AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
KRISTA
“At least Lodra is beautiful,”I murmur to myself as I walk down the corridor behind the royal blacksmith.
Today marks a year since I have been a slave for the royal family. A year since my village was raided by the naga from Jalma.
On that day, I thought I would die. In fact, I looked forward to my death. Because every human in Nagaland, in Protheka for that matter, knows that death is better than serving the naga.
But I didn’t die. Instead, I watched as a human became a naga princess and gave birth to half-human, half-naga babies.
Instead, I watched as Prince Zalith’s royal advisor took a human mate.
I watched as conditions for humans, especially human women, became better. I watched as the senseless torture of humans stopped. I watched as the naga stopped hunting us.
This is only in Lodra, of course. The rest of Nagaland is still brutal in their treatment of humans. I also know that there are many naga in Lodra who still believe in treating humans like dirt. There are many naga who believe that Prince Zalith has brought shame to their species.
We come to a sudden stop, turn a corner, and head out of the lower section of the royal palace. Something twists in my chest as we walk outside and are greeted by the wild and natural beauty of Lodra.
Sudden tears sting hot and bothersome in the corners of my eyes as memories of my village, just outside Lodra, come back to me in an almost violent wave.
I want to let all the heavy metal equipment in my arms fall to the ground and just sit down. I want to sit down and allow those memories, painful as they are, to overtake me, to overwhelm me.
I want to drown in them, until I am a crying, shaking, mess.
But I cannot.
At least Lodra is beautiful. At least I get to spend my time outside.
Today, exactly a year since I was taken as a slave, I am being promoted to the assistant of the naga in charge of the royal armory.
I am not sure how I got this position, especially because I am a woman, and the naga have a very patriarchal view of the role of women.
Probably because they took more women than men when they kidnapped us all.We head down to the smith, which is some way away from the palace. It’s surrounded by a grove of trees.
“Now,” the royal blacksmith speaks gruffly, his voice hoarse and low. “You’ve collected weapons here before. You know how it goes. You’ll be making them instead of just cleaning them and organizing them.”
“Yes.” I speak demurely. I don’t dare look any of the naga, particularly the men, directly in the eye.
I may have been living and working among them for a year, but I am still a slave. I do not want to be accused of being insolent and getting myself whipped – or worse.
“There are your clothes.” The blacksmith, an older naga named Irian, jerks his head towards a pile of clothing on the floor just outside the door.
“Get dressed while I get the fire going.”
It is just after dawn, and I shiver as I strip off the threadbare clothes that were provided to me a year ago and pull on the new set of clothes that I have earned.
The clothes that I am to wear are made from cotton and hemp, and they come with a pair of leather gloves that are slightly too large.
The grove around the smithy is quiet, aside from the murmuring of the trees as a gentle wind whispers through them.
My body, lean, lithe, and tall, doesn’t quite fit into the clothing they’ve provided. The sleeves of the long cotton shirt do not cover my wrists, and the cuffs of the long hemp pants do not really come down to cover my ankles and the tops of my feet.
“These will just have to do,” I murmur to myself.
I pull my long, blonde hair that hangs to my waist away from my face and braid it into a loose plait before I twist the plait into a bun and secure it at the nape of my neck. Errant strands of hair have already come undone and frame my face, but I cannot be bothered with them as I pull on the leather gloves and boots.
The smithy is already hot and humid when I walk in and pull the mask and goggles on. The fire is never put out, and there is always someone around to stoke it to ensure that it keeps going.
