He was jealous of you because--"

"I was a better slave than he was," said Greta, grinning a little. "I was very sweet and shy and gentle. He was headstrong and needy and temperamental. She still loved him best, of course, but even after she married him he couldn't stop thinking of me as a threat. And when I got pregnant, well. It wasn't his. Couldn't be. He was sterile."

"Yeah... But so were you, right? I mean--"

"Oh, I suppose there was the remote possibility that his surgery had somehow been botched as well. But it wasn't. I was sixteen, and lonely, and stupid, and how was I supposed to know I would get pregnant?"

"You were cheating on them?" Bran gasped.

"I was their very first delinquent," said Greta solemnly. "They hadn't quite gotten the hang of it with me, though, so instead of fixing me for resale or-- anything else-- they just kept me. They've wised up now, though, so don't get any ideas."

Her tone was light, but Bran didn't bother to smile.

"Gods, I was so scared when I found out," said Greta, folding her hands around her cup as if for warmth. "I was trying to work up my nerve to kill myself before they figured it out-- I thought that would be better than waiting for them to kill me. That happened a lot more back then-- masters killing slaves, I mean, when they'd done something to ruin their resale value. Nowadays they know it's more cost-effective to sell them to the slave breakers, and there are so many nightmare stories circulating about what happens here that it's got about the same deterrent effect."

She winked at Bran, who was privately thinking that he'd never be stupid enough to sleep with someone without his master's consent. And he wasn't even a girl. Sterility or not...!

"Uh-huh," he said.

Greta's eyebrows went up. "Oh, I guess you've never done anything stupid, runaway."

Bran looked down quickly. "Sorry, I didn't mean--"

"You should learn to control your expressions," said Greta coolly. "Saves a lot of trouble."

"He keeps telling me that," Bran admitted, looking back up. "He said, hasn't that gotten you into trouble before? But I never had anybody who wanted to look at my face, much."

"Really? A pretty kid like you?"

Bran blushed. "I guess." And he keeps telling me that, too.

"Anyway," said Greta. "He figured it out before she did. I guess he's more naturally suspicious. He came to me and asked me about it-- not angrily-- just, 'You're pregnant, aren't you?' and I fainted, which pretty much confirmed his suspicions-- but when I came around he just told me quite gently to pull myself together and we'd talk to Alix and figure out what to do. So that's what we did."

"And what happened?" Bran demanded. "Why did he-- what, did he adopt her?"

"No. He's officially her father," said Greta. "It was easier, legally. I don't know, Bran. I think just the fact that I'd fucked up so badly made him like me a little better. It was Little Miss Perfect Slave he hated and was jealous of. I don't know. I was hysterical and begging for my life and the life of my baby, and Alix was crying and blaming herself for not paying more attention to me and not having noticed something was wrong, and he was just-- calm. He just said, 'Look, we can sort this out.' And it turned out we could."

She smiled at Bran again. "I wasn't entirely joking when I said I was their first delinquent. I think that's what gave her the idea. She bought me and Kai on a whim because we were afraid to be separated, and then a year later Kai was okay with being sold off without me, and now he's perfectly content with Lady Galenova, who adores him. And then I fucked up and did something that most masters at the time would have killed me for, and they worked it out so everyone was happy, and I think she just thought, what a waste, so many kids who could be just fine if only someone reasonable took charge and showed them the ropes. And she had him, and when she saw how good he was in a crisis-- so he does the delinquents, mostly, and she does the new kids, and here we are today. And here you are, runaway, sentenced to the horrible fate of staying up late listening to an old woman's prattle."

"How old are you?" Bran asked. It was the only thing he could think to say.

"Almost thirty-four," said Greta absently, looking at Bran. "You really like him, don't you?"

Bran looked down again. "What?"

"Suddenly looking away isn't really a substitute for controlling your face," said Greta, amused. "It's a dead giveaway, actually. Does he know?"

"Probably," said Bran, suddenly feeling very tired. "He seems to know most things."

They sat without speaking for a few minutes.

"Can I go to bed?" Bran asked finally.

"You don't need my permission," said Greta. "In fact, you should hurry before I get in trouble for keeping you up all night telling you my life story."

"No-- thanks," said Bran, getting up. "It was interesting."

Greta smiled at him. "You're a sweet kid."

Bran smiled back dutifully, then paused on his way out. "Greta? What did he and Kai fight about, tonight?"

"Valor," said Greta. "It's usually Valor. I don't think Kai will ever forgive Holden for getting me pregnant. And not insisting on a nice, safe, early abortion."

"But he didn't," said Bran, puzzled. "Get you pregnant, I mean."

"I'm not sure either of them remembers that at this point," said Greta dryly. "Go to bed, runaway. We've both got people to deal with in the morning."

Next chapter