Ви Корс - The Mist and the Lightning. Part 17

“Can any of you speak?” Asked Karina. “Or have all your tongues cut off?”

“I can, lady,” said one of the slaves.

“And they?”

“They can’t. I am in charge here, they obey me.”

“Good. What is your name?”

“Uh-uh … a slave, lady.”

“Just a slave? Don't you have a name?”

“No.”

“But this is very inconvenient. Let's call you something. What name do you like?”

“Do you want me to choose a name for myself, lady?”

“Yes.”

The girl froze for a second:

“I don’t know…”

“Maybe let's call you Diamond?” Said Karina. “After all, you are from the Ore town, where diamonds are mined.”

The slave hesitated:

“And then maybe better Gold, if possible, lady?”

Karina laughed:

“Of course! So, you will be my slave, and your name will be Gold.”

“Thank you, lady.”

“You know the customers of the reds better, tell me what to wear for the holiday so as to look dignified. My husband’s father will be there, he is very strict.”

The slave immediately handed Karina a very beautiful cape embroidered with silk and precious stones.

“Oh, no, not that! Is it possible to wear something other than a cape?”

“Then the mask, lady.”

“Excellent,” Karina muttered, “one is not better than the other. Okay, what mask?”

“I'll bring it in now, lady.”

The girls quickly ran out and very soon returned with a whole box of all kinds of masks. Karina chose one of them, the mask was completely made of gold, but light and delicate, like thin lace, and it covered only the upper part of her face, leaving her lips and chin open.

“This?”

The slave nodded.

“Yes, lady.”

“Is it decent?”

“If your husband doesn’t mind, then it is possible to wear it for a festive evening. But not on the street.”

Karina looked at the slave:

“Take off the cape.”

She seemed taken aback:

“But I can't do that.

“I order, take it off. If the lady ordered it, then you can.”

The girl lifted the top of her cape over to reveal her face. She turned out to be red-haired and freckled and painfully reminded Karina of her former Lis. How cute he was! Nikto ennobled his appearance, but at the same time deprived Lis of his personality. But his bright fiery hair suited him so well! But Karina understood that if it was possible to return everything, Lis would never agree to this.

“Oh, you really are golden!”

The slave looked at Karina, and her face was cheerful, her amber eyes sparkled with fervor, it seemed that she didn’t suffer from her inferior position. Although Karina could imagine with horror what it would be like to be in her place. Being a slave to the Reds is even worse than being a slave to the unclean.

“Send these girls away, stay with me only you. And get me a bath.”

“Okay, lady.”

“And get me a bath.”

Karina undressed, and Gold involuntarily stared at her decorated body with round eyes. Due to the fact that the slave woman spent her whole life closed from head to toe, she didn’t know how to control her expression at all, and all emotions were reflected on her face, like she was a child.

“Why are you looking as if you feel sorry for me?” Karina smiled.

“You are so thin, lady, well, that’s nothing terrible, rest, gain weight. And then I'll bring the pads, we'll insert them in the front and back.”

“I can do without all this heap of rags and an artificial ass. No, I don’t need it!”

“And the breast?”

Karina looked at her chest:

“Yes, you can get a little in the breast,” she agreed.

And the slave looked at her with undisguised pity and sympathy.

Karina washed and put on her underwear, the slave tightened her corset so tightly that Karina could hardly breathe. At the same time, when she convulsively inhaled air, the corset creaked.

“No! No! I'll suffocate, tighten it looser!”

“But then your waist will be completely gone, lady.”

“Send it to hell!”

“Then let's make the skirt more magnificent?”

Gold smiled, as if laughing at her new and so wrong mistress.

“Why are you laughing? Drink some wine!”

The slave took the glass extended to her with two hands and obediently drank it to the bottom, her cheeks immediately turned red. She handed Karina a few crisp petticoats.

“Eh, I have already put on a bunch of them!”

“Then let's put on hoops under the skirt.”

“Are you kidding? I won't get through the door through them!”

“Hee-hee…”

Karina looked in the mirror, she quite liked herself this way. The dark red dress made of precious brocade was beautiful and perfectly emphasized, as Karina believed, her ideal figure.

The maid watched her with interest and chuckled softly.

“Why are you giggling?”

“Sorry, lady.”

“Have you ever seen black women?”

“I have seen them. But only slaves.”

“I was a slave too,” said Karina, “but then my master fell in love with me, set me free and married me.”

Gold widened her eyes:

“Is it possible?” Her surprise was so strong that she even forgot to add “lady.”

Karina brought her wrist to a brightly burning candle, a thin monogram lit up on it with fiery paths.

“See? I was marked with fire. Long ago.”

Gold was dumbfounded and silent, and now Karina laughed. Finally, the red girl came to her senses, and, apparently, the wine she had drunk also played a role, because she suddenly said:

“I also love my master.”

“Whom?” Karina was surprised. “Are you talking about Kudmer?”

The maid nodded.

“Yes. About sir Kudmer.”

“But he's fat… fat and ugly! A-ha-ha!”

Gold was embarrassed and blushed even more:

“He was kind. Tell me, was he killed?”

“No,” Karina answered, “as far as I know, he was sent to prison.”

The slave sighed with relief and handed Karina the tightly packed bags:

“Here, madam, this is for the breast.”

“I inserted it already!”

“Sorry, lady, but it seems that this is not enough.”

“And if they fall out? No. I want to relax and have fun, not watch my boobs.”

“Hee-hee…”

The slave beautifully styled Karina’s hair, making a high hairstyle. Karina put on an openwork mask on her face:

“Hmm…”

The slave smiled:

“Yes, very beautiful, lady.”

She covered Karina’s head with a lush, dark pink translucent fabric that went down almost to the floor in the back, and in the front to the middle of the chest, and put on a high precious tiara on top.

Karina froze:

“Also a rag!”

“It's a veil, lady.”

“What for?!”

“But you must be covered, lady.”

“I have put on a mask!”

“The mask is not closed enough, and the veil is always required. It’s translucent. It suits you very much, lady.”

Karina lifted the veil from her face up, but then it covered a beautiful high tiara.

“Damn,” thought Karina, “okay, I'll look around there and then take off this veil to hell.”

“When I become queen,” she said so self-confidently, as if this issue had already been decided for a long time, “I will abolish these idiotic laws that humiliate women. I will cancel all these rules. No one will wear a cape, a mask, or a veil, neither free women nor slaves. Yes!”

Gold looked at her in amazement, but tactfully remained silent.

“And they will stop cutting and stitching women, in general, somehow changing them, cutting off their tongues, mutilating them. Whoever dares to do this will be immediately sentenced to death, but first, on the square in front of everyone, he will also be cut off, let him suffer! Why are you looking like that? Don't you believe that I will do it? My husband also thinks he respects women! And he will bring another order!”