Silver Skeletons: Book 3 The Rose Tree Chronicles

Chapter Nineteen: What Happened to Garnet

"Thieving of a Slave will be dealt with in the same manner as the thieving of any other valuable property."

After her discussion with Polaris, Rein had visited Nadia at Aimonbay Estate and convinced her not to do anything foolish to free Garnet from Helvetica's pottery clerk. It took several weeks for Rein to feel certain that Nadia would behave before she came up with a plan to free Garnet. She assured Nadia that her plan would work and then left to search for the house in which Garnet served.

It took almost another month for Rein to find the potter's dwelling since Helvetica was a sizeable town and finding this clerk's tiny home required much investigative work. Finally, on the evening of Crest 35, Rein found the house in which Garnet was being kept. This house in particular was a run-down old place that smelled of dead livestock and looked as though it would crumble at the slightest gust of wind. The walls exhibited years of termite damage and the roof displayed patchwork to plug up leaks. Rein expected it to be a similar disaster on the inside as well.

In contrast to the rest of the house, the surrounding plant-life appeared to have had recent care, which Rein knew to be Garnet's work. The lawn was a vibrant green and the bright-colored flowers were freshly bloomed despite the autumn season. When Rein peeked through a window, it became clear to her that Clerk Dane had made Garnet work hard for her well-being as the dwelling appeared more upper middle-class than the lower-class home it showed itself to be from the outside. Of course, it probably looked nothing like this long before he bought Garnet. If Dane wasn't present, one might feel comfortable when visiting this abode.

Rein wished that she knew how much Dane had purchased Garnet for as it was crucial to her plan. Unfortunately, she would have to guess as Nadia hadn't a clue and as far as Rein was aware, there was really no way for her to find out. Rein was certain of one thing, however: it couldn't have been for much since Dane was a lower-class citizen and wouldn't have been able to afford an expensive price.

While Rein patiently waited for Dane to head to bed, she studied the customs of his house. It was clear that poor Garnet would give anything to be back in the marquis's castle as the clerk treated her ten times worse than the marquis had. She was not used to such treatment. The only belongings she owned were the clothes on her back since Dane had sold the rest of her possessions. Her lovely lavender outfit was now torn, dirty, and sun-bleached. The green streaks in her hair were ragged and musty and her dark skin was dry, cracked, cut, and bruised. Rein learned that Dane was never happy with Garnet's work and didn't mind letting her know. He would make her repeat chores multiple times until he would finally say something on the lines of, "I'm sick of watching you dust it!" or, "I'm tired of hearing you scrub it!"

When dawn turned to dusk, Dane had his own way of saying goodnight: "Go to bed, I'm sick of looking at you!"

"Yes, Master," Garnet would say, clearly fighting to suppress the joy of finally leaving her master's presence.

Unfortunately, Rein couldn't speak to Garnet as it appeared she slept in the basement where there were no windows. Instead she had to watch Dane smoke a pipe for another hour until he finally went to bed himself. That's when Rein went to work. As much as she swore to Nadia that her plan would prove successful, she in fact didn't have very much faith in it. However, even Polaris couldn't come up with anything better. So, Rein found a sheet of parchment, dipped her hand into an inkwell and wrote Dane a short message for him to wake up to the next morning:

You'll receive a dawn if you set Garnet free.

Two thousand dollars. Rein still had to figure out how she was going to come up with a dawn, or if she was going to pay Dane at all, but first she needed to see if Dane would believe the note and if so, if it would inspire Dane to set Garnet free.