Chapter 12:
Sukren was feeling frustrated. His conversation with Mayah had somehow ended up with him agreeing to help her gain the approval of the princesses in her dorm, which was the opposite of what he was supposed to do. Your mission doesn’t change. You are still to raise her so that she feels disconnected from the Rajas.
Yes, yes, but how? Affirm her complaints about the Rajas, that had been his original plan, but Mayah was so fixated on making friends that she had stopped complaining about them already. Instead she was crying about how she was failing to meet their standards. Rock-god, he’d hoped for at least a few more days of they’re weird from her!
There was a knock on the door. It creaked open. “Is it okay if I come in?”
Ganithe was back. “Sure,” Sukren replied. He got up, wincing at the pain in his arm. He needed another dose of reliever. “She’s gone, she went back to her dorm.”
Ganithe wasn’t one of Lady Nari’s patronees, she was one of Lord Tyr’s. Lord Tyr was a Free Serf patron too. He wasn’t as disciplined as Lady Nari, though, if Sukren could say so himself. Lady Nari required all her members to at least learn Free Serf doctrine, and you definitely couldn’t rise in leadership in her patronage without buying wholeheartedly into the movement. But Ganithe seemed alright. She’d been told who Mayah was and appeared willing to defer to Sukren about how she ought to be handled.
Then again, what was most likely was that Ganithe was passing every scrap of information she could get about Mayah on to Lord Tyr. Free Serf or not, Lord Tyr was still a patron, and patrons competed viciously with each other for power and prestige. When Sukren stopped to think about it, it was amazing that there even was a Council of patrons. How had they stopped fighting with each other long enough to form it?
“She seemed pretty upset,” Ganithe said. Sukren managed a shrug. He appreciated that he didn’t have to hide everything from Ganithe, but that didn’t mean he wanted to share everything, either. He especially didn’t want to share about Mayah going crazy over the Rajas. Or that he’d censored her complaints about the queens! Sukren wished he had handled that better. He should have encouraged Mayah, he should have drawn out those negative feelings, but instead he had gotten frightened that she would be punished for her speech and shut it down. Rajas had to be careful about what they said. Or at least the briefings he’d been reading all day had said so. The only person who can punish a serf is his patron, but the Rajas are called to punish each other. If enough princesses decide that one of their number deserves castigation, they are authorized to deliver it.
Basically, it seemed like as long as Sukren didn’t violate any Council directives, particularly about serf-Rajas interactions, only Lady Nari could do anything to him. Mayah, on the other hand, well, if enough princesses disliked her, they could assign her to the box.
Rock-god, this was why Sukren didn’t know what to do. Discouraging Mayah from developing friendships with the other princesses meant risking their dislike. Not discouraging her meant violating his mission. How could he pick between the two?
“Are we allowed to leave?” Sukren turned to Ganithe. “Or do we have to stay here on duty all the time?”
“Until Ul gets back we shouldn’t go far,” Ganithe replied. Sukren nodded. That made sense. There were technically three of them on duty sharing this dorm, although dorm was overselling it. It was more like a mini-clinic with three bed-shelves sticking out of the side of one wall. Ul had been sick all day and was recuperating elsewhere, leaving Ganithe and Sukren to run the mini-clinic together.
Sukren sat back down at the table they all shared and began leafing through his briefings once more. He felt restless. His body was used to physical labor; sitting down all day with the occasional interruption by a sick Rajas was not very invigorating. Even when the sick Rajas was Mayah, because what was he supposed to do about her, what in the bio-dome could Sukren do about Mayah?
“If you need a break,” he heard Ganithe say quietly, “you can go. I can stay here for a bit by myself.”
“I appreciate that,” Sukren said. “But I think more than anything I need something to do.”
“There’s a clinic on Zone 9 that’s always looking for extra workers.”
Huh. That wasn’t a bad idea. And Zone 9 was up only one zone, not too far away.
Sukren stood. He was about to reach for his under-cloak when Ganithe’s face stopped him. There was a smirk there, a clearly self-satisfied smile. What it meant Sukren wasn’t sure, but it disappeared when Sukren sat back down again.
“Never mind,” Sukren said out loud. His hands were slick with sweat. “I should probably stay here. Just in case.”
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
***
Mayah was mad. She’d gone to Sukren as soon as she woke up the next morning, before any of the other princesses were even out of their beds, to ask about the Houseparty she’d gone to. But Sukren didn’t know! He said he hadn’t been able to leave the doctor-priest’s dorm all night. She’d stomped back to her bed and was lying in it now, still mad. Sukren was supposed to help her! That was what he did!
She could hear the other princesses starting to wake up. Oshta in the bunk bed next to her was yawning. Hm. Oshta was always sighing about how she wanted to be a senior princess. Maybe she’d know something Mayah could use. Because it was getting kind of obvious that Mayah needed to learn more. If she was going to live in this castle, which she guessed she was, then Mayah had to do what her tutors always told her to do on her own: research. Search and search and search again, was the way Sukren put it, and why not here, why not about something Mayah really cared about?
But was Oshta the right princess to ask? Mayah went through each girl in her dorm. Priva seemed kind of crazy, singing all the time, not really saying anything super serious. Shanti was the nervous one, always wanting to follow the rules. If Mayah really thought about it, she thought maybe Shanti was the one who had said Let’s shut up about it the very first time… Mayah shivered. Next was Qat, who seemed kind of mean, and Rihani, who didn’t say anything at all. Yeah, Oshta was the right one to ask.
Mayah rolled over onto her belly. “Oshta,” she called out in a loud whisper.
Oshta sat up. “What?”
“Can I tell you a secret?”
The room went quiet at that. Mayah smiled a little. She was very good at making friends, that was why she had so many in the village, and that was why she was going to have a lot here, too. Oshta was nodding already. “Let’s go eat breakfast,” Mayah said. “Let’s go right now.”
“You can’t, it’s too early.” Shanti pointed at the daysclock hanging over the door. “We’re not supposed to go until daysleep is over.”
Ugh, this was why Mayah hadn’t chosen Shanti. Then again, Mayah didn’t especially want to break any rules either. Was going to breakfast now really going to break a rule? Maybe she should ask. But she didn’t want to say anything to Shanti about it or Shanti might think she could boss Mayah around.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Mayah finally decided to say. She got up. If going to the bathroom broke a rule, well, that would be really silly, but it seemed like it was okay, or at least Shanti wasn’t saying anything. Mayah opened the door and walked across the lounge towards the bathroom. She wasn’t even halfway there when she heard the door open and close again behind her. She whirled around. It was Oshta.
“What’s the secret?” Oshta asked. She looked excited.
“Don’t tell anyone,” Mayah said. Of course Oshta would. That was the point! But you had to say it that way or it would seem like you were trying to get other people to like you, and then they wouldn’t. “Promise you won’t tell?”
“I promise.”
Mayah sat down in the nearest hanging chair. Oshta came and sat next to her. “So you know how you said Queen Pal and Queen Jroya went to a Leaf-Vein Houseparty?” Oshta nodded. “Well, I went to a Houseparty, too, I think that same night, but I don’t know which one it was, and I want to find out.”
Oshta’s eyes were wide. “You went to a Houseparty?”
Mayah nodded. “Can you help me find out which one?”
“I can, I can! Each House writes its events down in a record book, and they store those record books in the library, they store everything in the library, we can go there together after class sometime. Or better, let’s go during the next off day so we can have more time there. I’ll show you, I’ll show you!”
Mayah grinned. Oshta was acting exactly like Mayah’d hoped she would. “When’s next off day?”
“In a couple weeks.”
Mayah made a face. “That’s so far away!”
“Oh, I guess.”
“Never mind, it’s fine,” Mayah said quickly. Of course it wouldn’t seem far away to Oshta, she’d lived in the castle all her life. It was Mayah who didn’t know what was normal. “You know I met a senior princess at the Houseparty I went to? She was really nice. Qat was right, they don’t care if we sneak in. At least the Houseparty I went to, they didn’t care. Maybe if we find out which House hosted it, we can go together to another event by that House.”
Mayah felt so happy at the look on Oshta’s face. And it was so much fun to use new words like senior princess and Houseparty and even off day. “Don’t tell anyone,” Mayah repeated. “You promised.”
“I won’t! I won’t!”
Mayah grinned. “And I really do have to use the bathroom,” she said, giggling. Oshta laughed right along with her. It was pretty funny that Mayah actually needed to go to the bathroom, that she hadn’t lied about it just to tell Oshta this secret. She was glad Oshta thought so too. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Okay!”
The castle bathrooms were very nice, much better than the village’s latrines. Mayah took her time. She wanted to make sure Oshta had the chance to tell everything to the other princesses before she got back. Breakfast this morning was going to be very different from yesterday’s!