Once the woman has left, Catherine, Yanmei, and the unnamed maid get silent.
The unnamed maid continues to wash me, and Yanmei speaks up, “Catherine, you will not get in our way, right?”
“Miss Selene has told me to watch you two,” she says.
“Watch us do what?” questions Yanmei snottily.
“I won’t let you or Ava slack off on the job. So I will be watching for that... I don’t care what else you do.” Her voice seems to change with the disappearance of the woman, Selene. “Now, let’s get to work. I will help her with her hair and makeup. I will also be picking out her dress... If I let one of you two dress her, she will look like a spawn of the circus.”
“You’re such a wench, Catherine,” Ava says, wringing out the washcloth and tossing it aside. “I am better at picking out dresses than you. Let me help.”
Yanmei laughs and says, “Do you think Orval will sleep with her tonight? She is so thin...” She pokes at my ribs and continues, “I can count every single one of them. I can’t imagine she would be desirable to him.”
I get a flashback of how the King commented the same about my weight. Yanmei is right about deciding me to be undesirable.
“If he does sleep with her, it is only for an heir,” replies Catherine.
“True, just don’t forget about that, Ice Mage,” Yanmei pokes her finger into my rib painfully, “our King will never truly fall for one of your people, especially one who is so pitiful and weak.”
Their words continue to be hurtful. There is so much to think about. I am going to be sleeping with the King tonight, the first man I am going to be laying with. It is too much to think about.
It is scary.
Everything is scary.
I still want out of this scorching bath.
“Besides, who are we to judge who our King brings to his bedchambers or who he takes as a Queen? We should not bother to think what the nobility does. Our minds will be boggled by only a quarter of what they do,” Catherine mutters.
Yanmei takes her finger away from my ribs, and I can only sit in the steaming water, trembling like a small child.
Pitiful... She is right. For an Ice Mage, I am. I don’t want to use my powers, and I don’t think I ever will... Not unless I have to.
“Let’s wash your hair now, my Queen,” she says, and before I can protest, I am pushed violently under the hot water. I clench my eyes shut along with my mouth.
Her tone and actions are more violent now after bringing up the King. Is she jealous?
She keeps me there for a few seconds before pulling me up by my hair, and I cough violently. My eyes and throat burn, not only from the boiling temperature but from the soaps and oils in the bathwater. My tears and drool mix together.
She keeps my head stretched back, her fingers woven in my hair, a tight fist pulls and tugs at them, threatening to scalp me. Slowly, my gagging becomes less, but I gasp still, unable to believe that I will not be drowned in the bathwater.
While gasping, I question her, “What are you jealous of?”
The maid grows quiet, her fist loosening, the reprieve a small gift. “Jealous?” She pauses before she snorts, “Are you asking if I am jealous of you?”
“Yes,” I squeak, acting not like a Queen, but a mirromouse in a room full of skalagins.
Her fists tighten in my hair again, and she hisses, “I will never be jealous of a whore who charades as a Queen.”
She plunges my head back under the water, my hands struggling to find something to grab, but there’s nothing. I don’t even have the chance to get another gulp of air, only hot and soapy water.
I hope and pray, but she keeps my head under. My head pounds just as my heart does. My body is desperate as it wants to live, and I try to inhale air. Water rushes in, and the last bits of air escape my lungs. Bubbles form, I feel them brush against my face, rushing to the surface.
I don’t feel weak as time passes, I feel... relaxed, and I stop struggling against my oppressor. My hair moves through the water as I imagine the wings of a bird flying through the sky. What an odd thought…
Perhaps it is my fate to die today.
And maybe in the next life, I will be a bird… With wings, able to fly where I please and to see the whole world from the skies. Yes, I would like to be a bird.
My mother used to sing to the birds.
She used to bathe me too.
The memory is like a dream, but I know she bathed me a few times. Her hands were gentle and soft. When she washed my hair, her nails would skim across my scalp ever so lightly, her fingers weaving in and out of my wet tresses. Then, like the birds, she would sing to me, her voice kind and filled with love.
She loved me...I should be happy that I was loved by one person in my lifetime. Love was all I ever wanted. The King will never gift me with such pleasure; hatred will be the only thing I’ll receive from him... Never love.
My mind slips away to nothingness as it always does when I lie and fall asleep. Maybe I am fated to die… At the hands of my maids… Dragon maids… Dragons… It is for the best… Sparing me of a lifetime of pain and suffering.
I close my eyes, giving up, but fate has different plans.
I am yanked back, my hair whipping behind and hitting my skin with a slap before plastering itself against me. I gasp, water gushes out from my lungs, before gurgling as I try to breathe. I cough and snort as I claw at my face, my hair sucked partially into my mouth as I try to inhale as much air as possible.
I continue to cough, expelling water from my lungs. My desire to live seems stronger than the temptation to die a peaceful death. WHY DO I WANT TO LIVE? I will suffer. I am so angry and frustrated. WHY ME?
I hear screaming and sense tense hands on my shoulder. They are rough and calloused, the nails dull and uneven. These hands knew hard work. The grip they have hurts, their fingers curl into my skin.
I am gasping. I begin to pay attention to my surroundings; my body realizes it is no longer in danger. Somehow, I have managed to find the sides of the tub, and my fingers wrap around them and hold on for dear life.
“You could have killed her, Yanmei! Do you not understand that she could have died?” Ava snaps, her voice rises with each word.
“I wished she did,” Yanmei hisses.
At the same time, a hand leaves my shoulder, and I hear a crack a moment later… Then silence.
Was someone slapped?
I try not to breathe, try to be silent, but my attempt is a failure. Snot travels down my face from my nose and drips into my open mouth, where my teeth chatter.
“You are Theka, mind your place. You will never be of nobility; you are merely tolerated by them. Do not place yourself on a higher pedestal than the rest of us because our King took pity on you,” Ava growls out.
“Ava…” Catherine murmurs, her voice soft.
“Don’t… I don’t need pity from you… I need it from no one... Ava, I might be a Theka like you, but I am not lesser than anyone because of it,” Yanmei says with bitterness and venom. “Wash the whore. Wait… I was wrong… She is not even a whore, just a mare to be bred. Why don’t you tend to her like stall boys?” She laughs.
I hear the click of Yanmei’s shoes as she turns and continues to laugh. I expect the door to be violently slammed, but she closes it quietly, and her aura eventually vanishes.
“Next time, I will not be responsible for her actions. She will not live much longer, with behavior like that. They will not tolerate her,” Ava whispers.
“Ava…” Catherine murmurs again, not knowing what to say.
“Enough! We have more work.” Ava exclaims, her demeanor changes, and her hand leaves my aching shoulder from where she has been digging in too hard with her fingers.
I am scared, but I remain silent. The two maids I am left with chat about all the work they have left. Each time they run a cloth over my skin, I shake and tremble. I try to shrink into myself, but they became rougher with my refusal of letting them bathe me.
“Please, no more…” I sob, pleading as a last resort. If only the Mages at home know I am begging Dragons, I will be shamed further...
“Don’t worry. I think you have suffered enough for one day, Mage. Though, there will be more days to come like this, worst days. And it is not only Yanmei you should worry about because as you are aware of, you are also surrounded by enemies, enemies you can’t even see.”
“Why?” I ask, not even sure why I am bothering.
“Why? It’s the way it has always been and will be for eternity,” Catherine says. Her words are cruel but true.
“Why Yanmei? She hates me not just because I am a…”
“Partially,” replies Ava. “That’s why most will hate you, but she has a far greater reason to do so…”
“She wants to be you,” Catherine murmurs, “She loves our King more than her status allows.”
She loves the Dragon King… She considers me no better than a thief, but she will not want to be me. I don’t want to be me.
Ava speaks up, “But we also hate you, Mage. Just because I warded off a danger does not mean I love you as I should love My Lady. To be serving a Mage is the most disrespectful thing Selene could have done to us. We will much rather be serving a true Queen rather than a false one.”
Selene must be the head maid.
Catherine runs her fingers through my hair. “But let’s try to get along, for now. We are to take care of you until the end of our days or yours, but I believe yours will be much shorter than ours. Yanmei doesn’t have to drown you when so many others around us are eager to kill you.”
How long will I last? Her words frighten me. If my maids try to kill me, who will be the next one? The cook?
The maids start giggling in unison, and Catherine’s hands find my hair again.
“Such pretty hair, My Lady,” Catherine giggles.
“Do not worry, My Lady, we are true to our words. We will always be so. You can take what little solace in that, yes, you can.” Ava giggles more.
I nod my head. I can only remain in the bathwater, frozen in place, small tremors shaking me as my entire body starts to throb.
If the maids are this evil... How will the Dragon King be when we are alone?
I get visions of his Dragon, breathing fire and having skin hotter than any flame. My fear can only grow.
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