At His Altar

Servant Queen

Orsa

And so, for the first step of my plan, I had Leela moved to my chambers, so that she may bow to my every whim. In another grand display of care and affection, my father removed the guards from outside my chambers within two days; they were needed elsewhere and according to him, I’d had enough time to heal and I could handle the Wolf Queen on my own. Charming.

This suited me fine. The second step of my plan was to remove wolfsbane from her diet. Now, naturally, her food was spiked with it, but it would be delivered to my chambers, along with my food. Hers would be tossed into the flames and we would share the meal sent for me. Within a week, she was looking less pallid and the dark bags around her eyes had begun to disappear. She still looked more gaunt than she did the first time we’d met, but her health was improving day by day.

She told me stories of her life in Varun and how it had changed when she had wed Eli. She told me of how Kai had been her confidant when my father had kidnapped Lucien and she’d had to stay in Varun. She told me how she had discovered she was a mystic and how understanding Asha had been. I listened, amazed at the abundance of joy she’d had in her life. She seemed a good woman and I was pleased for her.

Meanwhile I ‘assisted’ King Baka in his preparations for war, splitting my time between my duties with him and ‘training’ my servant queen. Another week passed this way, and the rosy glow was back in her cheeks. She was now invited to dinner on some nights to bask in the delightful company of my father and his two dozen children.

“One meal a day without wolfsbane will make no difference,” my father had said, when I had tried to use it as an excuse to prevent her from being in their company.

Unfortunately, I’d had to agree. My brothers would leer at her, their perverted gaze never wavering as she ate quietly by my side. I’d find things to berate her over, to my father’s great pleasure.

“Are you f*****g her?” Tuur grunted one night, as we sat around the table.

I felt her recoil beside me at the sound of his voice. My heart hammered in my chest, but I grabbed her face in my hand, squeezing her cheeks.

“Am I f*****g you, Leela? Why don’t you tell everyone?” I asked, mockingly.

She looked down at her plate.

“You treat me well… mistress.”

King Baka roared with pure, hateful glee and all his children, including me, followed suit.

“Would you look at that. My child, my daughter has trained the great Queen of Zamee into submission.”

I gave him a simpering smile and he patted my back, satisfied. Tuur, who was growing more drunk by the minute, turned his attention to King Baka.

“Why she gitss to f**k the wolf quin, hmm?” he slurred, sulkily.

“Because she has earned her right to,” King Baka barked. “And look at the b***h – she doesn’t have a single mark on her, she’s been in pristine condition since Orsa returned. You…”

He suddenly turned on Tuur, his voice venomous.

“You nearly ruined everything.”

I knew what was coming. King Baka himself was incredibly drunk and Tuur had just made himself a target. I’d been on the receiving end of many drunken beatings from Baka for a mistimed comment, or simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I stood quickly.

“I shall retire now, dearest father.”

He didn’t care, waving me away with a flick of his wrist. He had his prey in sight, I was a mere distraction.

“Come on, b***h,” I said to Leela, eliciting cheers from my siblings.

As I yanked her arm and led her away from the table, we heard the fight break out. Leela’s eyes were wide in shock.

“Oh, it will be a brawl,” I said, grinning at her. “In an ideal world, they’d all kill each other. Dama poked one of my half-brothers’ eyes out in one of these late night brawls.”

We reached the chambers and undressed in silence. There was a bed for Leela on the floor by my bedside, but I refused to let her sleep on the cold, stone floor. Instead, she climbed into bed with me as she had done for the past fortnight.

“By tomorrow, the wolfsbane will have left your system. You will need to link your pack and tell someone to ride halfway here. It will make your journey back easier.”

“Our journey back,” she corrected.

I didn’t respond and just lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

“Did Tuur hurt you?” I asked, remembering the way her body had recoiled at dinner when he spoke.

She turned to her side, propping her head up and I followed suit. She told me the whole story of how Tuur had attacked her. I felt the rage building inside me and with a jolt, I realised that I had truly begun to like Leela.

---

Leela

Despite her bravado and her unmatched ability to make anything s****l, Orsa was a wonderful listener. I realised that I wouldn’t have survived had she not shown up, not even for my children. I missed them every day, and on some nights the tears would find me. I would cry silently, praying for my husband and my children, begging the gods to just keep them safe until my return.

By the end of my story about Tuur, she was laughing hard.

“You told Baka that he put his seed in the table?”

She snorted and I could see her face contorted with the pain of silent laughter. I joined her, laughing until we cried. Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I turned to look at her in the dark again.

“Why do you call him King Baka and not father when you’re not in his presence?”

Even in the dark, I could make out her wry smile.

“He is not my father. He is my uncle.”

My mouth fell agape, but I said nothing, willing her to continue. I knew so little about her. As though she could hear my thoughts, she sighed.

“It wasn’t always like this. Bears speak of ‘before.’ Before, when my father was king. Baka was his younger brother.”

“I didn’t want to be rude but now that you’ve said it… you’re possibly the most stunning woman I have ever seen. And King Baka… well, let’s just say I’ve seen my horse take shits that are prettier than him.”

This time, she threw her arm above her head and laughed heartily. It was quite a lovely sound.

“So what happened to your father?” I pressed, not wanting the opportunity to know her slip away.

“Baka killed him. I was maybe four but I remember my father well. He was kind, with grey eyes and a booming laugh. My mother used to say that I had his eyes and his temper. But it was a temper that I never saw. He treated us with kindness. When he died, Baka married my mother to legitimise his claim to the throne.”

She was silent for a moment.

“He forced himself upon her every night until she bore him Tuur and then straight after, Dama. She died soon after giving birth to Dama. I’m happy for her. Death was a mercy.”

I was silent, not knowing what to say. I was glad when she took it as a sign to continue.

“I was beaten by Baka every day that I didn’t call him father. It took him years to break me.”

I almost didn’t dare to ask.

“Why did you call him father in the end?”

“When I was fifteen, nearly five years ago, coming into my womanhood, Baka wanted to end our truce with the wolves. We’ve always been enemies with the wolves, it’s the natural course of the world. But there was always a mutual respect between my father and King Rikom. When Baka wanted to end the truce, he needed the permission of the three Oracles and the Grand Vizier. No big decision can be made in Kahru without their approval.”

She paused for a moment, as if considering what to say next. The night was cool and we sidled closer to one another. The moonlight bounced off her chestnut hair, her small, button nose flaring slightly as she sought the words to say.

“They are corrupt. All of them, rotten to their core. And of course, they wanted payment.”

She took another deep breath and I was suddenly filled with a deep sense of dread.

“You are not the only person who believes me to be the most beautiful woman they have ever seen,” she said, wryly.

She smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“There is no greater p*****t than being able to stick your c**k in royalty. But virgin royalty? Now that’s priceless. Baka came to me in the night, telling me how good things would be for us if I would just do my part in helping him. Then he told me what it entailed. The Vizier came for me and when Baka stood to leave, I begged him not to leave me. And that was when I called him father.”

Tears pricked my eyes as I thought of the helpless girl with no one to protect her. Instead, being betrayed and hurt by the very ones who should have been shielding her from the evils of this world. But she spoke of it as though she were discussing the weather.

“He turned to me and kissed my forehead with joy, telling me how proud he was to have such a wonderful daughter. And then he left me alone with the Vizier. The Oracles came for me a few nights later.”

Her eyes squinted shut for a moment, as though she were trying to blink away the memory.

“Once everything has been snatched from you, you live life without fear. I would change nothing. It is as it was meant to be,” she stated, simply.

“You didn’t think of leaving?” I asked.

She turned to me, smiling.

“Where would I have gone?”

“You have somewhere to go now.”

She laughed drily.

“I don’t belong in your world, Leela. My family brawls at dinner and gouges each other’s eyes out. We don’t have a warm family supper where we discuss our day and then go make love to our mates. There is no place for someone like me in a world like that. Especially not by the side of someone like Kai. He deserves more than a mate who gets passed around like a smoking pipe.”

The tenderness with which she said his name didn’t escape me. I lay staring up at the ceiling, fighting back my tears. I sniffled loudly, and cursed myself immediately.

“Don’t cry for me, Leela. I am not worth your tears. I have made peace with who I’ve had to become. And she is not someone you waste tears on.”

It was my turn to search for the right words.

“You are wrong.”

She didn’t reply, but when I reached for her hand and held it under the blanket, she didn’t pull away.