Kingdom of Cages(54)

After a few anxious heartbeats, Chena saw Mom’s frown relax. It had worked. She was listening. Even better, she was believing.

“Well, if it’s not against the rules, it is a good idea,” said Mom. “But you still have your shifts to pull, and I want you in school as soon as we can get you there.”

“I know,” said Chena, eagerness rising in her voice. This would work. It would work. “But if I could do this, I could help get us money to go to school. I was gonna give part of the money I earned to Teal if she would take my shifts.” Now both Mom and Teal looked dubious. “We only have to put in a few hours a day now, and we don’t have to do any of the heavy stuff. She can do my work just as well as I can.” Chena gave Teal a pleading look. Please, please, go along!

“Half,” said Teal coolly.

Shock stiffened Chena’s spine. “You’re crazy! A quarter.”

“Half,” Teal repeated.

Chena snorted and stopped just short of making the piss-off sign. “You’re only going to have to work an extra couple hours. I’m going to be working all day—”

“As pleased as I am to have such fiscally savvy children,” Mom interrupted, touching Chena’s raised hand and pressing it gently back down onto the table, “we have not determined whether this project is actually going to happen yet.” Both girls turned to her and waited. Mom ran her hand through her hair and rubbed the back of her neck, shaking her head.

“This was not what I planned for you,” she said softly. “I had thought you would be able to go to school. That I would be able to support you, like a mother should support her children. Children should not have to worry about whether or not the family is going to be able to get along. But then, children should not have to be apprenticed out at ten years old because their parents can’t keep them from starving any other way.” She wasn’t looking at them now. She was staring out the slit windows at the shifting shadows that patterned the catwalk. “But if wishes were fishes, we’d all cast nets. We have to work with what we have.” Her attention came back to the room and her daughters. “We will talk to Madra about this scheme of Chena’s. If she agrees that it is not violating any regulations, then Chena you can give it a try, if you can negotiate the price with your sister.” A smile flashed across Mom’s face. “And if we agree on a code of conduct for your enterprise. I will not tolerate any more omissions of fact from you, understand me, Chena?” Her eyes were hard and sharp as glass and bored right through Chena’s heart. “If I catch you out again, that’s the end of this.” Her hand slashed through the air between them. “I don’t care if we have to end up living on the rooftops.”

“Yes, Mom,” said Chena, keeping her voice subdued and serious. Inside, she cheered. It was going to work. She’d be bringing in money and everything would be all right. It might take a while, she knew that, but it would get better. They’d go to school. They’d get real jobs that paid. They’d get out of here one day and go somewhere where no one could touch them.

Like Mom said, they’d make it all right.


In the end, she talked Teal into splitting the money into thirds—a third for Chena, a third for Teal, and a third for Mom, to pay their debts and squirrel away so they could leave. Once that was agreed to, Mom took Chena down to talk to Madra about the plan. Madra looked dubious at first and looked regulations up on four different sheets, but in the end she confirmed she couldn’t find anything against it.

The scary part came right after that, when Mom walked Chena up to the cop’s house. Chena explained the whole idea to Constable Regan, and he just sat there, one muscle in this hollow cheek twitching.

Finally Chena fell silent, having run dry of words. Regan reached across his desk, picked up a sheet of paper, and began to write on it. He filled the page with words and signed it in big, swooping letters.

“Permission granted,” he said, handing her the page. “Good luck.”

Mom squeezed Chena’s shoulder, and Chena had to keep herself from jumping up and cheering. Instead, she just folded the letter up carefully and tucked it into her pocket.

“Thank you, Uncle Constable,” she said, saluting him carefully.

“Step safe and careful, Niece.” He actually smiled a little as he returned her salute.

Once Chena had the letter of approval from Constable Regan, rounding up clients was easy. Everybody with money seemed to want something passed over to Stem, and a large chunk of them wanted something brought back. Comm bursts between the libraries were expensive and came with no guarantee they’d stay private. Taking a boat down to Stem took a whole day, which meant you had to wait for your off-shift day and hope your schedule matched the boat’s.