Blood Red Road

water an empty ’em into the troughs that run along the edge of the cells. Emmi slips out to see me an is back at work with her morning chores before the Pinches wake up.
    It’s Emmi who whispers to me what’s goin on in Hopetown, who tells me how the place works an where everythin is.
    She’s tougher’n she used to be, that’s fer sure. You wouldn’t know her to be the same girl as left Silverlake that day. A couple of times she’s come in with a cut lip or bruise on her arm that made my fists clench, but fer the most part she manages to stay outta Miz Pinch’s way.
    Emmi. On her own in a hellhole like this. Somehow managin to fend fer herself. Who’d of thought it?

    It’s bin four nights since Helen first spoke to me. Her an me talk a little bit every night now. I ain’t never bin much of a talker essept with Lugh, an since I bin in this place I’m outta the habit of it even more.
    But I like Helen. She’s about th’only person I met fer a long time who ain’t crazy. An she ain’t afeared of me. Says she won’t live long enough to meet me in the Cage, so what’s the point, we might as well be friends.
    We always wait till th’other girls fall to sleep an the cellblock guards do their last check. They sit outside till their relief comes on at daybreak, so we’re safe once we hear the door slam shut an the bar slot into place.
    Then I slide offa my cot. My leg chain’s long enough fer me to sit next to her on the cold floor, with the cage bars between us. The warmth of her body puts me in mind of how Lugh an me used to sit, back to back, an how I could feel his heartbeat in my body, feel his breathin.
    Helen lost her second fight today. She ain’t told me herself but I heard th’others talkin. We both know she ain’t got much time left.
    Now she says to me, tell me what happened to yer brother.
    So I do. I tell her what happened the day the Tonton came an killed Pa an took Lugh away. It’s such a relief to talk about him, after him jest bein inside my head fer so long. When I git to the bit where they asked about Lugh bein born at midwinter, I feel her go still.
    Wait a minute, she says. Midwinter. D’you remember what they said? Their ezzack words, I mean.
    I don’t even hafta think before I answer her. The words is burned into my brain. I says, The guy says to Procter John, is this him? Golden Boy here? Is he the one born at midwinter? An Procter John says yes an then the Tonton, he asks Lugh how old he is. Lugh says eighteen an then he asks him agin, was you born at midwinter. Lugh says yes, an that’s when they took him.
    It’s like they came lookin fer him, says Helen. Like they knew they’d find him at Silverlake.
    I’m surprised she says it, jest like that. That’s it, I says. That’s it ezzackly.
    Was there anythin else? she says.
    No, that’s about it. Oh, of course. Mercy says there was a stranger there when Lugh got born, a man.
    A man. Who was he? D’you know his name?
    Yeah. Trask. Mercy said he called hisself Trask. Said he got all excited when Lugh came, said how he went on an on about how a boy born at midwinter was a wonderful thing. He kept sayin it over an over an nobody knew why an then he jest … disappeared. They never seen him agin.
    No, says Helen. I don’t s’pose they did.
    My heart slams aginst my ribs. I grab at her through the cage bars. Find her hand an hold it tight in both of mine.
    Helen, what is it? You know somethin. Tell me.
    I don’t want to, she says.
    Just say it, I says. Say it quick.
    All right, she says. Saba, John Trask was my father.

    I wish I could see her face. Look in her eyes an know if she’s tellin the truth. I squeeze her hand hard.
    Don’t lie to me, I says.
    I wouldn’t, she says, I swear it’s the truth. Saba, yer brother is in great danger. It was the Tonton who took him all right.
    Is he here in Hopetown?
    I don’t think so, she says. No. I think they took him to a place called Freedom Fields.
    Where is it? I says.
    North of here, she says. Deep in the Black Mountains. It’s hard to git to. Hidden away.
    Freedom Fields, I says. Lugh’s at Freedom Fields. What else d’you know?
    Listen, Saba, she says, if he’s at Freedom Fields, that means the King’s got him.
    The King? I says. I ain’t never heard of him.
    Hopetown belongs to him, she says. Hopetown an all the land around, as far as you care to go. DeMalo’s his man. His second in command.
    What about the Cage Master?
    He does what they tell him, she