Chapter 14 The real manipulator
Ira’s POV
“MOVE! MOVE!! MOVE!!” A guard's voice thunders.
Within a few seconds of running, the air turns hot and toxic as women shove past each other in blind panic.
Someone's elbow rams into my side and I wheeze, stumbling but Sia’s powerful pull keeps me on my feet, running despite the pain coursing through every cell in my body.
“Where are we going?” I cough, doubting I'll be able to keep up.
“Move, Ira!” Sia grunts sharply, tugging me out of the servants quarters and into another section of the base.
I recognize it as where the warriors' rooms are.
We spill into the long hall where other servants are already rushing like scattered ants. A gigantic guard at the doorway growls, his purple uniform shining under the light. “Faster! Don’t make me drag you all!”
Sia squeezes my hand again and pulls me down another corridor. The first thing I notice is how the door to every room has been left open.
“This way,” she exclaims, dragging me towards the next empty room. I catch a brief glimpse of other ladies running into other rooms.
This room, although on the same floor with the commander’s room, is smaller. There's a small window and two bunk beds.
“Come on, pull off the sheets!” She shouts, trying to be heard above the endless yelling of the guards roaming the hallway.
Swiftly she rips a bedsheet from the pile with trembling fingers. She throws it into a basket at the center of the room.
I follow her lead, pulling of dirty sheets, dragging out a full basket only to repeat the same thing in the next room.
And the next.
And the next one.
“Hold it,” she whispers, breathing hard as she hands over a second basket to me. I take it from her, watching how she tries to balance three other baskets in her arms.
Gritting her teeth, sweat rolling down her face, she moves forward, moving in a straight line behind the other ladies as we once again hurry out of the place.
Tears well up in my eyes from the weight the baskets place on my spine.
I don't think this will be so hectic if I wasn't so exhausted already and if we didn't add their dirty, mud-soaked boots to the pile.
A whistle pierces through the hall– echoing outside, loud enough for us all to hear– followed by a shout, “You have only six hours before inspection!”
“Where are we running to?” I ask, panting heavily.
“Quiet!” Sia snaps, but I can tell she doesn't mean to be unkind. The way her hands shake against the baskets prove how scared she is.
“Move,” another guard barks at us when we take a bend through a slightly bushy path.
Sia drops her head, hurrying past him. But then her grip on the baskets loosen and it slips.
Everything– Stained clothes, sheets, foul smelling shirts shorts, and the damn boot– falls out on the sandy floor.
“Are you blind?!” The guard yells.
The silence that follows is so loud everyone lightens their steps as they rush by us.
My heart drops when a whimper escapes Sia as she kneels, putting everything back into the basket with shaky hands.
“I…I’m sorry,” she whispers, unable to quickly pick up the cloths due to how badly her hands keep shaking.
I drop to my knees beside her without thinking too much about it.
“I’ll help,” I say under my breath.
The guard’s suspicious eyes shift to me. “Who told you to kneel?”
“No one,” I say calmly, keeping any trace of fear out of my voice. “I’m just… helping.”
He stares for a moment too long, as if trying to decide whether to hit one of us or ignore us. Eventually he settles for the latter.
“Just hurry.” He grunts, glancing behind him, pretending like he can't see us slacking.
“Black dreadlocks, golden skin…” I whisper, memorizing his features. If I'll ever leave here I need to mark out the nice ones.
Their sympathy might grant me the escape I need.
When the basket is full again, the guard waves us on.
Since we are a bit behind now, we run. With the weight in our hands we chase after the other ladies.
Soon, the sound of rushing water grows louder.
About fifty ladies are kneeling around a small water fall. Some are sitting on stones as they furiously scrub the clothes in their hands.
“Put the baskets down!” someone shouts from the middle.
Sia drops hers instantly. I set mine beside her and kneel. The cold from the stone shoots up my spine.
“Does all this… rush matter?” I whisper between breaths.
Sia glances at me, strands of her long hair sticking to her forehead. “Unless you want two more nights in the cell, without food, yes. It matters a lot.”
My throat tightens.
She dips one of the sheets into the water and starts washing with quick, hard strokes. “Just follow my pace,” she says.
I copy her, the stone beneath my knees feeling like knives.
Hours tick by until my fingers begin to feel numb inside the cold water.
With less energy than when I first began, I slap the wet cloth against the rock, doing it over and over again. The pain in my wounded shoulder flares with the continuous movement.
By the time we are done, the sun is setting already.
After that we get escorted back to the servants quarter. In tens we get directed into a large bathroom. In the middle there's a large drum of water with ten little cups with which we're to scoop the water.
“I heard Commander Ruel doesn’t even help us,” one girl mutters. “He pretends he can’t see what the guards do.”
I look around, discovering that there's no guard in the bathroom with us.
“Pretends?” Another lady spits on the floor. I watch the ball of saliva flow with dirty water into the drain. “He doesn’t care. None of them do.”
“You all are forgetting something,” Mae says loudly. “The Alpha King is the real manipulator. His main aim is that we fight each other instead of him.”
Chloe frowns. “And why would he do that?”
Mae scrubs her flesh harder. “Because the moment we realize we’re all victims, he loses his undeserved power.”
I watch her closely but in that exact moment, her eyes snap up to mine.
“Alright, one more minute.” The guard's remainder is felt harshly as though she were in the bathroom with us. I can clearly imagine the glare on her face. The glare every guard seems to have... Every guard but Cortis.
Mae seems to harbour so much hate for the alpha King. But that's not what makes her stand out. It's the fact that although Chloe stated her inability to stand up to the King himself, she's not scared to speak her truth with conviction.
But if the king truly did all that she claims, why then didn't he just kill her? Why give her a chance to expose him and his ways?
Or is she not truly free from his hold?