The Ties that Bind Me Book 1

A Tactic In the Making

I lay cuddled in Lolek's arms trying to catch my breath and bring my body back to earth. I just met this man and gave him something sacred to me, but I did it in the name of my survival. It was in that moment that I came off my high and realized that I was probably going to be losing more pieces of myself in the name of survival. The thought made me sit upright and start to cry. I was a simple college student and now I am a slave in an unknown place with a man with the face of a demon never too far away. 

I didn't trust Lolek, but I did what I had to do, probably far better than the treatment I would have received at the hands of others. I have always heard that hindsight was 20/20 but if I would have known I was going to be here, I would have run. I thought on that for a long time... Run. Run away and find someplace new, start over away from my father. The only thought I had was that I had to save my mother and brothers from his hands.

Lolek sat up and put his arms around me. "I'm sorry was I too rough. I don't want to hurt you Imiri."

I quickly shook my head and tried to smile through my tears. I learned many years ago that being strong was all I had to help support my mother and brothers when HE would go off for months at a time. 

"No. You didn't hurt me, I was just thinking about the future, well what little future I can have here. I think it would be easier to run away and take my chances. You know I don't want to be here and I would rather be dead than taken advantage of. I may sound stuck up and bitchy but hey I'm American an I am opinionated, strong willed and won't be taken against my will."

I shut my mouth and started to think. I could run away, that is very true but that would definitely kill me. I could tell by the heat I wasn't near a town. That left me with actually being me whether they liked it or not. I wasn't going to take any crap from anyone and that was it. In time I was going to make my escape, but I would need a place to go. Before I could think anymore I got out of the bed and got dressed. I decided to explore my surroundings a bit. 

You know Ghassan may look like the devil incarnate but I wasn't going to let him intimidate me. My father tried to make me feel inferior for years, so why should this stranger get the chance to break me. No matter what I came across I would face it head on with my back straight and my head held high.

As I explored I saw opulent paintings and artwork framed in pure gold. One of the paintings was so beautiful that I stopped to stare at it. I was looking into striking green eyes that mirrored my own and I saw a face very similar to mine. She was beautiful and I was most definitely no more than ordinary. I looked at it one more time before I kept walking. I saw many people scurrying around yet paid them no mind. I saw many rooms, dining halls, bedrooms, parlors and of course a library. I had never seen one so big in my life. The air caught in my lungs causing me to gasp and I just couldn't catch my breath. I walked over to the first shelf that I saw and gazed at the book titles. They ranged from ancient history to personal journals, each of them either first editions or written in the person's own hand. I walked along the shelves gazing in wonder at the many books in any subject that one could wish for, then I saw it, a section on language.

I grabbed the first book off the shelf and dusted it off. The title was it writing I didn't understand, but underneath written in English read "Arabic Dictionary." This was my ticket; I was going to learn this language so as not to be left out in the cold again. I grasped the book to me as I kept walking. There were love stories, fiction books, anything anyone could ever dream of in a room the size of a warehouse. Eventually I left the large room with the book clutched to my chest and found a familiar hallway that contained the servants quarters. I made my way back and sat in my small room opening the book to begin an education that could in fact take me a long time. I giggled lightly as I thought to myself. 

"What am I if not a student, this will be a breeze."

I wasn't sitting for more than two seconds when I heard a knock on my door and a small girl entered carrying a bundle of cloth. Her clothes were beautiful and her hair placed neatly atop her head. She curtsied to me and then placed the bundle next to me on the bed. She was so slight, her figure delicate, yet you could see the strength underneath her tiny frame. Her voice was soft and sounded like ringing bells.

"Hello, I am Azana, I was told to bring you cloth and a kit to get your clothes together. If you need any help you can talk to any of us. Of course us is Inara, Rasha, Veata or I. Please do me a favor and stay away from the twins, the little hellcats like nothing more than to pick on us who didn't choose this life." She looked at me for a few seconds sizing me up before she moved towards the bed with a box in her hand. She placed it next to all of the cloth an went to leave.

"Thank you Azana, I greatly appreciate your help. My name is Imirial." I smiled sweetly at her and rose from the bed to greet her. I curtsied as she did bowing my head low to show her the same respect that she showed me. "Right now I could really use all the help I can get. By any chance did any of my clothes come with me.?"

She looked at me for a moment before she responded. "Yes, your clothes are in with Inara right now, she is making sure that everything is safe before we hand them to you. We can't have you killing yourself or harming others of the... Household I guess you would say. We are not well versed in English but we can make due. They taught us simple things and then we took it a bit farther. Inara and I are the two who speak the best. Your clothes should be here today, but they are for the servants quarters only, those pieces of cloth are to make your own servants gowns. Each of us has our own sense of self, so they give us the small freedom of expressing that." Before I could respond again she left.

I looked down at all of the beautiful jewel toned cloth reams on the bed and ideas started to pop into my head. I opened up the small kit box that Azana left with the cloth to see needles, thread that was also jewel colored, and a few other things that I might need to make suitable work attire. "This is going to be a long day, I might as well get started."

After several hours of work I laughed, I had made myself into the American stereotype and actually thought it would be fun. The clothes had beautiful colors and textures to them in an array of designs that would have made my mother blush and my brothers' run for cover. My mother always told me I had a nice figure and now was the time to put it to the test. I placed on an outfit, did my hair and walked back to the library garnering the attention of every male along the way.