The Serpent's Chains

Sabine

The streets of Vagar were filled with dancers and performers dressed in glittering, colorful costumes and masks. Musicians played drums and rattles through the streets and fireworks illuminated the sky. The entire capital had turned into a bazaar. I couldn't stop staring at the colors and lights.

"Keep your head down and walk!"

The thick end of a club struck the back of my head. I stumbled forward, caught myself, and kept shuffling. My ankles were bound with shackles and chains; each step was slow. In front of me and behind me, several other slaves were chained to me in one long line, heading toward the palace.

For the rest of the country, it was a great celebration. For someone like me, there was nothing to celebrate. I was on my way to an auction, and according to my master, I was the main event.

He ushered us through a door that led to an underground cell. Royal guards from the palace patrolled the corridors with long spears.

I saw the other cells packed full of slaves. We'd all be presented to the royals and nobles. Anyone that wasn't purchased would be sent to the prisons instead.

"Wait, not her."

My master stopped the guard as he tried to shove me into the cell with the others.

"Put her in a cell of her own. She's going to get me a pretty penny and I don't want her to get bruised. It will bring down her price."

The guard nodded. He unchained me from the others and pulled me down the corridor to an empty cell. The cell door clanged closed and the guard smirked at me.

"I bet she's a real beauty under that grime. Some noble will pay a lot to get between her legs."

I cringed and turned away from the guard's gap-toothed grin.

"If you want to make a little extra off of her, I'd give you three hundred gold for some alone time with her before the auction."

My stomach turned and I stared at the moldy, damp wall of the cell. The guard's keys jangled and creaked as he unlocked my cell.

"Not a chance! She's far more valuable to me for her magic and she's not to be touched, got it!?"

I never thought I'd be relieved to hear my slave master's voice. Slowly, I glanced over my shoulder and saw my master shoving the guard away.

The guard scoffed. "She's probably worn out, anyway." He stormed off.

My master came to the cell door and beckoned me over. Obediently, I went to him. He reached through the bars and grabbed the slave collar around my neck. A clunky, iron ring magically imbued to keep me from running away and from using my magic, unless my master allowed it.

"If you do anything to embarrass me again, I'll see to it that you're sold to a brothel here in the capital, and these royal guards are insatiable."

"I won't..."

"Damn right, you won't. I don't want another incident like the one that got you into this mess."

I nodded and bowed my head. I couldn't look at his fat, round, greasy face anymore. He'd been looming over me since I was nine years old. Unlike other slave masters, he preserved my body for the sake of my magic and allowed me to study magic that would benefit his own agenda.

One spell went wrong one time, and I lost his favor.

My ribs still stung from the beating he gave me but he was careful not to touch my arms or face. As he said, bruises bring down the price.

I waited in the underground cell. Above me, I heard the roars and cheers of the crowd mixed in with awful animal roars and the sound of clanging steel. It sounded like the gladiator games were in progress. The slave auction would begin once the last fight had been determined.

"Alright, you scum, time to get up into the ring and pray the nobles are feeling generous with their purses. Otherwise, it'll be you in the fighting rings next!"

The disgusting guard came back down the corridor, tapping his spear against the cell doors. They rang violently, shaking the entire dungeon with concussive force.

We were let out of the cells and all the slaves were ushered into a round room with a platform on the floor. The guards got all the slaves into position but held me back.

"You're going up on your own." He smirked and waggled thick, black eyebrows at me.

I cringed away but held my tongue. There was no reason to give him an excuse to do anything to me. Not that he needed one.

The platform trembled and large ropes fed through pullies. It lifted off the floor and the ceiling opened up as the elevator lifted the slaves into the large amphitheater above. Dirt sprinkled down, plunking against the guard's armor and clinging to my hair.

The elevator platform returned without any of the slaves and I was pushed onto it. The elevator lifted me into the amphitheater where another guard grabbed my arm. He hauled me to a post in the center of the ring and adjusted my chains so my arms and legs were bound to it.

The other slaves were in a long row on either side of the post, putting me at the center.

I glanced around at all of them. Their heads bowed and spirits broken. The slave masters walked up and down the line, poking and prodding at their merchandise.

The stands in the amphitheater were primarily filled with commoners who liked to see a spectacle. Straight ahead of me was a section blocked off specifically for the nobles. At the center of the noble section was a smaller area with a large cabana reserved for the Agyion royal family.

I could see the king and his children under the cabana, all dressed in colorful, elaborate clothing.

The auction began and one by one, the slave masters described their merchandise, talking up their abilities. Nobles sent emissaries to put in their bids and slave after slave was hauled away to be given to their new masters.

I wondered what my master would say about me to instigate a bidding war. His entire goal was to maximize his profit off of me. I was his most valued slave. The capital, from what I heard, was full of free mages.

A magical slave was different... someone who would be obligated to do whatever their master asked, whatever spells or magic. Free mages couldn't be forced.

As grotesque as I found it that my master planned to use my magic as a selling point to earn a larger profit, it was my magic that saved me from a much worse fate.

When I was nine, my mother, a free mage, was approached by a low-level thug. He wanted her to use her magic to help further his ambitions. I couldn't remember much but I remember hearing my mother refuse and tell him to leave our home.

After that, she told me how dangerous it was for women to have special abilities that powerful men would want to exploit.

I thought that was the end of it, but the thug returned with his mercenaries and they overpowered her. I hid under my bed and listened to them ravage her and beat her to death.

They ransacked the house and found me. I tried to defend myself with magic and the leader decided to spare me. He slapped a slave collar on me and I'd been his property since, doing his bidding.

My magic gave me favor and priority over his other slaves. He'd rent me out, for a profit, to perform magic for others and use my magic for his own benefit. It spared me from ending up in a brothel or becoming a hard labor slave or sex slave.

It didn't spare me from the beatings, starvation, and restricted life as someone else's property.

In the end, what saved me also ended up condemning me to this auction. My master forced me to make a potion for him, one that would make the woman of his dreams fall in love with him. He said he'd gotten all the money, power, and prestige he wanted. All he needed was the perfect woman.

I knew the consequences if I failed, but I loathed the thought of any woman being forced into a life with him. I purposely made the potion wrong.

Of course, my master didn't know until he made a fool of himself in front of her. After that, it didn't matter. I pleaded with him, telling him it was an unintentional mistake and that sometimes magic goes wrong.

None of my spells or potions had gone wrong in the past, so he didn't believe me.

"I have a special treat for you all today." My master's voice pulled me from my reflection. He circled around the post I was chained to.

I noticed that he looked directly at the royals under the cabana as he spoke.

"Here, I have a rare bloom indeed. A magical slave, one bound to servitude and who must do whatever you wish. I've let her study magic, and she is indeed powerful."

A ripple of gasps went through the nobles and I heard the jingling of coins. It sounded like there were a lot of interested buyers.

"Imagine a mage at your beck and call. To always fulfill your needs, no matter what they are." My master chuckled and pressed a riding crop to the front of my torn, filthy dress.

He wiggled the leather tip against my bosom and ran it down my stomach. I clenched my fists behind the post.

"A highly accomplished mage. Use her as a defense shield, to spice up your home menus, to help grow your profits. She can do it all."

I glanced into the crowd. Several nobles were practically salivating at the idea of getting their hands on me. The bidding war my master wanted was on the brink of erupting.

Closing my eyes, I silently wished it would all be over soon. Wherever I went after this, it didn't matter. My life wasn't my own.

"If you would care for a demonstration of her power..."

Hushed gasps went through the crowd. A few yelps of terror echoed in my ears. Even with my eyes closed, I felt a dark shadow cast over me and heard the heavy beat of wings.

My heart thundered in my chest and I opened one eye, glancing up.

A massive, scaly beast fluttered down into the ring. All the slave masters, my own included, jumped out of the way. Even the other slaves clamored away.

My bones trembled in my skin as the dragon set down in front of me. He folded his wings, his clubbed tail whipping back and forth close to the royals' cabana. Deep, crimson scales reflected the light of exploding fireworks in the darkening sky.

I struggled against my chains and the post but I was stuck in place. Even if I could move, I knew my jelly legs wouldn't get me far and I couldn't use my magic with the damned slave collar.

The dragon lowered his head, fixing me with a red eye, rimmed in spiked scales. My heart threatened to break my ribs. Instinctively, I pulled against the chains, the metal digging into my skin.

This was the crimson dragon, Talon. Even a slave like me knew who he was. Bound and devoted to the War Dragon himself, prince and heir of Telasia. I'd never seen a dragon before, least of all one that devoured soldiers off the battlefield. He was so huge, his hulking mass the only thing I could see.

Talon licked his lips and leaned in closer, parting his massive jaws. Warm breath blasted over me like a fierce wind, my hair whipping around me. Sharp teeth as long as my body obscured my field of vision and all I could see was his gaping maw and forked tongue.

As I stared into the dragon's mouth, I thought that being devoured by a great beast was more appealing than being passed off to another slave owner.