Free The Pack by Tom Pow

does?”
    â€œThen he’ll be the new champion. That’s how it works. But I tell you, no one lasts long with this animal.”
    â€œPity,” said Bradley. “Hunger’s a good dog. He’s been a good friend to me. I’d hate to lose him.”
    â€œ Friend —huh, no one here cares about friend. ”
    â€œBut aren’t all these children who work for Red Dog your friends?”
    â€œDon’t make me laugh. They’d trade me for an apple if Red Dog told them to. And I’d do the same.”
    There was a honed sharpness in Skreech’s voice, yet he was younger than Bradley, slightly smaller and with more delicate features under the grime. Bradley felt he was forcing the voice to fit a shape he had in his mind.
    â€œWhy stay then?”
    â€œYou stupid, are you? What else is there to do?”
    â€œI mean, what’s in it for you?”
    â€œMy life. That’s what’s in it for me. I do what Red Dog says and I get food, I get shelter. He looks out for me—and for the rest, I take my chance with everyone else.”
    â€œWhat kind of chance?”
    â€œYou heard him. The chance of being chosen.”
    â€œI don’t follow.”
    â€œNo, you don’t follow nothing, seems to me, or you’d’ve stayed where you were.”
    â€œNot a choice.”
    â€œPah. Chance of being chosen to go to the Invisible City.”
    â€œWhat happens there?”
    â€œYou saying you’ve never heard the stories?”
    â€œNo, never.”
    â€œWell, it’s a place called The Mount they send you. They’ve got lots of children there, ones they picked up when they cleared up the Invisible City after the Dead Time. But still they need more. That’s what Red Dog provides, a fresh batch…”
    He stopped briefly and, not for the first time, glanced across nervously at the door into the great hall.
    â€œNo, no point in making friends here. When they go, they never get out. That I do know.”
    â€œWhat do they do with them there?”
    â€œDoes it matter? None of us thinks about it much and we don’t feel anything when someone’s chosen, ’cos you know it could be you next time. Except it’s not going to be me, it’s going to be you. That’s the only way you’ll see Floris again.”
    â€œDid you see her before they took her?”
    â€œYes. She was exhausted, but still crying and kicking. ‘They’ll come for me,’ she was shouting. ‘They’ll come for me.’ Red Dog loves these empty threats.”
    â€œWell, we did.”
    â€œBig deal. Look where it’s got you.”
    â€œIt’s not over yet.”
    â€œOh, but it is. Your dog dies today and you’ll go to The Mount soon enough.”
    â€œAnd Victor?”
    â€œOh yes, I was forgetting about him. Well, he’s no good to The Mount, they’re only interested in healthy types there, and soon Red Dog will get bored with him. I reckon they’ll just turn him loose like a wounded bird. See how long they last in this territory…”
    Bradley was silent for a while, as Skreech turned and turned his cane.
    â€œWhat does Red Dog get out of it?”
    â€œOut of what?” The edge had returned to his voice.
    â€œOut of the arrangement with The Mount.”
    â€œWhat the other warlords get. He gets to trade with the Invisible City. He gets this territory to call his own, as long as he patrols it and keeps unwanted people out of the Invisible City.”
    â€œLike who?”
    â€œLike you, me, homeless, parentless us.”
    â€œYou don’t have to be here,” said Bradley, slowly and deliberately.
    â€œShut up, just shut up!” Skreech was on his feet, his stick rattling along the bars of the cage. Hunger leaped up, snarling, throwing himself against the bars, till Bradley pulled him down.
    â€œIt’s all right, Hunger,” Bradley whispered to him.