The Blood Masters (Short Story)

Chapter 7

           I opened my eyes as dawn broke. Lord Tarik’s word’s plan last night still rang inside my ears. It had kept me awake for hours after I had been shown to my new room. He was going to teach me how to be a lady, and how to be a queen. He was going to help my prophecy come true.

           The only problem was that there was a suspicion bugging at the back of my head. What if he’s using me to get what he wants? Power. That’s what everyone wanted these days. It was my destiny to get it. What if it was in his prophecy to get power too?

           Lord Tarik had new clothes laid out for me, clothes fit for a lady. New sandals sat at the foot of my bed. Jewelry was laid out. Beautiful pieces of gold and silver bracelets, earrings, and necklaces.

           I dressed in the salmon pink dress and the matching jewelry, along with my regular necklace that I always wore. My mother had given it to me. I wasn’t planning on leaving it.

           Lord Tarik met me in the same room where we had met everyone else last night. “You look beautiful, my lady.” He said, as I entered the room.

           “Thank you, my lord.”

           “Let’s begin with simple things. First you have to walk like a lady. You do a fairly well job at walking like a lady all ready, so let’s test you.” He picked up a book and balanced it on my head.

           “Try walking across the room without the book falling.” I did this several times, the first several the book fell. Then I taught myself to walk slow enough to still move fast enough and keep the book from falling.

           We did several other tasks like these. At breakfast, he taught me how to eat like a lady. He showed me how he took in consideration what Tau advised him. He showed me how to ask servants politely to do something, while still making it an order.

           Later that day, almost sundown actually, Salia and I went to the marketplace. Everything was about to close, but we still got there in time to get stuff for Habibah to cook. As a queen, I wouldn’t need to do the shopping, but as a lady, walking in the marketplace was required to get fresh air and see the goings on of the world. Lord Tarik also sent Zuberi to accompany us, and to protect his future queen.