Queensmen

Chapter 63

~The Poisoner~

Andrea pursed her lips as she ran a wide toothed comb through Oris' wet hair, easing out the tangles she hadn't been able to separate with her fingers.

"You have gotten darker, Mistress," she complained.

"I think I am the only one who can get darker after not seeing sunlight for a week," Oris replied, her fingers slick with scented oil, a kind she hadn't touched in years.

She rubbed it all over skin, enjoying the slick feeling as it warmed her. Through the mirror, she saw herself glow.

"You have more freckles too," Andrea commented, ber fingers brushing the spots briefly before returning to combing. "They are nearly covering your shoulders."

"Andrea, why do you think the Emperor accepted a woman like me? Aren't his wives supposed to be unparalleled beauties?"

"You're a beauty too."

Through the mirror, she watched Andrea's face flush red.

"Yes. But I have been scarred twice. Should I not have been discarded?"

Andrea's hand stilled as she contemplated the question. "I am certain that Keziah would know the answer," she said in the end.

Oris sighed, having expected something along those lines. "You have still not told me what happened."

"We found out who poisoned you."

Oris turned in her seat. "What?"

"You were right when you said that it wasn't the Emperor or Empress Dowager," Andrea said, her eyes fixed somewhere above Oris' head as though she was picking her words straight from a memory. "Keziah said we should spread rumors of a room full of poison. And servants started gossiping."

"What did they say?"

"That the room once belonged to one of the late king's consorts. After she died mysteriously, the room was sealed for fear of evil spirits."

"Someone gave me that room hoping that it would kill me." Oris concluded. "But unless they were the ones who put the poison in the first place, they shouldn't have known about it."

"That is almost exactly what Keziah said."

"Almost?"

"She said that the room was only sealed, not destroyed. That meant that someone favored had once lived there, someone even the Emperor respected."

"Mii Ai?" Oris blinked and turned back to the mirror. "How can there be such a coincidence?"

"But you and I both know that Mii Ai died outside the palace, so the consort that died..."

"Nian Fey?" Oris let the title slip from her lips, Aella's official form of address. "Noble Consort Nian Fey. She was second only to the Queen yet she lived in such an awful room."

"The room was sealed by the late king so the only the Emperor and Empress Dowager can unseal it." Andrea parted Oris' hair with a rat tail comb and hummed while she dried it with a soft cloth. "Keziah said that one of the girls the Empress Dowager favors must have stolen her ring then forged an unsealing decree to room us there. She obviously did not know the full story but the Empress Dowager turned a blind eye to it because she wanted you gone."

"The girl wanted to be in the Empress Dowager's graces. Maybe she also wanted to get rid off me because she truly felt like I was threat to the Emperor, or her position." Oris sighed and tapped her fingers on the dresser. "Yet she doesn't know that she should be trying to get into the Emperor's graces instead. If she brings trouble to the Empress Dowager because of what she did, she will be thrown away faster than a soiled rag.

"The harem is such a dangerous place."

The silver mirror reflected the shimmer of Andrea's wide smile.

"What is so funny?" Oris asked.

"I just missed you, Mistress..." She walked to stand beside the dresser. "You and Kezia are very alike."

"Are we?" Oris tilted her head to the side. "I think you all are similar. With short dark hair and nearly the same height."

"My hair is fair," Andrea blurted out then set the comb on the dresser with an audible snap. "I dyed it so that I was allowed to stay with Mayree and Seline and Keziah."

"Dye?" She looked closely at the girl's hair. "I have never seen such good dye."

"You are not upset?"

Oris shook her head. "I am glad I met you all together. You are nothing like the other maids."

"You flatter us." Andrea looked at the ground.

"No. Truly, you four are an odd group. In a pleasant way."

"You could say that we are unwanted." Andrea laughed, her head still bowed.

"Andrea?"

"I am not as good at cosmetics as Keziah, but shall I? While we wait for your hair to dry?"

"Of course."

For the next half an hour, Andrea dusted powders over Oris' cheeks, lined her eyes with so much kohl, eye paint and glitter that her skin started to look pale in comparison.

Her eyebrows were darkened and drawn into more beautiful arches and her lips were stained with red balm that made them look fuller.

With the knots and braids in her hair combed out, the curly red strands were finally doused in fragrant oils.

"Your hair is more red too." Andrea laughed and pinned up some of the hair.

The rest cascaded down Oris' back in waves.

"I'm not as good at this as Mayree," she mumbled.

"It is beautiful," Oris said, "and simple. I like it."

Andrea added a few more hairpins to her creation, forming a half-crown of pearls on the right side of Oris' face.

She sighed in relief when she was done. "We barely have enough time to get you in a dress and shoes."

She rushed off again and returned with a gown that threatened to drown her.

"This," Oris stared at it intently, recognizing her own needlework. "You finished it."

Andrea grinned. "It was the best gift we could think of."

"Do not let me wear it now," Oris said. For her, doing so felt wrong. She wanted to wear it on a special day, not to please anyone but herself.

Andrea's smile dropped.

"This is all your hard work," Oris amended. "How can I wear it to somewhere where no one can be jealous of it?"

Andrea giggled. "If you wore it now, the ministers would be so enamored by you."

Oris shook her head at the girl's playfulness, now understanding why her face had been done up so flamboyantly. She was playing matchmaker. "Isn't your father a minister? What if he snatches me away?"

"You would be my mother then," Andrea said and stuck out her to tongue even though her words made no sense. Only the principal wife could be called 'mother' by a man's children.

"Quickly, Andrea," Oris urged the girl softly, "get another dress. You have yet to tell me how to save Seline."

Andrea sobered up. "Yes, Mistress. Right away."

~

Some more playfulness for you all to enjoy... What do you think happened to Seline?

You guys noticed the new cover right? Lol, there's no way you can't. But the title says Queensmen: A Court Of War.

You might be wondering why.

It's because this book is getting long and we're nowhere near the end yet, so I decided to split the story into two (or three) books.

Now, the end point for this section is much closer... :)