A Fleeting Eternity - Chapter Eighteen

Ky woke early the next morning to her door flying open. Her eyes fluttered open and she gasped as someone grabbed her shirt, hauling her upper body off the mattress. Her eyes locked on Aleth’s cruel face before she could understand what was happening.

“Hello, Ky!” he said loudly.

She blinked stupidly, trying to make sense of the world.

“You see this?” Aleth gestured at his face. A large purple bruise stretched from his eyelid to his cheek, the flesh swollen and puffy. A strange sense of satisfaction settled over Ky as she remembered her fight with him and she realized she’d inflicted the wound.

Suddenly his fist landed on her face, driving her down into the mattress.

Ky groaned and grabbed her face with both hands, rolling onto her side as she writhed in pain. The fire in her abdomen returned at the movement. A splitting headache throbbed through her skull once more.

“Fair’s fair.”

A moment later she heard the door slam shut. She took a deep breath and cautiously rolled over, pulling her hands away from her face, afraid that she’d see Aleth still in the room once she did. To her surprise, she was alone in the room once again. She rubbed her face and then curled into a protective ball, clutching her abdomen.

She felt like death warmed over. Her tongue felt thick and her head was so heavy, ever part of her body throbbing and aching. She faded in and out of consciousness the rest of the day, never quite sure if she was awake or dreaming, vaguely aware each time Yuane came in to offer her food or change her bandages.

The entire week passed in that way. Aleth would come in each morning to punch her, once, in the face and mutter about how he was going to continue exacting his revenge until the bruise on his own face faded – then Ky would spend the rest of the day resting alone in the room. As she began to spend more and more time awake each day, Yuane started giving her a tea to help her sleep throughout most of the day and night.

One morning, Ky woke before Aleth or Yuane came into her room. She was still exhausted, but had more clarity than she’d had in a while, and actually felt like life was returning to her. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked at herself in the small mirror on the opposite wall.

Her face was bruised and battered from Aleth’s abuse, and her hair was wild, with some strands curling behind her ears, and others sticking straight out from her head. She ran a hand through her hair lazily and then looked down at her body.

At this point, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to see the current state of her abdomen or not. She swallowed hard and pulled up her tunic. Yuane had stopped bandaging her abdomen a few days before, saying that the wounds needed to be able to breathe in order to heal. Her abdomen was thoroughly mutilated, and yet strangely artistic.

The lines on either side of her abdomen were symmetrical, with curved cuts sprawling outward from the deepest incisions. The cut just over her belly button curved inward on itself and almost looked like a jagged, gruesome flower. The leaves and thorns branching off it were shallower and were now simply fresh, pink skin. The deeper cuts were still dark red and scabbed over.

Aleth walked in as she was looking at his handiwork. She quickly dropped her tunic and looked up at him fearfully, chest going tight as she waited for the morning’s attack. He shut the door behind him, presence sucking all of the oxygen from the room. He meandered towards her, the jaunty gait agonizing as each moment that passed expanded the fear building in her gut. She closed her eyes as he neared, clenching her jaw in preparation for the blow to come.

There was a painfully long silence.

“Do you like the design?”

Ky cautiously opened here eyes, and saw Aleth standing just in front of her, gesturing at her abdomen. She swallowed hard.

“I’ve been working on a dragon on Tadaaki,” he explained, sitting on the edge of the mattress, just to her right. “I thought the flowers might suit you a bit better.”

Ky laid her arm across her abdomen protectively, looking at him suspiciously. “I’d rather flowers not be a part of my flesh.”

“Then you’d best learn to behave.” Aleth patted her abdomen ever so gently. “I’ve got many more blooms and leaves I’d like to add, but I’ll reserve those for times when you earn them.”

Ky nodded resentfully.

“Good news for you, I think the bruise has faded from sight,” Aleth said, rubbing his own face. “Which means that, so long as you decide to be agreeable, we can move from behavior training to job training. What do you say? Think it’s time to move past the rocky start?”

“Yes, sir,” Ky answered, not willing to risk “earning” any more abuse to her abdomen just then.

“Come on, then,” Aleth said, standing and starting across the room. He gestured for her to follow him as he opened the door to the hall.

Ky stood and hesitantly followed Aleth out of the bedroom. He led the way down a long hallway and down a set of stairs, then down another hallway and into a spacious study. Ky hesitated in the doorway, trying to take it all in.

The wall directly in front of her was completely lined with books, from the floor all the way to the ceiling. The bookshelves were so high that there were ladders with wheels connected to them, allowing for access to each of the volumes. Off to the left there were tall, narrow windows lining the walls. There was a messy desk in the back corner, and a long, narrow table in the center of the room with various books and scrolls and papers strewn across it.

“I often work from here,” Aleth said, walking to the desk and patting the wooden surface. He gestured at the table in the center of the room. “You will work from there. I will often oversee your work, but I will frequently expect you to work by yourself.”

Ky looked up as she sensed a presence behind her.

“Tadaaki!” Aleth said brightly. “Were you able to get it?”

“Yes, sir,” Tadaaki answered.

“Excellent,” Aleth said. “Bring it here.”

Ky stepped forward to make room for Tadaaki to enter the study as well. He walked towards Aleth, bundle under his arm. Aleth turned towards Ky and gestured towards her. “Ky, come here.”

Ky took a deep breath, steeling her confidence, and reluctantly walked towards the men standing next to the desk. Tadaaki was unwrapping the bundle he had brought in. Aleth looked at it briefly for a moment, then nodded approvingly, and looked back at Ky.

“Take off your nightshirt,” Aleth ordered.

Ky narrowed her eyes.

Aleth raised his eyebrows challengingly. “Tadaaki?”

Tadaaki turned towards her, reaching out to grab her arm. She stepped backward quickly, scenes from the palace and the road flashing across her mind’s eye. Both Aleth and Tadaaki had seen her unclothed at this point, and it’d be better to obey than feel their hands stripping her once again. “No, wait!”

She clenched her teeth and resentfully pulled the nightshirt over her head. She shivered slightly under the critical gaze of Aleth as he observed her for a moment, before holding something out to her. “Put this on.”

Ky took the item from Aleth and looked at it quizzically. It was made of coarse black fabric with wire ribbing running through it. She could see hook and eye fasteners and a zipper and laces, but it wasn’t clear how it was meant to fit on her.

“Tadaaki?” Aleth said.

Ky looked up fearfully. “I don’t know how!”

“It can’t be that hard to figure out,” Aleth said dismissively, reaching out to take the night shirt out of Ky’s hand. Tadaaki reached for the item in her hands. “Let him see it.”

Ky handed Tadaaki the contraption and crossed her arms over her chest. Lutalya was chillier than Lytias was in the summer, and the stone walls trapped in cool air. Tadaaki fiddled with the item for a moment then held it up. “Put your arm here.”

Ky did as she was directed, and Tadaaki helped her into what seemed like a gruesome vest. There was wire ribbing that ran along the back as well as the front, and all the extras that she had noticed were hanging from the left side in front of her, while the back of the vest was completely enclosed with fabric.

“I’m… not sure how these next steps go,” Tadaaki said apologetically.

“It can’t be that hard to figure out,” Aleth repeated, stepping forward. Ky resisted the urge to step backward and neared her. He reached down and began fiddling with the various options on the vest.

He carefully did all the hooks on the bottom layer of the vest. It was snug on her abdomen and chest, but not tight. The next layer of fabric was a bunch of strings, which Aleth threaded like a corset, and then pulled uncomfortably tight. Ky clenched her teeth, determined now to give him the satisfaction of a reaction.

Aleth tied the strings off and then did the zipper on the next layer of fabric, pulling the contraption that much tighter around Ky’s torso. The final layer was a thick flap of fabric that went from the left side of her body and wrapped around her chest and under her right arm, then hooked on the side with a few metal fasteners.

Aleth turned back towards his desk and picked up a small folded tunic and held it out to Ky. “Now put this on.”

Ky took the tunic and did as she was told, although her movements were awkward and restricted due to the contraption he had laced her into. She tugged the tunic straight and looked up to meet Aleth’s critical gaze.

“Turn.”

Ky turned in a slow circle, coming to a stop once she was face to face with Aleth and Tadaaki once again. Aleth looked at Tadaaki. “What do you think?”

“It’s not noticeable at all.”

“I agree,” Aleth answered, nodding approvingly. “It will do.”

“Do what?” Ky questioned.

“Convince everyone that you’re my male assistant,” Aleth answered. “Your rags served as well as they could, but are unreliable. This is a binder specifically intended to flatten your chest. You’ll wear this now.”

Ky nodded reluctantly. It was terribly uncomfortable. She could barely draw a breath, much less let her back slouch at all, without a wire jabbing into her side. But it was a small price to pay to keep Aleth’s favor.

“Your first assignment,” Aleth said, picking up a letter from his desk and pressing it into Ky’s hands. “Is to translate this letter into the Trade Language.”

Ky looked down at the letter in her hands, heart beating faster. It was a short letter written in Traditional Lytiasian. This was it – her only chance. If she translated this letter, her window for lying about her language skills would be closed forever.

“Go to the table and write it out on one of the blank sheets of paper.”

“I don’t understand what it says,” Ky said, keeping her eyes fixed on the paper rather than on Aleth. It was partially true. Most of her reading lessons had been in the Trade Language, and the little Lytiasian that she’d known in written form was fuzzy in her brain, she could only easily make out a word here and there at first glance.

“Work out as much of it as you can.”

Ky looked up to meet Aleth’s narrowed eyes. “I don’t know how to read this.”

“Don’t lie to me,” he hissed.

“I’m not lying!” she insisted. “I was a small child when I got taken from my home. Father only taught me to read in the Trade Language. It’s been too many years. I don’t remember Lytiasian.”

“Try to figure it out,” Aleth snarled, gesturing at the table. “Sit.”

Ky swallowed hard and walked towards the table obediently, gladly welcoming the order to get out of his arm’s reach. She sat at the table, glanced down at the letter once more, then looked back at him.

“You won’t be eating again until you transcribe that letter,” Aleth spat. “I suggest you drop the façade soon.”