Houses of Color and Masks of Shame

 

The Black House, I quickly learned, was the brothel I'd seen earlier. We hadn't traveled far from it, and as soon as Mi'ta was out of sight the soldiers grabbed my arms and began leading me back.

"What?" I protested, attempting to squirm free, though my strength was no match for theirs. "He's coming back, let go!"

I was ignored as I was dragged into the worn-down building. A few servants looked up, watching in surprise. The soldiers gestured to two of them, and the girls scurried after us. We reached a locked door, and one of the girls withdrew a small key from a string around her neck and opened the door. It revealed a large closet, filled with shelves of clothes.

I was shoved inside, and the two girls followed.

"How long until the girls are brought out?" one of the soldiers asked, frowning.

"Just a few minutes," the younger servant replied.

"Good. Make sure she's out there, too." With that, the soldiers left, sliding the door shut behind them.

"Out where?" I demanded, then yelped when the smaller girl, who couldn't have been older than eleven, began pulling at my clothes. Her little fingers worked quickly at the button on my jeans, and she looked surprised when I swatted her away.

The older girl looked at me and frowned. "You don't know?" she asked. She was pretty, probably fifteen, her hair long and brown. Both girls wore matching leather collars.

"I'm not from around here," I explained. "But I have an owner, he went to get the papers and-"

"He should have had them, if he had you on the street," the smaller girl said as she sat on the ground, swiftly untying my shoes.

"You belong to the Black House until he comes to retrieve you," the older one agreed apologetically, and tugged my shirt off before I could protest.

"What the hell are you two doing?" I cried, my face burning.

"You must wear the proper uniform," the older girl insisted. "We'll all be punished if you don't. You won't have to wear it long if your owner's coming to get you anyway, right?"

I couldn't argue with that, but it didn't stop me from trying to fight them; I quickly determined that they were used to dealing with people who were less than happy about being stripped. After much struggle on my part, I was left standing in only my underwear, while the younger girl folded my clothes and the older one dug through what looked like rags on a shelf.

"I don't have to go around like this, do I?" I asked. Remembering where I was, the idea didn't seem so far-fetched, and my skin crawled.

"Of course not," the older girl assured, tugging a garment from a shelf. She helped me into it, and I found myself in a short white dress that looked more like lingerie than anything else.

I frowned, squirming uncomfortably. "Because this is much better," I said sarcastically.

The younger girl pulled my hair from its' ponytail and combed it carefully while the other girl coached me.

"Remember to be nice," she said as she slid a simple black robe onto me, tying it very loosely at my waist. "It's only for a short time until your master comes back. We'll keep your clothes for you. I know you're new, so if you need anything, you can ask me. My name's Sitka."

I hesitated, then nodded uncertainly.

Suddenly, music began playing, and the two servants gasped. "It's time! Hurry!" Sitka exclaimed, grabbing my hand and leading me from the closet. She brought me back to the main room, where a small group of young women had settled in the corner to play their music with either flutes or stringed instruments. The paper lamps had been lit and a back door was open, letting in a train of women sixteen or older, all dressed the same as me, and all brunettes. Most of them looked displeased as they were directed into the cage by men who appeared to be in charge. A few looked afraid, but one just stared blankly ahead as she walked, her back perfectly straight and her head held high.

Sitka brought me to one of the men. "Master, we've got a new girl," she said, attracting the large man's glare. "Some soldiers brought her here, her owner went to get her papers."

The man snorted as he observed me. "I'm sure he did," he said, before giving an oily smile. "Very well. Get in, you can wait for your owner to come back. If he ever does."

Sitka nudged me into the cage, and the door was shut behind me. I glowered at the master as he started to leave. "He will come," I snapped, and was ignored. Sitka smiled at me gently before trotting off to join the other servants.

"Is this your first time here?" one of the women asked me, observing me curiously. "I haven't seen you around before."

I looked at her, then around them all. There were seventeen of them, either seated on the floor or leaning against the walls of the cage. Several were watching me with vague interest.

I turned back to the one who had spoken. "I'm not from here," I said slowly. "Some friends of mine and I are looking for my sister."

"Oh, I see," the woman nodded. "Well, if your sister's a brunette, she'll be here in the Black House."

"Her hair is red."

"Then she'll be in the Red House," an older woman put in.

"Shut up about that," a third woman said sharply. "The House is opening."

I wasn't sure what that meant at first, but I quickly learned. Outside, the sun had gone down, and men were coming in from the streets. In the House the men could lounge on the cushions, drink, listen to the music, and watch the women. And, of course, they could 'rent' whichever woman they could afford.

Where the hell was Mi'ta? I spent most of the night trying to remain out of sight, but it was impossible in the cage, and I watched the door, hoping to catch sight of the silver-haired magician.

As I watched, I noticed two servant girls standing by the door, each holding an armful of strange paper masks. As the men entered, the girls offered them a mask, and though most declined, a few accepted.

"What's with the masks?" I asked the first woman who had spoken to me. I kept my eyes trained on the door, firmly ignoring the men in the room. "Are they going to get in trouble for being here or something?"

"Hm?" The woman looked at me and smiled faintly. "No, not really. Some of them just do it for pleasure. They like being anonymous, and being allowed to choose whichever woman they want without being judged for their choice."

I frowned at that. "Has it always been like this here?"

"No, it was different when I was little. But we got a new mayor and he changed the laws." The woman shrugged her slim shoulders.

My stomach churned unpleasantly. "And no one's done anything about it?" I asked incredulously.

"Who would?" another girl scoffed bitterly. "Who would do anything? The men wouldn't stop it, and any women who fight are killed."

The first woman nodded grimly. "Even if anyone wanted to do anything about it, women are killed and men are exiled."

Weary, I turned back to the door and waited for Mi'ta. He would return for me any minute, I was sure, and we could continue to search for Lily before the Hunters would teach Tyler and I how to fight.

The door of the cage opened, jarring me from my thoughts. I looked up and was immediately filled with alarm and dread when I saw Noah being shoved into the cage, dressed in the same clothes as the rest of us.

"Noah?" I hoped I'd seen wrong and had somehow confused another girl with the warrior, but there was no mistaking the blue hair. "What are you doing here?"

She looked at me and didn't seem surprised. "Those soldiers caught up with us," she muttered, pulling her robe tight around her deceptively slim body. "I had my hood up, so they thought that Alec and Mi'ta were trying to harbor a woman and banned them both from all the Houses."

Oh great. "What about Tyler?"

"He's too young to be in the Houses, anyway."

I paused at that and looked around the cage. "Some of the girls in here are younger than he is," I said slowly.

She shrugged, her lips in a tight line.

"Ugh. So what do we do? Couldn't Alec have gotten fake ownership papers or something?"

Noah gave me an odd look. "Why would he be able to?"

"I don't know. He always seems to have the currency we need for each world, I figured those pouches on his belt were magic or something."

She shook her head and sat on the floor, crossing her legs. She quickly thought better of her position and tucked her legs under her, instead. "Only one of those pouches has any magic, and that's just to connect him to Traveler, who gives him the currency we need. But currency is common knowledge on a world. The ownership papers are rather new and inconsistent, depending on the womans' hair color. So he really couldn't get them, since he has no idea what they look like."

"Oh." I grimaced and sat beside her, ignoring the leering men outside the cage. "So what are we going to do?"

Noah sighed. "I don't think there's anything we can do," she admitted grimly. "We're stuck, Jai. We're going to have to leave it to the guys to think of something."

"You're taking this surprisingly well," I observed.

"I told you, you have to think before acting," she said. "As much as I'd love to go on a violent killing spree, it wouldn't help us, or anyone else. We've just got to be patient."

I nodded, and as much as I hated playing the damsel in distress, I knew she was right. We would have to just wait for Alec, Mi'ta and Tyler to come and rescue us.

X X X

Thankfully, none of the men decided to rent Noah or I the first night. We merely sat in the cage, watching warily as the other girls were rented and returned. No one paid us much attention, for which I was glad; I spotted Sitka occasionally in the crowd, and she waved whenever she saw me looking.

When dawn came and the men left the Black House, we were taken from the cage and brought outside through a back door. Behind the House was what looked like a large shed, and beside it was a wide hotspring.

We were led into the shed, the floor covered with thick, soft-looking mattresses.

"What is this?" I asked warily as we were left in the shed, the door locked behind us.

One of the women, whose name was Talia, smiled faintly at me. "This is where we sleep," she said as the women got comfortable on the mattresses.

"It's nicer than I expected," Noah admitted. "Do you just go in the cage all night and sleep all day?"

"Well, no," another woman, Lese, said. "We have to eat and bathe, too."

"We don't do much, though," Talia confirmed. "We can't risk getting hurt, or they'll-"

"Why are you bothering to explain?" another voice cut in, and we turned to see the confident woman I'd noticed before, whose name I'd learned was Sayr. She sat on one of the beds, eyeing Noah and I distastefully as she brushed her hair. "They won't be here long. You've got your owners coming for you, don't you?"

Noah raised an eyebrow, arms crossed over her chest. "We do, yes."

"So why are you taking the time to learn anything when you'll be gone soon, anyway?" Sayr asked coolly, before she gave a cold smirk. "Unless you don't think they'll come, after all?"

"Why wouldn't they?" I asked.

"Because they're men," a younger girl named Corrin scoffed. "They'll tell you what you want to hear, promise to return for you, then leave you in the dust. You can't trust men, not even your own father."

Well. I didn't have an argument for that.

"Ignore them, Jai," Noah said with disinterest, leading me to two unused beds. "They just want to upset us. They wish someone would come save them, that's all."

"Excuse me?" Sayr asked, frowning at the warrior. "Did you just accuse me of being jealous?"

"Sounded an awful lot like it, yeah," Noah replied, laying back on one of the beds, folding her arms under her head. "You want someone to come get you out of this hellhole, but no one's going to. We have someone coming for us, so you're jealous."

Sayr bristled, as did some of the other women. "I'm not jealous of anyone," she said irritably. "With your attitude, you probably won't survive long enough to be rescued, anyway."

I blinked and looked up. "Why?" I asked in spite of myself.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Sayr asked coldly. "You're not going to attract any men with your attitude, and if you don't attract at least one customer per night, the House owner gets rid of you. Last night was your first time, so he went easy on you, but I don't think you'll be so lucky tomorrow."

I grimaced and looked at Noah, expecting to find calm confidence as usual. Instead, I found her staring at the ceiling, a disturbed look in her green eyes.

Well, s**t.