She was a prostitute, the daughter of a prostitute and the granddaughter of a small Goharan merchant exiled to Mythor for debt. She'd never known her grandfather, but knew the kind of man he'd been and what had happened to him.
«He got a shop back, and thought he'd do good for my mother and her brothers. Then there was a fight in the shop. A Goharan soldier got hurt. The judge said he was being kind when he took the shop away. Kind! Goharan kindness!» Rhodina spat on the sand at the thought.
Her grandfather never recovered from this new blow to his pride, his hopes, and his finances. His sons had to leave school and become common laborers. His daughter ended up a prostitute. Rhodina didn't know who her father was, other than that he must have been a near-giant.
«Mother was little. I was a big baby. She nearly died when I was born, and had to get work as a maid in a trader's house. A Mythoran. Lived seven years, and did good for me too.»
Rhodina's mother didn't do well enough for her daughter to keep the girl off the streets when she turned fourteen. She did leave her with a small amount of money and a vast hatred of Gohar, Goharans, and Goharan rule over Mythor.
«Don't say Mythorans always sweet and good,» she said wryly. «I no damn fool. But half our trouble is Goharans or fights with the bastards.»
«That's how you picked up some of your damage?» asked Blade.
She nodded. She'd been big for her age, so she was able to start dealing with the higher-paying customers that much sooner. She hadn't known what she was getting into at first, but she soon learned. She didn't go into details about the learning, and Blade didn't ask. Obviously there were more than a few sadists among the Goharan officers and nobles.
While recovering from one beating, she'd been cared for by a retired prostitute whose husband had been involved in the Mythoran conspiracy against Gohar. One night he'd simply disappeared, but after being interrogated, raped, and beaten, his wife was released. She'd promptly taken her husband's place among the rebels, and a few months later found herself nursing Rhodina. Even at seventeen Rhodina didn't need much persuasion to join the rebels.
For three years, Rhodina was one of the most trusted messengers for the Mythoran rebels. She went all over the city and its surrounding territory, even into the farming country far inland, along the frontier with the Maghri. Then she was arrested, fortunately on a mistaken charge of theft which had nothing to do with her work for the rebels. Apart from the routine rape and beating, she wasn't even interrogated. But she'd been arrested three times before, so as a four-time criminal she was sent to Shell Island.
«I was glad they didn't talk about the rebels,» she said. «If they started that, I'd be finished, one way or another. But Shell Island-not much better. You go just as sure here, even if slower.»
This was particularly true for women. There was only one woman for every four men among the prisoners on the island. Most of the women were quickly taken over by one of the stronger bands of prisoners, and rented out to the rest of the men. A few women found a single strong protector, and until he died or was murdered they enjoyed a halfway decent life. Those who refused either fate died quickly, from mass rape, beatings, or starvation.
«Don't know which would have happened to me,» said Rhodina. «One of them for sure. Somehow, I got to Shell Island wanting to be-well, not serving men any more. So I wouldn't go to any of the gangs.»
Fortunately she found a protector almost at once, a man she described as «big enough to take two regular men and knock 'em together.» In spite of his immense strength and vitality, he was as alone and even more despised than she was. This drew them together at first, and afterward she found that he was also kind to her.
«Don't know if he's like that to everybody. Prob'ly not. But woman who's alone like he is-she's different. I couldn't have done better.»
Rhodina's protector used his strength and skill in diving to bring in so much shell that he was able to bribe the guards into letting them live alone in this hut by the shore. The guards of Shell Island could be bribed into almost anything, except giving a prisoner a weapon or letting him escape. He'd gone out on a trip to a particularly dangerous reef ten days ago, and she hadn't heard anything from him or even about him since.
«Too damned long, he's gone,» she said. «And too damned much to happen to him. Not just the snakes and fish, but enemies he's got too.» So she hadn't been thinking too clearly or feeling too kindly toward the world when she found Blade asleep on the beach.
«All forgiven?» she asked, kissing him. It was a sisterly kiss, but holding the promise of something more if the right time ever came.
«All forgiven,» said Blade. «Now, is there anything for dinner? I'm afraid I'm hungry.»
Rhodina sighed. «'Fraid you'll just have to stay hungry. I was going to swim out-place I call Fishmonger's Reef, 'cause you can always get some fish there. But I found you, and-«
«All right, all right. It's my own fault that I'm going to bed hungry. No harm done, and I can help you fish tomorrow.»
«Thank you.»
By now it was getting dark. In spite of all the hours he'd slept under the influence of the drug, Blade found he was ready to sleep some more. He gave the newly repaired roof a final inspection, then said good night to Rhodina and lay down on the opposite side of the hut from her.
He was glad Rhodina hadn't asked for details of his crimes and sentence to Shell Island. Apparently his being on the island at all was in his favor, and his treatment of her was enough to make him trustworthy. That was good. He didn't want to have to tell her any elaborate lies, not when sooner or later he'd want to tell her the truth.
He'd want to do more than that, eventually. He'd want to ask her to escape with him and lead him to the rebels in Mythor. He still wanted to do his best for Harkrat and Elyana.
Blade was awake well before dawn, and found the wind blowing so hard he wondered if it would be safe to enter the water. The waves on the shore rumbled and boomed, and out on the reef they threw spray high in the air.
Rhodina came out of the shelter, to stand naked in the wind and look over Blade's shoulder. She laughed. «This wind's a teaser. Goes down by daylight, and water's all right by noon.»
She was right. By noon the wind was dead and the waves were dying. Rhodina brought out the fishing gear-a spear, two lines with hooks, a sack of bait, bone knives, knee and elbow pads for protection against the coral, and a deflated fish bladder.
«For holding up the fish, not us,» she said. «You can swim good?»
«See if I'm still with you when we get to the reef.»
They stripped off their clothes and plunged into the water.
Blade would have been ahead of Rhodina if he'd known the water better. They were neck and neck when they finally climbed out onto a ledge of dead coral. At low tide it was only a foot below the surface. A few yards away, the waves rolling in from deeper water splashed against the reef.
They spent the whole day there, dropping the baited hooks into the water, then standing by with the spear and knives to finish off anything which took the bait. They pulled in five fish, one of them weighing nearly twenty pounds. Rhodina seemed not to notice that all five were bleeding rather freely into the water.
«What about the sharks?»
«Oh, them. Don't come inside the reef on this tide. No way in for the big fish.»
Blade couldn't help remembering that people had been killed by sharks no more than four feet long, but decided there was no point in mentioning it. Also, he was more than hungry enough to risk a few sharks.