Slave Princess

Chapter Four: New Masters

The slave auction moved along quickly. The less attractive girls were sold first, leaving the most beautiful ones for later. After the poorer crowds had moved on, toward the end of the auction, the wealthy nobles would begin to arrive, driving the prices higher.

The three Lankanese girls had been separated again. Each grouped with a handful of other girls that were deemed relatively as attractive. Keelie was in the middle group, Leilelle a group behind her, and Ashonee was set as one of the last girls to be sold.

Ashonee looked around at the other girls. Some were stoic, like her, others let tears flow freely down their faces. Ashonee didn’t understand their hysterical behavior. They were only going to make things worse for themselves. Instead of crying, Ashonee was taking in everything with eyes far too wise for a girl her age. She wasn’t afraid, not any more. She was too busy thinking and planning, things that she’d always been good at; they were traits that would have made her an excellent queen.

By the time Keelie was brought forward a few of the lesser nobles had arrived. Just as the old woman had predicted, Keelie was sold to an older noble. Although Ashonee suspected that Keelie would be the bride of the boy the older man had at his side. The boy looked slightly younger than Keelie, but not by more than a year or so.

Keelie was lead off the platform and handed over to the noble man who promptly handed her over to his boy. The boy smiled shyly at Keelie as he undid her gag and unbound her wrists.

Ashonee couldn’t hear the conversation, but it appeared as if the boy was introducing himself. She watched Keelie nod and say something in reply.

The boy ducked his face and his cheeks and ears turned bright red.

The man, presumably his father, let out a loud bellowing laugh and thumped the boy on the back. The boy stumbled forward, almost knocking Keelie over. If it were possible, his face turned an even deeper shade of scarlet.

Ashonee couldn’t watch any more. It looked as if her friend would be taken care of but it was still too painful to think about Keelie being forced to marry a Veshian boy, especially when Ashonee knew that her friend had already had a boy back home. A boy she would likely never see again. 

~~~~~

Leilelle was roughly dragged forward to the edge of the platform. Despite what she had been told, she couldn’t force herself to look submissively down at her feet. Instead she stared defiantly out into the crowd as the bidding started.

At first only a few nobles seemed interested, but slowly the bidding pick up until there were only two calling out numbers back and forth.

“Twenty silvers.” A richly dressed woman shouted.

“Twenty-five.” A noble man called back.

“Thirty.” The woman shouted again.

Suddenly a new voice broke into the back and forth bidding. “Forty silvers.”

The crowd let out a gasp as a young woman surrounded by palace guards stepped forward.

Leilelle could hear the whispers even from the platform.

“The princess!”

“What is she doing here?”

“Did she just bid on that slave?”

“When did the princess get here?”

Other than the whispers, the crowd remained silent. The bidding was over for Leilelle. The princess had won.

Leilelle was helped off the platform and was directed towards the young woman called princess. As a well-dressed man undid her gag and wrist binds, she surveyed her new master.