SOMEWHERE IN SALEM
Get the big bowl, Sally, dear,” the older woman’s voice came from the sitting
room.
“Coming, Mrs. Menah.” Sally carried the big bowl to the living room, and the
older woman took it gratefully.
“Come, join us and eat.” Mrs. Menah gave her a kind smile.
“In a minute, Mrs. Menah.” Sally went back to the kitchen. She sat down on the
small chair there, her eyes looking around, taking in her surroundings.
Sally had been there for over a week. The nice, older couple they gave her to were
the kindest of people. They treated her right as if she was a member of their family
when she was only their helping hand. Sally was no longer a slave, but some help.
Now they paid her for doing the simplest things. It was the best life for a girl born a
slave. She was supposed to be happy.
But she wasn’t. Not at all.
Sally couldn’t stop thinking about her princess, Princess Danika. The king took her
as his slave. She could still remember her princess being collared with vivid clarity.
Sally couldn’t imagine Princess Danika being anybody’s slave. She tried to picture
her princess working the mines or taking orders from people, and she just couldn’t.
Princess Danika wasn’t trained like that, and she’d be having the hardest time. It
pained Sally to think about it.
She was a slave, but the princess always treated her right. The only person she
knew was Princess Danika. Sally hurt most because she knew her princess couldn’t
survive alone without her.
She had always done everything for Princess Danika, and she did it all happily.
She couldn’t live there daily, knowing that her princess was suffering so hard. She
just couldn’t.
In the palace, Danika hurried to her room, then bathed and stared at the clothes on
her bed: ugly plain short skirts and half-cut leather tops that revealed a lot of breast.
There were only slave clothes in her room, packed by Baski. She knew she couldn’t
go in her slave uniform; that was worse.
Taking a shallow breath of resignation, Danika put on one outfit. No way she
needed another punishment. She’d avoid it all if she could.
And what other way to avoid it than to be an obedient slave?
However, only a week as a slave didn’t make a royal used to being a slave.
She was two minutes late when she appeared in front of King Lucien, and he was
almost breathing fire in anger.
He stalked towards her. “I. Said. Five. Minutes,” he growled angrily.
“I-I”
“Kneel.”
She had never knelt for any man before. She hesitated.
The hesitation cost her. His hands went to her collared neck, and he pulled the
chains so hard she cried out in pain. Tears burned her eyes, and her knees sank to the
ground. She stared up with burning eyes, fierce and rebellious.
“Do you take pleasure in being punished, Danika?” Voice low and deadly, he
continued. “It’s still early days, and you’re pure bred. Surely, pain hasn’t become
your friend yet?”
He leaned down, still holding the chains of her collar tight. Holding her eyes, his
finger trailed the chain until it caressed the small red button at the edge.
Rebellion fled, and terror took over. She froze. “P-please, don’t press it, M-Master.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Don’t press it, please!”
He didn’t blink an eye. “When I tell you to kneel, you kneel immediately. If I say
fly, you fly, Danika. If I say die, you cease breathing. Am I making myself clear?”
“Yes, M-Master.”
He caressed the button and stared at her with clear hate. “Next time you disobey
me, I’ll trounce you.”
“Y-yes, Master.” Danika knew that if he pressed that button, her collar would
discharge a massive electric shock throughout her body. It hurt severely. Every
slave’s greatest fear was the collar shock and masters carried the controller
everywhere.
“You be on your best slave behavior in the court, Danika. Do not disgrace me.”
His icy tone chilled her with the way he said her name with venom.
It reminded her of where they were going. She pressed her knees deeper to the
floor and glanced at his scarred face with pleading eyes. “Can I n-not be introduced,
Master?”
His lips twitched in a smirk so cold they chilled her. “Your father introduced slaves
almost every day, Princess. I was introduced twice.”
Twice!? She couldn’t imagine that suffering at all. She lowered her head in defeat.
“Yes, Master.”
He walked out of the room without a backward glance. She followed him meekly,
fearing the fate that awaited her at the court.
She knew the courts very well.
“The king has arrived!” Chad, his personal bodyguard, announced.
The commotion in the air ceased, and the door opened. Lucien strode inside with
all the bearing of the king surrounding him like a cloak.
Danika swept her eyes around and noticed three kings. Three kings. She closed her
eyes in shame and defeat. Is what she went through last night what she’d go through
from three different men today? It was unimaginable.
Everyone stood for him except the kings of the three visiting kingdoms. Lucien
took his seat on the throne. Danika sat on the ground beside him and placed her head
on his lap-just like every other slave and their slave owners in the building.
“Wow, isn’t she a thing of beauty?” King Philip, the king of Gordon, murmured as
he stared at Danika so lustfully, Danika shrank closer to Lucien.
“I was about to say the same thing. She looks so beautiful,” King Moreh, the king
of Ijipt, grunted beside him.
Both kings were in their late forties and stared at Danika. They started sporting
erections which they didn’t even try to hide.
Danika bit back a whimper at the sight, glaring openly at both kings, unable to stop
staring.
King George, the third king, stood. “Privileged people of Salem! We have gathered
here today for the introduction of the king’s slave.” He looked around with a smile.
“This is the first slave King Lucien is introducing, and she’s probably the last! She’s
one woman that has the beauty of seven women.”
They chorused their agreement, all eyes on Danika and King Lucien, whose face
remained as stoic as ever.
“Rai!” King George called.
“Yes, Master,” his slave answered effortlessly, with an amiable smile on her face.
“Get on the table and dance for us. Let’s start the day.” He faced the crowd. “Rai is
an excellent dancer.”
They hailed him and applauded happily.
Rai stood from the ground, her black collar glistening, the chains rattling. Music
erupted. She climbed onto the big round table at the center of the room and started
dancing.
Everyone clapped and cheered her on. Most of them were staring at the dancer. But
the two kings, King Philip and King Moreh, kept their eyes on Danika.
Danika didn’t know she was clutching Lucien’s garment until he stared scathingly
at where her hand clutched him.
Danika released her hand quickly. “Sorry, Master.”
He looked away from her and watched the events emotionlessly.
When the dance ended, King George stood up again to start another activity, but
King Philip beat him to it. He stood and announced, “Privileged people all over the
country, let’s start with what we came here for. It is a tradition that every slave of a
king must be introduced and recognized amongst kings and men of privileged status!
This marks the slave as special because she belongs to the king!”
“Yes!” They chorused in agreement.
The king nodded and continued. “I have twelve personal slaves. King Moreh has
six, and King George has five. Today, King Lucien is taking his first personal slave,
and she’ll be recognized amongst kings!”
Danika looked around at the people and saw delight in the eyes of the slaves of
other kings, the lust in the eyes of the kings, and the jealousy in the eyes of the
noblemen’s’ slaves.
Jealousy? Do these women want to be in her shoes? Just because kings will draw
their sexual pleasures from her body, they’re jealous? Danika cringed inwardly. The
world of slaves was a strange world to her. This wasn’t the world she was used to.
“Now we’ll invite the slave to the center of the royal court,” King Philip
announced.
Danika rose and walked to the center. She stood staring into space, refusing to
acknowledge their lustful faces, and she refused to stare at the ground like a weakling.
King Philip walked closer to her and circled her like prey. He raised his hand and
caressed her waist. Her belly. The sides of her breasts. Her collar. Then he turned
towards the throne and smiled. “I’ll be the first to sample her. Here. Now.”
The others cheered, clapped, and caroused.
Danika closed her eyes and tried to detach her mind from her environment.