The Forgotten Light

29. Fairlight

The next day looked to be an interesting one. Not at all in a good way, of course. As always, after breakfast they were assigned chores to do. Invicta took the bigger group to the city, where the prisoners were to work in bakeries, stores, factories or on the streets. A smaller number were sent to the farm and gardens, while she...

"Today you serve the King's guests at the table. Now go carry the Prince's breakfast." The white-haired Invicta pushed her out of the passage and gave orders to the next.

In the chamber, Darksen shoved an intimidating red cloth into her hands. The Prince seemed as displeased as she was, but his reason was certainly not the blood-red dress.

"Wear it for tonight. Your job will be just to stand aside, look pretty and not let the guests' throats dry up. And you are to behave yourself. Go help in the kitchen."

So that day she was serving a large table in the royal dining room, which was the huge and probably also the most beautiful room in the entire castle. Two of the four walls were glass, like the one in the Prince's bathroom. One showed the north and the other the west. In the middle of the shiny white floor stood a long table, at which sixteen Invicta Beings had been sitting for several hours already. Above them hung a sizable golden chandelier that looked like a tree crown growing from the ceiling, and on its metal branches instead of leaves it had hundreds of small, glowing pebbles. Some of them shone brighter, others dimmer, making the effect even more stunning. In places, all sorts of plants were placed in the corners - some with huge leaves, others grassy or rumping up along the columns. Against the black wall stood grayish sofas, so far unoccupied by anyone, in front of them small glass tables. Invicta didn't value man-made paintings, so they probably got rid of them, while they themselves weren't artistic souls, so the walls were empty, making the rooms seem even larger.

Fairlight was standing in a corner right next to a pot with a twisted small tree, set against a glass wall overlooking the nearest castle tower and the nearest skyscrapers of the city, both old and new, rising out of the ground a few miles from the cliff on which the castle stood. Had the weather been better, she would have been able to see the wall surrounding San Diego as well, but storm clouds enfolded the city, pouring down torrential rain and occasionally flashing a lightning bolt.

She was unable to focus on what she should have been doing, which was serving the royal guests who had flown in from South America that day. The blood-red strapless dress that the Prince had ordered her to wear was tickling her wherever the material made contact with her skin, and in addition, the tie at the back of the ankle-length gown was irritating her sore back. Amaris wasn't happy about it, but there was no other way to keep the dress from falling off Fairlight.

"You are too skinny," the woman muttered again and again under her breath.

"I think I would rather walk around naked than parade around in that awful color," the girl stated with disgust.

Then Amaris complained about her tangled hair. "The Prince should give you either a comb or at least a shaver, for God's sake." She tried to get out the broken comb that was tangled in her hair.

"Ouch!"

Not counting the awful dress whose color drew the attention of the Beings, she was also burdened by the crystal decanter she held. When she noticed that someone's glass was empty, she would approach as quickly and quietly as she could to refill it with water. She didn't like the fact that she had to serve the Beings and bend over them, especially when they gestured violently with their hands, disregarding her or the heavy decanter. She would have loved to pour the contents of the vessel over their heads, but she knew she would have paid for it with death faster than she could blink. Now that the verdict was upon her, she didn't want to die. She may have been indifferent to everything before, but now? After she found the map in the Prince's chamber, too many questions occupied her mind. She wanted to know what was happening to the camps, whether they were really being destroyed, and whether, if she managed to escape from here, she would have a home to return to. She even wanted to know the secret of the Invicta, who dyed his hair black, even though it was already as dark as the deepest abyss where light never reaches.