Kingdom of thieves

Kingdom of thieves - part 15

The bath houses were, as far as Narla could tell, near the royal families rooms.

The guards she was with kept silent and said nothing as they led her through the wide twisting corridors.

After only a short while, the guards turned off and the ground began to slope downwards slightly, then they led her through a large archway, holding the heavy curtain for her to pass through.

Narla was greeted by a wall of heat and water vapor, she suddenly found it hard to breath and see.

She was in a large room with no windows except small square holes in the high ceiling, allowing a little light through to see by.

The guards led her down a narrow walk way, walking behind her. Pools of water stretched either side of the walkway, seemingly carved out of the marble, they were fed by small waterfalls that fell from the walls, the water crystal clear.

The room was huge but it was not being used at the moment, Narla guessed that when it would fit many hundreds of people when full.

She began to sweat as she followed the guards through the huge bath room, to a slightly smaller room through another archway. Here the pools were smaller and round, ten individual pools sat in the stone, each with a small statue of the Lady Saynts standing at the side, holding a jug and pouring water into each pool, slightly bent at the waist, she was, as she always is, clad in a simple dress that clung to her body, her hair fell over her shoulders and a little over her face as she tipped the jug, her expression was serene, as though she enjoyed nothing better than filling pools with water.

Narla slowed to take in one of the statues nearest to her. Unlike the statue in the fountain at the entrance to the royal district, these statues were life size, smaller than she was and made of pure white stone rather than gold, but they were all beautiful, even copied ten times through the room each image of the Lady did not lose their appeal.

She was sad to leave the room but the guards continued on and turned off through a much smaller archway and into a much smaller room.

Obviously a private bathing area, this room had only one pool, square in shape it could still easily fit maybe twenty people, but in the centre it had a small round island with yet another statue of the Lady.

This statue was identical to all the others except it had no vase and was stretched out relaxed, seated on the floor, body turned to one side, one leg was bent while the other was stretched out, the toes pointed and the tip of her big toe just touching the top of the water. Her eyes were closed and her face was peaceful.

The steam was not so thick in here and Narla could breath easier. There were shelves lining the room, each filled with pots and jars and sponges and brushes and all things to make one clean.

The guards led her into the room and then left, without saying anything.

Five women stood lined up against the wall, they all wore sparse clothing, short skirts that reached just below the knee, and short sleeveless tops that left their stomachs showing, done in a pale red, they wore no jewelery except for the oldest woman who had a ring of silver in her navel and in her nose. Each wore a very sour expression and they all glared at Narla with the utmost dislike, she couldn't blame them, to servants used to cleaning people she would no doubt present a challenge.

She tried to look enthusiastic but really she was dreading this, the last time she had had a full wash was when, as a young child, Trey had dared her to climb down the well in the Ghetto district and she had lost her footing and fallen into the water. Dwellers did not have baths, they were not clean.

The oldest of the women, who appeared to be in her early fifties and wore her light brown hair in a tight bun at the back of her head and had hard lines of age etched around her mouth, gave a humph of dislike and muttered under her breath,