Chapter 70

"So, it appears you've lit a fire under the prince's perfectly formed arse." I stared openly at Selene as we sat in the carriage taking us to the temple. Her arch tone seemed completely at odds with her holy attire, my expression earning me a wicked smile. "My father will want to meet with you. He's been trying to tempt Arik to take the throne for years."

"Arse…? Your father?"

People kept saying all these things to me, but I was preoccupied by two aches. There were ones deep in the muscles of my arms where the king's filthy fingers had left their mark, but then there were those much gentler ones. Arik's murderous speech was delivered almost under his breath as he inspected my injuries. His words were gratifying and terrifying in turns.

"Selene." She offered me her hand like we were two women at the market. "Sister of Silas, though I think you already worked out that he is my twin. We're the children of the Raven of Khean."

I was aware that there were guilds and then there were ‘guilds.' The tight-lipped glass blowers' guild protected the secret of making gold-coloured glass with their very lives, but the other ‘guilds?' They used a shroud of secrecy to mask less legitimate activities.

"Your father is head of the Thieves' Guild?"

She watched me stiffen with a smile, but then her focus shifted to the open window of the carriage.

"Thieves' Guild? There are plenty of light-fingered fellows in my father's employ, but let's just say any gambling hall, any ale house, or brothel that opens within these walls does so with my father's permission, lest they face his wrath. He has a vested interest in keeping the peace to ensure those businesses continue to be profitable, which brings me to the most important question."

"Which is?"

It felt like I'd been riding the edge of fear for so long I couldn't feel another thing as a strange kind of calm settled over me. What more could Selene say that would shock me more than she already had?

"Are you going to stand by as those idiots bring the country to its knees to keep you safe, or…?"

My eyes slid to the silken bag I'd been gifted by the other temple of the women, and for the first time since I'd been gifted it, I opened the drawstrings to see what it contained.

"Gods above…" Selene said. She had installed me into a room that was saved for high-born women visiting the temple, but once my bags were brought in, we upended the gifted bag and pawed through the contents. "This is harrow powder, and…" She hissed. "Jacama bark?" More names for things I didn't understand but she did were recited as she looked at each small pouch. "You've been given a king's ransom of poisons, hallucinogens, sedatives…"

"A king's ransom?" I looked at her sharply. "Could this be sold to the highest bidder to get me some money, some influence, to help put Arik on the throne?"

"So, you do want that?" Selene nodded slowly. "I wasn't entirely sure. He was doing a lot of talking and you…" She shook her head. "You don't understand. With this," the priestess gestured to the contents of the bag, "you could slowly take the king's mind from him as well as his bodily control. He'd start with small things like losing control of his bladder and bowels at inopportune moments, then he would find his legs going out from under him." Her hands wove across the different items almost possessively. "This is the means to destroy a man."

My eyes jerked up, again struck by the similarity between her and Silas' eyes, but it wasn't him who looked back at me. Only a woman could know that kind of fear and satisfaction.

"Destroy Magnus?" My mind started to race. "In seven days?"

"Perhaps earlier if you used…" Her voice trailed away as she looked across at me. "You are interested in taking a more active role in the downfall of the king."

I straightened, standing just as tall as I was always taught to, though for quite a different reason now. Women in Stormare were taught about politics, but only to make clear we had no role in it.

"Arik seems content to make the world burn for my sake, which is more gratifying than I would've thought." Selene's lips quirked up at the corner as she watched me closely. "But I would assume the women and children of Khean are not to blame for their king's sadistic impulses. I would prefer a solution to our problem that involves the deaths of far less innocents."

"Innocents?" Her lips pursed. "I'm not sure they exist within the city walls, but people who are just as powerless as you when it comes to these bastards?" She nodded sharply. "We will find plenty of allies who would grab at the opportunity to strike back."

Selene took a step towards the door.

"Rest, and I'll have a bath and some food brought up to you, though for all that's holy, do not touch the contents of any of those packets." I jerked my hands back, as if I was a child drawn closer to the flickering flames of the cook fire. "I'll need to tap some of my networks, see who we have that can get close enough to the king to start administering these agents."

"A priestess with networks?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "The daughter of the Raven living a cloistered life?"

"Didn't your mother ever tell you?" Selene replied. "We worship no god, nor goddess, here. Instead, we erect altars and conduct prayer sessions where meaningless words are mumbled." Her fingers plucked at her robes. "We wear the garb of priestesses because that's what allows us to do what's needed." Her eyes strayed to the bed and the contents of the bag again. "Women are not allowed to simply run a refuge. The fact that we need a space where we can be safe from the predations of men seems to incense them. So we dress the place up in all of the pomp and ceremony they use in their sacred spaces, borrowing that power to disguise our true purpose."

Her eyes bored into mine.

"Keeping our sisters safe, that is our sacred oath, and we do that for the woman on the street, fleeing her cruel husband or brother or father. We'll do the same for you, Jessalyn, I promise. I just need a little time to work out how."

And with that, she turned and left me in the strange room, within a strange temple that was not a temple, in a city I never intended to reach. I paced back and forth for a few seconds to try to dispel the restless energy I felt, before I spied a neatly folded letter sporting my mother's seal. I reached over and grabbed it, breaking the wax before opening it up.

Dearest Jessalyn,

Every mother feels a sense of unease when her daughter goes out into the world, I'm sure. I know my own mother felt the same. Did she do enough to prepare me for marriage, for being the wife of a king, to become a queen? We talked about it some years later, and her concern surprised me then as, no doubt mine does you now.

I've allowed you to leave our city walls to face certain death.

I believe other mothers deal with similar challenges. To see her daughter married to a weak man, one that likes to use his hands to correct his wife, or one that gambles the family coin away, or brings mistresses into their home. Sometimes a mother chooses the wrong husband for their daughters, and sometimes it's the father.

As your father has you.

When you read this, you will no doubt be furious. Perhaps not yet—

No, Mother had that wrong. My fingers gripped the paper tight, only the need to read on stopping me from crushing it entirely.

—but soon. You have been consigned to a fate no woman deserves. But know this: between your father and I, and the prince of Khean—who is the commander of your guard—we did our level best to try to make the best of an impossible situation, which is why I am writing you this letter.

Men solve things in a direct way because that is a luxury that is afforded them. They'll tell you this is due to their impressive strength, or wealth, or skill, but much of that is gained due to the unseen service of women. A service we can direct against them if we must.

You must, Jessalyn.

I taught you to be elegant, contained, refined, and modest, but now I must direct you to use all those skills for an entirely different purpose. To glide through the Kheanian court, the picture of a Stormarian lady, as you use the tools all the women of the continent have provided for you to bring down the king…

I had the names of some of the packets already due to Selene's knowledge of their contents, but Mother outlined each one in far more detail. One after the other, I read through the list of each ingredient and its terrible side effects.

If I was desperate, I could throw lignan powder in the king's face, but that was only as a last resort. It would kill me just as surely as it would him. If he decided to push for his husbandly rights to my body, I could touch his member with a salve tainted with gnarn seeds, which would have his manhood shrivelling before my eyes. I'd need to wash my hands off promptly, though, as it decreased blood flow to the area rather drastically. Then there were the slower acting powders that Selene mentioned. Combined into a concoction, they would cause a slow deterioration of the king's mental and physical faculties, reducing him to a drooling idiot. That plan could only take place once we were married, so that I could move into the role of regent, bringing Khean under my control.

I could slowly ruin the king's life for daring to try to do the same to me.

A sharp knock at the door had me glancing up, then shoving the letter under my pillow. When I opened the door, I saw it was several of the postulants bringing in a copper bath and some food. Their appearance was a reminder that despite all this plotting and planning, I was still just a girl, hungry and filthy from a long day's travel, so I thanked each woman and then undid the laces of my dress when they stepped out of the room. My whole body shivered at the lovely warmth of the water as I sank down into it. As I smoothed the soap over me, I knew what I must do.

The next morning Selene appeared at my door, taking in my neat but simple dress with a nod.

"I've thought long and hard about this, and you have a choice." She smiled. "We try to always make sure there's a choice for those who seek asylum here, even if they don't like either one of them. With what your mother, all the mothers, gifted you, I can use some of my agents to put into place a plan that will hopefully bring the king down before all-out war is declared, but…"

"If I cooperate, it'll make the whole business easier," I finished for her. Those canny eyes seemed to take my measure and find me suitable. "I can get closer to the king, use the pretext of our engagement to strike back directly. I agree to your terms, whatever they might be. Arik's newfound zeal is a glorious thing, but I think he needs me to ensure that he has a throne to sit upon and a kingdom to rule once the dust settles." I nodded. "I'm in."

"Well, be on our way then," Selene said with a wink. "On the first day of your holy vigil, we need to do as the goddess requires and minister to the poor."

I nodded before we swept out of the room, then the temple compound with a gaggle of postulants in tow.