Tao of the Broken

Prologue

            “Her name is Sorrel if that’s of any use to you.  I don’t know what difference it could make, she’s not very useful.  I want to get something for the trouble of bringing her all the way here.  It’s not an easy journey you know, for someone of my seasons.  I suppose you don’t need my story, I’m rambling.  Let’s just get down to the business of it, what will she make me?”  The woman was dark skinned and seemed prematurely wrinkled, likely from long hours under the hot sun.  She raised her eyebrows hopefully as she grabbed the shoulder of a small child and shoved her forward.

            The girl wore a long cloak with a hood pulled closely over her head, she seemed to sink into it.  The woman grabbed the top of the hood and pulled it back harshly, causing the girl to stumble a few steps backward before clumsily landing on her rear end.  She kept her head down as she stood, dark messy hair falling around her face like a mask.

            “Stand up girl, and look at the man!  At least make yourself useful for once in your life and get me a good price!  I’ve fed you for years with no reward, I want some return!”  The woman’s hopeful expression was quickly turning into a spiteful look.  Her eyes seemed to darken as she focused her attention on the child, she barely noticed when the man stood and moved around his desk.

            The man had eyes only for the child as he slowly rolled the sleeves of a deep blue shirt up to his elbows.  He cleared his throat and the woman looked at him, her eyes losing their fire slightly.  “Why is she here?”

            “What do you mean?  You know your business better than I, she’s here to be sold!”  The woman responded, growing slightly apprehensive.  She wondered if her journey would be in vain.  If he wouldn’t take the child would she just have to leave the girl somewhere, perhaps kill her?  She certainly couldn’t return to her husband with the brat, she worried returning to him herself if she didn’t make some profit from this trip.

            The man watched the woman as emotions played over her face.  She was like a book with a weathered spine whose pages fell out and were carelessly put back inside.  He could catch small pieces of information only to read the next page and have it be a different jumble of words with little meaning to the previous page.  He could tell she was worried, but he knew it wasn’t for this child, it was for whatever coin he would deem the girl worth.  What was she worth?

            He shifted his gaze slowly to the girl.  She huddled in her dirty, road worn cloak and kept her face hidden beneath her greasy hair.  He sighed as he noted the difference between this child and the woman.  The woman had certainly faired better on their journey to meet him.  She had bathed and ridden at least part of the way, for her cloak bore very little dirt along its hem.

            “Would you like me to remove the cloak?  You can’t even see what you’re buying.”  The woman was trying to make her voice strong and reassuring, the man could see through it like a pane of glass.

            Before he could respond the woman once again grabbed the girl’s cloak and in one swift upward jerk the girl was shaken loose and fell to her knees completely naked.  She let out a strangled sob before wrapping her arms around her nakedness and digging her chin even further into her chest.

            The man sighed once more, running a calloused hand over his tired eyes, “Good grief woman, you said you fed this girl.  She’s scrawny and malnourished, I’ll have no use for her as she is.  You should have known I’ll make very little on a sale of a child who can’t even stand on her own two feet and look a man in the eye.”  He glanced at the girl as she shifted her weight slightly at his words.  She still wouldn’t look at him.