touch anything, though my fingers longed to stroke the soft furs on the bed. So I simply stood, waiting, glancing at the front entrance of the tent every so often. But the horde king didn’t appear, which relieved me.
Just when my eyes started to droop, when I swayed on my feet with my exhaustion, the flaps pushed open suddenly and a large bathing tub was brought in by two Dakkari males, not the guards stationed at the entrance. They didn’t meet my eyes. They simply deposited the tub along the empty space to the right, the space that wasn’t carpeted, left, and returned with huge basins of hot water. It took them multiple trips in and out of the tent to completely fill up the tub and once it was filled, they exited.
Then two Dakkari females appeared. I straightened at the sight of them, watching them warily. They were smaller than the males with plaited black hair that ended at their waists. Both females were dressed in a flowing gray shift dress that brushed the tops of their six-toed feet. Behind them, a small slit was cut out to allow for their tails, which were tipped in a dark tuft of hair.
“What are you doing?” I asked in alarm when they approached me and began to tug at my clothing, one kneeling to take off my boots, the other pushing the tatters of my cloak off my shoulders.
“The Vorakkar sent us,” one of the females said in the universal tongue, the one trying to unlace my boots. “He requests that you bathe after your long journey.”
“Ordered, you mean,” I muttered, cheeks reddening. “I don’t need one.”
It had been four days since I last bathed. Water was precious in our village and wasn’t needlessly wasted. I eyed the hot water in the bathing tub with longing, but I wondered if I could keep the horde king at bay for a few days if I refused to wash. Just a few days, to come to terms with my new life, my new purpose.
“You need one,” the female said her lips pursed, as if it was obvious. “The Vorakkar will not be disobeyed, even by you.”
What did that mean?
I was just about to protest again, but then bit my tongue. It was inevitable, just like my eventual relations with the horde king, whose name I still did not know.
Be brave, I told myself, and endure.
A thought occurred to me suddenly.
I would fulfill my promise and maybe when the horde king eventually tired of me, he would allow me to return to my village, to Kivan. Perhaps if I pleased him enough, he would take mercy on me and consider my debt paid.
I knew the likelihood of that was slim. Mithelda once again crossed my mind. She had never returned to our village, though there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she’d been taken for the same purpose as the horde king had taken me for.
Shoulders sagging, I let them undress me without a fight. Truthfully, I was too tired to fight them, too sore.
Guilt filled me when I slid into the bathing tub…because it was wonderful and because Kivan, nor anyone in my village, would ever experience anything like it. A moan of surprise left my throat, which embarrassed me, because I’d never felt water that hot, never felt the way it could relax aching muscles and envelop me like a warm, comforting blanket.
Pain seared me as well, however. My inner thighs were chafed and raw from riding for hours on end and it stung like hell when the water soothed over the wounds.
I tensed when the two females knelt next to the bathing tub with cloths in their hands. They lathered them with soap, but I said quickly, “I can do that,” when they closed in.
As expected, they ignored me. With thorough strokes that left my cheeks flaming, they washed me from head-to-toe with efficiency, even scrubbing underneath my fingernails and toenails. They washed my dark hair twice with soap and I saw how quickly the water turned brown from dirt and dust.
One of the females suddenly yelled something towards the tent flaps, making me jump.
“Up,” she told me and wrapped me in a large fur blanket. “The water needs to be changed.”
“I’m clean,” I protested.
“Nik, the water needs to be changed. Look at the color.”
And so, I stood as the tub was carried out by three Dakkari males this time, returned once they tossed out the dirty water, and watched