Chapter Twenty-Nine
Should I go and sit? What would Lia do? I took on a haughty and threatening tone.
“My husband will come looking for me, and then he will burn this nation to the ground.” Did I sound convincing? The only other person who knew I was here was Zain, and that didn’t do me any good because he was just as trapped as I was.
“I’m sure your husband won’t mind briefly lending you to us. I have something I need you to do.”
Looking at the women surrounding him, I had a good idea of what he needed me to do. “I think you already have a full harem.”
The king laughed. “I do not have a harem. That was outlawed centuries ago. Such an archaic concept. I have concubines.”
If there was a difference, I didn’t know what it was and I truly did not want him to explain.
I looked around the room at his concubines.
It was then I noticed they all had leather neckbands on, like the one Dagger wore.
Anger fizzled in my veins as I realized it wasn’t a fashion choice or jewelry.
He treated them like pets. Some of the concubines’ neckbands were attached to chains on the wall, and they sat, unable to move.
The king of Epirius was going on my list.
“Concubines? Or slaves?” I asked sweetly.
He bristled at that. “They are my guests.”
“Guests who can’t leave, I am assuming. And aren’t paid for their work.” There was not enough money in the world to compensate for having to climb into that man’s bed. “I thought Epirians didn’t steal people.”
Actos watched me, his finger drumming against the top of his cup. “I had heard you were outspoken. That is not something I generally tolerate.”
“If there is something you want from me, you will have to learn to tolerate it.”
He surprised me then by bursting into laughter. “Come, Queen Thalia. Let us be friends. Please have a seat.”
“Do it,” I heard Zain mutter under his breath.
A servant had pulled a chair out for me and I went and sat. Zain took up a position behind me.
“Have you had your manservant long?” the king asked, as if I were some kind of hypocrite.
But my “manservant” didn’t have a collar around his neck.
And as much as I would have loved to tell Actos that he and I had very different definitions of what a manservant was, I realized that I couldn’t risk it.
Given how depraved the king was, who knew what he might do to Zain if he knew the truth? “I’ve had him for some time.”
Servants brought out the first course and set it in front of us. The last thing I wanted to do was eat, but I needed to keep up appearances. The fruit that was served tasted like chalk in my mouth.
“Excellent, isn’t it?” the king asked and I nodded.
I wouldn’t be able to speak until I managed to swallow this down.
“You don’t have your manservant waiting on you while you eat? He could be pleasuring you.”
Was that what the king was doing right now? I nearly dry heaved. I forced the fruit down my throat and managed to say, “We keep our activities private.”
“That’s a shame. You have no idea how much fun they are in public.” King Actos caressed the buttock of a woman standing near him and she smiled down at him. The moment he looked away, she shot him a look of such pure hatred that I was surprised he didn’t spontaneously combust.
The king spoke and I realized he wasn’t talking to me. “You there, what is your name?”
“Theogenes, sire.”
“Theogenes, you can rub your mistress’s feet while she eats, can’t you? You wouldn’t want to neglect her.”
I heard Zain’s steps behind me and then he came into view, kneeling down by my feet. He undid the ties on the sandal of my left foot, his fingers trailing along my skin. Was he actually going to massage my feet? I couldn’t breathe normally.
He carefully slid my sandal off my foot and my pulse was already pounding. He undid my right sandal, giving it the same attention and treatment. Slowly sliding it off so that it felt like torture.
The king was saying something but I wasn’t listening.
Because Zain’s warm, strong hands began to knead my left foot.
He was actually massaging my feet and it felt incredible.
I had thought he would pretend, but instead his clever fingers found the most amazing spots that I somehow felt all over my body.
Tension that had hardened in my shoulders and neck started to ebb away.
Then I felt a kiss on the top of my left foot and I jerked away instinctively. I pretended to drop my knife and bent down to retrieve it.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I hissed at him.
He had the audacity to grin at me. “Selling the story. You have such lovely feet I couldn’t help myself.”
“No one can even see you. Stop it.”
“As you wish, my illora.”
I told my heart to stop glowing over Zain calling me that again. I straightened and pretended like I was listening to the king. He was talking about grain imports and distribution. Was this why he wanted Lia here? To bore her to death?
My breath halted when Zain’s fingers began to creep up my calves. He massaged them, running his fingers up and down slowly. It felt so good that I didn’t make him stop, even though I should have.
Then he moved up to the hollow in the back of my knee and lightly brushed his fingertips in and out of that spot, darting from one place to the next. I never knew where or when he would touch me and I accidentally let out a soft moan the next time he made contact.
“Are you all right, Queen Thalia?” Actos asked.
His interruption was so shocking that I slammed both of my knees into the tabletop as I attempted to regain control of myself. My heart beat so fast that it was painful. I could hear Zain laughing and I kicked him.
“Yes, fine,” I managed to say in a voice that sounded too breathy.
The king grinned, as if we were sharing in some sort of debauchery. “It seems you have chosen an excellent manservant.”
“Only the best,” I said with a fake smile.
“And how does your husband feel about that?”
Husband? Oh, right. I was supposed to be Lia. Zain’s touch had scrambled my brain. “What my husband doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
The king raised his wineglass to me. “That’s what I always say! That, and ‘the more the merrier.’ You two”—he snapped his fingers at girls sitting on pillows—“go and see if the queen requires your services.”
Foul man. They couldn’t have seen more than sixteen summers.
The two girls approached and knelt at my feet near Zain. “How may we serve you, Queen Thalia?”
Their dresses were see-through. They might as well have been naked. These poor girls. The one on the right tilted her head slightly and I saw the edge of a woad tattoo under her collar.
King Actos watched us closely. So I leaned down and kissed the girl’s cheek. “Are you Thracian?” I whispered.
She trembled. “Yes. We both are,” she whispered back.
“Are there others?”
“Four others.”
That was what I would do next. Whatever it was the king wanted could wait. I was going to find a way to free these girls. Before our first battle, every Thracian took a vow to never leave one of our own behind.
I would not leave them in his vile clutches.
“Thank you for your kind offer, King Actos, but Theogenes is all I need.” The two girls stood and bowed their heads to me slightly and returned to their pillows.
“Your manservant must be very good, then. Do you ever lend him out?”
Goddess, what would Zain do if I said yes? I had to suppress a smile. “My apologies, but I am very jealous and very possessive.”
“Say no more—I understand. However, I am not the same. These two are available for your use at any time if you change your mind.”
I plastered another fake smile on my face and sat on my hands so that I wouldn’t stab him. Could I put the king on my list twice? Kill him, bring him back to life, and then kill him again?
Another course was brought out, and fortunately, the king finally got to the point.
“I have been told that you can speak with dragons, Queen Thalia.”
As far as I knew, she only spoke to her personal aether dragon, but Actos didn’t need to know that. “Yes.”
“I need your help, then.”
It would be inappropriate for me to tell him that I’d rather cut off my limbs and have someone drag my bleeding torso across a bed of hot coals than help him. “Oh?”
“There is something I need. Something in a cave in the middle of the Wastelands.”
“I don’t understand why that involves me.”
“Many millennia ago, Eramis gave his god-weapon, his caduceus, to his son, a half mortal. Whoever wielded the caduceus was the undisputed king of Epirius. It is said that it contains great power but the secret of how to use it has been lost to the ages.”
The last time I was around god-weapons, it had nearly destroyed Troas.
Actos fondled another woman near him and then continued his story.
“One of the early kings found that too many people coveted the caduceus and tried repeatedly to steal it. Worried that it might fall into the wrong hands, he went into the desert and hid it. He took a crystal dragon and bound it, forcing it to protect the caduceus. Everyone who goes looking for it never returns.”
He leaned forward. “I need you to go and talk to the dragon, convince it to let you through, and retrieve the caduceus for me.”
I was about to laugh and say no. “Why in the name of the goddess would I do that?”
“Goodwill between nations.”
It was getting harder and harder not to laugh.
“Or if that’s not enough of an incentive . . . I can tell your husband that you have taken a lover. How do you think the king of Ilion will react to that?”
Xander would chop off Actos’s head. Maybe I should let the Epirian king do it.
Zain yanked on my leg. I knocked another utensil off the table. “I am so clumsy tonight!”
When I bent down, he said, “You have to ask him for something. Tell him you’ll do it and get something in return. If you don’t push back, he’ll think you’re weak.”
“Can’t I just gut him right now and have this all be over?”
“Not if you want to live. I’ve already counted six assassins hidden in this room with their weapons trained on you.”
How had I not noticed that? I hadn’t even been looking for it. I was slipping. “Can I ask for the concubines?”
“He’ll never allow it—that would make him appear weak. He might give you just the Thracians.”
I straightened back up and put on my fake smile. “I certainly understand your dilemma, King Actos. But I’m afraid I’m going to need something more than just your silence if you want me to complete this task.”
Actos had obviously been expecting me to counter. Much as I still wanted to maim Zain, I was glad he was here to help with strategy. “And what is it you want?”
“My brother by law is a Thracian and he would be heartbroken if I left Thracian women here. I would like to be granted your Thracian concubines.”
The king laughed. “Your Thracian brother by law? Oh, that’s a rich excuse. You must have liked my girls more than you let on! Fine. If you bring me the caduceus, you may have as many of my Thracian whores as you’d like.”
I gripped my knife tightly, fighting the urge to throw it at his neck. Zain’s hand was on my leg, sending me a silent message to calm down.
“We will talk more about this tomorrow,” the king said, standing up. “As for now, I have had my dinner and now I am going to have my dessert.” He gestured and ten of the concubines went with him.
I was still certain that I could kill him before the assassins could stop me.
“It’s not worth it,” I heard Zain say. “And you can’t save those girls if you’re dead.”
I wanted to tell him to stop reading my mind. “I am going to save them, and then I’m going to come back here and free the rest.” I didn’t know how, but I would figure it out.
Dione showed up in the doorway and I stood, as did Zain. I followed after her and we walked in silence. I was still seething over Actos. I despised men like him.
Maybe I wouldn’t kill him. Maybe I’d just cut off his favorite body part.
Dione stopped in front of my bedroom door. “If there is anything else you need, please let me know.”
“I will. Thank you.”
There was something about her I liked. She didn’t seem like the other Epirians. But then everyone would seem wonderful in comparison to their king.
When Zain and I entered our room, I saw that Dione had been busy. In addition to new clothing for both of us, she had brought food and water for Dagger, along with a small bed he was currently sleeping in.
Zain closed the door and I headed to the washroom. I wanted to clean off the stink of tonight, get it out of my hair and off my skin and—
His hand closed around my arm and I had to stop myself from punching him for daring to touch me. He must have had a reason. He pulled me in close and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. I was too shocked to do anything but stand there.
Then he whispered in my ear.
“Time to pretend.”