Stunned silence came first. Surprised gasps echoed everywhere. They lowered their sticks. There were murmurs in the crowd.
“No, that’s not possible…” one voice said.
“She couldn’t have…” another added.
“You’re lying…”
“You’re trying to save her with lies…”
Sally let out an empty laugh at their disbelief. Her heart was ripping out of her chest. “Did you stop to wonder why I could bring large amounts of food to you most days!? Have you asked yourself why you ate from silver bowls!?” She whirled around to look at all of them because they surrounded her. “When I stole food for you all, I could steal it from the servant’s kitchen of the palace, where food was made for the servants to eat. But you see the main royal kitchen!? I could never get in there, no matter how much I tried! It was always her! Always!!” she screamed, pointing at Danika. “She went there and commanded the guards to let us in! She marched in there and packed food in big silver bowls! She packed so much she made a feast and gave it to me to give you all! If you ever ate from the big silver bowls of the palace, you should be ashamed of yourself because you are biting the hand that fed you!!” she screamed and sobbed.
All of them gasped. All of them.
Sally wasn’t surprised because she knew that all of them had eaten from the silver bowls. Princess Danika had made sure of that.
“She never supported her father! Never! Her father punished her every time he found out what she’d done! She is a good woman! She has never beaten a slave! She has never made a slave labour! She saved me when I was a child and still a slave! I was being tortured, and she saved me and kept me with her!! And look at Remeta!!” They all turned and looked at a crying Remeta, who was crouched on the ground, crying and hugging Danika. “Do you think she would be like this if that woman was evil!? Remeta went through the worst! The worst!! And yet, she defends the daughter of the man of her nightmares. Haven’t you all stopped to ask yourself why!? She is not evil!! She saved you all!! SHE SAVED YOU ALL!!!”
Most of those older women started crying. A lot of them dropped their sticks like they burned them. The young women were crying and looking regretful, too.
Sally’s red eyes found one woman in the crowd. “Coria, you! You hurt because you lost three children in the hands of King Cone, but you have two who survived and didn’t die from hunger, right!? They ate from the silver bowls all the time, and it was because of her!!”
The woman named Coria looked pale, like a ghost. Her eyes widened, and she dropped to the ground and started bawling like a child.
“And you!? When your child was sick and dying, she ate from the silver bowls too!” She screamed at another woman. “And what about you!? And you!? And you!?” Sally asked every one of them, but none could meet her eyes again. They were crying like she was.
One child ran from the crowd with an enormous cup of water in her hands. She ran straight to Danika, knelt beside her, and tried to help Danika drink the water. All the other children of the lowborn took it as permission when Sally said nothing. They rushed to Danika and surrounded her. And they were crying and patting her body soothingly.
One girl that didn’t look like she was over eight years old was openly crying and glaring at her mother. The girl stepped forward bravely as she sobbed. “Please. Forgive me. I p-put the necklace in her bag.”
The crowd gasped in shock and outrage. Miserable cries of shocked and guilt-stricken women.
Sally lowered herself to that girl’s height, still crying uncontrollably. “Why? Why would you do something like that?”
The girl turned and glared at her mother, who was looking guilty and resigned. “Mama made me do it…”
Voices rose in the crowd.
“What!?”
“Zenia?”
“How could she?”
“Oh, heavens! What have we done!?”
“I’m so ashamed of myself…”
Sally glared at Zenia with a heart filled with rage and pain. Her job here was done. She turned to her princess and began bawling again at the bruises on her body. Her clothes barely covered her body because they’d been torn. Her eyes were closed, and blood covered every part of her body.
Why was there blood between her legs? Sally asked herself worriedly as she walked closer to her princess, but she didn’t know how to touch her bruised body.
The crowds were screaming and raging at Zenia, but it wasn’t Sally’s problem at the moment. Just then, the guards arrived.
The crowd parted, and Chad was the one leading them. His face looked worried as he surveyed Sally for a few seconds to make sure she was alright before his eyes went to Danika. He bent down and scooped her gently into his arms. Her head rolled to one side, and her eyes closed. “She’s unconscious.”
“We have to g-get her… treated… please!” Sobs wouldn’t let Sally talk anymore. It felt like a horse stomped on her chest and crushed it.
Chad took off in a dead run towards the palace. Sally and Remeta followed.