Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Beds and Bobbles

 Ethat going from pleading besotted dragon to indifferent dragon made me shiver. Korr or Itek or Asund pulling that off? Sure. Ormiss? Obviously.

Ethat?

The Murder Dragon who we had had to pry off the castle tower below the sea before he ate the Queen's son? Who needed a necromancer to follow him around to prevent diplomatic incidents? That Ethat could put on airs?

Putting some space between us to sort all this out had been the right move.

Although the ravens were going to try to squeeze themselves into that space.

"M'lady?" Deliah asked again from the stairs.

"She'll take the eastern room, of course, Deliah," Yanice's politely-snide tone said from the second landing. She descended into view, one elegant hand resting on the banister like she was lady of the manor, her steps mincing and proper.

And now I was going to be locked into this house with them. Grand. Absolutely grand. How was I supposed to get rid of them without causing a kerfuffle? I was no high-born lady but I knew damn well you didn't dismiss upstairs servants or personal attendants if you didn't want that to cause a scene, because a lot of times, those servants (especially the maids and valets) were from high-ish born families themselves. Or they knew people. And they all knew things. Servants gossiped, and wronging a personal servant was a terrible mistake to make. Your enemies would delight in welcoming them to their own abode.

If you were going to dismiss a servant, you needed to be clever about it. Tynne's mother had been a master of keeping her servants terrified of what she'd do to them, and none had ever felt like they could get out of her reach. If you left her service, or she sent you on your way, you prayed she forgot you ever existed.

Hopefully, I'd learned enough avoiding her wrath (more or less) to keep myself out of trouble with these two.

Yanice was clearly from some kind of aristrocratic background. Maybe a bastard, maybe a sixth daughter, maybe the daughter of someone who had fallen out of favor. If I dismissed her, she'd run right towards the ravens or wolves, and the gods only knew what she'd say. Deliah was probably cut from the same silk, but she seemed to be much more receding. She'd follow Yanice's lead, though, and she didn't think much of me either. She just wasn't bold enough to cut the buttons off my gown. She would though. Met plenty of servants like both of them, and thinking Deliah was less dangerous than Yanice was a good way to get myself stabbed in each lung.

I would not be making that mistake.

Yanice stopped on the middle step and gazed at me, clearly pleased with her perch.

"Actually," I said, "I will be in the west room. I've already moved some of my things in there."

"That's Lord-Regent Ormiss' room," Yanice said in a sweet tone like I was too stupid to know that.

"No, it's mine." This house belonged to the hippocamp, so it wasn't mine, exactly. But because Ormiss was the highest-ranking hippocamp that would ever set foot in this house unless the Queen decided to come ashore (which she never would do), and I was Ormiss' consort, it was all mine. I had to think of it that way, even if it made my guts squirm with nerves while my heart hurt from not having my consorts at hand.

Or at least it was mine for as long as I didn't reject Ormiss. Formally. Permanently.

The metallic taste of blood and vomit crept up the back of my throat.

Deliah's lips curled into an o and she glanced at Yanice, who smiled sweetly. "Are you sure, m'lady? Perhaps you are confused about the rooms. East is on this side, west is on that side."