Tala

Chapter One Part One

Tala remembered the day she lost her freedom. She was seven years old, sleeping soundly when her parents came into her tent and woke her up, putting their fingers on their lips to let her know not to wake her younger brother and sister.

“What is it, Mama?” Tala asked, rubbing her eyes with the backs of her hands.

“We have a surprise for you,” her mother began.

Tala wrinkled her nose. The smell of alcohol was on her mother’s breath.

“Really?”

“Yes, it is a good one,” her father agreed.

He rubbed his hands together, looking right and left at the tents belonging to the Knights of the North Legion. They were traveling merchants and had stopped to spend the night with the military, selling their wares before they moved.

“Can I sleep after?”

“Yes,” their mother reassured. “You’ll get to sleep with soldiers watching over you.”

Tala didn’t know what that meant, but she trusted her parents. Tala’s father held her hand and she took it, stumbling to her feet. He guided her through the camp, swaying from side to side. They came to a stop at Commander Caiden’s tent, one marked by the blue and gold flag of the Knights.

“I brought her,” her mother said.

“Good!”

A woman emerged from the tent, and instead of being hit by the smell of alcohol, Tala was surrounded by the pungent aroma of perfume. Looking up, Tala saw that the woman wore several layers of cosmetics—the most noticeable being the woman’s dark red lipstick that made her smile seem like the gaping mouth of a lion.

“Lady Eliza,” Tala’s father said.

Both of her parents bowed, so Tala attempted to do a clumsy curtsy. Eliza laughed.

“She still has much to learn,” the Commander’s wife observed.

“Yes, but is she acceptable?” her mother questioned.

Lady Eliza hummed to herself. “She will do.”

“Is our debt settled then?” her father said.

“Yes.” Lady Eliza snapped her fingers, and an old woman appeared. “Get this girl cleaned up. I don’t like my slaves to be filthy.”

Slaves? Tala wondered. What does she mean?

Tala wouldn’t understand for months afterwards. She was taken to Fort Kundur, where the Knights of the North Legion were stationed. At the time, her parents told her it was temporary, that she would work for a year for Lady Eliza and they would come back for her.

But as the years passed and her parents’ gambling debt continued to pile up with the Knights of the North Legion, Tala was smart enough to figure out that she would never be free again. She saw her parents once every year, and at that time, the most Tala could hope for was that they wouldn’t get further into debt. If they did, her siblings would be sold as slaves.

That’s why it surprised her when, during her eleventh year as a slave, Lady Eliza called her and the other slaves to her room within the Fort and made them an offer.