(From Ella's Perspective)
When we were cleaning the twentieth bedroom, a woman with blonde hair in her thirties came to the room. Jed and I were talking about his crush's liking and disliking that he had found out as much as he could.
"You need to clean the library and the roof as well," she said in an unnecessarily loud voice.
"But we are supposed to clean the bedrooms and bathrooms only," I said.
"The other servant... she is gone. So, you need to take over her duties as well. It's the king's order," she said.
"What happened?" I asked, feeling a hint of dread inside.
"His Majesty... she was reluctant to be a slave even when the king's father, His Majesty, asked her to. It was her punishment," she said in a low tone as if she did not want even the flies to hear.
"Did he kill her?" Jed asked.
"You wish... anyway, don't waste any more time. Go and clean the library quickly. The king said he will go to the library in the afternoon. It needs to be cleaned before the time," she said and left.
"What do you reckon happened?" I asked Jed, keeping my eyes on the woman's back as she was walking away with quick but little steps.
"He raped her most probably and hit her with hot whips. That's what they do when someone doesn't want to be a slave," Jed replied.
I sighed. For fear? I did not know. I was trying to imagine myself in her place. It felt so horrible. Being raped and then getting hit by a hot whip was not better than death. In that case, I would choose death without a second thought.
"I will go clean the library and you better go to the roof. It will take less time if we work separately. Besides, if we are together, we talk a lot," I said.
"Yeah, that's a good idea. Just be careful," Jed said.
"Yeah, sure. I'm always careful," I said giving him a tight smile.
The castle had four floors. The library was on the third floor. As I made my way towards the library, I looked around at the castle's beauty. Even though Jed and I cleaned all the rooms, none of us ever looked into the closets or any other stuff in the rooms. I had my curiosity, but talking to Jed passed my time and gave my curiosity a bit of rest. But I planned on looking into the things from now on. I needed to know everything I could, to give Leandro information and also to satisfy my curious mind.
The wood railing of the corridor had little designs on it. To my horror, there were drawings of Orgades as they fought. Orgades were, in my opinion, the ugliest creature of all. Even thinking of their black hairless skin with green mossy slime on it made me want to gag.
The door of the library was made of oak just like all other doors in the castle. All of the doors were very big. The doors were very strong as well. For strength or ornamental effect, I had read that these doors featured a double layer of timber forming inner and outer boards, often arranged in opposite directions.
There was a huge ring in the middle of the door. It was not as big as the one in the front door of the castle, but it was not small either. I pushed the door open with both of my hands. The door was heavy, especially for someone of my stature.
But the sight that emerged in front of me was worthy of the strength that I had to use to push the door open. The library was huge, even bigger than the local library in my town.
The bookshelves looked like giants guarding the source of knowledge. They were at least twelve feet tall, if not more. There were a lot of ladders, leaning against the shelves. Books were crammed in each shelf, leaving no gap. I could not even make myself count the number of shelves. I was in awe, trying to bliss my eyes at the sacred sight.
Only one long table stood at one corner of the room beside a huge window along with two chairs. No wonder that not many people came to read here or were allowed to come here.
I cleaned the room up, wiping up the dirt from everywhere though I mostly read the title of the books and made an imaginary list in my head about which book to read. Perhaps I was not allowed to do so, but who cared?
One book caught my attention the most. I tried to ignore it so I could finish my work in time. I had even walked away from it, buy my head... I had to come back again.
The book was heavy and old, at least the title said so- 'The World Of Shadows'. I had a feeling that it was about the details of everything in this world along with its history and creatures. It was the exact thing that I needed to find out more about this world.
The book had a black thick cover with the title written in shiny gold on the head of it. There was no mention of the writer on the cover page. I flicked two pages thinking that the writer's name might be written inside, but no name was mentioned in the first three pages. It was not like I could recognize the writer by their name, but I just wanted to see who dared to finish this thick book without choking on words.
The cover was not smooth, rather it felt like running fingers over-sand. The moment I laid my eyes on it, I knew that I needed to read it, or my head was going to kill me. But I could not afford to read it here. Anyone could see me. And besides, there was not much time to read books here when I was supposed to clean the rooms.
Leandro had given me five drawings of secret passageways that led out the castle. I decided to take this book from one of those ways. But I was going to return it after I was finished.
I brought out the five drawings that I hid inside the brown dress that I was wearing. Leandro had given me two dresses that looked exactly the same. He said that those were his sisters who had died. But he did not tell me how.
I had to praise his skill in drawing. They were very clear and just perfect. I laughed in my head thinking what would happen if I tried to draw any of them. I would probably end up ripping the paper off or making a hole through it.
I examined the drawings. One route started from the dungeon, another one from a hidden door beneath the kitchen floor, two started from two rooms where I had never been, and another one, to my surprise and relief, started from the library.
He had written a description beside the sketch as well. God, his handwriting was amazing as well. Those sharp cursive letters slanting to the right were as perfect as they could get. There was no blotting of ink anywhere either. My handwriting was clean as well, but I tended to write in typing style with no sign of cursive or slanting.
The last shelf on the right side. Behind the shelf, there's very little space. Put your hand in that place and you'll find a handle-type thing. Hold the handle and push it to the left side. The shelf might seem heavy, but if you push it, the shelf will be divided in half and open up like a door. You will find yourself in front of a rectangular entrance. You will go in and pull the handle towards yourself. The shelf will return to its previous shape. You'll find a dark stairwell there outside the entrance. Be careful, because it's really dark. You can trip over if you're not careful enough. Be careful, alright? It's not like I care. I just need information and for that, you need to be alive.
And Ella, don't even think about putting both of your hands in the gap to try to see if you can free your hands even when the shelf is not opened. Just don't do this. The gap is not big enough. Your hands will get stuck. I'm telling you again. Don't do this.
And also make sure that no one sees you going through any of the secret passageways. Be careful all the time. No one should know about them.
Trying to ignore that part, I stepped towards the right side at the last shelf that stood as tall as the other shelves. As he said, there was a little gap between the wall and the shelf's back. I looked behind me and around the whole place to make sure that no one was there.
I put my hand inside the gap and truly, my fingers touched something metallic and cold. It was a handle indeed. I pulled the handle downwards and pushed the shelf to the left.
And it opened as if the shelf had a hinge in the middle of it. There was a rectangular entrance, but no one could see it from outside through the gap. One could see it only if the shelf was opened.
I glanced around once again to make sure that no one was there. When I was sure that I was alone here, I stepped inside the entrance. Then I pulled the shelf towards me by the handle. It came back to its previous shape.
The gap seemed to be big enough. I wondered if my two hands would fit there. Leandro's voice came echoing to me- Don't do that. But who cared? The gap was not too big, but enough for my two hands. I knew that there was no need to put my hands in there, but I still wanted to do it.
And once again, my curiosity won. I put my hands inside the gap. They seemed to enter pretty easily. But the problem occurred when I tried to pull them out. They got stuck. I felt getting sweaty all of a sudden. I tried to pull them out, but it did not help.
It was getting painful as I tried to pull my hands out of the gap again and again. Leandro was right. The gap was not big enough, not for both of my hands.
It took me at least ten minutes, a promise to myself that perhaps ignoring my curiosity was a good idea, to free my hands from the gap. My wrists had become red because of what they had been through because of my senseless curiosity. I felt stupid.
I wondered how Leandro knew that I would do something like this. He did not even know me properly or perhaps I was wrong. He knew me more than I knew myself in some cases.