The Harem Master (15 page)

Emre spoke with his men, and one of them nodded before separating slightly from the group. Turning to Euren, Emre said, "I am leaving a man behind to keep watch for anyone who might be following us. I am hoping that between the two dead men, the horses we cut loose, and our hard traveling that we have left any remaining pursuers behind. But time will tell."

"Thank you, Cobra Amir." Euren pulled her wraps up and secured them in place. Meltem mounted her horse and readjusted her wraps. When everyone was ready, they followed Emre away from the watering station in a cloud of dust.

They stopped an hour or so later by the broken remains of what had once been a traveler's pavilion, long fallen into disuse after a better one was erected a little further down the road. Old campfires, rinds and other inedible bits of old food were scattered about, and the general smell of smoke, cheap wine, and piss made it clear the pavilion was still frequented by those who could not afford—or otherwise wanted to avoid—the active pavilion.

Euren gratefully dismounted, letting one of the Cobra take her horse while she walked stiffly over to a crumbled bit of wall and sat down. Gulden sat beside her while Asli and Canan sat on different broken bits, forming a loose circle.

Meltem approached them carrying bread, cheese, olives, and a skin of wine. "Here you are, Highness."

"Thank you. Join us, please, unless you prefer to sit with your companions."

Smiling, Meltem sat on the ground, handing the food over before stripping away her face and head coverings entirely and setting them in a heap next to her. "I see them all the time and have been traveling with them for weeks. I could use the company of other women. Thank you, Highness." She pulled her hair loose, combed it out with her fingers, then began deftly to re-braid it, tucking it neatly into a knot at the base of her neck.

"I did not know the tribes had women soldiers," Euren said, sipping at the wine and passing the skin along. She ate an olive, nibbled at a bit of cheese. "Though I know next to nothing about them, only the overblown rumors that trickle to the palace."

Meltem laughed. "I promise the rumors that trickle back are no better. And it varies from tribe to tribe, and sheik to sheik. My father would prefer I stay safe in camp, but he feels the same about my brothers. His complaints are reserved for men who refuse to marry a woman who can best them." She made a face. "I envy you a husband who brags about a wife who fights better than him."

"Ihsan has always been unique," Euren said with a smile. "Often to the frustration of all who know him, though he always means well. I only hope I do not arrive to find him in chains."

Asli gave a soft snort. "Do not ask for the impossible, princess."

"Hope is eternal."

Meltem laughed. "I do not know His Highness very well, but my brothers love to recount stories about him. I think there is hope, Princess, and then there is delusion."

Euren made a face as the others laughed, but a smile tugged at her mouth. "Yes, well, I have no room to complain. I was the naughty soldier's daughter who stole the crown prince from his betrothed, and then turned right around and stole the betrothed as well."

"What?" Meltem asked, mouth gaping. "How in the name of the Lady…"

Asli giggled. "That is exactly the face Euren made when Ihsan kissed her, and again later when I begged to join her harem. It's also the face our fathers made when they found out." Her face soured. "Except His Majesty, of course, who looked like he wanted to execute the lot of us."

Meltem shook her head, still looking stunned. "So you were betrothed to His Highness?"

"Betrothed is overstating it," Asli said. "It was an informal understanding I would probably marry him one day. My mother is from Tritacia, but my father is of high enough station that I was still considered a suitable queen, especially these days, when the council is pathetically eager to please foreigners. Who better than the daughter of a councilman and a foreigner?" Her lips curled. "But I never had any desire for that kind of responsibility. Ihsan does want to be king, has happily trained for it all his life. He needs a queen who wants to be at his side, who wants to help him rule. Power should never go to the greedy, but it should not go to the unwilling either. I am happy where I am."

Euren smiled, leaned over, and kissed her, squeezing her hand briefly. "I don't know that I'm enthusiastic about being queen someday, but I like a challenge."

"I would gladly leave it to others," Meltem said. She looked at the other two. "Would it be rude to inquire how you wound up in Her Highness's company?"

Gulden swallowed the olive she'd just bitten into and smiled. "Not at all. I was hired as a tutor, to help teach Her Highness all she would need to know to be crown princess and, someday, queen. My family has been tutors to nobility and royalty for many generations. I had a great-great-grandmother who was concubine to a queen."

"I am the sixth of eight children," Canan said. "My parents are book merchants in Tavala. I was a difficult child, and they thought the priesthood would calm me, teach me discipline, get rid of my…" She pursed her lips, then smiled and finished, "…promiscuous ways, let us say. They were terrified I would come home pregnant, nevermind that I have always had a penchant for women and no interest in men. Being a priestess turned out quite a good idea for me, if not in the way my parents anticipated. Not that they know yet; all they know is that I left the temple in the company of a lover."

"I am honored you would share your stories," Meltem said. She started to say more when Emre came striding up. Meltem stood. "Is something wrong?"

Emre shook his head and then looked at Euren. "I wanted to send two men to scout ahead, but that means it will just be four of us riding with you for the rest of the day. The others should return to us at sunset, unless they're given cause to return sooner. But I wanted to be certain you did not mind the reduced protection."

"Not at all, Cobra Amir. I remain grateful to have your company and protection. My only fear is that you and your people will come to harm, and I do not want that."

Meltem and Emre exchanged a private smile, then Meltem replied, "Highness, I would never make light of violence and danger, but we face worse than this every single day in the Desert. A few bandits and mercenaries, no matter how blooded, are no match for the Children of the Sands."

"You certainly were impressive with that knife," Gulden interjected. She finished a last bite of bread and cheese, then brushed crumbs from her skirt and stood. "Right in the throat. I did not think anyone could match my princess's skills, but you might leave her in the dust."

"I doubt that," Meltem demurred, but Euren caught the wistfulness in her voice, the flash of challenge in her eyes.

Euren smiled, slow and mischievous. "Well, I think the matter will have to be satisfied with a contest once we are safely in the palace. The crown princess is allowed to call for a knife throwing contest, yes?" She looked to Asli.

Lifting her eyes to the sky, Asli said, "I think His Majesty might have something to say about the matter, my princess."

"Only if he acknowledges my existence, and I'm not convinced he will." Euren made a face. "As I said before, I will be grateful to arrive to find Ihsan not in chains. We have been gone a long time, and I may not have been raised to politics, but even I know that a powerful person returning after a five year absence upsets many ambitions and carefully laid plans."

"Saa, you people make the Desert seem so relaxing," Emre commented. "And I was eager to leave it because I found the constant warring exhausting."

Euren's mouth twisted. "I will take open combat over underhanded politics any day. I am sorry your visit to Tavamara is not a happier occasion. Will you stay a time once we arrive at the palace? I would like to show you the better parts of it, and there is no better place than the royal city: the ports, the market."

"The baths, the wine, the food…" Asli added. Beside her, Gulden sighed in agreement, and Canan nodded vigorously.

"Do not speak to me of baths," Meltem said. "I have been traveling so long, I cannot remember when last I had a proper bath. I fear I will always smell like horse." Emre rolled his eyes, and she gave him a shove. "You might enjoy smelling like horse, but I promise that you will never convince a woman to marry you."

Emre shrugged. "I am Amir, I don't have to convince anyone, just show up for the ceremony." He dropped his folded arms. "The horses are suitably rested, I think. We should be on our way." Turning on his heel, he departed as abruptly as he'd arrived.

"Did we say something to upset him?" Canan asked.

Meltem shrugged, exactly the same way Emre had, and Euren almost smiled. She'd always wanted siblings, but her mother had absolutely hated being pregnant and refused to do it again, and then her mother had died. "
I
said something to upset him: he does not like being reminded that soon he must marry and focus on his duties as Amir. Emre and I have never been very good Children of the Sands. We like wandering a little too much, and never pay as much attention to our duties as we should. He wants to see the world, not settle down." She looked at Emre where he was fussing with the horses. "I expect he will not be returning to the Desert. I think my father knew it too, though of course neither of them would sit down and discuss it." She shook her head. "We should go before he starts barking at us."

Euren nodded and helped the others clean up their lunch leavings before leading the way across the pavilion to the horses. Swinging up into the saddle, she pulled up her head coverings, grimacing at the smell of sweat and horse and dust that seemed permanently sunk into them.

Just a few more days and she would be home—perhaps not safe, if someone was willing to pay for assassins, but she would be home. That was enough all on its own, and the rest she would face as it came.

"Thank you," Demir said as Ruth set a tray of tea and food on the corner of his desk. The smell of it was nauseating, but if he did not put something on his stomach, the council meeting would be even more torturous.

Ruth frowned at him. "You need more rest, my lord."

"Alas, I've far too much to do," Demir replied. "I have been personally summoned to attend a council meeting today. I can hardly tell them I am too weak to attend. The tea and food will help."

"Yes, my lord." Ruth hovered a moment longer, scowling disapprovingly, but when Demir pointedly returned to his paperwork, he finally left, the door closing with a muted click.

Demir slumped over the table, keeping his head up only by bracing it in his hands. The dizziness was the hardest to ignore. Everyone else seemed to have recovered just fine from the poison, but he still felt weak as a newborn babe. Kitt had told him some were more sensitive to the spider venom than others, but Demir was not certain why he was supposed to be reassured by that. He was the Harem Master; he could not afford to be oversensitive, could not appear weak, not when so many were depending on him, when others were just waiting for that single crack in his wall that would let them tear him down.

He pulled the tea tray close, ignoring his churning stomach as the smell of it wafted over him: grassy with faint citrus notes. Wrinkling his nose, he took a cautious sip. His stomach growled at the intrusion but did not cast it out. Demir took another, and then another, slowly finishing an entire cup. By the time he set the empty cup down, his stomach had eased slightly.

Pouring another cup, Demir tore the chunk of crusty bread into pieces and dipped them in the tea before eating. He felt a long way from normal, but at least he no longer felt like he would fall over when he stood. He stared at his paperwork, then sighed and pushed it away.

He was not going to be able to focus on anything until the meeting was over. One would think the council would be more concerned with trying to figure out who was responsible for the poisoning that had killed Lord Jove, a concubine, and nearly killed His Majesty. Instead they seemed wholly content to leave the problem to unspecified others while they argued over different matters. Between them and His Majesty, Demir marveled that anything was actually accomplished.

By contrast, Ihsan had done nothing but work since the day he'd returned, even when his own father, the council, and the court seemed disinclined to help him. They should be happy and grateful to serve and assist someone like Prince Ihsan, but instead they acted like petulant children.

Demir's stomach knotted in a whole new way, causing an ache that spread into his chest. The rest of them might be unhappy, but he was enjoying having a worthy prince to serve far too much. He pinched his eyes shut as he willed the fruitless longing away. He was Harem Master. His duty was to guide and protect the harems, assist all in the palace who came to him for advice and help. Neither lord nor concubine nor servant, but some strange combination of the three. And always set apart because of it.

Waking up in Prince Ihsan's room, being watched over by a fierce-eyed Kitt and concerned Ihsan… It had only been a moment before he had woken completely and hastened to return to his own rooms, to propriety, but for that fleeting moment he'd had the barest taste of what it might feel like to be truly part of something, to belong to a harem, to be wanted rather than coveted.

Demir scrubbed at his face, banishing foolish thoughts, and slowly rose. When the dizziness did not immediately overwhelm him, he walked slowly to the door and left his office, slipping through the door several paces down that led to his private chambers.

It was a modest suite: a front room to receive guests that never came and a bedroom that never saw more than servants and scared or sick concubines in need of privacy. Though many assumed he brought concubines there for training—and oh, how they loved to wonder how often he expected concubines to train—the truth was he'd never used his bedroom to please anyone but himself. The sexual education of concubines was done elsewhere, and all his own education had been done in the city or in the rooms of retired concubines happy to train the new harem master.