Book 7, Chapter 1: Welcome to the Harem
Feeling miserable, face in my hands, knees up to my chest, sitting in a hallway that led to a harem, where I was now stuck. And presumably part of the harem. I tried anger, and that failed to bring my divine powers back. No point in denial, I’d skip that phase, was straight into bargaining already. ‘Serce,’ I thought to myself, ‘if you don’t let me out of here, I’m going to invent new medical procedures on you using only a teaspoon.’
Cresida was injured and I had to go see if she was being tended to, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get up. I was still alive, and we’d just barely made it to the safety of the city, and now palace, and for that I should be grateful, but this felt like a real loss. A betrayal, for I’d told Serce the truth about what was happening – the Others were escaping their dimensional prison and who knows what they’d do to the world after that – and he’d seemed so supportive, even to the point of agreeing to share power. Yeah, I really was that naïve.
Footsteps in the hallway, stopping just in front of me. Through my fingers, I caught a glimpse of light brown cotton robes. An elderly woman’s voice said, “No sense in crying child, you’re already stuck here. Come on, let’s take you inside. Oh my, your clothing is full of blood. The other lady, too. I assume you were captured in the battle outside the gates?”
Not done feeling sorry for myself, I nearly grunted.
She took me by the arm and roughly pulled me up, not out of malice, I think, but being skinny, bony and old. “Alright, up you get. You can mope later, but right now we’re cleaning you up. How much of this blood is yours?” An elderly lady, probably one of the caretakers. Or maybe a harem member aged into being a caretaker.
“None.”
“Speech. We’re already making progress. We’re going to have to bathe you and then burn your clothing, I’m afraid. I hope you aren’t too attached to it.”
“Meh.”
“I’m Tienseon. Come along.”
“Ah.”
The lady began walking us where Cresida had gone, through the hallway, “And your name?”
She wasn’t getting the hints. I tried larger sentences. “Alright, if you’re here to help me, where did the woman I was with go? I’m a little worried about her as she was injured.”
“Is she your older sister? She getting those injuries looked after and cleaned. I’ll take you to her. How did you get this much blood on your clothing without taking injury yourself?”
“There was a lot of fighting.”
“I see,” she dragged me along the hallway, at a slow pace. “You appear as a soldier fresh out of the frontlines. Perhaps ‘fresh’ is the wrong word. How did you find yourself in such a state?”
I didn’t answer but picked up my feet to stop her from pulling on my arm.
“Not very amenable, I see.”
The hallway came to a large room, well-lit from above and high ceilings. The room was like a giant stage made of three levels, with the level I was on dropping down a short ways away, regular stairs on both sides of the room leading down to the next level, flat for a time, then dropping down again. The highest floor, the one we were on, had a long, oval shaped dining table, chairs lining it, some women sitting on the corners, talking or playing games. The next level was all sofas, pillows, women and girls lounging about with tables interspersed here and there, and the lowest level an open space leading to a small pool of water, with a larger, almost swimming pool beyond it, ladies in both. Unlike a swimming pool, it was bordered by boulders and statues, with only a few entrances.
“As far as harems go,” I couldn’t help but say, “this is luxurious.” Where I’d come from, or at least where I imagined I came from, most harems were generally enclosed spaces. The wealthier the men, the more women they owned, the higher the walls and smaller the windows. They wanted their women docile, bored and dumb. Not here, apparently. I suppose that was a point in Serce’s favor, but I wasn’t feeling very charitable and scowled at the thought of him.
Teenage girls, women in their twenties and beyond, and elderly women, all milling about, playing various games – dice, cards – some reading, others playing more active games with balls and ropes on the open space, all looked up at our entrance, checking me out. I guessed there were some fifty or more women here.
Anger was definitely growing inside me at Serce. All his talk of marriage and never once did he mention, ‘Oh yeah, so I’ve got this enormous harem . . .’ No wonder he said the consummation of marriage could wait until I was older, he was well occupied! The presence of younger girls, perhaps around my body’s age, made me furious.
As we passed through the spacious room, it dawned on me that the clothing was rather immodest, loose robes tied by belts, very thin material for dresses, making them almost sheer, and clothing far too revealing for me. Damn. Serce, you naughty, naughty emperor. If they tried to put me in that kind of clothing, by God, we were going to have a lot of injured women in this harem.
Exiting to another hallway, with various rooms leading away from it, we finally came to a smaller room, sporting a fountain, chairs and a raised bed. Vinnegar filled the air, and white cloths were piled on a shelf, other metal implements of first aid, but to my disappointment, no knives or scalpels. Cresida was sitting in one of the chairs while another woman wiped her shoulders vigorously with vinegar. To her credit, she didn’t flinch or cry out, but her face was clenched up in a grimace.
“Here’s your sister.”
Cresida looked over, “Oh, she’s not my sister.”
“The girl wouldn’t say, nor tell me her name. Only that she’s uninjured. I’ll take her to the baths then.”
“She is the Princess Cayce.”
I sighed. “Cresida, you utter bitch.”
As the attendant, or whoever that woman was, paused rubbing vinegar into her wounds to look at me, Cresida smiled, narrowed her eyes, and said, “And she is a goddess.”
I rolled my eyes, shook my head, and directed my attention to my guide, “Just take me to the bath.”
Hands on my shoulders, the old lady wheeled me around, backed up a step, looking into my face. “Though it’s hard to tell under all this grime, you do look like her.” She put her hand under my chin to get a closer look.
I smacked it away. “Woman, just show me where the bath is. Or I’ll prance around your wonderful, clean harem and dirty it up.”
“He captured you in battle? Did your armies join the attack on our city?”
“I’m going to go find it myself it seems,” I walked out, going left down the hallway, away from the main rooms. If I couldn’t find a bath this way, I could just jump in the swimming pool, I suppose. Then steal some clothes off one of the girls. Just like in prison, in a harem, you have to show everyone who’s boss.
Ok, I made that up. My first time in one. I wondered when feeding time was, or petting time. Ugh. Though I was angry at Serce, the fault lay with myself. I shouldn’t have trusted him, shouldn’t have imagined he’d treat me in good faith. Yet it was one thing to deceive me and another to entirely ignore what Talaren, the last mage, told him about the coming danger. Probably Serce worked out that it was I who informed Talaren and, in that case, the former ambassador mistrusted the information. Unless it was much worse and he simply didn’t care. Capturing me, after all, could lead him to gaining my kingdom.
I was not looking forward to a forced marriage.
Against all odds, the elderly woman caught up to me, “I understand that you won’t confirm you are whom she claimed you were,” and grabbed my arm, whirling me around to face her.
Swinging my arm in a circle, I trapped her hand in my dirty clothing, ready to toss this woman on the ground, but caught myself before going into full on attack-mode. As annoyed, as frustrated, as impotently angry as I was, I didn’t need to beat up an old woman.
“Young woman, listen for a moment!” she said. “This place isn’t insulated from the outside world. Politics reaches into here just as it does the emperor’s court. If you are who she said you were, you are in serious danger.”
“Oh?”
“Otholos killed your immediately family, it’s true. But the rest, well, your cousins are in here. The men didn’t fair so well. I’m sure that Serce was thinking to marry the girls. But now that he’s captured you, he clearly wants your obeisance in marriage. Your claims to the throne are arguably stronger than the others and, of course, to your own kingdom.”
“Well, he’s not getting that! Nor obedience! And the other girls are welcome to him.”
“Dear, you’re not listening. What do you think they’re going to do now that you’re taking their position?”
Releasing the woman’s trapped hand, I backed up, palms against my eyes, rubbing when I really shouldn’t be, as they were filthy, “Oh my god, you have no idea how frustrating this is.” Lowering them, I looked into her eyes, a purple to match my own, “Alright, why are you telling me this?”
“Let’s just say that I have loyalty to the original empress.”
“Lady I have no desire to marry Serce. My only goal is to get out of his place. It was a serious mistake to trust him and there are much, much more dangerous problems than him. And whoever is in this harem.”
“Unless you can walk through walls, I don’t see how you’re getting out of here.”
“Maybe if I try really hard.”
She crossed her arms. “You’re going to need to make friends.”
I gave her a look.
“Alright, allies. It may have been a mistake for you to trust the emperor, but it was a mistake for him to put you in here. Some who yet oppose the usurpation would value you very much, even to the point of restoring you to the throne.”
“Oh my god, woman. I’m really, really not in the mood. Just tell me where the bath is. And get me a proper dress to change into after.” Holding up my finger, I wagged it side to side, “And not one of those topless or revealing ones.”
She nodded. “You certainly act like a princess.”
“Like an idiot princess, let me tell you.” I folded my arms. It was true, I’d done a lot wrong. Flying over to attack hundreds of mages alone, mages who excelled at capturing my kind, was moronic. It got me trapped behind enemy lines, with plenty of monsters and now the Others’ monstrosities roaming the lands, preventing easy escape. And it was all worse because the mages’ army was so poorly trained!
And trusting Serce. Oh, I was right angry at the former ambassador!
Yet none of my frustrations mattered. No, I needed to stop acting like a child and figure this out. Alright, alright, I turned away from here, breathing slowly and counting to ten. She continued speaking, but my thoughts were my own.
The harem was large and well-protected. It reminded me of The Forbidden City. Women there, depending, had enormous political power. This lady just confirmed that, too, was true here. And I was a princess. The princess of the kingdom on their borders, the princess who’d just wiped out the majority of their military. My armies were better, stronger, and Laemacia was clearly struggling.
Uncrossing my arms, I allowed myself a tiny, tiny smile. Maybe this situation wasn’t a setback. They would come to me in here. The power holders. They’d court me for my military and noble titles alone, but I had another ace up my sleeve. Assuming Serce was honest when he proposed marriage, if not honest about unifying our lands.
The powerful would approach, they’d want to make friends with the soon to be empress. They’d come with offers. And some of them would want to overthrow Serce and restore my bloodline to the throne. If I played this properly, escape wasn’t only unnecessary, it would be a mistake. Assuming, of course, the nun’s army didn’t overcome the city’s defenses before Serce and his military returned. And no one killed me in here with assassins. And the Others didn’t send in a giant, city ending monster. Assuming all that, I was now very well positioned politically.
Not for the first time, I wished Brin were with me. She’d more successfully navigate the mess I’d gotten myself into.
Yet I was alone. And angry. Come hell or high water, I was taking Serce’s throne.
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