I nodded.
“I’m thirty, and you’re absolutely disgusting.” I went to open my mouth, but he stopped me. “No more questions until after you’re clean. Everything you need is in there.”
Bran pointed to an arched doorway behind him. I pushed the comforter off my hips, twisting myself so my legs hung over the bed. A clean gown now clung to my body. I had no idea what happened to the torn slip Dahes had given me or how I was changed, but right now I was too tired to care.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed myself to stand, but it took more effort than I thought. My thighs shook and my entire body felt on the verge of falling over. I wavered, my feet wobbling, before I straightened myself. Inhaling slowly, I tried to mask how weak I felt beforeforcing myself to meet his gaze. I had to crane my neck up, confirmation he was a good head taller than me before I froze. I gasped, my head whipping back down to my feet as the sensation registered.
He rolled his eyes. “What in the two-Suns is stalling you now?”
I couldn’t answer. I just kept staring at my toes. I had skin there. There wasn’t a blister in sight. Bran’s gaze drifted down as he sighed. “Yes, a mender healed your feet from the Sands, now wash.”
Still speechless, I made my way to the bathroom.
I locked the door, slowly undressing, before sinking into the bath. Thehotbath—and despite the growling ache in my stomach or the lingering headache, it might have been the most relaxed I’d ever been in my life.
The bathroom wasmy new favorite thing. A huge porcelain tub was carved into the floor, large enough to sprawl out in. I could lie completely flat, submerging myself under the water, and my feet still wouldn’t reach the other end.
A ridiculous amount of soaps and lotions lined the far shelf for me to choose from. I had no idea what scent I doused myself with except that it wasn’t jasmine. It was all Dahes ever gave me, all I ever smelled like, and I hated it.
There was a large mirror off to the side of the room, but I couldn’t get myself to look. I was a coward. I didn’t want to know how much I changed in the seven years I’d been his slave. Wasn’t ready to see the physical toll he caused me.
So instead, I turned the knob to the absolute hottest temperature the water could go. My pale skin had turned bright red by the time I got out of the bath, but I didn’t care.
I’d heard exiled Vivenians complain about the cold, how they claimed Wielders had Tokens that worked with the plumbing. Heat happened instantaneously instead of having to use fire and coals. I usedto dream about it, used to imagine what it would be like to have warmth at the snap of your fingers, but to actually experience it…
I couldn’t tell if I wanted to laugh or cry or scream from how glorious it felt, knowing that it wouldn’t last.
A soft peach robe was draped over the side of the bath, waiting for me. I pulled the dress I was wearing back over my head before yanking the robe on top and nearly sighed.
Between the warmth the suns added to the air, the thick comforter on the bed, the scalding hot bath I just took, and now the robe… I hadn’t felt this warm, this comfortable, this clean… in my entire life. In Moriann, I was always cold, but the past seven years had been something else entirely. I was numb. Frozen. Dead.
“What part of ‘we don’t have a lot of time’did you not understand?” Bran’s voice shouted through the wood.
I unlatched the door, pulling the robe around me. “I’m ready.”
Bran started laughing, belly-curdling laughter. “You’re joking, right?”
I pulled the robe tighter. “There weren’t any other clothes in there?—”
“And you thought arobewas fit to meet a king? Tell me you wouldn’t meet the Dead King wearing that?”
“The Dead King?” I asked.
“Yeah. The King of the Dead. The devil incarnate.” When I still didn’t say anything, he added, “King Dahes.”
My body revolted. He’d seen me in worse. He’d seen me wearing nothing. He’d been the one to remove all my clothes before?—
“You aren’t wearing a robe, Nollie,” Bran said. “I didn’t think growing up in Moriann would make you incompetent, but here we are.” He huffed. “You’re naked under it for crying out loud.”
“I never told you my name.”
He didn’t answer. “Come on. I’ll show you to your closet. You can pick a dress to wear.”
“I’m already in a dress.”
“No, Nollie. That’s arobe?—”
He stopped talking as I slowly rolled the robe off my shoulders. “See. I have a dress on under it.”
