The Seven Sons: The Slave

Chapter 1

“Everybody get up, now!! It’s time to work!” yelled Talon, our master’s right-hand man. We all quickly started getting up. “I said everybody now!!” he yelled as he stormed towards Lucy, the four year old next to me and her sister. He grabbed her by her hair and yanked her up off of the floor. She immediately screamed out in pain but it was weak and barley noticeable.
He threw her on the ground and went to kick her but Gail quickly jumped over her to protect her from the kick, that went straight into her ribs but since she had become my best friend or as close to a best friend as I would allow myself to have, I taught her how to bear the pain without making a noise.
“Please, sir don’t hurt her she’s really sick!”I could tell Gail wanted to cry just like I did but she held it in, unlike me. I had seen this happen many times as I had been here since I was five, there was just something though that tugged on my heart strings though when it came to Lucy. So I did let one single tear fall from my face that slid slowly down my cheek and onto the dirt covered floor for the ill little girl, before I turned my head away.
My head snapped back when Gail whispered, “Sir, just make me do extra chores until she is better, I beg of you.” I knew that she knew that that was forbidden, that if a girl could not perform a task that was given to her then she was to be punished. It was even worse if you were the one who suggested it because then they would beat you till you were black and blue, then they would give the jobs that they usually saved for the male slaves. I quickly looked up at Talon knowing that he would not like that answer or he would do something a lot worst to Gail and her sister. He had a growing smirk that came onto his face because he knew that he would get to torture someone today; he always loved to torture people, especially us girls. Nobody knew why, except for me.
“Ok, then,” he said in a voice that sent chills down my spine, he carefully looked around the room looking at all the girls with that evil smirk. Each girl practically shaking all skin and bones, none of us looked nice we all had on burlap bags, messy hair that stuck any way it could. “You”, He pointed directly at me.
Unlike all of the other girls, I did not flinch away when he stalked towards me because I had known him for way too long and I know his deepest darkest secret. That doesn’t in any way mean that I am not scared, it just means that I didn’t show it. It was hard but I have also accepted this life, unlike many who haven’t.
I only accepted this messed up life because I grew up here. And in a weird twisted way, this was my home.
He quickly gripped my arm and pulled me up, his hand gently loosening up a bit. I didn’t make a single noise as he looked at me. “Since this one over here seems to want to disobey me then I have decided that she is going to take over her sister’s chores and your chores.” Most of the girls looked on in disbelief, wondering how I was so lucky that I didn’t have to do any chores but like I said I knew him and he wasn’t going to do that, no matter what I was to him. So when he got that sickly sweet smile on his face I knew that he was going to give me a job worse than clean the fourteen bedrooms and serving in the dining room.
“You my dear get to be the seven sons’ maid and it is all thanks to this girl.” He said then quickly dropped my arm and walked out of the room yelling that we had five minutes to be dressed and ready or else there would be punishment.
Gail immediately rushed over to me and threw her arms around me. I was not one for all the sentiment really. Through all the years, my heart had grown cold, I only cared about Lucy because she was so little and she was really sick. Also in that she reminded of myself when I was that age and I came here.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine you don’t need to worry about it.” I tell her even though I can feel the butterflies deep in my gut telling me that something is going to change. I can see the tears that are threatening to fall.
“I’m so sorry. Your too kind to my sister and I.” she said as she quickly threw her arms around me again. It was really starting to get to me with the hugs.
“Let—its okay.” I say once I quickly stopped myself before I snapped at her, I gently detached her arms from around my stiff body that wouldn’t allow me to hug her back.”Now get dressed before he comes back.”
She instantly pulls on the burlap bag that serves as a dress. I quickly change into mine wishing that I had better clothes since I am going to be the seven prince’s slave but knowing that there is no way that that will ever happen. I had just gotten my head through when the cellar door slams open again and Talon walks in with the five other guards. He stalks directly over to me and grabs hold of my left arm, pulling me closer to him as he starts to walk.
“All of you go to your designated guard to be given your jobs for the day!” he yells as he drags me out of the room, I stumble a couple of times just for effect, to make sure none of them catch on that he is being gentle towards me. Otherwise, if he did his secret that involves me would be out and that would be a disaster for the both of us. I only stumble until we are in another hallway where they can’t see us. Then he loosens his hold on my arms and grabs hold of my small hand, enveloping it into his large one. He leads me into a large bathroom. “Here take these,” he hands me a towel, “there’s clothing to change into after you shower on the sink. You have half an hour. We can’t have you looking like this in front of the prince’s and their guests now can we?”He says as he gently chuckles, placing his hand on my cheek. I flinched away slightly even though I knew that he would not hurt me. When I saw the pain in his face I allowed him to place his hand on my cheek again, where he gently wiped off some of the dirt.”Remember, Miranda, thirty minutes.”, then he leaves the room, giving me one real smile. I know that if I was anyone else that I would not be getting that smile from the “big, scary” Talon. Well at least not a real smile, but instead his evil smirk that can scare even the biggest of men. If I was an ordinary slave, he wouldn’t even be that gentle or nice, but that’s the secret. I am not an ordinary slave.
Nope, I was sold into this life. Most of the time a slave, is born into a lower class, so that is how they become slaves. This is the life that they were born into, while I was not. My parents were higher class. I only knew my mother for one year because after I was born she got really sick and then when I was two she disappeared and no that is not just my father or brothers way of being nice to me.
After she disappeared our father decided to be cruel to us so he started beating me and my brother. When he started getting more violent towards me and my brother, my brother decided that he had to leave because he needed to get a new life for me so he ran away. Since he was ten and I was only two almost three, he knew that I couldn’t come with him. He left me a note that explained everything to me. He told me that when I was older, when I could read that note that I would understand why he had to go and that he would come get me when he had the chance. Unfortunately, fate didn’t allow that to happen because after he left our father decided that it was all my fault that both of them disappeared, even though I was only two years old. So until I was five he would beat me every day, saying that he just loved me that much; since I was only a little kid so I didn’t know that that wasn’t right. Then, when I was five he finally got tired of me and sold me to the slave runner at the castle, so I have grown up within the dirty basement cellar of the castle for the past nine years of my life.
I scrubbed away all the dirt that clung to my body and making sure that my hair was completely clean. When I realized that I only had about five minutes before Talon would be back. I quickly dried off and dried my hair as best as I could, before I even looked at the dress.
I gently picked it up off of the counter where it had been sitting. I slipped it on without even looking at it then I quickly slipped on the plain brown gladiator sandals that were kind of uncomfortable due to the fact that I hardly ever was allowed to wear any shoes. Since Talon hadn’t come back, I looked at myself in the mirror.
The dress was pure white and flowed to just above the knees. It was pretty low cut and the back had a few cuts in it so my back was covered but you could still see parts of the small of my back. The dress made the golden parts of my hair stand out as it flowed down to my hip.
I jumped when the door opened and Talon walked in. He looked at me and what parts of my skin that were shown and I could tell that on any other girl he would like it, but I could tell that he wished that I didn’t have to wear it. When I realized this, my mood dropped a little bit.
“You look beautiful, Miranda, but I would much rather you wear that burlap bag with the dirt on your face.” My mood fell more, even though I had already knew that that was what he was going to say, but he said it just a little too harsh. When he saw this, he quickly edited what he said. “Not that you look ugly, it’s just that I don’t want to take you to them when you look as nice as you do, considering that you are way better looking than all of the princesses that are close to them.” When my face didn’t turn into a smile because I don’t smile except for a little bit and I was wondering what he meant, he came over and gave me a hug. It was really awkward because I didn’t hug back, it just wasn’t me since I had barred my heart off; so touching was not something that I was use to. Also because he wasn’t really the touchy-feely type of person, either.
So when he let go I gave him as big of a smile as I could manage, which I admit wasn’t much, to reassure him that he was okay. I could tell that he was relieved because he got his smile back. “Okay come on, the princes are still sleeping but you will want to have their breakfast set out for them and the lounge cleaned up before you wake them up.”

I quietly pushed the cart with their breakfast on it down the hall, my nerves building up on me. I paused right in front of the door, which led to the lounge where the table was that I would have to set everything up on, when my nerves almost got the best of me.
“Come on, Miranda, they can’t be as bad as everybody says. I mean, they are not even up yet so you have nothing to worry about.” After I gave myself a little pep talk to get going, I opened the door and gently closed before I turned around. I knew that it was going to be a large but I didn’t expect to be as large as it was. The room was very spread out and very manly. It was painted a very dark shade grey. There was a long table off to the one side that was a deep brown almost black, on the other side right in front of the grand fireplace was a lounge area that looked like it was used a lot. The room was filled with stuff to do, but I and I could tell that it was used quite often.
I quickly quietly set the table and cleaned the room so as to not wake them out. When I was finally done I could see the light pretty clearly coming through the window, so I crept over to the first room that had the name Ryker above it, hoping that since he was the oldest that he wasn’t as bad as the others, but who am I kidding, I am a slave why would he be nice.