...And she would, Steiffa promised herself. After her escape. And taking Bala with her. And she'd find him, just as she'd promised Madame.

“Little girrrl.” said the thief, her painted face gigantic, and something…more perfuming her breath, along with the onions she ate for dinner.

She wore an acrobat’s little costume, its silver threads flashing in the torchlight. Only boys and men lingered behind her. A pair of those soldiers, too, who wore the red: snickering over the thief.  All eyes only watching her, bending at the waist before the rat abed in her cage.

“Remember, little girrrl. You’ll have t’tell us…when you are hungry.”