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She c
lipped her veil across the lower part of her face and left the room, hurriedly, so that Elishiba didn't have time to question her last and most confusing comment.
Whatever did she mean?
Elishiba fretted on the remark. Was the Karseedian slave part of this as their informant on the Karseedians, as she hoped he would be, or simply as a member of her staff?
"Riddles,” she grumbled. “What use to me are riddles?” But Amra was busy instructing the attendant who had answered her call to bring Kerr to his mistress's chambers. It was time to take their places.
* * * *
Kerr stood outside the heavy, ornately embossed brass door of Elishiba's chambers, waiting while the guard announced him. His nerves almost had the better of him. Elishiba was such a beautiful and awe-inspiring Empress—he was positively terrified of her. Not in the same way he feared the Empress Mehmet. He understood what she was. Evil. The Empress Elishiba confused him, for she seemed kind.
He glanced around to get his bearings.
This palace was much less overwhelming and cavernous than the one in Lhastari. The pillars and carvings were smaller. They had not been created to make one feel as tiny as a flea, as those in Lhastari had, and they were more lovingly carved. The wall hangings he had seen were rich in color and design. The curtained balconies were draped with opaque material, light enough to lift on the slightest breeze, all of which gave the palace of Suzin a sense of calm beauty.
He couldn't help wishing this were his new home. Instead he had to form part of the escort party for the Empress Elishiba to Lhastari, a place that he was sure she would find ugly and uninviting, in comparison.
The heavy door swung open, and a friendly-looking woman appeared, nodding in greeting and beckoning him in with apparent pleasure.
"I am Amra,” she said, and led him across the outer rooms of the chambers.
She had to be one of the handmaidens he had been told about in the servants’ quarters. Then he saw that an identical woman watched from a seat by the bed as he walked by. She smiled at him when he glanced her way, and he dropped his gaze immediately, unsure of the appropriate behavior.
"This is my sister, Elra,” said the first woman. “We've seen you in the palace and we are most pleased to welcome you into our fold. We are Elishiba's people, and we hope you will enjoy your time with us."
Kerr wasn't used to respectful treatment. Astonished by their friendliness and overwhelmed by their beautiful symmetry, he was unable to respond with anything but a hopeful smile.
Amra led him on again and into a large bathing room, where Elishiba waited for him beside the pool. Her eyes were momentarily clouded with thought, he noticed. She had been a kind person when he first met her and didn't deserve to have such worries.
"Kerr, thank you for coming.” Her expression lifted.
He inclined his head, genuinely pleased. “You want me to work with my hands, for your pleasure?"
Elishiba smiled and so did Amra, who stood by watching.
"Your meaning is clear,” Elishiba said, “though I feel the language you have to use is unfamiliar to you. Where do you hail from, young Kerr?"
No one had ever shown any awareness of him as a person with a history, and he barely knew what to do or say. “I do not know where I was born, mistress. I was very young when I was taken from wherever it may have been.” He swallowed. “I was taken into Vereh, a land with a more ancient tongue, where I trained before shipment to Karseedia."
She nodded. “Tell me, do you think you have come to know Karseedian court life well?"
"Well enough, I suppose, mistress. I have spent the past five moons there, readying for my role. At first we heard that all four of us would be used in the Empress Mehmet's household, and then we were told we would be yours, instead."
She frowned when he said four, and he shifted from foot to foot, always uncomfortable when he remembered his dear friend Kazeen, who had mysteriously been taken from their group. They were told he had been banished from Lhastari, for a reason that was kept hushed from them. He feared the worst, that Kazeen was no longer alive. Whispered conversations amongst the slaves who had been in the palace at Lhastari for longer than he hinted it might be so. He comforted himself with the hope that Kazeen had escaped, even if it meant he roamed the streets, homeless.
"I hope you will be able to help me when I go there.” Elishiba spoke, drawing his attention back. “I fear I am a little nervous about the whole thing."
He couldn't imagine a woman such as her being nervous about anything, for she seemed so brave and sure, but when she blinked her lambent eyes and smiled gently at him, he forgot to wonder any more about her comment. “I will try to do whatever I can to help you."
"Good, good, that pleases me very much."
Her kind words made him feel braver. “I know how you must feel, mistress,” he offered, “for I always feel new."
"I'm sure you do.” She squeezed his arm affectionately. “Now, will your craft ease the tension in my limbs?"
"Greatly."
