“Oh.”
“Come.” Ashani herded me into my own hut. She carried a wooden box with her and took out a device.
“Chastity belt?”
“You know what it is?”
“My brother had commanded me to wear it before my wedding day. What is it for?”
“So your husbands won’t be tempted to take you until the claiming day, and it prevents you from pleasuring yourself.”
Ashanie lifted my pareo and fitted the belt on me.
“What is the purpose of all this?”
“To save your energy until claiming day. You also won’t see Ronen and Callarn until then.”
“Now you’re being unreasonable.”
“Unfortunately, you must endure this. From now on until the claiming day, you are to stay in your place. You may go out only to relieve yourself or bathe.”
“And my duty in the cookery?”
“You aren’t doing anything other than pampering yourself until your big day.”
“I don’t like this at all.”
“Oh, cease your pouting, girl. And you aren’t to eat anything but ramentha. It will help you with the claiming.”
“I don’t like this at all.”
“You can endure it.”
“Could I at least see them one more time?”
“Absolutely not.”
I cursed. “This isn’t fair.”
*
Miserable.
The next three days without seeing Ronen and Callarn were harder than the account I had to endure during my escape from the hunters. Ashanie left me with a basket of ramentha. I avoided it on the first day. When the hunger became unbearable, I half-heartedly grabbed one and took a bite. I couldn’t stop devouring them afterward. Then, I regretted it. Full-blown lust consumed me and all I could think of was my men. I hated the fact that I wasn’t allowed to talk to them. Though I had constant companions during the day, Ashanie and other women. They prepared me for the ceremony. They scrubbed my body with aromatic oils and washed me with floral water. My eyebrows were plucked and all the hair in my body was waxed. On the third day, Ashanie and the women came and took me for a bath in the Lembanyu spring. Afterward, they ushered me to the great hut.
The place was empty. All windows were shut and enchanted candles floated in the air, illuminating the surroundings. The big table where the masters of Emagari used to sit were gone, replaced with a large wooden pole. It had chains and restraints hanging from it.
I started to suspect the claiming ceremony wasn’t a private affair. “Is this where the claiming takes place?” I asked Ashanie.
“Aye. We have to prepare you for this first.”
“Why can’t it be in my own place, or my men’s?”
“Silly girl. Your place can’t hold all the witnesses.”
“Witnesses?”
“Aye. Our lord and elders must witness the joining otherwise it won’t be lawful.”