The Bess

Part 4

Cara was slowly going around Aisha treating with partiality her appearance. The child stood in a puddle of mud not far from a hen coop. Her face and arms were in mud too. Her dress was dirty and the hem was torn. An empty bucket rolled on the ground.

"Look at you. A week had passed and I didn't touch you except your first day when you were serving me. What I see? You burnt you leg, you have a gash on your arm. I don't even mention all the bruises and scratches you have. How could you be so clumsy?" Cara's blue eyes pierced the back of girl's head because she guiltily examined the ground.

"I'm sorry, Mistress Cara." She forced the words to escape her mouth.

"I'm the head of the Mord'Siths and I have the lamest slave ever!" Cara continued her execution.

"But I do my work well, don't I." the girl protested looking her Mistress in the eyes.

"Yes, and this is really surprising. You didn't know how to plait one's hair, and now you make me a French braid. Other slaves tell me that if you don't know anything they show you how to do it one time and you do it better than people who've been doing this work all their lives."

"Why are you disappointed the?" She asked Cara.

"How do you manage to do that? How do you learn so fast?" The Mord'Sith interrogated her slave.

"I don't know. I just do. That's all." The girl answered.

"Where did you get so many bruises?" Cara continued asking questions.

"Swift learning has some disadvantages." Aisha shrugged her shoulders.

"What happened here?"

"I slipped and dropped the bucket." The child mumbled.

Of course it was a lie and Cara knew it very well. Every Mord'Sith had the right to punish each slave in the castle if she considered the job was done horribly. Slaves who spent years here also punished the new ones only to make them respect their work. But there was another disaster for weak slaves – girls Mord'Sith, who continued their education. They have been treated rudely and they have been tortured from morning till midnight. It was a part of education, breaking the girl was the most important occupation of a teacher. They were trained with a mixture of torture and pleasure and this training made their minds explode. Children' fragile psychic broke and they became beasty creatures with no mercy in hearts. Hate and malice ruled in their heads. All the slaves were afraid of young Mord'Siths. Their games were cruel. They liked to make fun of weak people. Their jokes were terrible. They wanted to show their power but their minds produced only one way to show it by jeering at their prey. Aisha became a prey too. Cara saw her a few minutes ago. The girl wanted to pour fresh water into hen's basin. Two young Mord'Siths pushed her. She lost the balance and fell on the ground in the puddle of mud. The girls started to laugh at her. Aisha stood up, but one of the Mord'Siths hit her burnt leg with a stick and the child fell back again. When these girls saw Cara approaching them, they quickly disappeared in the forest. Older women knew about these games and sometimes punished the students if the slave was damaged badly, but they also knew that this was the only entertainment those girls had. So, sisters of the agiel tried not to pay much attention to the games.

"Go, wash yourself, change in other clothes and wash your dress. Then go to Paula, she's a seamstress and ask her to show you how to sew the dress. I don't want my slave to look as a pig." Cara ordered.

"And you don't even hit me or smack me? I mean others do this with pleasure if I do something wrong." The child asked surprised that she didn't kick her or pull her hair.

"Why? Do you want me to do it? Do you like pain?" the Mord'Sith asked curiously looking at the girl.

"No, but as a see it's a tradition in here to smack slaves for every little mistake they do." She answered.

"You are already black and blue, besides, it's not me who will wash your clothes and mend your dress."

The girl took the bucket ready to leave but Cara stopped her.

"Aisha!" She said.

"Yes, Mistress Cara."

"I want you to sit near the training ground and watch the Mord'Siths training when you'll be polishing my boots." She told the girl.

"Why?"

"It's an order. I don't want my slave to discuss it!" Cara hissed.

"I'm sorry, Mistress Cara, I will." Aisha turned away and strode to the castle.

Day after day Aisha served her Mistress. She cleaned Cara's room, polished her boots, cleaned her leather, plaited the braid, brought water to the shower and took away the chamber pot. These weren't all the duties she did in the castle. Every Mord'Sith could give her an order and if she had free time she had to carry it out or she would be beaten. She cleaned pots in the kitchen, washed floor in the bathrooms, fed poultry and pigs. The girl was everywhere. In the evening she crawled to her straw mattress almost exhausted. Every cell of her body aching but the child didn't complain. She did her work with pleasure though bruises were multiplying because of two young Mord'Siths for whom she became their own prey.

It was an ordinary morning. Aisha helped her Mistress to dress up, combed and plaited her hair, then cleaned the dust from furniture and took the chamber pot to pour it out. She headed along a dark hall for servants to the boghouse when suddenly two girls with agiels appeared from nowhere in front of her. She stopped.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Christa, a thirteen year-old Mord'Sith, asked with a jeer taking out her weapon. Aisha made two steps back but Tabita, a twelve year-old girl was already standing behind her back.

"Ghost takes outside her Mistress's leftover." Christa grinned wickedly.

"Let me go!" the girl with white hair said softly licking her dry lips.

"You have to call me Mistress Christa!" the girl shouted and slapped a ten year-old hard across the face. Aisha nearly dropped the jordan.

"Please, let me go, Mistress Christa." She begged her torturers.

"Not until you drink it." Christa told her prey coldly.

"I won't do that!" Aisha hissed and Tabita poked her neck with the agiel. Pain embraced the slave and she got to her knees. Christa was quick enough to take the jordan from unclasping hands. The pain was so severe that the girl lost her breath but she didn't open her mouth because the Mord'Sith took off the lid and was ready to pour the urine in her mouth if she cried aloud. Christa tried hard to open girl's mouth with her free hand but she couldn't. The tormentor took her agiel and jabbed it at Aisha's shoulder. The girl couldn't resist the pain anymore. She cried aloud and at this very moment contents of chamber-pot were poured on her face.

"Enough!" a voice from behind commanded.

Young Mord'Siths took away their agiels immediately. They were caught. Nevertheless they were satisfied with the trick. Aisha was vomiting on the floor. Her face and dress was wet with urine, her body was shaking though she didn't shed a tear. This frustrated two girls a little.

"Disappear!" Berdine ordered and two girls run away as fast as rabbits. "You!" She watched Aisha trying to stand up. "Clean up the mess and wash the whole passage with soap!" Berdine left the slave standing in the dark hall.

That night Cara heard sobs coming from Aisha's room. It was the first time since her education when the girl sobbed uncontrollably. The head of the Mord'Siths didn't come to the child's room to soothe her though she knew quite well what had happened. Berdine wanted to torture the young sisters of the agiel severely but Cara forbade the woman to do so. She had other plans for Christa and Tabita.

To be continued

I know, this chapter is rather harsh as well as children at many schools throughout the world.