Reluctant Concubine Read Online Free Page B

back on the hard shiny-black wings.
    She drew a deep breath, then another, until her hands stopped trembling, then, beetle by beetle, closed my wound.
    She had nearly finished by the time a servant woman entered the room with a small bowl. She looked at Onra for a long time with tears in her eyes, then set the bowl down inside the door and left as abruptly as she had appeared.
    “Who was that?” I asked.
    Onra dropped the last headless beetle on the pile, cleaned up the mess we had made, then padded over to bring us the bowl. She set the food, some kind of grain cooked in milk, in front of me.
    “My mother,” she said in an emotion-filled whisper.
    I thought of my mother, who had died and was buried somewhere in this land. I was closer to her than I had been for a long time. The thought comforted me a little.
    I looked at the closed door. “Can you not go to her?”
    “I will, after tonight.” Onra scooped some grain from the bowl with her fingers and lifted it to her mouth, motioning to me to do the same.
    I did, and the food tasted better than anything I had had for a long time, although not as good as my mother’s cooking, which was now only a sweet memory.
    “What will you do tonight?” I asked after I eased the worst of my hunger.
    Onra’s eyes filled with tears. “Kumra chose me for our Warrior Lord, Tahar.”
    “Is Kumra his lalka?” I used the word from my own language for wife as I did not know it in hers. “Mate for life.”
    She shook her head. “My mother’s people too had that custom, but not the Kadar. Kumra is the favorite concubine.”
    “Are you a concubine?”
    A fat tear rolled down her face.
    I wished I could call my words back. “Forgive me. I do not know your ways.”
    She nodded, then pointed toward the room in a sweeping motion. “In Maiden Hall, all of us are slaves. When I reached womanhood, they moved me here from the Servant House for the pleasure of our Lord Tahar. A virgin’s blood increases a warrior’s valor, so he takes a girl often, and always before going off to war. For good luck.” She swallowed hard.
    I sat still. “What happens to the virgins afterward?”
    “A few who please him much, he keeps as concubines. They move to Pleasure Hall and no longer have to work with the servants.”
    “And if you are not selected?”
    “I will go to the Servant House.” She looked away. “And after that, any warrior who pleases can have me when he wants.”
    I looked at her, stunned, thinking even death was preferable to that fate. “Maybe he will keep you.”
    But she shook her head. “Kumra hates me, and Tahar listens to her. Even if he picked me and I moved to Pleasure Hall, I would be dead from some mysterious disease soon. That is Kumra’s way.”
    My heart squeezed tightly. “Can we not escape?”
    She grabbed my hand and held it, her watery eyes intent on mine. “You must never try. Tahar’s warriors are great hunters. When they catch you, you will die.”
    I considered whether that might not be a better fate than this.
    “I am scared,” Onra whispered after a moment.
    “Is Tahar—”
    “Not of Tahar. Of weakening. Of crying and bringing shame to our House. I am just a weak girl. Look at me. I have cried ten times today already.” She dropped her hands to her sides.
    I could not understand how she could worry about bringing shame to anyone when unspeakable shame was being done to her. I began to ask but thought better of it. “You will not cry tonight.”
    She looked at me with wet eyelashes that clumped together, her eyes begging. I did not know if I could give her what she needed, but I gave her what I could. “You might be a girl, but inside you are as brave as any warrior. Look at the battle you already won today.”
    She waited.
    “The battle of the beetles.”
    The corner of her mouth tugged up as she wiped her eyes. “I will not forget you, Tera, even if I do not see you for a while.”
    She put her hands on my shoulders and pushed gently to turn