Free Reign of Beasts by Tansy Rayner Roberts Page B

he?’ said Ashiol, sounding almost impressed.
    â€˜I’m surprised he has any mind left after what she did to him.’
    â€˜Shut your mouth,’ Ashiol said. ‘He doesn’t know.’
    I wasn’t stupid. They were talking about me like I wasn’t there, but that had happened a lot back at the Mermaid and the Vittorina Royale. I’d learnt to understand what adults said, even when they weren’t saying anything at all, and these were far from adults. I sat up straighter. ‘Where are we?’
    â€˜We’re safe,’ said Ashiol, and this time it was Garnet who snorted. ‘Underground,’ Ashiol added, giving his friend a dirty look.
    â€˜Still in the big city?’
    â€˜Under it,’ said Garnet. ‘What do you remember, little rat?’
    I ran my hands through my hair. It was longer than ever before. The stagemaster hated it when our hair fell in our eyes — he docked the wardrobe mistress’s pay if she didn’t chase us around with her snippers every month — even the demmes. Long hair was no use if you were a lamb, and even if you made it up to the better roles, short hair made it easier to slap a wig on. No lice, either. But these boys all had longish hair, and now mine was, too. I kind of liked it.
    â€˜I’ve been sick,’ I said.
    â€˜Aye, but do you remember what made you sick?’ Garnet pressed.
    â€˜Stop it,’ said Ashiol.
    â€˜You can’t approve of what she did.’
    â€˜It’s done now, and she’s our Lord. It’s none of our fucking business to approve or disapprove of what she does.’
    â€˜I never realised you were such a good little servant, Ashiol. Almost like you were born to it.’
    Their faces were ugly as they sniped at each other. I ignored them, scratching Lysandor behind his ears. I didn’t know if he wasn’t changing back because he couldn’t yet or because he wanted to stay out of the argument.
    â€˜Is this why I’m sick?’ I asked, interrupting them. ‘I mean … is this part of the sickness? Is it catching?’
    I had a horrible vision of all the lambs back at the theatre turning into creatures, crawling around and nibbling at the stage machinery, while the stagemaster howled and yelled until he turned into a giant bear or a walrus or something.
    Definitely a walrus.
    â€˜You’re not sick,’ said Garnet. ‘I mean, not really. Once your body adjusts, you’ll be fine.’
    I tugged more firmly on Lysandor’s ears. ‘You’re saying this is normal? It’s not going to go away?’
    The two lads looked at each other, and I knew the truth. This was it. Forever. I was never going back to the Vittorina Royale.
    White rats.

9
    I t was a while before I found out about the rest of it. Tasha was keeping me hidden, I figured that out pretty fast. The lads — the cubs, she called them — were always getting summoned away for one thing or another. I wasn’t allowed outside the den. It was a stone building, like one of the sea cottages back home, but always dark unless there were oil lamps burning.
    If I asked too many questions, Tasha would leave me without a lamp. I never minded, though. Maybe it was the rat in me, or maybe it was just all those years climbing around backstage, but I had pretty good vision in darkness. Sometimes, when they were gone and I was feeling itchy-footed, I’d go exploring. There were tunnels all around us, but most of them led nowhere, or to ruined buildings and rockfalls. Once I found my way into a massive tunnel with a canal running through it, and followed it far enough to see a cathedral as fancy as any theatre. I knew I was underground by then. I just didn’t know why.
    Then one nox — Tasha and the cubs said ‘nox’ when they were awake and ‘daylight’ when they wanted to sleep, though I could never figure out how they could tell the difference —