King of Slaves (Jenna's Story) (The Slave Series Book 5) (37 page)

She sucked in air. “What kind of stupid things?” she asked.

He bit his lip.
Don’t say it… don’t fucking say it.
“I’ve considered moving to the US if that’s what it takes to be with you.”
Great, I just said it. Now there’s no going back!

Her eyes blinked but she looked too stunned to speak.

“I talked to Kop about it, and he suggested I could become the Ambassador of Spirima in the US.”

“Are… Are you serious?”

And all of a sudden, he was. “Yes, Alex, if I can’t make you come to me, I’m willing to come to you. It’s not Chicago, but would you settle for Washington D.C.?”

Her face was a tangle of emotions. “What are you asking me, Zurry?”

“To be with me.”

Her hands cupped his face. “To be with you, how? Are you asking me to move to Washington to live with you as your girlfriend?”

God, Americans and their strange ways…

“Alex, I don’t want you as my girlfriend,” he clarified. “No! Don’t make that face – I can see what you’re thinking and I’m not asking you to be my pleaser either. I’m asking you to marry me, of course…”

Silence…

Come on, Alex, talk to me… say yes.

Zurry took Alex’s hands, frozen in place, still cupping his face. He squeezed them and leaned in to kiss her. “Alex, will you marry me and be my wife?”

She was unable to say anything, but her emotions spoke for her as her tears fell, and her right hand flew up to cover her mouth as it made a series of sobbing sounds. But the best part was when her head nodded.

Liquid sunshine rushed through Zurry’s body and he broke into a huge smile.

“Say it, Alex… say that you’ll marry me.”

She smiled and opened her mouth to speak, but then there was a flicker in her eyes and a change of her expression. “You got to make me a promise first.”

“Anything.”

“No more pleasers or women like Cindy.”

“Done!” he said without thinking. “Hang on, what do you mean when you say ‘Cindy’?”

“The woman you slept with in Chicago,” she reminded him. “If we marry, I won’t share you with anyone.”

Zurry tilted his head. “You think that I slept with Cindy?”

“You told me you did.”

“When?” he asked confused.

“At my father’s house, during dinner. You talked about how you stayed the night and she bought you breakfast.”

“Yeah, but I only stayed to protect her in case her ex came back, and I slept on her couch.”

“Ohh…” Her shoulders sank.

“How could you think I would sleep with a woman who was in such a fragile state?”

“Because she was beautiful.”

Zurry closed his eyes for a second.

“Alex, I… I don’t know what to say. I’m not going to deny that Cindy is a beautiful woman, but I’m madly in love with you, and seeing you with that
klujp
had me all worked up. I hardly slept at all that night, worrying that you were having sex with him… Honestly, Cindy didn’t tempt me in the slightest.”

“Klujp?”

“Village idiot, in Spiri,” he clarified.

“I didn’t have sex with him. I spent my night worried that you were having sex with Cindy, and then when you said you had breakfast with her…” She trailed off.

“You assumed the worst… just like I did when you said it got late with you and Durin.”

“Darren.”

Zurry kissed her. “I promise: if you marry me, it will be only you and me. You will be mine and I will be yours.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded solemnly “One hundred percent.”

“Then I’ll one hundred percent marry you, Zurry.”

“
Yes!
” He hugged her until she batted at his shoulder and murmured that he was crushing her.

“Oh, you better get used to me crushing you, because I’m going to be on top of you all the time from now on.” He laughed playfully, while nibbling and kissing her neck and earlobe.

Jenna

“So what you’re saying is that he really didn’t have a choice? It wasn’t because of his good heart that he freed the slaves, it was because the UN demanded it.”

The old man in front of Jenna removed his glasses and used his shirt to polish them. For the last three months, she had met with Mr. Tulm twice a week to get a better understanding of the politics and history of Spirima. Mr. Tulm was Zurry’s father and had been the King’s treasurer for more than thirty years. Sitting here in his office, so full of papers and books, the man looked pained and tired. “Yes, I suppose you could say that. Although his Majesty has always been radical in his opinions and sought to modernize Spirima.”

“But you just said that the decision to free all slaves and ban the Masi religion came as a result of pressure from the UN.”

“Well, it was really broader than just the UN. I think more or less the whole world were pointing fingers at us for having slaves and performing human sacrifices.”

“But why did you?”

The old man placed his glasses back on his nose and blinked a few times. “The short answer is traditions.”

Jenna hadn’t had time to think too much about Kio’s role in the practices with slaves and human sacrifices but now, tons of questions were popping up in her head.

“Did Kioni have slaves?”

Mr. Tulm nodded. “Of course; every servant at the palace was a slave.”

“Did Kioni perform human sacrifices?”

He took a deep breath that made his nostrils flare and his nose hairs vibrate. “No, the Masi priests were the only ones to prepare and perform the ritual sacrifices. And it might please you to know that the person being sacrificed was always a volunteer – well, at least in modern times, although I have heard disturbing stories of General Mantonis calling it a human sacrifice when he killed and executed slaves, hostages, and even his own Masi warriors.

“He did?”

“Yes, but then again, that man completely lost his mind; he should have known that a true sacrifice would require a sacred ritual.”

Jenna had already heard about General Mantonis, the richest man in the country, who had been so outraged that his enslaved factory workers had to be paid for their work, that he had attempted to overthrow Kioni and started a civil war in the process.

General Mantonis was dead now, but one thing Mr. Tulm said raised a big question mark.

“Are you serious about people volunteering to be sacrificed?”

“Yes.” He nodded solemnly. “There are always going to be suicidal people, especially among slaves, and the saying is that a human sacrifice brings peace and prosperity to the community and a blessed life to those who volunteer to give their lives.”

“A blessed life – are you kidding me?” It was a redundant question as Zurry’s father, Mr. Tulm, was not a humorous man and she had never heard him use irony or sarcasm.

“According to our old religion, the sacrificed man or woman will be reborn to a blissful life, and as you can imagine, that could lure unhappy people to end their life, and skip to the next one with a guarantee of success.”

“But it’s obviously just a lie to manipulate the poor people to give up their lives.”

“Perhaps. But nevertheless a very efficient one, as there were always more volunteers than needed for the rituals.”

Jenna took a few minutes to digest that piece of information before she spoke again.

“But Kioni… I just always assumed he opposed slavery and freed them because of his good heart, but it wasn’t like that, was it?”

Mr. Tulm got up and moved around his office searching for something.

“I’m certain I have it somewhere…” he murmured and picked up books and papers only to put them back down.

“What are you looking for?”

“All council meetings are filmed for reference, and I thought that today you should see the footage from the council meeting that lead to King Kopilus’ decision of banning the Masi religion.

Excitement ran through Jenna. “Can I?”

“Of course. I prepared this for our lesson today. In a week, you’ll be our queen, and this is a monumental part of our modern history. Zurry even added English subtitles to the film, so you can follow the dialogue.”

He searched some more until he exclaimed, “Aha,” and held up a laptop that had been hiding under stacks of paper.

“You don’t use your computer very often?” she asked.

He chuckled. “I used it yesterday, but I have to admit, I’ve never been very organized and things seem to disappear in my office.”

“That doesn’t sound too good, coming from a treasurer,” Jenna said dryly.

“I heard that. But don’t worry, I’m very meticulous with money.

“This video clip is almost six years old, and bear in mind that King Kopilus had only been king for a little more than a year after his father died. Today most of the council members are selected by him, but back then, he was working with the people who used to advise his father. I, myself, used to be a member of the council but I passed along my seat to Zurry.”

Jenna watched as a film clip came up on the screen.

“I’m just going to fast forward because the first four hours was just discussion after discussion.

Jenna eyebrows shot up “Did you say four hours? How long is this clip?”

“Ohh, not too long; I’m showing you only the most important part. Are you ready?” He pulled a chair to sit next to her and leaned forward to press play on his computer, which was balancing on top of a stack of papers on his desk.

“Yes,” Jenna said eagerly as the screen showed the council room with the royal tapestries and paintings on the wall portraying a hundred years of the family’s history. The room looked majestic, with lavish flower arrangements, elegant furniture, and the precious rugs made from the finest wool in the world. Kioni looked tired and massaged his temples while pacing the floor in front of the meeting table; it seated eight men who all wore serious expressions.

“I’m warning you, don’t listen to him, Your Majesty,” the  subtitles said as a little man piped up. He was instantly attacked by another man with raven black hair, who stood up and shouted aggressively. “Why don’t you go drown yourself?”

Zurry shot up from his chair, pointing to the large man “Sit the fuck down, you pompous fucktard.”

“Would you stop fighting already?” Kioni snarled. “I’m sick and tired of listening to you!” the subtitles said. “You are grown men, and it’s giving me a headache.”

The men around the table went silent, but it was easy to pick up the hostile situation with all the scowls between them. No wonder, if they had really spent four hours arguing. Some of them looked like they were on the brink of a physical fight.

Kioni returned to his chair and sank down. “Let’s go over our options one more time,” he commanded, and low sighs could be heard from some of the men while Zurry, who looked a lot different with longer hair, threw his hand in the air and snapped. “Can’t we get something to drink…? The heat is killing me.”

Mr. Tulm paused the video. “That rule of no refreshments at meetings was something Kopilus’ father taught him,” Mr. Tulm said. “The old king always insisted it was an effective way to keep meetings short, but
that
meeting,” he nodded his head to the screen, “was way longer than normal.” He pressed play again.

Jenna noticed that Zurry looked both dehydrated and annoyed, but Kioni ignored his requests for a drink.

He turned to an old man. “Gillander… you’ve been quiet. I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter. How do you see things?”

The old man was bent forward with his long gray hair covering most of his face. He was the only one looking calm. Now he was raising his chin and looking at Kioni.

“Well, the question is really simple. What do you want for Spirima?

“What you have now is a proud country in peace. We may not have modern technology and progressive reforms but those things never meant much to our people.

“If you ban the Masi religion as demanded abroad, we might prosper from more trading opportunities with other countries, but we will lose stability and a way of life that we have known for more than four hundred years.” The old man ended.