Chapter 2

That evening, I flung myself down on my bed with a groan. Well, flung is perhaps too strong of a word as you couldn’t really fling yourself onto hard wood slats without getting bruised. None of the so-called beds in the slave quarters had any kind of mattress or padding and were so narrow and short that some of the men’s shoulders and feet hung off the edges. Most of us didn’t even have a pillow or blanket, aside from a handful of slaves that had been given gifts or rewards for exemplary performance. I had never had a blanket or pillow since becoming a slave and as a mere kitchen drudge, it wasn’t likely I would ever be given the chance to earn one.

Emmi smiled at me, her dark blue eyes twinkling with good humor and somehow also with concern. She was my only friend here, the only slave who didn’t care that I was a foreigner and looked so different from the rest. “Hard day?” she asked.

I snorted indelicately and sat up, stretching my arms up as far as they would reach and arching my back. My muscles were complaining mightily from the extra labor we’d been forced to do to make up for Jerrek’s folly. Nobles didn’t give a damn about the inner workings or failings of the citadel slaves unless their demands weren't met and they wouldn’t take kindly to waiting for their supper. A late meal would have had the entire kitchen staff given lashings.

I told Emmi about the incident between Shubert and Jerrek and she grimaced when I mentioned how Jerrek thought that I had laughed at him. “Well, now you have yet another reason to watch your back. Be careful with that one, Xia. He has a mean look in his eyes.”

I shrugged. I wasn’t trying to be flippant about it, but he wasn’t the first, nor would he be the last. I was careful and rarely gave the other slaves the opportunity to get at me, but I’d had plenty of altercations with other slaves over the years, so nothing about my reality had really changed.

Emmi fiddled with her slave collar as she looked over her shoulder cautiously to see who was about. None of the other slaves were paying any attention so she carefully removed a plum from beneath her blouse and held it close to her chest so the others wouldn’t be able to see it from behind her. She gestured for me to come sit next to her so that both our backs would hide her treasure.

I quickly moved over and sat close to her, our shoulders touching. In a low whisper, I asked, “Where in the world did you get that?”

She smiled as she explained, “You know that new slave, Matheel? He gave it to me for a kiss.” She laughed quietly as my eyes grew large with surprise and concern.

“Emmi, you know he had to have stolen it. You could both be in great trouble for this,” I hissed at her.

Her smile wilted a bit at my sober tone, but then she looked at me and her smile perked up again. “If it makes you feel any better, the kiss was awful, all drooly and sloppy like when a dog licks you.”

We both sat there shaking with suppressed laughter for a moment until she nudged me with an elbow, offering the plum to me. “No, no, no, that’s your plum,” I said, pushing her hand back toward her.

She rolled her eyes and leaned her shoulder into mine. “You’re my best friend, Xia, and what’s mine is yours. Please share it with me. You know we rarely get any fruit and you enjoying this with me will make that horrid kiss worth it.”

I nearly laughed aloud at that but grudgingly took the dark purple fruit from her hand. It was small and hard, not quite ripe enough, but as I brought it up to my mouth, I could smell its sweetness and saliva flooded my mouth. I took a bite and quietly groaned with delight as the fruit hit my tongue. Fruits and desserts of any kind were reserved for the nobility so the explosion of sugar in my mouth was heavenly.

I sat there for a moment with my eyes closed, not even chewing, lost in the flavor sensation until I heard Emmi say in a pert tone, “Ahem, if you please?”

“Oh! I’m so sorry, Emmi!” I exclaimed, abashed at my selfishness.

I handed her the fruit as she laughed softly and took a huge bite, juice dripping down her chin. She wiped it away with her fingers and licked them clean before taking another mouthful and handing the fruit back to me. We both ate greedily and the small plum was gone too soon.

Emmi sighed with satisfaction as she tucked the plum stone into her blouse.

“How are you going to get rid of that?” I asked, a note of worry in my voice. We both knew what would happen if one of the guards found the stone.

She sucked on her fingers, getting the last vestige of sticky sweetness. “I’ll toss it in the lav when we go to the baths.”

I nodded for that was a good idea. The lavatory was on the way to the bathhouse so it would work out perfectly as long as no one saw us.

“Speaking of which,” I said, standing, “we should get going before there’s no more hot water.”

“Goddess forbid,” she quipped.

“Hey, hot water is one of the few luxuries we’re permitted around here. I, for one, enjoy it, so get moving, you silly lass!”

“All right, no need to get pushy,” she pretended to grumble and we both laughed.

Reaching under the low bed, I pulled out one of the two bins each slave was allotted, which held clean clothes such as the common blues or the uniforms that slaves like Emmi wore in the palace.

Hissing, I pulled my hand back and saw a fairly large splinter sticking out of my thumb. Emmi helped to pull it out and I sucked at the drop of blood that welled up. Apparently, my brain wasn’t working at full capacity today and I had been careless once again. The wood bins were so rough that I’d lost track of how many splinters I’d received over the years. It made keeping our clothes free of snags tedious as well since a slave would be blamed for any damage despite the fact that it wasn’t our fault we were given such coarse boxes to store our clothes in.

I shoved my resentment aside and grabbed a clean set of blues and Emmi and I left for the baths.

On the way there, we diverted to the lavatory. I peeked inside as Emmi looked around, both of us ensuring that we were alone. “All clear,” I whispered and closed the door behind Emmi. She handed me her bundle of clean clothes and quickly went over to one of the toilets and threw the plum stone in. Suddenly, the door was flung open and a trio of female slaves came in, prattling and laughing. Emmi quickly flushed the lav and pretended to adjust her clothing as if she’d just gotten off the toilet.

One of the women, Morikae, stopped and looked at me with an ugly smile that only turned up her mouth on one side due to a large scar that ran from the corner of her mouth down to her chin in an arc like a crescent moon. “Oy, what are you doing there, Xia? Gettin’ a nice show, eh?” She and her friends laughed coarsely at my “Ewww'' as Emmi and I hurriedly washed our hands and left.

As soon as we were back outside, Emmi let out a whoosh of breath. “I almost actually peed myself when they burst in like that!”

“Me, too,” I whispered and grabbed her elbow, intending to urge her down the path, but just as I was about to walk away, I could hear the voices of the women in the lavatory. I couldn’t make out the words, but something about the tone caught my attention. There was something sneaky about it, something too serious for a trio of slaves chatting in a lavatory. I shushed Emmi with a finger to my lips and leaned my ear against the door, trying to hear what they were talking about.

Their voices were too low and I could only make out some of the words. Not for the first time, I wished that I wasn’t wearing a slave collar. If I’d had my wolf, I would have been able to hear every word they said from halfway down the path.

As it was, I could only pick out Morikae’s voice from the other two, whom I hardly knew. All three women worked in the palace, the same as Emmi, so our paths didn’t cross much except for that we were in the same dormitory. Morikae was the leader of their little clique and did most of the talking and taunting while her cronies usually just laughed and followed her lead, but it meant that I didn’t know their voices as well. Their low tones and my lack of wolf also made it more difficult to tell which voice was which.

One of them griped, “Can’t you ask him to stop? We can’t keep up with… now we’ll be even more...” I couldn’t make out the rest of the words, but they were said in a whiney tone of voice.

Morikae hissed back, “Stop your puling. As if he’d ever listen to me. Besides, you...”

The second woman said, “... wasn’t this bad before when it was only one or two a month. Now it’s several a week. How are…”

The first woman added, “This isn’t worth the little bit of extra… You said there would be rewards, but...”

Morikae’s voice turned ugly and got a little louder with her anger. “That’s not my problem. You agreed to this and I’m risking my neck to get that food to you. Now shut your fucking mouths and let’s get back to the palace.”

I straightened up quickly and grabbed at Emmi’s sleeve, pulling her down the path at a run. My instincts were screaming that if Morikae knew I’d heard anything of what she and the other two women were talking about, I’d be in serious trouble. Just as I heard the women coming out of the lavatory, I dragged Emmi off the path and behind a tree.

As the trio’s voices faded away, telling me that they had gone in the opposite direction, I let out a whoosh of pent up breath I hadn’t even realized that I was holding.

Emmi was gasping for air from the quick run as she asked me, “What the blue hell was that all about, Xia?”

I peeked out from behind the tree to make sure that no one was looking and started down the path, waving a hand at Emmi to come along. I didn’t want to be here if those women happened to come back this way. As we walked down the path that would lead to the bathhouse, I told Emmi what I’d been able to hear and she looked as bewildered as I felt. “What were they talking about?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea, but their voices sounded serious and one of them sounded scared.”

I nudged Emmi with an elbow. “Keep silent about this. We don’t want it getting back to Morikae or the others that we overheard their conversation.”

Emmi looked horrified at the thought. “Of course! Morikae isn’t to be trifled with. She would definitely turn us in for that plum stone if she’d seen it. She was the one that ratted on Alven when he took a sip of that leftover wine when clearing the banquet hall.”

Emmi shook her head in disgust. “I heard he spent three days in the infirmary after the lashing he got. And they wouldn’t even take his collar off so he could heal with his wolf just to make a point. And for what? A sip of wine that some noble didn’t finish? How ridiculous!” The bitterness was thick in her voice and I agreed with her wholeheartedly.

It was absurd that slaves were punished for taking castoffs. It was just going to go in the midden fires after all, so it didn’t hurt anyone. But, there you go, yet another useless rule that only applied to slaves.

“And,” she continued, “word is that Morikae and her little gaggle are receiving special treatment from the seneschal in return for their squealing.”

“All the more reason to be extra careful around them. Now would you hurry? That hot water is calling my name.” She didn’t call me pushy this time.