Chapter 39 | The Queen Who Ruled by Herself

Tea with Anda and Bessa

As he walked to the Blue Salon, Temmin thought about the Keep itself--how old it was, and who among his ancestors had built its various sections. The Blue Salon was in an older part of the Keep than the residential wing, which was the very newest section of the building. Temmin's grandfather had built the residential wing not long after Harsin and Ansella had married; Temmin the Fifth was technologically progressive, especially when it came to indoor plumbing, and had started a fad for bathrooms among the nobility that was just now reaching the outlying upper classes and the capital's middle class, to the delight of its plumbers.

Temmin passed through an ancient archway, and looked up idly. There, carved at its apex, was a crest composed of the intertwined initials W and E, flanked by rabbits. He realized he'd seen it before, in the book; the crest was almost the same as the embroidered favor the princess Emmae had given Warin the Wise in the book. King Warin must have built this section, thought Temmin; how fitting that their crest guardians were rabbits, considering they'd had twelve children.

But he quickly moved out of that venerable hall and thoughts of Warin and Emmae's fecundity, and into the more modern section of the Keep that housed the Blue Salon. Or he hoped it did; he'd never actually been there and was relying on instructions from Jenks on how to get there.

Finally he located the Salon. Jenks was already there, supervising a young footman--Caid, was it? Temmin thought--in the setting-up of a great deal of food in the windowless room. “There you are!” said Bessa, crossing to him and kissing him on each cheek. “We thought you'd never get here!”

“Considering this is where the food is, I expected him much sooner,” said Anda archly. “You've seen him eat--hello, Tem!” And she kissed him on each cheek as well.

“I'll leave Caid outside the door to serve you, sir, and make sure you're undisturbed,” said Jenks. He took the junior footman by the elbow and nearly dragged the curious young man from the room.

“Can't you send Mister Jenks to find a homely old footman to stand outside the door and let the pretty young one stay in here with us?” said Bessa plaintively.

“Oh, stop, Bessa!” said Temmin, ruffled. “I can't have people thinking I'm fooling around with my servants, can I?”

“You most certainly can,” said Anda. “You're royalty. Everyone already assumes you're fucking your servants. And you're a Supplicant, which means that for the next two years you can fool around with whomever you want in any event!”

“Must you always be so blunt? I don't even know that footman!” said Temmin, blushing. “Regardless, I'm liking the ratio of male to female right now, seeing as it's in my favor, and I asked you two here specifically to talk about what's going to happen in my training. I don't want eavesdroppers for that. Now will someone please pour me some tea?”

Bessa set herself up behind the pot and handed the cups around. “So,” she said, “what have you gotten yourself worried about now? Honestly, Temmin, you really just need to relax and trust that we're not going to let you get hurt.”

“What are you nervous about, Temmin?” demanded Anda.

“Well,” he squirmed, “everything! What exactly am I going to learn? Who am I going to have to--actually, will I have to do anything I don't want to?”

“Well of course you will!” said Anda scornfully. “That's the whole point of us being there! We do our best to match petitioners up with willing staff, but sometimes it's very hard to do. There are people who come to us who are deeply, deeply unattractive. At those times, we have to be willing to be willing. That's a large part of what you'll be learning--how to find that willingness.”

“It's about acceptance and compassion,” added Bessa.

“When you say 'unattractive,' you mean missing limbs? Hare lips? Old? Just plain ugly?” said Temmin, wincing.

“Sometimes,” said Bessa, reflectively. “Sometimes, though, the ugliest parts are on the inside. Often we don't see that ugliness until we're already in the situation. You have to be ready for it--for anything.”

“And sometimes we can't help them heal. We have to send them away. It's almost always because they don't want to heal,” said Anda. “But sometimes--some people are just broken inside, and no matter what, they're never going to heal right. Those are the ones who need us the most.”

“Like who?”

Anda was quiet. “I can't give names,” she finally said, “but I can give you generalities. People who only respond to children, people who only respond to blood and death--they're the hardest. Sometimes we can help, but sometimes we can't.”

“Children--you're telling me that some people want sex with children?!” said Temmin.

“Most of them were used themselves as children,” said Anda. “We do what we can to help them. Most of them, we do. We find other outlets, and we help them heal what happened to them as children as best we can.”

“You don't give them actual--you can't mean--“

“No, of course not, no children at the Temple, ever,” said Bessa.

“So what happens to the ones you can't help?”

“The men we can't turn from death usually end up at the Brother's Temple. They're better equipped there to deal with them.”

“What happens to them?”

“I don't know,” said Bessa abruptly, “and I don't care to know.”

“And the ones who use children?”

Both girls hesitated. “We work with them as long as they're willing. What they do outside the Temple, we have no control over,” Anda said finally.

“You can't stop them?”

“No,” said Anda, shaking her head. “There's no way to. What they tell us inside the petitioning rooms is sacred. We can't tell anyone, ever.”

“If they're caught,” said Bessa, “it's a matter for the Father's Temple. Usually they're put to death. But they're hard to catch. Most of them just move to brothels.”

Temmin felt the gorge rise in his throat. “You can buy a child. In a brothel.”

“It's illegal, but that just means it's more expensive. As long as there's money in it, you can find just about anything,” said Bessa.

“Does my father know about this?” he said.

“Oh, undoubtedly, but there's not much he can do that isn't being done already,” said Anda. “It's already illegal, and I daresay most people at least pretend they don't know, though I would bet that any man who's ever been in a brothel knows, and that's most men. It just makes the people doing it more careful not to be caught, that's all. You honestly didn't know any of this?”

“No,” said Temmin, shaken. “Why would I?”

“Well,” said Anda, “I would've thought the king's counselor would have told you about the--well. I'm just surprised, that's all. I forget how sheltered you've been.”

“'Sheltered,'” he muttered. “No one should know these kinds of things as a matter of course. They shouldn't happen.”

“No, they shouldn't,” said Bessa simply. “But it's the way of the world.”

“Not once I'm king,” he said darkly. Any appetite Temmin might have had for anything other than tea vanished, but he figured he might as well satisfy his curiosity. “So answer a question for me, then. You mentioned brothels, and I'm not so sheltered I don't know what a brothel is. But what I can't understand is, if we're in the Temple offering our services, why would anyone go to a brothel?”

The girls laughed. “Most people don't want to work this hard!” said Anda.

“It's not just sex we offer, Temmin,” continued Bessa. “Never think that sex is all this is about. We do have people who come to us solely for that, but none of them leave without gaining some knowledge, either about themselves or the gods' will for them.”

“And some people don't want to learn about themselves, they just want to come. Those are the men who use brothels,” concluded Anda.

“Just men?” said Temmin.

“You don't think a woman can go to a whorehouse and still be considered respectable, do you?!” said Bessa, as Anda collapsed in laughter. “Only if she wanted to end up working there, would a woman go to a whorehouse. I don't even know if there are any brothels openly catering to women!”

“Openly? D'you mean there might be some that did it secretly, like--“ Temmin couldn't bring himself to say it-- “like the other thing?”

“Oh, not brothels. There are rich women who individually 'mentor' up and coming young things, and everyone knows what's really going on, but as long as appearances are kept up no one says anything,” said Anda, wiping her eyes. “So, Temmin,” she continued with a smile, “are you going to show us how much you missed us?”

Temmin looked into her round, cheerful face, and then over into Bessa's bright gray eyes. “Remember when you said this wasn't always about sex? Sometimes missing you all isn't just about the sex. Sometimes I just miss you all.”

Anda melted and Bessa sighed. “Temmin, you are the sweetest thing,” said Bessa.

“Well, I don't know about that. I just rather lost my--well, not my appetite,” he said, looking at the nearly empty plates on the table. “But my, ehm, other appetite.” He gave them a doleful look.

Anda pushed away from the tea table and motioned for Bessa to follow her. They each took one of Temmin's hands and pulled him to his feet. “Well,” she said, “would you object to a little cuddle?”

“Cuddle?” he said, confused. “No, I guess not.” The girls settled him between them on the nearby settee; it was a close fit, especially with Anda. “What exactly constitutes a cuddle?”

“Just what we're doing,” said Bessa demurely. “You look a bit--compressed. Would you prefer if I sat on your lap?” She perched on his knee; Temmin immediately remembered another time when she'd sat there, and flushed. “There, that's better, isn't it?” she said, twining her arms around his neck. Bessa gave him a soft, delicate kiss, letting Anda move in and kiss him in turn; she put her legs across Anda's lap, and the rounder girl scooted in closer, putting her arms around Temmin and Bessa both.

“This is--this is more than pleasant,” Temmin said between kisses. “But I'm rather serious. I don't think I'm in the mood. Between my studies earlier and our conversation--”

“And we're saying that's all right,” said Bessa, kissing him again. “We can still be close with one another.” She reached across him and kissed Anda for good measure.

The three sat on the couch, kissing drowsily, until the mantelpiece clock above the empty hearth chimed the hour. “We have to go now,” said Anda, untangling herself.

Bessa stood up reluctantly. “It's been lovely to see you, Tem, and I can't wait until you're with us all the time!”

By this point, Temmin had decided that maybe he was in the mood, but it was too late; the girls gathered their wraps, helped each other with their hats, and said their goodbyes. He waved them down the stairs into the great hall, then turned and walked the odd, roundabout corridors back to his rooms.

The Teacher was waiting for him.