When Hesi got back that night, the women looked at her with wide eyes and didn't say anything. She washed herself in the bathing chambers and sat on the floor until the wee hours of dawn in nothing but a strip of cloth tied around her body. Asrate, of all people, didn't deserve that kind of pain. She shouldn't have been the first to be sent to her death.

The sun was already rising when Hesi mustered enough strength to return to the communal room without her knees shaking and her dinner threatening to climb back out her throat. She doubted she'd sleep without dreams haunting her any time soon. The sight of blood and the smell of it reminded her of everything that happened so long ago—her on top of cages piled high and her family chopped to pieces down below. Like before, she hated how she couldn't do anything except stare and feel bad.

It's the worst kind of frustration, really.

Before her morning lectures took place, she dropped by Kharta's room, ignoring his lectures that she shouldn't travel there during sun hours. "I just saw my friend get butchered," she snapped at him as soon as she burst through his door. "Cut me some slack."

"She's not butchered," Kharta sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. He still hadn't changed out of his blood-soaked clothes. Yeah, why hadn't he? "She's merely hurt."

Hesi had rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and jutting her hip to one side. "Where is she?" she asked. "Where did you take her?"

Kharta pursed his lips and rummaged his shelf for something, his fingers running over stacks of parchment bound into groups to form some sort of tomes. Then, he plucked one sheaf and separated a specific page from it before shoving it into Hesi's hands. "Follow that map to the healing chambers," he instructed. "You can read, can't you?"

"I can't," she said, turning the parchment this way and that. The letters didn't make the least sense and was she even holding the map the right way? "I don't need it when I'm out in the desert."

He reached out and flipped the parchment into the proper alignment. "Well, now is the perfect time to learn," he pointed to a square spot at the map's upper right side. "That's the healing chambers. I trust you can make your way on your own?"

Hesi merely gave him a roll of her eyes before downing the maatsek tea, for once relishing the bitter taste lining the sides of her throat and painting her teeth green. It wasn't as bitter as the bile rising to the back of her tongue anyway.

When Yobekh dismissed the lectures for midday feeding, Hesi brought out the map Kharta had given her and went on her short journey. The trading courtyard was bustling with chatters, hollers, and steps from both human feet and animal hooves ringing in the air. Birds flew in and out of the courtyard, twittering with delight and flapping their feathered wings. The faint smell of incense was evident in the air once more, reminding Hesi of her first day inside Berheqt.

She stalked past more gardens and lush fountains as she made way towards the last rectangular palace where the demon nobles' young were supposed to be taken care of. With some twisted reasoning, it kind of made sense to slot the healing chambers here. She flicked her gaze into one of the flowers in one of the landscaped gardens and spotted movement from one of the petals.

It was a bird smaller than the average doves she was used to seeing migrating through the clear skyline over the desert. Its wings shone like glass, reflecting the midday sunlight with every flap. A long snout spouted from where its beak should be and the bird used that to feed off from the flowers' sweet nectar.

Hesi tilted her head, watching the curious creature she hadn't seen before nor did she ever think of seeing in such a harsh place as this. With it no bigger than her hand and with its wings as bright as a butterfly's, it's an easy prey but even so, it's out here, living its best life suckling sweet sap without a care for the world.

Whatever that bird was, it was something Hesi should aspire to be. It was a life she should be striving for herself and for the countless other people in this continent. And like that bird, she should be willing to brave a path strewn with creatures stronger than her and pave a way for the others to start doing so as well instead of hiding in the rocky mountains and scattered oases.

But, first things first. She has a friend to meet.

The Mayaware guards posted beside the entrance of the healing chamber didn't bother her when she headed straight through. She tucked her hair behind her ear as she ducked between the two thin veils separating the outside world to the sacred hall of healing and care.

Inside, the corridor split into two more doors. Judging from the stringent cries and growls emanating from the dark entrance to her left, the healing chamber was the door to the right.

She tucked the map back into the small satchel she pilfered from the kitchens in the bridal palace. The parchment crunched against the peaches and the skin of water she got from the same source. She parted the curtain draped over the doorway to reveal a large room flanked by columns with beds overlaid with white sheets strewn in orderly arrays.

Water gurgled and raged in her ear and she turned to see a small pond to her left being the source of it. Lotus flowers, with their pink and purple petals and dark green pads floated in small clumps over the pond. Some of the Mayaware servants dressed in loose tunics and sashes bent towards the lotuses and plucked one or two before heading to a work table similar to the ones in Kharta's quarters to include the flowers into whatever concoction they were making.

Most of the beds were empty save for a few which supported men with broken arms or missing legs. If Kharta were here, he would have shrugged and claimed those were work incidents and not the Mayaware getting too hungry before dinner. One bed was occupied with the purpose of her visit.

"Asrate," Hesi breathed as she tore through the room towards her friend who sat up when she saw her. "How are you?"

The girl smiled. For someone who had been bleeding to death a few hours before, she sure got her rosy cheeks and bright complexion back quickly. "I'm feeling fine, Hesi. Thank you for coming," she said. "What did Yobekh talk about today?"

Hesi waved her hand in the air. "That shouldn't be your concern as of the moment," she dropped to a three-legged stool beside Asrate's mattress. For something made inside Berheqt, the mattress was thick and soft, unlike the cushions they were given in the bridal palace. How unfair. "What happened inside the prince's quarters last night?"

A frown crept up Asrate's lips. She tapped her chin, the loose sleeve of the tunic she had been given as she was healing, flapping with a faint breeze passing through the windows showing them the lush gardens outside. "That's strange," she muttered, tilting her head to one side and knitting her eyebrows. "Was I in the prince's quarters last night? I can't remember."

Hesi lurched forward, the stool's legs creaking against her weight and her sudden motion. "What do you mean?" she demanded. "You were carried out of here bleeding from a huge slash through your body."

Asrate placed a hand over her chest. "That couldn't be," she said with a gentle voice. "The maids here told me I hurt myself from a poisonous flower while walking back to the bridal palace. That's why I collapsed and ended up here."

What kind of horsecrap was that? Asrate was clearly hurt by something inside the prince's chambers last night. Did it attack her because she wasn't compliant to his requests? What about the blood that washed the walls and watered the floor? What about the metal slamming against the stone?

There's something going on here and Asrate not remembering anything after a huge incident was a sure sign. Perhaps Kharta would know something. He did say he was going to take care of this. Wait. Was he the one responsible for this? What was he planning that he wasn't telling her? Was he spying for the Mayaware all along and had merely baited Hesi into confessing she had come here to kill the prince? If so, why was she still alive? Shouldn't she have been flayed alive with her guts waving with the wind already?

"Hesi, what's wrong?" Asrate's voice shattered Hesi's line of thinking. She looked up to find the girl staring at her with concern painted in her face. "Why do you look distressed?"

"Do you really not remember anything?" Hesi asked, taking Asrate's hands in hers. "What about the blood? The stretcher? The human slaves carrying you? I was there last night, Asrate. What the prince did to you was horrible. You could have died."

Asrate shook her head. "I'm sorry. I really don't remember any of that," she said. "Is that really what happened?"

Hesi could only nod. "Can you get up now?" she jerked her chin at the bandages peeking out of her collar.

"Yeah, the maids told me I could go back to the palace after midday," the girl replied, patting the bandages around her torso. Struck by a poisonous flower, huh? Was the flower as large as an elephant, then? "We could go back together. Just in time for Yobekh's afternoon lectures."

Hesi rolled her eyes and handed Asrate the satchel after taking the roll of parchment out of it. "Here," she said. "You must be famished."

Asrate peeked at the satchel's contents and smacked her lips. "Oh, very," she said. "I haven't had a peach in so long. Where did you get this?"

Hesi put a finger to her lips and winked.

When they got back to the communal room, the women gasped as one at the sight of Asrate and rushed towards her like a stampede. Hesi had to remind them to take it easy after Asrate had just been at Ristep's door a few hours ago. The women ducked their heads and stepped back.

Then, the talking began after Yobekh sent them out of the lecture room for the wind down for the night. They gathered around the bonfire burning in the middle of the room, letting the smoke stain the air with the smell of burning coal and the gossamer curtains with a fine layer of ash.

"When Hesi told me what happened, I was incredulous," Asrate was saying, her eyes reflecting the embers crackling in the clay saucer containing the fuel for their fire. "But then, when you told me of your worries, I began to think that maybe what Hesi said happened was the truth."

Mensa nodded despite the paleness creeping into her lips and the circles forming underneath her eyes. From the looks of it, the girl didn't get a wink of sleep last night as well. "At first I was glad I was here, chosen as the Prince's bride, but now..." she paused to let out a shiver. "Now I wasn't so sure. What if the prince is hurting the brides because he didn't feel satisfied?"

"With what?" Hesi raised her eyebrows and leaned back against her hands. "The prince isn't touching the women. I saw it for myself. He didn't violate Asrate."

Asrate pursed her lips at the mention of her possible fate. "I don't know if I should be glad with that information, Hesi," she said.

Hesi averted her eyes towards the coal glowing against the dim light of their room. "I'm sorry."

"What do we do now?" Tagara asked, gripping Barteset's arm like it was the only thing anchoring her into the mortal world. "Any of us could be next."

Hesi reached up to the ornaments in her hair and yanked the pearls free. She tossed them into the fire and watched the flames lick the shiny ivory surface and turn it black. "We could work together for a start," she said, raising her eyes to meet the women's gazes one by one. "Let's form an alliance to help each other out. Each of us should watch over each other so if we got our memories erased, we could tell each other what happened."

She nodded in Asrate's direction. "If I hadn't been there, we would have believed she stumbled over a poisonous flower and was sent to the healing chambers."

Nods of approval followed suit. Then, Barteset raised her hand and wrapped her fingers over the pin keeping her braids in place. With a mild yank, she set her hair free. The other girls watched as the older woman chuck the golden pin into the fire, joining the pearls that once adorned Hesi's head.

Soon, all kinds of ornaments joined them in the fire. Combs, earrings, and anything given by the Mayaware found solace in the heat. Uzare even tore a part of her gossamer shawl and tossed the cloth into the flames. It burned the fastest and the brightest.

Hesi watched it all, from the gold melding with the solid core forming from the remnants of the pearls to the ashes of the cloth scattering with the wind whenever it blew into the room out of a whim. The flames seemed to have transferred from the saucer towards the women's determined faces as they looked back at Hesi and nodded.

Just like that, they have allied together to fight a common enemy and just like that, the Prince's brides have become one.