by Robin Roseau
“Welcome to Dennaholst!” the audience yelled. And then I received a variety of offers, some quite respectable, some undoubtedly less so. At one of them, Alexi turned and scowled.
“No!” she said. “Fun is fun, but that was too far.” She waved a finger. “I’m willing to spank for playful suggestions, but I’m also willing to toss people from my club. You all know what I accept when directed at me, and you will treat the princess with at least that much respect.”
“It was fine,” I said quietly.
“No, it wasn’t,” she said just as quietly. Then she raised her voice again. “Princess Darfelsa, the people here know almost nothing about you.”
“Such a shame,” I replied.
“Now, now,” Alexi admonished. “You can tell them a little about you, or you can answer my questions. Choose.”
I smiled at her. “I am eighteen years old, the younger daughter of my parents. What else? I’ve been based in Charth for three years, but now I’m here, resolving some issues between our countries.” I turned to her and lowered my voice. “I really don’t know what you want me to say.”
“Seriously?” she asked.
“I’m fairly sure I don’t want to answer your questions.”
“You’re probably right. Promise to answer, and I’ll be gentle.” I nodded, and so she asked, “Are you betrothed?”
“No. And no suitors, either. I think I am expected to wait until my sister makes her choice, but Mother could have a queue waiting at home, now that I am 18.”
“What is it like being a princess?”
“I don’t know how to answer that. There are good parts, but there is responsibility.”
“That is a poor answer.”
“I agree with you,” I told Alexi. I looked out over the audience. “Some of what you believe about me is undoubtedly true. Most of it probably is not.” I gestured to myself. “Clearly, I have some very nice clothing, but this is not what I wear from day to day. You might not recognize me in another setting. I have jewels, but I imagine fewer than some of you. I have traveled, but not as far as a trader may travel. It is not the nature of my family to live an indulgent lifestyle. We have responsibilities, and we take them seriously.”
Alexi nodded. I didn’t think she was satisfied. I whispered, “Sorry.”
“That can’t be the first time you’ve received that question.”
“My past answers weren’t any better.”
She nodded. “Tell us something most people don’t know about you.”
“I think I should have come up with my own questions to answer,” I replied, gaining some laughter. “There is a gorgeous painting hanging in my box. It is said the artist may have taken a minor liberty with the model.”
She laughed and lowered her hand to her stomach. “I wouldn’t say a ‘minor’ liberty. I was four months pregnant for my last standing. Answer my question, Princess.”
“All right. I stood beside one of my guests when first viewing the painting, and we agreed we would love to meet the model.” I gave her a little bow. “And now I have.”
“Invite her down,” Alexi whispered.
“Find an opportunity to come up,” I whispered back.
She nodded. “One more question, then, Princess.” She looked out at the audience. “I think we need to make this question count, don’t you?”
Oh, they definitely did.
For my part, I smiled as sweetly as I could.
Then Alexi turned to me, and I could read the indecision on her face. “Ask,” I said softly. “It’s fine.”
“I’m thinking of asking if you’re a virgin. Would you answer if I did?”
“Yes.”
I grinned, bowed, and then turned towards the stairs. I got three steps before she called out, “Where do you think you’re going?”
“You said you had one more question. I answered, so now I’m heading back to my box so the show can begin.”
Alexi began to sputter. “That wasn’t my question!”
I turned to her, still grinning. She waved a finger at me, but I believe I truly had caught her off guard. I turned to the audience. “She spoke quietly, but she asked a question, and I answered. It’s not my fault she wishes she had said she wanted two more questions, not one.”
They laughed, but several people suggested I give Alexi one more. And so I bowed. “One more.”
“I should ask the one I threatened to ask,” she said.
“Go for it.”
“Fine. Princess Darfelsa, are you a virgin?”
The audience loved the question. Some loudly made predictions. I waited, and they grew no quieter. Finally, I turned to them and yelled, “Keep up that noise, and you won’t hear my answer.”
“Quiet!” several yelled. “I want to hear.”
I waited and then turned back to Alexi. “Define ‘virgin’.”
“It requires a definition?”
“Yes.”
“Everyone knows what a virgin is.”
“A non-alcoholic drink?”
“That isn’t what I mean!”
“Then perhaps you should define what you mean.”
“Fine. Have you lain with a man?”
“Absolutely not, unless you mean to ask if my father rocked me to sleep as a child.”
“I most certainly do not.”
“Then yes, by your definition, I am a virgin.” I stepped closer and gave her another of the Ressaline greetings. “Thank you for being so specific.” I kissed her ear and then turned.
“What did you mean?” she asked.
I didn’t answer. Instead I waved to the audience. At the bottom of the steps, I turned and blew Alexi a kiss. Then, still waving, I climbed the stairs back to the box.
* * * *
The show was funny and every bit as risqué as I expected. There was definitely audience participation. They left us alone for a while, collecting people from the main floor. But then Alexi herself climbed the stairs, the spotlight tracking her, and turned to me. “Princess Darfelsa, you have a choice.”
“Do I?” I asked.
“You will volunteer one of your companions, or else you may descend the stairs with me.”
I’d previously had a list, but in the moment, I threw it out the window. “Castia,” I declared.
The woman in question howled, but she didn’t resist as Alexi collected her and drew her down the stairs. For most of the time her mother was on the stage, Talith kept her hand over her eyes, but she also took peeks and howled her own blushing laughter.
By the time she returned to us, Castia looked quite unkempt, and she leaned down to whisper into my ear, “I’m going to get you for that.”
I looked over my shoulder at her. “You loved every minute.”
“I would have loved it more if the kiss had come from Alexi.”
I laughed, and she took her seat again.
Alexi declared an intermission, and then she climbed back up to us. Introductions were exchanged, and we pressed a glass into her hands. I found her at my side, and she whispered to me, “Which one was it who wanted to meet me?”
“Me.”
“Princess, when I ask a question in this club, I expect an answer.”
I turned to her. “Ask more widely and let her decide if she’ll admit it.” Then I headed her off. “Alexi has a question. I am not the only one who knows the answer, but I expect her to receive either silence or ‘I am’. Do not volunteer an answer for someone else.”
“Who was it who wanted to meet me?” Alexi asked. “After looking at my painting.”
“I imagine half of us,” Talith said immediately. “But I’m not the one you’re looking for.”
Alexi looked around. Renishta looked at me then slowly raised her hand. “I am.”
Alexi moved to her. “Renishta, right?” The woman nodded. Alexi gave her a Ressaline greeting and then stepped beside her, wrapping an arm around Renishta’s waist.
After that, we chatted easily. Renishta was quiet, but
she spent a good share of the time watching Alexi, who pretended not to notice but had to be aware. But then Alexi declared, “It’s time for the second half.” She turned to Renishta, set hands on her cheeks, and then drew her in for a deeply passionate kiss. Renishta didn’t know what to do, but it looked like a really, really good kiss.
“When I call for you,” Alexi told her. “You’ll deliver yourself to me, won’t you?” Renishta nodded slowly. “Good girl.” Alexi kissed her again, more briefly again, and then she brushed fingers along her cheeks before stepping away. Renishta stared after her.
I suppose all of us did, but I was watching my aide, and I stepped to her, standing behind her and setting my hands on her shoulders. “If you don’t want to go, I’ll rescue you.”
She looked over her shoulder at me. “No.” She paused. “You saw what she did to that one woman who tried to refuse.”
“I’d offer myself to her game. She’d accept.”
“No,” Renishta said. “I’ll go.” She offered a ragged smile. “Darfelsa, she kissed me.”
“I saw.”
“Do you think she means anything by it?”
“I don’t know, Renishta. Do you want her to?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “My duty is to you.”
“She’s not offering forever, if she’s offering anything at all. If she makes an offer you want to accept, then accept. I only need to know what to expect.”
“I just vowed myself to you.”
“Yes, but not for kisses,” I said. “Do not worry about me for this.”
“Some people say that but don’t mean it.”
“Those people are idiots if they grow upset that someone actually believes them. I won’t tell you one thing when I mean another. Promise.”
“I do, too. Promise.”
“Good. Let’s sit down now.”
We took our seats, barely with time before Alexi called the show together. There was no audience participation for a while, and it was twenty minutes before she said, “I met someone earlier. She’s going to join us now.”
I looked over. Renishta stood. She was biting her lip by the time she made it to the bottom of the stairs, but she delivered herself directly to Alexi.
And then it was my turn to cover my eyes, but I snuck my own peeks.
Alexi kept Renishta for the rest of the show, and at the end, the two left together.
I wouldn’t see her for two days.
Agreement
It was a week later that Ms. Leyviel stood before my desk. We greeted and then she took a seat. “I presume this is official business?”
“Yes, Your Highness. The council asks that you attend a council meeting.” She offered an invitation. Sergeant Felist immediately took it from her and opened it away from my desk. Talith watched this and watched the rather excessive caution when the sergeant let me read it.
“Why are you doing it that way?”
“We know I’ve made enemies,” I said.
“You think I’m trying to poison you?” she squeaked.
“No,” said the sergeant. “We think they might, however.”
“Well, I wrote that, and I vouch it’s safe.”
At that, I made a point of touching it, trying to tell her that I trusted her, even if I didn’t trust the ministers. It was, indeed, an invitation to attend a council meeting for tomorrow afternoon. It was politely worded, and so I nodded.
“What else can you tell me?” I asked. “Am I wasting my time if I go?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But if you don’t go, I’m told I’m out of a job.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m not sure you did me any favors demanding I attend meetings. They’ve been excluding me from everything else and giving me busy work. I think the minister would have already released me if he thought you were bluffing.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I was looking out for my interests and shouldn’t have put you in the middle of it.”
“Can you and I come to an agreement?”
“What sort of agreement?”
“If this all continues to fall apart, and I lose my job, or if things don’t at least go back to how they are, could I go to Flarvor with you?”
“Did you just ask for a job?”
“Yes.”
“Talith…”
“If you’re going to say ‘no’, just say ‘no’.”
“You’ve just declared your loyalties are split.”
“They are split,” she said. “You don’t owe me anything. Mother would love me to join the family business. I’m not going to starve.”
“There must be a reason you don’t already work for her.”
“I love my mother, but I wanted a little more distance from her. I think it would be better now, but maybe not, if she thinks I’m stuck.”
“We’re friends, Talith, but you can’t possibly feel the loyalty to me you should feel for your own country.”
“Maybe not, but I get treated poorly at work, and I’ve seen you with your staff.”
And in that, I felt a welling of pride. I decided that I’d been doing a better job than I realized learning from Allium, and I found myself smiling broadly. “I don’t know how much authority I have.”
“I thought you had all the authority you want.”
“It’s temporary. If you ask for a position with me, I will make every effort to find one for you, Talith.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“In the meantime, I’m going to give you opportunities to look good in front of the minister.”
“Don’t bother,” she said. “He’s a complete misogynist, and it won’t matter. I’m a woman, and my only value is to fetch tea and take notes.”
“Why have you stayed this long?”
“Because I didn’t know better.” She paused. “You know what? I want that job.”
“I want you where you are, at least through the meeting tomorrow. After that, if you come to me, I’ll find a place for you.”
She began crying. I moved around the desk and knelt before her. She covered her face, so I set my arms on her legs and looked up at her. She leaned forward, placing her face against my hair and cried. I crooned softly. “You’ll have to treat me like a spy, won’t you?” she blubbered.
“For a while.” I pulled her hands from her face and cupped her cheek. “I’m sorry, Talith.”
“Don’t be,” she said. “I don't care if you have to treat me like a spy. If it starts to bother me, we’ll deal with it then.”
“There is every possibility I’ll eventually be back in Charth,” I said. “And you know what that means.”
She stared at me then asked, “Did you do it?”
“Yes.”
“Your staff?”
“Not yet. That was problematic, and I won’t get away with that again. If I take you to Charth, you’ll be staying there a while. Are you sure you want to do this, Talith?”
“Yes, if you promise I can work for you.”
“Not while you’re fulfilling a certain commitment in Charth,” I said. “But otherwise, I’ll find a way. Somehow.”
“I’ll go with you.”
I opened my arms. She came to me, the two of us kneeling to each other, wrapped tightly. She held me for a long time then whispered, “Please come to the meeting tomorrow.”
“You will be my escort,” I said. “You will meet me at the door and show me to the council chambers. You will remain in attendance, and it better not look like a secret meeting. I expect the usual assortment of aides and hangers-on standing about. My guards will attend to me as well.”
“Of course.”
“This is their last chance,” I said. I lifted her to her feet and put her back in her chair. I thought on my way back to my own chair. “This is their last chance,” I repeated. “They better begin with a reasonable offer and be prepared for honest negotiation. Furthermore, I’m tired of the personal insults, and I will harden my position for each one. Tell them I to
ld you all of that.”
“I will.”
“Tell all of them,” I said. “They may not all know what Minister Silmarion has been doing. Will you have that opportunity?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll repeat everything when I get there, but I’d rather not surprise them with it, if it can be avoided.”
She nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
“Don’t put yourself at too much more risk, and perhaps don’t tell anyone we have our own agreement. Once you leave this office, you can’t spy for me, Talith.”
“I know.”
“All right, then. Is there more?”
“No.” She paused. “Really?”
“Really,” I said. “My preference is for you to stay where you are while we’re in negotiations, and maybe you’ll change your mind.”
“I find it unlikely.”
“I don’t want to be a sneak.”
“I understand,” she said. “Let’s see how it goes tomorrow.”
“Good plan. I’m going to invite you and your mother to dinner. Do you know her schedule?”
“She’s busy the next two nights then available until late next week.”
“Wait here,” I said. I collected note paper and wrote an informal invitation. I slid it to her. “Tuesday night,” I said. “If things don’t improve, we’re leaving Wednesday.”
“If things go poorly tomorrow, may I have an appointment one hour after you leave the capitol building?”
“Yes.”
“You understand I’ll be asking to stay here.”
“And we’ll find room, but you’ll be sharing quarters with someone. We’re all doubled up.”
“I don’t want to put anyone out.”
“We’re happy to have you, so it’s up to you to decide how you feel about that. When we got here, even I shared my bed.”
“With whom?”
“None of your business, but there were five of us in my room, all entirely innocent.”
“You’re that crowded here?”
“I lead by example.”
“And that’s why I want to work for you.”
I nodded. “All right, then.”
“Thank you, Darfelsa.”
“I’m not going to offer a formal letter in response,” I said, gesturing to the invitation. “We’ll be there.”