But the closest I could get to any of that without killing her was to hold that damn pitcher. So hold it I did.
Maren closed her eyes, turning her face up to the stream of clean water. The servants expertly slid their fingers through Maren’s hair, teasing out the suds. And I realized with a start that I had no idea if I was doing it right. This was the first time I’d ever helped wash someone’s hair. Fuck, I’d never even washed my own until all my servants had fled, and I had no choice but to learn how to take care of myself, including bathing.
Thankfully, neither the servants nor Maren complained about the quality of my services. Once Maren’s hair was soap-free, I gently poured the rest of the water over her body, relishing the view of clean water rinsing the last night’s remnants off her skin along with the soap suds. The servants then ran their palms over Maren’s hair and body, drying her more effectively than a towel ever would.
After they put a long, soft tunic on her and Daria led her to the bed, I ordered, “Now give her a hug.”
The hag tilted her head, turning her ear to me as if confused about what she’d just heard.
“I...I beg your pardon, Your Majesty?” she asked tentatively.
“She’s been to the Abyss and back in the past few hours,” I said. “She deserves at least a hug to soothe her. I’d love to be the one to give it to her, but we all know how that would end. So,please,” I added emphasis to the word I’d hardly ever used in my life. “Please, give her a hug before you leave here.”
Daria bowed her head to me, before turning to Maren and dutifully wrapping her arms around her. With a wide smile, Maren hugged her back. Her arms went around the woman, buther gaze found me. She didn’t say a word, just looked at me with that big, happy grin. I inhaled deeply, imagining her arms around me instead, and I could almost feel them tightening around my torso with her nose buried in my neck.
The illusion was vivid. Sweet and painful at once.
“Thank you,” Maren said softly as the hug ended and the two women stepped out of each other’s arms.
“It was my honor, mistress,” Daria bowed.
But Maren never took her eyes off me, and I knew her gratitude was for me just as much as for the healer.
Too exhausted to eat a full meal, Maren only had a cup of broth before going to bed.
“Is there no bed foryou?” she asked, climbing under the covers after Daria and the servants had left.
“Even if there was, why waste a perfectly good bed?” I shrugged. “You know it’ll be as hard as the floor the moment I touch it. I may as well just stay on the floor.”
I leaned against the wall opposite her bed. I was tired, but I knew sleep would not come to me yet, even if I tried to court it by lying down and closing my eyes.
I liked sleeping. Fuck, I’d spent most of the past ten decades in some sort of sleepy haze, often loathing waking up at all. But the memory of Maren’s terrified voice calling to me from inside the glass palace haunted me.
Sitting on the bed, with her hands placed on her knees, she said, “You didn’t try to get some sleep last night, did you?”
“No.”
“I told you not to lurk around. But you lurked, didn’t you?”
“I did,” I confessed.
I became a master of lurking in those few dark hours of last night. Choosing the most secluded places so as not to spook my subjects and not ruin too much of their habitat, I wandered around Lyrei like a restless specter. I simply couldn’t bringmyself to return to the palace where I knew everything would be different and infinitely worse without Maren.
Sleep used to be my reprieve from reality, but she made my reality better than any dream could ever be.
With a quiet sigh, she lay down in bed, pulling the cover over her.
“I’m sorry you had to ruin your mother’s pearls,” she said quietly, clearly plagued by the nightmares of last night too.
“Just like I’ve ruined every other thing I’ve touched, both literally and figuratively.” I smirked bitterly. “In this case, however, I don’t regret it, darling. I’d do it again if it helped me pull you out of their clutches. I’m so glad it worked.”
Leaning my head back against the wall, I drew in a long breath and said a prayer of gratitude to whatever deity would listen for having Maren alive, safe, and at my side again despite everything that had happened.
She rose on her elbow. “I meant it, Kye, when I said that all those monsters weren’t after me. I was just bait to lure you into the water where they could attack you. You proved difficult for them to catch outright, so Jahanam plotted to get you in the water where his power is stronger. Have you noticed what they were doing towards the end? They attacked in groups. One would sacrifice itself by grabbing you first. Its tentacles then would create a glass barrier, restraining you. Then the other one would hold on to the glass to drag you in without touching you.”
I did notice that. I was just surprised that in the mad dash for her life, she had managed to spot that pattern too.
“It was all deliberate. Planned,” she insisted. “Arnon and Dorelea are in it too.”
