The Given Garden

by S. K Munt

  The formula worked infallibly after only a few minutes, and in that form, was one hundred percent safe, meaning that the prince could come to her within the hour (as he was expected to do), and take her with an easy mind. And though Emmerly had admitted that the sight of it had terrified her, she swore that thanks to the Nephilim who had been present with them, there had been very little pain and she’d been numbed to the Companion’s presence and her own embarrassment as well.

  After, they’d left her alone to mourn her old hopes and dreams and then had slept soundly, exhausted and actually wishing that Kohén had been there because she’d felt more wasted by the loneliness than the infertility treatment. Now she took private classes only, had most of her meals in the harem and was getting used to being spoiled so.

  She concluded her dissection by telling us that she did not regret doing it. ‘I’m a sex-worker, yes,’ she’d whispered from her old bunk. ‘But my blood will always be pure, so, I will always be pure as well, and I don’t care what my parents or the world think- I know the truth. A whore is a woman who sleeps with men for personal gain and spreads disease- not for the benefit of her country.’

  Yes, they’d gotten in her head and her womb and had infected her completely, and the boat that Kohén had given her as a sixteenth birthday gift ensured that she’d been smiling and bragging for the whole week since he’d returned.

  Blessedly though, she still wore no gold and though I didn’t want to hope that she’d go on that way… I did hope for that. I didn’t want Kohén to touch her! I didn’t want to share my best friend or the boy I had deep feelings for… was that so wrong?

  My ritual would be different to hers of course because Kohén was here and he would have to come to me after I’d been injected, but I could trust the fact that he’d honour his promise and that I’d spend the evening weeping alone, just as Emmerly had- only I doubted that my tears would subside by sunrise and that I’d wake up looking to snuggle with anyone or go sailing! Emmerly may have had more breeding than me but in the common sense department, I prevailed to my own detriment, just as Martya had.

  I wasn’t ready to go through with the ritual, but I was powerless to prevent it, so when I packed my bags on the eve of my birthday, I did so with a heart full of trust in Kohén, a soul full of rage towards God and a renewed determination to rise from the ashes of my infertility and become something greater to the world than a mother, even if raising a cotton field in Yael wasn’t to be. I could grow cotton in other places- on other continents if need be- and Kohén’s friendship could get me there so long as I could keep him at arm’s length but within hand-shaking and ball-kicking distance.

  I was awoken in the morning as promised by unfamiliar castle staff, and though none of the girls wished me luck or hugged me goodbye, Lindy met me at the door with Coaxley beside her and wrapped me up in their arms, and blubbering into the robe I’d been made to wear. She managed to hack out a ‘Happy Birthday darling,’ but the circles under her eyes and the grimace on her face had me so worried that it would be someone else’s birthday that day that I took no comfort. I looked up and caught Kelia’s eye over her shoulder, but instead of offering me an apologetic smile or even a mutual acknowledgement of fear, she was glaring at Lindy’s back and I knew that she had not forgiven either of us for my ball gown. If I’d stayed upstairs, she would have been the most beautiful, but I had thwarted that for her and she was not over it. And how could I begrudge her that hate? At least I had more going for me than beauty- Kelia didn’t even have kindness anymore.

  She must have been the one who filed the complaint, that shrew!

  Once I was pulled out of their arms, I was led through to the north wing, and though it was early, there were enough people about to make my cheeks flame hotly. But no one cared about how I was feeling so they gawked while I was shuffled on and when the north wing doors were opened before me, I could have fainted from fear.

  It was beyond opulent- the foyer itself fancier than any space I had ever been in before- gold wallpapered walls lined the wide corridor and took me past a series of doors that were all shut and marked with symbols that I did not recognize. The floor was shiny white marble and after a few lengths, opened up into a cavernous, foggy space, which I supposed was the centre of the wing. There, the ceilings lifted to accommodate another glass dome and sunlight filtered through a golden fall’s worth of painted glass autumn leaves, to cast patterns on the fog and the pool which had been placed directly below it. And what a beguiling effect that had- making it look as though fall and snow were falling together under a bright summer sky and over a spring-warmed lake.

  As with the main pool, this one was obviously heated which explained the misty, humid air, but I realised quickly that it was not intended to swim laps in. In places it was only ankle deep and in others, it would reach my hip and in others, jets made the lavender-scented water bubble and gurgle and froth. I looked away from the water, disgusted to know that it was a fancy pot for people to cook up an unromantic encounter in, and was ushered through another door just as the fair-headed Companion who I knew went by Caprice stepped out from one of the doors beyond the pool and hatefully smiled at me before ducking back in.

  What if she’s the one who will come to check me over? Oh no I’d much rather have Adeline!

  No one in the spa room spoke, except to kindly give me directions, and I was grateful for that because I couldn’t think of a single thing that anyone could say to me to make me feel better, because even my eternal curiosity had been smashed under the weight of my impending doom. I didn’t want to know what they were using to wax my limbs and sex with, and I didn’t want to know why I needed my hair washed and set into loose waves given how it was expected to get all rumpled later. I didn’t want to know what was being painted on my face and I certainly did not want to look at my reflection when they were done. They looked disappointed by my lack of enthusiasm as they slipped me into my dress but I did not care- if only they knew what true disappointment was! I kept my eyes on the tiled walls and my brain floating with the chiming music while they began to pack their tools away. I was oiled, buffed, polished and brushed within an inch of my life but I didn’t let them touch me- not the real me- and when they started asking me questions about my sleeping and eating habits and ‘prior’ sexual experiences, I answered with a wooden voice that I’d shared two kisses with the Prince of Arcadia, and was disgusted to see them smile at each other as though I were the palomino horse that they were backing. They didn’t ask if I meant Kohén both times, so I didn’t offer information to the contrary and it served them right for assuming that only one of the twins was a prince.

  By the time there was a pinkish glow in the room, I was ready to fall asleep but did not trust anyone around me enough to close my eyes in front of. One of the female guards came in and whispered something to the woman who had been overseeing everyone else, my fingernails dug into my palms in duress. Was this it?

  ‘… Will there be a delay, if she is weak?’ a girl said, and I tuned my ears into her voice.

  ‘No, we have a substitute and the prince is ready and waiting, so any time now…’

  ‘She looks lovely, doesn’t she?’

  ‘The loveliest ever.’

  ‘I wish I had such hair!’

  ‘It’s no wonder why he’s so gone on her…’

  I choked on a sob when I tried to inhale, staggered by how the whispers about me had changed since I’d come to Eden, and to my detriment. Oh, to be that ugly little girl again who had never roused Prince Karol’s interest! Who would never have been more than a friend to Kohén. Now I had a hole in my chest and a soul full of fear that every man I would ever meet would treat me like a caged bird.

  And what did they mean by saying that Kohén was ready? If he’d told them to hurry up so that he could get his post-ritual obligation of coming to see me out of the way, I would kill him! Did he think I wanted this rushed? That I’d welcome the chance to go kick around a ball in lieu of copula
tion or something? I was never going to be able to have babies! Tears filled my eyes.

  I should have run? It’s one thing to promise him my youth in return for my freedom, but an empty womb for eternity? Oh, God...

  ‘It’s time, Larkin,’ the woman in charge said, striding forward and opening the door in front of me.

  I looked her in her sage green eyes for the first time since I’d arrived. ‘Time for what?’

  ‘For you to go to your room for the second part of your initiation into the harem.’ I expected her to start walking, but she motioned me to pass her and said: ‘Your room is in the back left corner,’ she stepped forward so that she could motion past the left side of the pool, where a corridor snaked off. There are only four doors in there- yours is the very last and the only one unlocked so don’t worry, you won’t get lost.’

  I glanced around me, confused. ‘But the Nephilim healer…?’

  ‘Is already in there. Now go on please,’ she smiled. ‘And Happy Birthday.’

  I could have spit on her but I didn’t like the idea of being locked in the north wing for five whole days so I nodded and did as I was told, not looking at the pool as I passed it by.

  I’m doing this to be free, just going through the motions… he promised he wouldn’t touch me, he promised!

  Mercifully, the halls of the harem were silent and unoccupied, and I had to admit that I was grateful for lockable doors and separate sleeping compartments. If it was this quiet all the time it would give me the creeps though, so I hoped some of the girls came out to talk to cover the sounds of fornicating from time to time.

  By the time I got to the second door on the left, my heart was in my throat and palpitating, and I couldn’t breathe around it, so when I opened the door and stepped in to see that Karol and Kohén were sitting on a white leather-posted bed in the centre of the opulent space, I had no breath to scream with or even gasp. I slumped back against the door, closing myself in, and stared at the older price in horror.

  ‘Larkin!’ I expected Kohén to jump to his feet to rush over and comfort me, but he only stood and stared, with wide eyes. ‘You look-’

  ‘She doesn’t care to be complimented right now,’ Karol said, placing his hand on Kohén’s shoulder and smiling tightly at me. ‘So I’d encourage you to hold it in for another few years.’

  Kohén shrugged his brother off. ‘Don’t tell me how to talk to my friend, and it’s your presence that’s scaring her, you know.’ He moved forward to me, but stopped a few paces across from me and bit his lip. ‘Are you all right?’

  I shook my head, still staring at Karol. ‘No. No I’m not…’ I stepped forward and Kohén moved out of the way. ‘I don’t know why you’re here but I want you to leave and if you don’t, I’ll scream the palace down.’

  ‘Larkin!’ Kohén followed me and took my hand but I snatched it from his grip. ‘Jesus, Karol! What have you done to her?’

  ‘It’s not what I did, it’s how I said I’d do it.’ To my horror, Karol had the nerve to smile softly and straighten the golden throw on the feathery white quilt beneath him, like he owned the place before giving me a stern look: ‘Larkin, as much as it pains me to grieve you by being here, you’ll scream the palace down a lot more if I leave Kohén to do this alone, so lower your torch, please.’

  ‘Do WHAT alone?’ I snapped.

  ‘The… the thing… you need a Nephilim to do it, Lark,’ Kohén said quietly into my ear. ‘We had one for you, but she’s still too exhausted from all of the healing she had to do at the ball and can’t be expected to sedate anyone. So Karol is-’

  A cold fist clenched around my heart. ‘No!’ I whimpered to the eldest Barachiel prince. ‘Not you!’

  ‘I’m sorry Larkin, but I don’t have any more choice than you do,’ Karol said sadly, sitting on the bed and patting the mattress beside him. ‘Kohén has been trained to give you the injection so I could leave it to him, but if I leave, you’ll have nothing for the pain and I can’t even imagine how much it will hurt.’

  ‘So let it hurt,’ I said, tears in my eyes. ‘Go, and let it hurt!’

  ‘Larkin no,’ Kohén whispered, aghast, and Karol’s green eyes flashed with indignation. Kohén turned me to face him and said: ‘I’m so sorry but I need him to be here. I’ve been trained yes, but I’ve never actually had to do it before, given as how I only turned sixteen last week- and Karol has. I would shake like a leaf, I would…’ Kohén gripped my hands and squeezed it. ‘Please? If I know you can feel it I’ll die, really.’

  Tears filled my eyes. Hadn’t this boy asked enough of me already? ‘Why are you even here?’ I demanded. ‘Emmerly said I’d have the pink-haired Nephilim and a Companion-’

  ‘Emmerly came of age when we had a healthy Nephilim, and while I was away,’ Kohén said sadly. ‘Traditionally, the offering is always examined by the prince and the procedure done by a Nephilim. In this case, the only Nephilim available is also a prince.’

  ‘Offering?’ I rasped. Then: ‘Examined?!’ The blood rushed to my head. ‘You’re examining me for… oh my God!’ I turned away and bit down on my knuckles, feeling more like a thing than I ever had.

  This is a nightmare, not paradise!

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Kohén said again, resting both of his hands on my shoulders, and I felt his current hum over my skin. I hissed and then suddenly, I was being pulled to the bed by larger, warmer hands.

  ‘Kohén… leave this to me…’ Karol said, and though I opened my mouth to protest, nothing came out. I glared at Karol as he pulled me down on the bed, but as suddenly as it had hit me, the urge to kick and scream and fuss abated and I was sinking heavily into the downy comforter. Karol’s power was making me feel as though I were slipping my arms into something warm and fuzzy to ward off a chill. ‘You’re too emotional.’

  ‘She’s my best friend!’

  ‘Not tonight, she’s not- you’re a monster to her.’

  ‘You’re the monster to me,’ I complained. ‘And you’re making me feel heavy.’

  ‘I’m healing what ails you,’ Karol corrected me. ‘Now lie down and be a good girl because the sooner you let me start this, the sooner I can leave.’

  I met his beautiful green eyes and let him see how much I hated him. ‘Do you have a compassionate bone in your body?’

  Karol frowned at me and then sighed and stood. ‘Yes, I have many,’ he motioned Kohén forward. ‘Unfortunately, they’re attached to the skeleton of a future leader who needs to maintain a stretched spine at all times.’

  ‘So you say,’ I muttered, but he smiled, and I knew that he really didn’t care what I thought of him. And who cared about the opinion of a whore, when the rest of the world thought that he was as close to God as any man could ever come?

  ‘Kohén…?’ Karol stepped back and laced his fingers together in front of him. ‘Go on, while it’s me she still wants to kill.’

  ‘God…I don’t think I can...’

  ‘Kohén Barachiel,’ Karol said, his tone harder now. ‘What’s YOUR skeleton made of?’

  ‘He has a heart in his,’ I said softly, and when I saw the fear and sorrow in Kohén’s eyes, I knew it was true. Sighing, I offered Kohén a shaky smile. ‘Well, come on your highness,’ I said, extending my hand to him. ‘We made a deal and if you intend on honouring your half of it, then you have no qualms with holding me to mine, do you?’

  Kohén took my hand and kissed it and tears misted in his eyes. ‘I do.’

  ‘Then shake on it, and get on with it, so your older brother sees how a real man gets a woman on her back…’ I glared at Karol. ‘With promises that he intends to keep, not commands to obey!’

  Karol made a slight snorting sound but Kohén’s chin lifted higher at my words. ‘Very well.’ He swallowed, shook my hand firmly and then released it so that he could take off the odd white gloves that he was wearing. ‘Lie down please, Larkin, so that your hips are near the edge of the bed.’

  I glanced at Karol and when I saw that he was stil
l staring down at his hands, I nodded and wriggled back a few inches before reclining back and closing my eyes. ‘Like this?’ I whispered.

  ‘Yes,’ I heard him move and then adjust my hair so it wouldn’t get stuck beneath me, and that charge ran up the inside of my thigh again. ‘Are you comfortable?’ he whispered.

  ‘As can be expected.’

  ‘Good,’ Kohén’s voice remained light, but firm as he moved back. ‘Now, I’m going to remove your underwear…’

  I closed my eyes and nodded. ‘Okay…’

  Not okay! Not okay NOT okay!

  ‘Okay um…’ his even pitch faltered and then suddenly, his hands were under my dress and against the bare skin of my upper thighs. I flinched and turned my head to the side but Kohén moved quickly, hooking his fingers around the edge of the delicate lace panties that I’d put on and pulling them down over my hips then rump quickly and smoothly. The lace tickled my thighs and the feeling of vulnerability was almost unbearable, and when I felt the panties slip over my knees and then be plucked from my ankles, I realised that I’d never felt so naked before in my life- and I was still almost completely covered!

  ‘That’s done I…’ I heard Kohén clear his throat. ‘I have to examine you now…’

  I pressed my fingers to my eyes. ‘I know.’

  ‘Ah yes well… I need you to lift your feet to your hips and um, open them for…’

  I sobbed another breathless sob, but complied, lifting my heavy feet to the edge of the mattress and then, letting my knees fall outwards a little as I’d done when I’d been waxed, screaming silently all the while as I learned the true meaning of the word ‘Exposed’. I heard someone breathe in sharply and then, when Kohén’s hand landed gently on my knee, I almost levitated off the bed from the force of his charge.

  ‘Oh my God!’ I moaned into my hands. ‘Couldn’t they let someone without powers do this part?!’