Author's Note: As a joke, I'll eventually make a list of foods I find to be horrifying within this chapter. If you enjoy any of these foods, then that's fine. You do you. I'm not trying to offend anyone or their culture. I eat lots of weird stuff too, like boiled peanuts, fried alligator, frog's legs, eel, octopus, and squid. Then again, weird is a subjective term, isn't it?
******
Antonai's feet slapped the floor as he went to where his bride was. His face red, his breath agitated, he took the statue from her hands and said with so much venom that he could almost taste it, "He left it here! As if he had every right to come and put it here! He didn't put it in my palace! He put it in yours, close to the marriage bed!"
Then, as he gripped his tail, pressing his stress into it, he let himself cool down. Wasn't there some silly Majustan tradition of putting statues in the bride's bedroom ... something about a wish for strong sons? Alright, that was fine, but still ... this had truly shocked him.
His beautiful bride ... a little woman with messy curls falling around her body, her lips swollen from kissing ... she was on her bare knees, which couldn't have been comfortable. What was she looking at, his shins?
Antonai stepped back to the box on the floor and put the statue back inside. As he closed the box, he said, "Listen, Dearheart. Listen." He looked back to his wife. She seemed frozen for a while, but she eventually nodded. Antonai continued, holding the box with two hands. "Don't be confused. I have no siblings. My father is dead. I'm not a bastard. And as for this statue, I need you to pretend you've never seen it. Forget it was ever here."
He felt and heard his fingernails scratch down the box as he watched his bride's upturned nose wiggle. Her eyelashes rose and fell a few times. The candlelight put a glow on her. Eventually, she nodded and said, "Yes ... no statue ... no statue."
Satisfied with that answer, Antonai decided to help her get back into her bed. Then he bent over her, kissed her cheek, and told her she needed to sleep. As he left the room, he took the box with him. He didn't want it anywhere near the woman.
She didn't need to be a part of the insanity that put him in this amazingly high position. All she needed to do was enjoy the benefits of it.
***
On the first morning after the consummation of her marriage, Rellenora's eyes opened rather early. She spent a good while staying in bed, uncertain if she should get up on her own or wait for someone.
As she laid there, visions of her home ran down the wrinkles in her brain like rivers branching out. Then the Emperor's tail came into her mind, curling, straightening, winding, whipping. Her thighs rubbed together.
Then something else was in her mind, a lost memory found again, rippling as if under clear water. A man, a man that had frightened her ... a Majustan man, he had approached her in a forest some time before she had been chosen to go to Zenthia.
Riding a chestnut horse ... he went to her, and he reached out. He was wearing black gloves. His white tail was around his waist.
Before he could say anything, his horse rebelled, taking him away, no matter how angry he was. Rellenora had taken her own horse and fled as quickly as possible.
She hadn't told a single person about that incident. She didn't think anyone would care anyway, especially since she had been completely unscathed. Besides, it hadn't ever happened again.
Someone pulled the blue curtain back. Daylight scorched her brain. She groaned and closed her eyes.
A maid quietly spoke. Rellenora got out of bed.
Breakfast was as dreadful as usual. She felt like she was eating dirt coated in eggs and vinegar. As she thoughtlessly chewed and swallowed, one of her ladies-in-waiting went to her side and alerted her to the fact that her brother wanted to visit.
Rellenora wrote on her writing slate, "Don't let that man enter this palace."
With a nod, the maid went off to tell the guards not to let him in.
After Rellenora had decided she'd eaten enough garbage, she used her slate to ask if there was an office. It turned out that there was. It was full of all kinds of supplies.
Feeling a bit more balanced, Rellenora sat at the lovely, dark rosewood desk. A decorative panel of carved vines and roses was vertically arranged on the far edge of the tabletop.
She wrote a few random thoughts on a bamboo scroll. There were paper scrolls too, but Rellenora preferred bamboo for shorter works. Four of her ladies-in-waiting sat in the office with her. They were reading books they had taken from a decently sized library in the White Jade Palace. Rellenora hadn't seen that room yet, but she had heard that it was a lovely place with many, many books, all for her.
A fifth lady-in-waiting walked into the office and whispered something into her ear. Rellenora wrote three sentences before she understood. "Your Highness, Princess Lagath has requested an audience with you."
The wedding guests, especially the ones that lived far away, were allowed to remain at the Royal Palace for at least a few days. Rellenora's brother, Galton, was allowed to stay for a month because he was family.
Lagath didn't seem to be bad company. Rellenora decided to let her in.
Inside a very large, cream colored reception room, a blackboard had been rolled onto the floor. Lagath was sitting down with crossed legs. She waved a hand at Rellenora. Then she uncrossed her legs and knelt to the floor. Rellenora had a good guess as to what was being said. "Greetings to the Empress, may her life be long."
"Up." Rellenora said that with a beaten down tone.
Her striped skirt rustling, Lagath got up and walked to the blackboard. She wrote down, "Good morning, Your Majesty. Have you been well?"
On her slate, Rellenora wrote, "Yes, Your Highness."
Lagath wiped at the blackboard with her sleeve. Then she wrote, "I'm glad to know that. At your wedding, you looked like a rainbow goddess. Chohni was jealous. I could see the green under her eyes and on her cheeks."
Rellenora sat on a chair that had literal gold wrapped around the legs. Her next written message was, "I'm terribly sorry. It was never my intention to put such hateful emotions into people's hearts."
With a wet, couching kind of laugh, the tall princess wiped the blackboard. She slapped it a few times. Her large breasts were apparently moving with her lungs, out and in. She scribbled out, "Your head should be high! Your nose should know the scent of the clouds! Why won't you laugh at the nitwit of a woman?"
"I don't understand," Rellenora wrote. She took a moment to use a fingernail guard to scratch at a mild itch on her wrist. Then she went back to the slate. "I don't know why I should feel happy with that outcome."
"If that's how you feel," Lagath replied, "then His Majesty made the right choice. Humility's sexy."
If Rellenora had been drinking something, she would have spat it out onto the polished floor. Her writing slate trembled in her hands for a moment. Then she wiped and wrote, "Your Highness can be very funny."
Lagath seemed to gain a calmer composure. "Do you want to play a game of cards? I could use the excitement."
Rellenora nodded.
In the end, she defeated the brave warrior princess, but she imagined that Lagath let her win out of pure kindness.
After Lagath said goodbye and left the palace, Rellenora thought that she definitely shouldn't have won the contest. Lagath should have won.
***
The Emperor and Prince Yban wanted to have lunch with her. Rellenora wrote that they needed to be allowed inside. It wouldn't do to offend those men.
She sat at the center of a long table. The two men took seats beside her, her husband on her right and Prince Yban on her left. The food was arranged in a delicate way, several small dishes filled with different things, waiting for a diner to choose from among them and fill their larger plates. Rellenora's plate had much less on it than her husband could apparently be satisfied with. He personally put several items onto her plate, telling her that she needed to eat as much as possible, not only to retain her natural beauty, but also to keep any future pregnancies successful.
Her lip trembled like a gelatin dessert.
The things her husband put on her plate ...
A hunk of sheep milk cheese with literal, squirming fly larvae in it!
A soft boiled duck egg with a dead duck fetus inside!
A fish head that had been fermented in the earth for weeks!
More larvae, ant larvae, mixed in with diced vegetables like it was rice!
Coagulated blood mixed with oatmeal and mashed potatoes!
Three fried spiders! Each one as big as her hand!
Boiled fish eyeballs!
The only thing her husband presented to her that seemed edible was the blood.
The crunchy, powdery sounds of the men eating spiders had her gagging.
Prince Yban tapped her shoulder. Between bits of food, he said something. Rellenora poked a fish eyeball, wondering if it would spurt out something unpleasant. Then she tapped the fish head and watched its ugly jaw fall down. Her stomach was weakened by even more chewing noises around her.
The Prince had asked, "Are you unwell?"
She had to be polite. Rellenora wrote on her slate, "I overate at breakfast. I'd like to have a small lunch."
Prince Yban's right hand took the edge of the slate. He was wearing a simple, but refined ring with a polished orange stone. He tilted the slate's words towards the Emperor as he said something else. Her husband turned his body her way. He was likely reading the slate. He said something to the Prince.
Rellenora's fingertips reclaimed the slate. Prince Yban took her plate and placed it beside his. A maid put a clean plate before Rellenora.
At least she didn't have to eat damn spiders ... or duck fetuses ... or larvae ... or any of that mess! Rellenora picked a few plain things to fill her stomach with.
After lunch, everyone picked their teeth clean and rinsed out their mouths. Then Prince Yban and Rellenora started playing a tile-based game at a small table while her husband watched. The game itself was fine, but something was off.
When Prince Yban's hands clacked a tile onto the table, his fingers remained a few seconds more than they should have. Then, they would slide away in a manner that had Rellenora thinking of ... something she shouldn't be thinking of ...
Hands moving around her back.
And the way ... he stacked one tile on top of the other ... potent ... but intimate ... he was claiming his position in the game. He was dominating the little world of lacquered wood, painted symbols, smooth surfaces, and game play.
Rellenora's husband clapped his hands, applauding the Prince, encouraging him, congratulating him. His regal voice was flowing and dark.
Then ... in front of all the busy servants, the idle ladies-in-waiting, and Prince Yban ...
The Emperor pulled his chair to a spot behind his bride. Her sash had a flatter knot this day. So, he had more space to claim. He tipped into her, his arms clung to her, folding around her bosom and shoulders.
Leather, musk, mint, his scent, it was there. It wasn't there last night. He might have washed it all off before coming to her bed. Why? Had he only wanted to smell her?
Rellenora's fingers flattened on the tabletop. Her fingernails were still black and glossy. Her fingernail guards were made of tortoiseshell. Their tips clacked and tapped against some of her tiles.
