Monarch’s Requiem

-Warning: sensitive content-

”Open the gates! Captain Webber is back! ”

Atop the stone walls men rushed to pull the levers after seeing the Captain and his entourage, not at all disturbed by the ropes and the children tied to them.

After a while, a drawbridge fell down over the deep moat, letting the knight squad enter the citadel.

The citizens made way for the horses on the main street leading to the castle with downcast gazes. No one spared a glance at the captives.

The children looked around with wide eyes. Their blistering feet were completely forgotten as the sights of the developed city entered their gazes.

Wide paved roads, carriages moving from place to place and merchants selling every kind of thing they could imagine. Women in fluttering long skirts holding parasols ran into two story buildings at the sight of them. The pungent smell of filth and manure could be felt as it had been thrown down the citys windows onto the street, and beggars and thieves were abundant.

No children were in sight other than themselves. Windows and doors closed tightly as the knights strode through.

The men in armor, already accustomed to this welcoming ceremony, simply kept going forward while pulling the orphans along.

Neera had imagined the capital of the fief to be a shining place, where everyone was happy and warm, but reality had left her sorely disappointed. Scared faces, ugly smells and hurried steps were all she could feel around her. Sad thoughts clouded her mind.

Nolan, there was never a chance for us here anyway.

Not wanting to see anymore, she cast her gaze down and kept walking as she stared at the grime that was squished under the soles of her feet, sliding between her toes.

At the end of the long street a stone castle could be seen. It was of a crude architecture, protected by a secondary wall as it rose above the city level. After another set of gates the nights finally stopped in front of what appeared to be the main door.

”Please tell my Lord we have arrived with what he asked for. ”

Captain Webber instructed a young guard at the entrance of the castle. He nodded and scurried away to relay the information. A couple of orphans tried to sit on the floor but, after the heavy handed refusal of the knights, no one made an attempt anymore.

Eventually, a middle aged man came from inside the castle. His clothes were clean and luxurious, gleaming from the different jewels and silvery threads that adorned them. His boots were shiny and his hear was neatly combed back. On his face, under a perfectly trimmed mustache, his teeth showed with a broad smile.

The knights got down from their horses and immediately kneeled.

”My Lord, we have done as you instructed. We brought eleven of them from a town in the south. ”

”Webber! Excellent! This one seems to be a good batch as well! ”

The Dukes gaze roamed among the children who were staring at the floor. Instinctually, they understood they shouldn meet his eyes. With a hand gesture he called forward one of his attendants.

”Take them away. ”

”Yes, my Lord. ”

Neera felt a strong pull on the rope that dug into her wrists. Still, she didn complain. The orphans were guided through dark halls and sharp turns until they reached an iron gate underground, and from that day onwards they only knew pain.

—-

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Crimson drops fell softly on the ground. Shaky breaths along with a small chest rising and falling were all that indicated she was alive.

Neera had survived another day.

”This one has lasted quite a while, right? ”

”Yes, my Lord. Two years, three months and eleven days since this batch came in. ”

”Right. Is this one is the last one from that group? ”

”Yes, my Lord. ”

The Duke chuckled and grabbed a lock of tangled hair. Neera felt her scalp burn as her head was forcibly pulled up.

”It stinks. Wash it before I come back. ”

The attendant bowed as the Duke left the room they were in. Beyond the iron door the clacking of his boots was heard as he made his way up the stairs and into the castle.

It has been two years?

Neera couldn focus on what was happening around her. Her wrists were chained to the ceiling, and the heavy pull from her hanging body was al that her brain could register.

She was startled awake by the cold splash of water that shocked her skin. Stinging wounds made themselves present to her along almost every part of her tender flesh. Dirt and blood puddled together on the ground at her feet.

This had been the first time she had felt the freshness of water on her skin in years.

Two more buckets of water struck her trembling body before the attendant roughly rubbed her face with a cloth. His countenance was indifferent at her wounded state, the same as it had been as the Duke had stormed into the basement for one of his ”Play-sessions ” and gave her a lashing out of the blue. He had even kicked her stomach a couple of times as he had apparently been frustrated about something before his arrival into the small, dark room she had been confined in ever since she had arrived into this wicked place.

It had been a long time since she had stopped questioning the why of all of this, along with any attempt of escaping.

The only time I tried he took Maule.

Neeras one and only plan to escape had failed miserably as she was caught by a guard at the outermost gate of the dungeon. She had filed and sharpened two rat bones against the stone floor and practiced for months before she was able to pick the lock of her cell. Having memorized the guards rotation and the path to the exit by the sound of their boots under the door, she clumsily ran through the dark hallways with her heart on her throat only to get struck in the face with the back of a spear. The last thing she remembered was the pale light of the moon shining through the entrance gate.

One of the guards had been late to his shift that day. That was all it took for her to lose all hope.

She was kicked awake once more, and when she opened her eyes Maule was there. The orphan she hadn seen ever since the first day stared at her with terrified eyes, screaming her name through a gaged mouth. His hands were bound behind his back as he kneeled on the ground next to where she laid.

”I hate rats who scuttle around. ”

The Duke came forward with a sword on his hand.

”Kuh- ”

Maule looked down at the sword that came out of his chest. The cloth between his teeth became soaked in red.

”Take this as a warning. Next time it will be two instead of one. ”

The boy fell sideways, facing Neera. They were so close that she could see every tear that fell down his eyes, and she was forced to watch as every trace of light slowly abandoned them.

She didn hear the men leaving the room, or the heavy door closing. She didn even know how much time had passed. She only laid there staring straight into Maules hollow eyes. Warm blood spread on the cold floor, reaching her body and soaking up her tangled tresses, but she still didn move.

Eventually two guards came and dragged the body away, leaving behind a scar far deeper that any kind of torture could ever produce.

Since then, Neera had given up. She had come to terms with the fact that this was how the rest of her life was going to be, and that there was nothing to be done about it.

Today was one of those days where the Duke was particularly vicious. Apparently something had gone wrong and he decided to take out his frustrations on his oys, as he called them, but then he suddenly decided that Neera stunk and she was forcibly soaked clean.

After the attendant figured she was sufficiently presentable, he stepped aside and stood silently on a corner of the room. His gaze, though, was stuck on Neeras face, inspecting her features. She could feel him staring but didn dare to meet his eyes.

They both stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity, until the Dukes boots resounded on the stone floor once more. It wasn long until his elegant tailcoat fluttered into the cell.

”Did you wash it? ”

”Yes, my Lord. ”

He stepped closer to Neera and pulled her face up by her chin.

”Ha ha ha! Who wouldve thought you were hiding that face under all that filth? ”

He turned back to the attendant.

”How old is she? ”

”I do not know, my Lord. ”

The Duke wiped the hand that had touched her with a handkerchief. He then bent his knees to catch Neeras eyes.

”Have you bled yet? No, you mustn have. Your body is still too plain. ”

She was extremely confused. Wasn she bleeding right now? This was the first time the Duke had spoken to her directly, but she was unable to answer.

The man in front of her was staring indiscreetly at her chest and hips. Her throat felt tight, like when the Duke wrapped a rope around it and pulled it until she lost consciousness. She didn know why but she felt like crying.

”Wash her properly and send her to my court. In a couple of years she might become a good asset. ”

Having said that the Duke turned and left. The attendant grabbed the keys and started working on the cuffs on her wrists and ankles. Somewhere else in the dungeon a childs screams were heard.