Chapter twenty-five
Shame filled the empty hole in my heart as the guard walked me toward my quarters in the back of the palace.
My face flushed warm and most likely was the exact shade of my hair.
I should have never admitted that to him, to myself.
The man who led an army to attack my village and strip away everything that I’d ever known from my life. I welcomed the shame in my face. I welcomed it into my body, into my blood. How could I be such a traitor to my people? How could I not be afraid of him? How could I not be repulsed by him? How could I ever trust a man like him?
In the back of the palace, I could smell the freshly baked loaves of bread wafting from the kitchen as we headed towards the servants quarters.
The walls were cool and dark.
As we passed the kitchen, the warm spices and citrus smells grew stronger, along with the servants not being shy about their blatant stares.
Some whispered to each other about what I’d been hearing the last three months.
“That’s her—the girl the Strokans fought over.”
“Do you really believe she could be a witch?”
I didn’t care as I kept their curious stares.
I didn’t look down.
For the first time in my life, they were the ones to look away first.
Let them think I was a witch. Let them think whatever they pleased. I didn’t care anymore.
As the guard led the way past the kitchen into another dark candle-lit hallway, past three doors on the left and a fourth to the right, we stopped.
He opened the door into a smaller room than the one I had before, but there were only three beds in this room.
My bed was the one closest to the door and near a window on the right side of the room.
It was a thicker straw mattress and on a taller wooden frame.
It was perfect.
It was more than perfect. It was better than the bed before and the cot I had at Fenrah’s house and the one I shared back at my village. I even had a drawer next to my bed where I could put my belongings.
Hearing a commotion near the door, I whirled around to see the guard had left, and two wide-eyed women stood before me with a palace keeper behind them.
Both younger women had dark hair, neatly braided, and the palace keeper had hers up in a linen.
“Hello,”
the young woman to the left said.
I was about to respond, but the old palace keeper spoke for me.
“She’s a mute.
Don’t bother yourself.”
Thank Erus.
I smiled sheepishly.
“What is she doing here then if she can’t talk?”
“Hush.
Talking is never part of any role.
Maybe you can take some notes.
She’s to be the new chambermaid for Lord Aris,”
the palace keeper stated.
Both young women’s jaws dropped, their eyes bulging wider than before.
I thought they were about to pop out of their sockets.
Their disbelief made me question my own reality and Aris’ choice in chambermaids.
“Behave yourself! And don’t question the emperor’s orders.”
The palace keeper thinned her lips and slapped the young woman’s arm.
The woman hissed yet immediately closed her mouth but didn’t stop staring at me like I was a fish out of water.
The palace keeper looked in my direction.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Swallowing, I nodded.
But I was laughing in my head from how long I’d been able to keep up this charade that I was a mute.
“You’re to start immediately.
Sebry will show you the rest of what you’re to do.
Breakfast is just before sunrise.
You’re to do your duties in the morning right after our lord leaves.”
The palace keeper and the quiet woman to the right of me hurried out, leaving me with wide-eyed, curious Sebry.
“I can’t believe you’re to be his new chambermaid.”
I stared back at her with my brows creased.
Did I miss something? What was all the fuss about?
“The whole lot of us have fought for months and months for this position, and never heard a response from our lord.
No one did!”
Sebry clicked her tongue, shaking her head.
“Ever since old Tracy died eight months ago.
She caught a miserable cold last winter while she was away visiting her family in Stroka.
Froze to death—well, basically, since she got so cold and died days later.
She had been his maid his entire life, and she also nursed him, raised him, since he was a babe. He hasn’t filled the position since. We all took turns when asked by our lord.”
Sebry narrowed her eyes.
“Why did he hire you? Oh, never mind.
He didn’t hire you.
You’re from another land, aren’t you? You’re a captive working for freedom.
You don’t look like you belong here at all with your pale skin and that red hair! Do all your people look like you?”
She paused, giving me a contemplative perusal.
“Anywho, apparently you’re Aris’ new chambermaid.”
She rolled her eyes and waved me to follow her down the candle-lit hallway.
“It just doesn’t make any sense at all.
He doesn’t have people like you here in Siniya.
For some reason Aris doesn’t want slaves—or unpaid servants.
He would like this country to one day be free of all slaves. We basically do the same work. I’m not complaining because I have a job here—the best job. Well, not technically. I guess you do. But it’s not even a job to you because you’re not getting paid—so that means I do have the best job! I’ve actually never seen a captive before in my life because I’m from Siniya, unlike some folks here.”
Does she always talk this much?
“My mother did, though.
She said that one tried to bite her for her food in Stroka—from a cage! There were Insulatus.
You’re not going to bite me, right? Because we’ll feed you just fine.
You’re basically one of us.”
We crossed a dining room into another long hall just before going up a stone staircase that swirled around.
“Right! I forgot you’re a mute! How did that happen? Were you born that way? Right! Shoot.”
I thought about putting her out of her misery, but I wondered if I started responding whether she would really not ever stop talking.
As we climbed and climbed, up and up, around and around, I almost passed out on the stairs.
We turned into another hallway, except this one was cavernous and filled with large windows on both sides of the hallway.
“I’ll show you what we do in our guest rooms, show you exactly what you’re supposed to do, so that you can do it for our lord, Aris.
Have you met him yet? He is a god—like literally.
I rarely see him, but when I do, I just can’t help but stare at his beautiful tall body!”
Sebry threw her hands left and right as she prattled on, and we continued down the hallway, past a hallway intersection into another one.
“I don’t think he feels that way about anyone, actually.
Maybe he just loves himself and only himself.
I mean, who can blame him, right?”
She looked at me.
“Oh, right! That’s going to be hard to remember.
Anyway, not many women go into his chambers, though I dream about doing so at night.”
Sebry smiled at herself, flushing.
“Our lord is just so busy with other important things that he’s never really found a lover.
Except for Camilla, but she mostly joins her father at the war camps.
I hear they get it on sometimes, but that it’s nothing serious.
I’m not sure why. Can you believe even she’s never been invited into Aris’ chambers? His chambers are off-limits to most—except for servants, of course. Camilla is gorgeous, but don’t let that beauty fool you.”
Sebry lowered her voice a few octaves as she leaned in closer to me.
“I hear she kills beautiful women at night so that she remains the most beautiful of all in the Siniyan Empire.
I would stay away from her if I were you.
You have a pretty face and curves in the right places, despite that hair color of…”
My mind wandered to the sturdy rugs we stepped on.
They were beautifully woven in gold and silver.
We passed a few large sets of doors to the right.
“I’m not sure if that’s true about Camilla, but that’s just what I heard.
I hope one day Aris notices me and invites me into his chambers.
It’ll be a dream come true!”
Sebry giggled, and I couldn’t help myself but smile.
Sebry showed me the order of cleaning a chamber and continued talking about the men she had been with, and how she felt like she needed to settle down soon.
She asked if I had a lover and forgot again that I was apparently mute.
After spending the day with Sebry, I realized my shame had withered away.
I stopped thinking about myself and my actions, where I was, or who I was becoming.
I appreciated someone like Sebry, who distracted that part of me that hid in the shadows.
Today was not the worst day, after all.