Tourmaline by James Brogden

Author:James Brogden [Brogden, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SF / Fantasy, 9781909679504
Publisher: Snowbooks
Published: 2014-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Jail

1

Timini was a small town on a tiny island, with little to trouble it beyond some petty theft and the inevitable drunken scuffle, and so the constabulary had no call for an elaborate jailhouse. They occupied a decommissioned pump-house on the town’s upper slopes and used a defunct water cistern carved into the stony hillside as their one and only cell.

Bobby fumbled his way to consciousness through barbs of light throbbing behind his eyelids, and he tried to sit up. Fresh pain flared in his skull, and he sank back with a groan. Something was pillowed under his head.

Carefully he explored the back of his skull, wincing as he found a large, wet bump. Plus, the cut on his hand was open again. He was surrounded by the sounds of dripping water. Everything leaked, both outside and in. Trickling through the gaps in his thoughts came memories – faces, voices, a painting? – which used to be his, or should have been, but they faded as awareness grew until he couldn’t even be sure that anything had been there in the first place. He was a perforated man. Ironically, his throat was ferociously dry.

Allie sat nearby, arms hugging her knees, watching him. She made no move to help as he struggled up for a second time and finally made it.

‘If it’s not a stupid question, how do you feel?’ she asked.

He grunted something by way of reply. Tried again. ‘Where are we?’

The cell was circular, empty except for them, and about the same diameter as the length of the Tatterdemalion. It was open to the sky, blocked with a heavy iron grill. It looked like the day was nearing noon.

‘In jail. Which part of “Don’t do anything stupid” was unclear to you?’

‘The part that included letting you get abducted and raped and killed. Remember that part?’

She hugged her knees tighter. ‘I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. It’s just – this was precisely, exactly what I did not want to happen. I’m the only one on Stray who can navigate the Flats. Whatever happens to me, they’re all going to starve. I should have known this would happen. Everything is screwed, now. Everything.’

‘Tell me about it.’

‘But still. Thank you.’

They were silent for a while, listening to the drip of water and watching the clouds pass by on the other side of the grill.

‘Where did you learn to fight like that?’ she asked.

‘The Bujinkan Ryuku Dojo on Pershore Road in Stirchley.’

‘Where?’

He shrugged helplessly. ‘I have no idea what that means. It just popped in there. I think it’s all a bit of a moot point now, anyway.’

The sound of their voices must have alerted those outside to the fact that Bobby was awake, because booted feet approached the grill, and they found themselves looking up at the figure of Serjeant Osk. He hunkered down by the edge and tapped the metal bars thoughtfully with the butt of his staff as he spoke.

‘If this were a bigger town with richer people breathing down my neck, you’d both be dead now.

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