The First Purchase

While antagonizing Sayr, Noah certainly hadn’t made us any friends, but some of the women seemed ready to tolerate us despite the warriors’ temper.

“Don’t pay any mind to Sayr,” Talia said as we got ready for bed. She sat on the mattress beside mine, smiling gently at Noah and I. “She’s just bitter. There was a man a few years ago who promised to buy her and never did.”

“I really couldn’t care less,” Noah said with a sigh. “She can be as bitter as she wants, it doesn’t change the fact that we’ll be out of here soon.”

“Was it true, what she said?” I couldn’t help asking. “That we’ll be killed if we aren’t chosen at least once a day?”

Talia smiled grimly. “I’m afraid so,” she said. “You two had better make yourselves appealing, if you don’t want to end up dead.”

I exchanged a glance with Noah. She sighed and closed her eyes. “Get some sleep, Jai,” she said. “We’re going to have a long night ahead of us.”

I watched her for a moment, then laid back on my bed and pulled my blanket up over my head. There were no windows in the sleeping quarters, and it was lit by the same paper lanterns that the house used.

Even after the lanterns were doused and the room was darkened, I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t help thinking about what would happen with the oncoming night, and what would have to happen if I wanted to stay alive.

I wasn’t expecting to fall asleep, but I must have dozed off at some point because the next thing I knew I was being coaxed into consciousness by one of the young servant girls. She insisted that I undress, and in my sleepy state I obeyed without much hesitation. I was quickly brought to alertness by a cold sponge pressed to my back, making me jump and drawing a startled yelp from me.

The girl looked at me with amused curiosity. “Are you all right, Miss?” she asked.

“Y-Yeah,” I said awkwardly, and smiled weakly. “Sorry, it surprised me.”

“Sorry,” the girl said, and continued rubbing my skin with the cold sponge.

I shivered and tried to ignore it, looking around the large room. All of the women were awake and being tended to by the servant girls; beside me, Noah was scrubbing herself with the sponge, having shooed away her servant. She glanced to me and smiled thinly.

“It’s almost show time,” she mused. “Are you ready?”

“I don’t suppose there’s much of a choice,” I said as the servant dressed me in a new white nightie. “Do you have a plan?” I asked after a moment, glancing to her hopefully.

She looked at me sideways and her smile grew. “Of course,” she replied. “I hope I can trust you to follow my lead?”

“Only if I can trust you to lead my follow,” I said with a shrug.

“Good to hear,” she said, oddly cheerful as she dressed.

The servants brought us a surprisingly good dinner of cubes of fruit and fish, which we were meant to eat with what looked like very long, thin forks. As we ate I tried to ask Noah what her plan was, but she coyly refused to tell me. With her in a mood like that, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know.

After we ate, we were cleaned up again before the servants brought us to the Black House, where the musicians had already started playing. The cushions were set up across the floor, and the lamps were lit, filling the room with a warm light.

“Look alive, girls,” the owner of the House suddenly barked, rapping his knuckles against the wooden bars of the cage. “It’s opening time.” He glanced to Noah and I and smirked. “Let’s hope you do better tonight than you did last night, hmm?”

“I’m sure we will,” Noah said cheerfully, slipping an arm around my waist. I tried not to look as horrified as I felt.

The owner raised an eyebrow, then shook his head and left to open the House.

“What are you two up to?” Sayr asked us with a frown.

“Up to? We’re not ‘up to’ anything,” Noah replied calmly. “We’ve just decided to take your advice, that’s all.”

“We have?” I asked, and grimaced when Noah’s hand discreetly squeezed my side. I looked at her but she ignored me, looking up as the men entered the House.

Knowing that Mi’ta and Alec were banned, I didn’t bother watching the door. Instead, I stayed close to Noah and hoped to remain unnoticed until I could think of a plan. Unfortunately, staying close to Noah wasn’t the best way to stay unnoticed.

She was seated on the floor, leaning on one hip, her legs stretched out to the side. Her robe was loosely tied and hung off one shoulder, though she didn’t seem to notice. She looked like a model straight out of a dirty magazine, and I knew that if there were dirty magazines on this world, the men staring at her would agree with me.

“Noah, what are you doing?” I crouched beside her, ignoring the men. “We have to get out of here, or they’ll kill us.”

Noah looked at me and smiled. She reached out suddenly and grabbed my wrist, tugging me closer.

I blinked and resisted. “Noah, what’s wrong with you?” I asked, disturbed.

Her eyes narrowed slightly and she gave a sharp but discreet tug, pulling me to the floor with a yelp. She slid an arm around my waist and kept me firmly in place. “What makes you think something’s wrong?” she cooed, before hissing in my ear, “I know we have to escape, but your talking about it in front of them isn’t helping, so shut up, you little twit. I told you to follow my lead.”

I blinked, then rolled my eyes at myself. “Sorry.”

Noah ignored me, her eyes scanning the crowd of men. “Keep being shy, I think they like it.”

That was a disturbing concept. I did as she instructed, anyway, and pretended to be shy, though there wasn’t much pretending involved; I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the situation. The other women in the cage regarded us warily, except for Talia, who seemed to have figured out we were faking, and merely watched curiously.

It wasn’t long before the owner of the House opened the cage door and gestured to Noah and I. “You two, come on,” he said gruffly. “Looks like you’ve got your first buyer.”

“What now?” I whispered to Noah as we got to our feet. “I didn’t think our escape plans would involve a threesome.”

She merely smiled and nudged me toward the door. We left the cage and one of the large men who worked in the House brought us to the stairs. I glanced hopefully to the front door, but there were too many people lingering about. Dejected and anxious, I followed the man to the second floor, Noah trailing behind me.

The second floor consisted of one long hall, several small rooms on either side. We were taken to one of the sliding doors and pushed into the room before the door was closed behind us.

The room was small and bare with no windows. The only piece of furniture was a soft-looking mattress in the middle of the wooden floor.

“It seems no one’s here yet,” Noah observed, scanning the room thoughtfully. She moved to lean against the wall beside the door and nodded to me. “Go sit on the bed.”

“What are you planning?” I asked as I moved to sit uncomfortably on the edge of the mattress.

She started to answer, then paused at the sound of approaching footsteps. She put a finger to her lips, indicating for me to be quiet.

I nodded and watched the door, trying to look as innocent as possible. In reality, I felt sick to my stomach.

The door slid open a few seconds later, and a man wearing a mask stepped into the room without noticing Noah. The sight of the mask made my skin crawl; it covered his face and was completely white, save for two slits for him to see through. The top curved over his head, shaped like a bowl to hide most of his hair.

“Listen,” he said in a slightly muffled voice, sliding the door shut behind him. “I’m not going to… wait.” He paused as he looked at me. “Shouldn’t there be two of you?”

Noah chose that moment to strike, tackling the man from behind and knocking him to the ground with a heavy thud, drawing a startled shout from him. In a matter of seconds she had his right arm pinned behind his back, and her other hand held a knife to his throat.

“Hold still,” she warned. “Move an inch and I’ll kill you.”

“Where did you get that knife?” I couldn’t help asking, not even daring to wonder where she’d been hiding it.

“The guy who brought us up here was carrying it,” she replied. “He wasn’t using it, so I figured I would.”

“Someone’s going to come up,” the man on the floor said, his tone expressionless. I couldn’t tell if he was scared, in shock, or just bored. “They must have heard all the noise you made.”

She looked down at him. “And if you say one word that I don’t tell you to say, you’ll die,” she replied.

The man sighed into the mask and squirmed a little. “You two are quite the actresses.”

“And you’re awfully calm for being held a knifepoint by two women,” Noah pointed out.

“I wasn’t going to do anything to you, anyway,” he retorted. “I wouldn’t have bought either of you if I wasn’t doing Sitka a favor.”

I paused at that. “Sitka?” I repeated, surprised. “What about her?”

Before he could answer, a knock came to the door. “Is everything all right, sir?” the owner of the House asked. “There was a loud noise downstairs.”

“Everything’s fine,” the man replied before Noah had a chance to dictate. “Just tripped coming in, that’s all.”

“Very well, then,” the owner said, and his footsteps departed.

Noah and I exchanged a glance, and she slowly got off his back, keeping the knife at her side. “What about Sitka?” she repeated.

The man sat up, rubbing his shoulder. “She said that the two of you are new to the House, and if no one bought you today you’d be killed. She told me you both have owners coming to get you, so she asked me to buy you for an hour or so, so you wouldn’t be put to death.”

“I see.” Noah fell silent for a moment. “Who’s Sitka?”

“One of the servants here,” I told her, watching the man thoughtfully. “And who are you?”

“Oh.” The man sighed and pulled his mask off, revealing a young, tired face and short brown hair. “I am Maram. Who are the two of you?”

“I’m Noah, and she’s Jai,” Noah told him. “And to make sure we’re all on the same page, if you tell anyone about this, I’ll kill you.”

Maram smiled faintly. “As if I would admit to being overpowered by a small woman,” he said with a shrug. “Besides, if they knew I was here I would be arrested, anyway.”

“Why’s that?” I asked, picking up the strange mask to examine it.

“I was banned from the Houses a few years ago,” he admitted. “I can only risk coming here once in a while, and I have to wear a mask whenever I come.”

“Why were you banned?” Noah asked suspiciously.

He smiled and shrugged. “I tried to take one of the women and escape,” he said. “But we were caught, and I was banned. She would have been killed, if she didn’t make the House so much money.” He grimaced. “If I was caught in here I would probably be exiled from the city, and I’d never be able to save her.”

“You seem to have an old-fashioned way of thinking,” Noah observed.

“I was a child when Oyin’s laws changed,” Maram said. “My father fought the change and died. I could never live with myself if I did what my father died protesting.”

Noah nodded, thoughtful. “So, do you think there are other men who think like you?”

“There may be. Most men seem happy with the change, but there could be others who dislike it,” Maram said slowly. “Why?”

“Because,” the warrior said. “I think it’s time for a revolt.”

 

We spent an hour in the little room with Maram, before the House owner’s men came to retrieve us. As per Noah’s orders, I kept my eyes on the floor as we were brought back to the cage, looking as shameful as I could.

“How was your first time?” Sayr asked coolly as the cage door was locked behind us.

“Fantastic,” Noah said, sounding bored. “I can’t wait to go again, personally.” She sighed lightly, thoughtful. “I wonder where he learned to do that thing with his tongue…”

I didn’t have any trouble pretending to blush.

Twice more we were bought, both times as a pair. Neither of the men were as willing to cooperate as Maram had been, and it took Noah quite a bit of convincing before they gave in (most of her ‘convincing meant threatening the men and their families with the knife she’d somehow kept with her). I was worried that the men would tell the House owner later, but judging by the way they regarded Noah and her knife, I decided we were safe.

“You two did good tonight,” Talia said as we were returned to our sleeping quarters. “It’s not often that someone attracts three buyers in one night.”

“Oh yes,” Sayr said, rolling her eyes. “It is quite rare. Let’s hope you can do as well tomorrow, hm?”

As we entered the quarters, Noah and I exchanged a glance. I could tell that she was thinking the same thing I was; Alec and Mi’ta had better hurry up.

I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to keep up the act for much longer. Eventually we would be bought by a man Noah couldn’t overpower, or one who would tell the House owner what we were up to and have us killed. Noah didn’t seem worried at all, chatting idly with the other women and quickly falling asleep when morning came.

I couldn’t sleep at all, too worried about what the night would bring. We had been lucky so far, but that luck couldn’t last forever.

However, when nightfall came around and Sitka was helping me get ready, she murmured the words that made me wonder if our luck wasn’t going strong, after all.

“I found your friends.

X X X

“What?” Noah hissed, her eyes blazing with fury. “What does that mean, she found them? Were they hiding or something?”

“Keep quiet!” I whispered, glancing around the cage. The House hadn’t opened yet, but there were plenty of other women and servants around to hear us. “She just said that she found them yesterday and she’s going to help them sneak in. She didn’t say where they were or anything.”

“Well, it’s about time,” Noah snapped, hands on her hips as she paced a foot or two. “Great. They’ll probably be wearing masks, so we’ll just have to look out for them. They can get us out of here, and we’ll fix this hell-hole.”

“I hope so,” I agreed warily, then paused when her words caught up with me. I looked at her, alarmed, hoping dearly that by ‘fix’ she had meant ‘leave’.

“Uh… Noah,” I started, but was cut off by the owner’s knuckles rapping against the side of the cage.

“Quiet in there,” he snapped at us, and silence fell. The House opened then; I would have to wait to ask Noah what she’d meant.

Much to my displeasure, Noah and I continued our act from the night before, but the House wasn’t very busy and for the first hour no one was interested in us. I waited for men in masks to buy us, but as I watched men enter the House only one accepted a mask, and it wasn’t Mi’ta or Alec.

Gradually, I began to notice a young man leaning against the wall near the musicians. I didn’t recognize him from the night before, but there were a lot of faces I didn’t recognize, so I didn’t worry about that. What I did worry about was the fact that he’d been lingering there for most of the night, a blank look on his pale face. His hair was black and fell to his shoulders, hiding part of his face, and his wide eyes were a piercing silver. He saw that I’d caught him staring, and smiled thinly before looking away.

I hesitated, then decided to ignore him. Noah hadn’t noticed the man, so I didn’t bring it up. Despite my decision, however, I couldn’t resist the urge to glance back a few minutes later; he was gone.

It wasn’t long before the cage door opened. “Come on, you,” the House worker said, gesturing to me. “You’ve got a buyer.”

“Not me, too?” Noah asked in the same simper she’d been using all night. “We’re a pair.” She hugged me from behind, and I jumped slightly when I felt something cold brush against my hip.

“Not you. Just her,” the worker snapped. “Come on, hurry up.”

“Just do what I did,” Noah muttered quickly in my ear. “You’ll be fine.” She gave me a light squeeze before letting go, and I wordlessly left the cage, following the worker to the stairs.

Despite Noah’s reassuring words, and despite the cold metal against my hip, I felt sick. I was going to have to face some strange man by myself, with only a small knife that I didn’t know how to use for protection. Was I really about to lose my virginity on some foreign world to a stranger? I was amazed that I hadn’t puked yet.

I was taken to one of the rooms, and the worker slid the door open. To my surprise, my buyer was already there. Less surprising was that it was the silver-eyed man I’d caught staring at me.

“Go on, girl,” the worker sneered, and pushed me forward. I stumbled a little, and the stranger caught me, keeping me on my feet. The door slid shut behind me, and I was trapped.

“Are you all right, Jai?” the man asked, reminding me that his hands were still on my shoulders.

“How do you know my name?” I asked, looking up at him. My eyes widened when I saw that the left side of his face was sagging, as though it was melting from his skull. What looked like ink ran down his face. I gave an alarmed cry and tried to pull away.

“Calm down!” the man said with a grimace, reaching up to touch the ink. “It’s all right.” He ran a hand over his face and muttered a few strange words, and in an instant grey eyes were replaced with purple, and long black hair became short and silver.

“See?” Mi’ta said cheerfully when the transformation was complete.

I blinked at him, slowly calming. “M-Mi’ta?”

“That’s right.” He reached under his tunic and produced his glasses, slipping them onto his face. “I’m sorry I scared you, I thought my disguise would last longer than that.”

For a moment, all I could do was stare. A million questions were fighting for dominance in my head, and I couldn’t help but try to ask all of them at once; “How did you do that? What took you so long? What about Noah? Where’s Alec, and Tyler? What are we-”

“Don’t worry,” Mi’ta quickly interrupted when I paused to take a breath. He gently sat me on the edge of the bed and knelt in front of me. “Calm down, okay? I did it with a disguise spell. What took us so long was that were didn’t know how to get into the House without anyone getting suspicious. Alec is in another room, and I imagine Noah will be joining him soon. Tyler is in the room we’re renting at the local in. Alec and I paid to keep you and Noah for the night, so we can get a plan together. Okay?”

I slowly nodded, taking in all the new information. I sighed and rubbed my eyes, relieved to hear that Tyler was all right, and Noah and I were safe, for tonight.

Mi’ta watched me, thoughtful. “What about you?” he asked suddenly. “Are you all right?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked tiredly.

“Jai, you’ve been living in a brothel for two days,” he said, frowning. “Tyler was almost tearing his hair out, he was so worried. No one hurt you, did they?”

I blinked at him and couldn’t help the faintest of smiles. “I’ve been with Noah. I’m fine.”

“We’ve heard men talking about the two of you,” he said, an odd look of disturbed, barely-repressed disgust on his face. “They’ve said… things…”

“It’s fine,” I assured him. “Noah tricked men into buying us, but nothing ever happened. She intimidated them into lying about it.”

“Oh.” Mi’ta studied me, then sighed. “Good.” He moved to sit beside me and pushed his fingers through his hair. “Tyler will be glad to hear that.”

“Is he all right?”

“He’s fine. Going a little crazy, since we don’t let him go too far, but he’s fine other than that.”

“Good.”

“Just out of curiosity, what were you planning on doing if I’d been an actual buyer?”

I hesitated, then shrugged and withdrew the knife Noah had tucked under my robe.

He blinked, then smiled weakly. “I see that Noah has had an interesting influence on you,” he mused, adjusting his glasses. “And if that hadn’t worked?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, observing the knife. “I would have done whatever I had to, I guess.”

“Even if it meant forced prostitution?”

“I wouldn’t like it, obviously, but I can’t save Lily if I’m dead, and if prostitution is the only option…” I shrugged and glanced at him warily, half expecting to see disgust on his face. Instead, he simply looked thoughtful.

Footsteps in the hall stopped outside our door, and an alarmed look crossed Mi’ta’s face. He muttered his spell again and passed a hand over his face, disguising himself once more. He turned to me and grabbed my waist, pushing me down onto the bed without warning.

“W-What-” I started, and he quickly covered my mouth.

“The workers patrol the halls,” he explained in a hurried whisper in my ear. “They’re going to know something’s up if we’re just talking.”

I hesitated, then nodded uncomfortably, and he took his hand from my mouth. My face was warm as I blushed, and when his cheek brushed mine, his breath on my ear making me shiver, I could feel that his blush was as hot as my own, though his hands only touched my waist.

The door slid open a few seconds later and someone entered, closing the door behind them. Grimacing, I looked over to find Noah and Alec, both looking amused.

“My, Mi’ta,” Noah commented, eyebrows raised. “You work fast.”

He started and sat up, looking at them. “We weren’t doing anything,” he said, shedding his disguise again. He stood and went to the door, touching it lightly and murmuring under his breath.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I sat up, pulling my robe tighter around myself awkwardly.

“Casting an illusion spell,” he said when he was finished. “This way, whenever someone passes the room, they’ll hear what they expect to hear and we can talk without worry.”

“Good thinking.” Alec sat on the bed. “This place is a nightmare. How have the two of you managed living here?”

“It wasn’t like we had a choice,” Noah said acidly, glaring at him pointedly. “We could have used your help a little sooner, by the way.”

“We got here as quickly as we could,” Mi’ta said. “At any rate, we need to think of a plan to get the both of you out of here.”

“Couldn’t you disguise them as men?” Alec asked, leaning back on the bed, propped up on his arms.

“It’s too risky,” the magician said, shaking his head. “I could disguise us because we’re already men. I haven’t figured out how to alter genders yet. I could turn them into different women, of course, but that wouldn’t really help.”

“Not really,” Noah agreed, arms crossed over her chest. “Besides, I want to fix this place.”

“Fix it?” Alec repeated warily. “Noah-”

“The whole ‘women slave’ thing hasn’t been around long,” she continued. “I want to end it. We met one man who will help us, and he’s going to find others. It won’t be hard, Jai and I can stir the women to rebellion in here, you two and Tyler can get the men on the outside. We might even be able to get in touch with the other Houses.”

“And what about the mayor?” Mi’ta asked.

“What about him?” Noah snorted. “Like he’s going to keep that stupid law in the face of a full-scale rebellion.”

Alec and Mi’ta exchanged a glance. “All right,” Alec said finally. “We’ll help to start the rebellion and get rid of the mayor, but choosing a new leader will be up to the people here. Rebuilding the laws here could take months, and we still have to find Lily.”

Noah agreed to the conditions, and we started planning. I contributed where I could, but I was no tactician, and for the most part simply paid attention to what the three of them came up with.

With dawn approaching, Mi’ta and Alec had to leave in their disguises, and Noah and I were returned to the sleeping quarters with the other women.

“My, you two must be exhausted,” Sayr commented, observing us with arched eyebrows. “Staying with the same men all night…”

“Not really,” Noah said with a shrug. “We didn’t do anything.”

“Well,” I said, smiling. “I wouldn’t say that, Noah. We did do something.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Noah agreed. “We planned a rebellion.”

The women stopped what they were doing and looked at us. Some were curious, others intrigued, and most disbelieving.

“A rebellion?” Talia repeated, eyes wide.

“That’s right,” Noah confirmed. “There’s going to be a rebellion. We’re going to put an end to the way women are treated in this city.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Corrine asked skeptically. “In case you didn’t know, men live in this city. I doubt they’ll be happy with us rebelling against them, and we can’t exactly overpower them.”

Noah’s eyebrow twitched, but she managed to keep her resolve. “Our ‘masters’ are companions of ours,” she said. “There are men in the city who are as against these laws as we are. Our friends are going to get them to help us.”

“We could send a message to the other Houses,” I added. “And get the women there to join us.”

“The servants sometimes bring messages between Houses,” Talia offered, a growing excitement in her eyes. “We can ask one of them.”

“Good,” Noah agreed, pleased. “We’ll do that.”

“What about weapons?” another woman asked. “We can’t fight empty-handed.”

“Our friend is going to supply us with weapons. Even explosives,” Noah said, and a tremor of excitement when through the small crowd. “We’ll break out of the Houses and put the mayor out of office. Oyin will be rebuilt equally. Whoever fights with us will be at risk. If we lose, the consequence could be death.”

“I’d rather die fighting than do nothing,” Talia said firmly, and several of the women nodded their agreement.

“In that case,” Noah said, pride in her eyes. “I need to know now, who will help us? There will be no changing your mind later when things get rough. Who will join us?”

To my surprise, every woman raised her hand. Even Sayr, though she looked both annoyed and reluctant.

Noah looked pleased. “Good.” She surveyed the group, counting heads. “Seventeen. Excellent. When the servants come in the evening, we’ll have one of them bring a message to our friends and the other Houses. This will be easy.”

I could see that plenty of the women disagreed with that, but no one protested.

“Do you really think this will work?” I asked as the women dispersed, returning to readying themselves for bed.

“Of course,” Noah replied absently, counting on her fingers thoughtfully. “Why wouldn’t it?”

“Plenty of things could go wrong,” I pointed out. “What if the messengers fail? Or if the Houses refuse to help? And it’s not like the rest of the town won’t put up a fight. This isn’t a game of tag or something, people could get hurt.”

Noah looked up at me, blinking. “What the hell is tag?” she asked, confused.

“Is that really important right now?” I asked, exasperated.

“I know this isn’t a game,” she said. “We all know that. More than likely, people are going to get hurt, or even killed. If the messengers fail or the Houses refuse, we’ll do it alone. Hell, the two of us and the guys could do it on our own, but that wouldn’t teach these women to fight for themselves. So yes, a lot of things can go wrong, but we’re going to take that risk and do it anyway.”

I hesitated, then nodded. “Okay,” I said warily.

“Good,” Noah said, and returned to counting on her fingers.

Few of the women could sleep that day. They laid in the darkness, whispering to each other. I was too tired to listen to what they were saying, though I was too anxious to sleep.

In the evening, Noah found a slip of paper and scribbled a note to Alec. She entrusted it to Sitka, who wore to get the message to him. Two other servants were sent to the Yellow and Red Houses to enlist whoever they could. The women were told to act like nothing was going on, to continue working as per usual, but it was clear that none of them were pleased with it.

“It’s going to take a few days to arrange everything,” Noah told us before we were taken to the House. “But the wait will be worth it, I promise that.”

She didn’t know how right she was.