The Sword Thief

Chapter 18

“Oh. Sorry miss, I’ll leave right away.” I reply dodging the glare she's sending me and heading to the only place I know that they keep peasant girls.

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Bursting through the kitchen doors I find that this place is probably the busiest of all the areas in the castle. Girls everywhere are multitasking, cooking and washing dishes at the same time, some ordering people around while talking to some wealthy person who didn’t get breakfast. Seeming instantly lost and overwhelmed I twirl around and dodge people till I find a closet with the uniforms the cooks wear. Pulling on the long brown skirt and beige bodice, I feel like I blend in better. Spotting and apron hanging on the wall I pull that on too, and somehow coax the short hair into a ponytail. Stumbling into kitchen I look around to try and blend in.

“Hey! Do you think your special or something! Get down here and start scrubbing these pots!” A girl with fierce blond hair growls.

“Oh me?” I squeak my voice rising ten octaves higher from nervousness.

“Who does it look like I'm talking to!” She says chucking a pot in my direction and yanking on my hair to get me to start scrubbing.

“Clean!” she orders  

And I do. I clean like I’ve never cleaned before. In five minutes I've rubbed at least eight pots spotless.

“There you go kiddo, now, tell me why have I never seen you before?” she asks

“I just arrived, I normally work with the seamstress, but someone said the kitchen needed more help.” I quickly answer.

“Mmmm, you don’t say so.”

“Yup.” I squeak again. For some strange reason I feel younger than I really am around all these intimidating people.

We clean and cook till my fingers feel like they're going to fall off. Garret comes in around three and it dosen’t look like he recognizes me at all. Mardy is furious that he showed up so late, but he says the people at the stables needed help with something and that's why he showed up late. She has no choice but to forgive him and send dirty looks his way. At around seven I'm exhausted. And would have passed out right there on the spot if it wasn’t for the obnoxious loud noise of the trumpets signaling the king has arrived. I stand up straight and do everything more clumsily from fear of recognition. But as long as I stay in here I'm safe, right? 

We all hear my father march in with his entourage and he doesn’t sound happy. At least two vases have broken by now, and I’m pretty sure no one dropped them. Mardy looks frightened beyond belief and keeps looking back at her food as if wondering whether or not the King will like it. One of the servants comes in and tells us dinner is starting.

“You all look like you want to dive into a pot of boiling water right about now.” Garrett tries to joke but no one laughs. No one can laugh because some of us were considering it as a serious option right about now.

“Were all going to die.”I whimper. And with that all the servants head out to serve the King. Minutes later at least half of them come back with full plates, or the food all over them.

“What’s going on!” Mardy yells cringing at the mistreated food she's created.

“The King apparently doesn’t like Pork!”

“Some lady is on a ridiculous no animal product diet!”

“Some idiot “accidently” spilled his soup on me!”