Chapter Five #2
Like through a servants’ entrance. My interest piqued. Servants like the ones before you. They are who I need.
“Yes, please,” I said, putting on a smile to match.
“I am Aeris. Head servant and personal attendant to you, my queen.” She bowed again, then kissed my hand on the way up. I would never get used to that. “This is Mavourneen.” She pointed to the horse-faced girl. “She is your royal dresser.
“This is Talulla.” Beaver girl. “She is your official taste-tester.
“And this is Eadaoin.” Tiger girl. “She is your companion. She will be by your side always, providing for your every need—recreational and sexual.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
Aeris’s smile still blinded. “This is Eadaoin, your companion.”
“I heard that part. What was at the end of your sentence?”
“She is here to serve your sexual needs,” she repeated, blowing my eyes wide. “That is, of course, when our lord and master is not available to satisfy them for you. Eadaoin is quite skilled.” Grasping the woman’s shoulders, she brought her closer. “She was chosen just for you.”
“Nope.” I tossed my head. “No and nope.”
“My lady?” Aeris’s smile slipped. “Is something wrong?”
“Eadaoin will not be serving my sexual needs. That has been removed from your duties.”
“Oh.” For some reason, Eadaoin slumped. “It is because I am hideous to you. I knew it. I’m so sorry, my lady.”
“No, that’s not—”
Aeris sighed, nodding. “Of course, I should’ve known. My queen, I will find your next companion myself. One who has yet to undergo the change. She will be the epitome of Lyrican beauty.” Another deep bow. “But she will not hold a candle to you.”
“There will be no she!”
“No she?” Talulla made an odd sound, clicking her teeth. “Ah, I see. Our queen is saying she wants a man.”
“A man?” Aeris said the word like it was foreign. “You wish for a male companion? But, my queen... you’re a married woman.” Reproach was so heavy in her eyes, I almost shrunk. “Our lord will not like this.”
I threw up my hands. “Let me be clear. I have no wish for a sexual companion of any gender. At all. Ever. However, a regular companion who—once again does not perform any sexual acts—would be wonderful.” I tipped my head to Eadaoin. “I’m sure you’re perfect for the job.”
“Thank you, my queen.” Eadaoin’s smile returned. “It is my honor to serve.”
She truly sounded it. Rolling through that exceedingly normal, quiet town was enough of a shock to my system, but now this?
Faeriken were mindless, bloodthirsty beasts.
A scourge on our land, and the cursed shame of our race.
Never did I think I’d be this close to faeriken, let alone allow one to take my hand and lead me somewhere that wasn’t to my death.
“You will not be serving tonight,” Aeris told Eadaoin. “Our lady doesn’t require you. You may have the evening off.”
“Thank you, Aeris.” Eadaoin’s gaze flicked over my shoulder.
That was all the warning I got before a tall, pine-scented figure brushed past me, and tore her clothes off.
“Ahh!”
The armor-clad guard shoved Eadaoin against the wall, unheeding of my screams. Kissing down her neck and chest, he sucked her nipple in his mouth, tearing a moan from her lips.
A flush rose to her furry cheeks. I expected her to kick, slap him, demand he carry her somewhere private!
Her legs spread—both knees touching the wall. “Ah, yes, fuck me!”
That was all the permission he needed to tear his pants off too. One look at his gray, leathery bottom, and I was gone.
I had no idea where I was going. I simply needed to be somewhere I understood.
What is this cold, strange place? Why is nothing as it’s supposed to be?
I took off down a dark, rounded hallway. It reminded me of an owl’s undergrown burrow. Or the burrow of a creature much less cute. Somewhere in this rat cave there had to be an empty room with a door I could slam shut and lock. This was all too much for me. I needed a quiet place to think.
Rapid footfalls chased me down. “My lady, you’re going the wrong way, silly.
Your chambers are this way.” Aeris grasped my shoulders and spun me around.
“Don’t worry. Talulla has gone ahead to prepare your feast. It will be waiting in your chambers, along with a fresh change of clothes. I’ll take you to your bath now.”
I didn’t know what to say as she led me past Eadaoin and her lover. He now had his sheathed sword in his hand, and was furiously fucking her pussy with the hilt. Something told me that wasn’t his commanding officer’s intention for the sword when they issued it to him.
Aeris led me down another circular hallway to a pair of double doors. Sweeping them open, she wasn’t there to catch my jaw when it fell.
“What... is this place?”
“Welcome, Queen Emiana.” Aeris passed through, holding her hands to the ceiling. “To Castle Riagin.”
I took a step, then another, then one more. Getting closer didn’t make it more real.
Days ago, I was forcibly confined in the most opulent, beautiful, richest palace in the faelands.
It was a steaming pile of dog shit next to Castle Riagin.
Everywhere I looked, were diamonds and gold.
Diamond chandeliers clung to the domed ceiling, raining rainbow rain on my slippered feet. Golden statues lined the wall—each a different immortalized fae-beast. Were they important people in Wind and Wild history? Did they have a real, documented, and celebrated history?
The strange, dark walls remained in this place, but somehow, it was a perfect contrast to the gaudy golden lounges, diamond pedestals, and deep plush carpet. It was normal and simple beside the obscene and jaw-dropping.
“What is all of this doing here?” I wheezed. Did Alisdair steal it? When? For a century, we’ve brought the fight to him. He’s never had the chance to raid Rajadom, Sarabai, Quatassa, or Lyrica. There’s never been a report of him plundering our wealth.
“All of this? Oh, you mean all of the statues and diamonds and gems? It is a bit much, but it serves a purpose. Castle Riagin is the exclusive employer of bird faeriken.”
“What does that mean?” I asked as she led me off again.
“They— Well, we,” she corrected. “Are overly attracted to shiny things. The urge to possess them only gets stronger as we—” Her jaw worked, but the words didn’t come out.
Of course. The cursed can’t speak of their affliction.
“Anyway, it led to a lot of thefts and tensions in the village, so in his wisdom, our lord and master brought all of us here, and hired us as his servants with free room and boarding. Now, when something shiny goes missing, it is no matter. It is still somewhere in the building.”
It was my turn to open my mouth, and say nothing. I had to admit that was an elegant solution. Also, a diplomatic and bloodless one. No other king would consider hiring a race of thieves to work in his palace, but he more than anyone should know they were suffering from a curse not of their making.
Aeris guided me down another hallway and up a set of stairs with golden banisters and cold, shiny marble pressing back against my feet. I didn’t know where she was taking me until we turned a corner, and found the door already open.
Hot, vanilla-scented steam wafted out, filling my nose and my mind with the memory of how long it’d been since I had a bath.
I crossed the threshold, stepping into a porcelain paradise.
Waterfalls escaped from the ceiling, all feeding into a huge water basin sprinkled with rose petals.
Candles flickered from dozens of golden perches, casting a warm glow over the sun-shielded space.
A small half-wall designated the privy, and a large, porcelain lounge dominated the middle of the room.
I assumed that was the place for me to stretch out and luxuriate in the heat and steam.
“This, Queen Emiana, is your private baths.”
“Please, don’t call me that. Emiana,” I clarified. “Call me—”
I tried saying my name. Nothing. I attempted a version of my name. Nothing. I even attempted my siblings’ names, but the clever, wretched curse didn’t let that leave my lips either. Too much of a giveaway to my true identity.
“Ana,” I burst out in frustration. “None of this my queen or my lady stuff. Just call me Ana.”
“I am deeply flattered, my lady, but I could never address you so informally.”
“But—”
“Come,” she barked, clapping her hands. “My lady requires her bath.”
That was the cue. Half a dozen attendants flooded the room, and descended on me.
My cries fell on unheeding ears as they stripped me, unwove the tiara from my borrowed hair, took my shoes, pulled down my underclothes, and deposited me on the lounge.
One of the attendants ran for the bucket beside the water basin, filled it, grabbed a bar of scented soap, and they commenced with scrubbing.
“Whoa, hey!” I scuttled away when Aeris slipped her scrub pad between my legs. “I can bathe myself— Actually, I insist on bathing myself.”
She just laughed. “Don’t be silly.” Deceptively strong arms pushed me right back down. “I know you think us savages, but I swear to you, Queen Ana, you will want for nothing while you live in this castle.”
Two men in light armor walked into the room.
“What the fuck!” I snatched a water bucket, using it to cover Emiana’s bits as best I could. “What do you think you’re doing just walking in here? How dare you. Get out!” The shock was mine, but the imperious tone wasn’t.
I sounded like an outraged princess, instead of a regular outraged girl. Was that how quickly the curse took hold? How long until I forgot my family’s faces? Two days?
“Forgive us, Your Majesty.” The fore-man dropped to his knees, bending his head low. His wings crowned to stabilize him—a curtain of beautiful, iridescent black feathers.
Raven feathers, if I was correct. It was hard to be sure, because the curse had yet to reach his face.
He straightened, giving me a proper look at his face, and I near gasped—clutching my bucket tighter.