by Kim Fedyk
* * *
Here it comes, Arleth thought with dismay. It was early evening and Arleth was standing in Bella’s private dining chamber waiting for the woman to eat her dinner. In walked Kiran who looked over at Arleth, shot her a smile of pure malice and practically skipped over to his mother. Bella, seeing her son, smiled up at him from her seat.
“Good evening mother, I have had the most wonderful day.”
“That’s great dear,” said Bella gesturing for Kiran to bend over to her so she could kiss him on the cheek. This having been completed, Kiran sat down on a chair beside his mother.
“You will never guess what I caught her doing today when she was supposed to be outside your bath chamber,” said Kiran in a delighted voice gesturing in Arleth’s direction.
“What was she doing Kir-Kir?” Said Bella glancing over at Arleth with disgust. But Kiran didn’t answer right away, he took his time getting comfortable on his seat and stretching. He looked over at Arleth again and smiled. He loved making her suffer and he wanted to drag out this particular pleasure as long as possible.
“What was she doing?” Bella repeated getting impatient.
“Well... I was walking around the back of the house today and a wounded bird caught my eye. I decided to go and step on it but as I got closer I saw that the door to the stable was open. I thought to myself what is the door to the stable doing being open? I knew that all the horses were supposed to be fed earlier in the morning and there should be no one there. So being the clever boy that I am I instantly realized that one of our servants was shirking their responsibilities. When I looked in the stable I saw that girl sitting on a bucket. She had probably been there the whole time you were in the bath and she was crying! Ha! Being a responsible person I hit her with a rod a few times but that is not nearly enough punishment for one such as her who is so negligent in her duties. What if someone had tried to walk in on you on your bath mother? Or what if you had needed something and no one was there to get it for you?”
“Yes you are very right my son. This girl is a useless, lazy twit. She needs to be taught a lesson.” Bella’s was so angry that her face had started to turn a light pink, a hard feat considering how thick her white powder was. She was literally shaking with rage. Bella stood up, her dinner forgotten for the moment.
“COME HERE!” She yelled at Arleth. This was perhaps the last thing she wanted to do, but she rushed over to Bella anyways.
“You are an ungrateful, selfish brat,” Bella shrieked slapping her across the face with such force that Arleth gasped and fell to the ground. Arleth could feel the tears coming and she cupped her hand to her throbbing cheek.
“GET UP!” Arleth scrambled to her feet as she fought back the tears. There was no way Kiran would get the pleasure of seeing her cry for the second time in one day.
“I keep you in this house, I give you food and I let you look at me every day, and this is the service I get? You can’t even wait at the door? You disgust me so much I can’t even look at you! Kiran do something with her.”
“Gladly mother,” Kiran replied with a glimmer in his eye. He stepped in front of Arleth so he could see the expression on her face and he punched her hard in the stomach. Arleth grunted but didn’t let herself cry out. She kept as straight a face as possible. Kiran was not satisfied, so he punched her again, this time harder. Arleth felt the air knocked out of her and she felt to the ground with a thud. She curled herself up on the ground and grabbed her stomach. Kiran, still not satisfied kicked her a few times. Arleth hugged herself and put her hands over her head to protect it from his foot.
“That’s good Kiran, take her outside and let her spend the night in the cold. Inform Chuck that she is to get no dinner tonight and no food at all tomorrow. See if that doesn’t teach her a lesson.”
Kiran grabbed Arleth’s arm and hauled her to her feet. Arleth stumbled along beside him, aching everywhere. Dark bruises had formed on her shins from earlier and every step she took was painful. Her face felt like it was swollen already and she knew her stomach would hurt her for a few days. Kiran dragged her through the halls as violently as he could manage and pushed her down the front stairs. Once outside, Kiran dragged her to a large wire cage in the front of the property he unlocked the door with a key he carried around his neck and pushed her inside.
“Have fun,” Kiran said with a sneer. “Let’s see what kind of night you will have in nothing but that dress when the sun goes down.” I will be thinking of you shivering in the cold with pleasure when I am tucked up in my warm bed tonight.”
With that he locked the door and pranced away, greatly pleased with himself. With pain, Arleth sat up and leaned against the side of the cage. Every part of her body was throbbing. Gingerly she put her hand to the side of her face and winced. Her cheek was swollen and as she looked at her hand she noticed that her cut lip had re-opened and was bleeding again. It didn’t feel like any of her ribs were broken, but they were tender just the same. She leaned over to look at her shins and the pain lanced up her stomach. Yes she thought, her stomach would be sore for a long time. Her shins were a nasty shade of purple and were covered in sand from where she had been thrown on the cage floor. Carefully she wiped them clean and looked down at her right ankle. That was the reason she couldn’t escape. Around her ankle was a metal band about one inch thick: a Grapel, the customary escape-prevention tool that all slaves on Tocarra wore. If she left the estate grounds, or tried to break it, a loud alarm would go off, alerting everyone to her effort. As if that wasn't enough, the Grapel would also emit a beam of red light skyward that would tell everyone where she was.
She had definitely thought of escape. She could probably break the Grapel and leave it on the ground. They would hear the alarm and come running to the beam of light emitted from the device, but she wouldn’t be there. But she knew that the device would sound the alarm and light up as soon as she started to break it. She would likely not have the time to break it before someone had already found her. Even if she did manage to get away without being caught, Sonohan was in the middle of the Chaz desert and beyond that was the Heat Band. There were no other towns in the desert and it would take days to reach the Heat Band; that is assuming she even travelled in the right direction. The Heat Band itself was 20 miles wide and impossible to traverse without a guide. Constant sand storms, flowing molten rivers and scorching heat would kill anyone who didn’t know the correct path to follow.
She started to shiver, the sun had gone down and it had become cold. Out here in the desert, the temperature could go near freezing at night and dressed in nothing but a thin dress, Arleth knew she was in for a cold night. Her skin broke out in goose bumps. Painfully she slipped her arms inside her dress and pulled up her legs closer to her stomach so she could stretch the dress out to cover them. She wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged herself.
She let her thoughts wander, thinking of Flora, Neve and her lost childhood. Shivering and throbbing with pain, she finally fell asleep.
* * *
In a distant world, far away from Arleth and her suffering, a dark figure backed into the shadowy recesses of the hall. He struggled to control his rapid breathing, and put a hand on his chest to steady his heartbeat. He was excited; excited and anxious. Even though he was cloaked with a concealing spells, he was still terrified of being discovered. The spell he knew, would only protect him from a magician in the castle being able to sense his presence, but it would do nothing if someone were to walk by and see him. Involuntarily, he shuddered. He could only begin to imagine what would be done to him if he were caught, especially if he were to be discovered now, deep in the King’s private quarters. There could be no explaining why he was there, no errands he could say he had been running. No one but Rogan was allowed this far into the King’s quarters. No, although he had been successfully spying on the King for close to three years, if he were caught now it would be over - he would be over. He moved farther into the shadows, pressing his back against the cold s
tone wall.
Hidden in the shadows, he scanned the hall left and right, there were no signs of movement, no sounds at all. Rogan and the King had left, engaged in business elsewhere, their secret meeting concluded. The man felt his heartbeat slow and quietly let out the breath he didn’t know he had been holding. Calming down a little, his anxiety gave way once again to excitement. He almost couldn’t believe what he had overheard. His master would be so pleased with this information. It could even change the course of the war he thought, startling himself with this important realization. When he thought about it this way he was quite proud of himself. He had seen the look on Rogan’s face when he whispered to the King and saw the King’s look of surprise. When the two had instantly hurried off in the direction of the King’s private chambers, the man had been instantly intrigued. He had taken the dull green pill containing the concealing spell (he made sure he always had a couple on him for just such important occasions) and had snuck off after them.
Behind the closed door, believing themselves to be alone, Rogan had told the King what he had discovered. The King was going to be leaving Iridian Castle in a week’s time and heading to some distant land that the spy hadn’t heard of. There was some “official story” as Rogan put it that the reason for the visit was some stones and something about a family history. But the man wasn’t interested in the official story and he knew his master wouldn’t be either. The real story, the real reason the King was leaving was what was important.
The man thought about his next course of action. He had to tell his master about the news and quickly if anything was going to be done. With a thousand thoughts running through his head, the man crept quickly down the passageways back to his room. The concealing spell would wear off soon and he didn’t want to still be here when it did. He was in a good mood, thinking that finally after so many years, things might finally turn out right.
Chapter 3
The messenger came early the next morning. Through the bars of her cage Arleth saw him approach the mansion. He was dressed in black and carried an unfamiliar dark blue standard with a picture of a silver crystal in the middle. He was riding an animal that Arleth had never seen before. The beast was pitch black and looked like a horse except that it had six legs and two tusks. For an instant, the messenger looked in Arleth’s direction and this gave Arleth a chance to see his face clearly. The dark features and hard expression told Arleth that he was no ordinary messenger carrying a request from one of Bella’s suitors. In fact, she thought, looking again at the animal he was riding, he might not even be from this world! She was instantly intrigued. Arleth watched him approach the front door, be bowed in by a host of servants and disappear into the house. She wished that Kiran would let her out soon so she could find out what the messenger had to say. But she knew that was probably not going to happen.
Arleth was exhausted. She had slept fitfully through the night, waking up several times, shivering from the cold. Her face was still throbbing, her stomach hurt when she breathed in deeply and her shins were a deep shade of purple. With the sun out again, Arleth could feel the heat begin to return to her body. At least for now she thought, being in the cage wasn’t so bad. It was already hot, but not unbearably so and with her body injured the way it was, she didn’t mind not having to follow Bella around everywhere.
But she did want to find out about the messenger and being stuck in this cage wasn’t going to get her any answers. She heaved a deep sigh, felt a shooting pain in her torso and instantly regretted it. Who could the messenger be? Maybe he was from some distant area on Tocarra and his lord wanted to trade for the Chaz Desert’s lynstones. Or maybe she thought, getting excited, he was from another world.
Arleth yawned. She was deeply intrigued by the messenger but she was also tired. She looked outside her cage and saw no sign of Kiran, or anyone for that matter. She would go to sleep until Kiran came. She wouldn’t find out anything about the messenger sitting here anyways and if he carried an important message, she could be sure that all the servants would be talking about it. She leaned against the bars of the cage and fell back asleep.
* * *
Arleth woke a few hours later to a persistent jabbing in her ribs. Sleepily she looked around and saw a dark shadow in front of her. Covering her eyes from the sun she peered up into Kiran’s chubby face. He had come into her cage to let her out and was poking her roughly with a stick.
“Wake up you!” He bellowed down at her, rapping her head repeatedly with the stick. His eyes briefly scanned her bruised legs and swollen face and a broad smile came to his face. “How you feeling?” He sneered at her, letting out a deep throated laugh. “I for one had a wonderful night; I had a hot bath and then reclined in my warm and cozy bed while I had my back massaged and ate candied figs.”
What a creep, Arleth thought to herself. Really, his greatest pleasure was making everyone around him suffer, and it wasn’t just limited to the servants. Just a few days ago, Arleth had seen Kiran in the yard through Bella’s bed chamber window. He had caught a red-backed lizard and Arleth had seen him pull out a pocket knife and slowly cut the lizard’s tail off. The sight had made her sick and she had quickly turned away, but she could only imagine what terrors he had inflicted on the poor creature.
Arleth stumbled to her feet and followed Kiran out of the cage. She had taken only a few steps when Kiran abruptly stopped and turned around, a sinister look on his face. He pulled a small pastry out of his pocket and wafted it in front of Arleth’s face.
“Hmmmm, smells good don’t you think? I almost forgot about this pastry here; I had so much breakfast that I was stuffed. But this looked so good I just had to take it with me.” He then proceeded to messily stuff it in his face.
“You’re not hungry are you?” He said, his voice thick with insincerity.
Arleth’s stomach grumbled, she hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning. She shook her head at him though; she could at least pretend that his torments had no effect on her.
“No? Well that’s good then, because this pastry is delicious.” With that he turned back around and continued leading Arleth to the mansion.
Arleth was very hungry, but she didn’t pay much attention to Kiran, for her curiosity had taken over. Now out of the cage, she thought it would only be a matter of time before she found out about the messenger. One of the servants would have overheard his conversation or even been in the room when he was delivering his message. If it was important, by now almost all of the household would know. The more she thought about it, the more the six-legged tusked horse-like creature interested her. Thinking back, she was certain that Ms. Witrany had never mentioned any animal like that like living on Tocarra and Arleth had definitely never seen it before. She felt certain that the animal and its rider were from another world.
But what was his message? She thought with a sense of disappointment that it could just be a suitor for Bella, even if he was from a different land. Bella’s self-promoting efforts stretched far and wide.
But Arleth just didn’t think that was the case. She remembered his face when he had momentarily glanced at her and she brought to mind his dark, hardened features. He looked like a dangerous man, a man not accustomed to delivering messages. No, she definitely didn’t think he carried an ordinary message.
As soon as Arleth stepped inside the mansion, she could see that her suspicions were correct; the whole place was a flurry of excited activity. Servants were bustling up and down the main stairs and through the front hall carrying bundles of laundry, saddle-bags filled with food and long lists written on sheets of parchment. Everywhere Arleth looked was hurried, purposeful activity. Who was the messenger? What was he doing here in Sonohan? Her thoughts were interrupted by Kiran’s harsh voice in her ear.
“Don’t just stand there! My mother is waiting for you in her bed chamber. You have already wasted enough of her time being in that cage.” Kiran gave her a shove down the hall and then turned and went back outside.
As she walke
d through the mansion to Bella’s bed chamber, Arleth caught snatches of conversation as servants hurried past her.
“.....Messengers to all the border towns....Bella wants seven new dresses made of the finest silk....start digging at dawn tomorrow morning....He’s coming in a week...”
Someone was coming in a week! And whoever they were they were pretty important to be occasioning all this frenzy. But aside from this, she couldn’t piece the few bits she heard into anything coherent. Since Arleth spent most days secluded with Bella in her chamber, she knew that she was unlikely to find out any more while Bella was awake. She made a mental note to talk to Chuck about it tonight after Bella had gone to sleep.
Arleth passed the remainder of the day in restless anticipation. The usually boring tasks of grooming Bella, bringing her food and sitting by her while she rested were made even more excruciating by her curiosity about the messenger. The minutes felt like hours and Arleth constantly looked at the great mahogany clock in the corner of the room, checking the passage of time. It seemed like weeks for both suns to finally set and it took all her effort not to tap her foot impatiently or sigh in frustration. Thus it was with tremendous relief that late at night, Bella finally went to sleep and Arleth was released from her duties.
After silently closing the door behind her, Arleth raced down the hall to the kitchen. She hoped Chuck would still be there; Bella had gone to sleep pretty late tonight and Chuck might have gone to sleep himself by this time. As she rounded the corner, she was delighted to see that there was light coming from the kitchen. Chuck must still be there!
Chuck smiled at her as she walked in, “Hi Arleth. Are you hungry?” He was clearing the dishes from the servants’ dinner and was putting the extra meat away in the freezer. Arleth looked longingly at the food,
