The Dragon Prince's Slave

Chapter 2

Marietta

My mouth ran dry as I processed what the other guard just said. They were selling me to someone.

Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. I have to get out of here.

The guard roughly pulled me to my feet before I could form another thought and he scowled at me while he removed my shackles. “Stupid w***e,” he muttered as he quickly grabbed me when I was about to run away again and began to pull me towards the manor, earning a scream from me.

I kept struggling to get away from him but he was bigger and stronger and I hoped he wouldn’t hit me again because I had a throbbing pain in the side of my face which he had hit earlier.

“Stop making this hard!” the guard yelled as I dug my heels into the ground to keep him from pulling me further and he yanked me forward before throwing me over his shoulder. Tears blurred my vision because I couldn’t escape from this place and I resumed screaming as I pounded my fists on the man’s back.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. I had only gone to the forest with Crista this morning to get lotus roots and now I was going to get sold to some Lord. I cried even more as I remembered what the other guard had told the man that was currently carrying me, that the Lord wouldn’t pay them if I was sporting a nasty bruise. Wealthy people didn’t care if the girls they were purchasing had bruises except if they didn’t want to use them as slaves but as something else instead.

“Vita!” someone suddenly called out when we were almost at the double doors of the manor and the guard came to a stop while my head jerked in the direction the voice had come from to see two men dressed in a seaweed green tunic and leather pants were running towards us.

“I’m here to see Lord Greeves,” the guard announced after the men came to a stop next to them and they gave him a nod while I kept crying.

“He isn’t in the estate right now. He went hunting with the fourth prince and he won’t be back anytime soon.”

That made me a little bit relieved because we wouldn’t be meeting the man that was going to buy me anytime soon and that meant I wasn’t going to be sold now.

The guard set me back on my feet but still didn’t let me go and he sighed exasperatedly. “Okay then, I’ll come back with her when -” he stopped talking when the double doors of the manor were suddenly pulled open and a stunningly beautiful woman stepped out of the building with three servants behind her.

She was wearing an elegant blue dress along with expensive and glittering jewelry which made it obvious that she was one of the nobles living here. She frowned as she fixed her gaze on the four of us in front of the manor and tossed her hair over her shoulders.

“What is the reason for all this noise in my estate?!” she called out while the three men made a polite bow and I tried to get away again but the guard tightened his grip on my arm.

“This woman is a guest of Lord Greeves,” the guard replied as he pushed me forward a little bit and my stomach churned. I could no longer control my hands which were shaking in an odd trembling rhythm as the woman gave me a once over and I hoped she would decide to help me after seeing my distress.

“Is that so?” she asked and the guard nodded. “Leave her here.”

The guard tightened his grip on my arm again and I. “I’ll just take her to the guards’ building and come back with her when Lord Greeves is around.”

No, no, no. I didn’t want to go with him because that will further reduce my non-existent chance of escaping and there was no telling what he and his friends would do to me wherever he takes me to.

“I said… Leave her here.” The woman’s tone had an air of finality and the guard gritted his teeth before he let go of me after a couple of seconds. I took in a deep breath while rubbing the arm he had gripped tightly and gave the woman a grateful look. “Good. Leave my estate.”

The guard muttered something under his breath and stomped off to the horse-drawn cart before the woman and the servants behind her walked up to me and the two men that had told us Lord Greeves wasn’t around.

I sniffled and wiped away the tears on my face when the woman smiled at me. “Thank you,” I muttered. She had said this was her estate and since she was young, I assumed that she was Lady Greeves. She was even more beautiful up close so why did her husband want me?

“I’m going out. Get me a carriage,” she said to one of the men standing next to me as the horse-drawn cart began to leave the estate and the man hurried off before she glanced at me. “What is your name?”

“Marietta.”

She smiled again and faced the other man. “Take her to join our… former slaves at the palace,” she stated and the man’s and servants' eyes widened in shock as their faces became pale. That made me assume that what the woman just said wasn’t a good thing but even if it was, I didn’t want to stay in the Dragon Empire.

“No, no, I… I want to go back home. Please.”

“Didn’t you hear me?” she asked the man and he gave me a pitiful look before he also hurried off. My heart began to hammer against my chest as the hairs rose on the back of my neck.

Why isn’t she listening to me? I just said I want to go home.

“Listen... Marietta,” the lady started and I swallowed. “You might not know why that man brought you here but I do. My husband and I just got married last week and my company must not be enough for him since he’s already looking for concubines.”

“I don’t -”

“I need to assert some kind of authority in this house so I can’t keep you here because I’m not interested in sharing my husband and I can’t let you go because Vita would find you before you leave the empire and bring you here when my husband is around.”

“I will -”

“Today is the third day of the dragon festival,” she cut me off again and I remembered the celebrations I had seen on the street on my way here before she cleared her throat. “We already sent some of our slaves to the palace to be sacrificed to the dragons during the festival.”

My eyes widened and my mouth fell open. Sacrificed?

“I don’t want to keep you here and I can’t let you go either. I also want to teach my husband a lesson so he knows what will happen to any concubines he wants to have so… you’ll join the slaves to be sacrificed during the festival.”