Whatever He Tells You

Olna

     They took me from my home in the mountains by the sea. I left my mother and my little sister to go with these traders who would have killed them if I didn't willingly go. They took one girl from every clan in the stretch of mountains.
     The trek through the forest to the north took us through rough terrain, and by the time they dragged our crying faces into the boats at the shoreline, my feet were stuck with thorns and the soft flesh was ripped along the outside of my feet. I didn't dare cry, lest I show them my fear. Myself and two other girls were packed in a small wagon behind the tallest horse I had ever seen along with various spices, textiles, pottery, and even some marble statues. 
    "Don't worry lassies, we'll be at the homeland in a few days." A gentler man said from beside the beast of burden. He was older than the men who took me from my home, and he had a warm face, something that was not common among the ruddy faced young men who had ice in their eyes. "You will meet Master Vadik soon, I presume. He is a kind Master , I find joy in serving him. You lassies will be given a job based on his evaluations of you around the fortress and the castle." He faced the wind, his shoulder length hair knotted at the base of his neck. Although he spoke the same language that I did, his words were somewhat formal and were strung together as if they were crafted by a scholar.
     "You may call me Mannes. I am Master Valdik's head servant and head guard personnel." I swallowed, my cracked lips yearning for the softness of water. This man's name meant "army man". Mannes had a combat sword at his hip and a dagger strapped to his inner thigh. I had no doubt he would kill us if we tried to run.
     "Acton, give the lassies some gruel and the last of our figs. They'll need strength before they get their sea legs about them." I sensed that this man was truly kind, yet there was an aura about him that radiated power and authority. He said he was a servant yet he carried himself like a king. One man that had his hands on one of the baskets stood from his squatted position to pass us small cloth bags filled with sweet purple figs. He chuckled as they landed in our laps and it was all we could do to not cry out in frustration. Our hands were still tied behind our backs.
     "Don't be cruel to them, Acton. Master Valdik would not approve." Mannes said, turning back to the horse and patting its sweaty side. The mountain path had not been kind to the poor creature. The man called Acton stepped up into the wagon and stood us up one at a time, cutting the rope from our elbows and wrists. The black haired girl beside me collapsed in pain, her back fatigued with holding her shoulders out. I gasped, feeling the man's hands on my waist, hoisting me up.
     "Oie lassie shut up would ya'. Nobody here wants ya' with your bum leg anyways." His thick Scottish accent caught me off guard. He let me go and I sat down quickly, my woolen dress quickly being folded back over my left leg. My attention turned to my bag of figs as I tried to bite back a sob. I popped one in my mouth and turned the black-haired girl over so she wasn't facedown anymore. She was younger than me by about three winters. I rubbed her back while she tried to get herself to stop crying. We didn't dare speak.
     My leg wasn't as bad as the Scottish man implied. It was only turned in slightly to the right, causing me a soft limp and sore hips, but it was enough to keep me out of the quarry back home. My mother didn't want me slipping or getting pinned down by a tonne or more of bright white marble. Instead, I baked bread and dried different herbs I found in the forest for the healer to use. She was one of the women in the village who showers compassion to me. It was a birth defect, the healer said, caused by a hex on my mother sometime during her term. I didn't even need a cane.
As I finished the last of the large, ripe figs in my bag, I noticed the girl to the other side of my person couldn't untie the drawstrings to her cloth sack.
"Let me help you." I muttered softly, taking the bag from her and swiftly untying the hard knot that had been tied there by some other. Mannes turned at the sound of my voice and saw what I was doing.
"It would be a sore pity if I had to kill you now for taking another girl's allotment of food, now wouldn't it?" He said, raising an eyebrow.
"Please sir, she couldn't get it open." I said, a hollow and empty truth. I passed the bag over to the girl, her dark eyes rimmed in red. Thankful eyes was all the return I got. She had to be at least four winters younger than my sixteen. The villages had given up their weak and unable bodied girls first. Mannes raised his other eyebrow to match his other and turned around. We probably weren't even worth his time.
     "Lassies, we plan to treat you well in your new home. If you do as asked of you, everything will be alright. If you try to run, I'm quite sure you'll soon meet an unfortunate end." Mannes turned, nodding to us. Acton passed around a jug and we each took a long drink of the bitter gruel inside. Boats were showing up on the horizon, and I shut my eyes tight, scared. I had never been on a boat before.