Free Making Monsters by Nikki McCormack Page A

feet, his overgrown hair spilling into his face. She knew he didn't like contesting the older boy, but he found courage to do so on occasion. She yearned to be more like him.
    “It’s one thing stealing from the marketplace and even raiding shops has been successful thanks to some skilled decoys.” He cast an appreciative look her way. She sat a little straighter, flushed with silly pride. “But this...” Mar shook his head. “Lord Ithar’s manor is remote and well-guarded. We wouldn’t be running from a shopkeeper’s fat son, but from trained warriors and their hounds. It’s too dangerous.”
    “Too scary for you?” Kurth sneered, his dark eyes narrowing.
    After a moment of awkward silence, his demeanor changed. His stance relaxed and his expression softened to deceptive patience. The speed with which he could change temper frightened her. He was unpredictable.
    “I understand your hesitation. Trust me. The danger worries me too. Then I look at the life we’re leading and I think how nice it’d be to have decent food all the time, instead of just when we manage to steal it. How great would it be to sleep on a soft bed every night rather than curling up with the trash in alleys?” She wanted to agree with him and could see the same on the faces of the others. The empty cavern of her stomach growled. They all wanted those things. “You know what I mean. All we have to do is pull off this one job and we can live like kings.”
    “What’ll we do with it once we have it,” Jervis inquired, his voice squeaking with nerves.
    Kurth grinned. Flickering candlelight twisted the expression into a creepy leer. “That’s more like it. Once we have it.” He paused, scratched his chin as if pondering the thought, then nodded. “We’ll sell it, of course. Not much use to us in the form of a golden mask, is it?”
    Jervis chuckled, his smile tentative.
    Mar wasn’t ready to go along yet. “Who will buy it from us? Anyone who’d buy that kind of thing would more likely kill us and take it or turn us in for a reward.”
    Kurth’s expression darkened for an instant then his smile flashed back. “I have a buyer lined up. Don’t worry about that part.”
    Mar looked skeptical. “Really?”
    “Of course, really. Let’s get planning.” Kurth clasped his hands together as though greeting himself. His eyes turned greedy.
    Shai looked at Jervis and Mar, but they avoided her eyes. They looked nervous still, but they would follow Kurth as they always had, this time to take on Lord Ithar. They hunched together to work out their plan and she joined them.

#
    Mottled darkness spun around Shai. Her stomach turned in response. There was far too much pain for her to be dead, but she couldn’t have survived the fall. When her effort to move failed, she realized that she must not have a body any longer. Perhaps she had the residual memories of one, like they said happened when someone lost a limb only on a larger scale. If that were so, then maybe she could drift away from this agonized casing of remembered flesh. Yes, that would work. She could feel herself starting to float free.
    “Now, please.” The woman’s voice snapped Shai back into her body like a released bowstring. “I’ve worked far too hard to keep you here. It would be ungrateful of you to drift off like that.”
    Her eyes were adjusting. Dark shapes lit by a dim light flickering somewhere behind her were emerging, a cluttered table, a wooden chair. She struggled to look around, but her body still wouldn’t respond.
    I am at this person’s mercy . Uncooperative flesh trembled at the thought and a dog-like whimper emitted from her throat.
    “Don’t fret.” The woman stepped into view and Shai fell silent, staring.
    The woman’s hair hung in luxuriant, glossy auburn waves that shimmered in the light and emerald eyes shone bright above her full, painted lips. Her dress was green velvet decorated with fine gold ribbons that matched the ones in her hair. The