fair,” he continued laughing.
They tied guys’ feet and hands and put them in a horse-drawn cart. Sophie was very scared, she was crying and begging to release them. Patrick tried to calm her down and promised that everything would be fine, and they would get out. The cart stopped after a while, Sophie and Patrick understood that they had reached the destination point.
“Lads, unload everything, take this girl and rat to the basement and lock them up there, let them sit there until morning. And don’t forget to give them bread and water, we do not need them starve to death before morning,” Edwin gave the orders.
They brought Sophie and Patrick to a dirty old house. It didn’t look like a house where people live, but more like an abandoned dwelling. They passed through the living room and approached the stairs up to the second floor. There was a door under the stairs, the scarred man opened it and let Patrick and Sophie down into the basement. Leaving he muttered, “Why all the hard work is always on us…? All that he does is giving orders: bring it here, unload it there, take it there. He always yells at us and calls us stupid losers.”
“Shut up, you whipping boy!!! Go on and tell him all this? And if you are not brave enough, just keep your mouth shut and do what you ought to.”
It seemed that the scar face was talking to someone, but no one was beside him. He left and slammed the door behind him. The basement was furnished with an old mattress, dusty blanket and an almost burned out candle lit by the scarred man on his way out. Sophie sat down on the mattress and began to cry.
“What shall we do?” she asked Patrick.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I think we should come with an idea, but first we need to eat and sleep a bit, and tomorrow we will see what we can do.”
Sophie broke off a piece of bread and gave it to Patrick, they ate a little and lay down on the mattress. Sophie couldn’t sleep for a long time, she was thinking about tomorrow, her mom and dad must be worried and already started looking for her. Patrick had been up most of the night, trying to figure out how to get out of the basement. He looked over the basement and saw a barred window.
“How about we try to remove the bars and climb out of the window?!” he asked Sophie.
The window was out of their reach, they looked for something to stand on, but they found nothing except two barrels against the opposite wall. Nevertheless, Patrick decided to try to move one of the barrels. Fortunately, the barrel was empty. Patrick and Sophie managed to move it closer to the window. Now they needed something small to use it as a platform to climb on the barrel, there was nothing that could serve for this purpose. Patrick suggested that Sophie climb on his shoulders, and she would try to reach the edge of the barrel with her hands and cling. Patrick put Sophie on his shoulders and threw her up with all his strength, but unfortunately Sophie couldn’t hold on to.
“Let’s try again,” said Patrick to Sophie.
They were almost lucky at the second time, but Sophie couldn’t keep the grab. They caught their breath and decided to try again. Patrick grabbed Sophie’s legs and threw her up as hard as he could. Sophie stretched her hands up as far as possible and clung onto the edge of the barrel.
“Come on, pull up!” shouted Patrick.
Sophie climbed up on the barrel and started pulling the bars. The bars were old and rusty, but in spite of it, Sophie did not manage to pull it out.
“I am too weak, I am not strong enough to open the lattice,” said Sophie.
“Try to pull it harder,” shouted Patrick trying to give confidence to Sophie.
Sophie tried as hard as she could, but all was in vain.
“Look, the bolts are almost out of the wall. Please try a bit harder!” shouted Patrick.
Sophie got a bit of sweat on her forehead; she was pulling on top of her capabilities. At that moment, Patrick first heard someone coming, and then the sound of the latch opening. It was Edwin. Sophie jumped off the barrel having landed on the mattress; they lay down and pretended to be sleeping. Edwin took the stairs down to the basement.
“Get up! We must go!” he shouted to Patrick and Sophie.
Edwin tied their hands to a long rope, and they followed him. They went up to the street and saw a horse-drawn cart along with a medium-sized cage in the cart, Edwin pushed Sophie and Patrick inside it.
“You’d better be quiet if you want to live,” Edwin said to Patrick and Sophie. “We’re ready, let’s go!” Edwin shouted at the driver.
The horses took off like mad. It was the scar face man who was driving the horses, all the rest were sitting in the cart next to the cage with Sophie and Patrick. The ride took a long time, first they were riding uphill, then through the forest, and then uphill again. Eventually, they saw castle walls and huge iron gates ahead of them, they passed through a small village situated close to the castle. There were sheep and cows grazing near the castle. A small path paved with quite uneven stones led to the castle gate. The horse cart with Patrick and Sophie approached the gate. Today was the day when traders gathered, and one should show a special pass to admit to the castle, the pass must be signed and affixed with a seal by Albert, the Minister of Trade and a slaveholder.
“Wait!” said one of the guards at the entrance to the castle. – “Show the pass!”
Edwin took out a scroll granting them the right to admit to the castle. The gate flung open and they drove in. Sophie saw a large market; it was not clear where it starts and ends. There were plenty of different buildings: armory, premise for soldiers and servants, gardens and snow-white fountains. The most amazing and fabulously beautiful thing was that this castle was built on the edge of a cliff, the castle’s observation deck offered a beautiful view of the mountains. But that was not all. The most important part is the tower and the castle itself, they were built on a separate small rock, a small wooden bridge connecting them was between two rocks. It was not allowed for peasants to reside on the castle’s territory, they were allowed only to visit it for trade. Mostly, the peasants worked in the fields and on farms, and the castle was maintained by servants and slaves brought there by Albert as a gift to the king. The slaves lived in terrible conditions. They starved, couldn’t take a bath, almost never rested and lived in basements. The servants had to get up at four in the morning and go to the main part of the castle, where King Louis lived with his daughter, Princess Milena. The servants finished their duties well after midnight. They were forbidden to stay at the castle’s territory at night. If the servants or slaves get caught by the guards, they see death.
Once, a family of slaves, husband and wife, were cleaning the castle yard from dry grass leaves and debris. They had to finish everything before dark, because it was the birthday of Princess Milena and a lot of guests were invited. The spouses did not make it on time, so they were punished and sent to a dungeon in the tower basement. The family was starved for two weeks, the guards scarcely brought them water. Two weeks later, they were released and transferred to the slave basement. The parents begged the guards to bring them just a tiny piece of bread for their daughter, because she might die, but the guards beat them for daring to ask for food. A dark night fell, and the father decided to sneak into a vegetable warehouse and steal some food just for his daughter and wife. He found the wire on the floor and used it to open a padlock, he looked outside and found that there was nobody on the street, no guards nearby. He ran to the end of the street in the direction of the
