Page 43 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“So you are here out of your free will.”

Nidaw’s slim eyebrows raise in question. “You make it sound like that is so unbelievable.”

“No. Maybe… It’s just… The Dark Lord and his men are very frightening,” I admit quietly, looking down.

She stops brushing my hair. It has already been dried by a warm, balmy wind.

Nidaw clicks her tongue once. At that, two of the four sirens who washed me, who I assume are also sirens since they look like Nidaw, emerge from the shadows, a bundle of black fabric in their hand. At another tongue-click from Nidaw, they put it down and disappear as soundlessly as they came. Nidaw gestures for me to pick it up.Clothes.Neatly folded and incredibly soft, made of silk and cotton.

I carefully step out of the towel and slip into some wide, long, black trousers and a loose, black shirt whose sleeves reach my elbows, with a cut like that of a kimono.

Nidaw sizes me up with her ancient eyes and then nods once. “Very well. Come now, I will show you to your room.”

13

Melody

Mybedroom is in a separate wing. We step out into the same hallway we came from, and walk down in the other direction. It ends up in a patio surrounded by sleek, modern marble colonnades, with a fountain in its middle, framed by hip-high bushes of rosemary and lavender. Blooming teardrops of wisteria run along the outside walls, climbing up the modernistic, subtle sandstone façade.

All in all, it looks like a contemporary, tasteful interpretation of an ancient Roman villa, or maybe an occidental palace, where the water provides coolness against the no doubt singeing midday heat. Here, outside, the air is still hot and dry when it is not cooled by the cold stone walls inside, the winds carrying an arid taste as if the place is in a desert.

When I look up, I see a crimson sky with the normal whitish moon and another huge, gleaming, red ball next to it.

I stare until Nidaw tugs at my sleeves. I ask, not moving an inch, “What is that?”

“Those are the two moons.”

“Twomoons?”

Nidaw nods and points with her sinewy arm toward the sky. “Yes. You are in the land of the two moons now. The white one—this is the moon from your world, or rather, a reflection of it. Youcan only see it in the Two-Moon realm when its image falls through the sea and the ripple within that connects our worlds.”

“And the red one?”

A knowing smile plays around the siren’s narrow lips. “This is the blood moon. Welcome to the lands of the High Lord of Darkness.”

With that declaration, Nidaw tugs harder on my sleeve, and I follow her onward through another corridor and another patio, a smaller one, but, like the first one, fragrant with jasmine and lavender. Finally, we take a small flight of stairs.

“These are the servant and slave quarters. You get up every day at six, and then we will gather in the kitchen to start preparing food. After that, I will give you some more tasks, but we will see about that tomorrow. The kitchen is behind a door accessed through the second patio we crossed. You can hardly miss it.”

Nidaw keeps talking as she opens one of the simple doors in a long corridor, and we enter a similarly simple chamber with a bed in front of a huge window that leads out to the front side of the complex we’re in. From here, I can see that the building lies on a hill in the middle of a white desert. At its foot, there are lights of a city made of buildings with flat roofs. A town.

“Do you live here too?” I ask quietly, before Nidaw can leave me.

The siren stops in the doorway and nods once. “Yes. All the servants live here.”

“But…” I hesitate, not sure whether I should ask. I decide I don’t have much to lose anyway. “What if I want to leave?”

Nidaw’s expression darkens. I feel a lump in my stomach as she shakes her head. “You can’t leave. You are a slave, and slaves are not allowed to leave.”

“And you?” I can’t help my tone, the hurt in it, the sharpness.

She lifts her chin, but says, “I could, but it’s not advisable to go to town, especially not at night.”

“Not even for you?”

She shakes her head again, but her face softens. “A lot of thecreatures who decided to follow the Dark Lord—they’re his spawn. They have the curse.”

“You’re here andnotcursed, right?” I push her, only then remembering that I don’t see any fangs on her, but rather two rows of sharp-pointed teeth. Anyway, I need to know more. If I want to leave this place, I need to find out as much about it as I can. The sooner, the better.

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