Poor World Read Online Free PDF

unhappy sleep. There were others in the prison, though as yet I’d heard no voices.
    â€œCan ya pick the lock in the dark?” Puddlenose asked.
    I felt the door, and found the lock mechanism, which was the old type that had been used by the Chwahir for centuries. Diana, whose past was unknown to us girls, had taught us all a lot about locks — and picking them. “Sure,” I said, wondering what horrible surprise lay ahead — because if I could pick the lock (and I did) then they ought to have been able to pick it and escape ages ago.
    The door swung open, and Puddlenose said quickly, “Don’t touch us. There’s some kind of ward on us.”
    â€œUgh. On everybody?”
    â€œNo. Just on us,” Puddlenose said dolefully. “He’s got an extra grudge going against me.”
    â€œWhy? Because you’re a stupid?”
    â€œBecause I know him for a Chwahir.”
    â€œThat’s his accent!” I snapped my fingers. “Ugh! Go on.”
    â€œI’m sure I’ve seen him before, back when Uncle Doumei first turned me over to Shnit to use against Clair’s mother. He didn’t recognize me because I was a little kid.”
    â€œIt’s not that,” Christoph cut in.
    â€œNo,” Puddlenose said. “I’m telling it badly. He knows I hate Shnit too, y’see, and so he really expected me to throw in with his plans, and, well, I didn’t.”
    â€œWhat plans?”
    â€œTo take over the world.”
    My wits leaked right out of my head and scampered away into the darkness, leaving the slowest ones. “Hoo. So it’s like that. He have a chance?”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œMmm-mmm.”
    That explanatory comment was from the tall figure in the corner of the cell, just barely visible as an outline against the paler stone wall, who until then hadn’t spoken.
    By then I could just make out the others’ silhouettes, and details: Christoph’s blond head (hair shaggy and overlong); Puddlenose’s white shirt (tattered); and Rel’s looming shape, there in the corner.
    â€œWhat happened to you?” I asked.
    â€œWell, we’d met up by accident and decided to travel together. So we were funking along down south — or is it north of here? West? Anyhoo, we’d just come out of a strange country none of us had ever seen before. Weird lingo — sounded backwards, kinda.” Puddlenose was obviously trying to be cheery. “Anyhow, this gang appears in the road before us and tries to put the grab on us. Rel took out half of ’em and Christoph and I did our best with one or two of the others before they got the drop on us.”
    â€œLike it was a test,” Christoph added.
    â€œWas.” The single word was from Rel.
    â€œThink so?” Puddlenose said, almost absently, and I knew whatever they talked about in this miserable place, it wasn’t the circumstances that had led to their being imprisoned. “You’re probably right. Anyway, despite my head feeling like melted rock and my vision being flooey we certainly got the welcome treatment, especially me and Rel. He — ”
    â€œWhat is his name, anyway?”
    â€œThat’s what I can’t remember! I know I saw him back in the bad old days with Uncle Doumei — before Shnit had him murdered — but I was such a little kid — not that he was that much older, then. He was probably my age. Anyway, back to our being grabbed and hauled here. We were only there long enough for us to hear his plan an’ give him some lip. “
    â€œHe doesn’t tell anyone his name until they join,” Christoph said. “Guess he doesn’t want it sullied by the lips of stupids. No one down here knows it — and none of the ones who’ve died knew it either.”
    â€œDied,” I whispered, my guts tightening.
    â€œHaven’t been many,” Christoph murmured softly. He added,