Jenna and I were assigned work to one of the king’s daughters. He had seven daughters and five sons, and they hardly work a day in their lives, except for one daughter who you will learn about later. This particular girl’s name was Ursula. She was one of his older daughters, and also one of the more gossipy ones. When she wasn’t giving us some meaningless task that we had to do no matter how ridiculous, she was blathering on about the goings on in the kingdom, or about her newest love interest. The heat of the day meant that our main task was keeping her majesty cool. This meant that one of us consistently had to fan her, not even stopping to rest our burning arms, and the other ran back and forth to the kitchen to fetch whatever cool refreshment happened to pop into her head. We were to do all tasks without complaint or even a word, because slaves were forbidden to talk in the presence of the royal family. It was my turn to do the fanning. She was just saying something about the new batch of guards that had come in the week before, when Jenna came back from her fifth trip to the kitchen, holding the latest refreshment, lime flavored ice sweetened with white sugar. I scowled when I saw it, knowing that somewhere my family was starving and without relief from the harsh sun, while this princess binged on one of the rarest delicacies in the kingdom simply because she didn’t want to sweat a little.
“Oh, if only I were fifteen again!” She said in her winey voice. “I swear, they get taller every time!”
I rolled my eyes as Jenna smirked and winked at me. With a toss of her long hair and a dramatic flourish, she placed the dessert in front of our lady.
Ursula pursed her lips as Jenna flashed a bright smile. Who wouldn’t be a little jealous of Jenna’s beauty? With her bright blue eyes and waist-length light brown hair, she was more beautiful than most of the girls in the kingdom. Even I find myself envying her. Despite hardly being fed enough to keep us alive, I’ve always had a more round figure, and there has never been any great beauty in my face. And my short, dark hair hardly compares to her velvety locks.
“Ah!” She exclaimed, “Just what I wanted!”
It was Jenna’s turn to roll her eyes.
“Well girls,” She said with her mouth full of lime ice. “I think that’s all I’ll want from you today. You may go.”
Jenna’s shocked expression mirrored my own as I looked at her.
“Oh girls,” she said seeing our surprised faces, “it WILL be dark in an hour, and the heat will go away when the sun does. I won’t need you anymore.”
We didn’t argue, and we didn’t stick around for her to change her mind. Out in the hallway, my anger boiled hotter than the air.
“The spoiled pompous brat!” I said as loud as I could without actually raising my voice.
“If I could talk to her, I would…I would-”
Jenna placed a calming hand on my arm.
“You shouldn’t be angry with her, Beck. She was raised to believe that she deserves everything and that we are meant to give it all to her.”
Jenna is the wisest person I know. If only I had just listened to her.
“Besides,” She continued, “We should be honored to-”
“Oh please.” I said cutting her off.
“No really.” She said reassuringly. “It’s an hono-“
“Just stop! Come on Jen, it’s hot and I’m in no mood to argue about honor.”
She sighed, but gave in and we walked to our quarters in silence. As we walked through the center of the palace, the doors to the great library, which was also the throne room where the king sat, flew open and another of the king’s daughters rushed out. It was Catherine. She was the only one of his daughters who disagreed with the fact that there were slaves in the palace, and she was also a secret member of the Ivory King’s Counsel, despite the fact that it had been forbidden to even speak of the northern kingdom since the war that alienated the four kingdoms from each other. If her father or anyone found out, she would be executed immediately, king’s daughter or not. Of course, Catherine was good at keeping things from her father, like her secret friendship with Jenna and I, and her efforts to help us escape from that horrible place.
Her frustrated frown melted away when she saw us walking by.
“Girls! I was just about to come and find you!” She said to quiet for the guards to hear. “I have news for you. Come on. Let’s go to a more private spot.”
We silently walked through the halls, carefully avoiding guards along the way, and finally we slipped into our “secret room.” It was really just an old, unused bedroom, but we turned it into a sort of safe house. A place of escape, where we could speak freely. We sat in a circle on the floor, and Catherine proceeded to tell us her news.
“I may have found a way out. For both of you.”
My heart leapt at her words. Jenna tilted her head curiously.
“What is it this time? Will it be dangerous?” She asked.
“News has reached me that a man, an agent of the Ivory King lives deep in Snake Forest, and if you can get to him, he will take you through to rainbow Valley. From there, you can easily cross to the Ivory City.”
She went on to explain how we might be able to get into the forest, but I hardly heard a word of it. My mind was racing a mile a minute. The possibility of escape was simply too much.
“Whatever it is,” I interrupted. “I’ll do it. Just so long as it gets me away from this place.”
She nodded. “I figured you would say that. It WILL be dangerous though. Jenna, are you in?”
We both looked at her. She seemed deep in thought with her long hair making a curtain that hid
her face from us.
“Is this really wise? Should we attempt it?”
She asked.“Jenna, this is our way out!” I said. “You said that if we found a way, we would take it!”
“I did say that yes, but if it’s as dangerous as Catherine is saying, maybe we should wait for a safer rout.”
“Jenna, this is the first time that freedom has been possible since the king started taking children as slaves. You two are the only ones who are brave enough to even think of it.” Catherine explained. “There won’t be another rout.”
“Well then,” She said after a moment. “If Beck is set on going, then I’m in.”
“Excellent. We’ll have to move quickly. We only have one shot at this. I only just managed to convince my father to give the forest guards the night off.”
Jenna’s eyebrows shot up.
“So soon?” she asked.
“Of course,” I said eagerly. “The sooner the better, right?”
“Maybe we should wait. Not too long, but don’t you think that we’re rushing into this?”
“This is our only chance!” I said. “We have to go tonight!”
Jenna shot a questioning glace at Catherine.
“Rebekah is right. Even if we did wait, there’s no guarantee that I would be able to get my father to give the guards time off.”
“All right then,” She said slowly. “Tonight it is.”
Catherine smiled. “Good then. The king doesn’t have as great an influence over the cook as he thinks he does. She’s on our side. At dusk, head out through the door in the kitchen. I’ll make sure it’s unlocked. From there, head straight out to the boulder at the edge of the forest and wait for me there. But be cautious!” She warned. “If anyone sees you, all is lost.”
My smile grew into a grin.
“I’ll be there!” I said confidently.
Jenna nodded in agreement.
"I'll see you then." Said Catherine, and she got up and quietly slipped out of the room.
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