Reluctant Concubine Read Online Free Page A

her back in a heavy braid.
    I reached to my forehead and felt the gap that still seeped. “I am Tera. Could you please tell me where I can find some clean water?”
    She pushed to standing and padded to the door. I tried to follow, but she was already returning before my shaky limbs could carry me halfway across the room. I could have wept at the sight of a full bowl of water, more than I had been given on the ship the entire long trip.
    “Thank you.” I drank deeply before beginning to wash my wounds.
    I went on to wash the ship’s stench off the rest of my body, but Onra stayed my hand and removed the bowl, only to appear with clean water. She brought me yet a third bowl to wash my clothes. Still, it would have taken many more to wash away all the dirt, more than an ocean to make me feel clean again.
    I wished I had something to give in return for Onra’s gift. Instead, I had to ask for more help. “I need to go outside to find—” I did not know the word in her language so I said it in mine. “Ninga beetle. Little bug that lives in water.”
    She shook her head. “You have to stay here. New slaves get beaten worst. They say a good beating in the beginning saves lots of beatings later. You can find your bugs maybe tomorrow or after.”
    I knew enough about wounds to know I should not wait. “Where do you go for water?”
    “The clay jars outside the door.”
    “How does water come into the jars?”
    “The servants bring it from the creek at the end of the fields.”
    “I need to go there. I need the beetles for this.” I pointed to the gash in my forehead.
    After a moment, she rose to her feet. “I will go.”
    “No.” I reached to pull her back. I wanted no harm to befall her because of me.
    Her lips tugged into a sad smile. “I will not see the whip today. Kumra would not ruin my skin before tonight.”
    She hurried through the door before I could ask what she meant.
    She stayed away a long time, until I worried that maybe she had been stopped and beaten despite her reassurances. But then she appeared with a rag bunched in her shaking hands. She set the cloth in front of me and stepped back quickly, grimacing as I began to unfold the small package.
    Her expression, a mix of fear and revulsion, betrayed how little she cared for the beetles, so I thanked her even more for the gift.
    Three big ningas, flat as if hit by stone, rolled to the floor in front of me. I pressed my lips together. “I need them alive. I should have told you. I am sorry.”
    Onra’s eyes widened as she stared at me.
    I rose on shaking legs. “I will go.”
    She drew a deep breath and pushed me down onto the jumble of rags that covered my pallet, then walked away again.
    “I need small ones,” I called after her, wincing with embarrassment that I had to issue yet another request.
    She gave me a tremulous smile from the doorway.
    I sat as close as I could to the nearest brazier that still had some glowing lumps of coal, shivering in my wet clothes. I soaked up the heat for a while, then brought a clean bowl of water from outside the door, careful not to let anyone see me.
    Onra stayed away longer this time. But she did return with a few squirming beetles, bundled tight in the rag once again. I lifted the first beetle and, watching my reflection in the mirror of the water, placed its pinchers against the edges of my wound, then squeezed its body.
    The beetle sank its black pinchers into my skin, drawing the edges together. With a quick twist, I separated body from head, which would have held the pinchers firmly in place had I not pulled the body away too soon. I could not see enough in the water, my hand obstructing the view. I pulled the half-done pinchers out, wiped the blood, then started over.
    Onra, who had been alternating between watching and glancing away in horror, pushed my hand down and picked up the second beetle, only to drop it again when it bit her.
    “Like this.” I showed her how to place her fingers farther