Blood of the Goddess Book I: The Locust King
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Locusts at the Gate Chapter 2: A New Name Chapter 3: The Capital Prepares Chapter 4: The Princess is Dead, Long Live the Princess Chapter 5: Outside the Gates Chapter 6: Inside the Black Tent Chapter 7: Surrender at the Temple Chapter 8: The Cult of the Locust Chapter 9: The Locust's Tenets of Faith Chapter 10: Mourners on the Cliff Chapter 11: The Eye of Betrayal Chapter 12: The Dead King's Bedchamber Chapter 13: The Arms of the Goddess Chapter 14: Zayaan of the Narim Chapter 15: The Eyes of the Priestess Chapter 16: A More Permanent Disguise Chapter 17: Tribute Chapter 18: Sacrifice of the New Moon Chapter 19: The Lost Bird Chapter 20: Manah and the Priestess Chapter 21: Desert Creatures Chapter 22: Become the Swarm Chapter 23 The Price of Betrayal Chapter 24: Life Under the Locust Chapter 25: Wild Rose Chapter 26: The Lady Wren Chapter 27: Thought and Desire Chapter 28: The Lady's Captivity Chapter 29: The Wine Maiden Chapter 30: End of Childhood Chapter 31: The Children of Aisha Chapter 32: The Forest Runner Chapter 33: Three Sisters Chapter 34: The Hunt Chapter 35: Bones in the Forest Chapter 36: Lullaby Chapter 37: The Hunter's Horn Chapter 38: Ways Between Ways Chapter 39: Morning Star Chapter 40: A Prophecy for Baraz Chapter 41: Equinox Fires Chapter 42: The Lord Prince Takri Chapter 43: Evening Star Sets Chapter 44: Chaos in the Courtyard Chapter 45: Dasha Chapter 46: Memories Chapter 47: The Body Slave Chapter 48: Caged Beasts Chapter 49: Message from the Capital Chapter 50: Heresiarch Chapter 51: The Color of Blood Chapter 52: Winter Winds Chapter 53: The Bookmaker's Closet Chapter 54: Wrapped in Dignity and Beauty Chapter 55: Vessel of the Goddess Chapter 56: Cracks in the Walls Chapter 57: Two Brothers Chapter 58: The Court of Women Chapter 59: Favored of the King Chapter 60: The Sweetest Fruit Chapter 61: Daughter of the Temple Chapter 62: A Nation of Bastards Chapter 63: The Lute Player Chapter 64: Aisha's Prayer Chapter 65: Promises Chapter 66: Lives Lost Chapter 67: The Tea Maker Chapter 68: Object of Desire Chapter 69: Empty Shelves Chapter 70: Darkness and Light Chapter 71: The Love of Men Chapter 72: The Cursed Ones Chapter 73: Hiding Places Chapter 74: Old Men's Tales Chapter 75: False Prophecies Chapter 76: The Lord Prince Radu Chapter 77: Love Becomes Life Chapter 78: Mistress and Mother Chapter 79: A Test of Strength Chapter 80: The Strigoi-Viu Cometh Chapter 81: Scraps from the Table Chapter 82: A Fool's Errand Chapter 83: The Little Ghost Chapter 84: Stolen Honeycakes Chapter 85: Breathe Chapter 86: Beneath the Palace Chapter 87: Red PebblesChapter 84: Stolen Honeycakes
Yelena embraced her friend one last time before turning her attention to Takri's cousin on the other side of the room. His description of Lilua before the massacre of the Narim sounded nothing like the wraith-like young woman walking between her two bodyguards.
Lilua, who was better with a sling and bow than any other in the camp.
Lilua, who hid snakes in Takri's bed.
Lilua, who could sing with the voice of the Goddess herself.
Lilua, who walked with eyes downturned.
Lilua, who never spoke.
Lilua, a simulacrum of who she once was.
The strigoi-viu had yet to bleed this one dry, but he had drained the life from her nonetheless.
Yelena took a breath and approached Mahleck's favorite bride, bowing low before her. "Favored of the God-King, I am Yelena. Body slave to your royal cousin, the Lord Prince Takri of the Narim. If it pleases you, I have a message from my master."
Lilua stopped and looked at the girl in front of her. She placed a hand under Yelena's shoulder and gently pushed her back into a standing position, shaking her head "no" as she did.
"Please." Yelena dropped her voice and looked into Lilua's eyes. "This is not from Takri the Lord Prince. But for Takri your cousin. He needs your help."
Lilua looked to the two eunuchs who watched the exchange between the two girls, and then to the body slave in front of her. Giving an almost imperceptible nod, Lilua motioned for Yelena to follow her to her rooms.
Inside, Lilua’s chambers were furnished much as any other noblewoman's rooms in the capital. Thick woolen carpets lined the floors, atop which sat silken cushions and low tables for conversation. Various stringed instruments, many of which Yelena had never seen before lay against the walls. Parchment covered with scribbled lines and marks covered one table, along with writing implements. Yelena did not recognize the script as the common language of Adyll. The marks seemed too regular to be letters of any kind, and both writing and reading were forbidden to any of their sex, even for one favored by the God-King. Yelena dismissed the parchment as another strange thing about the strange girl in front of her.
Through a door on the opposite side of the room, Yelena could glimpse a sumptuous bed covered in red silk emblazoned with the emblem of the locust. A pile of rough spun woolen blankets lay on the floor at the foot of the pristine bed bore a semblance to the nest of a wild creature. It appeared this was the place where Lilua actually slept.
Lilua gestured for her guest to sit while the two bodyguards hovered near the door.
"Do you wish for us to stay with you, Princess?" asked Floryan. Lilua shook her head. "Then we shall take our leave of you and resume our duties at the doors to the Court." Both he and Luka bowed low before exiting the room, leaving Yelena and Lilua alone inside.
Lilua sat down next to her cousin’s body slave, her hands in her lap twisting the tassels on the cushion between them until Yelena thought they would break.
"Takri is worried about the girl you both dined with several days ago." Yelena watched for any reaction from the Narim girl, but none was forthcoming. " Takri loves Nasreen with all his heart. Mahleck put her outside the palace gates in the cold to die that night. We do not know if she is alive or dead. It was all I could do to keep your cousin from running off to the temple once he heard she was in danger."
Lilua let go of the tassels and tucked her knees to her chest, hugging her legs close to herself. She tapped her forehead and then shook her head "no" again.
"Sometimes he doesn't think before he acts," said Yelena.
Lilua nodded, and then began rocking back and forth very slowly. She stopped and looked at Yelena, motioning towards herself and shrugging, as if to say what can I do?
"We need someone who has a connection to the temple so we can find out if Nasreen lives," said Yelena. "Your bodyguards are sons of the Holy Mother. Can they be trusted to help with such an errand?"
Lilua nodded her head a faint yes.
"Thank you!" said Yelena. "Thank you."
Lilua picked up one the instruments lying closest to her and began plucking the strings and adjusting pegs as if Yelena was no longer there. She stood up and walked into her bedroom, pulling the door shut behind her.
Yelena had her answer. Floryan and Luka could be trusted, just as she thought. She let herself out of the princess's chambers. Outside she could hear the faint sound of plucked strings from behind her.
Cati was waiting for her in the center of the Court. "I hope you got what you needed from her. And that it was more than another melancholy song."
"The Lord Prince will be pleased," answered Yelena. "I can't stay much longer. Let's go wake up our friends and surprise them. Maybe we can have some honeycakes and tea before I have to return."
"I am sure Iuliana has some stored somewhere!" laughed Cati. "She continues to steal some from the table after every feast when the men are all deep in the cups."
The two girls headed up the stairs to the room Yelena shared with four other Adyllian wine maidens until the day she was taken to serve as body slave. Cati, Sora, Iuliana, and Yedda still spent every night they were not serving tables sleeping in the small room overlooking the pools below.
Cati stopped short of opening the door and turned to Yelena with her finger to her lips. "Let's surprise them. Stay out of sight."
Yelena nodded and hid herself behind the edge of the door. Cati threw open the door, startling the girls inside. "Get up! There is a visitor from the royal house outside! Hurry!"
Yelena could hear sleep addled voices from inside asking questions as the girls hurried to pull on clothes and make themselves presentable.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Cati in a dramatic tone. "They are here already, right outside the door! I hope you are dressed! I can't hold them off any longer!"
Yelena stepped inside, and all movement stopped as her friends realized who the visitor from the royal house was.
"Yelena!" yelled Iuliana. The dark-haired girl quickly picked her way across to the room to embrace her friend. "I didn't think you would ever come back!"
"Cati, you needn't play such tricks on us!" Sora laughed as she threw a cushion at her friend. She was two years older than Yelena. Her auburn hair hung in a half-braided mess down her back. "You scared me!"
"I didn't lie. Yelena is part of the royal household. Or, at least she sleeps next to one of them!" Cati threw the cushion back at Sora.
"Don't be crude," said Yedda, the oldest of the group. She was taller than the others, and thinner. "Maybe Yelena doesn't want to talk about the man she has to serve. Not all of us like being a man's plaything, Cati." She turned her attention to Yelena, still in the grasp of Iuliana. "Are you alright? Did he send you back? I was so worried you would be sent to the camps!"
"I am fine," said Yelena. "My master is a kind man who does not wish me any harm. He is closer to being an Adyllian than a foreign Locust. He is one of the few survivors of our desert dwelling kin."
"And he is very handsome," said Cati.
"Better he is kind than handsome, Cati," chided Yedda.
"I cannot stay long this time," said Yelena. "Just enough time for some tea and to tell you all I love you."
"Iuliana, bring out your hidden stash of stolen honeycakes!" Cati exclaimed. "Sora, come help me bring tea from downstairs."
A few moments later, the girls gathered in the center of the room drinking tea and devouring the broken remains of Iuliana's contraband sweets.
"Have you heard any news of our families outside?" asked Iuliana.
"Nothing of our families in the city," answered Yelena. "I do know Adyll is suffering from a famine, though inside the walls of the palace, one would never know it. The Swarm hoards food while the people outside starve."
Yedda looked at the uneaten piece of honeycake she held in her hand before putting it back in the box. "How can we eat when they are starving?"
"I can eat," said Cati as she took the sweet back out of the box. "What good does it do to starve yourself? It does not feed the people outside the walls if you don’t finish a honeycake inside the palace."
"Cati is right," said Yelena. "But I wish she wasn't. If the Locusts had not come, the temple would feed all who had need from their stores. But even those are beginning to dwindle. Yet the men of the Swarm eat well of the fruit of our land."
"I miss my mother and father," said Sora.
"We all miss our families," said Yedda.
"If only feeding them were as easy as stealing honeycakes from the table," said Iuliana. "The food that remains from one feast could feed my family for a month."
"I will pray to the Lady to deliver all of us from these filthy Locusts," said Yedda.
Cati rolled her eyes. "If praying worked, we would not be locked inside a harem and the Locusts would have stayed on the other side of the desert."
"Cati. Stop," said Yelena. "If Yedda finds comfort in prayer, then let her pray in peace. I did not come here to cause arguments among you."
Cati begrudgingly nodded in agreement. "We missed you, Yelena. I hope this is not the last time we share a meal together."
"It won't be. I promise," said Yelena. "But I must return to my master if he is to allow me to keep coming back." She embraced each of them again before she left the room and headed down the stairs, veiling herself as she went.
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