Page 44 of Vows of Sacrifice

I grabbed her hand without thinking about it, then stared into her eyes, as serious as death.

“Stay on your guard. If he lets you say what you want, it’s only to hurt you. Take it from me.”

“I’ll make a note of it, Dovah.”

Ah. My name in her mouth. Over and over again . . .

“So, I asked that the ceremony would take place in a temple of the Dark Gods but would be conducted by a priest of the One God. His Majesty felt that the marriage would be valid as long as it was performed in an Osacanian temple and by an Osacan priest. I then asked him if there were any pious servants of the One God in Osacan. To which he smiled and replied, ‘I’ll find you one, Lady Ashana, don’t worry.’”

I’m sure there was. There was indeed an Osacanian priest of the One God in Tarnton, yes. He was slowly dying in one of Baal Castle’s dungeons. I could see Elendur’s devious plan taking shape: to throw this man, more dead than alive, in place of a wedding priest in order to put in his place this Muvarian who had dared to suggest such an idea, and to wound me in the process to remind me where I belonged, according to him. Becoming king hasn’t dulled his penchant towards sadism and cruelty, I thought bitterly.

I rose slowly, filled with a cold anger.

“I have to go and talk to him,” I announced in an eerily calm voice.

Then I looked down at the woman who was now my wife.

“I’d like for you to trust me. For Nadrisse,” I added. “I know I have no right to demand this of you, and in a similar situation, I confess I’d find it difficult myself. However, I am your best—if not the only—ally in this house. I’d dare say, in this country, but perhaps I’d be overstating the case.”

Ashana opened her mouth and took a deep breath before answering me hesitantly:

“I don’t know, Dovah. It’s still too soon.”

Yes, it was too soon, but we didn’t have time to spare. If Nadrisse could be genuinely sweet and charming to me, I doubted she’d be the same with Ashana. Not to mention, on his side, Elendur was playing chess with my wife as his centrepiece.

* * *

The guards let me pass without even attempting to stop me, for in the eyes of the people of this castle, from the lowliest cook to the royal guard, I was considered to be the legitimate child of the late king Yblis. Without warning, I burst into Elendur’s room.

Upon seeing two naked girls huddling together on his huge bed, frightened, I thought perhaps I should have announced myself in a more civilized manner. Then my eyes caught sight of the numerous red marks on their bodies and my mind focused on this detail.

Elendur, naked and clad only in a silk bathrobe that opened wide over his hairless but relatively muscular body, nimbly tossed them a linen quilt to cover themselves with. I had only vaguely paid attention to their faces but noted that one was brunette and the other light brown. Two chambermaids, judging by the clothes lying on the floor.

I’d never been interested in the king’s intimate life, but now I had the impression that it didn’t follow the romantic norm of the country. Was this surprising? No, not really.

“To what do I owe the honour of your visit at this hour? I thought you were asleep in your wife’s arms,” he mocked, pouring himself a glass of the country’s fruit-fermented alcohol.

He offered me some, which I declined with a wave of my hand.

“We had an interesting conversation.”

Elendur raised an inquisitive eyebrow. I smiled coldly before continuing:

“Ashana has informed me that you are willing to allow a priest of the One God to perform our Osacanian wedding ceremony. It struck me as . . . odd,” I said, my accent tinged with irony.

I watched him tighten the flaps of his cyan-blue bathrobe, a colour that paired well with the shade of his hair. He reminded me of Kynnen, the youngest of our siblings. Perhaps that was my weakness lay. That physical resemblance.

Elendur sat down on a wide purple velvet armchair, then elegantly crossed one leg over the other before bringing the glass to his lips to take a sip.

“Odd in what sense? Do you think I lied?”

I shook my head.

“Oh, no, I know you have a priest on hand. I remember very well the day you ordered him to be arrested.”

An menacing smile stretched across his lips.

“No,” I continued. “What intrigues me is what state in which you’ll make this poor man officiate, just to punish Ashana for daring, according to your personal criteria, to disrespect your own beliefs and those of your people.”

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