“Am I right in assuming that Serce sent you to spy on ?”
The woman carefully placed both her hands atop her knees. I wondered if that was for politeness or to be close to her weapons. “You’d be wise in assuming that, my lady. I am, however, here to protect you.”
Glancing at her sideways, I asked, “Protect from what?”
She returned my glance with her brown eyes, then looked down, “Perhaps my lady is not aware, but there are several factions vying for control over Laemacia.”
“Ok, stupid question, but doesn’t Serce control Laemacia? He is the emperor after all.” No, I thought to myself, I was not aware. Ugh, I didn’t even care! But I guess I had to care now, and I had to learn these power struggles. For Serce was clearly sticking in the middle of them.
“Begging my pardon, my lady, but these are issues that, as a commoner, I have no opinion or information on.”
“I hope you don’t mind if I don’t believe you.”
“Not at all, ma’am.”
“You can seriously stop with the ma’ams and my lady’s. Especially if you’re going to, I don’t know, be my companion?”
“I’m only here to protect you, ma’am.”
“Ma’am.”
“It’s been ingrained in since I was a child to speak thusly.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. Alright, call what you will. And what is your na?”
“stamir,” she nodded, holding her mouth shut, probably, I thought, trying to avoid an honorific.
“Nice to et you, then. Tell about your training with those weapons.”
“Also since I was a child, ma’am. I’ve been practicing the martial arts since I was able to walk.”
I appraised her. She was well muscled, her sitting posture perfect. She’d walked toward with the easy steps of a warrior. I believed her. And it didn’t make a spot of difference since, for reasons I’d rather not think about, my body rembered my forr self’s ti in Valhalla. I couldn’t rember any specifics, yet Valhalla was a place of endless feasting and endless combat for those who died in battle. And we, the gods, partook in this. For thousands and thousands of years.
It made the Vikings happy.
Well, maybe a few specifics. I rember the god of war being surprised by a human twice. The first ti he decided to test the best warrior Earth had to offer – and a few esoteric techniques surprised him. But that was it, surprise. Not defeat. Thankfully, he was gracious and conceded the fight.
What irked about this mory was that I wasn’t in it. It was simply cognitive knowledge, like knowing that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius and freezes at zero. Not sothing you usually visualize, but sothing you morize. If I didn’t know better, if I hadn’t escaped that dinsional trap, I’d think this was simply so story I’d read sowhere.
It made wonder. Would I regain my divinity? I didn’t think so, not before Tye died on whatever world he now inhabited – I hoped against hope it was a planet at war, though I’d settle for ravaged by horrible diseases – but that might be a long ti coming. And did I really want it back? When I escaped the Trap, I beca sothing different, not human. Brin didn’t notice so much, but thinking back, Morry did. He was different afterward. More stiff.
He may have thought my absence, my not eting him where I told him I’d be, was going off and doing deity things. For all he knew, I’d left this world. He wouldn’t be looking for , not if he thought that.
“Ma’am, are you alright?”
“What? Oh, sorry, lost in thought.”
“Here,” she held up a silk cloth.
“Just . . . ok, thanks.” I used the damn thing.
“You can keep it.”
“I’ll stuff it into my pockets. Oh. Right. No pockets.”
“My lady,” she leaned in close, rolling up the sleeve of my right arm, closest to her. “Here, you can put the cloth into the folds. That’s what most of the won here do. So hide weapons there.”
“Ah, thank you. What kind of weapons would they hide in here?”
“A short blade, perhaps poison.”
“I see.” After stuffing the cloth into the folds, with her watching the whole ti making think I was doing it wrong, I asked, “Can you best one of the Laemacian assassins? The ones trained to resist torture?” Knowing her limits would be helpful.
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“The Dragsmor? I sincerely hope I get the chance to find out.”
“Ah, is that what they’re called?”
“Their na is an old word for the nails that go into a coffin.”
“I see. That’s, uh, so frightening. Good choice.” Whiny. I was thinking whiny, immature and childish, but what else are scary assassins going to call themselves? Hash-hash-im where I ca from, on account of their second favorite pasti, sitting around and getting high. “Perhaps you could seek out their order and challenge a few of them.”
“I am not so talented at espionage, I’m afraid. My only hope is to encounter one.”
“You think they’ll be sent to kill ?”
She shrugged. “The emperor has chosen you to be his only wife, and he will take no concubines.”
My jaw dropped. When I got it working, got past the pause in horror, I said, “Jesus! Why oh why did he decide that?” I could only imagine how my brand-new favorite cousins would take that. Probably angry, possibly murderous.
“Perhaps my lady is the only treasure my lord desires?”
“Just stop with that talk. Did he, did he announce this?”
“At least to , to explain the urgency with which you require protecting. Yet I am no one important. He has very likely discussed this with his advisors.”
I fell forward into my palms. I’d kill him. The next ti I saw him. Definitely not being forced into marriage. They’d probably execute for that rather than give the empire, though. And then the Others would no longer be my problem.
“My lady, it is a great honor the emperor is bestowing upon you. Taking only one wife hasn’t been done in living mory.”
Opening a hand, I glared at her with one eye. Still bent over, I hid her from my sight by closing that hand. “I’m soon to be queen of my own nation. I have a stronger, better military than Serce, and we both face a much more dangerous enemy and here he is playing house. You have no idea how damn frustrating this is.”
“As my lady says.”
Standing, I flashed her a palm, and then my index finger, indicating she should wait here, say nothing, and generally leave alone. She seed to get the ssage. I briefly wondered if I should take her weapons. Swords aren’t the best for cutting through doors, but persistence would pay off. The only problem is, breaking the heavy wooden doors down would take ti and alert the palace staff. And of course, she’d probably not like that and make a fuss.
They’d be useful in a fight, but a bunch of unard harem girls didn’t seem all that threatening to . Harems. Where it was prestigious to be part of a harem in history, like in China in the Forbidden City, won vied for power. They undermined each other through gossip, tried to outdo each other in their worth to the emperor via skilled artistry, and sotis poisoned each other.
Was I still immune to poison? I could and probably should test that. Safest to test with alcohol. Were I to get a hangover, the answer would be no. Trying that with cyanide or strychnine or sothing worse seed like a bad idea. ‘Oh look,’ I’d think as my lips turned blue, ‘no longer immune.’
“Are you truly Princess Cayce?” asked a woman on the other side of a hedge of thick and thorny raspberry bushes taller even than Morry. A sheer veil guarded her face, but she looked young to with an easy, relaxed stride, smooth skin and bright blue eyes.
“It appears that information is traveling around these walls.”
“It is foolish of the emperor to give you this much freedom.”
“Locking in his harem is your idea of freedom?”
She moved to the left, keeping the leaves between us. “Factions who’d see him undone lie within these very walls.”
“If you’re offering the throne in return for supporting your family, out with it.”
“Will you be happy as his wife?”
“People keep telling they think I will.”
She held her hand just above the bushes while she walked, touching the leaves, causing them to bounce along. “There are those who think the enemy army will soon breach the walls.”
That would not be good for , since at least so of the nuns who imprisoned , were among them. They seed to have brought an army, or convinced soone with one I could restore their youth, too, and had co to capture . But they had to go through Laemacia first. Not only because I was here, but because there was no other way to secure the route to the temple itself. With the mages gone, its land lay under Laemacian control.
They’d sent one army at directly and one here, and Serce had engaged their southern army. A part of hoped he’d wiped them out by now. But that ant I’d have to face him soon and his demands. If they bested him, the city would likely be lost, the harem taken and, if the nuns didn’t find first, it certainly wouldn’t be a good ti for us in here.
“And,” I walked alongside her, bushes between us, “what do you think?”
“I think they may receive so help to that effect.”
“Ah.”
“It therefore might be best to secure your throne before that happens.”
“How would you go about doing that?”
“Oh, not , I only dabble in rumors and gossip.”
I rolled my eyes, partially turning away. “Well, I hope you have more of that now.” Then, I headed back to the new bodyguard.
She called out behind , “Immortality.”
I turned back, “What?”
She smiled, “The price.”
Quickly, I walked back to her. “That’s a steep price. Perhaps steeper for the receiver. What makes you think I can provide that for you?”
She walked a bit further, always touching the leaves, put her hand down, and said, “I don’t.”
My eyes narrowed of their own accord. “You’re working with the invading army?”
“I’ll have more details later.” Then she walked away.
From the other side of the raspberry bushes, I watched her until she was lost in the foliage. I could have, I guess, chased her down and beaten the information out of her, but that doesn’t always work and required I bloodied my fists. And getting attacked by thorns if I went through these bushes.
Were she working with the attacking army, that could be a good thing. Though I had troubles believing they really wanted on the throne. Yet if they did, great. If they didn’t, if this was so kind of trap, I failed to see why they’d reach out through soone on the inside instead of breaking in.
Unless they were working with so faction on the inside. In that case, depending on the help, they were getting through those gates, possibly capturing .
Forcing myself to calm down, I unclenched my firsts, relaxed my jaw. It was very, very frustrating not knowing how the battle was going, not getting military updates. Well, I suppose, or we’d already be overrun.
Multiple factions, the bodyguard had said. This would be one of them. The cousins, another. Mine, I guess, my bodyguard, my cousins, but it didn’t really feel that way. It felt more like they were moving pieces on a board and I couldn’t tell which were the pawns, which the queen.
Probably, the other factions would reach out. Though through an assassination or negotiation I had yet to see.
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