The Alpha Emperor's Courtesan

Words

Suki scurried away when she heard Xena making a fuss downstairs. I had no idea what the stupid young woman was upset about this time, but I was almost certain she was still drawing out the drama she was trying to create after I borrowed her dress.

I hadn’t met anybody quite like Xena before; I hadn’t met anybody like Rin, or Suki, or the Emperor before, either. But Xena… at least I thought that I had figured her out.

She was used to getting her own way, and she liked everything to be focused on her. She saw herself as the most interesting, beautiful woman in the entire great city of Rome. She may well have been right as far as many of the people here were concerned, but it didn’t impress me. I didn’t care who she was, or who she had f****d. She was just a petulant, bratty young woman who was angry at me for borrowing a dress, and the Emperor… he was tired of her.

I was relieved when I heard her leaving the home, and I slunk over to the window where I saw her giggling on the arm of a young man who was dressed in the draped fabric clothing the people seemed to favor here.

“Talia.”

I knew that it was Rin before I turned around. She was one of the few people I had spoken to since I got here, and I already hated the sound of her voice.

She pointed at the ground at her feet - she clearly wanted me to go over and stand there, but I was not going to run over like a dog, and so I just stared at the spot as if I was looking carefully for whatever hidden secret she was trying to reveal.

“Here.”

She barked the word in my own language, and I knew better than to ignore the command when it was spoken like that.

I expected her to strike me, and I was prepared to defend myself if she did. When I got to the spot she had pointed at, she just pointed at the stairs in the hall which lead downstairs.

“Here.”

She said the word again, and I knew what she was telling me to do, even though it wasn’t quite the right thing to say.

I didn’t know if she had asked Suki for help, or if she had learned some words the way that Suki had from her lover while she was following him around as he ruined lives like mine and stole people away from their loved ones, as those cruel soldiers had done to me, and Jax…

I hadn’t thought about him since yesterday, and it felt like I had been punched in the chest when I realized that. I had been given fine clothes and spent half of my first night in the city with the most powerful man in the world, and I didn’t even know whether Jax was still alive.

I felt my eyes sting, and I couldn’t hold back a shuddering sob as I drew a sharp breath. I tried to cover it by pretending to stumble on the stairs, but the way Rin turned to glare at me made me think she might throw me out onto the streets if she thought I was a clumsy simpleton. Crying was understandable while this was all new and strange, but clumsiness and inelegance were just a warning that she had not invested wisely in me.

I decided at that moment that I had a mission now - I wanted to know what had happened to Jax, and to find him again amongst the countless citizens in these overcrowded streets... I wanted to know that he was safe and that he was alive, and I wanted to ask what he was going to be doing if we had to stay here. Jax wasn’t exactly a close confidant before all of this, but we had grown closer on the way here, and I know that he wouldn’t want to stay in this city, either. If I could find him, I would have a friend; I would have someone I trusted, and someone who could help me to get out of this place. We could get away from here, and find somewhere to live peacefully away from the Emperor and all of the wretched, nasty people in this place.

“Talia.”

I think that Rin must have said my name a few times before I noticed, because she looked angry when I finally looked up at her.

I didn’t bother to say anything. There was no point when I could have told her that I f****d her father and murdered her mother, and she wouldn’t have known any better, as long as I said it with a smile on my face.

She pointed to a table that had obviously been laden with food earlier in the morning. The moment Xena and the other girls had finished their breakfast, there was not much left, but the moment I saw the remains of the bread and fruit that were on beautiful silver plates, I realized just how starving I was.

“Food.”

Another word was barked as a command, but I didn’t care. I just wanted food now, and I sat down and reached for some of the fresh bread before I felt a sharp stinging sensation across the back of my hand where Rin had slapped my hand away.

I furrowed my brow and glared at her.

She shook her head and pointed to the table.

“Words first. Eat second.”

I sighed. This wasn’t a leisurely breakfast at all. It was my first lesson. I was going to have to tell her what everything on this table was in her own language before I could take a single bite, and I was not happy about it.