Silver Skeletons: Book 3 The Rose Tree Chronicles

Chapter Seven: The Annual Slave Arena

"Slaves may not look into the eyes of Royalty or Nobility, however their eyes must be visible. If this law is at all violated, the Slave will undergo severe physical punishment and then it will either be executed or assigned in to the following Annual Slave Arena. The owner may or may not be informed and will not be reimbursed for the Slave's value."

The next day, Nadia was thought to be well enough to return to work. She was silent throughout her chores and avoided eye-contact with most everyone. Almost half of the residents of Aimonbay Estate had been involved in the construction in some way at some point, so almost half of the residents of Aimonbay were upset with Nadia for her apparent wanton debauchery of two nights ago, and felt that her punishment hadn't been harsh enough to deliver justice. Her actions had made it necessary for everyone to repeat their back-breaking labor from the very beginning so to help restore the construction, and now the completion date had been significantly delayed into the distant future. The situation was upsetting enough for some of the slaves to even say something about it to Nadia; for instance, while she scrubbed the floors of the foyer early that morning.

"You do realize that Master was easy on you with that whipping, right?" Nadia pretended not to hear her fellow slave. "And that being the master's favorite makes you the enemy of everyone else at Aimonbay? Better not get too close to Garnet and Mauro 'cause they're gonna drop you like a basket of rotten apples when they finally gain some sense."

The slave tossed a dirty rag into Nadia's bucket of soapy water and then stormed off. Nadia sneered at her as she turned a corner, then left the opposite direction to fetch a new bucket. How could these people think that she was the evil when they were the ones helping to build a cage for seapeople? This thought infuriated her possibly more than her actions infuriated them.

Nadia was relieved to finally complete her work early that evening, despite numerous attempts from her fellow slaves to slow her down, and she decided that the best way to spend the rest of her day was to find her golden ball like Rein had suggested. On her way to the coast, she trekked on foot through the streets of Helvetica with a crimson scarf covering her face, just as the Slave Law mandated. She was alone with only her thoughts and dreams as she ignored the jumbled voices and boisterous daily activity around her. Eventually, there was one declaration that she couldn't help but overhear.

"His Royal Majesty, King Darren of the Kingdom of Noelle has declared war upon the Kingdom of Saíd! All able-bodied men are to sign up to defend their country!"

Nadia had only lived in Noelle for a little over half a month and suddenly they were going to war? She scanned the area about her and failed to find anyone who appeared surprised, curious, or concerned. Was this common? She listened for a reason as to why there would be a war, but she didn't get one. The man simply repeated his announcement several times in different words. Nadia proceeded to walk in thought and attempted to come up with possible motives for why the king would feel a need to go to war at that time, but she failed to come up with anything that made sense to her. At some point, Nadia's speculations were interrupted once more as she passed a pastry shop where her eye caught sight of a piece of parchment posted on the wall.

"Reward! Three Dawns! Nadia!"

It continued further with a description of Nadia and instructions to turn her in to law enforcement if and when she was found. Nadia glanced about nervously, afraid that someone may have either recognized her or felt suspicious of her possibly visible reaction to the poster. In an effort to remain unnoticed, Nadia pulled her scarf closer to her face and hurried away from the shop. From here on, she endeavored to avoid any large crowds as she power-walked the rest of the way to the coast. She didn't want to be taken to law enforcement; she most certainly didn't want to be taken to the palace.