Page 8 of Lich's Mate

It takes me a few moments to adjust and figure out what’s going on.

I reach out, gripping the wooden cage that encloses me.

The bars are sturdy. Around me, many girls and women from my village are in the same predicament. Some are bloodied, others are bruised, and we all carry the same fearfulness in our eyes.

Armed xaphan guards keep watch on this wagon that hauls us away. From here, I can somewhat see the houses of our village in the distance. Or what’s left of them. These xaphan bastards pillaged and burned down most of our hometown.

“Careful with them,” one of the xaphans warns the other, pointing at him with a spear. “You don’t want to damage the cargo too excessively. Gorran expects a hefty profit from this batch.”

One xaphan scoffs, swiping his tongue over his crooked, blackened teeth. “I doubt he’ll care if we have our way with one or two of these.”

He makes a step towards my cage, which makes me wince, but the speared xaphan growls and threatens him again with the spear.

“I’ll have your head if you mess with my profits,” he warns through gritted teeth. His feet inadvertently bang against the cage of the girl across from me. Her blue eyes are wide and she trembles violently. “I can easily explain to Gorran my reasons for killing you. Don’t tempt me.”

“Ah.” The xaphan grins maliciously. “Who knew you had such a soft spot for humans?”

“Hardly. But when they’re useful, I won’t let you damage them.”

So it’s true? They’re going to sell us all into slavery?

Beside me, sobbing and sniffling loudly, Miranda covers her face and digs her nails into her scalp. In the midst of the chaos, I think I saw her parents getting bludgeoned to death by one of the xaphans.

As much as I want to reach out and comfort the girl, that might only guarantee me a beating from one of the xaphans who want to keep us in line. Why did they target our village in the first place? What did we do?

“We’ll have to stop and feed these creatures eventually.”

“You worry too much about them! It’s sickening,” another says. “You didn’t care this much about the last batch!”

“We have a longer journey to travel. And if half of these creatures die before we step foot into the auction house, then I see that as a failure. We want to maximize our profits with them. If Gorran wins, we all win.”

“I suppose that’s true. With nightfall coming, we can stop and hunt. I’m not giving these human bitches a feast, though. They can do that themselves if they’re that hungry.”

A new xaphan’s voice joins the conversation. “And what if they try to escape into the woods?”

“Then we hunt them down and rip their heads off their bodies. A dead slave is much better than a disobedient one.”

The xaphans chuckle and laugh to themselves in agreement. Somehow, I muster enough courage to raise my gaze. That was a mistake.

One of the xaphan guards stares down at me with a sneer. He slams his spear into my cage, which sends me tumbling backward. My back strikes against the wooden bars, sending a shock of pain throughout my body. But the pain is nothing compared to the cut searing across my forearm.

What am I going to do? I can’t be a slave. I… I had so many dreams for myself.

One moment, I’m tending to the village garden, thinking of ways of feeding myself and my family for the foreseeable future. Next, I’m being dragged to the ground and hauled off as a slave with the rest of the young women in my village. Everything happened so fast, it still makes my head spin.

The wagon jumps, sending all of us tumbling around in our cages as if we’re a bunch of livestock. In the xaphan’s eyes, I’m sure we are. We only exist to make them rich, at the cost of our bodies, minds, and souls.

I’ve heard things about slavery. Older women in the village used to gossip while they sewed new clothes for the children, talking about the horrible things human slaves are subjected to once they’re in the hands of xaphans, demons, and other vile creatures.

Demons are especially grotesque. They have disgusting fantasies that they act out on their slaves, pushing their bodies to the extremes until they eventually die. It’s not rare to never see a slave again once they’re sold in the auction house down in the heart of the trading hub.

I never used to pay much attention to these stories because I figured that it would never happen to me. I can’t believe that I’ve been proven wrong in such a cruel way.

Did Kai make it to safety, at least? Where is my little brother? Did he manage to tell the next village over what happened to us?

“Shut the fuck up,” the xaphan growls, slamming his boot against Miranda’s cage. She only responds with more muffled sobs, covered by her hand. “I never knew humans could be so annoying.”

“They are! Why else do you think they’re great targets to sell into slavery?” the other xaphan asks. He sticks up three fingers, putting them down with each reason. “They’re weak, they hardly fight back, and they’re the easiest creatures to kill in all of Aerasak. Which means they’re all disposable.”

---