Page 34 of The Mentor
Pearl, Christina, and I had advocated for the poor girl until we were blue in our faces, but the men were determined. Their main argument was that a punishment was needed to avoid incidents like this from happening in the future; every child needed to see that behavior such as this resulted in serious consequences.
Sky was pale as a corpse when I fetched her and walked her to the office where Archer would administer her punishment.
“I’m so scared,” Sky whispered to me.
I stroked her hair and soothed her. “You’re going to be all right, Sky. I know you didn’t do it on purpose. You’re not a bad person; you just did something thoughtless, and unfortunately our actions have consequences that we don’t always like.”
“I know, but I already made William a get-better card and I baked him that cake to say I was sorry. And I reallyamsorry.” Her voice broke.
All I could do was give her a hug before I gently pushed her into the office and closed the door behind us. Archer looked up from his seat behind the desk and pointed to two chairs in front of it. Even for an eleven-year-old, Sky was a petite girl, but she looked even smaller as she sat down on the chair, her shoulders hunched over and her head hanging down. Her long hair covered most of her face, but not her freckled nose. The sight of her obvious misery pulled at every protective instinct I had as I took the seat right next to her, silently offering her my support and hoping she knew this was out of my control.
After a heated board meeting last night, a vote had been taken and the men had won. Sky would be punished with twenty-five strokes.
“Do you understand why you're here?” Archer asked in a clipped manner that only made the girl hunch over even more.
“Yes,” she whispered, avoiding his piercing blue eyes, which were locked on her.
“What you did was so outrageous and wrong that we have no choice but to punish you for it.” Archer’s eyes turned a shade darker and from the way his nostrils were flaring I could tell he was mad as hell. “I just came from William, and I can tell you that he's not having a very good time.”
Sounds of sobbing erupted from Sky and I automatically started stroking her back in a soothing manner.
“I know physical punishment of children isn’t legal in the Motherlands, but we are in the Northlands now and this is how we do things. In this country it's a common way to discipline children, and I'm pretty sure that you’re going to feel better when you’re as sore as William.”
I looked at Archer in shock. How could he think that her pain would ease William’s pain? I didn’t see the connection at all. That had to be the most backward thinking he had expressed, and in my short time here he had expressed a lot of nonsense.
“Hopefully this will teach you to never do something as mean again,” Archer continued.
Sky’s sobbing intensified and her small shoulders bobbed with her shallow gulps of air.
I shot him a pleading look, wanting to rock her in my arms and tell her she didn’t have to be frightened, but Archer ignored me, got up, and walked around the table, gesturing for her to stand up.
“Normally this sort of punishment is done in front of the other children, but Kya argued against it, so we’ll do it in here instead, and you have two choices: I can hit your palms or your behind.”
Still crying, Sky didn’t say a word.
“Typically we would never spank a child on their behind after the age of ten, but since you’re new to this, it might be the easier punishment for you. I can tell you from experience that it can be challenging for anyone to keep holding out their palms when it hurts.”
“Maybe you should choose that option,” I said quietly. “I think I would.”
Sky nodded once and made her way to the desk, where Archer instructed her to lean forward.
The frightened sounds she made had me bite my lip hard, as if my own pain could somehow take away some of the pain that was about to hit her.
“Do you want to do it?” Archer asked me and even though I knew that Sky would probably benefit from my doing it instead of him, I simply couldn't.
“No,” I shook my head. “I could never hit a child.”
Archer’s expression was hard when he took his position and swung his hand.
Smack! The sound of his hard palm colliding with her pants was loud and followed by an even louder scream from Sky.
I swallowed hard, feeling heat pulse through my body and dizziness threatening to make me faint.
Smack! The howling from the child continued and when she turned her face and met my eyes, tears were springing like a waterfall, and she pleaded for my help so intensely that I couldn't just stand by and see him abuse her.
“Stop!” I shouted, but Archer kept going.
Smack, smack, smack.
