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Aleuta

Jule no longer understood the world.

Not only was he attacked by a green-haired monster, who looked awfully like one of the frightful Flizers, he was beaten by it and lying on the filthy ground spitting dirt from between his teeth. When the creature raised the stick aiming for his head, for one fleeting moment Jule feared for his life. It was a feeling he had never experienced before and it left him slightly shaken.

When the creature was finally subdued and thrown on the ground, Jule's fear was replaced with humiliation, and there was no stopping it. He had been defeated and embarrassed before his friend, Reas, who stood nearby holding his bleeding lip. It would have been half as bad if it had been only Reas. Jule could have easily ordered him to silence and nobody ever would hear about Jule's moment of shame.

But as it happened, it was not the case.

The scene had been witnessed by Minister Phorsis, the High Priestess and his cursed uncle Stenen, the only three people on the entire island who Jule felt slight respect for, although, if asked, he would always deny it.

The reason that he felt some respect at all for someone went all the way back to his childhood. They were the only three people on the entire island that could overrule his mother when it came to Jule's upbringing. Not even his father had that much influence. When one of the three had chewed on his mother's ears and planted some idea, there was no way even for Jule to convince her otherwise. And Jule could convince his mother of about anything. It goes without saying, that none of their ideas ever went down well with Jule. It was their influence over his mother, although he was sure that she hated each one of them in her own way, that planted in Jule fear.

It is not often that fear and respect go hand in hand, but in the case of a child that was hopelessly spoilt, only fear could ever create some resemblance of respect. It was therefore, the more humiliating for Jule's to know that they had witnessed his fall. The humiliation naturally turned to blind rage and all he wanted now was to make the culprit pay.

He vaguely noticed someone fretting over him, helping him to get to his feet, brushing the sticky dust from his cloths and hair.

"Prince Jule! Oh my! How could this happen?" the man cried hysterically over and over.

Jule looked at the short plumb man, recognizing Minister Hybenlook in him, Reas's father. The meaning of his words barely reached Jule. He pushed Minister Hybenlook aside and moved toward the creature.

"You!" Jule shouted in anger.

The creature did not pay Jule any attention. Her evil eyes were set on the man who had disarmed her, his dreadful uncle Stenen. Jule was too angry to ponder on why he was in Aleuta and no longer wore the red uniform of Leivrat, but the Aleutan black.

"I will make you pay for this!" screeched Jule lauder and grabbed a stick from the ground that had slipped out of his hands earlier. He wanted to throw himself at the creature and beat her black and blue.

Perhaps it would have been better for the girl if Jule had had his chance to let his anger out on her there and then. He would have forgotten all about the girl in a few days, convinced everyone that it was him who had beaten her all along and moved on to make someone else's life miserable. There were plenty other children for him to torment. But as it happens, Stenen, while meaning it well, had made the things terrible irreversibly bad for the girl. One day he would, of course, regret it, but those days were still far away.

"It's enough!" Stenen stopped Jule's approach. He ripped the stick away from Jule and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, fixing him on the spot by his side. Jule was not going to have any of this. His pride injured deeply, he was not likely to let this go easily. He tried to free himself, but Stenen only squeezed his shoulder harder.

"Let me go!" cried Jule. "I command you! Let go of me!"

Two of the guards, eager to make up for their earlier mistakes, threw themselves at the little monster and raised her to her feet. She kicked at them and tried to bite.

Once the creature was made to stand before them, Jule got a better look at her. With her green hair and the brown dress of a servant from which protruded terribly skinny arms and legs, one could have easily mistaken her for a Flizer. But he had never seen a Flizer with so much fire burning in their eyes. She was a Veilys alright. And she was possibly the ugliest girl he had ever seen. Dirty freckled face, hollow cheeks and sharp features made Jule feel the more disgust, and her ugliness only added to Jule's anger. This cruel creature dared to attack him! Him! The most important person in the whole realm!

"I will make you regret you were ever born!" Jule promised. However, the girl still paid Jule no attention. Her eyes were set on Stenen and Jule thought that he had caught a hint of recognition on her face, which he could not be sure of.

"Minister Hybenlook," Jule heard Stenen say. The plumb man almost jumped at hearing his name. "Is she the girl from Leivrat?"

"Yes, she is. The girl is a gift from the Queen herself! That is the honest truth," Minister Hybenlook was eager to explain. Large pearls of sweat run down his temples and he was visibly panicking out of fear that he might be somehow made responsible for this. "She attacked me, Captain, and then jumped out of the window and...," he said motioning towards the house. "...And then she attacked His Highness. Most wicked creature!" Tears appeared in the corners of Minister Hybenlook eyes, which occurred every time the Minister was too overwhelmed with emotions.

"She called me shit-face!" threw in Jule clenching and unclenching his fists.

"She did what?" exclaimed Minister Hybenlook and looked at the girl with much indignation. "How dare you evil creature call the prince "shit-face"?"

The girl remained mute and instead boldly scanned the crowd that had gathered around her. The Minister, the High Priestess and several guards were witnessing the scene. But only in the eyes of the blond boy she found no anger.

"Oh, pardon my prince. I didn't mean to repeat that..." hurried Minister Hybenlook to add. Worried that he might have said something he shouldn't, he stepped forward and slapped the girl. Of course he could not have known that this was her second slap that day. This time, if her arms were free, she would have jumped at him and torn his eyes out. Instead she consoled herself with throwing him looks that promised nothing good.

Her mute challenge directed at all of them, made anger like venom burn in Jule's veins and he flashed red.

"I want her to pay for this!" he screamed again, eager to get the matter settled.

"She will be punished, as she deserves for attacking a Prince of the Blood," said Stenen and nodded to the guards holding the girl. "Twenty lashes."

Dark determination settled in the girl's eyes at the sound of it.

"Her punishment should be death!" protested Jule, craning his head to see his uncle's face. "That is the law."

"The law does not apply to children," told him Stenen.

"I will tell my mother!' threatened Jule.

"You can tell her that I decided against destroying the gift the Queen herself had made to Minister Hybenlook," said Stenen, his jaw set firm. The look he gave the prince warned Jule not to argue further. But Jule was too fired up to care.

"When mother learns what the creature has done, she would want her dead."

"The Queen is not here to decide," responded Stenen. Jule stomped with his feet, ready to throw a tantrum.

"Surely you meant hundred lashes?" interrupted Minister Hybenlook, eager to mediate and thus do something to make himself feel like he had contributed to the resolution.

One could hardly blame him. Some of the most important Veilys in the realm stood in his courtyard discussing the faith of, as far as he was concerned, an extremely insignificant creature. Salty sweat ran down his plum cheeks and he nervously fidgeted with the rim of his robe. Somehow he could not shake of the fear that it might all turn against him. He had requested a guard for his youngest daughter after all and could no longer remember who planted this idea in his head in the first place.

"Twenty will do," said Minister Phorsis stepping closer. "And lock her up in the dungeon for three days."

The High Priestess gave Minister Phorsis a long look that no one noticed, but chose not to comment.

"Of course, of course, Minister Phorsis!" immediately agreed Minister Hybenlook and rushed over to where they stood, as if washing his hands of the whole situation.

Stenen told the guards to proceed. Jule continued threatening and demanding, but was ignored. The guards dragged the girl passed the crowd to one of the trees that flanked the courtyard wall. It was to serve as a whipping post. They bound her hands around the tree trunk and waited for the order to begin.

Stenen nodded.

The girl did not as much as flinch when the first stroke fell on her back. She did not cry out even when the tenth fell.

When Stenen administered twenty strokes to Jule, the prince cried like a baby after the first. Jule feared that Stenen was remembering the same. It only added to Jule's humiliation.

Jule cried. The girl didn't.

"Don't take pity on her. Hit as hard as you can!" called Jule to the guard that swung the whip.

The guard proceeded with lashing the girl harder. The longer she remained mute, the more Jule fumed. Jule tried to get free from Stenen's grip, without success. He felt the guard was not lashing the girl properly. Jule would make the girl cry.

When at last it was over, the girl didn't wait to be pulled up from her skinny knees, but did it herself. She raised her head in defiance and glared at the crowd.

"Throw her in the dungeon!" commanded Minister Hybenlook, eager to get the girl out of sight. She did not resist when they led her away.

Jule felt cheated.

"The girl has more courage than you," stated Stenen, removing his hand from Jule's shoulder. There was sadness in his voice.

Set free at last, Jule moved away from his uncle and gave Stenen a look full of resentment. But Stenen was not done yet trampling on Jule's pride.

"That was a very poor performance, nephew. From tomorrow on I will take over your training," he said. "It won't do that a little girl can beat you so easily."

"She caught me unaware," said Jule in an attempt to defend himself, thinking all the while that of course his uncle would never give it a rest now! Stenen and his brothers would surely have a good laugh at his expense tonight over dinner! Jule clenched his teeth and fists, barely able to contain his temper.

"That is no excuse. Your movements were sloppy. You were slow and your vanity got the worst of you. This won't happen again. If I don't see you on the training ground by sunrise tomorrow, I will drag you out of your bed myself." Without even awaiting a reply, Stenen turned his back on Jule and walked toward the High Priestess.

"What did your uncle say?" asked Reas, appearing at his side. "You look like you want to stab him in the back." They were both looking at Stenen who was now helping the High Priestess into the carriage.

"He said that from tomorrow on I am to train with him and all because of her." He motioned his head in the direction the girl had been taken away. "Tell me all you know about her!"

"She must be the girl from Leivrat everyone talks about."

"Everyone?" Jule repeated. He squeezed his eyebrows together, remembering vaguely some talk about some Leivratan girl. Since it had until today no relevance for him, he had not paid the talk much attention.

"The Queen sent her as a gift to protect my sister Xela."

"Why would Xela need protection by a green-haired monster?"

"My father believes ever since... since Orea died that..." It was still painful for Reas to mention the name of his dead sister. The boys avoided talking about her as best as they could, but there was no way around it now. "He believes that Xela's life is also under threat. Whether it is true or not, I cannot lose another sister. And it would be too hard on my parents to lose another child. Please know that it was love for his children, that made my father beg the Queen for help. This girl is what she gave us."

"Letting a Dust Girl into our city does not sound like something my mother would allow," said Jule. "I have been to Leivrat. They are all savages!"

As always, the mention of Jule's recent visit to Leivrat, made his friend Reas look at him with admiration. Reas, always rule abiding, did not want to hear anything about going to Leivrat when the boys had made their plans. Now, he was of course utterly envious and could not get enough of hearing about his friends' adventures in the old city of the Veilys.

"I still can't believe that an Orvat attacked you with a whip," said Reas.

"Mother has everyone looking all over Ailarin for him. I had injured the Orvat badly myself, as you know. He must be hiding somewhere badly crippled. Serves him right! Still, dead is the least the Orvat deserves. I will make them both regret they were ever born!" Jule announced and a wicked grin appeared on his face. He had of course lied about the fight with the Orvat, and the real culprit, his uncle was out of reach. But the girl was a very different matter.

***

A few days before, guards entered the cell where the little thief was lying beaten and hurt. Through the tearing eyes he watched the men remove the grid that covered the opening in the ground. Too weak to get up and event to speak, his gaze froze on the door they closed behind them as they left. The joyous spark that once lived in his eyes, vanished without a trace. His cut lips quivered, never to smile again.

But the time the Leivratan girl was led to her new home in Aleuta, the boy was no more.

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