Twist of Fate (Sample)

PART ONE: THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER ONE

Scavenging the remains of someone’s dinner out of the gutter among the slime and muck of the street was never an enjoyable task. Kira rinsed it in the dingy water as best as she could, trying to ignore the smell of rot that emanated from the food before carefully placing it into her pack and making her way towards the alley. Her steps were quick and fleeting, avoiding anyone’s eyes that could be watching. She managed to snag a bread roll off the end of someone’s basket as she passed. It had disappeared into her mouth before she’d taken another ten steps just in case anyone saw her with it.

Swallowing hastily, she made her way around the corner, ducking under a woman’s freshly hung washing-still dripping with slightly tan water and smelling faintly of mildew, and made her way through the broken fencing that led to the smallest of paths between two buildings. Ducking into the side behind the piles of garbage, she shifted a mound of broken crockery to reveal a small hidey-hole. It was almost unnoticeable unless you knew where to look.

Her stomach cramped, but worse than the ache was the dread that today’s search had brought her almost nothing. Squeezing inside the hole and turning around to drag the bin back in place to hide her from view, she almost dropped her worn rucksack as she adjusted. The cramped space was not ideal, but it sufficed as shelter. It was one of the only times that being small and undernourished had its value. Nestling in between the supports of the building’s walls, there was barely enough room to sit, let alone stand. Peering into the confines of her bag, her nose wrinkling from the smell of the rotten waste close by, she examined her spoils from the day.

A few grapes, mostly squashed, a single roasted potato, and a strip of dried meat. Eating slowly, she chewed each bite longer than necessary. Gnawing the meat between her teeth, she savored each morsel until her hands were empty. Letting out a small, disappointed sigh as her stomach rumbled, she sank into a fouler mood. It was never enough food. Aiming to distract herself, she opened her pack to examine the things she’d pilfered from unsuspecting people throughout her search for food. All she had managed was a disappointing set of rings and a bracelet. The rings were plain gold, dirty from long wear that she had found on a drunk man lounging behind the inn, unconscious and reeking of barrel wine. The more promising find was a stroke of pure luck, the first she’d had in a long while.

Normally she wouldn’t have stolen anything as gaudy as the bracelet because the silver band and green gems made it much too recognizable, but something had drawn her attention to it as it flashed in the afternoon sun on the pale arm of the woman who owned it. The bracelet could be a way to make up for the few pennies she would fetch for the rings if she could even find someone to buy it. She mused that she might have to find a way to take it apart and melt the metal to avoid someone recognizing it.

Kira had thought that the bracelet was pretty, which was a silly notion for a street urchin. She couldn’t have pretty things, or even clean ones, for that matter. She ran her hand over the band, imagining what it would be like to own such beautiful things through honest means. She ignored the stark contrast of the hem of her dress, caked in dirt and worn almost to pieces from over wear. A small smile crossed her face as she leapt into the fantasy, sliding on the bracelet as she imagined the woman she had taken it from had done. It even seemed to flash in the fading light of the alley.

She could only hope that the grizzled old woman who pushed her cart down Market Street a few times a fortnight would be there in the morning. For something as attention-getting as the bracelet, it would be better to offload it quickly, she mused, discarding her earlier plan to try and melt it down. Her fingers trailed over the gems and the delicate pieces of metal that held them in place.

She sat back and closed her eyes after putting away her treasures. The sun set shortly after, and she curled up in the rags she had collected and woven together to make a semblance of blankets. Sleep came quickly, playing the fantasy of being a high-class woman with dazzling jewels and flowing gowns. The image of the bracelet swam behind her eyes as she fell deeper into slumber.