Chapters tagged fantasy

by Opps-Thats-Mine

Chapter 22

The king smirks at the mess he left and snaps his fingers once, not at you, at the kitchen door. The head chef comes out with a cloth and a fried pastry as long as a forearm, dark and blistered, twisted so that both ends are thick enough to hold, and nobody in the hall has to be...

by Opps-Thats-Mine

Chapter 23

A steward brings the dish and the ribbon and the little iron, and they press the wax onto your stomach because that is the only clean-enough skin left that is not a breast or a bruise. It is hot. You flinch and the lead ticks, and the steward waits until the pool settles into a r...

by Opps-Thats-Mine

Chapter 25

 You wake on rough bed that is no longer the hard and sticky banquet table. The ceiling is ribs of old timber. Someone has put a folded blanket under your head and not under the rest of you, and the air smells like so...

by Opps-Thats-Mine

Chapter 26

The portress does not wait. She enters and puts a wooden box on the blanket as if it might bite her and she is already backing out when Brin tips the lid. Inside is a bottle the color of cheap glass, stoppered in wax, and a contract written in a hand that has never had to raise i...

by Opps-Thats-Mine

Chapter 27

She does not stop. The second wipe is already a slide, palm flat in the white-slick on your stomach, and the bottle’s heat takes her the rest of the way while she is still trying to convince herself she is merely washing. Her breath goes ragged. She stands up too fast, hits the...

by Opps-Thats-Mine

Chapter 28

You are breathless and dazed enough that the ceiling ribs swim, and she leans down anyway. The kiss is short, and eager in the same breath, steel cups pressing your chest, and when she pulls back she smiles as if she has already started to break again. She climbs off y...

by Opps-Thats-Mine

Chapter 29

The sandals move on. Whoever was listening decides its not worthwhile meeting yet and the passage goes back to water-sounds and a distant bell. You have a minute in this body on the blanket-edge that is finally yours. Reflecting on your experiences. You are stuck here in this wo...

by Opps-Thats-Mine

Chapter 30

"Fine," you say, perhaps wishing your hadn't. "It is not ideal. If that is what is needed, I will do it." Hemm’s mouth ticks. He jerks his chin at the back passage. "Room behind the green curtain. Outfit on the bed. Put it on and do not come out at all unless I tell you. Got it...

by Opps-Thats-Mine

Chapter 31

 The green curtain pulls back and the room gets six more bodies in it, all men, all adults, all dressed like they have houses near the palace. They stop before you, and they look at the ivory-and-black, at the long blo...