able to get up the nerve to try to peek and see what they were doing, but she’d heard and she’d known instinctively, as she’d been told she would, what was going on. Or rather, she’d gotten a general idea of what must be happening, for her mind had conjured images of the couple writhing against one another and kissing--which she knew was what started the rest.
Thinking about what they were doing, she realized suddenly, had made her feel
just as she’d felt when Talin had kissed her breast, warm and strange and vaguely guilty.
Her belly tightened at the thought and fear of the unknown began to wrestle with
the other sensations. He’d promised he wouldn’t harm her, but she distinctly recalled that she’d seen more than one maid weeping after she’d disappeared with her swain one
evening. Later, most of them had seemed to recover. Some had even seemed happy,
almost deliriously so, but she hadn’t been able to get the weeping out of her mind, or the sense that the maidens were maiden no longer, and that they were hurt, physically and emotionally.
Realizing she was scaring herself, Aliya struggled to put that from her mind.
Thinking about what she was facing wasn’t helping, for all she could do was pace faster in an effort to outrun her thoughts.
Growing tired after a while, she stared at the bed longingly for several moments
and finally moved back to the chair.
Maybe she couldn’t prevent it from happening to her, but she was NOT going to
climb into the bed and lie there as if she was meekly awaiting her fate!
Hours passed, or so it seemed. Alternately pacing and resting in the chair, Aliya
listened in vain for the heavy tread outside the door that would tell her the agonizing wait was over and she would have to face the unknown. She grew more and more tired.
Finally, despite her anxiety, she found her eyelids growing heavy with the need to sleep.
Curling up in the hard chair, she shifted and squirmed, trying to find a
comfortable position and finally dozed off.
THE DEVIL’S CONCUBINE
Jaide Fox
31
The candles had guttered out when she woke and the room lay in darkness save
for the thin streams of light that found their way between the planks that made up the shutters and door. Still drugged with sleep, she shifted, trying to ease the pain from her cramped position and finally sat up and peered at the bed.
It was empty.
It looked so inviting that she finally struggled to her feet, staggered to the bed and crawled in. At once, a vaguely familiar scent wafted up to her from the pillow she
plumped under her head. Feeling comforted for no particular reason that she could figure out, she relaxed and sought oblivion once more.
The whisper of voices, the soft scuff of feet along the floor stones, and the faint
tinkling of china woke her. For several moments, her mind simply accepted the
familiarity of it. Slowly, awareness came to her that none of the voices she heard were the least familiar to her and she managed to crack one eyelid to see what was going on around her.
Uneasiness pierced the dregs of sleep that still enveloped her when she saw
nothing familiar. There were no bed hangings to protect her from drafts and annoying insects. The mounds of pillows she was accustomed to were gone as well, leaving only the lumpy one beneath her head. The coverlet she was huddled beneath was of good
quality, but the color was dull, more brown than gold, and certainly not the cheerful pattern of purple flowers that should have covered her.
With dread dawning, she slowly pushed herself upright and looked around the
room in time to see the last of the maids departing.
Glumly, she looked around the tower room as her changed fortunes sank into her
fully. As nightmarish as the day before seemed to her now, it was, unfortunately, reality, not the frightening dream that she’d hoped it was.
She’d already laid back down and pulled the covers over her head before it
dawned on her that
Thinking about what they were doing, she realized suddenly, had made her feel
just as she’d felt when Talin had kissed her breast, warm and strange and vaguely guilty.
Her belly tightened at the thought and fear of the unknown began to wrestle with
the other sensations. He’d promised he wouldn’t harm her, but she distinctly recalled that she’d seen more than one maid weeping after she’d disappeared with her swain one
evening. Later, most of them had seemed to recover. Some had even seemed happy,
almost deliriously so, but she hadn’t been able to get the weeping out of her mind, or the sense that the maidens were maiden no longer, and that they were hurt, physically and emotionally.
Realizing she was scaring herself, Aliya struggled to put that from her mind.
Thinking about what she was facing wasn’t helping, for all she could do was pace faster in an effort to outrun her thoughts.
Growing tired after a while, she stared at the bed longingly for several moments
and finally moved back to the chair.
Maybe she couldn’t prevent it from happening to her, but she was NOT going to
climb into the bed and lie there as if she was meekly awaiting her fate!
Hours passed, or so it seemed. Alternately pacing and resting in the chair, Aliya
listened in vain for the heavy tread outside the door that would tell her the agonizing wait was over and she would have to face the unknown. She grew more and more tired.
Finally, despite her anxiety, she found her eyelids growing heavy with the need to sleep.
Curling up in the hard chair, she shifted and squirmed, trying to find a
comfortable position and finally dozed off.
THE DEVIL’S CONCUBINE
Jaide Fox
31
The candles had guttered out when she woke and the room lay in darkness save
for the thin streams of light that found their way between the planks that made up the shutters and door. Still drugged with sleep, she shifted, trying to ease the pain from her cramped position and finally sat up and peered at the bed.
It was empty.
It looked so inviting that she finally struggled to her feet, staggered to the bed and crawled in. At once, a vaguely familiar scent wafted up to her from the pillow she
plumped under her head. Feeling comforted for no particular reason that she could figure out, she relaxed and sought oblivion once more.
The whisper of voices, the soft scuff of feet along the floor stones, and the faint
tinkling of china woke her. For several moments, her mind simply accepted the
familiarity of it. Slowly, awareness came to her that none of the voices she heard were the least familiar to her and she managed to crack one eyelid to see what was going on around her.
Uneasiness pierced the dregs of sleep that still enveloped her when she saw
nothing familiar. There were no bed hangings to protect her from drafts and annoying insects. The mounds of pillows she was accustomed to were gone as well, leaving only the lumpy one beneath her head. The coverlet she was huddled beneath was of good
quality, but the color was dull, more brown than gold, and certainly not the cheerful pattern of purple flowers that should have covered her.
With dread dawning, she slowly pushed herself upright and looked around the
room in time to see the last of the maids departing.
Glumly, she looked around the tower room as her changed fortunes sank into her
fully. As nightmarish as the day before seemed to her now, it was, unfortunately, reality, not the frightening dream that she’d hoped it was.
She’d already laid back down and pulled the covers over her head before it
dawned on her that
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