10 Chapter 10: I need your help

"Davina."

A soft voice called out to her. Her eyelashes fluttered before revealing her dark irises. Nightfall had already made itself present, basking the room in a dull light that poured from the window. In front of it, a dark silhouette appeared to have been cut out from the moonlit view outside. The shadow moved towards her, startling her for a moment before the haze on her mind faded away.

Had she slept all day?

"Nee-"

Davina was about to call out to her, when a sharp pain on her shoulder cut her words short. The girl ran to the bed, kneeling beside it.

"What did he do?"

Her tone was neither scared nor angry. Only sadness seeped through, but her face didn't betray her emotions. It was so stationary that Davina wondered whether the words had really come from her mouth.

The woman slowly sat on the bed, leaning her weight on her other arm with a grimace on her face.

"It was just as you said. The doctor came back alone this time. He seemed quite surprised to see me awake, and ran away. I was left on my own for a while, but after that he... He came. He tried to... Again."

"Did he succeed?"

"No. I did what you said and he was disgusted. He beat me afterwards. Worse than ever before."

Neera lit the candle on the table by her side, finally getting a good view of Davina's condition. Her dress was new, as the previous one had been sullied the day before, but it did very little in hiding all the bruises and cuts on her body. One of her eyes was forced shut from the extreme swelling, and there was dry blood on her cheek from a deep gash.

"Your arm is dislocated."

"I know. I tried to put it back in place, but my other wrist is in too much pain."

The girl grabbed the pillow on the mattress and put it up to Davina's face.

"Bite it."

"What?"

"Bite it. People will know I'm here if you scream."

"Why would-"

Without waiting anymore, Neera shoved the pillow into her mouth, grabbed the limp arm and pulled it sharply. It was all so fast that Davina barely had any chance to cry out before hearing the joint pop back into place. Dropping the cushion, she held her pained shoulder, evening her ragged breathing before speaking again.

"Thank you."

Neera simply nodded.

"How did you learn how to pull a dislocated joint like that?"

As a Ronna warrior, Davina had seen this maneuver before, even practicing it herself on some of her comrades when the need arose, but it wasn't a generally known technique, specially for such a young child.

"The Duke did it to me a couple of times. He enjoyed dislocating my arms many times in succession, so I learned how to fix it from watching him do it."

Davina looked at Neera. Here she was, laying in bed, pitying herself, while this child had endured even worse horrors than she could even imagine. Her dead eyes showed how broken she was way better than the scars on her body ever could. The thought of this small girl enduring this same pain over and over was unbearable.

She finally regained her determination. She was a Ronna. She was a warrior. She was a woman. She would not rely on this child for consolation anymore. Children were meant to be protected by adults, not the other way around.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because I knew you were against him too. Everyone in this castle is so used to the current flow of power that they do not even question it. The women in the harem believe that being assaulted is their responsibility, and that their bodies are to be exploited for the Duke's pleasure. The attendants see us as nothing more than objects, and nobility titles define your worth as a person. I resent all of this."

Neera clenched her fists.

"I understand that the Ronna culture does not consider gender as an impairment, nor do they maintain a blood-based hierarchy. You were born away from all of this, so I expected you wouldn't accept it."

"What do you intend to do?"

"I don't want to be a possession anymore. I will leave this place soon, but for that I need your help."

----

"Greetings, Count Evernon. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to meet with me."

"You brat, stop wasting my time. Where is the contract?"

Neera and the Count stood in the same secluded inner garden of the castle from their previous meeting. The flowers were unkept as it was rarely frequented, and the trees had been so neglected that the branches grew excessively thick, providing some cover for this rendezvous.

"Here it is."

Receiving the contract, the Count skimmed through its contents, quickly finding what intrigued him the most.

"Laurier? That is your master's last name?"

At the bottom of the paper stating the terms and conditions of their agreement, "D. Laurier" had been written in a bold and beautiful cursive.

"How come I have never heard of this man before?"

The girl softly smiled. Her gaze irked the Count profoundly.

"My Master has only recently arrived at the dukedom, and they have kept to themselves quite privately. I wouldn't be surprised if others didn't recognize Master Laurier since they work through intermediaries such as myself."

She could see the reluctance in the Count's face. It was understandable as he was practically being asked to sign an investment contract without even knowing who his investor was. Still, she didn't fret. Neera knew the Count was running out of options.

After his outburst in the open assembly where he received the Duke's rebuttal, the whole court had turned its back against him. Following their lord's implicit command, they alienated the county from business deals, raising tariffs and even outright cutting supply and demand between their fiefs in order to diminish the Count's influence. It had only been a day, but trade had already began to fall in the Evernon territory, and the future looked even grimmer as she had heard de Duke's close aides speaking of raising the relief funds to the fiefs supporting this initiative per their lord's request.

The reason behind the effort of attacking the county was clear to Neera. The Duke knew that Evernon's business proposal was actually quite profitable, and it was only a matter of time until he found an investor. If another dukedom heard of the idea, they could even use it to their advantage, placing a ghost investment and watching how the entirety of the nobility turned against Duke Laurendt. It was the perfect opportunity to rid themselves of one of the kingdom's strongest competitors for the hegemony of the nation while filling their pockets at the same time. This tactic was meant to pressure the county, dissuading Count Evernon from pursuing his project.

"So? How is it? Are you willing to sign?"

Even if he didn't like it, the Count knew the rope around his neck would keep tightening, making his situation more unstable by the minute. If he stalled any longer, his bargaining situation would only worsen. Fifty percent was quite high, but the investor's cut could be risen if he noticed his desperate need for capital.

'If it weren't for that damned coward of a Duke, I would've never been in this situation.'

"Alright."

The girl handed him a simple fountain pen and he begrudgingly wrote his name in both copies, giving one back to her.

"You can come and retrieve the capital in a week's time. I will bring it here myself."

He just nodded and turned to leave. He wanted nothing more than to abandon this place and get away from that dreadful girl.

'I feel like my life got sucked out of me.'

Today had been nothing but stressful, and he still had to deal with the thousand problems that awaited him back home. At least now with this investment he only had to stay strong until the revenue from his trading started pouring in. Then everyone would fight to get in his favor in order to access the cheaper grain. He just had to wait a bit longer and he would show all those prideful bastards the enormous mistake they had made!

Watching his back, Neera clutched the piece of paper to her chest.

Her eyes glistened with pride.

She ran back to her room and lifted a floorboard underneath her mattress. Inside, a small wooden box appeared. She had stolen it more than a year ago from the castle's storage room since it contained the fountain pen and the bottle of ink she used. Now, it was the home of all the valuable trinkets Neera had collected over time. A button, the alphabet Alea had written for her when she was teaching her how to write, a drawing of a flower both girls had thought was pretty last spring, a branch from the bay tree outside her window, her stationery, some ointment and bandages she stole from the doctor's office, and now the neatly folded contract.

She carefully put the lid back on and put the board in its place. This was her treasure volt that not even Alea was aware of.

The idea of her friend made her frown, but she shook those thoughts away and spread the papers and books Elron had given her, focusing on the assignments and only stopping to light the candle on her bedside when the light from the window was too dim for her to see.

When dinner arrived, Neera had already hidden everything and was laying in bed scrunching her face and groaning softly.

The maid didn't give her a second glance and simply placed the tray beside her, leaving as quickly as she had come. This was Neera's favorite moment of the day. After the maid left, she finally could light a small fire with some branches she had collected from outside, warming her cold toes in front of the flames and placing the lukewarm plate on her lap to eat her dinner.

No one would come until morning, and she could finally close her eyes and settle in bed with the light from the fire dancing over her eyelids.