The Meridian Gamble (36 page)

And that night, when I drift to
sleep, I dream of unpleasant things. Of my life, when I was the one who looked
like a monster, a savage with misshapen teeth. Usually, my dreams of this time
are simple, and I feel the longing and love that I held for the Luminos man,
when he would not look my way because he was too busy hunting for the tribe,
because I was too ugly and unattractive for him to notice. But on this night,
another image fills my sleeping mind. It is of the time after his death.

I walk through the planes, where
wild animals roam, on my own, seeking vengeance. It is a dangerous thing to do,
but where I am headed is far more treacherous. I approach a wooded area, toward
a cave that peeks out of the ground. And on the way, I find a large, sharp rock
to wield.

And I wait for them.

Slowly, three monsters come from
their hole; two men and a woman. She has long red hair, and a kind of beauty
most of the savages do not possess. But one of the men is disgusting, a
creature with pale skin and a mouth full of jagged teeth. They laugh at me, but
I surprise them, running toward them, screaming with the rock held high,
determined to kill them all. And I raise it over the woman’s head, as a look of
shock overcomes her.

I wake with a
start, before I can know what happens. And I have difficulty going back to
sleep. Even now, something about the creatures terrifies me, and I pray that I
never encounter them again.

The next afternoon, two girls enter
our kitchen carrying trays. They are both beautiful, with clothes that are far
nicer than anything Mar Mar and I have to wear. The cloth of their dresses is
fine, a delicate weave, and dyed a brighter shade of white than our own. And,
of course, they have none of the embarrassing stains from the cooking and
cleaning that we’re forced to endure.

One girl has lips that are full and
plump, like a ripe piece of fruit, and I can imagine Pharaoh and the prince
wanting her nearby, in case they need something to kiss. And they wear gold
jewelry, with golden fibers wrapped in their flowing curls as adornments.

The two young women do not
acknowledge Mar Mar and I with so much as a glance, and only focus their
attention on Famoush. He scowls at them angrily for interrupting his chores.

“What are you doing here?”

“We’ve come to sample your
delicious cooking,” one of the girls says. “Your food is so much better than
our own cook’s. Why will you not come to prepare our meals?”

“Never. I like it where I am,” he
says brusquely. “Most likely, you’re just here to spy for him.”

“We would never do that to you,”
they say, trying to appease him.

And I know Famoush secretly enjoys
their compliments.

He snaps his fingers at me. It’s my
cue to fix them a plate of the lamb dish he’s just prepared, with some fruits
and vegetables, and a piece of the bread I have made that morning. I serve them
each a plate, and set it on the tray they are carrying. And as I do, I see
something strange.

The girls have long hair with curls
that fall along their shoulders. But for a moment, I see a mark on one of their
necks, two tiny dots where the skin has been punctured. The General and Uncle
have told me stories about this, that it is a sign of the vampires, that they
have bitten their prey. And I realize I have seen it before, in my daydreams of
the past. These are the same bite marks that riddled the body of the Luminos
man in a savage time, two tiny pricks set a distance apart that is the same
width as a human mouth.

I begin to wonder if there is even
a cook for the royals, if the kitchen on the upper floors is simply there to
keep their real food plump and fat.

When the girls have their plates,
they giggle and walk away. And as they are leaving, I notice them eying Mar Mar
and myself, trying to assess us. And cook shakes his head as they leave.

“Poor things,” he whispers, softly,
with a certain sadness to his voice.

Famoush clearly knows something
about the monsters. And I tell myself that I will work extra hard to gain his
confidence and possibly learn what he knows. And I wonder if I will find some
way to get the knowledge I gain back to Father and my uncle.

They will have moved away by now,
to keep the vampires from finding them, after they have tortured and killed me.
They will need the time to hide their trail, to make sure that no one has
followed. But in certain small moments, I hope I can find a way to escape this
sad fate I’ve been given and find them again. And the dark-haired young man.

Yet, I am fooling myself. I have
not been sent here to spy. I am here to kill one of the royals, to die trying.
There is no other fate for me.

Mar Mar is still looking off after
the girls, perhaps hoping they’ll come back for an extra piece of bread, so she
can get another glimpse of their finery.

“Are Pharaoh’s servants not
beautiful? It is my dream to work in the royal chambers,” Mar Mar says.

And it seems like a strange dream
for the girl to have, to work even closer to the monsters. She must not know
what they truly are, and is distracted by the luxury that goes with being in
their presence. But I suppose that is the best she can hope for, to be a higher
grade of slave within this world, and possess the bit of privilege the position
entails. And perhaps it’s a better fate for her, to die in luxury and avoid a
lifetime of hard labor.

“They used to work down here, you
know,” Mar Mar says.

And Famoush looks at her and shakes
his head.

“You be a good girl, Mar Mar, like
Saga. Stay here and work hard with me. Forget about the upper floors of the
palace.”

But the way Famoush looks at us
frightens me. It is the same sad face Uncle gave me, when he knew I would soon
be gone. Famoush goes outside to check on the meats that he roasts, and I turn
back to Mar Mar.

“Have you heard anything … strange
about the royals?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you see that girl’s neck? It
looked as if she had been bitten.”

“I have heard something …” she
says.

And Mar Mar leans in closer.

“I’ve heard that Pharaoh has an
insatiable appetite for lovers. That’s why he goes through so many servants.
It’s rare that any of them please him well enough to stay for very long.”

She looks around again, making sure
no one is close enough to hear.

“But I think it might be fun to
try.”

Ma Mar
giggles, full of mischief. And sadly, it reminds me of an animal in the wild,
too stupid to understand that it is about to be torn down by lions.

In the following days, the kitchen
becomes a hub of activity. Two more girls and a boy are brought in to help us,
and though they are lazy and slow, what truly burdens us is the huge amount of
work we are given. Because there are whispers of war, and the royals have made
the surprising decision to invite their enemies for a great feast, to negotiate
peace.

We are brought a mountain of dishes
to wash, and I am stunned when I first see what they call plates. The dishes
are made of gold, or at least some metal covered in gold. The new boy, who is
thin and short, yet very handsome, eyes them with a look filled with greed.
Even one piece could mean more wealth than his entire family could gain in a
lifetime.

And it is ironic, because my family
has more wealth than even two or three of the plates, perhaps all of them
combined could provide, hidden riches the General has gained over his lives.

I wash them in special water that
Famoush prepares for us, with oils and scents that will make them gleam, and
polish them until they sparkle in a way that will please him. And I find them
fascinating, because they are the most unique creations I have ever seen. Each
one has an image of one of the royal family worked into them. However, most
depict the Queen, and from the way people speak of her, I guess she is far more
beautiful in real life than even the plates.

The new boy looks about when he
thinks we aren’t watching, and I suspect he is trying to find a place to hide
one of the dishes, to sneak it away. I shake my head at him, and he looks to
me, fearfully.

“Don’t even think about it,” I say.
“The torture chambers in the bowels of the palace are worse than anything you
could possibly imagine.”

It’s all I can do to keep from
laughing, as he begins to scrub more furiously. I’ve yet to see anyone tortured
since I’ve arrived, but the courtyard is filled with armed guards. I can’t
imagine how a servant with thoughts of stealing could possibly escape, or what
might happen to them if they were caught.

When the plates are cleaned, there
is a special dining room on one of the upper floors where I take them, and it
is unlike anything I have ever seen. The room is amazing, larger than even the
Luminos arena. There are rows and rows of tables, and a raised platform with
gold thrones that sparkle with glittering jewels for Pharaoh and his queen to
sit on. And the sheer wealth it must have taken to create them stuns me. I
begin to suspect that the vampires have acquired more than even the General or
the Luminos could imagine.

The passages and stairways that
take me to this place are lined with guards, and on the way back to the
kitchen, I am confused, though I finally make my way. And as always, I try to
memorize it all.

On the day of the feast, Mar Mar
and I wake up extra early to help Famoush prepare. And as we do, we can hear a
commotion from outside the palace. We look to our taskmaster hopefully, and
after a long pause, he nods his head, and we rush with the other servants to
another terrace on our same level. The front gates open, and we can see
soldiers from the enemy’s army arrive within the walls of the palace. They make
camp in an area that has been cleared out especially for them. It is a small
contingent of a much larger force, and in the distance, on the outskirts of the
city, you can see the mass of their army, the fires from their camps. And it
must be a very large gathering of soldiers, if I can see them from here.

I silently pray they are here to
attack. I hope they will carry out my task for me and kill the royals, so that
I can return to my family.

We cannot tarry long staring at
heathens, as there is too much work to do. I spend the rest of the day baking
loaf after loaf of the breads Mother taught me to make, and I wonder what she
would think if she knew her recipe was to be served to foreign warlords. Later,
we break the necks of small hens, and stuff them with delicacies to roast
slowly over embers all afternoon.

Mar Mar and I are given new clothes
to wear, and we are to serve the guests, as extra help is needed. In the
evening, we line up with the rest of the servants before the foreigners arrive,
and the dining hall is even more spectacular than when I saw it before. Huge
potted plants have been brought in, and the gold plates glisten on the tables
in the light of the torches. They shine in a way that makes this place seem
magical, like something from the heavens.

The guests finally come in,
chieftains and lieutenants from the neighboring kingdom’s army, who are ready
to fight Pharaoh for control of his lands. And they seem like savages. Their
hair is long and unkept, they have beards that frighten me. Even worse, some
have facial tattoos, though what they signify, I cannot say.

I look to the ground and try to
remain insignificant, because I can feel it. The savages look to us lustfully.
And I silently pray they will not see me, that they will not demand me as a
gift of honor from the royals.

Yet, curiosity gets the better of
me. As my head is bowed down, I still manage to roll my eyes upward, to peek at
the strangers. It is a skill I have perfected, and I see that they are not all
savages, as I had thought. One of them catches my attention. And the breath escapes
from my body, as I instantly recognize his face.

It is the handsome young Luminos
man, my unrequited love from a past life.

He is tall, though not the tallest,
yet his muscles are larger than most of the men around him. And his beautiful
black hair is tied back in a braid, with just a few curly wisps hanging over
his eyes. And he wears white robes that make him seem more refined than his
brethren.

I look away, even though I have
dreamt of seeing him again for so long. I don’t want to jeopardize him or draw
attention to him. I can’t let the royals suspect that we are in league, on the
off chance that they know I am a hidden assassin. And perhaps he won’t notice
me. He barely noticed me when I stood before his people in the arena. But, my
hopes are quickly dashed.

As I look at him from the corner of
my eye, he gives me a nod of recognition, and I quickly turn my head. It must
be the Luminos glow that gave me away, the same one that sparkles about him,
though clearly no one here but us can see it.

Luckily, the servants of the royals
come in next, and they quickly draw the attention of everyone in the room, even
my Luminos prince, who watches them with interest. They are beautiful women and
a few fetching young men, dressed in the finest of clothes, and the guests
cannot help but to make small grunts of approval. But everyone goes silent, as
the Pharaoh and his Queen enter the room, along with their son, our Prince.

It is the first time I have seen
the monsters up close, unless there are some hidden amongst the guards that I
have not recognized. And now I understand why Mar Mar twittered with such
excitement. They look like gods, almost too beautiful for a mere mortal’s eyes.
And a few of the newer servant girls gasp when they first see them, but somehow
I manage to remain silent.

The Queen is slender, and has
straight brown hair that is cut to her shoulders, and trimmed straight along
her forehead. She wears thick gold jewelry, bracelets around her wrists and
large adornments that hang from her neck, along with her crown. Her gown is
white, with golden thread woven through its fabric, to match her jewelry.
Pharaoh is tall, the tallest man in the room, with muscles far more impressive
than even the savages. And his hair is a strange color I have never seen
before. It is lighter than brown, almost yellow, like straw. And it has bits of
grey in it, as some people get later in life, though he is certainly far from
old age. The prince also has hair the same color, with none of the grey, and he
is likewise tall and handsome. And the color of their locks alone must help to
make people think they are something more than mere mortals.