The Book of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #1) - M. R. Carey Page 0,82

curious thing that even when you’re scared for your life you can still be hungry, and jump up like a dog at the prospect of a meal.

Mardew set the platter down and went outside again. He come in a second time, carrying a jug. I had already snatched up the platter, but finding my mouth was fearful dry I held out my hand for the jug too. Whatever was in it, I would start with a swig of that to make the food go down easier.

But Mardew held it out of my reach. “Beg for it, Koli,” he says with a sneer on his face. “And maybe I’ll let you have some.”

Well, I didn’t beg, for I seen well enough that Mardew was sent by Catrin to feed me and would do as he was bid by her, the same as everyone did. But as he stood there with the jug in his hand, holding it up out of my reach, I noticed that his face was swole up around his eye on the one side and his jaw on the other side.

I opened my mouth to ask him who had walked over his face, but I thought better of it before the words was out. I could see Mardew was in a great rage. His teeth was set in his bottom lip and his eyes was staring fierce at me. I seen too that he had brung the platter and the jug in one at a time because he was wearing the cutter on his right hand.

I guess I was seeing a lot of things clear right then. My body didn’t have nowhere to go so my mind was just racing, racing. Catrin must of beat Mardew because she believed the lie I told her – that I learned to use the DreamSleeve by watching him teach the cutter to Haijon. So it was me, really, that had made those marks on him, and he probably knowed that as well as I did. It was best I didn’t rile him further.

Still, I wasn’t going to beg like a dog for a bone, neither.

“Let me have some water, Mardew,” I said. “I been here for hours now, and I’m parched to death.”

“Parched to death is what you should be, you thieving bastard,” Mardew said. “We ought to lock the door and walk away and come back in the Spring to air the room out.”

“Yeah, but that’s Catrin’s call,” I said, “and none of yours.”

He tipped up the jug and let some of the water spill out on the floor. “Oops,” he said. “What was that I hear you say?”

I kept my mouth shut this time. He spilled a little more water, to see if he could get a rise out of me, but I seen there wasn’t no way to win this game except by not playing it. I took a handful of meat off the platter, and a slice of turnip that was there too, and commenced to eat.

By and by, Mardew set the jug down, acting like he didn’t care. “Maybe I spit in it, Koli,” he said. “Maybe I done worse. Cheers.” He went out and slammed the door.

As soon as he was gone, I fell on that jug like a knifestrike and drunk about half of it off in one go. It was water, cold from the well, and it was the sweetest I ever tasted. I wasn’t feared that Mardew might of spit or pissed in it. If he had, he wouldn’t of said anything about it but only stayed to watch me drink with a big grin on his stupid face.

I finished the meal, but kept back some of the water. I didn’t know how long I might be kept down there.

I kind of got an answer to that, though, when I waked up from another doze a little later. Someone had been in the room while I was asleep, coming and going without waking me. Whoever they was, they had took away the wore-down candle and put in a fresh one. They had also put a shit-bucket in the corner of the room for me to use.

So they was meaning to keep me for a while yet.

31

Some days went by.

I could keep a count of their passing by the number of meals I got to eat, which I marked by taking blobs of wax from off of the candle and sticking them to the inside of the door in a line. I couldn’t