Queen Silth was distracting herself by paying the slaves a visit. As her palanquin was borne out to the rear courtyard she made small mewling noises of disgust as she watched the steaming mess of porridge made from maize and chopped roots being delivered to the bars of the pen. Hungrily the starving slaves grabbed pawfuls and gulped it down. Ullig cracked his whip and snarled, “Be still in the presence of her Majesty, High Queen Silth!”

Immediately they quit feeding and huddled together in the darkness of the pen’s back wall. Alarmed by the moody and unpredictable Queen’s visit, they did not know what to expect. Athrak and his magpies strutted about in front of the bars, their wicked, beady eyes watching the pitiful prisoners. Rat guards stood stiffly at attention, the odd quiver of a spear denoting that they were as apprehensive as the slaves at Silth’s unexpected appearance. All eyes were on the silk-draped conveyance. Servants hurried to place torches and lanterns all around the palanquin. The stillness was ominous, as if every creature present was afraid to breathe. Nothing moved in the awful silence except for the eerie dancing shadows cast by the flickering torches. Harsh and grating, the High Queen’s voice rasped out from behind the silken veils.

“Are they working hard for the food we give them?”

Ullig, the rat Captain in charge of all slaves, replied stiffly, “Yes, yer Majesty. Some in the fields’n’orchards an’ others in yore workplace makin’ things of beauty to grace yore chambers!”

There was a further silence, then Silth spoke once more. “Hmm. Don’t let them get fat and lazy, Captain. Remind them of the rules on my island.”

Ullig faced the cages and shouted out the rules, veins bulging from his thick neck as he did so. “Work an’ you live, an’ remember there is no escape from ’ere! Disobey an’ you get fed t’the Teeth o’ the Deeps. This is the rule of ’er Majesty, ’Igh Queen Silth. You stay alive only by ’er mercy!”

There was a short silence, then the voice from within the palanquin called out petulantly, “Take me back inside, to my chambers. I don’t like it out here, there’s only ugliness, nothing nice. I must be surrounded by beauty. Death will never visit where beauty reigns!”

Lifting the palanquin carefully, the bearers marched off with measured tread, halting suddenly as Silth screeched, “Stop! There it is, at the upper chamber windows! Don’t you see it, fools? The White Ghost! Captain, take a troop up there quickly and slay it. Hurry!”

Floating back and forth across the brightly lit window of an upper chamber, the fearful white apparition fluttered, howling.

“Queeeeen Siiiiiilth, Dark Forest awaits your spirit. Death is all you have left now. Ooooooooohhhhhh!”