The Empty Ones (Fantasy Romance)

29. You gave me hope

Salma stayed till dusk while sending mine and her maid companions on all sorts of wild goose chases so we could talk alone. Then she had to leave and attend to her husband.

Her words still haunt me. "Your husband is handsome and the most powerful person ever. What is there not to like? He's not fat and craven like mine. He is afraid to live at court because he thinks people will murder him. Luckily, you asked his Highness, and now we have to. Now I can leave that dreadful place."

"Is the province of Hamarth so dreadful?"

"It's just a place where awful things happened." I understand that too well.

I had to promise her I would convince the Emperor to oblige her husband to stay at court. She ignored me every time I tried to explain the actual situation.

I know nothing about men, least of all how to act, so they give me what I want as she suggested.

"You gave me hope, now you cannot take it away from me!" she screamed, and I saw again the bit of madness I saw at the wedding flickering in her gaze. "I was waiting for the baby to be born to have my revenge and then to join Yamal in the afterlife, but now you gave me hope that things can change. You cannot take that away from me, Zara, you hear me!?"

Unlike Paisa, Salma was too focused on herself to tell me anything about how to behave at court. But I promised to invite her to tea tomorrow too. Her husband cannot forbid her to answer a royal invitation.

When night settled, my handmaidens summoned Hara to prepare me for bed and left.

It was strange; I was trying so hard to avoid her gaze because I knew that if I saw any trace of sympathy, I would fall apart,t and I couldn't fall apart; Salma had forbidden that.

After Hara left, I went to bed. The mattress and cushions were changed, dressed in crimson silk this time, unlike the white silver from the previous night. Crimson hides the blood better.

The Emperor didn't come this evening. Bea said that he spends, now that Paisa is pregnant, a third of his nights with Laini and the rest with the concubines.

I shrugged and answered that Laini was very beautiful. What I was thinking, though, was that they didn't mention the Empress at all.

Dara answered that Laini might be good-looking, but she is barren, because three star circles had passed and she wasn't pregnant even once and that if she weren't so rich and her father so powerful, he would nullify the marriage and send her back to her family.

They also told me that there were rumors at court that the Emperor was the one who couldn't have more children because the Empress cursed him out of scorn for taking more wives, till finally after two star circles Paisa fell pregnant. She was lucky, they said, because she was going to be sent away otherwise. And what a shame that would have been.

The night is silent, but I can't sleep. The moons are aligned on the night sk,y and there's only birdsong outside.

The door opens, and I startle. My body doesn't relax when I see him; it tenses even more.

'It's late' or 'I didn't expect you' I want to say, but I cannot speak, and it's maybe better; I just stare, almost crying.

He is still wearing day clothes, richly adorned, and there is a light gold diadem on his head. It looks like he attended a feast, a long one, because on him I can smell a light sheen of sweat and wine.

It feels like liquid sharpness courses through me. Thunder like magic. I stand up against my will. My whole body moves against my will. That's his magic...? One of his powers, besides making things fly? Or is it just the power he has over me, the one The White Grace gave him?