Ria wished the king had rather not announced that so clearly in front of all the women. "Business, eh?" Narsia smirked and then hissed at Ria aggressively, her furry face set in a ferocious scowl. "Just be sure you remember who his favourite is."
Ria made no answer, her stomach in a tight knot. She had donned one the least revealing dresses she could find in her amply stocked closet, but she felt as naked as the day she was born, as she demurely followed the king and his body guards out of the garden and into the long hallway.
To her surprise the king did not turn in the direction of his chambers, but in quite the opposite direction. Where were they going? She dared not ask. After a long, winding walk, they reached a deep, dank place that didn't look like the rest of the palace at all.
The floors were dusty and the walls rough and damp. The doors seemed to be made of solid lead, as one of them opened to a word spoken by the king that her language chip seemed to be unable to decode. She shrank back instinctively. Were they going to lock her up now? Had Nirda reported her as a troublemaker? She hadn't seemed to warm to her much.
"Come in here, Ria," the king commanded, his face betraying no emotion. She dutifully obeyed, her palms beginning to sweat.
Entering the dank, gloomy interior, it took a while for her eyes to adjust to the scant lighting, and then she saw him. Chained to the wall by his hands and feet, was a Pan-like creature, only he didn't have horns, he had long grey ears like a donkey's and a strange equine snout in a human face, filled with long, yellow, snapping teeth. His black, beady eyes were too close together and very shifty, and his hoofed feet strained against the bonds, seeming to want to launch their owner at Ria in a fury of attack.
The Dragon King's body guards stood close to her, which was just as well, otherwise she might have run in panic from the hideous creature.
"This is my former ambassador, Frong," the king announced to Ria. I gave him good treatment and better wages for the greater part of thirty of your Earth years."
Ria looked at him in surprise. So, they really did know more about her planet that what they had let on in the beginning, and yet, here she was, the Dragon King's new ambassador.
The king continued, "But he found it necessary to defraud me of still more money to make deals and procure bribes from other nations and solar systems. His brand of gratitude and loyalty is now to be paid in kind," the king concluded, sarcastically.
"Curse you, Xagrun!" the ambassador spat.
"Your curse is upon your own head," the king responded calmly, "since you will lose your cursed head in a matter of minutes and this Earthling will take your place in office."
The ambassador gave a roar of rage that sounded like a mixture of a squealing pig and a rabid dog. It was becoming clear to Ria that she had been summoned here merely to intensify the humiliation of the demoted ambassador.
He focussed all his proud rage on her. "You and your amoebic race!" he dredged up the most insulting description he could think of. "You're still swimming in primordial soup and you expect to come usurp my position? Hahahaha!!" His laugh sounded worse than his roar. "It takes brains, and cunning, and perception to be the ambassador of this kingdom. You probably don't even know how the hell you got here!" he punctuated his eloquent rhetoric by spitting in Ria's direction. Thankfully the king had anticipated such a move and made sure they stood well away from the belligerent prisoner.
Ria felt the hackles rise on her neck. It was true her race was not perfect, but they sure had their good qualities as well as the bad ones. Masking her disgust and tilting her chin nonchalantly as she crossed her arms and gave the disgraced ambassador a level stare.
"Actually, the way I ended up here is that many aeons ago, two black holes made friends, right? They buddied right up to each other and got in a game of tug of war. And then they created what we refer to as a wormhole, which is a bending and contracting of the time-space continuum that allows for matter that enters it to travel ridiculous distances in fractional time frames. Basically, time travel. Then my ship, which was innocently passing by on its way to Mars, with the mission to start a new colony for my species, was hit by an unexpected solar storm caused by an unforeseen flare emanating from Kaus Australis. We were knocked off course, our data equipment rendered completely useless by the radio waves of the storm and the magnetic field of the wormhole. We were sucked into it and spat out into this wonderful galaxy, and then your rangers found us and impounded our ship. So, that's basically how I got here, in layman's terms, of course."
She looked over at the Dragon King. King Xagrun. It was a really cool name, she thought, and he seemed to be wearing a faint smile, but she couldn't be sure. She lobbed in one last comment, "Oh, and in that list of attributes for an ambassador, you forgot the most important one: loyalty. My people know all about loyalty."
The ambassador stared at her for a long moment of heavy silence and then began to growl menacingly through his clenched, yellow teeth.
"I think that concludes our business," the king said simply. "Guard, behead him."
In Ria's mind, he was supposed to be led out to some other room and stood over a wooden or stone block while a hooded man dispatched his head in one clean slice of a shiny battle axe. That would have been gruesome enough and not a show that Ria would have paid money to see.
But executions were evidently not done that way in King Xagrun's kingdom. In one fell swoop, the burly bear creature, who had been guarding the prisoner, unsheathed his sabre-like claws and dealt the former ambassador a blow that sliced his leering head into four bloody steaks that fell to the granite floor with a splat, as the decapitated body jerked spasmodically, rattling the chains that still held it suspended against the wall.
Ria stepped back in shock, covering her face with her hands and trying to keep her freshly regurgitated lunch from leaving her mouth.
She turned and fled the prison cell, ignoring the sharp jabs of her ankle bracelet, and didn't stop until she reached her chambers. She ran to the ablution closet, puked her heart out and then flung herself on the bed, her tears soaking the soft, fleecy bed covers. The more she tried to get the horrifying image out of her mind, the more it taunted her.
Soon she heard footsteps and voices outside her door.
"Is our new ambassador, Ria, in her chambers?" It was the voice of the king.
"Yes, your Highness," responded the voice of the butler, who seemed to pop up everywhere at the most opportune times.
"Have her sent to me after breakfast tomorrow," the king's voice commanded.
"Yes, your Highness."
Ria cried herself to sleep.
Chapter 4: Matchmaker
"You alright, Ria?" Octavia's perpetually pink flushed face peered at her with sad eyes. An equally pink tentacle stroked her arm.
"I'm okay," Ria was picking at her breakfast, thinking how the concubines' days were regulated by mealtimes and the rest was just aimless existence. Right now, she was afraid to eat, worried that this meal would go the same way as yesterday's lunch. She still had flashbacks of the late, former ambassador's head being carved up like a tuna in a fish packing factory.
She needed to focus on something else. "Octavia, do you have any hobbies to keep you busy?"
Her only reply was a blank stare.
"You know what hobbies are, right? Things you do for fun in your spare time?"
"Oh, I count the jiggerbugs, and I harvest fruit and seeds, and plant the seeds I harvest. And there are two Macmac birds that I feed with leftovers from my breakfast. I'm teaching them to talk, you should see them, Ria, they're so cute!"
"Okay, okay!" Ria had to laugh despite her sombre frame of mind. Evidently, she was preaching to the choir. "What about the other girls?"
"I don't know..." Octavia looked down. "Nobody really talks to me, you know? I'm the strangest of all the species here. You're the first alien who has taken time to have a conversation with me in the last twenty years."
Ria's culture chip calculated that as sixty Earth y
ears. She resolved that if she ever got home, she would never again complain about how long a year was.
"I'm just thinking that everybody looks so sad, and well, bored, too, I guess. Maybe if we can start learning new things and stuff, we can keep our minds occupied and not just live aimless lives between our trysts with the king."
Octavia's face lit up as much as her sad eyes would allow. "That's a brilliant idea, Ria! You're genius! When do we start?"
"Haha! Well, tomorrow, if you want to. You just have to help me brainstorm how we're going to convince the others to join in. If we're going to live any kind of meaningful life here, we have to start creating it for ourselves."
Octavia hugged her, and Ria had to concentrate hard not to shrink back from the sensation of sixteen arms around her. She didn't want to hurt this benign creature's feelings, who was, so far, the closest she had to a friend in this inhospitable place.
"Ria, the king wishes to see you," the Matron's crisp, businesslike voice cut into her thoughts. She felt her gut tighten. Would she still have the position of ambassador after yesterday's fiasco? Did she even want it anymore? Taking a deep breath, she made her way to the garden entrance where the butler was waiting to escort her to the king.
She felt a little weak and dizzy from not having eaten well in the last twenty hours or so. It felt like even her eyeballs had pins and needles. An intense longing for home engulfed her as she followed the butler's swaying tail once again.
They stopped at some other door before they reached the king's chambers and Ria felt herself relax a little, but not entirely. She had no idea why she had been summoned and her recent experience told her that anything was possible.
"Ambassador Ria is here to see you at your request, your Highness," the butler announced.
In less stressful circumstances, Ria would have had a good laugh at the idea of her new title. As it was, she waited nervously for the automated door to open.
It revealed a room that the butler had not included in her tour the previous day. Like the ballroom, it appeared to have no roof and was lined with rock walls and creeping vines of many different varieties and colours, intertwining and creating a sort of living tapestry. Down the centre of the room stretched a long, oval table, which seemed to be made of the same smooth, igneous rock as the floor and was surrounded by many, tall-backed chairs covered with plush, red upholstery.
Ria stepped forward gingerly, almost expecting the floor to suddenly open up and swallow her whole, or the bear-alien guard at the door to divorce her head from her body in a similar fashion to the previous ambassador's head. She wondered if that would be a kingdom record for the shortest office of an ambassador.
The king's voice made her look up at him sitting at the head of the great oval table, "Welcome, Ambassador Ria. I was greatly pleased with your reply to Ambassador Frong's challenge yesterday. I am convinced you will make a good ambassador and expect that undivided loyalty of which you spoke."
Ria almost fainted from relief, her body weak from lack of nourishment as well as mental shock. Her basic combat training stood her in good stead, though, and she felt her mind rally her body's members.
Standing up a little straighter, she found her voice, "Thank you, Highness, I intend to do my level best to represent your kingdom in integrity and diligence."
It was difficult to tell from that distance, but she could have sworn there was a glint of satisfaction in the king's eye. Whatever her feelings about her strangely dual role in the palace, she had to stay on his good side.
"Minister Glot, the Ambassador's robe."
At the command of the king, another dragon shape-shifter emerged from a side door holding a shimmering robe that was made with the same heavy embroidered cloth as pretty much everything else in the palace, but had a simpler, more distinctive pattern. On it was a crest of some sort that looked a lot like the king's throne.
Minister Glot hung the robe over Ria's shoulders and, stepping back, made a low bow. Ria's culture chip sprang into action and she bowed back to him, almost in a reflex action, before they both straightened and hammered their right fist twice against their left shoulder, declaring in unison, "Long life to the Dragon King Xagrun!"
Ria reflected how her tongue had seemed to move of its own accord. These chips are out of this world! she thought, and then corrected herself, or maybe in this world, but out of mine. A faint smile played about her lips and she already felt better.
"Minister Glot shall escort you to the Ambassadors' Offices," King Xagrun said, "and there he will fill you in on all you need to know. Pay attention, fulfil your duties faithfully and you will be rewarded generously."
The king didn't need to say so, but Ria knew that if she did not pay attention and do her duties well, she would end up generously beheaded. His tone had made it clear that while she wore this robe, the strict protocols of a political relationship were to be adhered to.
She embraced this dignified escape from her harem member status, bowed to the king and turned to follow the receding back of Minister Glot.
As she tailed him to the Ambassadors' Offices, her head swam with questions burning to be answered, but she knew she must bide her time. Her culture chip was telling her that too many questions were viewed as suspicious by the Dragonesque race, so she decided to play it safe and ask only what and when it appeared appropriate to the setting and circumstances.
Soon they entered a large room that looked a lot like the Royal Laboratory, except it contained many floating platforms like those she had seen at the trade fair where she first met Collector Hargoid. Each platform, bar one, housed an alien of same shape or form, hard at work on what seemed to be hologram screens, or holding urgent conversations with apparently nobody.
Although none of the platforms had any kind of visible enclosing material, no sound reached the floor where she and Minister Glot were standing. In front of them was a huge hologram screen that seemed to contain a myriad of smaller screens within it, each one flickering and shimmering with flashes of information and images. A few aliens sat in front of the screen, apparently monitoring all the goings on in front of them.
Ria felt her jaw drop, and she didn't bother to disguise her amazement. It was considered a great honour by the Dragonesque race if someone showed awe at their achievements. In fact, they were quite a vain nation, as well as being rough around the edges, she thought, almost affectionately.
Minister Glot seemed suitably pleased with Ria's display of admiration and tapped on a smooth black tablet perched on a thin column constructed from the same material. A tone rang out, not dissimilar to the intercom at an international airport on Earth.
As one being, all the aliens stopped their work and turned to face the minister. "Esteemed ambassadors, I present to you the new Dragonesque Ambassador to the Hautian Solar System. This is Ambassador Ria. We are to assist her in whatever she may need to successfully execute her duties as ambassador. Your cooperation is the king's pleasure."
A lot seems to revolve around the king's pleasure in this kingdom, Ria thought, but she simply nodded around the vast room, appropriately agreeing with the shouts of, "The king's pleasure! Long life to King Xagrun!"
Minister Glot pointed out the vacant platform as another lizard butler sidled up to them. "Butler, escort Ambassador Ria to her station," the minister commanded, and then abruptly turned on his heel and left without another word. Ria had thankfully already become accustomed to the lack of pleasantries, so it didn't distract her from focussing on the tech heaven she found herself in.
"This way, my lady," the new butler said, moving off as he spoke. His voice was different to the other butler's even though he looked just like him. He spoke very fast, in high pitched, hoarse tones.
Ria wondered if the butlers had names. How was she going to differentiate between the butler in the concubines' quarters and this one, and who knew how many more she would encounter?
"Do you butlers have names?" she asked, knowing it was not entirely acceptable to d
o so, but deciding to ignore her implant's recommendations. As long as she could still think for herself, she was going to flex those independent muscles.
"No, my lady. Unless you call a number a name."
"Oh. I know how you feel."
The lizard flashed her a shocked look, and then quickly looked ahead of him again.
"What's yours?" Ria prompted.
"Z4T33." He said it quickly and softly, without looking up.
Ria played with the numbers and letters in her mind's eye. "Okay, I'll call you Zytee."
By that time, they had reached her platform and the newly christened Zytee tapped his foot twice on the floor. An oval slab suddenly, but smoothly, lifted out from the floor, carrying them up to her allotted space, full of equipment she already relished the thought of documenting in her rapidly filling pages of journaling. She would have to get a book, soon, she thought. Perhaps Zytee could help her with that.
The next few days passed in a blur of discovery and wonderment. Ria tried not to express every bit of amazement she experienced, but it took a concerted effort. Here was tech that could replace almost everything they had on Earth and, most importantly, completely eradicate the use of plastic.
The most fascinating part of the Dragonesque tech was that, as advanced as it was, it was still completely nature-friendly and sourced from the environment. She was still trying to figure out what that meant, and how it was practically done, but the implications were enormous.
In all the excitement of learning and beginning to function in her ambassadorial role, she almost forgot that she was a concubine as well as a minister of state.
Almost.
The daily breakfasts and dinners in the Concubines' Garden ingrained the looming truth on her with sickening clarity. Gordlin's leering remarks and the vicious scowls she regularly endured from Narsia only underscored that fact.
Once she forgot to take off her ambassador's robe when she was a little late for dinner, and the shocked looks of her fellow concubines revealed that they had not considered her inferior race, from her backwater planet, to be capable of filling such a position.
Gifted To The Dragon King Page 4