Hearts in Zenith (Four Husbands and a Lover)

52. Nowhere Good (2 of 2)

Taffiz' Story

Once upon a time, in the country of Bhar ruled a powerful Queen. She was kind, and wise, and all people of the country loved her dearly. She married the most beautiful men from the best families, and those unions were blessed by Tashaya with four happy princesses.

Almost nobody had remembered that there was the fifth princess in the family, the Queen's sister and the aunt to the royal heiresses. She had no outstanding qualities but spent her days on a small estate cultivating a garden of poisonous plants, experimenting in a laboratory and assembling an extensive library—or whatever else hidden from the public eye.

One day, the Queen went for a turn through the gardens, pressed her hand over her eyes and swooned. Her ladies carried her inside, called for the Scribes and priestesses, but it all to no avail. She died. What's worse, everyone who attended her had also fallen sick. The palace filled with wailing, a grim place of death and despair, until the forgotten sister arrived and took charge.

"My sister," she said, "was so glorious, that she stirred the envy of Bhutas in the River Vash. We must hide her tomb and her beautiful daughters, to avoid harm until the Divines could chastise the Bhutas."

Until that was done, she placed the body of the former Queen into a sealed sarcophagus and forbade anyone but herself to see her young nieces except from afar. The accursed disease would not touch her. Finally, it all but disappeared from Tongola, an obvious sign that the Divines approved of the plan.

The people gladly set to work, building a burial pyramid and a palace for the princesses in a lovely oasis a week's journey from Tongola. They lay the dead Queen to rest within two years, and the princesses moved next to the pyramid with a small court.

Thus, the sister became the Queen, and not a bad one at that. Lower taxes on water, new canals dug, things like that, had happened in her reign. After a while, grateful people thought of the palace in the desert and the four happy princesses less and less.

When whispers circulated that a merchant sent with supplies or a caravan driver blown off course didn't return from the oasis, they believed that everyone was lost to illness and sands. Let us not go there, the people decided. The place is cursed by Bhutas.

Only one man in Bhar knew it wasn't so.

For years, the new Queen had used him as a bondsman, blinded and with his tongue removed, to mix her potions by touch and smell. With the Queen's power secure, he feared for his life. In secret, he taught himself to write by studying carvings on the obelisks with his hands. Mixing trivial things, like love potions and poisons, he bought allies who helped him escape to the Scorpia Cult.

In exchange for living out his last days in peace, he revealed that the former Queen, and the princesses, and the city were all exterminated by magic he helped create. Paints and water, stone and food, fabrics and plants--all was laced with a magic potion. The princesses and their court, the workers and the servants, merchants and caravan drivers--nobody stood a chance against it.

But there was an antidote to hold magic at bay. Alas, nobody could make the effects of it permanent or purify the land.

***

"Wouldn't the enchantment wear off after all these years? I have heard that magic needs to feed on something," I asked when Taffiz fell silent for a few heartbeats. In a whisper, because it seemed appropriate. Light, even the weakest, no longer filtered through the hidden cracks. The storm exhausted its energy, but Yansara's curtains fell outside.

"People of Bhar believe that dying in the City of the Four Princesses erases sins, gives their soul a chance for a glorious rebirth. So people come here to die, feeding the evil magic. Then, there are... sacrifices," he said.

"Sacrifices," I repeated.

"You'll see when we go to the pyramid tomorrow. The pyramid is the Scorpia's haunt, if you hadn't deduced it yet." His fingers unraveled, releasing his knees. "When I was distributing the antidote, I lied that it was for those who stood guard tonight. Sleep, Commander, until it's your turn to stand watch."

"I can't sleep a wink!"

"You've come too far to sabotage the mission. You will sleep."

With beasts and humans herded together, I found that Taffiz shared ugliness, arrogance and resilience with the camels. I opened my mouth to argue, but, unfortunately, he was right. The best thing I could do was to sleep, then fight for every life I could save. The success of my ill-fated enterprise would be the only justification for my losses. If his gaze didn't fixate on my parted lips, the tip of his tongue didn't touch his own upper lip, I might have admitted that.

But the way he looked at me, I broke eye contact abruptly, slipped down the wall to the floor and pulled a blanket over my head.

Mythra favors me, I repeated over and over, breathing in and out, ignoring Taffiz' settling down where he sat. Maybe he felt safer next to me, maybe he wanted to be as far away as possible from those who would die. Maybe... maybe...and I didn't finish my thought before I drifted off to sleep. Taffiz was right once again.

***

The pink light of the rising sun shone through the hair that fell into my eyes all too soon. The part of Taffiz' that gave him away to Phedoxia pushed against the small of my back. He must have rolled against me in his sleep. Or I rolled against him...

Before full consciousness pushed me to my feet with all the pressing concerns, I lingered in the gently lit space, away from the worries. Parneres, headcount, Scorpia waiting for me inside the pyramid didn't exist for a short moment. Instead, there was this sensation of an excited man next to me. I'm not a dreamer, but in the haze between sleep and wakefulness, I saw myself sliding up to catch the early bird between my thighs. His tight abdomen mixed in with these images as well as the violet shine between his eyelids. A sinful pleasure...

Given that the first task of the day was to collect name tags from the corpses of my women; and that the next was to record the five buried under the sand on the day prior... it was no wonder my subconsciousness clung to the imaginary love-making for a bit.

It would have been more titillating if the man next to me were Parneres, but then I wouldn't have woken up. Since dreams have a way of integrating reality, I was lucky it was Taffiz, not my dromedary.

The sun shone brighter outside, shuttering my almost pleasant daze. I jumped up, ready to stand my watch. Behind my back, with a sharp intake of breath, Taffiz flipped to his stomach.