Danika was walking through the back of the palace when a hand suddenly shot out
and pulled at her.
“Don’t make a sound or you’ll regret it,” Karandy snapped at her.
Danika snapped her mouth shut. The man was holding her tight from behind and
he was hurting her wounded back. She bit her lip hard.
He dragged her to an isolated part of the palace, entered a small storeroom, and
locked the door.
“You’ve been a very bad bitch, haven’t you? What did you keep doing for the
chief maid that made her give you multiple days off?” he snarled at her.
Danika swallowed the fear she felt about being alone with him. Instead, she stared
at the slave trainer square in the face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You think I’m stupid? You stupid cunt.” He closed the distance between them,
backing her to the wall. He wrapped his hand into her hair and yanked it back sharply.
“I’ve come to take what you’ve been denying me, you bitch,” he snapped roughly.
“You’re a slave now and a slave’s dirty body belongs to all.”
“Let me go; you’re hurting me,” she said and pushed against him in a panicked
state.
“That idiot of yours that works the mines is as stupid as they come. She can’t
understand a damn thing to save her life!” he growled angrily, referring to Sally.
Having worked in mines and trained slaves all his life, he easily overpowered
Danika. He threw her to the ground and caged her with his large, dirty, sweaty body.
“I’ll tell the king about this if you do anything to me!” she threatened.
He laughed. “As if he’d ever believe a useless bitch like you, over fifty slaves in
the mine who’d swear that I’ve been there all day.”
Danika opened her mouth to scream, but he tightened his hand in her hair and
pulled her hard. She yelped at the burning pain of strands of hair pulling from her
scalp.
“Just make one noise, I dare you. I’ll beat you black and blue, do what I want, and
still kill you here and bury you.” He smirked wickedly. “No one will know, and no
one will miss you!”
Danika snapped her mouth shut while he tore at her clothes. He squeezed her
breasts roughly as he struggled to tear her petticoat to bare her body to him.
“Stop touching me! Leave me alone!” Her back hurt where he laid her on the hard
ground.
“Shut up, bitch!” He struck her hard on the face.
No. She didn’t go out today to be treated this way. Danika quickly thought of
every fight defense she learned while reading ‘The Adventures of Xena’. She targeted
between his legs and channeled all her energy to her knee and kicked him hard. He
howled like a dog, jerking away from her immediately.
Danika took the opening, shooting up from the ground. She grabbed the big
wooden plank and raised it high above her head, then hit him on the head. She didn’t
give him time to recover; she hit him again and again and again.
“You do not put your filthy hands on me!” she screamed tearfully and angrily as
she continued to hit him.
Danika made sure he lay motionless on the ground before she threw her weapon
away and ran as fast as she could.
In the evening, Danika was in her room when the maids knocked and extracted her.
They said it was the king’s orders that they should take her to the royal dressing room.
While they bathed her and clothed her, she wondered what was happening. The
only time this had happened was the night she bedded the king for the first time.
Why was she having a royal bath?
But when the outer clothing she’d wear was brought out, Danika swallowed tightly
because she knew.
Slaves wore that outfit on a specific occasion. The Mask Festival.
The Mask Festival was a something that happened every year in all the kingdoms.
People that attended the festival wore a mask on their faces. They did it to honor the
traditional god no one sees.
If The Mask Festival was happening in Salem, that could only mean that a lot of
kings would be coming. She swallowed again.
A gathering of kings was never a good thing for slaves. Especially unwilling
slaves.
They dressed Danika in a petticoat and long corset gown. In front of the mirror,
they styled her hair and clipped her nails. They put makeup on, and it concealed the
red mark from Karandy’s slap.
Finally, they were done. Danika stared into the mirror and saw traces of the
princess she used to be staring back at her.
“The king is waiting,” one of the older maids said to her.
Her eyes found her bangle on the nightstand. The gold glistening bangle screamed
royalty, and it was priceless. She had the urge to wear it.
You’re no longer a princess, Danika.
She looked away from the jewelry, got up and walked out of the dressing room
towards the king’s chambers.
When she got to his bedroom, a guard there informed her that the king was not
there, but in the bedroom at the end of the hallway. She thanked the guard and started
down the hallway.
At the door, her heart was already beating out of her chest. She knocked once and
waited.
“Come in,” the deep voice she hadn’t heard in three noon days came through.
Danika opened the door and entered the unfamiliar room. She took a brief look
around.
An enormous bed sat in the center of the room, an old flower in a flowerpot was on
the windowsill, and a wooden lantern at the nightstand. The room screamed royalty,
but it also screamed barrenness. Obviously, someone hadn’t been in this room in ages.
The king stood in front of the wall beside the bed, his hands behind his back as he
stared up at the wall. He was dressed in his formal wear.
As Danika walked further into the bedroom, she saw it wasn’t just a wall. It was a
painting of a man sitting on a throne. The king’s father, her mind whispered to her as
she stared at the painting.