The Devil's Concubine (7 page)

it was already in the laundry since they thought she might want to wear it the following day.

It sounded reasonable enough, but Aliya still wanted to strangle the maids.

Unfortunately, that would not change her dilemma--sit around in nothing more than a thin cloth? Or sit around in nothing more than a thin night dress? She finally opted for one of the night dresses for the simple reason that she could at least put that on and wouldn’t have to worry about trying to hold it together.

When she was dressed, she dismissed them, moving across the room to settle in

the chair while they removed the bath, cleaned the room, and finally left her to her

solitude.

Once they’d gone, she sat for a time smoothing the roughly woven fabric over her

lap and trying not to think of anything at all. Idleness bred thought, though, and she found herself wondering about the strange land she’d found herself in, and most

particularly the king of the tribe of golden falcon, Talin.

No one needed to tell her Talin had no layman in the castle. The gowns were of

such poor quality it was obvious they belonged to the maids--unless he did have a

mistress, but she’d refused to give up anything for the master’s ‘new whore’?

Not that she cared. He could have a hundred mistresses! A thousand!

The bastard!

She frowned at that thought, vaguely uneasy as to why she cared enough to even

disapprove--most men had them and kings were most certainly no exception. Although

her father was very discrete, she knew he had several and had probably had them even

before her mother had died.

It almost seemed strange, though, to find herself comparing him, and his behavior,

to her father, or any of the nobles she knew for that matter.

He was an unnatural. She had never thought to be around one. To everyone she

knew, they were looked upon as nightmare creatures barely human at all. Most folk

believed they were the spawn of the gods of the underworld, devils, demons, fiends--and she supposed she had, too.

She hadn’t expected that they could look so--human! She supposed it was to be

expected that they would assume a pleasing form when they walked about as humans, but they shouldn’t have been
able
to when they were evil creatures. They should look evil to make it easier for
real
people to tell what they were.

Now that she had met Talin, she had to wonder how often these devils walked

among them, completely undetected.

That was almost the most unnerving part of her situation. Talin walked and

talked and looked and acted like any natural, and the more time that passed, the more difficult it was for her to keep the terrifying image of him in his beast form in her mind, particularly since she’d gotten little more than a glimpse of him in that form to start with.

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Jaide Fox

29

She found herself reacting to him and interacting with him as if he was a real

human. She’d fought him, argued with him, cursed him--threatened him even, as if, in the back of her mind, she’d still believed that her position was some sort of protection.

Worse, it seemed abundantly clear to her when this was the case after less than a

full day that she was going to be deeply under the spell of his deception before long. She did not find him repulsive, as she knew she should, far from it. Before she’d known what he was she’d thought him very handsome, dangerously attractive. Now, even knowing

dangerous was the key word, she was almost as drawn to him by his dangerous appeal as she was unnerved by it.

Did any of that truly matter, though, she wondered? What could she possibly do

to keep him from taking what he’d made it clear he wanted? If he had been a natural

born man, she could not have fought him off. The unnaturals were far stronger than their human counterparts.

That thought instantly conjured what he’d done to her earlier.

And the memory resurrected the sensations she’d felt before.

She’d done her best not to think about any of that since he’d left. The maids had

been a welcome distraction, making it easier for her to do so, but it was an issue she couldn’t continue to ignore.

He’d taken liberties with her that no one ever had before. He would almost

certainly take more than that small taste of his possession.

It occurred to her that she hadn’t been trying to avoid thinking about it because it

had been so shocking, but because her reaction to it had been. Something had stirred to life inside of her when he’d touched her that she didn’t want to face. She wasn’t

completely certain of what that something was, but, search though she might, she

couldn’t find so much as a trace of revulsion.

Shame began to trickle inside of her and ended in a flood when she realized that

she’d been as fascinated and intrigued by his shocking behavior as she had been stunned and debilitated.

She frowned at that thought, trying to decide exactly how she had felt. Strange

probably described the sensations best, because she’d never felt anything quite like it.

There had been guilt, too, because he had touched her so intimately and she knew that was wrong when he wasn’t her husband, and yet she was very much afraid that that was

part of her fascination--experiencing the forbidden.

She couldn’t remember a time when she had not been surrounded by women

whose job it was to attend her needs and also to protect her from the things she, as a maiden, was not supposed to know. She’d been curious, though. When her body had

begun to change, her mind had also and she’d found herself wanting to know those things forbidden for her to know, and to experience some of the things whispered around her

when they thought she either couldn’t hear, or wouldn’t understand.

It had been easy enough to find out about kissing. With so many men and women

living in the castle she had caught glimpses of couples entwined many times, their lips locked together and expressions on their faces that she’d first thought was pain. She’d felt like a fool when she realized that it was that elusive something called passion, but other than that she’d discovered very little.

Kissing, she’d been told, was the first step to ruin. She was not to even allow so

much as that--if any man so forgot himself as to try it--because it would lead to ‘more.’

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Jaide Fox

30

Ladies were supposed to be pure of mind and body, and that was even more

critical for a young girl who would one day be queen. She was to focus upon affairs of state, to concentrate her energies on learning what would be required of her as mistress of a kingdom. The marriage bed was only incidental to her station, since she would be

required to produce heirs for her husband.

But no one had considered it important to explain to her just how she was to go

about that most important task. The only thing she’d been told was that it was ‘natural’

and she would know what to do when the time came. She would have her husband’s

guidance to help her.

Feeling abruptly restless and vaguely angry, she got up from the chair where

she’d been sitting for so long that she’d begun to ache with the inactivity and began to pace.

Her ignorance was no protection to her now. Talin had seemed downright

amused by her refusal to kiss him. Obviously,
not
kissing him wasn’t going to prevent him from doing ‘the thing,’ that vague ‘something’ that she knew men and women must

do to produce heirs that took place behind closed doors and involved tussling about and moaning and groaning.

She’d only stumbled upon that part of the ‘forbidden knowledge’ once, and she

hadn’t been able to get up the nerve to try to peek and see what they were doing, but she’d heard and she’d known instinctively, as she’d been told she would, what was going on. Or rather, she’d gotten a general idea of what must be happening, for her mind had conjured images of the couple writhing against one another and kissing--which she knew was what started the rest.

Thinking about what they were doing, she realized suddenly, had made her feel

just as she’d felt when Talin had kissed her breast, warm and strange and vaguely guilty.

Her belly tightened at the thought and fear of the unknown began to wrestle with

the other sensations. He’d promised he wouldn’t harm her, but she distinctly recalled that she’d seen more than one maid weeping after she’d disappeared with her swain one

evening. Later, most of them had seemed to recover. Some had even seemed happy,

almost deliriously so, but she hadn’t been able to get the weeping out of her mind, or the sense that the maidens were maiden no longer, and that they were hurt, physically and emotionally.

Realizing she was scaring herself, Aliya struggled to put that from her mind.

Thinking about what she was facing wasn’t helping, for all she could do was pace faster in an effort to outrun her thoughts.

Growing tired after a while, she stared at the bed longingly for several moments

and finally moved back to the chair.

Maybe she couldn’t prevent it from happening to her, but she was NOT going to

climb into the bed and lie there as if she was meekly awaiting her fate!

Hours passed, or so it seemed. Alternately pacing and resting in the chair, Aliya

listened in vain for the heavy tread outside the door that would tell her the agonizing wait was over and she would have to face the unknown. She grew more and more tired.

Finally, despite her anxiety, she found her eyelids growing heavy with the need to sleep.

Curling up in the hard chair, she shifted and squirmed, trying to find a

comfortable position and finally dozed off.

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Jaide Fox

31

The candles had guttered out when she woke and the room lay in darkness save

for the thin streams of light that found their way between the planks that made up the shutters and door. Still drugged with sleep, she shifted, trying to ease the pain from her cramped position and finally sat up and peered at the bed.

It was empty.

It looked so inviting that she finally struggled to her feet, staggered to the bed and crawled in. At once, a vaguely familiar scent wafted up to her from the pillow she

plumped under her head. Feeling comforted for no particular reason that she could figure out, she relaxed and sought oblivion once more.

The whisper of voices, the soft scuff of feet along the floor stones, and the faint

tinkling of china woke her. For several moments, her mind simply accepted the

familiarity of it. Slowly, awareness came to her that none of the voices she heard were the least familiar to her and she managed to crack one eyelid to see what was going on around her.

Uneasiness pierced the dregs of sleep that still enveloped her when she saw

nothing familiar. There were no bed hangings to protect her from drafts and annoying insects. The mounds of pillows she was accustomed to were gone as well, leaving only the lumpy one beneath her head. The coverlet she was huddled beneath was of good

quality, but the color was dull, more brown than gold, and certainly not the cheerful pattern of purple flowers that should have covered her.

With dread dawning, she slowly pushed herself upright and looked around the

room in time to see the last of the maids departing.

Glumly, she looked around the tower room as her changed fortunes sank into her

fully. As nightmarish as the day before seemed to her now, it was, unfortunately, reality, not the frightening dream that she’d hoped it was.

She’d already laid back down and pulled the covers over her head before it

dawned on her that she’d been sleeping in Talin’s bed. In her haste to evacuate, she tangled her legs in the bedding and sprawled in the floor.

The fall seemed to rattle her brain. For several moments, she lay still, evaluating

the level of pain she could feel. Finally, she pushed herself up and managed to get to her feet.

The maids, she saw, had brought in fresh water and a tray of food. When she’d

assured herself she was still in the room alone, she moved to the pitcher and basin that had been brought to her and washed her face and teeth.

She wasn’t accustomed to eating in the morning and an odd mixture of hunger

and nausea washed over her as she smelled the scent of food. After a moment’s thought, though, she decided to see if she could eat anything. She felt weak and uncommonly

weary, and the urge to climb back into bed and go back to sleep was strong. She

reminded herself that she had no desire to be caught in Talin’s bed--not by Talin.

The hot tea, she discovered, went a long way toward reviving her. Nibbling on a

scone, she settled in the chair and looked around the room thoughtfully, wondering what seemed out of place.

It occurred to her finally, that it wasn’t that anything was out of place, but that

something she’d expected to find wasn’t there.

Her lips tightened. The maids had told her they’d taken her gown to lauder it.

They hadn’t brought it back.

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Jaide Fox

32

Slamming her tea cup back on the tray so hard she was a little surprised it didn’t

shatter, she surged to her feet and searched the room, knowing even before she did so that it was unlikely her dress would turn up.

It didn’t. The chests in the room contained nothing but men’s clothing--Talin’s

clothes. Slamming the lip of the last closed, she looked around the room for a bell pull to summon the maids and discovered there wasn’t one.

She supposed that accounted for Talin’s tendency to bellow for servants when he