Chapter 2

I didn’t wait to see the reaction of the other girls. If I didn’t get going quickly I’d get mugged in the streets. This was enough to last for almost a week if my mom and I were careful! I took off running down the streets, my prizes in hand. I wished I was a boy. They were at least allowed to travel between quarters for trade and messages, or they were allowed to until they surrendered to the Seat.

That happened when they turned five. At the Seat they began their education and training, and found their purpose in service of the king and queen. Well, unless they were found unworthy. Then they were stuck in the mud quarter with no other choices than joining a gang. My mother had broken the day they’d forced my brother from her. At least, that’s what the other girls had told me, and that was what their mothers had told them. I had only been two, so I had no real memory of him or that day. All I knew was that my mother was sad and nothing helped.

My brother never came back so that meant he’d been found worthy.

Whatever worthy means.

Men in the mud quarter were divided into two groups; the fireguards who fed us and protected us, and the rejected men who tried to hurt us and steal from us. Luckily, today the bad men were far away since there were so many fireguards, and my run home was safe. I had a feast of food in my arms, but Mother didn’t react when I brought it home. She never did. I tried not to let it bother me.

A week later, when the fireguards came for the census, I was angry and not speaking to Shava, who’d said the fireguards called every girl ‘flower,’ and that I was just another dirty mud rat like her. She said I wasn’t special.

When I started crying, she relented and gave me a few nuts from her store.

That’s how I knew she wasn’t trying to be mean; she was just miserable like the rest of us.

I was angry because deep down, I knew she was right. ‘Flower’ was a stupid name, anyway. Why couldn’t I be called a ‘flame’ like the boys were?

Flowers were weak and died easily. You couldn’t eat them without gagging. Shava claimed the royal family had an entire garden of them up at the castle, just for looking at and smelling. It was wasteful; that was space we could use to grow crops.

And now the fireguards were back, but not to give out food. I stood before them for the reaping. They paused as they went down the line, full of children and young women alike from my street.

“Marigold Mudthrice.” I stomped my foot and scowled. In that moment, my rage was so great I forgot the rule about not talking to the fireguards. “That’s not my name! My name is MARI!” The unfamiliar fireguard bent down to get a better look at me. My mother wasn’t fast enough to pin my arms back to my side, and I punched him as hard as I could in the face with my six year-old muscles.

He flinched and wheeled back, surprised. Then he laughed and laughed, the other fireguards joining him.

Then he turned and hit me so hard I saw stars.

Pain was the only thing I knew, along with my mother’s gasps and sobs as she hovered over me. They pulled her away, and the fireguard added a few kicks for good measure. “You’re lucky I don’t have her whipped. Insolent brat.” He spit on me for good measure. My mother bowed her head in apology as the second fireguard made a mark on his paper, his hand shaking, and face pale. The guards who came for the reaping weren’t kind like the everyday fireguards were. It was a hard lesson to learn. My mother’s grip on my wrist was like iron as she hauled me to my feet. I twisted away at the strength of her grip, but she held me firm.

Above the dome, the dragon roared in fury. The dragonsbane metal that protected us all hummed as the beast landed heavily on top of it, the metal glowing as it rained down fire and brimstone to no effect on the people below.

The fireguards moved on.

Mother sent me to bed without supper for my actions that day. Not like I missed much since it was only dirt cakes for dinner. I hated dirt cakes. They were bits of flour mixed with dirt and whatever herbs could be traded and spared between the women. My head hurt horribly, and it was a week before I could run the streets again.

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