Kingdom in The Sand

Wild Child

One would half expect a corpse to be found in the entrance hall from the racket the girl was making but, considering Marie-Fey was the only one who had received a recent death-threat and she was still very much alive, she assumed it was something less exciting.

Like a mouse.

One could hardly say she hurried to the commotion. She kept her graceful gliding pace, fan open as if they were continuing on to tea – revelling in the knowledge that Zaydan was clearly desperate to know what was causing all the excitement but refused to rush ahead and leave her. (He possibly half expected she might not bother to investigate if left to her own devices).

She would, of course. If for no other reason than she could tell Maanah and Gharam wanted to see.

They reached the first-floor balcony that overlooked the towering entrance hall and Marie-Fey paused in fanning herself.

Well...

It wasn't a mouse.

In fact, it wasn't anything she had expected.

It was a girl screaming, but she did not belong to the palace.

She was in the hands of Sobia, the older woman holding the girl's wrists as the newcomer screamed and lashed out and tried to bite at her captor while other women of the palace stood around talking and sniggering, watching the display like they were watching a bearbaiting match.

Marie-Fey didn't care for bearbaiting and she didn't care for the noise that feral brat was making either.

The resounding slap of Sobia striking the girl echoed through the halls and Marie-Fey felt everyone tense at the sound – something all too familiar to them.

Sobia must have been as old as time itself and had seen many of the girls arrive in the palace. She was charged with their care at the beginning, making them presentable if nothing else.

Many of the girls in the palace had no come willingly.

And many of them had felt Sobia's open palm against their cheek.

The girls feared her, even Zaafira. She lorded her fear over the girls with delight, like some monster ruling from the shadows.

Marie-Fey rarely saw her however.

She had attempted to lord her power over Marie-Fey too when she had first arrived, going so far as to strike her to remind her that she was new and would never be welcome and would only survive if she knew her place.

So Marie-Fey had struck her back and reminded her her place was on the executioner's stand but she was the one holding the axe and Sobia was on the chopping block.

It had worked.

Sobia did not interact with Marie-Fey. She openly despised her. Not enough to try and kill her though, since she despised everyone.

Including the girl she was wrestling with.

Lord, how could such an old bat still be so strong? Why didn't she have the decency to keep over and die already?

"Who is that?" Marie-Fey said instead as she, Zaydan and her ladies watched from above.

"That, I would assume, is a new gift for my brother," Zaydan said, folding his arms on the balcony wall.

"One of your gifts?" Marie-Fey asked and was surprised to see the look of anger flash across his face before it smoothed out again.

"I do not deal in the trading of humans," he muttered.