Just as quickly, Sally started down her path again, smiling widely and greeting
everyone she met. She stared at the wrapped bundles in her hands. She didn’t pay
much for them at all. All the sellers seemed to know her from back in the days in the
Mombana kingdom. Some gave it to her for free. The others sold it to her at a very
cheap rate. Sally still had almost all the money she had budgeted when she went to the
market. The money she made from the little time she worked as the help.
It surprised Sally when she got to the door and found it open, but couldn’t find her
princess. Where was she?
“My princess?” Sally dumped everything on the table and headed out in search of
her.
She started from the small laundry room at the back of the palace to the bush
where some maids cut grass. None of the slaves she came across saw her.
A maid came to her when she was in the palace again. “Are you looking for the
slave princess?”
“Yes, yes-please, did you see her?” Sally was out of breath from running around
and searching.
The maid nodded. “The mistress took her. I saw them taking her to the dungeon.”
Sally’s heart skyrocketed. “D-dungeon?” She thanked the maid in stuttered words
and took off in a race.
When Sally reached the dungeon, her eyes widened. They had tied her princess up,
with her arms splayed, the clothing on her back torn, and a guard was whipping her
with the devil’s whip that hurt like hell. Her back was bloody, and when Sally saw her
eyes, they were red with tears. But even as another stroke of whip landed on her back,
the princess didn’t make a sound at all.
“Oh, Creator!” Sally cried out, tears filling her eyes at the awful sight. She threw
herself to her knees and faced the mistress.
“Please! Please, have mercy! P-please, Mistress, please! Let her go, please!” she
cried sorrowfully.
Vetta kicked her. “Get out of here! How dare you burst in here and think you can
do anything you want!? Get out, now!”
“No, no, no, no, please! Please, Mistress, you have to l-let her go,” Sally sobbed.
“I’ll take the s-s-strokes for her, just let her go!”
“Isn’t that so generous of you!? Well, too bad. She’s the bitch I want to take it!”
Vetta snarled at her.
Danika watched the woman under her eyelashes, her body hurting massively. She
couldn’t stop glaring at the mistress.
Vetta saw the look and only smiled. “What? Do you feel like hitting me again?
Killing me?”Slowly, she stepped close to Danika and smiled. “I’ll have you know that
that’s the exact way we felt when we were being tortured.”
Danika watched the woman as she laughed in her personal space, standing so close
to her as another lash of whip fell on her back.
“Too bad you can only feel. You can never do a thing about it. Nothing,” Vetta
whispered in her ear. Then she snaked her hand towards the collar wrapped around
Danika’s neck. She caressed the red button and watched Danika closely. “I’ve always
wanted to know how you’d react to this.”
She pressed the button.
A massive shockwave traveled through Danika’s body. She cried out as her knees
buckled; she would have fallen if the ropes around her hands hadn’t held her up.
Sally screamed, crying unbearably, while Vetta just laughed.
“Oh my. You do react so well to it,” Vetta drawled, watching as spasm after spasm
racked Danika’s body.
Sally pleaded and pleaded, but the mistress refused. Instead, she ordered the guards
to give Danika more lashes. The guards complied and continued to flog the former
princess.
The sight was so painful and heartbreaking to Sally; it hurt her greatly. The
mistress would never listen to her, she decided. She got up from the floor and ran out
of the dungeon. The mistress wanted to kill her princess! She would not allow it!
Never!
Sally needed to find help. She just needed to, and she didn’t care who she had to
ask-even if it was the king!
When Sally ran out of the dungeon, Vetta could only laugh as she watched Danika
shake on her knees.
The slave couldn’t do a thing. The king permitted her to torture Danika, and
nobody could do anything about it.
Vetta gave the guards a sign, an order for them to stop whipping her. They bowed
their heads. She stared at Danika. “See? Even the slave you charmed has left you,”
she drawled as she walked close to the slave in front of her.
Danika could barely hear the woman. Everything hurt. Her back was on fire. Her
body no longer felt like her own. Tears fell from her eyes in waves, her frame
trembling while the mistress laughed and ranted in front of her.
“I will enjoy doing this to you daily. Torturing you is a special fun on its own. The
king has been way too kind to you. I’d have said you charmed him, but I know the
king is not some weakling of a man your witchery will work on,” Vetta said.
The coppery taste of blood inside Danika’s mouth overwhelmed her senses. She’d
bitten the insides of her cheeks to keep from crying out.
She felt relief when she started drifting in and out of consciousness. Who knew-it
just might be death finally knocking.
Sally ran from the dungeon, hoping to find help for her princess. Even if she had to
ask the king himself. Just the thought of it had her throat tightening. The king was not
the kind of person just anybody met… let alone giving unsolicited complaints or
random requests for help.
As she ran around another corner, Sally saw Baski. “Madam, Baski! Madam
Baski!” she cried with tears in her eyes.
Baski took one look at her and was concerned. “What’s the problem, dear? You’ll
lose your breath. Heavens, you’re running so fast!”
Sally’s knees hit the ground, and she desperately grabbed Baski’s garment.
“Please! Please, y-you’ve got to help m-m-me, please!” She was sobbing so hard it
was difficult to make out her words.
“Help you with what, dear? And calm down so you don’t faint.”
“My princess. M-my princess! The mistress wants to kill her! They’re in the
dungeon and sh-she… oh, Madam Baski, she’s in so much pain!” She sobbed
uncontrollably, tears swimming down her eyes.
Mistress Vetta was torturing the king’s slave? “Oh, dear. I’m sure she has the
king’s permission if she is doing that. There’s nothing I can do to help you.”