We Leave Together, стр. 36
***
Jona left Djoss there, tied up like a monster with the heavy chain around his neck. Djoss watched the light fade in the closing door. He sat down in the mud and the darkness. He reached with his hands against the walls. He felt only darkness. He pressed against the chains around his neck. He reached into the night. He felt nothing. He reached harder and harder until the chains choked him. He sat down, on the ground. He reached through the darkness for the bolts on the stone. He found them. He clutched the bolts with both hands. He listened in the darkness for any sound at all. The house was too large. He couldn’t hear anything. They probably couldn’t hear him on these old chains.
These chains were strong enough for most pinkers, but they weren’t strong enough for Djoss. Jona wasn’t the first king’s man surprised by this old, hard strength.
Upstairs, Jona and Rachel sat in the kitchen. Rachel was cooking something. She didn’t really know how to cook what was in this kitchen, but at least if she was moving pots and fire she wasn’t forced to really talk to Jona about the important things. Instead, she could ask him where something was. She could describe it with her hands. “It’s a pot with a shape like this on the bottom, about this wide?”
“It’s in the third cupboard.”
“It’s flat and has a crank on it to smash the wheat flat,” she said, holding her palm down and her fingers straight, “Real flat.”
“It’s in the drawer next to the stove. Do you need matches?”
Rachel shrugged. She flicked her finger at the kindling, and little drops of fire like drops of water splashed over the bark and coal. The stove sputtered a moment, and then it crackled.
“When does your mother come home?”
“Soon,” he said, “She’ll hate that you cooked.”
“What will you tell her about me?”
“The truth. She’ll understand. You couldn’t turn to a temple for help, could you? Just because our blood is wicked, we don’t necessarily have to be. She knows that.”
“Still,” she said, “what about Djoss?”
“He’s sleeping,” said Jona
Rachel sighed. “Why is he asleep?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” said Jona, “He got out of the bath and fell asleep in a spare room. I say let him sleep. We’re going to have a long night. I’ll take him to some friends of mine. I’ll stay with him and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. He saves up enough, with you two sleeping here, and then you hire passage on a ship and sail off into the sun. My mother might have something for you around the house, but we won’t be able to pay you ourselves. If that’s what you want, anyway. If you want to try something else, I’m up for it.”
“No,” she said. She waved her hands over what she was cooking, “That’s fine, Jona. Thank you.” She opened a drawer, and rummaged through them. “I had a knife. I know I had a knife. It was the only one I had.”
“It’s out,” said Jona. He pointed right in front of her.
“Oh.”
***
Djoss had broken the chains. Of course he broke the chains. They were old and rusty and he was still not so far gone that he had lost all his strength.
Jona imagined, from what he had found afterwards, that Djoss found the stairs. He climbed carefully. The basement door wasn’t locked. He slipped into the lower hallway. This part of the house was full of servant’s rooms. They were all empty, and caked in dust. Old trinkets that no one would buy gathered dust on the shelves. A dusty teddy bear. A broken clock. Lost books. Things that weren’t worth selling. They sat on the floor like dead prisoners.
Djoss opened doors down the hall until he found the stairs. He climbed up to the next floor. This was the main hall. He knew where he was now, and he knew he couldn’t get out the door without passing too close to Jona and Rachel whom he heard still in the kitchen. He went up another floor, and then another. He climbed all five flights to the roof. He climbed out. The afternoon sun was high and hot. Flecks of humidity licked his skin. On the roof, the house laundry dried in rows of sunlight like limp, wet rags. No wind blew them.
Djoss looked down at his filthy clothes. He stripped off his shirt, and pulled one of Jona’s uniforms from the line. It was a tight fit, and the seams screamed, but the uniform held together enough.
Djoss didn’t know where to go from here. He sat in a corner of the roof, behind the doorway. He frowned.
***
“Do you think he’s hungry?” she said, stirring.
“Him?” said Jona. He reached around Rachel to pull out two bowls. “I think he’s snoring like a baby.”
Rachel turned. She looked up at Jona, his arms spread around her with the bowls. “Did you tie him down?”
“The door’s locked and there’s no window,” said Jona, “He’s going nowhere.”
She leaned into him. “I hate that we do that. I hate it. He’s been good for days. Let me untie him.”
“We can’t leave him alone if he isn’t tied up.”
“Then I’ll sit with him. I want to be with him right now. Where is he?”
“Let him sleep.”
“Why are you being like this?”
“Just sit down,” said Jona. He wrapped his arms around her, with the bowls in his hands, “Eat.”
“He’s my brother, Jona,” she said, “Don’t you understand that?”
“No,” he said. “I wish I did. Bloody Elishta, I wish I understood this. I don’t know what you think will happen next. We’ll try your way, and get you out of town, okay?”
***