The Shrinemaiden (The Maidens) (7 page)

“Milady,” the servant said, lifting the tray to reveal loaves of freshly baked bread, scones and butter, hot jam and brewed tea, “I am to tell you that as soon as you have finished with breakfast you are to present yourself to the high priestess in her rooms immediately.”

Adelai fought to hide her anxiety. “Thank you,” she said, and the servant bowed her way out. She sat down to her meal, wincing as her buttocks protested. She forced herself not to think of that upcoming meeting, to fear what the high priestess might tell her, and concentrated on eating until she was satisfied. Stacking the empty plates neatly, she faced the mirror and tried to make herself look as presentable as possible.

It was only after looking at her reflection did she realize that she was a mess. Her blonde hair, perfect the night before with no lock out of place, now hung around her face in long clumps. Her cheeks were flushed, her purple eyes bright. Faint marks stood out on the side of her neck, and she realized them to be bite marks from the captain. Blushing, she combed her hair as best she could, arranging it so it could hide most of the blemishes. She could do little for the rest, and was relieved that the High Priestess was giving her time to look presentable.

She kept her head down as she scurried out of the room and back onto the corridor, not willing to meet the eye of anyone she passed, certain that they had heard what had transpired in the chambers. Adelai had never thought she could be so loud and so vocal when it came to matters of sex - but then again, she had never been bedded before.

Thinking about him made her moan softly to herself. Even remembering the things he had done to her, and the things he made her do to him, sent a heat curling around the base of her thighs, and she felt shocked at this unhereto unknown sensuality. “Focus.” She told herself sternly, as she entered her rooms.

She was glad to see that a bath had been prepared for her, and she wasted no time making use of it, sinking down into the warm water. It did much to soothe her soreness, but she did not want to luxuriate in the bath longer than she needed to. The high priestess was not known for her patience, and Adelai did not want to give her any more incentives to be mad at her, if she was.

She changed into a simple green gown, brushed her hair until she was satisfied, and then headed toward the High priestess’ room at the end of the long hallway. Now that she was properly dressed, she was finding it easier to lift her head as servants and courtiers walked past. Still, she did pause as she reached the door, lifting a hand and letting it hover there for awhile before she could muster the nerve to knock.

“Come in,” The high priestess’ familiar nasal tones sounded through the wood. Adelai took a deep breath, and pushed the door open.

CHAPTER FIVE

A Proposal

There was a meeting in progress when she entered. The high priestess was there, dour and sour-looking as she always looked, in a red flamboyant dressing gown marked with embroidered serpents. It surprised her to find that the priestess was not dressed for visitors, though the old woman herself always told them to look presentable at every occasion whenever possible.

But it was the captain of the guard that caught and held her attention. The man was seated at an armchair across the room from Saleia. He was impeccably dressed, wearing his military uniform and showing no indication of where he had spent the night. His face was stern, but his blue eyes were trained on her, and despite herself Adelai found herself reddening as his gaze dipped almost imperceptibly toward the front of her gown as if remembering how she looked without it.

“You are late.” The high priestess said, in her usual disapproving way. “Take a seat. We have much to discuss.” She indicated a small chair a few feet away from the captain.

Not trusting herself to look back at him, Adelai hastened toward it, seating herself gingerly and focusing on her priestess.

A low, unexpected chuckle sounded somewhere to the old woman’s right. “Well, now. Is this the woman I had bought at the bidding?” Shocked, Adelai’s eyes flew toward the figure of a man leaning back against another chair. She had been too caught up with trying not to look at the captain that she had failed to recognize the other person in the room, and the one with the noble personage. King Belair, the ruler of Atalantea, was studying her. His brown hair was carefully cropped, and intelligent green eyes looked out of a strong, handsome profile, though an amused smile curled at his mouth. He wore a plain shirt and long breeches, and could have easily passed for a stablegroom in this outfit. “She is every inch as breathtaking today as she had been the night before, as I had expected. I can understand why you’re very taken with her, Thornton.”

A swift grunt from the captain was his only response.

“My apologies, my dear.” The king said, apologetic. “I fear that I owe you an explanation - as the captain had been pestering me to do for the last few days. I think Garrant would not dream of us plotting against him in his own palace, but Thornton took steps to ensure we are not overheard today.” Adelai’s gaze swiveled back to Thornton in astonishment. “In truth, no matter how much the captain preferred you, I would not have selected you for this task had your own high priestess not assured me that you are a woman of wit and a good amount of intelligence, with courage and the willingness to do what’s right. Or was she mistaken?”

Adelai took a deep breath. That the high priestess said all this to the king and possibly more, was a shocking discovery, for the old woman had never once given her - or most of the other shrinemaidens, for that matter - so much as a grudging compliment, if she didn’t include that confusing meeting she had had with the priestess after her lessons with the captain had ended. “High Priestess Saleia is very kind,” she said, thinking fast and trying to hide her confusion, “Perhaps if I am told why and how I am expected to be a woman of wit, intelligence, and so forth, I might be at a better position to agree or disagree.”

The king nodded his approval. “I trust the high priestess with her good judge of character, and I can see that her instincts are right. What we are doing at the moment, Lady Adelai, is taking a gamble.” He sighed. “A very risky gamble, one that could save or break my kingdom. Atalantea has a strong army, but I’m afraid nothing in comparison to the military state Sarcopia is now fast becoming. We are all gathered here, my lady, to ask how far you are willing to go to help save the kingdoms.”

“Save the kingdoms?”

“We cannot win against Sarcopia with might alone, I’m afraid. It will take a good combination of strategy, guile, intelligence, and even a bit of luck to do so. I have already sent several spies into Sarcopia, seeking for any chinks in their military might. I have been successful so far, for the spies that have succeeded in infiltrating their defenses are not the spies one would normally expect to send, and spies no one thought would be capable of treachery. A powerful jeweler, one who fashions the king’s crowns and the pommel on his swords. Or the palace’s head chef. Or, in this instance, the king’s own captain of the guard.”

Adelai found her eyes straying back toward Thornton who, without so much as a change of expression, nodded in full agreement with the king.

“I wished I could say that it was my prowess and skill that convinced these men to turn against their king, for they are to the man brave and honest people. No, it was the king’s own nature that turned them against him.” King Belair rubbed at his temple. “Peace will not last as long as Garrant holds the crown, and they know this. Highrolfe is proof enough. If there is any way to overthrow Garrant without the need for bloodshed or military warfare, I would gladly do so. And that is where you come in, my lady.”

King Belair smiled at her. “I work secretly with the rebels, supplying them with what I can. I already have spies among the common folk, among the bourgeois, and among his military. Now I require one capable of infiltrating Sarcopian politics; one who can easily move through the courtiers and the nobility of the kingdom despite her status as an outsider. Someone who can think fast on her feet, who can ferret out information from the sycophants that hang on to the king’s every word, who can determine which factions are allied to the king, and those that oppose him.”

“And that would be me.” Adelai said, finally understanding. A shrinemaiden enjoyed a status unheard of by any other nobleman or noblewoman. Her presence at court held it to greater prestige, and only she could move through the intricate politics that surrounded every kingdom undisturbed, and with little suspicion.

But the Temple of Inne-anneah had always remained outside of politics, refusing to take sides throughout its history. In many way, shrinemaidens could function much like a priest, in that any confessions made to them were privileged, and it would be almost sacrilegious for them to betray this, even after retiring. There was no faster way to ruin a shrinemaiden’s reputation, and being found guilty for these crimes would strip her of the immunity she enjoyed in all the kingdoms. “Your Majesty, at the end of my final training, I am to swear an oath to remain neutral in all manners of court intrigues. I cannot break that vow.”

“You cannot break an oath that you have yet to make, Adelai,” Saleia said. “If you agree to this, you will never take that oath.”

She gasped. Each oath ceremony was a personal affair among shrinemaidens, with only their close friends and sometimes their first patrons attending. One could not be a true shrinemaiden without it.

“We will conduct a ceremony for you of course, but in a way to prevent those oaths from being binding. It would be quite suspicious otherwise.” The priestess sighed. “You will be asked to make many sacrifices, Adelai. We want you to know all the terms before accepting this offer.”

“You may be suspected nevertheless. We must allow for any suspicions that you had been deliberately sent to Sarcopia on my behalf.” The king said. “But the beauty of the plan is that by all accounts I have bought you for a night, and no more contracts between us need be forthcoming. Garrant is aware that I have purchased you for an admirable sum, the greatest price ever paid for a shrinemaiden, and his interest will be piqued, to know what you have that has caught my interest. He will undoubtedly suspect a trap, but he will also be eager to force you to break your vows, to find any secrets I may have told you. In any case, he will be curious to see what I have seen in you, and I suspect it will not be long before you shall be contracted out to one of his followers. I have familiarized myself with his ways, and I know his curiosity shall be too great for him to ignore.”

He leaned back in his chair. “But still, you are free to accept or reject my proposal, and I will think nothing of either decision. You have my word on that. I do not want you undertaking something that you do not want. You are currently the most popular shrinemaiden at the moment, given my substantial bid for you. If you reject this offer, you can walk away from this room and still enjoy the advantages of your high bid, as more people will be seeking you out after this. You can well be on your way to becoming one of the finest shrinemaidens in the land, and retire a very rich woman.”

“But if you accept, the priestess is willing to release you from any debts you owe her, to be a free woman or remain a shrinemaiden once this business is over and done with. It is your choice to make.”

“What if I am caught?”

“I will not allow that to happen,” Thornton said fiercely.

“If they have uncovered our little plot, then tell them I coerced you into doing so.” The king’s smile was only partly in jest. “There is an exception to the oaths shrinemaidens take, is there not? If their lives are in danger, then they are obliged to break those oaths to protect themselves. It is why many patrons ensure the safety of their shrinemaidens. It could be a defense you can opt for, depending on your situation, but I intend to take the full blame either way. War would be inevitable at that point, so what you do or say will matter little. I hope your role in all this would not be discovered even should our plans succeed. But if it does, then do whatever is necessary to survive it, and survive the war, Adelai.”

Even as he spoke, she had already made her choice. The thought of Sarcopia one day ravaging through her beloved temple sent chills up her spine. Besides - if what the king said was true, then the possibility of being sent to Sarcopia was already high, and she would be in the perfect place for the espionage without much effort on her part.

And then there was the captain. If she was to be sent to Sarcopia, then the chances of meeting him there again would be greater. If King Garrant was as bad as they say, then she could not bear to see Thornton taken away, perhaps captured and displayed like the slaves at the auction, or be killed for treason. If she could prevent that from happening simply by being there, she would risk everything.

Because if she chose to reject his proposition, Adelai knew she could never be with Thornton. Shrinemaidens could not retire without repaying the debt they owed to the temple, from the costs it had taken over the years to pay for their upkeep, to the gowns they wore, to their varied lessons. Even the most skilled of shrinemaidens required at least ten years to recoup the money, and only if most of their patrons were of royal blood.

“What must I do as I spy?”

She was unaware of the tension in the room until she saw the king’s shoulders sag, and the high priestess take a deep breath. The captain was silent as always, and she could feel his eyes still on hers, though she didn’t dare meet his gaze.

“It shall be easy enough, as far as the job goes,” the king answered, “Move among the different royal factions, keep your ears open for anything worth reporting. The High Priestess will help you arrange for a code we can use so any communication between us will leave little suspicion, even if they are intercepted. But most importantly, I wish to know which of the people in Garrant’s group can be subverted, and which of those will stay loyally by his side. That is of paramount importance.”