The Edict (The Emrilion Trilogy Book 1) by P. J. Keyworth

Author:P. J. Keyworth [Keyworth, P. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781739707644
Publisher: Passalande Books
Published: 2023-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Torchlight threw everything in a hot primal glow. Kiara could hear the beat of drums in the distance. She followed the procession of women from the harem, their figures weaving in and out of the shadows, their conversation hushed and excited.

There were furtive glances passing between them all. Then whispers, laughing, sideways looks. Every woman had prepared all day for this evening and now each was at the height of their beauty and each compared themselves to the others.

The women had been given different garments, but now they were together, Kiara could see the similarities. All had their legs bared, their stomachs exposed and in contrast they wore greaves on their legs and leather vambraces on their forearms. They looked beautiful, seductive, and deadly. All part of the Reluwyn heritage, Kiara now realised, their warrior past which played such a large part in their identity.

She wondered whether any of these women even knew how to hold a sword. She doubted it. Kiara was an anomaly in Laowyn culture in knowing how to fight. She wondered for a moment how she would have turned out if she had been raised Reluwyn.

Nisa walked ahead of Kiara in the throng. The concubine was almost a head taller than the rest of the woman. She walked slightly apart from them as well, exchanging greetings with the merest nod of her head but refraining from engaging in conversation, and were the others bowing their heads to her?

Kiara saw the Reluwyn woman’s skin falling in and out of the torchlight as she walked, the patterns coming alive. The Favourite cast an eye across her own arm. Her patterns were just as striking in this light and now she realised there was something in the paint making it shimmer.

The drumbeat was getting louder. Deep rumbles bounced off the stone walls of the palace corridors. Kiara was learning her way around the palace and she now recognised several of the rooms they passed. They were headed to the jewelled courtyard. Were the women to be paraded in front of the men? Or was it just the Prince who would be inspecting them?

Kiara was wrong on both counts.

The women at the front of the crowd paused at the entrance to the courtyard ahead but only for a moment. Soon they were pouring out, filtering into the courtyard and peering over each other’s shoulders to gain a better view.

There must have been nearly a hundred women gathered before her so it took some time for Kiara to get to a place where she could see. In the end she climbed onto a small wall which hemmed in a man-made stream along the edge of the courtyard.

A huge fire had been set ablaze at the centre of the jewelled floor. The drummers were off to the left, animal skin instruments slung across their fronts, their arms thrashing out a constant beat. Now she saw why all the women had stopped. Before the inferno was a line of young men moving together to the beat of the drum.

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