Nasreen swallowed the lump in her throat and followed the Locust King's instruction, taking her place at his side. Mahleck was right, she did not belong here.
Baraz smiled as he took his seat across the table from his god, relieved he maintained his position of superiority within the royal house. Eventually, Mahleck would tire of the Narim. His God-King needed someone wise and experienced by his side. Someone willing to sacrifice anything and anyone for his God. Someone who shared Mahleck's bloodlust and cruelty. Not some wildling plucked from an obscure desert at the edge of the world.
"Lilua, take off your veil," commanded Mahleck. "I want the rest of the table to see your beauty tonight."
Lilua pulled the veil from her face and looked up momentarily at Nasreen. The space under her dark eyes seemed shadowed, and her skin shockingly pale, especially for a desert dwelling Narim. Lilua quickly ducked her head back down again, allowing her hair to obscure her face, but not before Nasreen saw the bruising and scabs on the side of her neck. Nasreen knew of men who liked to strangle their lovers, and men who wanted to be strangled during their climax, but that did not break the skin. It was bad enough that this child shared a bed with the strigoi-viu. What did he do to this little girl in the night?
Takri took the seat next to Nasreen but remained silent. Nasreen did her best to keep her eyes focused on the table in front of her while her mind raced.
Surely Takri did not see the marks. How could he sit at table with the monster who did this to his little cousin?
"Nasreen, you must be hungry," said Mahleck. "Please, eat your fill. The servants will bring more substantial food momentarily. But you must try some of the fruit. It was brought at great expense from orchards far to the south of here. Takri, serve her something luscious from the table."
"Yes, your Majesty." Takri fumbled for a moment with his knife. "Nasreen, these are called persimmons. They grow on mountainsides. I never saw them before tonight."
He offered her a slice, which she meekly accepted.
Servants entered the room, clearing away the first course which they quickly replaced with platters of roast duck, venison, root vegetables, and loaves of soft white bread.
"I understand the Adyllians call you a 'daughter of the temple,' Nasreen," said Mahleck. "And I am given to understand this means you were born to a temple whore and have no legitimate father?"
"Yes, your Majesty. My mother served in the temple brothel until she chose to marry a merchant for love," said Nasreen. "He is my adopted father. In Adyll, all children of the temple prostitutes are considered to be children of the temple. It is a great honor."
As Mahleck leaned forward in his chair, his hand found its way under the table to Nasreen's thigh, forcing her knees apart. She gritted her teeth against the unnatural cold of his hand as it pulled up the hem of her garment and ran up and down the inside of her thigh.
"We have a word for children with no knowledge of their father, don't we, Baraz?" chuckled Mahleck.
"Yes, we call them bastards!" laughed Baraz. "We use it as an epitaph while the infidels use it as term of blessing. But I suppose Adyll is a nation of bastards, after all."
"What man would decide to marry a whore and take in her bastard child?" said Mahleck. "The men of Adyll should revel in their new freedom under the rule of the Locust. No man should suffer such indignity. Even the weak ones, like your 'adopted' father."
Mahleck leaned back in his chair and withdrew his hand from her thigh. Nasreen blinked back tears and took a drink from the chalice of wine in front of her. She had suffered humiliation at the hands of men before, but somehow this was so much worse.
"A girl like you must have a large appetite. We can't send you back without taking care of those carnal needs first." Mahleck winked knowingly at Takri, then took her plate and began filling it with food.
"Thank you, your Majesty," whispered Nasreen.
He placed a few morsels of food on Lilua's plate. She toyed with them before taking a small bite.
"Princess Lilua is an ascetic like myself. She seems to gain more life from her music than through food." He smiled at the pale young woman next to him. "I am interested to see how her countenance glows when she worships me with her voice as well as her music."
Lilua froze like a small animal when faced with a predator. She raised her eyes to her cousin across the table.
"Your cousin Takri told me of your beautiful voice. How you sang before the Queen of Adyll, and used your voice to sing the praises of the Adyllian demoness," said Mahleck. "How you once spoke almost more than you took breath. Did I remember that correctly, Takri?"
Takri sat motionless in his chair. Once again, he had failed to protect those who mattered most to him. His selfish lust brought Nasreen here to the table of the strigoi-viu, a place beyond the relative safety of the temple. His careless words brought his cousin into more danger than she already faced as wife to the devil Mahleck. All he wanted was safety for those he cared for. Instead, he struggled to find the right words to speak to the monster who held them all captive here.
"All women talk too much," said Takri. "Lilua was just a child."
"But she did sing, you told me that much," said Mahleck. "You told me a pretty story about how the Narim worshipped their gods through music. I am the one true God and I expect no less from my wife. Full worship in every way possible. Including the beauty of her voice."
Above her plate, Lilua's fingers wove in and out of each other in small movements, barely noticeable, but enough for Takri to understand.
What did you do?