In Belcourt, they rear weapons no man can contend with: women.
Sasha was never meant to be in the Court of Flowers, one of the most sought-after courts in Belcourt, but when she is suddenly placed there without warning, she discovers a world far fro...
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AUGUST 2, 1781
The sharp cry of a newborn child joined the painful screams of its mother, disrupting the peaceful night of Belcourt.
The woman, her face drenched in sweat and tears, shakily reached out for her child as it was hastily bundled in white cloth.
One of the seven cloaked women standing in the room came near and bent over her, face shadowed by the moonlight streaming behind her through the window, and sternly said, "You have committed treason against Belcourt, Elizabeth. Your fate and that of your child has been determined."
"Yes, I—I am aware, but I—I want my child! Let me hold him just this once, please!"
"It is a she, Elizabeth," the woman calmly stated.
Elizabeth's eyes widened in horror. Her pale face turned white as blood drained from her head at the revelation. "No," she roared, nearly in anger. Then she paused before letting out a bitter laugh. "No, he is to be the next—"
"You bore a daughter."
"You are lying! Let me see!" she shouted as she weakly reached out for her crying child that was in the arms of one of the three cloaked women standing at the foot of her bed.
With a nod from the woman standing beside Elizabeth, the women pulled up the hood of their purple cloak and turned away, carrying the infant away from the woman who brought her into this world.
More tears streamed Elizabeth's face as she roared in anger and pain.
"She can't have her! You cannot have her! She does not belong here!"
The four remaining women looked at each other. One of them nodded and the other three turned to face Elizabeth.
"By the power vested upon us by the High Court, we hereby sentence you, Elizabeth, erstwhile, a lady from the Court of Flowers, to a life of banishment."
Elizabeth knew her punishment was just.
She laughed, and then she cried.
She laughed at her fate.
She laughed at the women standing around her bed.
She cried for her child.
She may have survived the childbirth, but she would never survive the banishment. In no time, she would be as dead as the man she was running away from.
"You leave Belcourt on the morrow."
She let out a weak chuckle.
A tear rolled down her eyes as she closed them, remembering the day she first stepped into Belcourt and cursing the day she would leave it for the last time.
