The last visitor's day ended with an astonishing three new theows. One couple and a man who seemed to have come just to be confrontational, like he dared them to attack him. He lasted about three hours before he tried to wrestle one of the churls and ended up being escorted out to the bus. When the visitors weren't looking anymore, he was chained and taken back to the crew area and placed in the jougs. One of the churls gave him a helmet and proclaimed that he had captured a Viking. All the rest of them cheered. The man seemed to still think it was a game, a play, so he continued to play his role for several hours, until he realized that no one would give him any food. Then the demands started to come, as they usually did. Audrey had heard most of them by now, but she had to pretend to ignore him like everyone else did.
The couple was held back the traditional way, the next day. It seemed it was Morcefres that had decided that these two needed to be held back, they kept looking at him even when the Lady proclaimed them theows.
Just three days later, they packed up the burh and started walking back to the train. Audrey had gotten used to this by now, they had already moved three times on this tour. But now she understood why the Lady insisted that Audrey stayed in the train car with the animals. It was because the other theows would start talking about the real world in their train car, and Audrey wasn't supposed to remember any of that. She sometimes envied the other theows, they got to sit. She stumbled from one end to the other, checking on the animals and trying to stay upright. Previously, she had just sat in one of the animal pens, stroking the goat or some chickens. This time, she sneaked up to the door and heard parts of the conversation in the other carriages.
"How can they get away with this for so long?"
"They have years of practice. Like I said, I've been here since the 70's and have seen it all. They know how far away from society they can set up and they do thorough research to know who won't be missed."
"But surely we will be missed."
"Do you have any family that will miss you?"
"No, but surely some of the others will."
"No. The Lady knows who she can take without being missed. This train is untraceable, and no one has ever found the castle and lived to tell the tale."
Audrey didn't need to hear anything more. The second voice was Leann, and the first voice had to be one of the new theows. She wondered what else they were saying. She couldn't ask such a question. Not even the other theows could know that she now remembered her previous life. Any of them might tell the Lady about it to get themselves out of trouble and that may cause Audrey to be watched more closely again. She didn't want to risk that.
For the first time, Audrey also dared to try and listen in on the train carriage in front of hers, the one the Lady occupied. She couldn't hear much, over the noise of the train, but it sounded like the Lady and Morcefres had several conversations alone in the back, just outside where Audrey sat to listen.
One conversation stood out to her.
"It becomes more and more risky to do these tours, Morcefres."
"Yes, but how else are we going to find new theows?"
"We must at least halt for now. Too many people seemed to find us despite changing the name and location each time. Few of them have linked us to the disappearances, but that's a logical next step. Especially now that you insisted on taking that couple."
"It was a calculated risk, but they would be too dangerous to let go again."
"I heard your argument about that, but it also means yet another place we can't go back to. The places we can go to safely are growing thin. We need to start looking for more. Perhaps somewhere we don't need the train to get to."
"Elfgifu, you know that's going to…"
"Need I remind you that this is my show? I always welcome your input, and Edmund's but in the end, I need to decide what is best for the Bamburgh project's survival. And I say we need to lay low for some time, unless we want to draw attention to ourselves."
"As you say, my Lady," Morcefres said, but Audrey could hear that he wasn't happy. He probably feared he would miss out on new people to whip or abuse. But it also sounded like he was the one who had chosen to take the latest couple. They hadn't been allowed to sit in the train car with the others either. Audrey didn't know where they were, but it probably wasn't much better than the train car.
Audrey sat quietly until she was sure they weren't near her side of the train anymore. Then she stood up for another round with the animals. It was almost time to give them more water. She thought about what she had just overheard. It sounded like they wouldn't go back out on tour for some time. Was that a good thing, or a bad thing? At least it meant that if Nora was able to find someone to take the place down, everyone would be there. But she also feared that the lack of new people to torment would drive them to even higher levels of cruelty. Bored people with power over other people could find ways to entertain themselves that wouldn't be at all pleasant for the people at the bottom.