Chapter 9
I did a quick review of my situation. I was in the camp of a man that rebelled against my mother. I had no weapons except the choking device I used to tie my hair back. My clothes were gone, leaving me with nothing to wear except a slinky blue slave girl outfit. And one of the reasons Trager Selis had for keeping me alive no longer mattered, since he already had a seer. It wasn't the ideal situation to find oneself in, but it wasn't as bad as having to face my big sister Bedonna in a sword fight to the death.
I wondered where the old crone came from. Not Adah. Adah wasn't known for seers, or readers, or wizards, or witches. Maybe Sorea, although I doubted that. Certainly not Gibney. Gibney was a land of merchants and traders. Most likely she came from the Sugar Islands.
The Sugar Islands were located in the middle of the Southern Sea, directly south of Adah. They were named for the sugar cane that grew there. They were also known for buying and selling slaves, and practicing the dark arts.
"Are you all right, Princess?" Trager said.
"I was wondering how much of a seer one is if they have to steal a person's clothes to make their vision come true."
"I didn't steal your clothes," the crone said.
"You may not have carried the trunk out of my room, but it was your idea." I circled the tables and sat at Selis's right hand. "So this is why you rebelled against General Dacus and my mother. A crone from the Sugar Islands came to you claiming to be a seer, telling you that you're destined to become a great king, and you believed her."
I was playing a hunch, but it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. Most likely, she had been sent by the King of the Sugar Islands. He probably heard my mother was ill and decided to cause trouble. Every time the queen died in Adah, the King of the Sugar Islands stirred the pot, trying to weaken Adah. He did it because our navy controlled the Southern Sea, limiting his ability to buy and sell slaves. The weaker we were, the stronger he was. It was as simple as that.
I looked past Trager to the crone. "Why Commander Selis? Why did you decide to make him your puppet?"
A faint smile spread across the crone's wrinkled and weathered face. She was definitely from the Sugar Islands. Her skin had a rich tan that was common among the people that lived in the islands. I was guessing that she wasn't as old as she looked. Too much sun had hurried the aging process, adding spots and wrinkles to her leathery skin.
I turned to Trager. "You do know the King of the Sugar Islands does this every time the Queen of Adah dies."
"Does what?" Trager said, between bites of food. He was smiling, but it wasn't an evil or amused smile. It was something else. The kind of smile you find on drunks. It made me wonder if she had done something to him besides convince him that he was destined to become a great king.
"Sends someone up here to cause trouble. The weaker Adah is, the stronger he is. And if he could somehow put a puppet on the throne. You can imagine how powerful he'd be then."
"You need to learn your place," the crone said to me.
She stood up, slipped her right hand into her black robe, and moved toward me with surprising speed. I expected her to pull a knife out, so I leapt to my feet and slid the chair I was sitting on between us. Her hand came out of her robe, but she wasn't holding a knife. All she had was some sort of white powder, which she tossed in my face. I didn't know what the powder was, but it had a sweet smell and it made me sneeze.
"Ezerra, what are you doing?" Trager asked the crone.
"Making your guest more malleable," Ezerra said. She smiled at me. "How do you feel, Little One?"
How did I feel? I should've been mad. Mad at her for convincing Commander Selis to rebel against my mother. Mad at her for stealing my clothes and making me dress like this. Mad at her for tossing that white powder in my face. Funny thing though, I wasn't mad. I felt as good as I had felt in a long time. I felt--euphoric.
Ezerra reached into her robe again. This time she pulled out a metal collar. It looked familiar, although I couldn't quite place it. I knew a certain class of people in the Sugar Islands wore metal collars just like it. Well, not exactly like it. Most of those collars were made out of brass or iron. This one appeared to be made out of gold. For the life of me, I just couldn't remember what that class of people was called. Not that I cared. I felt too good to care about anything.
"I bet you'd like to have this," Ezerra said. "To wear around your pretty young neck."
I did want it. It was bright and shiny and golden. I wanted it so bad that I reached out for it.
"No," Ezerra said, pulling the pretty gold collar out of my reach. "If you want this you're going to have to earn it."
"How?" My voice sounded funny, slurred. It made me wonder if I had the same funny smile on my face that Trager wore. Maybe she had tossed some powder in his face, or more likely, his food.
"Dance for us." Ezerra pointed to a spot in the middle of the room, between the three tables. When I hesitated, she dangled the pretty gold collar in front of me. "You do want this don't you?"
I did want it. I wanted it enough that I circled the tables, moving to the spot Ezerra indicated.
"Now dance." She dangled the shiny gold collar on the end of her gnarled and bony finger.
I raised my hands above my head, closed my eyes, and began to move, rolling my hips to music only I could hear. Music that seemed to be part of the euphoria I was feeling. I felt drunk, no, better than drunk, more like I was flying.
I don't no how long I danced. Nor did I care. It just felt good to move, to sway to the music that was playing inside my head.
“I think you've earn your reward," Ezerra said.
My reward, I had forgotten all about it. I stopped dancing and opened my eyes. Ezerra was standing on the other side of the table, dangling the pretty gold collar on the end of her gnarled and bony finger. I moved toward the table and reached across it, trying to snatch my shiny reward out of her hand. Once again, she yanked it out of my reach.
"Come around the tables and I'll put it on you." I scampered around the tables. Suddenly, all I cared about was getting my reward. My shiny gold reward. I earned it and it was mine. When I reached Ezerra, I tried to take the gold collar from her, but she slapped my hand. "Bad girl. I said I would put it on you."
She made me stand still while she snapped the metal collar around my neck. It felt cool against my heated skin and there was just enough room between it and my neck for a small finger. I was glad to have it except for one small problem, I couldn't see it. What good was a shiny gold collar that you couldn't see?
Ezerra looked at me. "Is something wrong, Little One?"
Something was wrong, and it wasn't because I couldn't see my shiny gold reward. All I knew was the euphoria I had been feeling a minute ago was starting to fade. I just couldn't explain why it was beginning to fade.
"I think you've proven your ability to control the princess," Trager said. He turned to the two guards standing behind us. "Take Princess Lila back to her suite. I need to talk to Ezerra."
"About what?" Ezerra said.
The guards grabbed me by my arms and hustled me toward the exit.
"Princess Lila raised a couple of interesting points," Trager said.
"Such as?"
"Such as where do you come from?"
"Where I come from doesn't matter. What matters is what I can do for you. What I've already done for you."
I didn't hear the rest of the conversation because the guards and I left the dining hall. They didn't say anything to me as we passed through the throne room, the great hall, and up the broad granite stairs that led to the second floor.
"Key," I said, when we reached the second floor. I sounded breathless, felt breathless, but my mind was starting to clear, as if a fog was beginning to lift, a fog that had clouded my thinking, clouded my judgment, clouded my feelings.
"What's she talking about?" the guard on my right said.
"Want key," I repeated. "To collar."
"We
don't have the key," the guard on my left said. "Ezerra must have it."
"Probably in one of the pockets of that big robe she wears," the guard on my right said. "She's got all kinds of stuff hidden inside that thing."
We were moving again, heading down the second floor hallway toward the Queen's Suite. Actually the guards were moving, literally carrying me by my arms.
"Where does Ezerra sleep?" I said.
"She sleeps in the servant's quarters on the first floor," the guard on my right said. "In the back room at the far end of the hall."
"When does she go to bed?"
"Right after dinner," the guard on my left said. "Is she really working for the King of the Sugar Islands?"
"I believe so."
"Can you prove it?" the guard on my right said.
"Stop," I said. "Please."
The guards stopped. I pulled my arms free from their grasp and moved to one of the gilt framed mirrors that lined the palace's second floor hallway. I barely recognized the woman that looked back at me. My eyes looked bigger than they had ever looked, with the pupils dilated. My cheeks were flushed and there was still a trace of white powder on my face. My nipples were two hard points, pushing against the thin piece of silk that covered them. The two pieces of silk that hung from the gold chain around my waist had bunched between my legs, leaving my legs on display.
I stepped close enough to the mirror so I could read the writing on the collar. As I suspected, it was in Talish, the native tongue of the Sugar Islands.
"The writing on this collar is written in Talish. Talish is the official language of the Sugar Islands."
"What does it say?" the guard on my right said.
"It says: Property of the King of the Sugar Islands."
Actually that wasn't all it said. What it said was: This slave is the property of the King of the Sugar Islands. It was just too humiliating for me to mention the word slave.
"You're sure about that?" the guard on my right said.
"I learned to read, write, and speak Talish when I was ten years old."
"You mean we've been working for the King of the Sugar Islands?" the guard on my left said.
"Who did you think was behind this rebellion?"
"We, ah, never gave it much thought," the guard on my right said. "All we know is Ezerra showed up at the gates saying she had a message for the commander on watch. We took her to Commander Selis and they've been together ever since."
"After she got here, Commander Selis ordered us to toss General Dacus and the other commanders in the dungeon," the guard on my left said. "Commander Selis said they had come down with a disease that affects the mind. They was all acting sort of crazy, so we figured he knew what he was talking about. Same thing happened to the messengers your mom sent."
"You think Ezerra used one of her magic powders on them?" the guard on my right said.
Magic powders. Ha. Her powders had no more magic in them than a mug of mead or ale. The Sugar Islands were full of exotic plants, plants with properties that we in Adah knew nothing about. Ezerra wasn't a seer, wasn't anything but what my tutors referred to as a powder witch. That long black robe of hers was full of pockets with all sorts of powders. Powders that could make your mind feel euphoric while your body flushed with desire. Powders that could make a man act crazy.
It wouldn't surprise me to learn she had a powder that could make a man like Trager Selis susceptible to her suggestions. Make him believe anything she told him. She wouldn't be bold enough to throw the powder in his face, like she did with me, but she could sneak some into his food or drink. I hadn't been here very long, but even I noticed that when he was eating, he seemed out of it, kind of drunk.
"I think she drugged their food," I said. "Does Ezerra usually eat with Commander Selis?"
"All the time," the guard on my left said. "Breakfast, lunch, and dinner."
"I think she's drugging him too. Slipping something into his food. Something that makes him susceptible to her suggestions, like I was susceptible to her suggestions."
"How do you know that?" the guard on my right said.
"I've studied her kind," I said. "She's not a seer, like she claims. She's what's known as a powder witch. She can't cast spells or conjure up demons or anything like that. She tosses powder in your face, or on your body, or slips it into your food and drink, then uses it to control you."
"So when she tells him that he's destined to become a king . . ."
"He's more likely to believe her. And when she tells him that she has his best interests at heart, he's likely to believe that."
"Where does she get these powders from?" the guard on my left said.
"They're made from plants that grow in the Sugar Islands. Plants we've never heard of and know nothing about. Plants that can affect you quicker than a mug of mead or ale." I stepped up to the two guards. "Look at my eyes. You see how my pupils are dilated? That's because of the powder Ezerra threw in my face."
"So if Ezerra is using one of her powders on Commander Selis," the guard on my right said, "his pupils will be dilated?"
I nodded. "Even in the bright sun."
“That might explain why he's always squinting when he goes out during the day.”
"What do you want from us?" the guard on my left said.
"Watch Ezerra closely. Find out if she's slipping one of her powders into Commander Selis's food."
"You think she would actually do that?" the guard on my right said.
"Didn't you find it a bit odd that Commander Selis never spoke of rebellion, never even considered rebelling, until Ezerra showed up?"
The two guards looked at each other, then shrugged their shoulders. Okay, so they weren't the sharpest tools in the shed. But they were big and strong and they could move around the palace unnoticed. If I was going to defeat Ezerra, I needed their help, which meant I had to choose my next words carefully.
"If Ezerra is using one of her powders on Commander Selis, we have to stop her. As long as she's drugging him, he'll remain under her control, which makes him nothing more than her slave." The two guards didn't say anything, so I continued. "If she is using one of her powders on Commander Selis, I won't hold him responsible for his actions, not anymore than I hold myself accountable for how I acted in the dining hall."
I held Ezerra accountable for everything that happened tonight. I held her accountable for everything that was happening here. I would see her dead. And I would see the king that sent her reduced to begging in the streets.
The two guards looked at each other. Finally, the one on my left said, “We'll keep our eyes on Ezerra."
"And we'll check with the cook," the guard on my right said. "See if she's in the kitchen while the commander's meals are being prepared."
“What if she is drugging the commander's food?” the guard on my left said. “How do we stop her?”
“The only way we can,” I said. “We're going to have to kill her.”
“We can't get close to her,” the guard on my right said. “When we do, she slips her hand into the black robe she wears, like she's going to pull something out and throw it at us.”
“I can get close to her,” I said. “I just need you guys to make sure nobody tries to stop me from killing her.”
“By nobody, you mean the commander,” the guard on my left said.
"Or one of the other guards."
“Understood,” both guards said.
Good,” I said. "Between the three of us, we may be able to save Commander Selis from the clutches of this powder witch."
I slipped back into my suite. The copper bathtub was still by the balcony doors. The water in it was no longer hot, but it wasn't cold either. I removed what little I had on, climbed into the tub, and washed Ezerra's powder off my face and body.
Ezerra had purposely humiliated me, for no other reason than to prove to herself, and to me, that she could do it. She wanted to let me know that she was in charge here, not Trager Selis, certainly not me. Now
that the effects of her powder had worn off. Now that I could think clearly. I realized that I wasn't embarrassed or mortified. I was angry.
Most of my anger was directed at Ezerra, but part of it was directed at my mother. How could she have not taught her generals, commanders, and troops about powder witches? If they had known they existed, they could've prevented Ezerra from taking control of Commander Selis and the Army of the West. They could've prevented her from entering the gates. Things I had to learn as a young girl had never been taught to our troops or their commanding officers.
If I became queen, those things would change. Our troops would learn about all forms of warfare, the subtle as well as the overt. They would learn how to deal with spies and saboteurs just as they learned how to deal with archers, foot soldiers, and cavalry.
I finished washing the powder off then headed into the bedroom and climbed into bed. I was getting sleepy, the same way you get sleepy after drinking too much mead or ale. Probably another side effect of Ezerra's powder.
I knew I had forgotten something, or someone, but I couldn't remember who or what. Whatever it was, I would worry about it in the morning.