[ It's unfortunately true. As much as Silco was confident in some things, he also knew he would be incapable of truly fighting, with this whip around his ankle. It infuriated him, of course, the fact that he had been forced to be cowed so thoroughly. He had no choice in the matter.

For someone whose entire life has focused on being able to do whatever he wanted, it burned at his core, like a fire that was too hot, and threatened to boil over. His fingers drummed against the side of the cart, instead of lashing out. ]

They were perfectly happy to, when I was inconvenient to them. I would hardly count me out of the running for that. [ A smile, an attempt at a nicety, but it wasn't a pleasant one. None of Silco's smiles were ever as disarming as he pretended that they were. ]

At some point, they will have to take them off.