Chapter 4

Lucy clutched her face and fell to the floor.

At first, she seemed too stunned to react.

A few seconds later, the tears came streaming down.

“Chris—”

She sobbed as if her heart were breaking.

“She hit me. She actually hit me...”

Chris's face darkened instantly.

He hurried to help her up.

“Lucy!”

The guards immediately pinned me down.

After a long moment, he finally turned around.

“Lily, I know you have a temper.

“But even I have my limits!

“You'd actually hurt your own sister just to get my attention?”

The guards held me down until my knees almost touched the floor.

Impatience flashed across his face.

“Do you really have to make such a scene?”

I stared at him, barely recognizing the man before me.

Then he pulled a sheet of parchment from his coat.

It was my slave contract.

“You seem to have forgotten your place.”

He unrolled the contract.

“Then as your master, I order you—

“Kneel! Apologize to Lucy.”

I stared at the paper without a word.

Seven years.

How many reforms had I led in those seven years?

I had reformed the agricultural tax system and designed the coastal defenses.

I'd led the planning and construction myself.

I'd repaid everything I owed him many times over.

I had never brought up the contract.

Because I trusted him.

Now he had taken that trust and turned it into a leash.

How ridiculous.

I shook my head.

“Never.”

Chris's face went completely cold.

“Fine.

“Since you still refuse to see reason, you can think things over in the iron cage.”

Several guards hauled me up and dragged me outside.

As we passed the city gate, the servants who used to bow to me turned their faces away one by one.

Someone even spat at my feet.

At the shore stood an iron cage.

It was only waist-high and covered in rust.

The territory used it to hold runaway slaves.

At high tide, the sea rose just over the prisoner's head.

Wave after wave would wear them down until they lost all their strength and died in despair.

I had never imagined Chris would subject me to the most humiliating punishment of all.

Chris stood in front of the cage and drew a deep breath.

“If you kneel and apologize now, it's not too late.”

His tone softened a little.

“Lily, you're only doing this because you want my attention, aren't you?

“I promise you, once she's pregnant, I'll make you lady of this land again.

“Will that finally make you happy?”

I still said nothing.

That seemed to exhaust the last of his patience.

“Guards, lock her in. Maybe that will bring her to her senses.”

The chain dropped into place.

The first wave had already soaked the hem of my skirt.

Chris didn't leave.

He stood outside the bars as if waiting for me to give in.

“Let me know when you've come to your senses. All you have to do is apologize.”

A guard reached to lock the door.

Whoosh!

An arrow came whistling in from the sea.

It sank into the guard's forearm.

He screamed and let go.

My head snapped around.

On the horizon, the silhouettes of several ships broke through the thick fog.

Black pirate flags snapped in the sea wind.

At the center of each flag was a raven with its wings spread.