13 The Banquet 2
Prince Rimon's banquet was held outdoors, on the hills on the west of the Stone Palace, about a thousand miles from the Barren Desert.
Chief Servant Viya led the slave girls through a side gate in the horse stable. The place smelt like cow dung, with haystack and manure splattered in random places. Some of the girls instinctively covered their noses, the disgust clear on their faces. Others merely walked around the puddle and continued after the chief servant.
Xuma was among the group that acted indifferent to the smell. To her, the maggot infested corpses of the Frost-Flame Empire were a hundred times more disgusting.
Her dark eyes swept the palace corridors with the heightened alertness one would see in the eyes of an insecure prey. As they left the dilapidated courtyard behind, and exited the Stone Palace through the west gate, her breath hitched.
They were really being led to that place.
'Calm. I need to stay calm.'
Before long, they came to a stop in front of an iron cage. One with an opening so low and small, any creature larger than a pig would have to crawl to enter it.
"Alright. Get in." Chief Servant Viya gestured to the iron cage and stepped to the side, making it clear she wanted the girls to get inside.
"Get…get in? Aren't we supposed to go to the banquet?" Naila gaped with disbelief. She stared at the middle-aged woman with an expression that said she had to be joking. She couldn't bring herself to bend and crawl into a cage like some sort of an animal, even if she had the identity of a slave.
"Lowly wench! How dare you look me in the eye?"
Whip!
Whip!
"Did you forget your identity! Huh? All the lashing wasn't enough to brand your current status into your mind?"
Whip! Whip!
Naila grimaced and wrapped her arms around herself. The thin fabric on her back ripped and shredded to pieces under the vicious whipping of the chief servant. Though blood leaked from the whip lacerations, she gritted her teeth and didn't let out a whimper of pain.
Xuma's brows raised in admiration. This incident had not occurred in their past life. If she remembered correctly, Naila had tripped on the way, and ended up encountering Prince Rimon.
She didn't know what happened between them, but when they met again, Xuma and the girls had been inside the cage, while Naila stood beside the prince.
But this life…
Her heart shuddered. There was a change. Past events weren't flowing in the same direction they did. Did this mean…
"Now get inside the cage!" Chief Servant Viya's angry roar scattered her wandering thoughts. Xuma blinked her eyes and watched in a daze as Naila crawled into the cage with a ferocious expression.
Naila. Prince Rimon's favorite concubine. The only one who had sat out on this banquet, would now be in the cage with them.
A small smile stretched across her lips. With a twinkle in her eyes, Xuma kneeled and crawled into the cage after the girl.
Once all the girls were inside, the chief servant slammed the bars and locked the cage.
"Alright, take them away! If anyone makes a fuss…kill them." The girls trembled at her cold words. Their eyes filled with tears, and Xuma practically felt her heart shrivel as a desolate look entered their eyes.
A look so bleak and vacant, one didn't need to be told they had fallen prey to self-despair. It was the same look she saw in the eyes of the civilians after the Stone Empire's fall.
'What can I do? What can I…'
She was just like them. A slave. A property. Owned by the Stone Empire after her nation's destruction. Though she was reborn, she had nothing but her past memories. In a land where power was supreme, the knowledge of her past could only help her react to situations faster than her peers.
It couldn't give her the power to help them.
Power. Yes, that's what she needed. The power to make a difference. However, how would she acquire this power? She didn't know anyone. And the one she knew…
She would rather not get in touch with him.
At the chief servant's words, a squad of gray-robbed men emerged from the sides. Carrying heavy chains and manacles, they locked them on the four corners of the cage, before dragging the ends to tie it to a dozen horses.
Wide-eyed and fear-stricken, the girls huddled together as the horses dragged the iron cage through a narrow corridor, and out into a barren world of dry wasteland.
"Everyone, they're here! The banquet can now begin!"
"Haha! My bet is on the Lions!"
"I think the girls can tame the beasts. I'll place my bet on them!"
"Whoever's betting on the lions, go to the right! If your bet is on the slave girls, go to the left!"
Xuma raised her head. The cold eyes of the dozen golden beasts caused her to shiver, and a ragged breath escaped her lips.
The animated chatter of nobles filled the air. Seated on horses and peeking through gold-crusted windows on opulent carriages, they lounged under the canopy of colorful umbrellas on the edge of the hill that surrounded the slaves like a giant dome.
The contemptuous, condescending look in their eyes was too blinding to look at.
Xuma inhaled a long, shaky breath.
It was at times like this, when she saw the leisurely, privileged life of the empire's nobles, that her blood boiled, and her heart burned. Her mind flooded with images of her ravaged nation.
Her enslaved people.
At times like this, she found it hard to control her emotions. The utter humiliation of being caged, then placed in front of a pack of ferocious beasts like ready food, made the hatred she'd been working to suppress rush to the surface.
These men didn't deserve to lead, didn't deserve to live. They took women as bargaining chips, and treated human lives as entertainment.
Such men...deserved to be damned!
