Serpent's Claim (Serpent's Touch 2)

AMIRA

Being locked in a cell didn’t feel much different from being tossed on the bottom of the boat. To me anyway, it didn’t.

I lay in the nest of tattered rags, staring at the wall in front of me. At some point, I must have slept, though it felt as if I blinked, and the sky in the tiny opening above me was now bright and golden instead of dark and silver. Day had replaced the night.

Someone brought me a tray with food and water. I closed my eyes, not caring who it was.

As the sky in the opening grew dark again, two gorgonian women came.

“Time to get you cleaned up,” one of them said, helping me up.

The two half-led, half-carried me out to a small platform between the branches. A waterfall streamed from the leaves above, pooling in a small basin carved into the wood below.

The women took my dirty sheet away from me. Hiking up my veil, they led me into the basin of tepid water.

After the humid heat of the day, the water felt refreshing against my skin. For the first time since I had last screamed Kyllen’s name, I felt some shred of emotion as I sank into the bath.

The women got busy, scrubbing my arms, back, and shoulders. I let them, as I had let things happen to me in the past few days.

Taking refuge inside my head, I let life take its course around me, not taking a part in it myself. I’d done it before as a child and later when going about my days at Madame’s menagerie. I gave up control, simply drifting along. It felt safer this way.

“Raise your arm,” one of the women said.

I obeyed while she scrubbed my side.

“Now the other one,” she instructed, and I silently did as she said.

My body was theirs to do with as they pleased. Like an observer locked in a room, I watched what was happening to me through the slits between my eyelids.

Why bother to feel, to think, to try to change anything if I had no control?

I had no choice.

“We need to wash her hair.” The second woman wrinkled her nose. “It stinks.”

The first one sighed. “Having hair is a messy business. It’s so much harder to keep it neat and clean than senties.” She leaned to my ear, saying loudly as if afraid I had weak hearing, “We’ll need to take off your veil. Close your eyes.”

“Close your eyes, Amira!”the echo of Kyllen’s voice rang through my memory.

I closed them while the women worked out the diadem from my mussed, tangled hair to remove the veil.

Suddenly, it dawned on me, I did have a choice. I’d always had one. All I had to do was lift my head and look straight in the eyes of either of these women—and all of it would end. There’d be no more pain. No excruciating feeling of loss crushing me. The numbness would turn absolute, and I would become stone.

“Close your eyes, Amira,”Kyllen’s voice urged me in my head. “Keep them closed.”

He’d wanted me to live. He’d wished for me to have a full, vibrant life, too. One of the first things he’d done upon returning to Lorsan had been getting this veil for me. He’d wanted me to see, to learn, and to make my own decisions.

He hadn’t just brought me to Lorsan. I’d made the choice to come here on my own.

Kyllen had called me strong. Could I find a way to make it through just one more day? My life had always been about survival. Maybe I could muster the strength to survive for just a little bit longer.

I kept my eyes closed.

The women lifted me out of the water and wrapped me in towels. They dried and braided my hair—twenty-four plaits with a metal snake wound in a spiral around each.

One of them fussed over the faint bruise on my jawline. The spot still ached a bit when she pressed on it. With a sponge, she applied something to cover it up. They then placed the diadem back on my head and lowered the veil over my face.

Only then, I opened my eyes.

“Stand up, now.” One yanked me up by my arm. She didn’t seem unkind, just busy and hassled.

With the veil gathered around my neck, they powdered my breasts, hips, and buttocks with gold shimmer. A heavy bejeweled belt went around my waist. A cascade of silver chains and crystal beads concealed a narrow strip of my front below the belt.

One of the women rubbed my nipples with fragrant oil, then placed two soft-tipped clips on each. Thin silver chains dangled from the tiny bells attached to the clips, connecting them to each other. Another set of chains went from the clips on my nipples to the wide armbands that the women had circled around my biceps.

Fastening sheer ribbons in pink and lavender to my armlets, one woman said, “You’re very pretty, you know?”

“Now, when you’re clean and smell nice,” the other one added with a giggle.

Next, they put a necklace with dozens of strands of clear crystal, pink quartz, and green jade around my neck. A pair of sandals with soft soles and strings of multi-colored jewels went on my feet. Rings, bracelets, and anklets, set with gemstones and tiny bells, were put on my fingers, wrists, and legs.

“What’s going to happen to me?” My voice came out raspy. I hadn’t used it for days. I almost surprised myself by speaking now.

Silence had always been my natural state. Until Kyllen… He’d made me talk and smile. He taught me how to laugh.

“Close your eyes, Amira…”

Once again, I obeyed his voice in my head. I closed my eyes tight, but tears still found their way out, rolling down my cheeks. Pain stirred anew, cutting sharp, and I missed the numbness of not caring.

“Oh, sweetie. Don’t be sad.” One of the women petted my cheek, smearing my tears over my veil. “You belong to the king, now, the most powerful man in the whole of Lorsan. He’ll take care of you.”

“You’ll have pretty clothes to wear and lots of food to eat,” the other woman joined in. “You’ll be safe. No one will ever dare to hurt the king’s pet.”

The first woman patted my head. “All you have to do is make the king like you.”

Soft rustling came from the distance. It blended well with the whisper of leaves on the branches above us. I wouldn’t have noticed it, but both women snapped their backs straight, jumping to attention.

The man from the dock entered onto our small platform. He no longer had a cloak on. Instead, a shirt of pearly-white silk stretched over his shoulders, wide sleeves draping loosely around his arms. Dark pants hugged his hips tightly, held by a leather belt with a short sword in a sheath.

“Lord Adriyel.” Both women bowed their heads in supplication.

He didn’t bother returning the greeting.

“How is the human girl?” He gave me a long, appraising look.

In the warm light of the sunset supplemented by the yellow glow of the fire moths under the branches, his light-blue skin glowed with pale gold. The snake-skin pattern on his senties shimmered with midnight blue. Even without the moon, he appeared to be awash in moonlight.