Page 122 of Somber Prince

My clothes were filthy, and my skin itched. The desert sand appeared to have gotten into every fold of the fabric and each crevice of my body. My own comfort was the least of my worries, however.

I shook my head. “I need to know what happens to Prince Rha.”

The Keeper tossed a questioning glance at my guards.

“The prince is with the queen,” one of them replied.

“I have to know when he’s done,” I said. “He’ll be looking for me.”

I had no doubt he would.

The Keeper took my arm gently. “The prince is with the queen, Sweet One. Neither you nor I can do anything about that, can we?”

“But—” I freed my arm from her fingers.

She deftly twined her arms around mine again, like an ivy refusing to let go. “If the prince needs you when he’s done, the royal sarai would be the first place he’d look. After all, this is where all our Joy Vessels are.”

She made a point. With eight years to catch up on, the queen and Rha might take a while. Meanwhile, I had to wait somewhere.

“Fine. But I’m not staying. I’ll leave as soon as he’s done,” I warned the Keeper, leaving her in possession of my arm this time. “Prince Rha will come for me.”

“Of course, Sweet One,” she purred, ever so subtly dragging me through the gate. “My name is Sefri. We’ll brush your hair, get you a pretty skirt to wear. You must be hungry too. The queen’s soldiers have no idea what to feed to a Joy Vessel. The tastes of the army brutes are far from refined.”

A wide courtyard opened to my view. It was several times the size of the sarai garden in Teneris. The buildings around it were also a few floors taller. They spread out wider, arching over the passageways that appeared to lead into the branching-out sections of the yard.

An intricate system of water fixtures and flowerbeds connected the courtyard’s grounds and the walls of the surrounding buildings, making the space look like the inside of a jewelry box filled with marble, colorful plants, and glowing insects.

But it wasn’t the splendor of my surroundings that made me pause. People congregated in small groups inside the queen’s sarai. And the more I looked at them, the more uneasy I felt.

A topless human woman lay on a plush rug between the flowers under a water feature. Her head rested on the lap of a shadow fae, who fed her candied figs from a dessert bowl. The two were attached by his tendrils, the fae sharing the enjoyment of the food with the human. She laughed, whipped cream dripping from her lips. It mixed with the wine she was drinking from the huge goblet held in her hand.

On the balcony to our left, another woman sprawled on thick floor cushions. Her upper body rested on the lap of a Joy Vessel Keeper, who massaged her naked breasts, rubbing her nipples. The woman’s moans blended with the moans of a fae woman stretched in a recliner nearby with her tendrils attached to the human’s leilatha harness.

A human man gripped the railing with both hands on the balcony next to theirs. The thick flower garlands draped over the balcony prevented me from seeing what was happening below the man’s waist, but it was safe to say he wasn’t alone. His head tossed back, his mouth slackened, he thrust his hips forward, pounding hard into someone’s hand or mouth. A set of ink-black tendrils were attached to his harness too.

“What is this place exactly?” I took a step back into the shadows of the passageway under the arch.

Sefri’s face lit up with pride. “It’s Her Majesty’s royal sarai. You’ll be happy here. We’ll make sure of it.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure…” I muttered, hiding in the walkway from the curious glances of both humans and fae.

People were bending over the balcony railings, peeking out of the open doors, and emerging from behind the shrubs and water fountains—curious about me, the newcomer. Their attention scraped against my nerves like an unwanted touch.

Sefri gave me the typical practiced smile of a Keeper—stretched lips and mirthless eyes. “We do everything to keep our Joy Vessels happy. The royal sarai is always brimming with joy.”

I glanced back at the entrance. The guards had already closed and locked the gate behind us. The sarai was the first place where Rha would look for me after his meeting with the queen. Meanwhile, I could possibly talk to someone who knew Ciana. If these people ever took breaks from being pleasured long enough to talk.

“Come, Sweet One,” Sefri coaxed me out into the garden again. “Just think about how wonderful a bath would feel after your long and tiring journey through the desert. I’m sure you’re all sweaty and covered in sand.”

She led me to an open pool in the middle of the courtyard as I tried to avoid looking at all the half-naked people hanging around the gardens and to ignore the grunts and moans coming from every direction.

“Sefri, do you remember a human woman named Ciana?” I asked. “I’ve heard she was here until a few days ago when she ran away. She’d be the one with long pink braids?—”

“No,” the Keeper interrupted me promptly. “Our Joy Vessels have no reasons to run.”

She acted like my cousin didn’t exist. I believed General Oskura wouldn’t lie to Rha about Ciana having been here. But maybe the general had been lied to herself?

“Has a woman like that ever been here?” I insisted.

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