Chapter 4

I was staring into the beast's Glowing Blue eyes, his back facing me, but his head was turned to the side, his eyes at the very corner of the whites. His mane of hair was blowing gently in the free wind. I look down the body of the King, seeing the thick hairy legs, leading down to goat hooves. I couldn't see the front of his body, or his whole face, so I couldn't exactly know what he looks like.

I smile after my shock wears off, and I wave at him through the window. I could see the puzzled look on his face, I was about to smile again, but there was a banging on my door. I snap my head over to the area where the noise came from, running to the door leading to the hallway, leaving the King wondering what happened. I throw open the door, seeing the same maid that collected me for dinner, was sobbing, leaning on my door frame.

"Whats happened? Whats wrong?" I ask, embracing her. Her tears once again wetting my nightgown.

"My brother... He-h-he." she breaks down sobbing again.

"Hey, bring me to him." I tell her, knowing somethings up. She starts sprinting down the hall, bursting through the servant door, leaving it open for me. I sprint after her, hot on her heals, running down the steep staircase, The dark making it hard to be as fast as I could be. I see her throw open a door, me squeezing past it before it closes on me. We run past the gardens, and the stables, into the servants courtyard where the servants sleep and live on the palace grounds. We still are sprinting until she reaches the courtyard, where a twelve-ish year old was chained to a thick wood cylinder, a man behind him, bringing a whip down on his naked back. I yell, seeing the horrid scene, charging at the man, I see servants come and look my way, but I don't spare a glance as I tackle the man, taking a whip to the cheek. I unsheathe my dagger from my thigh, placing it at his neck.

"WHAT IN GODS NAME ARE YOU DOING!" I scream at him, putting pressure on the handle of the dagger. I stare down into evil little brown eyes, a craziness hue to them. The man had a smirk on his face, showing off his decaying black and yellow teeth.

"Punishing a servant." He spits in my face, I close my eyes, getting angry, I wipe the dirty spit from off of my cheek, picking the man up by his shirt and throwing him across the yard. "You three!" I yell, pointing at three servants, two males and a female. "Uncuff him, get him to a house with medical supplies." I order, I watch the disgusting human being try to get back up, but I kick him down with my bare dirty feet. "How does it feel like to be kicked down by other people!" I yell. He gets back up and I let him, throwing my dagger up in the air and catch it.

"I'm going to kill you!" He growls. Lunging at me with two hands, I side step, ducking under his hand, successfully dodging him.

"You cannot win." I tell him, flipping my knife again. smirking at his angry bull face.

"And why's that?" He growls, having listened to me. I smirk, egging him on. He tries to punch at me with his right, I outward block his hand, open my fist, maneuver my hand around his arm, pulling him towards me at the bicep, punching his exposed throat. Not enough to kill him, but enough to knock him down.

"It's because I-" I lean down and whisper this, closer to his ear. "Am Isla Valakia. Daughter of Aliax and Lara Valakia." He looks up at me, still clutching his throat, his eyes full of fear. I smirk at him, walking away from him,

"He'll live." I tell the people still watching, "But he will spend the rest of his days in prison for abuse to children that are not his kin." I look over and see the boy still in the courtyard, not being treated, just held by the little maid of mine. I run over, sheathing my dagger.

"Why isn't he being treated right now?" I ask. The three I called over to help him look at me, and one of the males step forward. "My lady, we do not have any medical supplies in any of our houses." I furrow my eyebrows.

"Then we need to take him to the palace, can one of you pick him up?" I ask them. They all shake their heads no, the boys then turn around, explaining why by lifting the back of their shirt up. I see the same whip wounds on each of their backs, but theirs are infected from not being treated.

"God." I hiss out, feeling emotional pain.

"Who else here has been whipped and needs to be tended to?!" I yell to the servants still watching us. I see almost all of the young ones raise their hands, and then most of the older ones. Including a grandma looking maid I've seen around the castle. I look at the boy.

'Yeah, I can carry him.' I think, "I want all who are injured to follow me!" I order them, leaning down to the boys level.

"Hey, hey." I say softly, caressing his sweaty face. He opens his eyes barely, still weak from being whipped. "I'm going to have to pick you up, okay?" He nods. I look at his sister, and she nods, stepping away from him. I put my hands under his arms, turning my body around as I pick him up, placing him on my back. I hear his groans, feeling horrible. "You need to wrap your arms around my neck, okay?" I tell him gently. He follows my instructions, locking his hands together. I move one of my hands from his armpit to the back of his thigh, quickly moving the other one after. "Ready? We're going to start moving now." I tell him. I could feel him weakly nod against my back. I hoist him up, starting to walk back to the palace, the servants following me like a parade. I could feel every stone and prick on my feet now, but I didn't care, I had a job I needed to do.

As we make it to the grand entrance, four men pull open the door for all of us, I hurriedly walk inside, seeing the guards stationed beside the door, watching as fifty or so servants walk in behind me. "My Lady?" One of them demands. I turn with the boy still on my back, weakly clinging on. "Which is the fastest way to get to the medical wing?" I ask them. One steps forward.

"Follow me ma'am." He says, speed walking in front of me, walking behind the staircase, down the black hall, almost hidden from the rest of the palace, and he opens the wall at the end of hall. I gawk, staring at it. "Walk straight until you see a door handle, that's where the medical wing is."

"Thank you." I tell him, already speed walking into the darkness. My feet

I use one hand to open the secret door, slamming it open, waking up the three nurses stationed. I place the boy on the nearest white hospital bed, purposely placing his back facing me, so he was laying on his stomach. "All of you who are infected or injured, lay face down on a bed, unless your wounds are on your front. The nurses will tend to you." I tell them, pointing to the beds and then the nurses, giving them a narrowed look. They quickly nod, each one heading over to a different bed, now occupied by injured servants. I look at the boy, seeing the nurses grab cloth from a high bin, cutting it into squares, and soaking it in a liquid in a silver bucket.

I see the same silver bucket at my bed, I pick it up and place it on the white side-table, smelling the fumes of the liquid. It's alcohol. I start cutting the strips into rectangles, making them the rough length of his wounds. I soak all of them in the alcohol, taking one out and placing it on his back. He starts to groan. "I know it burns, I'm sorry, but you'll get infected if we don't do this." I tell him, placing another one on another wound. I do this until all of his slices are covered, and then I take off the first one, grabbing a cloth and tweezer, cleaning the dirt around it, and pull gravel out of the injury. I flip the cloth over, the one I had taken off of his first wound, and place it back on his slice, cleaning it more, eating away infectious bacteria.

I do this for each of his wounds, telling him I'm done once I pull off the alcohol stops, drying his back with a clean cloth. He nods, not yet taking his teeth off of the pillow.

I move to the next person, it was a girl, her shirt still on, but I could see dark red splotches where the blood when through her shirt. I grab scissors, moving over to her. "I'll need to cut off your shirt, okay?"

She shakes her head, turning to look at me, "It's the only shirt I have." She says.

"I'll give you two of mine then." I tell her, smiling. She nods, giving me permission.

I cut off the now-red shirt clinging to her back, peeling it to the sides, looking at the extent of her wounds. There were welts all over her back, hand prints around her hips.

I suck in the air that escaped my lungs when I saw the prints. I squeeze my fists. Trying to control my anger. Women and some men had these when my mother and I volunteered at the local no-charge hospital. I move over to her line of sight, squatting down, staring into her teary eyes. I move my hand to caress her wet cheek. "Who touched you?" I whisper, very gently so she wouldn't get scared.

"Mr. Bogarhd." She whispers back, sobbing silently.

"Is he the one who was whipping everyone?"

"Yes, he was the one you beat up." She tries to joke. I smile at her, petting her hair.

"I'm going to treat your wounds now, is that alright?" I ask her. She smiles, nodding. I stand back up and treat the wounds on her back. I see a cut on her arm, so I just quickly treat it and wrap it with a small piece of cloth. I tell her I was moving on to the next person, but I saw the secret entrance crack open, I was behind the door, so whoever was behind it couldn't see me. I quietly speed walk over, I look to see if anyone was looking, and then I open the door, slipping inside. "Hi." I tell the glowing blue eyed huge man/beast. He had started slipping deeper into the shadows, away from the light emitting from the crack of the still slightly open door. I close it and fold my arms. "You've been a horrible spy." I tell him, smiling. I could see his human-like face, he had saber canines, his lip curling up at me. I see that his nose was more of a humans, his face was hairy, no skin that you could see. His hair was brushed back, but it was a mane of hair, like a lions. I move my eyes lower, seeing that the hair thinned out at his hairy-but human- torso, only covered by a long coat hanging by the sides of his body. His legs were bare, and the dark fur lead down to black hooves. "Are you done looking at the Beast?" He growls, stepping back more.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to insult you, I've just never seen you this close before." I apologize, just looking at his face now.

"Why aren't you running, screaming and crying?" He asks.

"I'm not one to scream or cry Your Majesty." I jest. I could see his lips twitch up, but then they got under control.

"And I would've done that three days ago, my first day here where I saw you through the portrait." He gawks. I wink at him, turning around and putting a hand on the door handle. "Your eyes are extremely gorgeous." I tell him, opening the door and slipping through the crack I made, shutting it lightly, most likely leaving him confused in the dark.

I make it over to another bed, telling the patient that I was going to treat him.

I did this for hours, even in early morning, where the clock had dinged, because there's no way it could get lighter in this cursed castle.

"Miss Valakia?" I hear from the door. I turn to see Benjamin gawking at me, seeing my blood covered hands. I was currently stitching up a deep knife wound that had gotten infected, the man was the last one awake in the hospital, the ones that had lesser wounds having left already, and the ones who had the more sever wounds were asleep, having been cared for also. "Yes Advisor?" I answer, not looking at him, threading another stitch through Richie's skin. He was on morphine, so he couldn't feel anything. "What are you doing? Its almost breakfast time! And what are you wearing!" He sputters out.

"I'm stitching Richie up, and I'm wearing my nightgown right now, as I was needed when I was getting ready to sleep, also, I have been working all night, so that is why I haven't changed." I tell him, finishing Richie's last stitch, tying it at the end well, and then wrapping gauze around his shoulder, covering the stitched wound. "Now, I want you to stay here for at least three days, I'll ask the other servants take over your chores, but you obey and get some rest alright?" I tell him bossily, pointing a finger at him. He laughs, saluting me with his good arm.

"Yes Ma'am."

"Good, now, I need to get dressed and head to breakfast, I didn't know it was mandatory being there." I joke.

"Have fun with that My Lady." He says, I smile one last time and walk over to Benjamin. I check the clock, twelve minutes till breakfast starts. "I'm going to get dressed, I'll be down in nine minutes."

I tell him, running to the secret exit, knowing there's a way to the knight portrait, and with my immaculate sense of direction, I find it in two minutes. I run into my room, stripping and showering, pulling the chain to get the water flowing, and then getting the grime off of my feet and then my whole body, not washing my hair this time, I'll do it tonight. I hop out and dry off, four minutes left. I throw on a simple purple dress, one that I have loved for what seems like forever. I pull on black flats, throwing my hair up in a messy bun, pulling the sides out, so the pieces frame my face. I run back downstairs, using the real way this time, making it in ten minutes. "One minute late Miss Valakia. Tut, tut." Benjamin states, shaking his head in a joking manner. I chuckle, walking into the room where the kids are already sitting down.

"Good morning." I greet them, smiling at each of them.