Page 18 of Golden Queen (Idrigard #1)

Six

I roamed the city in the sunshine, drinking in the familiar sights in their unfamiliar lighting.

I drank espresso at a cafe, ate lunch at a shabby little restaurant that served huge, yeasty rolls with fresh butter, sat on a pretty stone bench next to a siren-shaped fountain, and I went shopping.

I kept my hood up over my white hair, but since that was commonplace on Antevemer Street where a lot of people didn't care to be recognized, it didn't draw any undue attention to me.

Most of the shops were closed during my usual late-night forays into the city, so I took full advantage of the opportunity and stepped into nearly every one I passed.

There were so many things I wanted to buy, like an expensive charcoal set for Franca and a book of love poems I knew Tatana would appreciate.

I didn't want to lug around a lot of items for whatever Io had in mind for dinner, though, so I only bought a few small things. The last of which set my cheeks on fire as I paid the merchant for her wares.

I carried my purchases in a paper parcel as I headed back down the street. I had been roaming for what felt like hours, and I was anxious to find a clock to see if it was nearing seven.

When I finally passed one under the eaves of a tavern, I was horrified to realize there were still several hours to go until dinner. So, I went to the only place in the city where I had friends who might welcome me.

"Sera!" Igraine said happily, as I slid into a barstool at her side. "What are you doing out in the daytime?"

The Mouse's Ear taproom was emptier than I had ever seen it. Many of the courtesans were just lounging in the room, some of them nursing a mug of ale or sipping whiskey.

"I thought demons could not come out in the sun!" Barrett said, taking the chair on my other side.

Anetta appeared behind the bar and reached out to clasp my hand. Her eyes lit on my scarf, and she reached up to peek beneath it. She gasped. "Did he do that?"

"Of course not!" I said. Nothing got past Anetta's sharp eye. She would know I wasn't prone to wearing a scarf.

"Markus then," Igraine supplied. "Rutting bastard," she added vehemently before I could even nod.

"Come," Barrett said, sliding his long, lean body off the stool and taking my hand. "You will tell us what happened with the beautiful fae man, who is so smitten with you that he’s come here twice looking for you...and you can tell the rest of it if you want to."

We ended up piled onto Anetta's bed, drinking wine and whiskey, as I told them about Io. I told them everything except for the part that still shamed me to remember—the hateful word I had used when I got so self-righteously angry to be mistaken for one of them.

The indignation was unfair to them. They were wonderful friends to me. Even if their profession was not one that I would pick for myself, they did not deserve to have my shame heaped upon them for their choices.

For the most part, they seemed to truly enjoy their work.

There was very little that separated them from the respected and admired Alumbrian witches, after all.

Courtesans accepted coin in exchange for giving pleasure, and as far as I knew, Alumbrians gave pleasure in exchange for the magic they gained.

The courtesans had a kind of freedom that was rare in Albiyn, especially for women. They lived their lives as they saw fit, and I could only admire that even as Barrett fed me anecdotes of some of his more notable customers.

The number of male nobles who regularly visited him at the Mouse's Ear surprised me. The fact that Emerus Divestra was among them, most of all.

"He always comes in the back," Barrett said, with a grin and a wink, when I said I had never seen him in the brothel before.

Raitha, who joined us shortly after we assembled, watched my face for a few moments before she fell back on the bed, dissolving into a fit of giggles.

"What?" I demanded. "What's so funny?"

"You," Barrett replied. He reached out and cupped my cheek. "You are so innocent. Like a sweet little baby."

Realization dawned after that, and I rolled my eyes, giving Barrett a shove that nearly spilled his wine.

"I'm working on that," I said, and because the whiskey had already gone to my head, I leaned down beside the bed and pulled out my purchase from the little shop down the street.

I tossed the black, lacy undergarments toward Barrett's face.

He caught them and held them out in front of him with a sly grin.

They were sheer, cut into the fashion of Athelen, where a woman's underthings were a fashion statement all on their own. Athelen women, even in the high courts of the crown, wore thin, sheer gowns—barely more than translucent fabric draped across their bodies.

Compared to Windemere, it was absolutely shocking, but since I happened to know there were once women in Nightfall who attended court completely bare-chested, I did not think the underthings would shock Io.

"So, you're going through with it then?" Igraine asked, her eyes shining with some excitement.

I groaned, falling back on the bed and covering my eyes. "I don't know," I said miserably.

Barrett patted my leg. "What are you so worried about? That he will not know how to make you come? Don't you know that the fae are especially good at finding the perfect spot." He danced his fingers over my navel suggestively.

I sat up, leaning on an elbow. "Have you been with a lot of fae?"

"Only one," he said wistfully.

"Tell me!" I demanded. "Is everything...you know, the same?"

Raitha and Igraine laughed so hard I thought the bed would fall apart under us. Anetta slapped them playfully and gave Barrett a dark look.

Barrett, to his credit, did not poke fun at me.

He tapped my nose with one of his long fingers and said, "Oh, to be so sweet again," even though I knew he was at least a year or two younger than me.

"Yes, their parts are the same. The one I knew; his name was Beryl.

His part was perhaps a bit larger and much more beautifully made.

He was a water mage. He could do beautiful things with his magic. "

"What kind of magic does your Io have?" Anetta asked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "I hadn't really thought about it."

"I bet it's fire," Raitha said, with a grin.

"He is very warm," I admitted.

"Well, then," Barrett said, his lips spreading in a grin. "Let us prepare the virgin for her sacrifice."

"What does that mean?" I demanded, my voice rising to a squeak.

They took me to Anetta's large bathing chamber, where they scrubbed, plucked, and shaved me to within an inch of my life.

I lost all embarrassment about thirty seconds in when Barret shoved me down into a big clawfoot tub of sweet-smelling water, pulled one of my legs up out of the bubbles, and began meticulously shaving it with a straight razor.

Anetta tackled the other leg while Igraine and Raitha shaved the dark hairs from beneath my arms.

I was already drunk, but Raitha kept my glass full, so by the time they hauled me from the tub and into a chair to let Anetta lay hot wax between my legs, I was giggling so hard I had tears streaming down my cheeks.

The giggles ended abruptly, though, as she began to violently rip the hair out by yanking on a strip of cloth. The four of them held me firmly down in the seat as I alternated between fits of raucous laughter and squeals of pain.

As they worked, they imparted all the sexual wisdom of their young lives to me.

Anetta told me how to stand, how to move, how to purse my lips to show them to maximum effect.

Barrett told me, in mind-numbing detail, where and how to touch a man.

He mimed the actions on the handle of Anetta's hairbrush until she yanked it away.

"You are enjoying that far too much!" she said, frowning disapprovingly.

I was still laughing at the way Barrett had mimed inserting his finger into the hairbrush's behind when Raitha chimed in. "Under no circumstances are you to stick your finger in a man's asshole unless he asks you to, Sera!"

"I'm not sticking anything in anyone's asshole!" I stated, proudly. "And they shan't stick anything in mine!"

"Never say never, dear," Anetta said with a knowing grin.

Igraine, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet for the last few minutes, was looking at me almost wistfully.

"What?" I asked, over the sound of Barret and Anetta discussing the various merits and drawbacks of anal penetration.

Igraine smiled. "I'm just excited for you," she admitted, surprising me. At my puzzled look, she added, "Your first time is going to be with someone of your own choosing, someone who, if his pursuit of you is any indication, will likely make it good for you. A lot of us never got that chance."

Barrett, Anetta, and Raitha had quieted. They were all looking at Igraine with some tenderness in their eyes. It made me wonder if they knew the story of Igraine's lost virginity and felt sorrow for her because of it.

"My first time was horrible!" Barrett spoke up. "It was one of my mother's friends. Terrible, smelly, creature. It's no wonder I ended up so very, very gay."

I looked at him sympathetically, feeling suddenly sorry for him to have been taken advantage of by an older woman.

"Don't look at me like that," he said. "She didn't force me. I snuck into her room in the middle of the night."

I snorted, surprised, and wine almost shot out of my nose from the drink I was swallowing.

Raitha gave Barrett a doubtful look that said she didn't necessarily agree with his assessment of the situation.