Underland(8)

Her mom on the other hand? Just wallowed in I-Disappointed-My-Husband Land. And nothing Kira’s dad could do could convince her he was still happy with their family.

When Philip Lier died a hero, nothing mattered to her mom but numbing her pain. Not even Kira.

Why was Kira thinking about all of this now? She never reminisced about her childhood—except her father. She’d left her mother, her horrible stepfather, and her past behind her. Two long years ago. Now she was faced with a different kind of monster.

Kira quickly wiped away the wetness that began to form in the corner of her eyes. She would not feel sorry for herself.

Instead, she’d figure out how the people here knew day from night. She looked around the courtyard. Without a sun or moon, she could only tell it was nighttime because the city became quieter and fewer signs were left on. Darkness was always there, waiting to creep in, and she shivered at the thought of what would happen if every light in the city went out. She would be surrounded in pitch black by hungry monsters. Did they get power outages?

A scream came from outside the courtyard walls, followed by low growls, and chomping noises. She shuddered. Something or someone was being eaten. This only confirmed her worst fear.

The giant guard awoke and came running out of a side building with a large club. He scanned the inhabitants of the cells, moved towards the large iron doors, and waited, club at the ready. His eye searched the twenty-foot wall for movement. When the sounds of chomping and devouring ceased beyond the wall and no more noise came, the giant stalked back to the building.

Kira couldn’t let it go so easily; the hair on the back of her arms still stood on end.

Stop it! she told herself. She would get through this. Well, maybe she would if the zeke in the cage next to her ever slept. It didn’t seem like he needed to, and he had been staring at her for the last twelve hours. It was enough to drive anyone insane.

She didn’t want to sleep with her back to him, but facing him was just as creepy. She sat in the corner of the cage and stared at the ground. What seemed like hours later, the hustle and bustle of activity of the waking town dispelled the quietness. But to her bodily clock, the hours seemed wrong. It felt like they slept during the human day and were active at night. It made sense—that’s how they caught her when she was trying to sleep.

Movement by the gate made her glance up. The giant had opened the door to allow people inside. Grater stood to his right with a clipboard. Each entrant transferred money to him before entering. At least twenty bidders had come in, but she thought she’d counted only fifteen slaves to choose from. Kira would have been nervous if she wasn’t so curious.

These buyers were obviously from a different class than the people on the street. No dumpster wardrobes here. The clothes looked finely tailored to fit their needs, from large to small tails.

Again, most looked human until one of them smiled. Kira saw the hint of fangs. A rail-thin woman, almost translucent in skin color, pushed her long, black hair over her shoulder and stared into a cage. One buyer was a large white rabbit, another was half-man, half-snake.

Sable was getting excited despite her grim outlook of being sold. She recognized all the buyers, all trainers for the games. If Sable was lucky, she could earn her freedom. “The half-snake is Ssirone. He is a Paladin, a champion that has earned his freedom. Now he owns his own gym and trains some of the strongest and deadliest fighters.”

“What about the rabbit?” Kira asked. Surely a rabbit wouldn’t feed her to a monster.

Sable actually shuddered. “Don’t catch his eye,” she whispered. “He tends to starve and beat his fighters, and most die before ever getting the chance to compete.” Kira ducked her head quickly.

Each buyer went to every cage and poked and prodded the slaves inside, assessing their value and abilities as if they were prized horses. Sable tried to stand and look proud in her cage, but Kira could see the girl visibly shaking. The vampire looked interested in buying Sable, but so did Ssirone. The boy zeke gathered a huge crowd of interested buyers.

Only the rabbit and a snake man paid Kira any attention—both said the same thing when they looked at her.

“Hmm, human. This would make a good treat.” The rabbit rubbed his white chin thoughtfully.

“Not if I buy her for my champion first,” Ssirone joked.

The rabbit looked at Ssirone with contempt in his eyes. A knot began to turn in Kira’s stomach. So these were sponsors.

“Now, now, Cottontail, don’t get your scruff in a rut. If you want the human, then you bid for it,” Ssirone challenged, pointing to his bracer.

“Maybe I will, you moron. And don’t call me Cottontail. My name is Peter, just Peter.”

Kira almost snickered aloud when she heard the rabbit’s name, but her quick intake of breath made Peter’s black beady eyes jump to her. Her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly with hunger. Peter threw his head back and laughed in high-pitched staccato bursts.

Raz let the buyers mingle about the courtyard for an hour before he barked loudly that they were about to begin the bidding. Kira saw Grater watching the proceedings from a distance. Raz brought out the first slave with his chain and made him stand on a metal stage constructed of oil drums and planks of wood.

The slave was young, with sandy hair and oversized eyes. He looked slightly ill until his long tongue slipped out of his mouth and snagged a large horsefly out of the air. In one second, the fly was gone, and Kira was the one left looking ill. Apparently that didn’t impress any of the buyers, because no one bought him. Huh. She thought they were all getting sold.