Chapter 1 : The Punishment
Waking up to the call of birds and the screams of farmers urging their helps and sons to be up and about the duty of the day wont be so bad ,if the Etherian sun doesn’t come out so early and isn’t so scorching even at this early hours of the morning .
Today is the start of weeding at the cane farm and am totally tempted to just lie still on my lumpy sleeping mat and disappear into the beautiful places in my head,but who says a farmer enjoys such privileges in our world
If the light and steady footfalls of Nana isn’t enough to get me off the bed her constant screaming of my name is sufficient to do the task,i got up and started wearing the brown scratchy gown every farmer girl is known for as i pretended not to be aware of her presence in my tiny wood cottage”zeriena you can be anything but not mean enough to allow me to face the early morning flirt of old mr wallace sons alone” she said to my back
My only reply was snort and a small laugh”laugh one more time and the monster of quamaria will have your head for breakfast”she screeched .
He will have to come down from his high and mighty throne from above us to do that and i am sure he has cleaner things to eat than me , i said while smiling at her ,Nana took my hands and smiled back at me,she took a look at us and concluded we are truly and thoroughly dirty making us to break into fits of laughter drawing more attention than necessary to us,we laughed all the way to the iron gate and sobered up,beyond the the farmers living areas we are not allowed to laugh or engage in any frivolities and fun times
Farmers are expected to work all day under the supervision of the inquisitors .Everyone and everything in Etheria knows their place and position,well except me. The helpers work in the royal homes and in the palace to earn their keep and the farmers work the field ,definitely in better position than the helpers,they don’t get beaten as often as helpers ,for helpers abuse is an every day thing,if a master decides to have sex with the wife of a helper he will do so forcefully without any reprimand and such is our world. There is also the craftmen like carpenters and blacksmiths the lucky ones who are rewarded with little money and enough food and allowed to live their life as they please ,then there is the wretched wicked inquisitors who violate the people of Etheria all in the name of keeping order,they are only answerable to the king and the masters.
The caste system in etheria is very organized and there is no marrying outside your caste or moving out of it yet the king assures us eveyday that we are free people and there is no slavery in etheria that you only find such things in quamaria.
Once outside the rusted creaky iron gate with our farm tools in hand nana starts whispering of the rain we are expecting today ,the thought of feeling the water on my skin today is enough to energize me for the day ,It rains at etheria every thirty days as allowed by the people of quamaria that live in a world above our own ,the quamarians are a bunch of magical monsters that thinks its okay for us to work and for them to receive our harvest for twelve times of rain a year,they are the reason for the caste system and all the suffering in Etheria.
My thought and nana’s whispering was cut short by the high pitched wail of a child,followed by that of a woman. We ran forward to where the crying was coming from and saw an inquisitor flogging a woman and a child that looks about five years of age.the site broke my heart and increased my hatred for this uniformed men ,i was so bitter that I didn’t know when I screamed stop and ran in between the inquisitor and the woman , his magical baton hit me straight on the face,it stung so much that i became a little dizzy,when I recovered the next minute ,there was complete silence the inquisitor was looking at me with shock and murderous intents “the child was singing out loud and the mother let him and you had the nerves to stop their punishment,i shall punish you in their place “he bellowed ,nana pleaded and was dragged away by her parents hence she face the same fate as me ,and i was happy they took her away.
As the inquisitor raised his hand to hit me the baton i closed my eyes tight expecting the sting and pain but nothing came i opened my eyes and a burly bearded inquisitor was standing just behind the first one and he shouted”she is the king’s bastard you will not harm her physically with your hands ,she shall work in the fields at night today and work till dawn and still continue to work till the next day, maybe she will learn her lesson “Mama leena and pa samwell , Nana parents at this point looked like they were close to tears ,and he continued to say that ser albert the inquisitor who wanted to flog me will over see my punishment.
Well done zeriena i said to myself as i was being dragged away,the punishment wasn’t my problem i have served worst punishments more time than i can count in the past and more will occur in the future as I can’t stand any form of injustice without doing something,a curse that will ensure my demise very early,my only problem was that i will remain in the field while it rains making it impossible for me to wash my other two gowns till the next rain ,i wont even be able to save my drinking water before the inquisitor comes for their mandatory water collection from every farmers cottage
Inquisitors are allowed only two helpers and for them to have enough water to bathe everyday till the next rain day they will have to collect the farmers water leaving farmers to shower only once in thirty days ,sometimes people hide small quantities when they can , apart from the mandatory drinking water they are expected to keep.
I sometimes wonder why quamaria wont give us more water ,tales told by mama leena says that they have water up there and their lands are not expanse of sand and dirt like ours but water in solid form as well as lots and lots of flowing bodies of water.
I was taken to the area the men worked , i weeded till noon while occasionally stopping to stare at boys being whipped for stealing glances at my exposed legs while I worked,I can’t fault the inquisitors for that ,most farm boys are perverts with no time to properly teach them how to behave farmers kids are left to do as they please,i smiled to myself as one of mr wallace son took a slap for winking at me,my smile did not go unnoticed by ser Albert,”what are you smiling at wench? Comes night fall you will stop smiling “he chuckled to himself and earned lots of mumbled curse words from me “comes night fall bastard i will be here with you and i might ride you like i ride my horse,beneath all that dirt is a beauty we all know that”I shivered in fear at his words ,of everything i am willing to bear in my twenty three years, sexual assault is not one of them,if i decide to lay with a man i will find a clean farm boy after a rain day and do the deed,but i wouldn’t because i won’t be a party to subjecting another innocent child to a life like mine.
I decided to focus on the weeds and imagine that they are the inquisitor standing guard at my back while cutting them with all my might.Hunger is a constant part of my life but i am much more hungry today as I didn’t eat the previous day,as i thought of hot pork stew and a thick bread i felt a splash on my back which changed to a heavy rainfall before i could straighten and look up,there was shouts of joy everywhere as people hurriedly left the farm to their residential areas,this is the one time farmers can get noisy and happy without punishment even the inquisitors are as excited as everyone else ,the first 5 minutes its start raining is the time when everyone in etheria is equal,same feeling of relief and joy for all castes.ser albert ordered me to remain working and dont step out of the rain while he goes under the shade of a large tree, i knew he will surely get drentched in no time so i waited till he lost his patience and told me to remain working till he comes back ,the moment i stoped seeing his back i ran straight to my cottage.
