Alien's Bride 1-3 (50 page)

I stared at him vacantly.

“You would have a probationary period before being granted the title of a lady of the court,” Randell said.

“Oh.”
 
I looked back at the king.
 
“I understand.
 
This is what I want.
 
It…it sounds like a dream, really, after all I’ve been through.”

The king stroked my hair.
 
“I see no reason it can’t happen.”

I brought my lips into my mouth to wet them.
 
“What…what if I fail?”

King Caine smiled.
 
“I suppose it’s possible.
 
So long as you don’t offend any of the court too terribly there can still be a place for you in the village.”
 

“Oh!”
 
I felt as if a cape of bricks had been taken from my shoulders.
 
This was what I’d needed to hear.
 

“Do you think you’ll fail?” Randell said.

I wet my lips again and looked at him.
 
“It’s not that I wouldn’t try my best…I just, well, I worry that I don’t know your ways.
 
I…I fear there’s something I don’t know…something that would ruin me.”

Now Randell smiled.
 
“If you haven’t been ruined thus far there’s nothing you could know that would ruin you going forward.
 
We’re the most civilized clan of the underworld.
 
We’re only merciless to our enemies, and the only thing that ruins mortals here is our decadence.
 
You’ve proven you share the same appetites.”

A smile slowly formed on my lips.
 
I’d already suspected all this, but held back my hopes.
 
Now I knew…I knew for certain, I could be happy here.

The king kissed my hand.
 
“It’s settled then.
 
You shall vie for a court title.”

“Oh, thank you.
 
Thank you for the opportunity.”

He rolled on top of me and positioned his cock against my sex.
 
“Now then,” he said with a wicked grin.
 
“Where were we?”

***

The next day I was moved to what could be my permanent chamber.
 
A very prim demon servant came with female assistants to measure me and let me choose fabrics for a new wardrobe.
 
The royal treatment had me gushing.

“I shall make a debut ensemble for you of the finest silks.
 
You’ll wear it at the ball held to welcome you to the court.”

“Oh!
 
They’ll have a ball for me?”

“They say it will only happen if you’re accepted by the court, but there are already preparations underway.”

I covered my mouth with both hands and stifled joyful tears.
 
That evening I was going to meet the rest of the court informally in the games parlor.
 
All the ladies would be there, and most of the lords.
 
I was filled with nervous anticipation, but so looked forward to it.
 
I wanted to be one of them with every grain of my soul.
 
This was the place I should be, and a lady of the court was the position I should have.
 
I was not a slave or a peasant of their village.
 
I was a goddess.
 

 
I pushed any doubts away.
 
I felt if I’d won Randell’s acceptance I could win over anyone.
 
It might take humility and catering to a few whims.
 
I felt willing to do whatever it took to gain acceptance.
 
I knew it would be nothing compared to what I would have endured in Trummel’s castle.

I cringed to think of it.
 
And yet, I was achieving the dream I went after there.
 
I was becoming royalty.
 
This was better than being a royal in the mortal world.
 
There I would have always been restricted by virtues that didn’t align with my own.

These demons were my people!
 
Oh, I hoped so dearly that I could show them I was one of them.
 
I wanted to yield to feelings of over-confidence.
 
Wasn’t I a beautiful mortal-looking woman?
 
Wouldn’t that be enough to make them love me?
 

But no, I had to win favor with the ladies of the court.
 
I hoped to find friends among them.
 
How wonderful it would be to have friends for the first time in my life.

A few hours passed and the female assistant of the tailor came to deliver a gown and help me into it.
 
I balanced on a short stepping stool before a mirror while she made adjustments.
 
I already looked like a princess, though one with an overly tight bodice that plunged dangerously low.
 

Randell knocked at my open door just when I’d finished applying makeup.
 
He made a shallow bow to me.

“I shall bring you to the parlor since we’re already familiar.”

“Oh, thank you.”
 
I went to him.

He took my arm.
 
“It’s no trouble for me, Sarina.”
 
He began to walk with me.
 
“And since you’ll be a lady soon you should know I never really intended on executing you.”

***

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A God to Rule Her

by

Yamila Abraham

Cover by Archie the Redcat, Edited by Michelle Henson, Cover Logo Design by Jon Cunningham

Copyright © 2014 Yamila Abraham.
 
All rights reserved.

***

I stood at the base of the mountain and used one hand to shade my eyes from the sun.
 
My head had to crane back to take in the god Exinious’ fortress.
 
It didn’t matter that the black thing had been in the background of my village all my life.
 
It still put a knot in my stomach to look at it.
 
The sharp dark towers grew upwards from the mountain’s peaks, forming inky capillaries that stained the sky.
  

“You should wear something prettier,” Senator Carrus said behind me.

I closed my eyes and tried not to lose my temper.
 
What I’d worn was simply my deep blue smock, emblazoned with the symbols for health, renewal, fertility, and medicine. A dense fabric belt tied snugly around my waist and a hooded wool cape hung off my shoulders.
 
I felt just as entitled to my healer’s uniform as the senators did to their long brown tunics.

“I have to climb a mountain, you realize,” I said.

“You also have to beseech the god that lives there,” Carrus said.
 
He was barrel-chested with a full white beard.
 
“His last wife from the village died six years ago.
 
He may be ready for another.
 
A pretty package might go a long way towards winning the lonely god’s aid.”

The suggestion made me cringe.
 
“I’m not volunteering to be his latest sacrifice.”

Carrus put his gnarled hand on my shoulder.
 
“Oh, but my dear—“
 

I jerked away from him like his hand was a hot coal.
 
He gave Senator Diones an amused expression while I glared at him.
 
I’ve told the old bastard before not to touch me.

There was no need for Senators Carrus and Diones to escort me to the mountain.
 
Their page had called me to the meeting house at sunrise to demand an explanation for why I hadn’t cured the sixteen villagers dying under my care.
 
My patients all had the same disease, the same weeping red boils and fever.
 

I’d built an astonishing reputation for healing both people and animals.
 
Our leaders claimed my practice was one of the benefits of their regime.
 
As a woman both fatherless and unwed I’d felt too vulnerable to refute this.
 
But then, being the darling of my senators stopped the accusations of witchcraft made against me from ever gaining a foothold.
 

My obligation to them was never spoken, but they had no trouble presuming it at the morning hearing.
 
Why were those sixteen people, one of whom the niece of Senator Rizee, getting worse by the day?
 
I was making them look bad.
 
I was betraying all the faith they had put in me.

There was a part of me, a small part since their judging eyes and loud voices made me cower, that wanted to spit at them.
 
The bigger part of me was focused on my patients.
 
Why couldn’t I cure those sixteen?
 
I don’t know.
 

I don’t know.

My tinctures should cure anything.
 
Everything.
 
They always do.
 
Even if I don’t understand it, I can cure it.
 
That’s the gift I was given.
 
Of course, I’d never admit I used magic to our leaders.
 
Who knows when I’ll fall out of favor and have it used against me?
 
I’d answered the only way I could.
 
I’d claimed the god Exinious had cursed us and someone had to go to his fortress and find out why.

“Splendid idea,” they’d said.
 
“You should head out right away.”

A nauseating terror had made me feel faint.
 
I was in a trance as Carrus and Diones guided me out here.
 
Once I saw that hideous fortress my quest felt inescapable.

“Ashla,” Senator Diones said.

I looked at him with the scowl that was meant for Carrus.
 
The younger and infinitely more somber Diones didn’t deserve my anger.
 
He was one of the very few men I found tolerable in the village.

“If you don’t start climbing now it will be dark before you reach the fortress.”

I drew in a deep breath and then let it out with a slump of my shoulders.
 
He was right.
 
I was being a fool to let Carrus rile me.
 
I thought of my poor patients.
 
They suffered in their illness and not even my powerful potions could ease their pain.
 
I’d let this drag on long enough.
 
Something drastic had to be done.
 
Of course, the Senate foisted the responsibility onto me to do it.

I started up the first slope, letting more dejecting thoughts bombard me.
 
Exinious was notorious for ignoring our pleas for help.
 
I’d heard stories that made my face feel like it had been slapped.
 
He’d told my maternal great grandfather that we were supposed to be his amusement, but had turned out boring and annoying just like the other society he’d made before us who’d died off.