Page 47 of Tashama
The lady shook her head.
“Have her hair veiled, and she can sit with me in the gazebo now.”
“Yes, sire.”
Princess Listra reentered the room, and Tashama said, “Sit in the gazebo? Very well, I would like that.” There was some silence, then she said, “No, I don’t want the veils on my hair. When I return to Karthland, I will abolish such a notion. You would do well to revolt against such an archaic…”
The prince strode into the chambers. “Either she wears the veils, or she stays in her room.”
Tashama smiled. “I’m enjoying the gardens from here, thank you, sire. Perhaps some other time we could sit in the gazebo.”
Aleron glared at her, then turned and stormed out of the room.
“Oh, my lady,” Listra said, “you shouldn’t treat the prince in such a manner.”
“I’m a royal princess in my own right and ruler of my own kingdom. He has no right to tell me what to do.” Tashama folded her hands in her lap.
“But you’re a guest in his?—”
“Prisoner, you mean. Are guards at my door?”
“Well, yes.”
“A prisoner, I tell you.” Tashama stared out the window and saw a dark-clothed figure walking along the garden path. “What is that?” She pointed at the sight.
“She’s with the religious order of the Bachavin.”
Tashama studied the woman, clothed in a black gown and veil, her face hidden beneath a black cloth, allowing not even a glimpse of her eyes. “How absurd. How can she see in such a contraption?”
“She can see. She’s wed to the king of the gods, Bachava. No mortal man may view a woman of the order.”
“And this god lives on Mount Olympus, I suppose.”
“Mount Olympus?” Listra furrowed her brow in concentration as she tried to recollect such a place. “No, Mount Monadanock.”
Tashama sat back stiffly in her chair as she spied the prince sauntering along the path with a dark-haired woman, arm in arm. The woman’s familiar voice scolded the prince lightly as it carried on the breeze. “You had her in your chambers again. What am I to think of such behavior?”
“She’s only a means to an end, Daveal. She’ll have a home here for the time being until she can be of no further use to us.”
“Did you kiss her?”
“Why would I want to kiss a Karthlander woman?”
The voices and footsteps faded away, and Tashama’s cheeks warmed. “I want to take a bath.”
“The healer said you’re not to get your feet wet.”
Tashama reached down and unwrapped the cloth on her right foot as Listra ran over to stop her. “Leave me be! I wish to see how my foot is faring after that brutal prince injured them so.”
“You shouldn’t have run away.” Listra tried to grab Tashama’s hand to stop her.
Tashama scowled, “They are my feet. Let me see them.”
“They’re not to be unwrapped.”
“By the prince’s orders?”
“No, the healer’s.”
