In all, Ori thought, it couldn’t have gone worse. He fell from the back of the scarecrow as soon as Owl bumped into him during the joust. His body screamed in pain, but he gritted his teeth and kipped up as soon as his former friend offered one giant hand. When they dunked them two by two he threw up onto Heron’s prentice, water and chocolate and candied oranges all over her thighs and legs. Owl and the scarecrow had to ride the waters in the floating scrim of Ori’s sickness.

  Hands from the darkness in between chambers harried them on with slaps and pinches. The one Ori called his Queen was cruelest to him, batting him around the legs, even clipping his coins at one point with a backhand that made his gut clench up. The harriers forced the children into tight spaces, so tight that even Ori had to force himself through the gap holding back from crying out in pain. They gave them scalding hot cider to drink as they shivered in a cold room, stomping feeling back into their feet and wriggling their fingers.

  “Sorry for the hit back there, Ori.” Owl said sheepishly, grabbing the younger boy around the shoulder. Ori winced, and Owl seemed even more downtrodden, looking down in shame as he let his once friend go.

  “Don’t worry. Kid felt like he wanted you to win. Say, did you have to churn up all over my dress? It’s the one nice thing Heron lets me wear.” the girl asked, twisting her skirts and letting water flow from the soaked mess.

  “I’m just not feeling well, okay!” Ori shouted, backing away to stand in his own corner to wallow as the others talked. After a few minutes the scarecrow came forward, a mawkish look on his face.

  “Are you sick? River fever? The Chills? You’re too young to have the pox unless you’re mother was a wh-”

  The tall boy didn’t finish before Owl was on top of him, pressing his thick arm into his neck and choking the life from him. The scarecrow reached for his empty scabbard as his eyes rolled back in his head, and Owl drove a knee into the thin side of his opponent.

  The Queen was on the boys seconds later, pulling them apart and boxing their ears like the unruly children they were. Both flinched, and even in the low lamplight Owl’s embarrassment played red on his wide face.

  “You don’t hit brothers, or sisters. The next one to raise a hand loses the damn thing.” the Queen touched her hatchet as she finished, and the two boys looked down sufficiently chastened.

  “I’m sorry.” Owl said, wiping blood from his face. His opponent huffed, standing away and working his jaw while stretching his leg. The matter settled, the Queen shuttled her charges through the small passage in front of them, reaching a grand hall. Taking a key from her belt, the Queen opened a door carved with scenes of a garden in bloom, and Ori was stunned to see each tree, flower, and fruit made of finery. Silver branches and jade leaves, gold and ruby apples, creeping amethyst heather and water made of flecks of lapis.

  “It is a beauty, isn’t it?” the girl asked, touching Ori’s shoulder. The touch was so surprising that Ori didn’t wince, though he felt a slight heat creep into his arm and through his cheeks.

  The door opened without a sound to a hall open to the sky. The night was moonbright and warm, and the place smelled of sweet floral notes and a touch of something earthy. Ori stared into the sky and saw the Five Sisters, the constellation that sailors used to find their way home. He saw the Thief, a bright star that passed over and hid the Queen’s jewel in the sky during the winter. The Hunter, the Guardian, the Cat and Mouse.

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  They sprung on the party at once.

  Ori spun into his attacker, striking out with his hands just as another assailant grabbed his arms to twist them behind. Owl was surrounded by three attackers, too small for the bull of a boy to not fend off. Ori looked towards the girl, who had produced a short basher from somewhere in her skirts and squared off against one of them. It was only then that Ori noticed the sacks over each head, and the tittling laughter from the scarecrow who went down and was held by a sleek figure who laughed along.

  “Cry off! Owl! It’s a j-” Ori shouted, before a hand went over his mouth. He allowed himself to be dragged to the ground as he saw Owl grab one of the attackers by the arm and toss the fool right into his partner. It was only the Queen creeping behind the big man to deliver a swift kidney punch that dropped the boy, and then the girl went down soon enough.

  More of the bagheads appeared from out of the corners and alcoves. From his vantage place Ori saw the shirt and missing arm of his master, holding onto the back of another who seemed ready to keep walking past the line the group had established. The bag wearing his master’s clothes turned to him, removing his hand from holding the fool to wiggle fingers towards him, before making a quick motion across an unseen face. Keep mum and listen.

  Now that he had stopped, Ori felt the drugs Sparrow had given him kicking in. A haze fell over the moonlight night, and he saw a single woman standing smiling at him from behind the masked men. She stepped behind a taller, broad thief and seemed to disappear. In his mind she looked like his mother, though Ori knew that was only the drugs speaking lies.

  Out of the ranks of masked men came one with the potbelly of a clerk and the hard arms of a killer. He wore the short, thick blade known as a cutter, just within the law against a peasant carrying a true sword, but still a hanging offense to be used.

  “Close your eyes, peasants. I am your King, and I demand satisfaction.” the fat tough jiggled forward, walking from end to end of the line of children. As he sat in self-imposed darkness Ori worried. He heard the sputtering of others, the laughter of the masked men. When they came to the girl at his side he heard a struggle, some quiet whispering, then the same strange gurgling.

  Ori felt the men on top of him tense, and then the sensation of someone in front of him. There was a pause, and the presence pressed something warm against his lips. The crowd laughed, and Ori smelled the smell of coriander and sage in his nostrils.

  Ori felt the belly of the man settle atop his head. It shifted over him, and Ori was overwhelmed by the smell of cheap wine. The man whispered to Ori, just enough for the boy to hear him.

  “Kiss it, son. Kiss it and satisfy your lord. Drink it all in.” The lord’s voice was right in his ear, his hot breath filling. As the man pressed forward, Ori laughed, and opened his mouth to take the presence into his mouth.

  Oriole bit down, hard, and tasted the warm fat and gush of juices. A sausage? The men around him began to laugh, and as Ori opened his eyes he saw the fat man hopping up and down with a wineskin in one hand holding the sausage in the other.

  “The bastard! The whoreson! He dared to bite my cock off!” the lord kept dancing back and forth as the masked men laughed, then turned towards Ori smiling as he poured the wineskin over the new King.

  It was warm, disgusting. Ori felt some of the liquid fall across his open mouth, took in the taste. They had filled a bladder with khash, the cheap liquor favored by the gobs that spread through the Barrow like wildfire. Tasting of dirt and raw, the sip burned the cuts in his mouth and made his stomach roll over. The fat man sprayed the rest of the warm sickening swill over the boy, laughing as he shook the remnants. The lord bent down to Ori, lifting him up then coming close to his ear.

  “Nobody’s done that in a few years, boy. Clever, or just not willing to have meat on your lips. You’ll serve well, with a purse like that.” the man patted Ori’s sore shoulder then turned to the rest. “Will you have these fools among you?”

  The crowd cheered, and Ori looked to his mates for their reaction. Owl looked sickly, ready to vomit. The girl was soaked through and seething, her hands clenched at her sides as she stood. The scarecrow seemed the best of them, barely drenched and picking at the dirt on his clothes. More thieves entered from all points of the chamber, hailing their new companions. For a moment Ori looked around, hoping to learn what comes next.

  Then the torches came, and the real Kings entered.