Crown Of Ice

Chapter 2 | Slave

Mystvon was beautiful. It was a city made of colour and smooth sandstone and of spices and carpet markets. The Faynari river cleaved the city into two, three stone bridges connecting the two sides. How far it went, Soleil didn't know and she didn't guess. She'd never see the end of it till she was shackle bound.

     They walked across the market, the road smooth and clean. The mighty noon sun was hot against her cool skin. Jun hissed every time she took a step, having been cut by a sharp rock the previous evening. To add to her misery were the painful red blisters. Soleil, on the other hand, had stopped bothering about her feet altogether.

All she was bothered about was a chance to run away. And if she got it, she'd take Jun with her.

And when they finally stepped into the city, all she wanted to do was to dig a hole for herself and be swallowed. The fact that her back was bare and dried blood painted parts of her hands and legs didn't humiliate her as much as the howls of people did.

     The people on the streets, men and women alike howled and cheered for their Lord for bringing new labour, new land under their name. Men groped the slaves in the wrong places, threw obscene gestures at them, and abused each and everyone verbally to the point Soleil felt sick to her stomach.

     Slaves were worse than livestock here. They were nothing.

     The city's beauty stripped itself and laid bare in front of her, ugly and disgusting to the core.

If it were up to her, she'd kill herself right this instant before she walked past the massive iron gates of the Izria House and sealed her fate. She considered daring the soldiers into lashing her again, this time enough to kill her. She'd throw a tantrum and cuss at their gods-damned Lord, throw profanities at their people, try to run.

But then, she beheld Jun in front of her and her anger dissipated into ice and she steeled her heart.

     Jun needed her. In a place like this, they'd devour her in an instant if Soleil wasn't there. She knew she wouldn't be able to protect Jun from everything, but she'd try her best.

     Jun was alone. The past week when the guards slept and the night dimmed into silence, Jun would whisper memories of her past. She told her about her big palatial house that was destroyed in Erak and how her parents were slain at sight, right in front of the child. Every night, she cried in Soleil's embrace and the latter held her with glassy eyes.

     Thankfully, Jun didn't ask Soleil's story, or who she was before the siege of Erak. At this point, despite her curiosity, Soleil herself didn't wish to know about herself.

     Once done with being paraded as a new commodity brought to the city, the soldiers led the slaves down a road that curled around the river bank palace and led to the House of Slaves.

     The Red Palace—home to Darius Harmond II—was huge, built entirely of red sandstone and had intricate pillars, carved stone domes and tall minarets. The soldiers spoke of the riches that adorned the halls of the palace, the cool white marble and the water pools filled with lotuses and wild lilies.

     The slaves weren't allowed inside the castle unless the Darius Harmond's Hand bought them and placed them under the palace staff.

     The Izria House, another domed structure made of similar sandstone towered over them as they walked beyond the massive and heavily guarded iron gates. It had three stories, a garden that went around it and. . . no windows. Just doors. No one was in the garden either.

     Breath tightened in her collared throat as she crossed the wooden threshold of the double door that led them into a massive hall. It had multiple corridors attached to it, and a balcony that over looked the hall. The balcony was the only place with huge windows that poured in the noon sunlight inside the hall.