Reign of Shadows - Deborah Chester [70]
If only I knew the forbidden ways, she thought to herself. I would risk perdition gladly to pay this creature back for her cruelty.
Hecati put her slippered foot on top of Elandra’s head, forcing her face to the carpet. “I am the aunt of the future empress of the world. What are you?”
Elandra nearly choked, but she forced herself to utter the answer. This is the last time, she promised herself. “I am nothing,” she replied as she had been taught so long ago.
“You have been punished.”
“As I—I deserve,” Elandra said.
For that little break in her voice, Hecati’s foot pushed even harder. With her face mashed against the carpet, Elandra breathed in its dust and fibers and knew the choking helplessness of being entirely at another’s mercy.
“Should I punish you again?”
Elandra gritted her teeth on the expected answer. No! her heart cried within her. Her hands curled into fists on the rug. “Yes,” she finally whispered, although she shook against the temptation to grab the switch and give Hecati a taste of it. “I—I should be punished again.”
Hecati removed her foot from Elandra’s head. “I think perhaps you should. There is anger in your voice today. Yes, and defiance too. You have not answered my questions either.”
Trying not to sob, Elandra pressed her face against the rug and dared not make a sound.
Finally, Hecati stepped back. “There is not time to deal with you suitably. I read your heart, girl. I know you are eager to see Lady Bixia and me go.”
Crouched there, Elandra still seethed, but she tried tocontrol herself. “Lady Bixia must go to her destiny,” Elandra managed to say. “It is time for her life to change.”
Hecati sniffed. “Yes, how eagerly you say it. You think that when we are gone you will be made into a lady, that you will run this palace, that you will even sit at your father’s right hand during banquets. Oh, yes, I know what is in your devious heart. But you will have none of those honors. Bastards deserve to remain hidden away. Without us here, you’ll be relegated to the lowest end of the servants’ hall. You can spend your years scrubbing pots and killing beetles in the kitchen, for all I care.”
Elandra lifted her face to Hecati. “He is not as cruel as you.”
Hecati blinked at this defiance; then her eyes narrowed. “That tongue of yours should have been cut out at birth. Your father forgets your existence half the time. See if he remembers you at all when we are gone.”
Elandra drew in a sharp breath, but before she could reply, Hecati gripped her by the arm and pulled her upright.
“Stand over there, out of the way, and wait until you are summoned to assist dressing Lady Bixia.”
Shoving Elandra aside, Hecati opened the double doors leading into Bixia’s bedchamber and went in.
A frown knotted Elandra’s brow, and she let out her breath in a gusty sigh of relief. The whipping still hurt, but it was the humiliation that cut deepest. She leaned against the wall. Her eyes were stinging, and the tears spilled out before she could stop them. She brought up both hands and pressed them against her trembling lips, trying to pull herself back under control.
Before she succeeded, however, Hecati came storming out of Bixia’s room with an elaborately carved box of walnut in her hands. Her face was livid.
“Here is the box!” she cried. “The special box for the bridal robe. Empty!” She dropped it onto a chair and glared at Elandra. “I knew you were up to some wickedness! What have you done with the bridal robe?”
“Nothing!” Elandra said. She slapped her tears from her cheeks and told herself she should have fled the room the minute Hecati was out of sight.
“You’re lying,” Hecati said. “Here is the box, its seal broken and its contents stolen. You’re a thief as well as a liar. What have you done with it?”
Elandra tried desperately to think of an answer that would spare her another beating, but she was too tired to think. “I know nothing about that box. I did not open it.”
Hecati advanced on her, and Elandra had to force