The Sand Bride - Chapter 14
Esther froze. The voice wasn’t Karzhen’s. He never called her “miss,” and his voice was always loud. Yet, Esther had assumed no one else was around besides her and Karzhen. She quickly checked to make sure Karzhen was still asleep.
Karzhen was sound asleep. But the voice spoke again.
“Over here. Look below the window.”
Hesitantly, Esther leaned out the window. Though her waist ached from the strain, what she saw below made her forget the pain entirely.
“I have something to tell you.”
Tattered clothes, sunken faces, and emaciated bodies. They were the captives who had been taken with Esther.
As soon as she recognized them, Esther instinctively glanced back at Karzhen. The awe she had felt at the nightscape was replaced by anxiety. Her heart pounded. In a voice barely above a whisper, she asked,
“H-how did you get here……?”
The captives’ faces lit up with hope at her small voice. They had feared she might reject them, having grown accustomed to the comfort provided by the group’s leader. But Esther’s only concern was whether Karzhen would discover this meeting.
Reassured, the captives sighed in relief and huddled closer to the window. The healthiest-looking man among them stepped forward, his voice low.
“The bandits are all asleep. We snuck away while cleaning up after the feast.”
The captives looked uneasy as they spoke. Esther hunched her shoulders. Her throat was dry, and she glanced back at Karzhen to confirm he was still asleep before turning her attention to the captives.
“But why……?”
“We need your help.”
The man suddenly grabbed Esther’s hand. His unkempt hair and beard couldn’t hide the desperation in his eyes. Esther swallowed hard. She didn’t need to ask to know what they wanted.
“We’re planning to escape soon.”
As expected, Esther’s eyes widened despite having anticipated this.
“Don’t you want to escape too? Think about it. We’ll reach the capital soon. Once we do, they’ll sell us as slaves.”
The man tightened his grip on Esther’s hand, hoping to convey his sincerity.
“You’re no different. Sooner or later, these cruel men will sell you too. If that happens, you might face even worse horrors. So why not come with us?”
Esther’s eyes wavered with conflict. The future the man described was one she had always feared but couldn’t escape.
The thought of Karzhen selling her off, forcing her into a life even more terrible than this, where she would never find her family……. It was a future she had avoided thinking about because it was too painful.
But now, an escape route was right in front of her. The captives were offering her hope, convincing her it was possible.
Her thoughts, which had been paralyzed, began to stir again. And finally, as she looked at what the captives had handed her, a small realization formed in her mind.
“But there’s something you must do for us to escape.”
That realization was hope, and what the captives had given her was a piece of paper containing poison.
* * *
Hakan woke up at the crack of dawn. Since Karzhen had taken a woman into his tent the previous night, Hakan had naturally ended up sleeping in Karzhen’s tent.
Though Karzhen’s tent was slightly more luxurious, the hard bed suited Karzhen’s preferences, not Hakan’s.
As a result, Hakan had slept poorly. He stumbled out of the tent and headed back to his own quarters. Hakan was the type to wake up early no matter how much he drank. By now, Karzhen would have noticed the tent switch and stepped outside for some fresh air. Hakan planned to tell him to return to his own tent when he came back.
But as Hakan approached his bed, he paused. In the dim light, he noticed the blanket was bunched up in a way that suggested someone was lying there. At first, he thought it might be Karzhen, but the shape was too small.
The tent was dark, but Hakan’s eyes quickly adjusted. He reached out and flipped the blanket over. For a moment, he wondered if someone had played a prank by pouring sand on his bed.
But the pale skin, the marks scattered across it, and the white stains on her chest and between her legs made him realize it wasn’t sand but a woman with sand-colored hair.
“Ah…….”
As the blanket was suddenly pulled away, the woman shivered and let out a small moan. The lingering scent of s*x was strong enough for Hakan to notice.
The woman stirred, her teal eyes darting around nervously in the darkness.
