Crunching down on the woodchip-like disc that represented food to the rest of them, Vanessa winced. Yola assured her that the poor non-slaves went hungry, and they were lucky for the grub. She waited until Yola brought a dipper of water to her mouth, to drink. They were on their mid-day meal break.
Finally, someone came to change her cuffs, later than Yola had thought. A thick woman and a man stepped into the loom shack and identified Vanessa by her blonde hair and scabbed face. Wordlessly, the woman changed the cuffs, leaving Vanessa's wrists and ankles freer, lighter. "Thank you, Una," Vanessa muttered to the emotionless hulk of a woman.
Una left, but the clean-cut man remained. He was twenty-three, a bit heavy-set, with terrible acne. Tamber Kern, the second son of the master, smirked. "Get to work."
Yola smiled wide at Vanessa, blushing a little. She had informed Vanessa that, according to gossip, Kern had taken an interest to Vanessa, after the escape attempt. He wasn't very good looking, was pretty shy, but Yola insisted he was as kind as could be. And any slave who entered a sexual relationship with one of the Tamber's main house could very well see a bright future, possibly being promoted to food preparation for the highest Tambers.
Her face was healing up from Luke's attack, and Yola assured her she was looking 'awful pretty again, pretty enough for Kern.' Vanessa pretended that that excited her.
As Vanessa started on her own loom, clumsily acting out the motions Yola taught her, Kern watched. She smiled at him, earning his blush. The boy really did seem to have a thing for her.
The 'flirtation' continued. Kern never said much, but he watched Vanessa weave every afternoon for several days. She had a feeling there was something about her, the hair, the eyes, the figure, that was special in the settlement. That, or he liked girls with scars. Whatever the case, he asked her to follow him out of the loom shack one night, eliciting a bright blush from Yola.
"Good luck!" Yola whispered to her as she left.
Kern walked beside her, wordless, leading her out of the Tamber district.
Vanessa strained to hear the bits of conversation along the way, eyes darting about for an opening.
Suddenly, she was motioned to stop, in the bustling center of town. Kern sat on a slab of rock, while Vanessa stood before him. He smiled. "Sorry about Luke. I've never really liked people being slaves."
She looked down. He was clever, taking her there – she couldn't get away, not around so many people. No amount of hand-to-hand combat would free her from the square. "To tell you the truth, I liked it better when I wasn't a slave," she noted, shifting her weight uncomfortably.
He laughed, softly. She could barely hear him through the commotion of the crowd about them. "Sit next to me, please?" he asked, motioning to the stone. "So I can touch your hair?"
"Thank you," Kern said, happily, when she did so. He began caressing her hair, tracing her pointed ear with a finger. "You're so unusual."
She said nothing.
"A lot of our slaves have defects from birth, but you're a lucky one. Despite it, you're still smart. You're still beautiful." He sighed. "You must have so many stories to tell," he wondered, fingers moved now to trace the scarring on her cheek.
Flinching slightly, she kept still and stared forward.
Kern swept curly, dark brown hair away from his hazel eyes, and gently lifted up her arm to look at the scarring there. "I'm not going to hurt you. I like you. You're different. I'm tired of this place. I want to see the places you've seen. I want to hear your stories. It must have been great, to be nomadic!" He paused, as if in thought, his breath tickling the small hairs of her forearm as he went in for a closer look. "The kids used to beat me up a lot when I was young. I am a weak sort, not the kind of man this place reveres. We have that in common, being bullied. You must be from the desert, that's where you were spotted." Dropping her arm, he went back to lightly stroking her hair.
Vanessa turned slightly, studying his face as his eyes flitted about her. She couldn't read lustful intent in his expression. Besides, if he were going to try something, she doubted this society would allow it to happen in a populated area. He was grinning softly, almost serene. His eyes suddenly darted to hers.
"I want to run away with you," he whispered, serious. "Just you and me, far away from here. I could arrange anything. We'll wander as far as we can."
She felt her mouth hanging open a little, but closed it.
Too late, he already noticed the flicker in her eye, her excitement. "You'd just use me, though. You'd just trick me and leave me, I know it. Too bad, I wish I could trust you, then we'd both be free."
Gaze stuck to his, she felt her face relax. If only he was dumber than this.
"If I could give you anything, do anything for you, what would you want the most? What would make you happy?" he whispered, twirling her hair around his pinky. "Delicious food, the right to marry, your own home and clan, to live in the main house with me, what? Or do you just want…to go home…?"
"Yes," she whispered, narrowing her eyes honestly.
He grinned wide. "I want to go home with you."
Oops, not home, I'm nomadic, I have no home, she thought wildly, hoping she hadn't messed that up. "My home is wherever I want it to be."
"This isn't your home, because you didn't want to be here, with us."
"Basically, yes," she sighed, staring down at the cuffed wrists and ankles. Her dirty, bare toes stood in contrast to the reddish dirt. "Where I come from, no one owns anyone else."
"Ah, instead they carve each other up," he countered, chuckling. "Or is it just the pretty girls who get that treatment?"
Frustrated, Vanessa felt her face redden. "What would make YOU happy, sir?" she blurted out, thick with sarcasm.
He seemed amused. "When nobody's listening, I think I'd be happy to hear you call me Kern, ma'am."
She didn't smile back, and his face fell a bit. "I'd be happy to get out of this hell-hole. This place is full of people ruined from birth, bodies full of poison, not enough nutrition, ugly from living on nothing but stringy meat and roots. I think you can make me happy, Vanessa."
With those words, she shivered.
He felt it. "You ought to trust me. I'm the only core Tamber who doesn't take the slaves by force," he noted, proudly. "If you agree, I'll see to it that you're given a softer position in the main house. And you won't have to sleep with me to keep it."
"What do I have to do, then?" she inquired, eyebrow raised.
Kern leaned in to her ear to whisper his plan, hot breath giving her goose bumps. "Most of the toma, you know, they train them never to run, never to leave the settlement. Learned that the hard way, didn't you; try to get one of them to take off, they eject the rider. Keeps the hands from straying. One of the scavenger clan's agreed to rent me their traveler toma. Soon as everything's ready, I want to go out. Dad's permitted me to leave grounds for 2 days at a time, so I think once a week would be nice. You tell me what we need, I'll get it. I want to start as soon as possible."
To act as guide for this boy, on weekend outings – Vanessa's mind went abuzz with scenarios. She'd be given ample chance to escape.
"So you'll do it, then, of course. You'll be rewarded; just don't misbehave. Don't expect me to drop my guard, out there. Your eyes are like a wild bull, Vanessa. You can't be trusted, unless you're only acting to keep yourself alive, too. You'll be bound and there'll be an armed escort. Tomorrow at sunup, Una will meet you at your quarters, and we'll leave from there. I have food, water, cloaks, and a tent. What else will we need?" he wondered, awaiting her suggestions.