Of Soot And Cinders

V

SOOT

I got a wack on the shoulder with a heavy wooden stick for being late after the baths that night, now nine days past. Got a wack that sent me crumpling to the floor and half my rations taken away for the next four days. And now with the festivities starting up so soon, the punishments had been coming often and harsh.

There were only eight moons to the beginning of the festivities. And everyone was panicking as if there were a horde of vampires at the front gate. Most of the worrying came from those in charge, which meant irritation from those under them, and in turn lead to my being pushed around at every turn.

First it had been a near trampling from the centuries on a morning patrol as I lugged my bucket from the stream to the palace. Then a fit from the kitchen staff that I not use their back door to access the hearths in the dining hall adjoining the kitchen. Which lead to me passing the stables where I got too close to one of the stable boys who took my bucket from me to fill the trough for the queens mare. And thus sent me stumbling back to the stream.

I was behind a whole three hearths by the time I made it to my first. Or that's how Jamie saw it. He had been checking in more and more since the incident with the knight. And unfortunately he had caught me just as I leaned down to scrub at the first hearth.

"Why can't you just do your job Soot? Is it so hard?" He knew, and I knew that my ability to scrub the stone was not the problem.

"Sorry sir. I won't let it happen again." I whispered, keeping my head down.

"I know Soot. I know. But I still have to give you a punishment eh?"

"Aye sir." I mumbled. Hoping this time it wouldn't be another lashing.

"Sara has not come in. She's ill. I won't give you more lashings today but I expect you to finish your own chores and hers also. And no breaks til you're done. If it takes you all night, and you miss dinner then that's how it has to be. Understand?" Jamie propped his meaty hands on his large hips, a stance he took when giving orders.

I nodded. "Yes sir."

Jamie nodded back and walked away. I knelt and began scrubbing again.

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It was mid afternoon when I finished with my own chores. And dark by the time I reached the last chore on Sara's list. I had missed both mid day meal and dinner, a fact which my stomach kept reminding me of. I hadn't had a solid meal schedule for a week, withholding food was one of the easiest punishments, and I could feel it in the shape of my ribs. The one thing my were blood did pass to me was an incredibly quick metabolism, which becomes a problem for someone who has no food to sustain it.

I knocked on the bedroom door. It was double wide and had carvings of women dancing on the outside. I didn't look too long, knowing even that could be seen as a slight, and knocked again. When there was no answer I entered.

Sara was mostly in charge of clearing out new rooms for guests. And that task had been difficult for me because every time I tried to clean something in a room I left ashy handprints. But after a lot of finessing I got each room prepped and free of handprints. But Sara was also in charge of keeping a special noblewoman's rooms tidy.

And that was my last stop. All I had to do was turn down the covers for bed, close the shudders, sweep the floors (the dirt was swept into the fireplace for me to clean later) and place the hot stone under the covers so that when the noble woman did decide to go to bed she would be warm.

When again there was no answer, I entered. The room was not unlike others I had cleaned in before. A large four postered bed was centered on one wall, across from the fireplace and there were cushioned benches and seats set on top of a thick fur rug directly in front of the mantle. But this room also held bathing chambers to the left of the door and paraded massive bookshelves along every open space on every wall. In fact there were books stacked on the fur rug and on the seat of the single arm chair, there were books on the footboard of the bed and on the nightstands. If I were to go in the bathroom I would have guessed that there were books there too. It would make the cleaning more difficult, it was hard to see where needed dusting and with all the stacks on the floors it would be nearly impossible for my clumsy feet to get through without either tripping or knocking something over. My one saving grace would be that there were no glass or fragile pieces anywhere in sight.