Page 11 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

“Do you know… you… here?” The woman hurled the question over her shoulder at me, not deigning to slow her pace at all, nor release my wrist. I only caught part of the words, the stone swallowing them up before I could hear them, but I had already grown used to having to fill in the gaps and I knew what she was asking.

I tore my eyes from the shadowed corners of the halls and returned my attention to the woman tugging me down the hallways towards my doom.

To find the cure and kill the prince and save my brothers from certain death.“To be a member of Prince Eadric’s staff.”

She snorted, the noise buzzing in my ears and settling deep into my chest in the gaping hole my brothers had left behind. The dismissal was clear as she turned back around, and while it sparked a familiar ember of anger at the back of my tongue, ready to spit and lash out, I swallowed it back. It met with the oily feeling ofsomethingthat still clung to my throat, the anger joining the patiently waiting emotions there.

Gods help us all when whatever it was finally exploded.

“Where are you taking me?” Each word was carefully neutral, as dull and uninteresting as the mask I’d forced upon my face.

A more substantial shadow passed by the wall, walking low along the floor. It almost looked like an animal, the shadow of a cat or dog, but it waswrong. Too long and too angular to be either of those things. And then it was gone before I could search it out again. My heart raced against my breastbone. Was this creature part of the castle, or had it followed me in? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. I swallowed hard as I focused back in on Camelya.

“The servant quarters. You’ll need to be bathed, measured, and clothed. Then the other girls will prepare you for your first night.”

I pulled to a stop, twisting my hand out of her grip to wrap my fingers around her wrist. The shadowy creature was long forgotten. My voice was deadly calm and as far from neutral as it could have possibly been. I knew better to ask, and yet I could not stop myself any longer. “First night doingwhat, precisely?”

She looked down at where I now held her wrist before bringing her eyes back to mine with a raised eyebrow. “So you do have a spine after all.”

“I have far more than that, if need be.”

“I would be cautious who else you let discover that.” A heartbeat passed and then a smirk played at her lips, erasing the ominous expression that accompanied her first words. “But not to worry, you were only hired as a servant for the parties, not as entertainment.”

I searched her face for any hint of a lie. Finding none, I slowly released my hold on her wrist.

There was little I would not do for my family, even though my brothers had disowned me, but my body was my own. It had been ripped apart by the blood plague and patched back together with the marks this woman had called disgusting. But it wasmine, and only I decided what to do with it. “Good.”

We continued down the halls, the only sounds our shoes against the stone and the distant claps of thunder. The atmosphere had shifted between us, now that I had let part of my mask fall. I wasn’t entirely sure if it was a good thing or not.

Eventually, she came to a stop in front of a relatively plain-looking door. “This is the dressing room. You will have your own bedroom, which one of the girls will take you to later, but all the preparations for each evening are done here together. It’s easier if you all get ready at the same time.”

My stomach twisted itself into knots, but despite it, I forced a nod. I did not want to make friends, did not want to interact with anyone more than I had to. I was here to find how to save my brothers, kill the prince, and get the hell out. But I could not dismiss any potential advantage, coming in as an outsider. Perhaps these girls would be able to help me, whether they were privy to it or not.

The door opened and four pairs of eyes turned in my direction from inside the room. All activity paused, the other women freezing as Camelya stepped in, all but dragging me beside her.

“This is Odyssa,” she introduced, giving me a slight shove on my lower back to step forward. “She’ll be joining you all.”

I nodded a greeting, not trusting my words to come out steady. I wanted to vomit, to run away and bang on the gates that had locked me in here, begging to be released. But there was no turning back now. This was the path I had chosen, and despite how little of a true choice it was, I would follow through. I had nothing left to lose. If I failed, my brothers would likely die regardless.

Silence met us, along with heavy stares that would have made me duck my head in another life. In this life, though, I did not care about their opinions, about their judgements. I cared about nothing apart from doing my work to send money back to my brothers and finding the treatment the Coward Prince had refused to share.

They could think whatever they liked of me. I was not here to make friends.

One of the women finally moved, setting down a hairbrush on the vanity in front of her and standing. Her strides were smooth and confident as she stopped in front of me and stuck her hand out. Across her skin were dark marks—delicate, unlike my own—that reminded me of a lightning strike stretched across the sky. She stared at me. “I am Zaharya.”

I extended my own hand slowly. Again, my movements were too slow for the women in Castle Auretras, and she reached out with a huff and grabbed it, shaking it roughly before letting it fall again.

“Where are you from?” Her voice was smooth, no hint of fear or apprehension of Camelya still standing beside me.

“The city,” I replied. I cleared my throat. Though my voice had not cracked, there was a weight ofsomethingat the back of my tongue, oppressive and uncomfortable. “You have Death marks.”

She tilted her head, making the curtain of thick white hair fall over her shoulder. “You call them Death marks down in the city?”

“I—”

“Well, now that introductions are handled, ladies, please get Odyssa ready. She will just be observing tonight, but tomorrow she’ll be serving, so be sure to prepare her.” Camelya clapped her hands again and whirled out the door, closing it behind her before I’d even really had a chance to comprehend her instructions. My ears throbbed, still reeling from her loud clapping.

My head was swimming with emotion and thoughts, all tangled up in knots as I tried desperately to unwind them, though I knew better than to let it show. Instead, I looked out at the other girls in the room. None of them seemed harmed in any way, and though none of them were especially joyful, equally none of them seemed overtly melancholy. I did not want to know their names, but I knew I needed to remember their faces. Zaharya had white hair, bright like moonlight. There was also a tall blonde, one with hair like flames that seemed to want to make herself look as small as possible, and one with black hair like mine but with eyes that shone like sapphires.

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