The same kind of lights she had seen in the hallway lit up the room dimly at various intervals. It was getting darker though, late evening beginning to encroach.
So the first thing that caught Sable's interest was the window right opposite the door behind her. And, once she could hear nothing outside her door, she ran to the window and peered out through the glass.
The window was large and tall, easily large enough for her to climb through. But right outside the window was a steep drop. Nowhere to go.
Well, not that she would have been able to climb out and down, in any case. She didn't even know how to climb a tree.
And where would she run away to anyway? The forest surrounding her village? And would she even get that far? She had already forgotten the route the guards had taken from her village to the palace. And if, by some miracle, she did manage to escape and reach that far, considering what the consequences were for a village if they didn't give a tribute, no doubt she would be hunted down by both the villagers and the Black Queen.
She turned around, leaned against the wall, and crumpled to the floor in the tiniest heap she could manage. The room she was in was cold and large, larger than any room she had seen in her life. And now that she looked, she could see curtains drawn back to frame what looked to be a tall bed on her right.
Weirdly, there were also decorative rectangular cloths on the floor at various points. She almost went to pick them up and drape them over the chairs near the unlit fireplace on the left. But she stopped herself from moving anything, just in case she got in trouble for it. Better to just sit quietly in a corner and not disturb or dirty anything.
When minutes passed by with nothing disturbing the silence, Sable almost started relaxing, the optimistic thought that maybe she would be forgotten until morning calming her a bit.
And then there was a thump against the door, and a second later, a tall stocky woman in a dark smock and apron strode in, casually slamming the door behind her.
Sable scrambled up so fast that she hit her knee against the floor.
YOU ARE READING
The Tributes (Sable)
FantasyEvery couple of years, a girl from each village, town, and city in the kingdom is sent to the palace of the Black Queen as a tribute. And this time, twelve-year-old Sable is the one to go from her village. Sable can't say she's ever been particularl...
