Sylvan snarled, “Get out of here!”
And as soon as Mark Fletcher left him, Sylvan went to find Lady Maeve. “We’ve got trouble, Maeve,” he said.
“Lady Maeve to you!”
“Well, Lady Maeve then,” Sylvan mumbled. “It’s that wrestler the king likes so much.”
“Fletcher? What’s the matter with him?”
“He won’t obey my orders to take part in the slave matches.”
“And you don’t like people who won’t obey you, do you, Sylvan?”
Sylvan suddenly laughed. It was a cruel laugh. “No more than you do, Lady Maeve.”
The woman’s smile was cruel, too. “Both of us want our own way, and we shall have it, Sylvan. Don’t worry about that young man. There are ways of forcing him to do what we wish. But that’s not important right now.”
She turned as though their brief meeting was over, but then she hesitated. “What new event do you have planned for the arena tomorrow? Something fresh and exciting, I hope.”
Sylvan nodded and said eagerly, “Yes. I think you’ll like this. Here’s what I’m going to do …”
Sarah, Josh, Reb, and Wash were visiting the Fletchers. Like Sarah, Wash always enjoyed playing games with Lalita. The two of them were seated on the kitchen floor, and the little girl was laughing with delight. Sarah had been helping Lalita’s mother with some sewing all afternoon. Now they were talking quietly, mostly about Mark.
Then Mrs. Fletcher said, “It’s getting very late. The day is almost gone. You must all stay for dinner. Of course, the food here won’t be as good as at the palace …”
“It’ll be better than that, lady,” Wash called out. “I get hungry for simple stuff. Some cornbread and beans.”
“Well, that you shall have, friend Wash,” Mrs. Fletcher said. “That is, if you know how to cook this … cornbread, Sarah.”
“I’m a world-class cornbread cooker,” Sarah said, and the two set to work preparing the evening meal.
By the time the food was ready, darkness had fallen. Mark and Reb came in, both filled with excitement after running their horses.
They all sat down to the late meal and were almost through when a knock at the door caused Jacob to look up. “Who could that be so late?” he muttered. “Come in,” he called.
The door opened, and Feanor entered. He looked tired and worn. Sarah knew he had been working long hours. He must have just left the mines.
Mrs. Fletcher said at once, “Come and sit right down, Feanor. You need something to eat before you go home.”
Feanor did sit down and eat, but there was obviously something on his mind.
Finally Mark said quietly, “What is it, Feanor? Are the children all right?”
“No, they’re not all right!” Feanor said, his voice tight. “How can they be all right with me working in a place like the salt mines? And living in that shack we have to live in? It’s for slaves.”
“Now, we’re working on paying off your debt and buying you out of there as soon as possible, Feanor,” Jacob said quickly. “I’ve almost got you a job lined up, too. Then we can rent a house for you. Maybe not as nice as your old house but—”
“I won’t need your help for that, friends, but I thank you all the same.”
Everyone expressed surprise, and Mrs. Fletcher said, “Why not, Feanor?”
“You haven’t heard about the latest contest in the arena?”
Mark stiffened and said, “You’re not going to go up against that wrestler Kapo, are you? That would be hopeless, Feanor!”
“No, no. There’s a new event taking place.” Hope came into Feanor’s voice, and his eyes brightened. “I would have no chance against Kapo. But in the new event, any man who will compete in the chariot races against the professionals can win one hundred pieces of gold. That would at least be enough to buy my house back and get my family out of our shack.”
“But the chariot races!” Reb gasped. He had watched one of the chariot races. He had told the other Sleepers how small a chance any amateur would have against a professional driver. “You can’t do that, Feanor. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Yes, I have a chance,” Feanor insisted. “It may be small, but it is preferable to what we have now.”
Sarah spoke up quickly. “Think of your family. What would happen if you were killed? Those races are dangerous.”
“Nothing that’s not happening to them right now,” Feanor said bitterly. “They have nothing even while I’m alive. I do not worry about the danger. If I lose, then I go back to the mines, and they can be no worse off than they are now. But if I win, they at least can have a life again.”
For the next half hour, everyone in the room tried to convince Feanor that he was being foolish, that he had no chance at all, that he was risking his life.
But Feanor was a stubborn man. He finally rose, saying, “I’ve made up my mind. As a matter of fact, I’ve already agreed with Sylvan. You’ll see my name on the posters.” He tried to smile and said, “I’ve got to get to my family now. I have little enough time with them.” He left then, and silence fell over the room.
“It has come to this then,” Jacob said sadly. “A good man like Feanor will be destroyed to please the betting lust of the crowd. I’m ready to leave this place, wife.”
“So am I,” Mrs. Fletcher said. “But where would we go?”
“Anywhere but here.” He looked at Josh. “You must know someplace where we could go.”
Josh thought for a moment and said, “Yes. We could probably help you, but what about your people? This is your land.”
“No, it’s the king’s land, and you can see that he has put himself into the hands of a sorceress. That’s what Lady Maeve is. She has bewitched him.”
“I don’t doubt but what you’re right,” Josh said. “And that is all the more reason why good men and good women should stay and help do the right thing.”
Sarah saw at once that the arena was full, as usual. Many of the spectators probably knew Feanor. Some of them no doubt had tried to discourage him from taking part in the dangerous race. Others had come simply to see the spectacle.
Josh looked down over the rows of people below them and said, “There. I see Feanor’s wife and his children.”
Sarah looked to where he pointed and saw the woman. Her arm was around the smallest youngster, and the older children stood about her. “It’s so sad,” she whispered.
Abbey heard all this, and she too looked down at the little family. Apparently she could think of no way to defend what was happening. She moved away from Josh and Sarah and went to stand beside the princess.
“Have you heard anything from Derek yet?” Sarah asked Josh.
“No, and I can’t imagine where he is. It’s as if he’s dropped off the face of the earth. I’m not sure he’s even on the island anymore.”
They spoke quietly of how brokenhearted the queen was. The king refused to have Derek’s name even mentioned in the palace.
Josh said, “When a family breaks up, it’s a sad thing.”
They had no time to say more, for the event was about to start. Feanor came and kissed his wife and children, then placed a helmet on his head. He hopped onto the brightly painted wooden chariot, pulled by four horses. He straightened up and advanced the horses to the starting line. His competitor, a longtime professional, looked smugly at Feanor and laughed.
The king, as usual, was seated beside the queen, and Lady Maeve was to his left.
“Have you made a wager, Your Majesty?” Maeve asked.
“Certainly!”
“For the master or this Feanor?”
“For the master, of course.”
“I think that was a wise bet. That fellow doesn’t look very able to me.”
The trumpet blew, and the race was on.
Each chariot would make ten laps around the oval track that encircled the inner arena. As in the wrestling matches, the amateur was allowed to gain a quick lead on the pro, and that tricked
the crowd into thinking that victory for the nonprofessional was a realistic possibility. Feanor seemed delighted as he bolted out in front of the master. He was ahead by three lengths by the time they had completed the sixth lap.
“If Feanor can just keep up this pace for four more laps,” Reb commented, “he’ll beat the master yet.”
But it was clear that Feanor had little skill. He even struggled to maintain control of the team at times. In fact, his chariot wove on and off the track.
By the ninth lap, the master was running alongside his challenger, and it appeared that Feanor began to panic. In the final lap, he suddenly lost control, and his chariot veered into the stands. It turned over and sent Feanor flying.
A thunderous cry went up as Feanor went down and the master crossed the finish line.
Sarah turned away, literally sickened. Unseeing, she bumped into Abbey and Princess Cosima. “Just let me get away,” she said.
“Princess Cosima, that was awful!” Abbey could feel her face twisting as she tried not to cry.
The princess shrugged. “The man had a chance to win a lot of money,” she said. “Besides, he is still alive!”
Indeed, Feanor was getting up slowly from the ground, but he was limping and was a mass of injuries.
“Alive, but he’s destined to go back to the mines! And look at his family.”
Unexpectedly, Princess Cosima turned to see. “Where?”
“Down there. See? Feanor will be back in the mines all day every day. It’ll be almost as if their father and husband is actually dead.”
Abbey saw Cosima hesitate. She knew that the princess was a thoughtless person, had been made selfish by her life, and perhaps the Soma drug had made her even more callous. Nevertheless, something in her must have stirred.
Cosima reached into the side of her robe and drew out a small leather bag. “There,” she said, handing it to Abbey. “There are some gold pieces in there. It’s not what he would have gotten had he won, but it will buy food for a long time. See that his family gets it.”
“Oh, that’s kind of you, Cosima!”
At once Abbey ran after Sarah and stopped her. “Sarah! Look—the princess is giving this bag of gold to the family of the man who lost the race.”
Sarah gazed at the bag for a long time. Then she reached out and took it. She said only, “I’ll see that they get it.”
“Wasn’t that kind of the princess?”
“This gold doesn’t cost her anything,” Sarah said shortly. “Don’t you see? She was involved in enslaving that man. Now she’s trying to buy off her conscience by giving money.”
“What are you talking about? She didn’t enslave him!”
“Everyone who takes part in this betting system is guilty of enslaving him. The spectators are guilty. If they weren’t here, it wouldn’t take place. Don’t you see that, Abbey?”
It was as though Abbey Roberts was hearing a voice from far away. She suddenly felt a weight of shame, and she dropped her head. She found she could barely speak. “I’m—I’m sorry, Sarah. I truly am.”
“I know you are, Abbey. But you’ve got to get off this terrible drug, and we’ve got to get Dave off of it. There could be an awful time coming. We might be out in the arena ourselves someday.”
“That would never happen!”
“Do you think Lady Maeve would stop at anything?”
Abigail could not answer. She shook her head and whispered again, “I’m sorry.”
Suddenly Sarah said, “Come along, Abbey. I want you to meet the family of this man.”
“No! I don’t want to.”
“I know you don’t want to, but you need to.”
The next few moments were as difficult for Abbey as anything she had ever known. She could hardly bear to see the woman embracing her badly injured husband and their children standing about weeping. Then Lady Maeve’s henchmen came to cart Feanor back to the mines. Abbey watched Sarah take the woman in her arms and whisper to her. She did not know what Sarah was saying, but the man’s wife held onto Sarah tightly.
Abbey watched Sarah speak to each of the children and comfort them, and at that moment Abbey Roberts knew for certain that she had taken the wrong way.
As the two girls left, she said, “I need help, Sarah. And I know that I can’t help myself.”
“You’ve got friends, Abbey. We all love you. And where there’s love, there’s a way.”
11
For Their Own Good
What do you think about these shoes, Abbey?” Abbey looked over at Princess Cosima, who was trying on a pair of pink slippers. They were pretty enough, but Abbey’s mind was somewhere else. “Very nice,” she said listlessly.
Cosima looked up, surprised. Obviously she was expecting Abbey to show her usual excitement about shoes. “What’s the matter with you today?” she asked. “Don’t you realize we’ve got to get something to wear for tonight?”
“I suppose so,” Abbey said. “But I already have at least twenty pairs of shoes.”
“Twenty! That’s nothing! Why, I have hundreds.”
Abbey had been feeling somewhat guilty ever since the defeat of Feanor in the arena. The princess had put the chariot race out of her mind. She was sure of that. The princess thought that the money she’d given had solved the problem.
But Abbey had been unable to forget. She had also skipped her dose of Soma yesterday and today, so perhaps she was thinking somewhat more clearly for that reason. In a way, thinking about Feanor and his family was very unpleasant, and she had been tempted to take the drug. Soma helped to blot out unpleasantness.
“I’ve been thinking about the family of that poor man that was beaten in the chariot race.”
Princess Cosima looked up with surprise in her eyes. “But don’t you remember? I gave them enough gold to buy food for a long time.”
Suddenly Abbey felt a wave of impatience with the princess. “That bag of gold won’t buy the woman’s husband out of the mines. And the children still won’t have a father in the home.”
Cosima blinked. “You’re beginning to sound just like Derek,” she said crossly. “You can’t let yourself think of these things, Abbey.”
“Why not? What’s wrong with thinking about things like this? The woman and her children have to think about it.”
“But, Abbey, you can’t take the burdens of the whole world on your shoulders.”
“No, and I never said I could,” Abbey said slowly. She had been thinking much about her life since coming to Pleasure Island. It had been one continuous round of parties and balls and concerts. She saw that she had been so immersed in them that she had lost her mental balance for a while.
But now that the Soma was wearing off a little, she was beginning to feel terrible. Actually, memory of the grief on the faces of Feanor’s wife and children had kept her awake last night. “I just can’t stop thinking about that family,” she said finally.
“Then we shall just give them more gold, if it’s really bothering you. I can get it from Father.”
Impatiently and rather sharply, Abbey said, “Do you think that will make them happy? Suppose your mother was sent to the mines. Would it make you happy if someone gave you another hundred pairs of shoes?”
Cosima gasped. “Why, I never heard of such a thing! Of course it wouldn’t!”
“Then why do you think it would make that poor woman happy to give her money? It won’t bring her husband back. It won’t bring the father back to those children.”
Cosima seemed confused.
Abbey had grown very close to the princess during her brief stay on Pleasure Island. The two girls had similar tastes. Both liked excitement. Both liked pretty clothes. Both liked to be going somewhere all the time. She understood that Cosima was uncomfortable.
“I don’t understand you when you talk like this,” the princess said.
“Princess,” Abbey said slowly, “doesn’t it ever occur to you that there’s more to life than having three hundred pairs of shoes?�
��
“What’s wrong with having three hundred pairs of shoes?”
“For one thing, how many of them do you actually wear?” Abbey waited, and when the princess did not answer, she went on. “I can tell you. I’ve watched you. You buy them and put them on shelves, but you have about half a dozen favorites. The rest of them you never put on.”
“That may be true enough, but what does it matter?”
“Have you ever stopped to consider, princess, that you might take the gold that you spend for shoes you never wear and do some good with it? Maybe for some family that is hungry.”
“I don’t know any hungry people.”
“That’s because you are surrounded by luxury. But the palace is not the real world, princess. There are people who are hungry out there and people who are grieving. And just the price of one pair of those shoes would make a poor family happy.”
“All right, then. All right. I’ll give you the money for a pair of shoes, and you go make somebody happy!” the princess snapped. She clearly did not like being rebuked. “And so we’ve settled that!” she said irritably. “I’ll wear these pink slippers tonight. Now we’ll pick out a pair for you …”
While Abbey went shopping for shoes with Princess Cosima, all the other Sleepers except for Dave gathered at the Fletcher house. Jacob himself had asked them to come.
When they were seated about the kitchen table, he said, “I’ve taken the money that the princess gave Feanor’s family, and I’ve bought back the house that he lost gambling.”
At that instant the door burst open, and Prince Derek came into the room. Everyone started to rise, but Derek said at once, “Don’t get up. And what do you mean by ‘the money the princess gave’?”
Before Mr. Fletcher could answer, Josh cried out, “Where have you been, Derek? We’ve looked everywhere for you.”
“I had to get away and think for a while. But I heard about Feanor’s losing the race.” His jaw set, and he turned to his father. “What’s this about my sister?”
Sarah spoke up quickly. “She felt bad about Feanor’s family, so she gave some gold pieces to me to help.”
Temptations of Pleasure Island Page 9