The Tale of Mongomery

I looked around the slave's quarters and saw a shimmering beam of light peering through the cracks. The sun was up.

"The sun is up!" I yelled out. I didn't even have time to say good morning to the others. I ran to the castle.

"Why hadn't the rooster crowed?" I thought to myself... but before the thought could even be completed, I looked down to see the rooster's carcass spread across the castle courtyard. A cat must have gotten him... I picked up the rooster and examined the meat. Not too bad, I thought to myself. I quickly began removing the feathers from the chicken. This would be what Montgomery would eat for breakfast.

I looked up, and there was Carac panting with his shirt in his hand.

"Here," I handed him the rooster.

"Why didn't you wake me up this morning, Lilith?" asked Carac.

I rolled my eyes and pointed at the chicken. "The cat got him last night. A dead rooster can't crow."

Carac sighed.

He pulled his blond hair back with a strip of material he must have scavenged from somewhere. He stood taller than me. Carac had piercing blue eyes I could lose myself in. It hurt me to see his strong hands plucking a chicken. His talents were wasted here as a slave. He could read. None of the other slaves could, and I found that so intriguing about him. He told me he had been stolen from his family by the King and brought here to the castle.

"Frog is waiting," said Carac and pointed to the castle.

"Right," I said and began running again. That's what we called the queen because she resembled one.

I flew up the steps in the castle and then ran to Montgomery's bedroom. I had to stop before I opened the door to catch my breath. Once my breathing had returned to normal, I carefully cracked the door.

Frog was asleep. Thank goodness. I sighed in relief. If she knew what a late start we were getting, she would have punished me for sure. She probably would have taken my food for the next three days or taken Carac's. Sometimes she would make us watch her eat until she was sick just to prove her power over us.

Life had not always been like this. I had always been a servant but never a slave. I lived next to the kitchen my entire life. I cooked and cleaned for the royal family. I was not royalty by any stretch... But my life was comfortable. I remember being a child and playing with Montgomery as an equal. When we were small children, we were sometimes mistaken for sisters. We both had long flowing dark hair. The only thing that truly set us apart was her green eyes and my grey eyes. She seemed to forget all of this the day her father died fighting off attackers to the Kingdom. Felix was not perfect. Felix had captured slaves. Felix had killed men just because they crossed him the wrong way, but Felix had always taken care of me, and without him, I worried about my life. It had been almost half a year since I had seen him now. I couldn't think about it, or I felt like my heart might explode.

"Montgomery, my dearest queen, morning has come," I said in the gentlest voice I could muster.

Montgomery was draped in pillows and blankets so high that I could barely see her in the bed. They were made of white silk, but the color had been so tarnished that they appeared to be beige at best.

I saw her moving, and then the smell began to come from the bed. With every movement she made, a foul oder arose from her body. I almost gagged. I had to stop myself and tried to put my hand over my face, but I couldn't let her see.

"Slave 2," she said.

She had recently begun calling all her slaves by numbers, but she couldn't remember her own system and kept forgetting our numbers, so we had to guess which one of us she wanted.

"Yes," I replied.

"Get my red wig ready!" she shouted.

I went over to her bookcase of wigs and found the red wig perched on the top shelf. Climbing the bookcase, I brought it down to her.

She was standing naked when I reached the floor. She was tall, taller than most men, and covered in rashes from refusing to wash herself. She used to have long black hair like mine, but she had cut it short to wear wigs. Somehow, even with her hair short, it remained matted to the top of her head. It was rare not to see insects running through it like a forest.

Montgomery sat on a stool for me to place the wig. I grabbed a jar of pig fat on my way to her. I placed the wig on the floor, opened the jar of fat, and dug my fingers into it, smearing it across her head to keep the wig in place. Once I finished, I put the jar down and fixed the wig on her head. I looked at the red hair and wondered where it had come from. I handed Frog a mirror so she could examine the hair herself. She smiled at her own reflection and gently touched the mirror as if greeting a friend.

"Slave 3, dress me," she commanded.

I picked up the dress she had worn the day before and began slipping her arms into the sleeves. The garment was too tight and clung to her sides, but she liked it. It was pink with stains from food across the front.

"Tell Slave 1 I would like him to serve me now," she said.

I bowed my head, exited the room, and ran to the kitchen. I found Carac frying the rooster.

"Frog wants you," I said and grabbed the pan from him so I could finish it.

"Tell her I'm dead," he said without looking up.

I frowned. "You have to hurry," I said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Life here is not worth living," he said.

I took his chin in my hand. "We have each other," I said and tried to smile.

He rolled his eyes. "If I wasn't taken from my family, I would be married to a beautiful girl my father had chosen for me right now. You have lived here your entire life; you're used to the life of serving people, but I am not," he said.

Somehow, his words cut me worse than Frog's. "You have to hurry," I said, looking down at the ground.

He groaned and began slowly walking to Montgomery.