28

The villagers stared at us with pity, the kingdom of Tersian didn't look so different from Aeradon, they had our kind of trees and even houses were constructed the same way here.

For a different kingdom, I thought a few things would change but it looked the same. When we were on the outskirts, everywhere was silent, and only a few people lived there which I believed were knights because, in Aeradon, only knights lived on the outskirts as protectors.

But as we went further, we passed the marketplace. It was huge and bloomed with people who went about doing their daily trades to earn a living, the noises that came from the buyer, sellers, and children that ran all over the place made me insane.

Although as we passed through, the noise subsided because all eyes were on us and everyone shook their heads. I overheard a woman say to another,

"They have brought the people for the sacrifice,"

And my heart skipped a beat. One thing that I knew about the Tersian was that they sacrifice human blood to the gods unlike we Aeradonians who used the blood of animals.

"They can't be this many unless the gods requested a stream of blood enough to flood the entire village," the second lady spoke.

Although my heart came to rest because I remembered the reason we were captured in the first place, if the king refuses further, we may become victims.

We passed the marketplace and were taken to a huge field that I presumed looked like a battlefield and I wasn't entirely wrong because there was evidence that proved it was once used for battles.

The field was big enough to house a community of over five hundred people because I didn't see the end. The Tersians had captured less than two hundred Aeradonians so I believed that they would keep us there and I wasn't wrong.

When we all had entered through a large metal gate, the leader of the knights hopped down from his horse along with the Princess and stood to address the crowd.

"Listen, all of you!" He yelled.

"For the meantime, until your king comes to his senses, all of you will stay in this field, don't even think about running away because the end of the field has been covered by a spell to keep you in, trying to break through it could kill you. "

" However, we chose to be kind to you so if you look around, you will see tents, you could set them up for yourself and live inside, from time to time we would pick some of you to go out and work, as you can see this is just a battlefield if you don't want to die of hunger then at least fifty of you would go out to work and return with food."

The crowd murmured, but they could not complain else they may die of hunger.

"Quite!" He yelled and continued.

"If your King chooses not to care about your lives then we shall take them until he agrees, mind you we won't tolerate any violence among any of you or disobedience because that means death! " 

He laid so much emphasis on the annihilation of anyone who was faulty and that made us afraid because we knew the King of Aeradon was a stubborn one.

When he was done speaking to us, he instructed everyone to go find their tents and set them, and he also mentioned that he would return to pick some men to work.

The crowd dispersed as everyone tried to find a tent for themselves, but they all walked like they were I'll and it was because of how tired and hungry they were, even I felt the same way.

"Hey, Princess's handmaid!" A knight called me from behind and he laughed alongside several other knights when I turned around.

I wondered why they laughed until I realized that they made fun of me when I had told them earlier that I was the Princess's handmaid but they didn't know that I did none of those things on my own.

"Come over here!" He commanded and I had no choice but to obey.

I walked towards them slowly and hoped that they were not going to do anything traumatic to me.

When I stood before them, the knight who I assumed called me, grabbed my arm and brought me closer to him and I felt his bad breath on me.

"You know you are beautiful right?" He asked me but I tried to free myself from his grasp instead of replying.

"It's no use, just behave and I may spare you, you know you are the only brave one here, the way you punched that man was impressive, I could teach you to become a knight as well, " he uttered and everyone laughed hysterically.

" Let go of my arm!" I yelled and I was surprised because he did.

" Oh I've let you go, I'm so afraid you may beat me to death," they all laughed again and I was so annoyed.

" Hey, leave her alone, come over here, girl!" The leader of the knights called out from afar where he stood with the princess.

I sighed and tried to imagine what he was calling for, even as I walked towards him, I heard those knights mock me from behind.

"And there goes the Princess's handmaid hahaha," they laughed.

"What is your name?" He asked me when I got to where he stood and held the princess.

"Sage my lord," I responded and I didn't take my eyes off the floor. 

"You will come with me, the Princess would stay with the king in the palace, you may have to stay with her as the handmaid," even though it wasn't a good thing that we were captives, I was happy that I wasn't going to stay around where those knights would have frustrated me.

"Let's go, and walk fast please," he ordered.

The entire episode turned out the way I hadn't expected, none of it was part of Adriel's plan because I thought he was going to save the Princess and me but it made me captive as well.