Dark Magic

Chapter 4

After all the twisting and turning they finally get me to a, what looks like a kitchen. What, Kitchen duties! 

I bite my lower lip in frustration; this is where I will be spending my glorious days as a slave.

The guards push me further and a young woman of around twenty grabs me gently.

The guards huff off, clearly wanting me to fall on the ground. The woman gives a warm smile, revealing well cropped white teeth.

“Hello, I’m Callisia and this is Lyla,” she said, pointing to a red head girl about my age wearing an apron. I nod in acknowledgement, Lyla does the same.

“Im Cyria,” I added, feeling overwhelmed. I can’t believe I’m speaking to people. They are being nice to me.

“Come Cyria, you have to work or if the guards see you’re not doing anything you’ll be executed.

It’s just way of life here, you’ll be fine just trust me,” Callisia explained, pulling me to the large kitchen sink where Lyla is washing the dishes.

I give a smile, more for myself than anyone else.

The kitchen is large, with the materials of stainless steel, concrete and brick. Callisia got me to follow a recipe to make passion fruit pavlova, but what really confuses me is why would Salvador use his slaves the people he locked up to cook him meals. Isn’t he worried we would poison him?

If I ever get my hands on poison, that’s the first thing I would do. Instead of fussing over the matter, I decided to ask Callisia.

“He has no worry as there is no poison in the castle, all his guards are at every point of the place,” Callisia pointed out.

She has a point, but I would be sceptical, if I was hated by so many. 

Callisia gave me a soothing cup of hot tea, along with a large bun spread with apricot jam to eat.

It was freshly made and extremely tasty. I enjoyed every minute of it.

She showed me where our food pantry was and it was filled with jams, fruit and other items of food.

She said we can’t eat too much or they will restrict our food, they want us to be fit enough to work efficiently.

As soon as she told me that, I felt like I had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, that’s all I need to escape.

Fit enough to work efficiently, fit enough to fight. This could be my ticket out of this place, all I have to do Is be good and do as I’m told… for now. 

We work all day, when the sun sets its time to go to our dorms which isn’t far from the kitchen.

We go down stairs and the first wooden door on the left is where we sleep.

The room is large enough with two wooden bunk beds on either side of the room, a closet, a brick fireplace which Callisia ignites using a matchstick.

The room would be pitch black if it wasn’t for the fireplace and candles glowing in the room, casting shadows on the brick floor and walls.

There is a window with metal bars concreted on the right side of the room where it seems I’ll be sleeping.

The other two take the left with Callisia on the bottom and Lyla on the top.  So this is their life, my life. It hurts to think I’m going to be here for a while.

“You’ll be okay with us Cyria. Callisia looked after me when I first came here, and became a slave.

Don’t dwell on the past or the future, you could go insane.

That’s what happened to Lilly, she was only fourteen.

It became too much for her, she refused to work, she locked herself in our dorm every day and that’s when the guards noticed and executed her,” revealed Lyla, with tears streaming down her rosy cheeks.

Callisia turned on her bed facing the wall, hiding her tears.

“It’s not fair Cyria, but we have no choice. Sorry for telling you, but I have to, otherwise you might have the same fate,” continued Lyla, with a blotchy face eliminating her beautiful rosy cheeks.

 I nodded and walk up to my bunk and take the lower one.

The mattress isn’t too bad but I do feel the spring’s digging in me, but it’s better than the cell I previously was in.

Anything was better than that.

That poor little girl, she would have been horrifically more frightened than I.

My eyes prickle painfully at the image of a young girl, body bloodied and bruised, she takes her last breath.

I wince, and then the tears stream down my face.