Rider's Revenge (The Rider's Revenge Trilogy Book 1) by Alessandra Clarke

Author:Alessandra Clarke [Clarke, Alessandra]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2015-09-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 52

Herin slammed the door and turned on her. "Are you a fool?"

"No." K'lrsa sat on the stone bench under the windows, arms crossed against her chest.

"Do you want to die?"

"No. Of course not." K'lrsa answered without thinking, but it was true. She didn't want to die anymore. She would, if it meant killing the Daliph, but she didn't want it. Not now that she'd found Badru.

Herin stepped closer. "Do you want Badru to die?"

"No." What did he have to do with it?

Herin glared down at her. "Then obey your poradoma and keep your mouth shut. Wear what they tell you to wear. Do what they tell you to do. Don't show yourself to be the ignorant tribal savage you are."

"Tribal savage? What does that make you?" K'lrsa stood, trying to loom over the woman, but Herin was at least half a head taller than her.

"Someone who learned the rules of the game I was forced to play." Her eyes were flinty as she added, "I suggest you do the same."

K'lrsa stepped around her and grabbed another handful of grapes, munching on them as she paced the room. "I don't understand. What have I done that's so wrong?"

Herin rolled her neck and grimaced in pain. She lowered herself to a cushion and Garzel joined her. He loaded a flat disk of bread with spiced meat and greens and held it for Herin to take a bite. K'lrsa decided that if Herin could eat so could she and used bread to scoop a mouthful of eggs—so soft and creamy she sighed in bliss.

"Where to begin?" Herin took another bite of food. "Dorana belong to the Daliph."

"Yes, I understand that."

Herin frowned at her, reminding K'lrsa of her own mother when she was disappointed.

"No. You don't. They belong to him. They're his possessions. Their bodies are his. They can't do anything without his permission."

"Anything?"

"Anything."

K'lrsa peeled a nectarine, trying to think what that meant. She took a bite, relishing the juicy sweetness.

"The poradoma are a gift from the Daliph to his dorana. His way of giving her permission to eat and dress herself."

"Really?" K'lrsa laughed.

Herin nodded. "Dorana are a symbol of the Daliph's power and mastery over his world. They must only act as he wills them to."

"Then I don't want to be one."

"You have no choice. You were already a slave. As a slave, you have no say in who owns you or what they ask you to do. Now the Daliph has made you his dorana. You have no say in that either."

"How can that be?"

Garzel grunted at Herin, his words unintelligible. Herin nodded, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Let me start over. You were a woman of the tribes. A Rider?"

"Yes."

"Did you notice as you came here that women dress differently than the tribes? That they're treated differently?"

"Yes. How could I not notice?"

Herin nodded. "You saw, but did you understand what you saw?"

K'lrsa shoved another bite of food into her mouth. She'd never liked learning through discussion. She learned better through action, by doing.

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