Beneath the Veil Read online

  Our papers named us as Contralta and Dominage, follies of the house of Baltian. The guards checked them and waved us inside without breaking from their gossipy conversation. The tang of herb hung about them in eye-watering clouds. They didn't seem particularly thrilled with their assignment.

  Baltian's follies were not assigned to the Regent Square bathhouse, only the two closest to his house. Fortran Vinder's follies, however, who lived with him in his house several streets away, had been assigned to one of the two baths closer to the one at Regent Square. We went in as Dominage and Contralta, and we came out as Verbina and Floradi. Verbina and Floradi became Hasheth and Kallyta, who became Solvia and Rytha, until we were where we needed to beThe Regent Square bathhouse was old, with crumbling tile and broken windows. The guards at the door waved us in without even checking our papers.

  "'Tis most always like this," Galya explained with a shiver "This bath has always been in disrepair. Cold. Moldy. Not very popular."

  "Which makes it perfect for us as a meeting place." I looked around.

  She led me back to a cubicle, meant for women to hang their kedalyas in while they bathed. She pressed a succession of panels in the moldy wood until the door slid back and revealed a passage. She stepped in, and I followed her.

  Without a light to guide us, I had to follow her lead.

  "Keep your hand on the wall," she said.

  "I know."

  She chuckled and stopped moving so fast I bumped into her. I felt her breath on my face and realized she'd turned to face me.

  "I have you in the dark with me at last," she teased. Her arms went around me and gave me a tight squeeze. "I'm glad it's with you, Aeris. I can't imagine anyone else I could do this with."

  "Not even Dae?" I asked, glad of the warmth of her body close to mine in the darkness.

  "Are you jealous?" She squeezed me again.

  "A little."

  She laughed and kissed my chin. "You know you'd be welcome to join us any time."

  I squeezed her back so hard she giggled. "With Lir that would make four in a bed. Wouldn't it be crowded?"

  "I think we'd be able to make some room." She snuggled a bit closer for a moment. "I'm anxious."

  "Me too."

  We held each other for another few minutes in the cold, dark passage. Then Galya sighed, kissed me again and found my lips this time, then turned.

  "No sense in waiting," she said. "We can't win a war we don't fight."

  A door clicked open, and we came out blinking into the bathhouse I remembered. Deserted, dim and cold, the sight was depressing. Galya reached up and lit one of the gas sconces on the wall.

  "It doesn't look like anyone's been in here for months."

  "That's good," I said. "It shows Rosten doesn't know about it."

  Galya ran a hand along the dust-covered table that had once groaned with food and drink. "I could use some of those feasts we used to have. My stomach is empty."

  We'd spent the day traveling from bath to bath without eating. "I'm hungry, too. Maybe we can find something in the kitchen."

  She shook her head, her face shadowed. "The sooner we get in and out of here, the better I'll feel. My belly can grumble a while longer."

  We set off through the passage. There was no flirting this time, only purpose. We both knew the consequences of being caught. What Rosten had done to me before would be like a lover's caress compared to how he'd treat us if we were discovered.

  We came out from behind the tapestry in the upper corridor close to Lir's quarters. I wondered who used them now. Adamantane and Simelbon, Rosten's two closest comrades, had their own estates at the edge of the city and apartments close to the White Palace. I wouldn't have been surprised to learn either of them had been installed in more prestigious lodgings.

  We moved down the corridor with tiny, flowing steps I had learned to copy from Galya and the others. None of the lords who passed us paid any attention. We were as ghosts, unnoticed. The simplicity of it made me mentally shake my head.

  It was just as easy to head for Daelyn's old rooms, the place where Rosten had now ensconced himself. Once we got there, however, the task became more difficult.

  We didn't have a reason to enter the room, and without knowing whether or not it was empty, we didn't quite dare open the door. We debated quietly if we should go to the kitchen and wait for him to ring for food, but we were spared the decision when the door opened.

  The Book Monster himself stood in the doorway. He wore the same sober colors and lack of ornamentation, but it wasn't difficult to see the quality of the fabrics had changed. Silk and velvet had replaced the sturdier wools and cottons he'd favored before. His hair was the same straggly length, but now the frizz had been pomaded to smoothness and the gray covered with black. Only the sallowness of his skin and gray of his teeth had remained unchanged.

  "What are you waiting for?" he barked, and motioned us inside.

  I couldn't have been more stunned by the sight that greeted us if Rosten had been wearing a kedalya himself. Three other follies were in the room. None of them were covered. Each had been dressed in a gown as rich and fine as any I'd seen in Carinda's court. Sleek, flowing wigs of golden auburn adorned their heads, held back by jeweled combs and circlets.

  Rosten closed and locked the door behind us. "Where's the wine I called for?"

  I thought fast, but Galya faster. "It turned in the jug. We sent it back to the cellar to be replaced by one better suited."

  He grunted as though unconcerned, then waved toward the women seated on the bench. "We don't need the wine. Go get yourselves dressed."

  He rubbed his hands together, and I saw the unmistakable glint of lust in his eyes. He snapped, and Galya, still more used to her role than I mine, leaped forward. Rosten put his hand on her head in a caress that made him shake with pleasure. His hand slid over the back of her neck to her shoulders, down her back and over her buttocks. He licked his lips, and his voice became a harsh whisper.

  "You've got curves. Ah, I like that. Go put on the red dress."

  Galya's eyes met mine for a moment before she hurried to obey. I braced myself for Rosten's touch. It came, his stroking hand finding all the places he'd touched on Galya and more. I held my breath, sick from being so close to him. If I'd had a knife, I could have and would have killed him then and damned the consequences.

  "Too bony," he pronounced, his voice disappointed. He gave me a shove. "Damn you, I told Fiesco I wanted women, not bony, scrawny boys. You can wait in the corner for the wine to come, and then you can serve us."

  My sigh of relief was so loud he heard it even through my kedalya. He leaned close to me, his fingers biting into my upper arms, his eyes boring into mine.

  "You will not make that noise again, folly. I don't want to know that you breathe, much less be subjected to the noise of it."

  I said nothing, daring not to even nod. He released me and jerked his head toward Galya, who had paused in the doorway between the sitting room and bedchamber. He hissed, and she fled.

  I did as he told me, went to the corner and sat. Cold sweat covered me. I felt like a mouse thrown into a pit of snakes.

  Galya returned clad in a gown of scandalous red that dipped so low in the front I could see the dusky circles of her nipples. She'd put on a long wig, and it transformed her. She took a seat next to the others, her face blank though faint lines of strain showed around her eyes.

  Rosten paced back and forth in front of the four women and pinned each of them with his gaze. The other three seemed to know already what to expect, for when he snapped at the first she got to her feet and then knelt in front of him. He put his hands on her head while she loosed the ties at his groin and exposed him.

  He sat on the bench with the first woman between his knees and the other two at his sides. I didn't want to watch Rosten take his pleasure, but was too fascinated to look away. He made them call him by pet names and treat him as a lover, only to scorn their caresses and rebuke them for their fa