Chapter 4: Inefficient and All Too Visible

                                    

                                          
AVA
Murdered? The last au pair had been murdered?
By the man's continued smirk, I could tell that the revelation of the last au pair's fate was meant to throw me off. I would not give this man the satisfaction of showing fear, but inwardly I quavered as the words sank in.
I didn't know anything about court life or the palace. I had barely heard two words about the last au pair before I was appointed to her position. 
Did the job even exist? Was it just a cruel trick of the king? A way to toy with me before having me killed in retaliation for my obstinance?
A brown-skinned woman around my age walked up behind the group and smacked the tall guy on the back of the head.
"Shut up, Theo," she said, a smirk playing across her face. "Why don't you go polish some shoes?"
Theo scowled.
"Stay out of it, Robin!" he hissed, but she was unfazed, simply rolling her eyes. She moved toward me, her dark curly hair bouncing. My fear eased at her quick smile and friendly attitude 
That and the fact she'd just thoroughly upstaged my bully.
"Want me to show you around?" she asked, sticking out a hand. "I'm Robin, by the way. And you must be Avaline." Her voice was light and easy, and after such a day, I felt myself clinging to her kindness.
"Ava, please, and thank you," I replied gratefully.
I followed her down the corridor, away from the horrible Theo. I cast one last dirty look at him as we turned a corner and managed to glimpse the sublime look of irritation on his face before the wall obscured them.
"Don't worry about that lot," Robin said as we made our way down the hall. "Theo just thinks he's better than everyone because his parents worked in the palace too. Like being the child of servants makes him special."
Robin rolled her eyes again and I couldn't help but laugh a little despite everything. Robin, it seemed, brought a much-needed sense of levity to the situation. Perhaps Theo had even done me a favor; in bullying me, he'd found me a new friend.
I was all too aware of the way humans who lived and worked in the capital looked down on those of us who lived in the villages—as if they were better than us by virtue of being dragon-adjacent. Their position at court meant better wages, better food, and clothes that weren't damaged by laboring in the fields. 
I didn't have to deal with it much in my day-to-day but whenever I ventured into the royal market, I saw the way they looked down at me, wrinkling their noses just like Mrs. Hopkins. It was one of the reasons only the book stall could tempt to the market.
What none of these people knew was the freedom we had outside the walls, away from the watchful eye of the dragons.
Robin, though, didn't seem to be stuck up at all. In fact, as she showed me around the servant's quarters, I felt more at ease than I had in days. Still not comfortable exactly, but I was no longer overwhelmed with anger and fear either.
Though maybe that was because we hadn't yet encountered any dragons on this tour.
I said as much to Robin, and she laughed. "Oh, they don't come down here. See how everything's smaller?"
She was right. I hadn't noticed due to the labyrinthine pathways, but these hallways were far narrower than those I'd seen in the palace proper. There was barely enough room for two dragon soldiers to walk side by side. Even though dragons had a human form, their human forms were often larger and more imposing than regular humans.