The Empty Ones (Fantasy Romance)

70. Naughty girls

An old lady clears her throat and the girl silences.

"You said you have coin to trade, my lady. Whatever for?" she says mustering me from head to toe.

"I do. I want to know how the women in here stay without children."

The old woman's eyes slim into slits.

"Oh, I see," she says, throwing a sly glance at me. "My lady wants to take a lover?"

"Does it matter what I want as long as I pay?" I ask.

"Well... depends. I could tell your Lord husband."

I look her straight in the eyes. They are dark like coals.

"Then I would be dead and as I know my lord husband he would kill you too. Just out of spite. He enjoys it."

It's rather truthful. And I know she lived long enough to know that is most likely how it's going to happen.

"All right." Her lips expand into a cold smile. "Come with me."

I nod and follow but the uneasiness is engulfing me even more. Regardless of what happens here, I have to be back till the sun is up and I also need to sneak into my room without Mute noticing.

"There are herbs we use. It's wildwood tea mixed with nettles. And of course the girls count. It works most of the time but not always."

"How does it work?" I ask and the old lady looks at me and her frown deepens.

"This is a very odd question to ask. What does my lady mean with how?"

"How. What does it do on the inside. How do you know to use that and not something else?"

"Who and what are you, my lady?"

I frown now too.

"These are not questions a lady asks in this situation." She shows a toothless grin.

"So, you had more ladies asking how to avoid pregnancy?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Aye. But not to ask me how it works. So, what are you, my lady?"

"Answer," I say, stressing the word. I don't think this woman cares much about authority but I hope she will at least respect me enough to comply.

"I do not know."

"Then how did it come to use?"

"Wisdom of generations of courtesans."

"I don't believe you," I say and utter a prayer to the gods.

"Why wouldn't you. I am but an old lady."

"Yes, hence you must be useful to justify being here now that you are no longer young and beautiful."

"I am. I trade in a lot of currency."

"And you are good at it. That's why I don't believe you don't know."

She laughs short and gruffly.

"Knowledge of herbs is based on experience," she says. Which is not untrue. "But I can tell two things that if there is no egg, there is no child. Or if the egg and seed don't find each other."

Egg? Seed? What is this woman talking about? Damn it Theon. You were drawing diagrams saying that the component of the blood vary and influence fertility and now this woman mumbles something about eggs.

Wait, but maybe they do. Maybe they influence the creation of this egg thing and the encounter.

"So the tea make the egg and seed stop meeting," I say after a long pause. "How?"