Chapter 3 #2
I took it. Compared to all the fabulous jewelry he’d showered upon me that morning, the palm-sized object was positively plain. “A mirror?”
“A two-way mirror,” he corrected me. “The shopkeeper said it’s also dragon enchanted, just like this house. I instructed the guards to give your sister the other one. You can talk to each other through them, even while she’s in jail.”
My heart leapt and I held the mirror closer. “Really?”
He smiled pleasantly as we continued down the corridor. “Really. Turn it over three times and you’ll be able to see and talk to each other. I thought you might like that to stay connected until Nadia is released.”
“Thank you,” I told him, running my finger around the mirror’s rim. For the first time since Nadia’s arrest, I relaxed a little. “That was very thoughtful of you.”
“I’ll leave you to try it out and speak to your sister in private, and I’ll do my best to stay out of your way while you’re here.
But if you ever need me, I’m always at your disposal and happy to oblige you with anything you want.
Here’s your room.” He opened a door for me halfway down the hall from the forbidden door and gestured me inside. “I sincerely hope you enjoy yourself.”
I entered, half expecting him to follow me in, but he simply closed the door, his footsteps retreating down the hall. For all my intentions to hate everything about my new living conditions, I couldn’t. These were far grander than the finest quarters I ever could have imagined.
The chamber was much larger than the cramped, dilapidated inn rooms I’d spent most of my life scraping coins for, larger even than the common halls of the worship center where whole families sometimes slept on mats side by side.
The walls here shimmered faintly, as though the plaster itself had been dusted with crushed pearls.
Thick carpets, dyed deep crimsons and indigos, muffled my footsteps as I walked across them.
A canopy bed loomed at the center of the room, carved from blackwood and inlaid with gold filigree. Its curtains were spun of some gauzy fabric that shimmered between colors when I moved—scarlet one moment, bronze the next. Nadia had always dreamed of such finery. She would love it here.
Unable to resist trying the mirror any longer, I turned it over three times in my hand. The mirror’s surface turned smoky as some sort of whitish haze fogged the glass then dissipated, allowing my sister’s face to swim into focus.
“Nadia!” I burst out, relief in my voice.
She immediately began to cry. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “It’s my fault you… If I hadn’t tried to steal from him—”
“Don’t worry about it,” I told her. “Everything’s going to be fine. I promise. We can figure this out. How are you?”
Nadia wiped her eyes. “I’m fine. The cell isn’t as bad as I expected. Food’s better than what we had on the street, too.”
“Basically a palace then. So you aren’t being mistreated?”
She shook her head. “I’m just locked up, but I knew that would happen.”
“And we can talk to each other,” I told her. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“The guards gave me the mirror, but I didn’t believe them when they told me what it did.” She fidgeted with her hair. “Did he really make you marry him?”
“Yeah, he did. It was simultaneously the quickest and most boring wedding ever.”
She hung her head and repeated, “I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault.”
“Hey, I told you: I’ll be fine. So far, he hasn’t done anything awful other than forcing me to marry him.”
“Did he kiss you?” Nadia’s nose wrinkled.
“Yes, he did. If that’s what kissing is like, I’m not interested in any more. I got hair in my mouth.”
She made a gagging sound, and there was a shout from behind her. “Keep it down over there!”
“I should go,” she whispered. “Talk to me again tomorrow, okay? If I have only the guards to talk to, I’ll go crazy.”
“Tomorrow,” I promised.
Nadia must have turned the mirror over, because the glass went foggy again, then reflected my own appearance.
I sighed in relief. She was safe, at least for the time being.
Just as Rahil said they would be, my few possessions had already been transported here and were sitting on the trunk at the bottom of the bed, but I shifted uncomfortably nonetheless.
This eerie silence was much too quiet. There was no friendly babble of voices like I had grown accustomed to on the streets.
Even if this house was dragon-enchanted to magically give me any tangible item I desired, I still would’ve liked company or some background noise.
Was that something this house could provide?
Or did it assume I had my new husband for companionship and that would be sufficient?
I passed by a large silver mirror that stretched from floor to ceiling, its frame carved with serpentine vines.
An incense burner on a low table gave off a curling fragrance that made my chest tighten with unease.
Above the short bookcases, a glass shelf displayed strange trinkets and objects that could only have come from faraway kingdoms: a bone dagger, a glass vial with smoke trapped inside, and a book bound in scaly dragon hide among them.
Everything was beautiful…beautiful, overwhelming, and somewhat frightening.
This entire manor was merely a cage dressed up in gold and silk, and I was the captive.
I paced around the room again, running my hand along all the furniture and decor in the room, then paused when I circled back to the shelf of trinkets.
I inspected them more closely, then felt my stomach drop.
One of the objects on display was Samira’s lucky talisman she had always carried with her.
My throat clogged with fear as I slowly picked it up.
The delicate filigree border wound around the polished stone, worn smooth by the number of times Samira had run her hands over it.
After replacing it, my eyes dragged over to the empty spot next to Samira’s talisman, ready and waiting for another item.
Chills erupted all over my skin. Had Rahil been collecting trophies?
Nerves jangling, I hurriedly crossed to the door and turned the key, which clicked into place with a heavy thunk.
It might not keep Rahil out if he had a master key, but it made me feel fractionally better.
He won’t kill me, I repeated to myself. His other wives always made it a few months to a couple years.
“I’ll be fine,” I whispered to the room at large. Well-mannered or not, Rahil had five wives before me, and all had vanished without a trace. Samira’s talisman seemed to stare at me from across the room, and I turned away.
Trying to distract myself, I brushed my fingers across the velvet quilt, the softness so foreign it almost hurt.
Then my hands curled into clenched fists.
Every thread here reminded me of the other women who had likely stood in this very room before me and wondered how long they had left to live, just as I was doing now.