Goddess Read Online Free Page A

you, of all people. Can you believe it, Lazar? Us two talking like old friends?’ Lazar did not answer. She sighed. ‘Yes, I am restless. And I think you’re right. The freedom that the desert allowed me to glimpse has done this. I still desire my position as Valide, don’t get me wrong, but suddenly everything at the palace feels utterly tedious and my moods are out of kilter.’
    ‘War is coming, Valide. You may live to desire the monotony of harem life more than anything else.’
    ‘Maybe I will, but right now discussing whether one girl has learned her steps of the Shezza dance accurately enough seems altogether pointless. There are such bigger things at stake and it galls me that I am being kept from them.’
    ‘Have you seen Boaz?’
    ‘No. My son is avoiding me. Not deliberately, I don’t think. He’s preoccupied with the Galinsean threat and rightly so. How could I, a mere woman, help him?’
    ‘A woman has two arms, two legs, a brain…just as a man does. Save for brute strength, she is his equal, Valide.’
    ‘Zarab save me. Lazar, do you really believe that?’
    He nodded against his pillow, his stare earnest. ‘I always have.’
    ‘And yet there is no more chauvinistic man in Percheron, I believe! You keep the company of men. You certainly show no interest in women in general to my knowledge.’
    ‘I am not prejudiced, Valide. To your knowledge you know only the interest—as you call it—that I do not show in you. Unless you’re spying on me then you know nothing about time I have spent with women, or your spies are hopeless.’ He watched her bristle, unsure of whether it was the barb about having poor spies or the fact that he might be engaged in amorous pursuits with other women that irritated her. He continued, but in a more soothing manner. ‘I do believe men make better fighters. They can be more ruthless—save present company of course.’
    She smiled ruefully at his cutting praise.
    ‘Women undoubtedly make better carers. I generalise, but I think we all have roles we can shine in though I still say we are equal. We balance one another; we need one another.’
    ‘You don’t seem to need the balance of a woman, Lazar.’
    ‘Oh, but I do. You just told me how much I stink and my house stinks. A woman, better than any, can fix that.’
    She reacted girlishly to his sarcasm, rather than angrily, smiling as she hurled her silk purse towards him, loving the feeling of freedom it gave her to act so thoroughly out of character. ‘How dare you!’
    His mouth twitched in genuine amusement that Herezah was capable of taking the jest and laughing at it. He tried to move his head but was far too slow. The soft silken sack landed across his face, lightly; there was nothing in it save a square of voile.
    ‘Oh, Lazar, forgive me,’ Herezah said, standing quickly to remove the purse.
    He laughed beneath the silk despite his mood. ‘That’s about as uncontrolled as you’ve ever behaved, Herezah. You should reveal yourself more often in this way.’
    She bent into a crouch by the bed, took the purse that he handed her. ‘I could say the same for you. I do like it when you call me by my name.’
    ‘I shouldn’t,’ he said.
    Herezah unhooked her veil. ‘I like it even more when you are not snarling at me.’
    Fresh, spicy perfume wafted over him and she was close enough for Lazar to smell on her breath the fragrant herbs that so many of the Percherese chewed.
    ‘I snarl at everyone,’ he said.
    She shrugged. ‘Well, I suppose it’s reassuring that you know you do, but I do believe you save your worst for me.’
    ‘It’s because you disappoint me.’ He saw the shock flare in her eyes as if she had been slapped. ‘You have so much to offer Percheron. That’s why Joreb chose you in the first place. You raised a son we are all proud of, groomed him perfectly for hisroyal role. You are arguably the strongest, most talented and most beautiful Mother of the Zar Percheron has ever