The Captive by Jenny Foster

Author:Jenny Foster [Foster, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

My day isn’t over yet, not by a long shot.

Hathura is waiting for me in the garden. The servant, who tended to me on my first evening here, leads me to the small pool. Zeyliv’s main wife is lying naked, just as God made her, in the pool. She smiles at me. Then Mangali arrives, too, and throws her clothes on the ground without giving them a second thought. The servant gathers the clothes, and tries to undress me, but I refuse. I can undress myself, thank you very much, no matter how tired I am. When the three of us are in the pool, and the warm water is washing all around us, Hathura dismisses the woman. We are alone.

Before long, they broach the subject that is weighing on their hearts. “What are you doing with Zeyliv?” Mangali asks bluntly. Her friendliness has disappeared, and I can also see a hard expression in Hathura’s eyes that wasn’t there before. They both are in great fear for their positions, and I don’t blame them. After seeing how women are treated here on Betania, I can only imagine what the loss of Zeyliv’s favor would mean for them.

But then I realize that there is more to this conversation than I had assumed at first. When I respond that I am not doing anything with Zeyliv, Mangali clenches her fists, and Hathura scoots closer to me. She puts her arms around my shoulders. This is not meant to be a friendly hug between two women. It is definitely a threatening gesture. As I said, I can understand their fear, but enough is enough. I decide the best thing I can to defend myself is to slip into Hathura’s head. So I jump in there without warning. I am furious because they refuse to believe me, and I want her to notice my presence. Recklessly, I trample around in her head, and open drawers, so to say, and throw a passing glance at her looking at me. Slowly, I get closer to her secret. Everyone has things they would rather keep to themselves. In Hathura’s case, it isn’t easy to find hers, because she has buried it so deep that she hardly even believes in it herself.

I see a boy who is about 11 years old. His triangular face has a closed off look, like many other boys his age who are nearing puberty. I see him through Hathura’s eyes, how he twists himself free from her motherly embrace, and frowns. He asks her impatiently when his soul animal will finally show itself, and she answers that he should be praying that this won’t happen for a long time, instead. And then I see what she is hiding from everyone, even from herself. The child isn’t Zeyliv’s son. The day on which his soul animal will show itself will also be the day that she dies for treason, because the child’s father has a lizard-like soul animal.

Everyone will know. And now I know her secret.

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