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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Hesi craned her neck to see hundreds, if not, thousands of Mayaware seated on terraces of benches aiming to reach the sky. Not enough sunlight reached her place in the center of the auditorium where she stood. The seats surrounded her. Give the audience a spear each and she would would bolt out of this room as fast as she could.
Before she came on to this room, she was first found inside Kharta's basement, holding up a tome to her face. "Do I have to be able to read this?" she had asked the steward's back, hoping it would grow eyes and a mouth and start talking to her instead. The face was a boring assortment of grunts and hums for the last half an hour. "By the way, I told Yobekh about the poison."
Something clattered on the table. "What?"
"Got your attention, didn't I?" she grinned. "That's a lesson for you in thinking you can ignore me."
Kharta ran a hand down his face. His sigh was tired. It seemed to drag on forever. "Come here," he beckoned her to come closer. "The only thing you need to remember from that book is how to tell a toxin by all of its characteristics."
Hesi had come closer to his table the same time he stepped away to retrieve a few bottles from his expansive shelves. When he came back, he laid each bottle in front of her. "The senses you need to use are your sight, smell, and taste," he said. "Some toxins are undetectable by neither so there will be times you will need to use your hands."
And it had been only that for about a week. Hesi would come down to the basement using the cloak of night as her companion and protector. She had learned how to down maatsek tea before heading out of the bridal palace and even offered some to the brides in case they needed to be somewhere without being detected. Then, she'd spend the rest of the night prodding at liquids and powders in small ceramic jars until her nose itched or her head started to pound.
"These compounds are known toxins to Mayaware so they avoid it like a plague," Kharta had explained when Hesi dared to ask. "They won't die by these, but they won't be having a good time once these got into their systems."
Which prompted Hesi to throw another question. "What about the one in here?" she had pointed to the earring casted in gold and silver hanging in her lobe. There were times she forgot she had something to truly hurt a Mayaware near her person.
Kharta had rolled his shoulders. "That's a mixture I made from ingredients they didn't know were harmful to them," he said. "Spent my whole life on it too. Use it wisely."
And she couldn't find the right timing for it. The High King didn't show up anywhere near her and the Prince wasn't always drinking wine whenever they met. She thought of dropping by the royal palace unannounced and start massacring everyone she came across, but she'd need huge amounts of the poison and Kharta had only given her no more than a teaspoon.
Still, she got to his face and demanded to prove he wasn't telling her more mule crap about the next trial. The look Kharta had given her was as flat as his work tables. "The test will be about your skill in protecting the Mayaware as your people," he said. "You are more than welcome to pass the books to the other brides who can read."
