Renegade Heart (3 page)

I
t was customary, once the children reached twelve turns, for them to leave the orphanage and take up apprenticeship with one of the city’s many trades’ people. There were two other orphans who turned twelve at the same time as Enola and Wolf. Poor Suzo, disfigured from the fire that killed her entire family, had been apprenticed to a kindly baker and big, robust Cornell was to go to the local blacksmith. Enola had been promised to a highly respected seamstress and she looked forward to starting her new life, despite worrying about Wolf. For him, largely uneducated, rebellious and uninterested in friendship with anyone other than Enola, there was only one option. With no one else prepared to take him, the Orphan Master had decreed Wolf must be apprenticed to the King’s Army.

“Let them try and tame him,” he muttered as he scribed the message that would summon the Cadet Master to the orphanage.

Since the day four turns ago, when he had beaten the boy unconscious, the Orphan Master had kept his distance. Valistra had taken responsibility for reprimanding Wolf when required, which was often, but the Orphan Master suspected she was too easy on the child and let him get away with more than he was punished for.

On the night the Cadet Master was due to take Wolf into his care, the Orphan Master made a rare, nocturnal visit to the orphanage, determined to make sure the cursed boy was out of his life once and for all.

“Why at night?” Valistra demanded angrily when she discovered the Cadet Master was due to arrive at any moment to take Wolf. “Why not in the day like any other child?”

“Firstly,” the Orphan Master said coldly, addressing her as though she were a child herself. “We can never find him during the day. Wherever he goes, it is seldom to his lessons and never to prayers. Secondly, you know as well as I, he will create a fuss at being separated from the girl. Better to take him while she is not present.”

“Seven turns!” Valistra said. “They have been like brother and sister for seven turns, and you would deny them a last farewell.”

The Cadet Master duly arrived, an amiable middle aged man who insisted they call him Alganoor. The Orphan Master disapproved of such familiarity, but held his tongue. As Valistra had done before him, Alganoor queried the reason behind the late night visit, perhaps wondering just what he was letting himself in for, and was seemingly satisfied by the Orphan Master’s excuse of being too busy during the next few days for the hand over to take place at any other time.

Valistra led the two Masters up the stairs to the boys’ dormitory. As she pushed open the door, the light from the lantern shone upon an empty bed and she groaned, inwardly kicking herself for not checking sooner that the boy was actually in his bed.

“So where is he?” Alganoor asked.

“I think I know where to look,” Valistra replied. She prayed she was wrong, but there was one obvious place to begin the search.

Further along the corridor they entered the girls’ dormitory and found Enola’s bed was also empty.

The Cadet Master was growing impatient. “Are you in the habit of misplacing children, Mistress Valistra?”

She was about to usher the Masters from the room when a flicker of movement caught her eye. The Orphan Master saw it also. He pushed past Valistra and threw the empty bed to one side. Enola and Wolf blinked sleepily at the adults from their nest of blankets on the floor.

“What scandal is this?” the Orphan Master roared as the bewildered children tried to untangle themselves. “You shame yourself, girl, by taking this boy into your bed.”

“They’re children,” Valistra broke in. “I’m sure they’ve never …”

“I’m not interested in what you’re sure of!” the Orphan Master raged, mortified that a fellow Master was on hand to witness such embarrassment. He hauled Wolf to his feet and thrust him towards the Cadet Master. “Take this brat away. And if you have sense you’ll beat him thoroughly on a regular basis.”

Wolf began to fight, trying to reach Enola who was hiding behind Valistra, eyes wide with fright. Alganoor, bigger and stronger by far, subdued him with ease. With a curt nod at the Orphan Master he dragged the struggling boy away.

The other girls sat up in their beds, watching the furore with open mouths. Most of them knew Wolf slept beneath Enola’s bed and none objected, but they were afraid to speak up in case they were included in the Orphan Master’s wrath.

“Let this be a lesson to you all,” the Orphan Master warned the remaining girls. “If you act like a whore you will be treated like one.”

“Orphan Master?” Valistra held Enola against her, feeling the tremors that shook the girl’s slender body.

“She lay with the boy,” the Orphan Master spat. “She can forget becoming a seamstress. From this moment on she will be a whore.”

Enola had never seen anything like the luxury of the whore house. Her fingers itched to stroke the heavy, plush drapes hanging at the windows and she gasped with surprise when she sat on a chair and sank into a soft eiderdown cushion.

Even the Madame, who had given the Orphan Master short shrift and sent him on his way, was a sight to behold. Madame Magnosa was tall and lean with rouge on her sculptured cheekbones and painted red lips. The colour and finery of her robes were enchanting to a child who had not known until that point that clothes came in anything other than brown or grey.

In turn, Madame Magnosa regarded the unexpected new arrival with equal curiosity. Many girls had passed through her doors over the turns, some of whom had been real beauties, but it was rare to find one with such an angelic quality about her. Despite the story the Orphan Master had told her, Magnosa found it hard to match what she had heard with the forlorn little figure sat in her parlour.

“Tell me about the boy,” Magnosa probed gently. “How long have you been laying with him?”

At the mention of Wolf, the girl’s face brightened immediately. Enola instinctively liked and trusted Magnosa, and if she were to give her a home it was important the woman should understand her friendship with Wolf.

“For our whole lives,” she answered eagerly. “Or at least, since we were five turns. That’s when we were both taken to the orphanage. Sometimes we lay together and sometimes Wolf lays on the floor and I lay on my bed.”

Magnosa’s frown deepened as she realised she was right in her assumption that the girl was incredibly naïve and innocent. “Child, do you know the difference between men and women?”

Enola blushed furiously and lowered her gaze. “I heard the older girls talking once,” she said shyly. “They said boys have a …thing. But I’ve never seen one.”

“And this boy of yours, has he ever put his thing between your legs?”

“No!” Enola cried. “Wolf would never do a horrible thing like that. Why would he?”

There were plenty of men in the city, Magnosa knew, who would pay good coin to lay their hands on an innocent child like Enola. And in doing so they would destroy all that it was they desired about her. Feeling unusually soft hearted, Magnosa was determined she would not allow that to happen. She would keep the girl as a servant, to wash and clean and sew for the household, but for the time being, she would allow no man to touch her.

Across the city at the cadet quarters, Alganoor locked the distraught boy in an empty cell and summoned two troopers to help him. They arrived grumbling, unhappy at being called upon for what they deemed baby-sitting duty. They soon altered their opinion when Alganoor unlocked the door and showed them the wild animal within.

Wolf rampaged around the small cell, throwing himself against the walls, his forehead and knuckles bloodied from striking the unforgiving stone. The three men watched silently from the doorway until the boy collapsed in a corner, his back to the wall.

“Is he crazy?” One of the troopers asked.

“No, just scared,” Alganoor replied, as Wolf glowered at them through his thick fringe.

“That hair will have to go,” the second trooper observed.

“One step at a time.”

Alganoor was worried, wondering how he could be expected to turn the boy into a soldier in the space of two turns. Even if he had ten, he strongly doubted Wolf could be tamed enough to lead the regimented lifestyle of a trooper.

“I want you to stay with him, but don’t try and approach him,” he said as he turned to leave. There was a quiet murmur from behind him and he turned back, surprised the boy had actually spoken. He walked further into the cell and asked Wolf to repeat himself.

“Enola.”

It had to be the girl, Alganoor decided. He was loathe to be cruel, but he thought it owed to the boy to give him the truth.

“She may as well be dead,” he said. “You have to forget her.”

Wolf lowered his head and said nothing more.

M
en often asked for, and were refused the pleasure of Enola’s company. Magnosa was fiercely protective of her young ward. The girl had turned out to be a good cook and an even better seamstress. The whores loved her like a little sister. At fourteen turns, she was stunning in appearance with long golden hair and liquid brown eyes. Wondrously, despite her surroundings, she managed to retain her air of innocence. She was not stupid. She knew what it was the other girls did with the men who came to the house, and she understood now what the Orphan Master and Fadiosa had been doing the day they beat Wolf so badly.

One morning, Magnosa came across her in the kitchen, kneading the dough for that day’s bread with silent tears rolling down her cheeks. The girl was often prone to fits of melancholy, and everyone knew it was because she still missed her childhood companion. Seeing Magnosa in the doorway, Enola quickly wiped her eyes leaving a wet, floury smudge across her face.

“Why so sad?” Magnosa asked.

“It’s nothing really,” Enola sniffed. “Only the girls were talking about the renegades and how they’ve stepped up their raids. They said the King is to send more troops after them.”

“Child, you know how gossip seems to elude the truth in this place. One man tells one story and a second man tells another. The girls knit the two together and come up with a completely different story altogether. You must learn not to take them so seriously.”

Enola nodded, but the way she chewed nervously on her bottom lip would imply she was unconvinced.

“Surely the renegades don’t worry you? They would not dare to attack the city.”

“It’s not the renegades,” Enola replied hesitantly. “But Taola said the cadets are sent to join the troops when they are fourteen turns. Wolf is fourteen now. What if they send him after the renegades and he is killed?”

If Enola had but one flaw, it was her obsession with the boy. Although she had not seen or heard from him since the night they had been taken from the orphanage, not a day went by without her mentioning his name. Magnosa had heard from more than one source that Wolf was a wild one and no mistake, fighting with the other cadets, shirking his chores, and refusing to recite the King’s Prayer. She told Enola nothing of what she learned, knowing the girl would fret all the more if she thought Wolf continued to get himself into trouble.

“He’ll be a soldier,” she assured her now. “The renegades won’t stand a chance once the King’s Army catches them.”

“That’s the thing,” Enola said with a wry smile. “Wolf has always been a bit of renegade himself. I’m afraid, if it comes to a battle, he’ll forget whose side he is on.”