Page 5 of Forge the Blade

Rei pressed his lips together. The damage to Lisa’s leg was extensive. It was too cold outside for only one layer of clothes. He fished into the suitcases and found a warm under layer.

“If you sit on the bed, I’ll help,” he said.

Lisa grimaced and nodded. He hopped to the bed and dropped down on the edge, feet on the floor. Together they got thermal layer over the bandages and wraps on Lisa’s leg. When the Merchari goon had slammed Lisa through the coffee table, his leg had taken the worst of the impact.

When Lisa was dressed, he motioned for Rei to do the same. Rei hesitated.

“We have to leave,” Lisa said, eyes soft.

Rei looked at the clothes. But he couldn’t bring himself to dress, not without Sevastyan’s permission. Not when his master was in the condo.

He crawled to the door and around the corner into the living room. Sevastyan was eating and Ellisandre was sitting to his side, facing him.

Rei opened his mouth but all his training kicked in, training so ingrained that he could obey it even when wracked with pain and gripped by pleasure. Ellisandre knew he was a slave. Merchari rules therefore applied.

He laid his hands on his thighs, holding his posture perfectly, despite his injuries. They were nothing.

He was . . . nothing.

Except that he was.

His thoughts flickered in and out, moving between two conflicting identities. He stayed still, letting the conflict run without involving himself. As long as he was still, as long as he waited on Sevastyan to order him to move, then he was safe from the confusion in his mind.

When he did not know the path, Sevastyan chose.

“Speak, Rei,” Sevastyan murmured.

Rei kept his eyes averted. “Should I dress to leave, master?”

“Yes,” Sevastyan said. “Dress now with Lisa. I thought I told you to. You were right to ask.”

Rei tensed. Had Sevastyan told him to? Perhaps he had. He bowed from where he knelt and turned on his knees—cheeks burning—to crawl back into the bedroom.

Lisa already had clothes chosen for him.

Rei dressed with the other slave’s help. They finished clearing the closet. Then the bathroom. Rei cleaned as they went.

Sevastyan entered when they were stripping the bed.

“Put the sheets in the wash and start them.” Sevastyan said. “Then put on your shoes.”

Lisa and Rei obeyed. It was too hard to hop across the living room. Rei crawled. How he was going to walk to wherever they were going was not his consideration. Sevastyan would make that decision.

Rei put on his shoes. He carefully didn’t look at the bodies behind him. He didn’t want to see the slack face of the man who still had the keyboard cord around his neck. He could still feel the man struggling against him, his life draining away.

Except when he felt nothing.

Nothing was better. But he kept having to rouse himself to do this, to listen to Sevastyan’s voice, to check on Lisa as the other slave tried to get his boots on and failed, gasping and pressing his hand against his ribs.

Rei knee walked the half a meter between them and put his hand against Lisa’s thigh. Allow me, he communicated without speech. Lisa nodded, blinking fast against whatever was happening inside his body.

Ellisandre and Sevastyan joined them at the door, putting on coats and boots. Rei stayed where he was, waiting. He’d just reached the perfect state of nothingness when a hand touched his shoulder.

“Rei.”

He flinched. He’d zoned out so hard he hadn’t heard his master’s voice. Panic gripped his chest. He raised wide eyes to Sevastyan’s face.

“Up, Rei,” Sevastyan held out his hand. “Outside rules.”