“You can have strength in this for yourself,” Anajou insisted. “Make yourself clean and strong. Meet him as an equal. Be proud of who and what you are. Can you take pride in yourself like this?”

Melena knew she could not. Anajou had a point and Melena could not argue with it much more. If she were to meet with this man, it had to be on as equal a footing as she could possibly manage.

“Besides, if you do not let us bathe and dress you we will be reprimanded and possibly punished.”

But for some reason she got the idea Anajou would not mind punishment so much. It was something in her eyes. In the soft curves of her smiling features.

“Do as she says,” Daria said shortly. “Stop prevaricating.”

Something in the other woman’s tone rubbed Melena the wrong way. She stiffened, but Anajou stroked her arm soothingly. “Never mind her. She’s just jealous.”

“Of me?” Melena asked, astounded. “I don’t even want to be here!”

“It is your beauty and newness she is jealous of.”

“I am no great beauty. Certainly not to rival her. She’s amazingly lovely.”

“You will be too. There is much beauty to be found in you. But for today, let us settle on cleanliness.”

Melena relented, allowing Anajou to remove the hideous burlap dress and allowing her to lead her into the waters of the giant bath. The waters were warm and soothing.

Melena found herself being led and guided by Hassa and Anajou. They each picked up a cloth, filled it with a perfumed soap oil and then gently washed all of the grime away from Melena’s skin. At first Melena was embarrassed by the women’s attentions, by the feel of their intimate caresses on her body, but soon she found it soothing. It helped calm her. Center her. It helped her feel more grounded. They spread a paste that smelled of almonds onto the hairs on her body. When it was washed away she found she was completely hairless. It seemed almost miraculous to her. And she felt a little exposed as well.

But soon the bath was over and the women were leading her to a small room. There she was seated on a settee as Anajou and Hassa dried every inch of her skin and patted dry her hair. There was a fireplace in the room, so she remained warm in spite of her bare skin. Then Anajou took her hair in her hands and braided it, draping the thick braid of pale blond hair over her shoulder. She was a different shade of blond than Anajou was. Anajou’s hair was golden and rich, and Melena’s was pale and nearly white. But she was clean at last and the itching on her head had subsided. Clearly it had just been a matter of dirt after all.

Now they dressed her, choosing from a variety of violet silks. Melena had never owned, never mind worn, such luxurious fabric. She had only perhaps touched it in one of the local bazaars when a vendor was not looking. The silk caught on her hands, which were rough from a life of working on a farm. But Anajou had a solution for this as well. She rubbed a creamy lotion into her hands and they softened up immediately.

“Do this every day and your hands will soon be as soft as mine,” she said.

“I do not care if my hands are soft,” Melena said. “I prefer them rough and ready for work. I don’t know how you can keep yourselves occupied simply sitting about all day long.”

“We expand our minds by reading and learning languages. We are taught to cipher. We do many different kinds of crafts. Much of the embroidery and silk printing you see about the palace are done by the women of the harems.”

“Still, it does not seem like enough.”

“It will be. You shall see. Now, you are ready and the sun is setting. The time has come to send you to our master’s chambers.”

“Already?” she asked, sudden panic choking her. For a little while there she had forgotten what her fate was meant to be. Now here was the full brunt of it.

“Relax, my darling,” Anajou soothed her. “It will not be so bad.”

“Yes. It will,” she said with a hard swallow.

Anajou led her to the door of the harem. She pounded on the door with her fist and a guard opened it.

“It is time to bring her to the master,” Anajou told him.

The guard gave her a once over and broke out in a wolfish grin. “I’ll bet it is. Come with me. Time for you to please your master.”

“No!” Melena cried suddenly, moving to lunge away from him. But he was too quick for her and grabbed hold of her around her slender waist and yanked her back against his brute’s body.

“Go on. Fight. I like it like this,” he growled in her ear.

Melena gasped for breath as panic ensued. She struggled even though her actions were fruitless and all he did was laugh at her. He began to walk her the short distance to Valerian’s rooms.

He opened the doors with one hand as he held her struggling body with the other arm. He walked into the room and practically threw her onto the enormous bed.

“Stay here and wait. With a bit of decorum if you know what’s good for you.”

“Go to hell!” she spat at him.

“Leave her be,” came a soft command from behind Melena. She whipped around to face Valerian, who was coming out of a bath, apparently. He wore nothing but a bath sheet wrapped around his hips and legs. His chest, a glorious array of thick muscle, still had droplets of water clinging to the hairs there. He was drying himself with another thick towel that was in his hands, rubbing through the wet strands of his long hair.

The guard stepped back away from her and the bed immediately, jerking to attention.

“I was just bringing her to you, my lord.”

“I can see. You have done your job, now go.”

The guard quickly about-faced and hurried out of the room, leaving Melena alone with her new master. She sat up in the bed, her hands clutching the bedclothes, watching him with wide, panicked eyes. He regarded her silently for a minute.

“In the future you will come to me with more decorum,” he announced.

She told him, in no uncertain terms, what he could do with his command.

He chuckled. “You do burn hot, do you not? Well, I will nurture the fire in you, but not to the point of being burned myself. Now come to me and kneel at my feet.”

“Go to hell,” she spat.

“Hmm. I see you prefer punishment to obedience. Perhaps it is time I showed you what this means.”

He dropped the towel onto the bed and quick as lightning he reached out and grabbed her foot by the ankle. She fought him, kicking at him with her free leg. But he caught it too and soon had her off the bed and on the floor at his feet. Tears threatened as she felt just how easily his strength could overcome hers. She was nothing more than an annoying little fly to him. And now she was afraid she was about to be swatted.

It turned out to be an appropriate analogy. He turned her onto her stomach on the carpeting and landed a harsh blow onto her backside with his open palm. Melena gasped in shock at the treatment. She had not been spanked since she was a little girl. Now blow after blow was stinging her through the thin silks covering her body. He held her down with a single hand while his free one beat her bottom until she burned from the stinging slaps.

Just when she thought she couldn’t bear another slap, he stopped, running a large soothing palm around the burning area of her bottom.

“There now. Not so bad. I can see the redness of your bottom through these silks. A very pretty sight.”

How could he find such a thing appealing? What was more, how could she find his touch soothing? She thought she should be repelled by it, but instead she felt warmed. Her heart was pounding as her head swam with confusion.

“Come now. Up onto your knees. You will stay here while I dress, then we will have supper together.”

He wanted to eat with her? She had not expected that. She had expected him to fall on her like a raping beast. Instead he touched her tenderly as he guided her to her knees. She realized she had been crying only when he touched two gentle fingers to her wet cheek.

“It will be all right. Soon you will come to know me and my desires, and I will come to know yours. We will work well together, I think. You with your fire and me with my strength. It will go better for you if you learn to accept the way things are.”

“I wish everyone would stop telling me to accept my fate!” she ground out. “I will never accept it!”

“You will. I know it does not feel that way now, but you will. And it will be a far better fate than the one you thought you were destined for.”

“You are wrong. I wanted a home. A husband. Children!”

“All of which are possible with me,” he pointed out.

“Possible, but not likely. You have no wives. You cannot have children until your brother produces a male heir. And when I say I want a husband, I mean I want a partner. Someone who cares about what I think. Someone who comes to me with his troubles and trusts me to help. You will never treat me so. You are too fixated on bending me to your will.”

“My will is absolute. You can try to fight against it, but you will not win. I can tell you are already realizing this. But just because I am dominant over you does not mean I cannot respect you or hold you close to my heart and mind. But you must earn such trust. And you can start earning by obeying my commands. Your punishment will only grow more extreme with each defiant behavior. What you have experienced so far is nothing compared to what else I have planned for my insubordinate little shisha.”

“I will fight you,” she said angrily.

“And I will enjoy every minute of that fight. Now come. You must be starving. I know the slave caravan does not feed very well. But you will never go hungry again, Pet, as I know you have done in the past. The Moglu people have suffered from famine repeatedly over the years. I can see it in your almost too thin frame. But a few weeks of good eating and luxurious living and you will fill out quite nicely.”

“I would rather starve than eat for your pleasure.”

“I will have my pleasure either way, so you may as well eat.”

He left briefly, leaving her unbound and kneeling on the floor. Her heart raced as she thought of making a run for it. She could run… hide somewhere in the castle… escape somehow to the city beyond. She could hide in a wagon leaving the fortress; let it take her past the guards and the long bridge that led to the city.

The fantasy burned hot in her mind and her heart pounded as she edged toward the border of the rug. She got to her feet.

She was just about to bolt for the door when he came out of the back room and saw her there. It was clear he instantly knew what had been on her mind. He smiled with a turn of his lips and his eyes challenged her to try and make a run for it.

Tears threatened as she realized her situation was hopeless. There was probably a guard just outside of the door. She would barely make it out of the portal before they would catch her… not to mention the fact Valerian looked to be pretty spry. He would no doubt catch her long before the guards did.

Defeated, Melena sank to her knees. She knelt there, waiting for him, as he closed in on her.

“I do not fault you for thinking about escape… this time. If I were in your shoes I would likely do the same. Only I would plan better. If you ever do decide to run, make a good attempt. Because you will not like what awaits you if you fail.”

“More punishment?” she said bitterly.

“You are looking at your punishment all wrong,” he told her. “I do it to help you. To make things better for you. I do it out of caring for you. You are safe here with me. I will take very good care of you. You will have a good, luxurious life. All I ask in return is obedience and loyalty. Is that so much to ask for?”

“You demand everything. You don’t ask for anything.”

“I suppose I do. I have high expectations of my women. And you should have equally high expectations of me.” He crossed over to her and placed one of his large hands on her head, the palm seeming to swallow her up. She felt so small in comparison to him. And not just in size. Not that she felt less… he had not disrespected her… in spite of the spanking she did not feel disrespected. She just felt small and fragile. Even though she knew she was strong and sturdy, he had a way of making her feel more delicate. Perhaps it was the clothes she was wearing, or perhaps it was because he constantly had her kneeling at his feet. She didn’t know for sure. What really surprised her was she didn’t dislike the feeling. There was something appealing in the idea of letting someone else take charge for a change. For so long she had been the woman of the house, constantly needed by her brother and her sisters to manage their care and the care of the farm. Here she no longer had to worry about putting the next meal on the table.

But she did worry about what had become of her younger and elder sisters. Her elder sister had not been made of the stuff necessary to manage a household. Not like Melena had been. She had been a far more simple-minded girl. But she was gentle by nature and it had hurt Melena to see her so mistreated at the hands of those barbaric soldiers. Her younger sister was barely eleven. She would not be ready to be anyone’s sexual slave and for that Melena was grateful. She would be made a house slave or servant. Or she would be made to do hard labor in a mine somewhere. Perhaps all of this wouldn’t be so bad if she only knew what had become of them.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked her curiously. “There was a very wistful expression in your eyes just now. Tell me.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said bitterly.

“It does matter. If it matters to you it matters to me.”

This surprised her and she looked up at him.

“I’m just a slave. What do you care what I think?”

“You are not a slave. Not any longer. You are shisha. A respected woman of my harem. You are far more than a slave.”

“I cannot go where I want or do what I want. I am still your prisoner!”

“For now. In time you will be trusted and will be given more freedoms. But you must earn this trust. Now, tell me what you were thinking about.”

“My sisters. I wondered what had become of them. My elder sister… she was misused right before my eyes by your soldiers.”

He frowned. “You mean she was raped?”

“Yes.”

His frown darkened. “My soldiers do not have leave to rape women at will. They are supposed to be better behaved than that.”

“Well then you have lost control of them because I watched three of them take their turns on my sister. They would have done the same to me had they not realized I was a virgin and worth more to them as such.”

“So you have never been touched by a man?” he asked.

“You know I have not.”

“I do not know. I knew very little about the slaves being presented to my brother. I did not have reason to be well versed on them. All that was required was they be clean and healthy and strong willed. My brother… he likes to break the will of his slaves.”

“And you do not?” She scoffed.

“I do not wish to break you. Only bend you. What of your other sisters?”

“One other. One younger. She is too young to end up in a harem.”

“Would you like me to discover what has become of them?” he asked.

Her eyes widened in surprise. “You would do that?”

“If it would make you fight me less… if it would please you, yes, I would do it.”

“But… aren’t I supposed to please you?”

“We are to please each other,” he said softly, stroking her head. “And you already please me. You have already come so far and it has been barely a day.” He lowered himself into a crouch and looked into her eyes. “Whenever you please me I will please you in return. A simple give and take. I will never take more than I think you can give, and you will learn to give me all you are.”

“I don’t want to surrender,” she said, hot tears of confusion stinging her eyes.

“You do want to. You want to do exactly that. You want to put yourself in someone else’s hands. Someone you can trust. Someone who will take care of you. That someone is me. You may not have chosen this path, but now you are on it, why not learn to enjoy it and get rewards from it?”

“I would be betraying my brother. My people!”

“Your brother is not here. And your people do not care for you the way I will. It is honorable you would fight for your freedom… but it is clear you have already lost that fight. There is no need to rehash the issue.”

“This isn’t fair,” she said.

“No? Well, I will make it feel a little more fair, given enough time. Now come. Come and eat with me and see I am not as bad as all that.”

“You destroy countries. You thrive on a reputation of badness. Now you think a meal is going to change my mind about you?”

“Perhaps not a single meal. But many meals strung together. You and I will be spending a great deal of time together in these coming days. You will get to know me well.”

As he spoke the doors across the room opened. As if he had commanded them with the power of his mind, servants appeared with trays of food and set a small round table with a single place setting. When they had left, Valerian left her and went to sit in front of the place setting.

“Come over to me and kneel at my feet,” he instructed her.

She went to stand but he stayed her with a hand.

“Come to me on your hands and knees.”

Her face burned at the command and she couldn’t figure out if she was angry or embarrassed. The things he made her feel were so confusing. She cleared her throat, screwed up her courage, and crawled to him on her hands and knees. She came to sit by his feet, facing him, looking up at him. He reached out and petted her head again, tugging briefly on the braid her hair was tied into.

“I prefer it loose,” he told her. “Next time you will wear it unbound. Say ‘Yes, Sir’.

“Yes, Sir,” she said, her obedience surprising her. But it was easy to be obedient now… now he had promised to find out what had become of her sisters. She figured if she pleased him he would really do it. Maybe if she pleased him enough, she could have him buy her sisters and bring them to live with her there at the fortress. Or maybe he could find a marriage for her elder sister. Or maybe…

None or all was possible. All it depended on was if he was a man of his word. She didn’t know if he was. She suspected his word was good. It had to be. Full armies did not follow a man who did not keep his promises.

“Are you hungry?”

She nodded.

“Good.” He began to explore the covered dishes on the table, selecting some from each dish. “Have you ever eaten a good Jorku meal?”

“They only gave us rice and hard bread and water in the slave cages.”

“Mmm. It makes no sense to feed slaves so poorly. They are much more appealing in good weight.”

“The men got more. To keep their strength up so they would appear to be good laborers.”

Valerian selected a small stuffed vegetable from his dish and held it down to her. She hesitated, looking into his dark, expectant eyes. “Surely you don’t mean to feed me my entire dinner!”

“I intend to do exactly that. You are in my care now. I will take that very seriously.”