Read Online The Third Scroll by Dana Marton - Free Book Online Page B

I feared they were not finished with me yet, and decided to take great care to avoid the Palace Guard in the future, avoid everything that had to do with the cruel High Lord of the Kadar who had denied me his mercy.
    I hoped his visit with us would be short and the spirits would give me the cunning to successfully evade his men. I despised the Palace Guard for thinking themselves above the laws of their own land, but despised their High Lord more for allowing it to be so. Any of the Shahala Elders would have given their lives to protect the smallest of our people.
    The leaders of a nation set the example for the rest. With a High Lord such as the Kadar’s, no wonder the rest of his people were brutal, thinking nothing of the pain of others. Behind the High Lord’s fair face hid a dark spirit. He had shown his true heart, and I knew I would never forget it.
    I ran through the night without my jar, over the trampled snow, barely noticing the falling crystal flakes that had forever lost their magic for me.
    I hoped to slip into Maiden Hall unnoticed and repair my clothes before anyone saw me, but when I reached the large room, Kumra waited in the middle, ready to lead the maidens to the feast.
    She charged at me as soon as I entered. “What have you done?”
    “The Palace Guard—” Holding my wet clothes together as best I could, I cast my gaze to the floor, unable to finish.
    She hit me hard across the face, splitting my lip further. Not long before, a blow like that would have sent me sprawling on the floor, but I had grown stronger of late. I stood my ground before her.
    “How dare you even speak to the Palace Guard?” She hit me again, backhanded this time, harder, angrier.
    Blood trickled down my chin.
    “You will stay here. I shall decide what to do with you in the morning.” She turned and led the girls from the hall, the set of her shoulders stiff and angry.
    “She hates you because you are more beautiful than she is,” Lenya whispered as she passed by, flashing an encouraging smile.
    I looked after her, stunned. Nobody outshone Kumra in beauty. But I understood that Lenya perhaps sought to comfort me, so I did not open my mouth to deny her kind words, for it would have been like throwing a gift back into the gift giver’s face.
    I sat on my cot, not minding at all that I would miss the feast, only wishing I had something to eat. I rubbed my wrists where the warrior’s rough grip bruised the flesh, and thanked the spirits that I had been able to escape with such minor injuries.
    Hungry and shaken, I lay down, hoping for some rest before the girls returned—a smart idea, as I could find no sleep after they filed back into Maiden Hall a little time later.
    They had plenty to say about the powerful stranger, disappointed that he had not chosen any of them. He was not the High Lord after all, but Lord Gilrem, the High Lord’s brother, traveling with some of the Palace Guard.
    Guests of the House of Tahar could freely choose from any of the slave women, but a guest of such honor would have been given a maiden for the night as befitting his status—a gift Lord Gilrem had turned down. Igril seemed the most disappointed, nearly crying for the missed opportunity. She assured us a hundred times that Lord Gilrem would have asked to keep her.
    “Imagine,” she moaned the word, pressing her hands to her chest, “going back with the High Lord’s brother to live in Karamur.”
    She went on and on about the High Lord’s fortress city until we all wished she had been chosen and kept, just so she would be gone from among us and peace could return.
    * * *
    Morning arrived too soon, as always. I winced as I jumped to stand with the other girls at Kumra’s entrance.
    If I had thought saving her daughter would earn her favor, this morning thoroughly disabused me of that notion. She issued her orders maiden by maiden, leaving me last. I held my breath, for I knew she always reserved the worst chores for those she wished