He smiled broadly, and this time it lit up his whole face, like sunshine coming out from clouds. He looked like the young man he used to be before he found his true calling at the bottom of a mug of ale.

“I can work this out, give me time.”

“Cut the bitch,” Diogo said in a low, irritated voice. He didn’t look up from his work on his nails. “Make him scream.”

Valak increased the pressure on his knife ever so slightly. A drop of blood formed on the boy’s throat. He was used to using knives on men. That’s why what happened next took him completely by surprise.


ii.

The slaveboy went purely crazy, thrashing and screaming, begging Valak not to kill him, to please have mercy on a worthless slaveboy. Valak was forced to drop his knife, or the boy’s struggles would have slit his throat from ear to ear. Valak slapped the boy’s face hard, leaving a brilliant red mark on his too pale cheek.

“Quit it, you stupid bitch,” Valak yelled into his face. “Or you’ll fucking kill yourself.”

He grabbed the boy’s too thin arm again, Gods, nothing’s right about this bitch, he had time to think, and bent to get his knife, but the boy kicked out a scrawny leg and the knife went twirling across the dark stone floor. Valak glared at the boy. He wasn’t stupid then, just scared.

Valak gave his arm a rough shake and the feel of the boy’s bones just beneath his skin damped his anger. The boy grimaced in pain and cringed from the blow he expected.

Valak did something he never did. That’s what kept him alive in his line of work. He acted without thinking. Without realizing he was going to do it, he swept the boy up into his arms and slung his impossibly light weight over his shoulder like the world’s lightest sack of potatoes.

The boy immediately beat his small fists on Valak’s back, but he was ready for that. The boy’s tunic had pulled up and his naked ass stuck out over Valak’s shoulder. He brought his big calloused hand down on the boy’s naked ass, with not even half the force his hard, muscled arm could have given the boy. But it was enough to make the slaveboy yelp and scream, until his white ass turned beet red.

“Behave bitch, or I’ll lay into you real good,” Valak said in his hoarse voice.