Maeron Viljast sighed as he sat down in his soft red armchair. He had known that the girl was not exactly being treated like a princess, and he had known that she would have a hard time, but he would never have guessed that she was being beaten and threatened with her life.
He picked up his wine glass, and took a slow sip of the bitter white alcohol inside as he contemplated the problem ahead of him. Maeron only had few options to solve this problem. He picked up a piece of paper, he found it easier to write things down, to clear his head. After all, what was the use of knowing your letters if you didn't use them? He wrote,
1. Leave her with her master.
That was the rational choice, to follow the orders he had been given. But he had seen the way she was being treated, and as much as he would hate to disobey his orders, he could not leave her there.
2. Take her with me when I return with my report.
But that wouldn't work either. He still had to travel to the one remaining kingdom Feirtha he hadn't been to. And meet with the ruler, Queen Ariphas about her horse trade and yearly crop surplus. The kingdom of Errotat was having food problems because of the drought. In that area, of food, Nefitar was almost always a bit of a leech. Because Galleon's kingdom was partly based in the desert, they didn't always produce enough crops from their own people. So many times King Galleon had had to make the choice of trading the other four kingdoms in Jarnein for food, or letting his peasantry starve. He couldn't bring Zeilla with him on that whole trip. She would get in the way. Maeron wrote down a third option,
3. Complete my trip and then return to Nefitar to take Zeilla from Silas.
That was what he would do. Maeron sighed as he thought of what the girl must be going through. If only I could have done something to prevent it, He thought, sadly. But it was too late for that. He feared that Silas would seriously injure her while he was gone. He would never forgive himself it that happened. But he knew that she wouldn't be hurt in the little time that he was gone more than she had been for the last few years. Maeron told himself that he might as well move on.
He stood from his chair and went to begin packing his bags. He hoped that the owner if this inn wouldn't mind being paid in gold. He didn't have much of King Galleon's currency.
YOU ARE READING
You Are Made of Iron
AdventureEver since she was young, Zeilla has been neglected, abused, and tortured by her master in nearly every way imaginable. And somewhere along the line she found Skersha, a wolf woman who shares her consciousness and blames Zeilla for all their problem...
