Queensmen

Chapter 95

~Villain~

Oris didn't remember when exactly she fell asleep, but she woke up to Keziah sorting through a pile of gowns beside her. The dimness of the tent seemed to wrap around her until she was nothing but a wisp of a person now and then.

She yawned and blinked the blur from her vision until the girl started looking more human and less shadow. "That was some good sleep."

Keziah looked over her shoulder. "I got bribed to take off your veil. Unexpectedly. In a public place."

"Ah," Oris sat up, "those do look like a lot of dresses. One per person?"

"And then some." Keziah cracked a grin. "There was a competition of sorts, towards the end."

"You look too pleased for that to be all."

"It's refreshing to be one of yours, Mistress."

"I think you just enjoy the subterfuge."

"I like not having a stupid master."

Keziah pulled out a slip of paper from a pocket concealed in her bodice. "These are all their names and stations."

Oris pinched it with two fingers. "That was easier than I expected."

"They are of low station, Mistress, I wouldn't get my hopes up."

"You can't look down on our allies, Miss Keziah. They are all better than me, at least they are nobility."

When Keziah fixed her a stare that threatened to strip her down to her barest layers, Oris sighed helplessly. "Their connections will prove to be valuable."

"I don't trust an alliance where the reliability of our members is based on the fact that they all saw each other pledge allegiance to us. They would only need to agree to pretend that this night never happened then—"

"If I call them pawns, would you be happy?"

Keziah's hands paused over the fabric of a silk dress. "Yes."

"Thought so." Oris got to her feet and stretched. "My bed in the dungeon was more comfortable than this."

"If you miss it that much—"

Oris held up her hand and pointed to the entrance of the tent. Keziah dropped the dress she was folding and stalked towards it.

"Touching my sore spot now, Keziah?" Oris asked sharply. "It seems I have been much too friendly with you. You see me as one of your own, that is a mistake that should be corrected."

"Quiet now, are you?" she asked, just as the girl was about to leave the tent. "The walls of this tent are quite thin. Don't you that someone could easily listen in on us then scurry off to tell their master? What would happen to our pawns then? Would they still side with us?"

There was a gasp, and when Keziah slipped out, a scuffle.

Oris yawned again and returned to her beddings, taking over the task of folding the dresses.

She had just finished when Keziah returned, the hair of a maid trapped in her fist. "Mistress, there were three of them. The others have scurried off to tell their masters."

"Good." Oris beckoned them forward with a finger. "Poor girl, did she hurt you?"

Keziah shook her fist and the girl swayed with the motion, boneless. "My mistress is talking to you."

"N-No, my lady," the maid stammered.

Oris' smile widened. "Ah, so polite. Come. Come. I need you to do something for me."