Chapter - 3

BIRDS DIE IN A CAGE

 

“This is the 17^th batch we will be shipping off. But this is the part which I enjoy the most.” A bandit announced casting a cruel smile on us.

 

About thirty kids of around any age just like Shae, Dia, and me were standing in a long line. Another bandit held a long tight whip in his hand making sure we do not break the order.

 

The sky was dark and cloudy. The fast-paced oceanic winds that shook the ship and created ripples on the ocean’s surface were signs enough to tell that a storm was heading in our direction.

 

“Tomorrow we will be delivering all of you to the Doctor, who so generously will make us rich for getting his goodies brought on time. But we do not want you all to present yourselves in bad condition. So, you must eat.”

 

 “““Ha-ha-haa-ha-ha-Ha.”””

 

The bandits stationed at different positions on the ship giggled.

 

While at the same time an odd eerie silence shrouded the rest of the prisoned children. Our hands were still tied with ropes and getting them to lose or cut without a sharp knife was impossible.

 

“Bring the food.” Another bandit announced as things proceeded smoothly. I too was getting hungry.

 

Two men draw a cart on the deck of the ship but it was exactly to the other edge from where we stood. The cart had bread, fresh water, vegetables, fruit, and any other thing that looked edible.

 

Their mischievous giggles grew in intensity with every second while everyone took a step back in our line. They looked afraid and hungry. In between, I could hear some stomachs groaning loudly, some forcibly patted on their abdomen.

 

Food was the only remedy to recover from our weak state.

 

But none of the others attempted to take the food from the cart.

 

I looked at Shae, but she did not dare to look up but tightly held Dia close to herself. And the same reaction could be observed in everyone, trying to resist their urges.

 

I was in oblivion to the situation. This thing happened each day, but because I was unconscious I was unaware of the consequences.

 

Just then to draw the curtains from the secret of such quietude, a boy, a little older than me started running towards the cart.

 

The others looked with admiration and so did I. Possibly he could have got the food for us, or so everyone thought.

 

But he hadn’t gone halfway when a whizzzz… sound put a dampener on everyone’s face. An arrow zipped through the air and hit the boy on his leg. He fell to the floor hitting his head on the ground.

 

“Ahhhh….Ahhhh… it hurts. Help me…help…” The boy cried in anguish, as he saw the arrow pierce through his leg. He crawled on the ground looking for help but more arrows came finding their way to hit him.

 

The bandits started laughing and stomping their legs in joy as if this was their entertainment. The other kids shuddered in fear with empty stomachs, they could not even produce normal sniveling sounds.

 

“Shae we need to help him. He will bleed out.” I whispered to Shae. Hoping we could do something together to help him out or recover.

 

“No. I can’t. That’s how it is every day. If you want to live you need to fight hunger, not them.” Shae said plainly without a shred of sympathy for that poor boy. The boy was bleeding, and I still felt the need to help him.

 

We just couldn’t let one of us die. If we have to survive we have to do it by staying together. ⸺Or, at least that’s what the bookish knowledge directed me to do.

 

“Please someone help that boy. He will die if we do not act. Come with me.” I launched the first few steps, but then an arrow struck in front of me too. One of the bandits from the upper position had launched it at me. I looked back and others were just standing still.

 

They were acting exactly as the bandits wanted them to. In fear, without reason, and their heads lowered in complete submission.

 

… And I was no different as I hurriedly took my steps backward. I too as afraid of pain, the arrow which could have taken my life. I had just only survived a dying fever.

 

“If anyone can use healing magic now. The boy will survive. Don’t be so cruel to us.” I shouted, this time hoping one of our kidnappers would have a heart enough to help us. Or, consider our value as slaves and help the boy.

 

But all I received in return were more humorous laughs.

 

The leader of the bandit jumped below on the deck from the sails. He was the one who primarily started this game and walked down to me.

 

“Girl, you think we are cruel? Do you see that boy dying…. He is not dying because of us. But because he cannot use magic. None of us can. Just like him, we all have been abandoned by our families, village our own people, and the world. That’s why you and I and all these kids are here. We have just released him from his misery. Maybe in the next life, he would be able to use magic otherwise we will be here to send him off again.” the leader of the kidnappers chuckled.

 

“You lie.” Saying that I kicked the man’s stomach in rebellion thinking that it would bring some peace to me.

 

“Damn you brat! I will kill you.” The bandit drew his knife from his side scabbard and pointing it at my chest he looked at the other kids.

 

“This won’t be enough. Just look at your face, still sneering at me. I will have to teach you a lesson. A good one.” The bandit then removes the dagger from being aimed at me now, and pointed it at Dia.

 

“Maybe your friends haven’t taught you the rules here. Lesson number one. I am the leader and you will do exactly what I say. So, I will make you watch and it will all be your fault for defying me.” The bandit force drags out Dia out of the line and snatched her away from Shae’s protection.

 

“Big sister Shae help me. Don’t hurt me.  Bad man. Bad…” Dia cried.

 

“Dia. Dia… Stop. I won’t… never gain. Just leave her.” I begged, falling on my knees.

 

“Storm approaching. Prepare.” A man shouted from the top of the sail. And as he had forecasted, we could see the sea raging. Tides so high that would swallow the ship as a whole. Heavy rain drenched all of us in a few seconds.

 

The bandit drew back his sword in frustration. He again comes near me and holding me from my collar, he lifts me up slightly to tighten the grip around my neck.

 

“Remember girl, when we land I will be the first one to kill you if I see you running away with this very knife.” The bandit warned me as he ordered his men to their duties.

 

“Throw her and her friends in the cell so that she never defies us again. Men take your positions we are going to ride the storm. Now.” The leader of the bandit took charge to get us out of the storm safely to the port.

 

The man who held the whip guided everyone back to their cells. While he did not allow Shae, Día, and me to go back to ours.

 

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“You are going with me to the very bottom. Blame her for your misfortune if you die there.” the man looked at the three of us with pity.

 

We followed the man to the bottom of the ship where a single candle in his hand lit the path for us. The light of the candle would flicker at the same time the ship would jolt roughly with every crashing tide.

 

“Get in and do not call for help because no one would hear you here.” Saying that, the man pushed the three of us inside another small dark damp chamber and we hear the snap of the key locking the door. The steadily vanishing light and the fading footsteps as the man left quickly, leaving the three of us in silence.

Only crashing tides against the walls of the boat deafened our ears.

 

I looked around, but it was too dark to see properly, except for when some light along with seawater would together pour in through the small holes in the wall.

 

“Shae, Dia I am sorry for what happened. But we need to get out of here or they will either kill us or we will die of hunger. We cannot allow them to sell us.” I frantically spoke, looking around the prison walls hoping to find a weak spot.

 

“We are not running. You put our life in danger.” Shae said coldly.

 

“I never meant for that to happen.” I looked at little Dia hiding behind Shae and I turned silent. She seemed to be more afraid of me now rather than the bandits.

 

“Big sister, does this miss wants us to be killed?"

 

“No, Dia. I would never. But we need to get out of here.” I confessed my sins and apologized for my impulsive reaction.

 

“As I said we are not leaving. But if you want to die so soon, do not drag us into your foolishness with you.” Shae was blunt with her decision.

 

“But why? Didn’t you see what they did to the boy? We can’t be imprisoned like this we have to run and be free.” I talked like one as if I had known freedom myself. Just like them I too was a bird in a cage.

 

“Every prisoner here is a kid, all magicless. So, the men fear none of us. He was right, we have been abandoned by this world. No one will ever come searching for us. Not mine family and neither yours.”

 

“But that’s… that is not tr...” I couldn't speak further remembering what my family tried to do to me before I found myself here.

 

“You are pathetic. I helped you because I thought you were a noble with your fine clothing and looks. So, I looked after you hoping you would rescue us. But you are trouble for me and my sister.” Shae got closer to me and pushed me away briskly.

 

I fell on the floor to the other wall of the prison, but my body struck against a blanket, and something smelled under that cover.

 

I strained my eyes to look and a hand crept from below the blanket. The color was pale and I could smell death for the first time.

 

“Wahhh…. What’s this?” I screamed without holding my surprise looking at the pile that lay hidden under the blanket.

 

“Those are the children who tried to get the food from the cart. Maybe you should make acquaintance with them and give your sermons.”

 

“Shae I am sorry.  I will never do it again.” I asked for Shae’s forgiveness.

 

After a shocked silence as I withdrew my gaze from the pile of corpses with a fresh new one still leaking with blood and staining the floor red. I tried to get away from them but a warning left me stunned.

 

“Don’t come close to us otherwise I will kill you myself. We don’t want ourselves to get killed because of you. My sister and I want to live.”

 

My eyes leaked with dreary tears as I saw Shae and Dia vanish into darkness.

 

Flies flew over the corpses and me. I tried to close my nose but the stench would seep in and I vomited several times until I got accustomed to the smell.

 

I was afraid that if I tried moving in the dark I would slip on the floor and fall on the corpses. So, I spent the rest of my night awake contemplating near the dead.

 

But I guess I cannot think much on an empty stomach. A small but subtle difference from my previous cage.

 

We are fed as long as we have value. And now that I have lost mine, I will just have to build a new one again. I had decided.

 

.

Tomorrow morning, after the storm had passed, we safely landed at the port with the tides. I could tell the air was cold and refreshing, but we were now put inside an iron cage by the men who kidnapped us.

 

The cage was covered with blankets and animal corpses, to hide the fact that we were in there. Soon our cage trolley was tucked into a cart and we started moving.

 

I could hear the townsfolk from the outside as we passed through the market into the forest zone. All of us wanted to shout for help, but the cages were installed with a sound barrier magic equipment. Our kidnappers were thoroughly prepared from abducting us to taking us to their client.

 

It was evening already and the horses had been tired. While they needed to be rested and fed, our cages were too aching with hungry stomachs.

 

“I think it’s time men. Raise the curtains.” A loud voice spoke from outside.

 

And the curtains came undone. In the light, I could still see Shae and Dia in my cage maintaining their distance from me. I too did not have anything meaningful to say to them in the present moment, they had already suffered much because of me.

 

But now I know how to repay them for how they had treated me in my weakness.

 

“Bring the food cart. It's time we play this fun survival game for the last time.” Announced the leader of the group.

 

As the procedure went, we were escorted out of our cages. Our hands were still tied and we were made to stand in a line.

 

The food cart stood just a few hundred meters away from us. And in between the course, there were several men standing ready with their bows and arrows.

 

One of the gang members started circling around us with a whip. With a sudden twist of the wrist, he forces the leather lash to explode in a thundering noise, like a shotgun being fired.

“So, who is going to give it a try.”

 

***

 

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