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ELENA
I used to think that being born to a servant of Lord Voldren of Penticar was the worst thing that would ever happen to me.
I was wrong.
As a bastard, I was treated like a pariah, and unlike legitimately born children, I wasn’t guaranteed to inherit my mother’s position.
I understand why it might be confusing that I would want such a lowly status. The hours are long and you often go unappreciated. But it offers a measure of security that is rare to find among the lower class.
The good news is that I’ll no longer have to bust my tail trying to impress Lady Too-Good-To-Shit Voldren. Yes, I know the title is excessive, but I gave it to her because when I accidentally left her chamberpot in view after I’d cleaned it, I was stuck with kennel duty for a week.
But because life has balance, with every bit of good news, there is bad.
And mine is really, really bad, because I was taken by corsairs.
I can’t say they didn’t warn me. As children, we were told that if we wandered along the shore, the corsairs would come and take us away. Everyone knows the cousin of a cousin of a friend’s aunt that was stolen out of the blue, never to be heard from again.
And just my luck, I get to join the many obscure relatives taken from the mainland.
Shoved in the hull of a stinky boat, and I do mean stinky, I’m chained to the wall with thirty-three other women, all of whom are hungry, exhausted, and pretty much having a miserable time of it.
My wrists are torn from the shackles, but that’s nothing compared to the raging thirst that torments my bone dry tongue and throat. It’s almost like they want us dead.
“Did you hear the screams?” Asha whispers, her voice cracking like she’s an old lady and not the eighteen-year-old maiden that she is. Her honey-gold hair has long since lost its luster, and her eyes have grown dim. Defeated.
Every other woman aside from myself is high-born, daughters of lords and ladies, all meant to run households, birth children, and enjoy their fancy tea parties.
But they’re weak. Weaker than I am by far, with their soft skin and, oh, so frail minds.
This will break them sooner than it will break me, and I envy them for that.
“Just ignore them,” I finally say.
“Ignore them? They sound soft, like a woman’s. What do you think they’re doing to them?”
“I don’t know, but I’m relieved it’s not with us.”
“My friend Evie…” she starts, her lip quivering as her voice trails off.
I lost a friend too, not that she cares.
I’d been walking along the shore with Larissa, the daughter of the blacksmith and the one person who was never ashamed to be seen with me.
She was telling me about her dalliance with the handsome knight, Fredrick. Then everything went black. I woke up in a pile of other women, my body aching.
Confused, I called her name, but the only answer I received was being yanked to my feet and dragged across the room to a makeshift table. Then they…
At least I wasn’t raped,I tell myself, though I still feel violated. My whole life I’ve wanted to be seen for more than my bastardry, and I got my wish. Cruelly.
They pried my legs apart with hands too strong to fight and spread me…obscenely. Thankfully, they didn’t do more.
After their inspection, the man yelled out,“Innocent!”It was the only word they spoke that I understood. Then, more dragging, and so much pain.
I was chained to a wall with the other women where I still remain, only to be released once a day to relieve myself.
It’s impossible to say how long we’ve been chained here since there are no windows to tell day from night, but it’s been at least a few weeks.
