Chapter 4

                                    

                                          
I woke to shouts of joy. My eyes opened to see Ronald dancing around his pile of gold straw. I finished half of it as I planned while I slept on the rest.
	"I knew your father wasn't joking!" he cried happily.
	"Take me back to my room, please. I did what you asked. Now get me my day with the king," I demanded.
	Ronald stared at me with cold eyes, "Of course, Your Highness! Of course! You should know that this is the only reason you're still here. I'll be coming back tonight to bring you here. You do it until the king asks for your hand in marriage." Then he smirked, "Did I forget to mention that you're not the only girl here? Better go and get dressed before they steal his heart before you, and you better hope he doesn't find out you're a rotten witch."
If I didn't already hate him, I despised him now, something I hadn't said about someone before in my entire life. Not only was he greedy but a dirty hypocrite. It didn't matter if I really was a witch or not, Ronald knew the gold was created by magic. Magic had been outlawed in Amishi, yet here he was, the advisor to the king, getting rich off wizard enchantments.
 I walked out of the room briskly, but before I could make it to the stairs, I heard Ronald say to me, "Remember what I told you if your tongue slips."
Without saying anything back, I ran up the stairs and to my room where I slammed the door and sank to the floor. If my father only knew what he got me into. There had to be a way to get out of this. A way to tell the king without tipping Ronald off and sounding like a crazy person.
	There was a tap at the door and a familiar voice that said, "Sammy? You in there?"
	I rushed to my feet and flung the door open. Standing there was Eliza, just beaming as she crashed into me. She hugged me tightly and cheered.
	"I told you, didn't I tell you? You got the king's attention!"
	I pulled her off so I could look into her eyes, "What are you doing here, El?"
	"A bunch of girls including myself were brought to the castle. We all heard the news of you going and we're excited for you. Next thing we knew, in the middle of the night, that Ronald fellow came to our houses and rounded us up here. I tried telling him I didn't want to go because I was in love already, but he didn't seem to care."
	I sighed and walked to the foot of the bed I thought I would be sleeping in the night before. "That's because he doesn't care. He's using me," I said in a hushed voice.
	Eliza tilted her head, "What? How?"
	"My father told him I could turn straw into gold."
	Her expression went wild as she followed me, "And he believed you could do that? Did he force you to do it or something? I don't understand."
	"He locked me up in a room with a spinning wheel and straw. If I turned half of it into gold then he would give me a day with the king. Now he has brought all these other girls to distract him. The only way to stop it is if the king marries me."
	Eliza shook her head and marched to the door, "Then we'll tell the king about this!"
	I grabbed her and said quietly, "Don't! He has power, Eliza. He is the king's advisor. You just can't say things like that out of the blue."
	Her hidden feistiness leaked out from her lips, "Why on Effa not?" She jerked her hand away to continue to the door.
	It opened before she got there. Ronald stood in front of the opening and stared at Eliza and me. "Listen to your friend now. You brought yourself into a big mess, my dear. You're under the same circumstances as her. If you speak, you'll regret it."