Part X:
Her eyes locked on mine, I found myself frightened into non-motion. As much as my small legs wanted to get moving and run as far away as I could, I found I was a statue. My brain seemed to be just as frozen. She seemed to be taking me in inch by inch, quietly assessing the situation.
“Child,” she said carefully, “what exactly were you doing with my mechanical?”
“Your what?” I answered, genuinely confused.
“My mechanical…” she said, pointing at the inactive bronze animal at my feet, “the one you seemed to be in the process of… harassing.”
“Binky?” I asked, blinking, “I mean… I was…”
The feeling was suddenly coming back to my body and brain.
“Trying to steal him?” She answered, an eyebrow shooting up as she completed my sentence much more truthfully than I ever would have.
“Her,” was all I could think of to correct her.
I expected a quick clout to the ear as she approached me, the natural reaction to a child caught stealing in Southshore at the time. With the coming wars this punishment would naturally escalate to beatings and in some cases, worse. No blow landed, however, and for the first time I really wondered what my consequence would be.
“Child,” I heard her mouth whisper inches from my ear and from behind, “If you wish to be a rogue you have to better than this.”
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