EARNED by the KING

2. The Sacrifice

Mayara

The heavy wooden door opened and I saw my father walking alone inside. His hair disheveled, his clothes crumpled and the stench of blood strong on him. Most of it belonged to the enemy while some of it were his. I've never seen him this way. Even when he returned from grewsome battles, he always had a calm composure. Something has shaken him to the core or someone but I didn't know that then.

The attack yesterday was sudden, we were unprepared. The tower guards placed at the edge of the city informed about an entire army marching towards our way merely hours before the attack. It was like they had appeared out of thin air, armed and prepared to kill. 

Me and my mother with a few handmaidens were locked inside a room in the east most corner of the palace by my father. Only he alone can open this door or his death can break the bond holding the door together. A simple rain spell was all I was able to cast from inside here. 

In the adjacent room were other noble women and the maids of the palace probably now shivering at the thought of what awaited them at the end of the day. Women somehow became a part of the spoils of the war. 

I'd asked my father to join the war with him by his side, his response was 'women don't raise voice let alone a sword'. As much as I respected my father, I hated that he had held me here useless. But I obliged him only because I knew if something happened to the warriors and my father, I was the last hope both for my kingdom and to safely get out the women.  

My mother immediately hugged him and I closely followed, relieved. But it was only short lived.

"What happened to the war?" my mother asked expectant.

"Sit down both of you," he said composing himself.

What he said next made suddenly it hard to breadth. We have been captured and surrounded by an army of soldiers overthrowing ours by ten to one. The only way out alive was if we surrendered and even that had conditions. The gold painted walls of the room started to close in on me when he further mentioned the terms of the alliance.

My father didn't say it out loud but I was battered in exchange for my country. Not even by a marital alliance but by an 'alliance by name'.

If I was blunt an 'alliance by name' meant an alliance to be given as a slave. The receiving party can do anything with me as they like, anything. It was the owner's choice. I had no more right over my own life.

"By the Bhrana! How could you do this to our daughter?" my mother asked weeping holding my father by his shirt. In all my life I have never seen my mother speak against my father let alone question him.

"What were you thinking?" she continued crying on his chest.

"That she will be taken from here either way. At least if I am alive, I have a chance to fight and bring her back. Do you think this was easy on me?" he said his eyes red with anger and tears he refused to shed. I could see it was the excuse he had given himself to believe he was doing the right thing. I was burning with rage at what was decided to me on my behalf. 

"Say something," he begged looking at me.

I don't speak unless I have to usually. My thoughts were my own and I rarely shared them and right now I feared I'd speak something I might regret later. I'd rather fight an army myself than be captured by an invader. But this wasn't just about me. 

Without looking him in the eye, I walked out of the room. I needed some time alone, and my parents knew better than to follow me at times like this. 

I reached the balcony overlooking the garden, its far end was lined by soldiers in grey-blue uniform matching the storm clouds. The rain was pouring heavily outside, my feeble attempt to keep the soldiers from climbing the south door of the fort. Since the door was already moss coated, the rain made it even more slippery. But I had never expected King Ahar to break open the North door and march in with his army. My father still can't figure out how he made that possible.