The Mayaware's reign has to end.
In a world of demonic beings with a hunger for human flesh, and thirst for blood, Hesi Renen knows it well. When her siblings are taken to the harvesting farms, she must do everything she can to get them out, even if...
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The courtyard was as empty as it is as quiet at this time of the night. Unlike the Mayaware she had encountered in the desert who were wide awake even in the middle of the night, it looked like the ones inside these walls had started taking it easy.
Hesi had tramped out of the bridal palace with ease. As she had been doing for the last few weeks, she had learned the Mayaware maids' routines before they lock up for the evening and when they were getting up at dawn in preparation for another day. After the first trial, they were only sent to lectures meant to occupy them and teach them about the history of Iren-Washep. Hesi had slept her way through most and only came alive when it's time to eat or when it's over.
But the lecturer, a short Mayaware who blew its fuse way too often, couldn't do anything about the misbehavior. The prince's brides should be treated with utmost honor. Even the generals and other benefactors seemed to think that by showering the women with gems the size of their hands or by braiding their hair with sweet-smelling flowers, they would spur the brides to the side of the royals, even if it meant death. It's like fattening up the rams for the midnight feast. Hesi and the rest of her people were just animals being sent to slaughter, whether it was with shame or with honor.
Well, they could go and choke on their rubies. Hesi didn't have time to be fooling around with gossamer dresses—no matter how soft they felt against her skin—and glinting pearls—even if they did make her feel sophisticated most of the time. All of that would lose its worth if she's found dead in the morning and it was a scenario she could easily imagine even with her eyes wide open.
So, now, under the watchful gaze of the stars and the moon's faint rays, she trudged past the wide orchards separating the stone palaces from each other. Beyond the crumbling wall standing between Berheqt's rim and the heart of the capital, trees whose names she couldn't begin to identify and flowers whose colors she couldn't even name followed her every moment as she tore barefoot over the soft grass coating the landscape. Columns, in their ever sturdy perch, flaked her vision, herding her in the way they wished. As much as she hated being directed by anyone, including columns, it was nice knowing where to go and where not to go.
She ducked behind a tree when she heard the clanking of metal and thudding footsteps characteristic of a Mayaware. When she peeked over, true enough, there were two guards walking past the cobbled courtyard which would have bustled with activity had this time been morning. Her breath hitched when the soldiers stopped and sniffed the air. Darpeh, where's her trusty deshet branch when she needed it?
Then, the soldiers stopped and slapped each other on the back. "What us do?" one said to its companion. "Human scent all over because brides!"
The other soldier gave a hearty laugh—something Hesi didn't know demons could do until now—and continued on their way. Hesi blew the breath she didn't even know she was holding back. When the patrol guards disappeared past the curb leading somewhere west, she narrowed her eyes and trudged after them. Wherever they're going should give her an idea how their security operates.
Keeping her footsteps light and her breathing even, she burst through the courtyard she only saw once during her travels. Judging from the folding tables and the colorful sheets used as awnings folded on the floor, this was supposed to be a trading site. She hasn't seen it alive and crawling with merchants. Would it involve human traders?
She came face-to-face with the huge stone palace they were told not to go to during the daily lectures. If anything, it only made her want to tramp inside. She craned her neck at the looming structure, eyes scanning the Breidye script—what the Mayaware call their broken language— chiseled in grand fashion over the walls, telling the world of their widespread victory and their right to rule the land. Tch. They even got one letter wrong so now one of the sentences read: we farted through the sky in our glory.
Amateurs.
Hesi shook her head and forced herself to not mull over that mistake forever engraved in the walls. Embers crackled and wood crunched as torches propped on the palace's walls lit the way toward the entrance. More exotic plants Hesi was sure didn't even grow in Ser-Tehra decorated what's supposed to be the palace's front yard. As expected, there were no deshet branches in any of the gardens.
Statues depicting who's supposed to be Azophis, the Mayaware King, stood in their all their menacing might, its demon form losing most of its horror after being cast in the beige shade of the quarry used. She swallowed against growing lump in her throat and forced her heartbeat to peter out into a calm line. It's fine. The demons were asleep. She'd go in for a dip and go back out. It'd only be a blink.
Before she could lose the bravado to march inside the forbidden and, no doubt, dangerous palace, she put one foot in front of the other until she crossed the entire front yard, the sweet smell of honey-fruits filling her nose and making her stomach rumble. Then, after looking left and right for any signs of life and finding not a relevant sight, she ducked inside.
The light from the torches slotted in metal holders against the walls were faint, as if the darkness beyond the stone walls was devouring it and never spitting it back out. Ominous. Hesi rubbed her arms, forcing the hairs on it to stand down and the goosebumps to subside. There's nothing here...right? Nothing.
She spotted the first corridor peeling off the main hall from the entrance and ducked inside it. This would take a long time and with the palace this big, she'd need to keep coming back until she had the layout memorized. She sighed, the gust stirring dust particles in the air. Today was the first day and she only had to start somewhere so she could move farther. The plan couldn't wait. Hesi had to squeeze closer to her goal even if she had to do it inch by inch.
Her footsteps scratched against the dusty stone floor, its unpolished edges sure to give her soles a bit of a beating by the time she got back to the bridal palace. Ash from the torches clogged the air and filled the corridor with the smell of burning wood. Where was the incense at this time of day, huh?
Then, voices rang from another corner. Breidye. Hesi swallowed the gasp building in her throat and scrambled into the first corridor void of torches she could find. She pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle her breathing and flattened her back against the cold wall, the hard stone surface digging against her shoulders. What in Larqet's name? Why must they come now?
Perhaps she could ambush them when they come by the corner...but why? What would Hesi gain by pouring her anger on a few fingers and not the head itself? The prince. She needed to find where the prince was so she could sneak in later to kill it for real.
She peeled off the wall but before she could step forward, strong arms gripped her waist and her shoulders. "Don't move," a voice hissed in her ear.
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