The woman raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips. “Of course. We don’t have anything better to do, do we?” The bite in her words hinted at previous unpleasantness.
“Just do it. And get her something to wear. Wyrga broke into her room this morning, so I didn’t dare leave her there.”
I would bet metal the sign the woman made warded against evil spirits.
Senera turned to me. “I’ll be back in a few days.”
“Don’t hurry on my account.”
She rolled her eyes and left.
“Who is Wyrga?” I asked as soon as Senera left.
Bikeinoh looked around before answering. “Kaen’s monster. And the trainer of Kaen’s monsters. She deals with the animals. Polar bears and snow hyenas. She’s been here for longer than I have, and she’s horrible. Not everyone here feels that way about her, though, so I wouldn’t be too loud about criticizing her.”
“Someone likes her? That’s hard to believe.”
Bikeinoh looked around again. “Wyrga claims she’s the last witch-mother.”
I blinked. “Witch-mother? What’s a witch-mother?”
“So this is the wizard’s new Khorveshan wife, huh?” Another woman approached. She looked near to me in age, and she didn’t walk so much as strut. This woman intended to make sure I didn’t entertain any fallacies about the pecking order and my place in it.
I looked at her sideways. “Is that a problem?”
The woman shrugged. “No. As long as you stay away from Azhen.”
“Who?”
“From my husband,” she elaborated. “Azhen Kaen.”
“Oh, Veixizhau, please. You’re wife number twenty-eight. Do you think he’d even notice if you went missing?”13
“Well, he wouldn’t care if you went missing. How many years have you been married to the man and no child yet?”
“You keep assuming I care.”
“You should. He keeps taking me to bed like this and I’ll be first wife soon.” Veixizhau rolled her eyes and sauntered away, shaking her hips with extra rigor. They were beautiful hips, mind you. But her personality made them easy to ignore.
I stood there, blinking. “She seems nice.”
“Don’t worry about her. She’s just upset because she’s not pregnant yet.” Bikeinoh laughed and then lowered her voice to a whisper. “As if we’ll ever conceive. Kaen wants Exidhar to inherit. It’s his insurance against being assassinated by the clans.”
“How do you mean?”
“Have you met the Hon’s son?”
I thought back to our very unfortunate meeting. “I have, yes.” I paused. “They don’t wish Exidhar to inherit because he’s half-Khorveshan?”
With the unwelcome news that I was at least half-Khorveshan, I found myself interested in the answer. Would I be forced to contend with some deeper prejudice besides my sex?
“Yes. It was a terrible scandal when the Hon married his Khorveshan wife. So much so the clans felt they had to do something about it. They say her ghost still haunts the tunnels underneath the palace. If you go down to the storerooms and listen, you can still hear her screams.” She chuckled. “Not that we’re allowed to go down to the storerooms.”
“Why kill the wife? Wouldn’t it make more sense to assassinate the duke and his son?”
“The Hon,” Bikeinoh corrected.
“Fine. The Hon.”
“Yes, they tried to assassinate him. When Azhen Kaen started outlawing the old ways, started talking about education and rights, the clan leaders thought it was their chance. Azhen and Exidhar survived. His wife Xivan didn’t.” Bikeinoh made a face.”All my life, my father used to say the Kaen family was soft. Too much Quuros blood.14 Well, the clans did nice work there. Killing the Hon’s wife hardened Azhen Kaen up just fine. And by Cherthog did he ever make us regret it. Tracked down the Simoshgra and wiped out the entire clan. Every single last one. As soon as we heard the news, I told my father we’d better give Kaen assurances. We’d better demonstrate just how sorry we were about what happened, or he wouldn’t stop with the Simoshgra. So that’s what I am. What all these women are. Assurance. Been here ever since.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not so bad. Never had a reason to complain to Suless about it, anyway.”
“No, I suppose not.” I looked around the room. This all seemed very pampered and even more boring. “With all these wives, I assume he must keep busy.”
“Oh no,” Bikeinoh said, laughing. “I think he’d prefer to forget we existed, but occasionally, he remembers and does his duty. But I think if we ever gave him the excuse, he’d be all too happy to send us all packing back to our families again.”
“Wouldn’t that be better?”
Her eyes widened. “No.”
I didn’t understand. Back in Jorat, arranged marriages rarely occurred but could be successful if the families had done a good job with the matchmaking. Forced marriages with multiple partners? Unheard of. The likelihood of a partner feeling saelen and just … wandering … into other relationships made such an option unpopular and unwise. And if a spouse kept their mates imprisoned to ensure they didn’t leave, they’d label themselves as thorra. Nobody wanted that.
Of course, these women might not be interested in wandering at all. Bikeinoh seemed quite comfortable in her situation. That told me a lot about how women in the rest of Yor could expect to be treated.
“You haven’t broken fast yet, have you?” Bikeinoh continued. “Why don’t we go—”
But as Bikeinoh spoke, another wife jogged up, out of breath. Her parti-color skin suggested an ancestry that included at least one or two of the many Joratese who’d served with the Quuros army when they occupied the region, decades before. “You’re the new girl, right?”
It wasn’t worth correcting her. “May I help you?”
“Not me,” she said. “The Hon wants to see you. Right now.”
38: THE EYE OF FIRE
Jorat Dominion, Quuros Empire. Three days since Jarith Milligreest chose option two
“So … are those wives still locked away?” Dorna asked. “Someone should go free them.”
“Don’t be lecherous,” Janel said. “I know it’s hard, but try. Also, trust me when I say they don’t need to be rescued.”
“And your third meeting with Teraeth confirms who Elana is,” Kihrin said, shaking his head. When Janel looked at him, he said, “Remember you said I kept calling you Elana in the Afterlife? That was the only Elana I could recall. Atrin Kandor’s wife: Elana Milligreest.”
“Milligreest?” Janel looked quite surprised.
“Yeah, after Kandor died, she went back to using her maiden name.” Kihrin paused, blinked, and then started rubbing his thumbs into his temples.
Apparently, the Goddess of Death had a mean streak so vicious it left Kihrin open-mouthed in awe. Thaena had taken two infamously mortal enemies—Atrin Kandor and Terindel the Black—and had reincarnated one of them as the other’s son.