Hope and Red Read Online Free

you could make it that far, even if you managed to escape the sharks and seals.”
    “I-I-I don’t want to go to the Southern Isles,” he whimpered. “They say it’s full of monsters and there’s no food and no light and nobody ever comes back, that you can’t come back, that once—you go—you’re trapped there— forever !” His voice was coming out in spasms now as the sobs overwhelmed him.
    Sadie had heard just about enough of it. She thought about giving him a nice kick to the head. That would shut him up. And she doubted he’d be much help when she made her escape anyway. He wasn’t even a proper neighborhood wag. He was some artist’s kid, probably suckled at the teat till he was five. How he’d even managed to survive a month on the streets was beyond her.
    But he had survived. And didn’t seem to be starving either. So there had to be something going for him. She wondered what it was.
    The boy’s sobs had quieted back to sniffles. As much to stop him making that annoying sound as anything else, she said, “So tell me, Rixi-whatever your name is. What was your mom like? What happened to her?”
    He gave one last sniffle and wiped his teary red eyes with his shoulder. “You really want to know?”
    “Course I do,” she said, nestling her back into a burlap sack of potatoes and making herself as comfortable as she could with her wrists and ankles tied up. It could be hours yet before anyone came down to the cargo hold and she’d be able to make her move. A dreary story of an artist’s son was better than no entertainment at all.
    “Okay.” His expression was earnest. “But you got to promise you won’t tell anyone.”
    “I swear on my father’s purple prick,” said Sadie.
    *  *  *
    Rixidenteron’s mother, Gulia Pastinas, came from one of the well-to-do families that lived in the north end of New Laven, far away from the grime and violence of Paradise Circle, Silverback, and Hammer Point. She was the second daughter, and pretty enough, but so headstrong and fiercely independent that her father despaired of ever getting her married off. It was frowned upon in the wealthy families to let the women work, which meant he would have to support her.
    He was thrilled when she told him that she was joining an artist group down in Silverback. It was fashionable at the time for the children of wealthy families to dabble in bohemian culture. That was all he thought it would be. A nice break from his troublesome baby girl.
    But it turned out that she was an immensely talented artist, and that she would not be coming back within a year with her tail between her legs. That, in fact, she would not be coming back at all. First, because she was far too busy being the toast of the downtown New Laven arts community. Later, because she was far too sick to return to him. Not that she would have returned even if she could.
    Rixidenteron’s father was a whore, descended from a long line of whores, male and female. It never occurred to him that there was a problem with his profession until he was at a party and met a beautiful, dark-eyed artist who, after talking to him for ten minutes, declared she would rescue him from his life of misery. She was flush from the sale of a new batch of paintings, and bold from a recently acquired coral spice addiction. She took him home that night and insisted that he give up his life in the sex trade. He smiled his soft, warm smile and nodded agreeably, so smitten with her poised charm and fiery passion that he would have done just about anything she’d asked.
    So she would paint and he would cook and clean, and for a while, they were happy. Then Rixidenteron was born and everything changed, as it always does when people become parents. Their son was born with the telltale red eyes of a coral addict’s child, and friends told them he wouldn’t last more than a week. But perhaps he did have some hidden strength. Or perhaps it was because his parents spent every waking moment