Sally only sobbed more, and she grabbed hold of the end of Baski’s robe. “P-
please! Oh, pleeease! She’s w-whipping her, and her back… her back is all bloody!
Please!”
Baski was torn. She didn’t have the power to intervene in the businesses of the
king’s mistress. But the girl was crying so hard. She didn’t know what to do.
“The king is the only one that can intervene, my dear. I don’t have such powers.
And you know… how the king feels about Danika,” Baski pointed out falteringly.
“He would never intervene-especially if he’s the one that gave permission for it.”
“I know! I know, Madam Baski! I just wanna try! I have to try! Please, help me!”
“And the worst part is that the king said he didn’t want to be disturbed now. He
didn’t sleep well last night, so I made him some herbs to help him sleep this
morning.”
Sally shook her head tearfully. “She’ll die, she’ll die! The princess will die! They
are whipping her so badly, and the mistress is p-playing with her collar!”
“Oh, dear,” Baski breathed helplessly.
“You just have to help me, Madam Baski, please! I know you’re a good woman.
Please, h-help me!”
In the end, Baski agreed, even though she knew it wasan enormous risk. Not only
was it the king’s mistress, but the slave involved was one the king had no liking for-
not to mention that the king said he shouldn’t be disturbed.
Baski could smell the problems from a mile away. But she still took Sally because,
just like every once-enslaved person of the Salem kingdom, she knew the good things
this girl did to help them when they were still in captivity. “Make sure not to refer to
the slave as a princess in front of the king,” she cautioned Sally on the way.
Sally nodded vigorously as they walked from the slave quarters to the royal
quarters and into the hallway that led to the king’s chambers.
Baski walked past the guards. “May I come in, Your Highness?” she raised her
voice and called out.
Silence. The silence stretched for many seconds, which stretched into minutes.
Baski held her breath and waited. Sally held her own breath and prayed all kinds of
prayers in her mind.
They were giving up when they heard the gruff voice. “Enter.”
They released their breath, and Baski pushed the big door open. They entered the
room.
The king still wore his royal garment, which he wore to court, and he was coming
out of the library. “I gave orders not to be disturbed, Baski.”
Baski lowered her head. “I’m so sorry, my king.”
King Lucien’s eyes left Baski and drew on the familiar face of the girl beside her.
Sally’s knees hit the ground, and she started crying earnestly.
“Oh, please, my king! I seek your help! I know I’m just a slave, but p-please, you
have to h-help me to h-help her. Please, my king!” she cried, her head bowed.
King Lucien’s brow furrowed as he watched how hard the girl was crying, how
violently her small body was trembling. “What is the matter?”
“It’s about my-your slave, Your Highness.” Sally swiped the tears from her eyes,
staring at the king.
“What about her?” he asked in that flat tone of his.
Sally swallowed tightly, not knowing how to say this to him. “The mistress is t-
torturing her in the dungeon!”
“I gave her permission to do so.” He turned away from Sally, effectively
dismissing her.
“Oh, please, Your Highness, please! The mistress is going to kill her! She’s
whipping her b-badly, and her back is a-all bloodied up! Please, Your Highness. She’s
going to die!” She wept bitterly.
The king turned to face her. Saying nothing, he just stared at her.
Sally straightened her legs and lay down on the floor. She stretched her arms out,
rubbing them together in a plea. She cried uncontrollably as she repeatedly cried,
“Please, please, please.”
The sight was heartbreaking for Baski, and tears filled her eyes. She lowered her
knees to the ground beside Sally, her head bowed. “Please, my king,” she whispered.
Silence.
“Why would I want to do that, Baski?” he growled, his face expressionless. But
fire banked in his eyes.
Baski could think of a few reasons, but she knew that all of them would be
unappreciated by the king, who wore coldness as a shield.
Baski stared up at him. “This girl, Sally… you asked me one day why most people
in Salem like her so much.”
Lucien nodded, his eyes on the both of them.
“She fed us all when we were still enslaved, My Lord. All the good food we ate
there came from her.” She smiled through her tears. “She’d steal from the kitchen and
bring it to the slave dungeons and share.”Baski stared at the girl crying on the floor
beside her. “Sometimes she’d get caught by the guards and she’d get flogged. They
gave out a lot of punishments to people caught stealing, but she never stopped
bringing us food. All those feasts we ate; she stole from the royal kitchen and brought
them to us.”
King Lucien’s eyes focused on Sally, not saying a word. But his face was no
longer as cold.
Baski told the king the most egregious secret. “Sometimes, when a few guards
caught her, she’d-“she swallowed tightly,”-she’d allow them to take sexual
pleasures from her body so they’d let her go and not report her.” Her eyes met and
held the king’s. “She brought all that food to us. All of it.”
Sally suddenly cried louder on the ground, sob after sob racking her throat. She
didn’t know how Madam Baski found out about all that; she didn’t know anybody
knew. Every slave of Mombana knew she fed them as much as she could, because
King Cone always tried to starve them.
What they didn’t know were the things she had to go through to make sure she got
food for them. She didn’t know that Baski knew. She didn’t know that anybody knew.
King Lucien moved from his position at last. He walked closer to Sally and held
her arm, urging her to stand.”Is it true? What Baski said now, is it true?” he asked,
staring at her teary face and red eyes.
Sally nodded gingerly. It was all true, even though there was still more to the story.
So much more. She hadn’t been the only person who helped the people of Salem.
Princess Danika also helped. She kept stealing the princess’s food until the princess
found out one day. The princess didn’t punish her. Instead, she helped her steal food,
too. She ordered a lot of food to her own chambers just for her to pack them and go
give them to the slaves. Sometimes, the princess would sneak to the kitchen with
Sally, and when they were caught, she’d order the guards away and threaten them.
Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t.
The princess’s father had once punished Danika with house arrest for one entire
week because the guards reported seeing them in the kitchen. One week of not
coming outside or seeing daylight. The king had wanted to whip Sally, but the
princess had refused adamantly and cried to her father, saying that they should whip
them both if he truly wanted to whip Sally.
That is just a little of the story.
Now why wouldn’t she help her princess when her princess was being tortured?
She’d rather die than not do a thing about it!
The king was staring at her face so carefully, and he didn’t say a thing. Sally got to
look at his face closely, the thick scar on his cheek that gave him a savage look.
At last, he pushed away from her and started out of the room. “Come and show me
the dungeon, Sally.”