All's Fair in Revenge

Chapter 16: The Bath

We followed Sira Alona, the queen, and her attendants to our assigned quarters.

"How was your trip to Alharelia, Countess?" said Queen Sephanie. The women around her giggled into small squares of lacy white cloth.

"Quite dusty and dry, Your Grace." The countess feigned a cough into her lace. "I don't know how Hillarie lives there. It's hot and the people—" She shuddered. "Well, let's just say they don't have the same standards of living as we do."

Not a one noticed how the young servant tailing us grimaced with her whole body at the inference which was when I noticed she had the light brown skin of Alharelian but little else. She just as well could've been from the Flatts or Intíre where larger, more diverse populations existed.

"I warned you, did I not? I thank the good lord every day that he rescued me from that treacherous place." The queen turned a corner revealing an airy hall with ivy arches. It opened onto a courtyard that dipped into the small lake. A babbling waterfall sang softly in the distance. "The Eleven Realms may be united under the Great Charter," Sephanie enunciated for my ears, "but we're not the same. Some realms are simply superior."

"So very true, Your Grace." My feet slowed upon the tiled floor, my longer strides outpacing them quickly. "Like how the mushroom people of the Morasse split every cent of their abundant wealth. Or how Alharelia pays for its sick and injured citizens to visit the Kelvian outpost as needed. And how Dorsette..." I tapped my chin with my finger, "how Dorsi...hmm, I can't think of a single thing Dorsette does better than any of the other Eleven Realms. Can you, Liv?"

"Besides poverty and illiteracy," Liv asked with a snort.

The queen stopped abruptly and spun. Her entourage stepped back, some with coy smiles plastered across their faces. "Careful, princess," the countess warned. "You tow treason."

I squinted at the woman in deep scarlet whose eyes were too dark to make out in the dusk of incoming night. "If speaking the truth is treason, but not gossiping about your sworn allies and treating your own citizens worse cattle, then perhaps delusional treaty has already ended."

Queen Sephanie blinked as if to weigh my threat. Was she willing to risk everything to protect her son? Or was the treaty more important than they let on? Her nostril spasmed and because she'd learned to bite her tongue until it bled early on in life, she relented.

The queen pointed to a door down the way. "Your rooms." She then pointed to Alharelian servant. "Since you love the dessert people so much, this one is yours." She wiped her hands clean as if soiled from occupying the same air as the girl. "But don't get too comfortable, Kelvian. You may have my husband fooled, but my son answers to me."

That much was consumingly obvious, but did she really think she had the power she claimed? I doubted it for there were many things I failed at, but seducing was not one of them.

I stepped forward, towering over her unimpressive human height. Liv pressed her fingers into my wrist warning me to go easy and while I appreciated the thought, I had half a mind to tell her off.

"He may have been a boy hanging from your every word once," I slipped my tongue between my teeth, my brow rising with an inference that made her flush, "But he'll hang from my lips when I'm done with him."

Placing a hand on her bare collar, she swallowed. Hard. She spun on her heel, "You're a vile creature," slinking down the hall like a lioness too proud to admit she was wounded.