Page 106 of Shifter King
She raised an eyebrow, scoffing. "What?" That was almost funny. "You know I just told Naatos I was never going to take any one else as a lover, let alone a spouse."
"He'll forgive this. And I'd recommend against getting attached to this prince. Because if Naatos doesn't kill him, I will. I'm enjoying coming up with all kinds of creative ways to do it too. Maybe we'll play the game I had for Vorec. I take a piece whenever I see him. Maybe we all play. Now come on. Tattoos are far better than psychic wine."
He looped his arm through hers. The guards escorted them to their destination again, but WroOth appeared as calm as if this happened all the time and the guards were only there for their protection. Whatever had possessed him to take on this act of the simple girl from the wild who found everything fascinating and interesting, he did it well.
A handcart piled high with copapa roots upended as they passed by. He smiled a little too innocently for her to believe that he had nothing to do with it, though she wasn't sure how he had managed it. But it seemed to put him more at ease until they reached the chamber for these tattoos.
This oblong room had a more pleasant smell like sandalwood and roses; walls, floor, and ceiling were polished stone with large oil lamps set up to give it a warmer cozier feel. A middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair motioned for her to sit on the bench. He gave a small smile as he laid out the instruments. Then he held up a vial of green ink. "It took me some time to find," he said. "It could be wrong, but as best I can tell, this is what Bealorns used to signify Neyeb. It will look like this. Traditionally, it goes here." He tapped just in the center of her covered wrist elmis. "But because of these, we do it here." He then lightly traced an infinity symbol with a few extra flourishes across the underside of her forearm in between the scars and black lines.
"You know about elmis?"
He adjusted his glasses, pushing them higher up on the bridge of his nose. "Only enough to know that it would not be good to tattoo over them. They are sensitive, yes?"
She nodded, biting the inside of her lip. "They are. It's very kind of you to try to learn."
"It is my purpose." He smiled a little though as if pleased, then picked up the cotton and a jar of clear liquid. "It won't take long."
"Depends on when the groom gets here," said another man who looked almost exactly the same.
"My twin," the first said, lifting his hand. "It's good luck for twins to tattoo you for your marriage."
"Well, we'll take all the good luck we can get." WroOth gestured to them as he sat beside her. "I like these two."
"What are your names?" Amelia asked. Some of the dread abated.
"Senefro." The artist who sat beside her shook the vial and then set it aside. "And that is Gno." Gno lifted his hand in greeting, his copper-rimmed glasses sliding long on his long nose.
"Ruth. Amelia." WroOth leaned back against the wall, fluttering his fan and making easy idle chitchat as if this was an absolutely lovely place. And wasn't this just the most exciting thing?
She might have believed he meant it.
The artist cleaned her skin and then rubbed a thin layer of clear gel over the spot. Though he used a series of needles and bone combs, the gel kept it from even stinging. At most, there was pressure. But the design soon came into focus.
Halfway through, Gabrice arrived. If he wasn't drunk, he had been recently. He glared at her from the moment he walked in. WroOth snapped his fan at him, then pretended it was an accident.
"You be careful," he said, pointing at WroOth. "Or after the wedding, you're going to the comfort houses."
"Not if your mother has anything to say about it," WroOth responded.
Amelia drew in a deep breath. "Please, listen to me, I am—"
Gabrice spit in her face. "Say one more word to me, and my bridal gift to you will be all your teeth in a wooden box."
She grimaced and wiped it away.
"At least now we know what to get him for his," WroOth whispered to her.
She tried to smile as she pushed up the barriers in her mind to block the prince's exceptionally unpleasant presence. Naatos could be loud, abrasive, and stormlike. But she'd gotten used to him. Appreciated him. And he had never spit at her. If she shot this prince in the head, he wouldn't handle it as well either.
The big thing was just going to be surviving him until they could escape. After Senefro finished and placed her arm in a vat of suphrite, he leaned closer. "Do you have a mark from your family you would like? Perhaps on the other wrist?"
She glanced back at WroOth. "Is there a Shrieking Chimera Cadre symbol?
He chuckled a little, scratching the side of his head. "Yes. Actually there is." Taking some of the paper, he scratched it out. "If there's time and she approves."
Amelia nodded when she saw it.
Senefro put it on her right wrist in the corresponding spot, simple lines of black ink to form the shrieking chimera. He then bathed her wrist in suphrite as well. She thanked him quietly and then hid her arm. Because it was all black, it blended fairly well with the long leech venom scars.
