Chapter 31

Ch. 31: Empress Katya

“Please stay calm, your majesty,” maids standing behind the fuming empress begged.

They had long made their way back to Sunrise Palace with Katya’s daughter in tow, too furious to remain at the Spring Ball a moment longer. A smattering of priceless shattered crystal vases and whatever else Katya could lay her hands on lay strewn across the floor. Princess Julia, who had rarely seen her mother’s temper, sat quietly in the corner, fat tears dripping down her face.

It was a terrifying sight on the rare occasions her Serene Majesty, Empress Katya Duvernay let her temper free. Under her calm visage, her eyes would reflect a deadly rage and she would slowly move through the room, knocking over vases and glasses indiscriminately. The only sound to accompany her anger was twinkling glass, and it was the eery silence that had shivers running up and down her maids’ spines.

“Everyone out,” seethed Katya quietly, like a deadly beast about to pounce on its prey. If one wasn’t experienced in serving the empress, they would not realize just how furious she was.

Many of the young maids heeded the empress’ words and fled from the room with looks of terror, but a brave few still tried to linger.

“Your majesty-” started Linette, Katya’s closest personal attendant who had accompanied her from Duvernay Manor to the castle.

“OUT!” bellowed Katya unexpectedly, her face twisted with rage that was completely at odds with her usually amiable personality.

“And tell that wench, Janice, to come in,” the empress added before Linette withdrew from the lavish sitting room.

.....

“Yes, your highness,” Linette said respectfully as if the mother of the Empire wasn’t having a full-on tantrum. It was her ability to quickly adapt to any situation that had kept her close to the empress’ side over the years.

“Mother...” sobbed Julia as she decided to brave the choppy waters of her mother’s rage and rushed in to hold Katya’s skirts. “That slave made fun of me. You said that I am better than her in every way, but everyone was laughing at me, not her!”

Katya felt a flash of irritation that her daughter was weak in intellect, for her to be torn to shreds with a few words by that illegitimate bastard. Initially, when she had met Princess Winter, she had found the young girl to be as simple as any other little girl her age. Winter had smiled naively and her words had that childlike lisp that made her seem even more pathetic. But when Katya had heard from a server the exact words that supposedly naive child had used to humiliate her daughter, it filled her with so much fury she had to exit the ball gracefully before she accidentally created a scene and ruined her painstakingly cultivated reputation.

A knock sounded on the door.

“Your highness, Janice has arrived,” said a muffled voice.

“Let her in!” the empress insisted impatiently.

Before the maid she had painstakingly invited back to the palace entered, Katya took a moment to compose herself, returning back to the calm mask she always wore. As much as she hated her husband’s bastard, she wasn’t foolish enough to reveal her true heart to an outsider.

A beautiful woman walked into the room with a falsely timid air, barely concealing the arrogance within her. Janice Combswith, the empress drawled in her mind before settling down comfortably in an open seat as the former maid dropped into a low curtsey before her.

“Your majesty, I am Janice,” the maid said. Katya raised her hand, indicating for the ex-maid to stand.

As a rule, Katya did not surround herself with beautiful women. Her delicate, oval-shaped face and sharp, amber eyes had made her the object of men’s fascination since she was old enough to understand the meaning behind their hungry eyes. She knew how easy it was for a woman of beauty to obtain things others could not with the crook of her finger or the flutter of her handkerchief to the floor.

Thus, in order to elevate herself and prevent giving others an opportunity to compare her beauty, Katya always ensured that her closest attendants and maidservants were women with average features. Those who were still pleasing to the eye, but overall served as good foils for her own looks. Looking at the haughty maid straightening from the floor, Katya knew there was no chance she would ever employ this girl to walk around with her at the palace. Emperor Helio usually had a steel heart, rarely swayed by women unless he wanted to enjoy a quick romp in the sheets, but it was better to err on the side of caution.

Janice was the kind of beauty that would make a rich man poor within a day just to satisfy her whims, for whom traveling bards would compose songs about. Katya narrowed her cat-like eyes as a woman whose looks easily rivaled her own unabashedly looked at her. The girl was around 18 to 20 years old, her face having recently shed its baby fat to reveal a seductress-like face. Her brows arched wickedly and she did not have the appeal of a blushing virgin, more like a woman who a man would imagine himself having a tryst with.

How strange, the empress thought to herself. She usually had her own people within the servant’s quarters fetter out any woman who was too lovely, with looks such as these, Janice would have been rooted out before she even set foot in the main palace.

Suspicion rose within Katya’s heart, but she was well-practiced in restraining her inner emotions.

“You are a pretty girl, Janice,” Katya said in a tone that didn’t betray her thoughts.

An astute maid would have blanched in fear, but Janice had no such qualms as she soaked in the praise liberally.

“Thank you, your majesty,” her smug smile so wide it looked like it would break. Katya instantly knew she didn’t particularly care for this young girl, but Janice seemed to lack the dexterity needed to be a true threat so she ventured forth with her actual reason.

“I heard,” Katya started softly, picking up a glass of tea a quivering maid had brought in before escorting out Princess Julia, “That you used to serve Princess Winter.”

It took the empress great effort to call that illegitimate brat by her proper name and satisfied her immensely to watch how Janice’s alluring face puckered into barely-veiled disgust.

“I did, your majesty,” replied Janice.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Good. Tell me what you thought of her.” Katya went straight to the point. Janice eagerly dove into the topic, anxious to prove her worth to the empress and stay at the palace.

“I thought she was a strange girl, your majesty. I saw many young children in my poor hometown and she did not act like any of them. She never ran around outside and was cooped up in her room constantly. Princess Winter was not nearly as difficult as a child her age would be. It was almost like she had received vigorous training on how to carry herself.”

Katya absorbed the information quickly, as it sharply contrasted with her initial impression of a ditzy, lowborn girl, but maintained her slightly bored expression. She only remarked, “Is that so?”

Her words had the intended effect, making Janice think that the information she had divulged was not at all useful and she strived to say even more. Janice began to show the first signs of humility as she spoke, finally recognizing that her fate at the palace depended on how good the information she gave was.

“She is quite good at changing her face as well. I don’t know if you know the circumstances of my firing?”

Katya shook her head.

“That girl,” Janice snarled, forgetting to address Princess Winter properly, “Cried at the drop of a hat, making me look like a villain. Then just as I was about to be dragged out the door like a sheep led to slaughter, she called me back in and said horrible things to me. It was like she was possessed, and not an ordinary, little girl at all!”

Katya took another sip, deep in contemplation at Janice’s words. It wasn’t unusual to run into clever children among the aristocracy. But despite the shrowded secrecy surrounding how and where Winter was discovered, her informants had been good enough to determine that the princess was found within Radovalsk. For an ordinary child to be so suited for the viciousness of palace life, Katya felt her skin crawl at the implications.

It was her complete and utter fortune that the girl did not have any powerful families backing her or her husband’s love, otherwise, the empress didn’t even dare think of the implications.

Katya had been silent for a while after Janice’s disclosed information, and the former maid was beginning to get antsy as she danced from foot to foot. Finally, Janice seemed to no longer be able to stand the silence and spoke.

“Is the information sufficient, your majesty?” Janice spoke, disregarding the well-heeded palace rule not to speak to your masters without their permission. Katya didn’t say anything of it, further understanding why this difficult maid would have been fired so quickly from the Rose Palace.

Katya was not one to answer the questions of servants and she simply told Janice, “You may leave.”

Janice looked annoyed, her thin lips curving into a displeased pout before she curtseyed deeply and knocked on the door of the sitting room to be let out. Katya did not miss how the girl’s hands were curled into fists, the sight vaguely amusing her. Before the gold embossed doors slammed shut, Linette let herself in and dropped into a curtsey before Empress Katya.

“Your majesty, I have directed a maid to give Janice a few coins and put her up somewhere for the night,” Linette said, her eyes downcast since she, unlike the previous guest, understood her place on the pecking order. It left a sense of satisfaction within Katya, who had worked quite hard to earn her position as the empress and enjoyed the reverence that followed it.

“Good. What do you think of this girl, Linette?” Katya asked, knowing that as a maid, Linette would probably witness a different side to Janice than she did.

Linette’s lip curled distastefully.

“Your majesty, if you don’t mind me saying, I don’t like this girl at all. I spoke with our man in the servant’s quarter, he said that although she had decent features when she entered, the maid wasn’t pretty enough to warrant turning away. That girl must have hidden her face somehow and then revealed once she was admitted so she could seduce her higher-ups. This kind of greedy person, I think she will harm us more than she will help us,” Linette said dutifully, her dislike evident in her tone.

Katya looked away thoughtfully at the mounted clock on her wall carved out of imported teakwood.

“You may be right,” she acquiesced and Linette’s face lit up. But Katya wasn’t done speaking.

“But even if she can’t fully become one of my people, I’m sure a rude, little thing like Janice will have her uses,” Katya finished. Before Linette could politely dissuade Empress Katya further, there was a knock on the door and the voice a male courtier sounded.

“Your majesty, I have a missive from his majesty, Emperor Helio,” Helio’s courtier said.

Linette’s mouth opened and even a brief flash of surprise went over Katya’s face. How often did she long for Helio to summon her just like this in her spring days at the palace, when she had thought she was lovely enough to seduce any man in the Empire? The many days of solitude had carved their scars into her, as Katya long realized that even if she had earned the most coveted position a woman could have in the Erudian Empire, at the end of the day her husband’s love lay in the grave of her accursed predecessor.

“Let him in,” Katya said, not letting her curiosity leak into her voice. Missive were messages from the Emperor, either to summon someone or pass on important information.

The doormen opened the doors and in walked a courtier wearing the Emperor’s special livery and carrying a scroll. He dropped onto his knee with a fist on his chest and bowed, the formal greeting for men, and unfurled the scroll with the Emperor’s message. Katya was old enough to dismiss the fantasy of the Emperor summoning her to his bed for the night. The moment she had married him at the beautiful Sacred Temple of the Holy Church, her luxurious, but lonely separate palace had been prepared for her.

“Your majesty, the missive is as follows: Empress Katya Duvernay, I will be departing immediately to the Western provinces to quell a rebellion. Take care of the palace in my stead. Signed, the Emperor.”

Katya waited a heartbeat, but nothing else followed.

“Is this missive complete?” asked Linette in Katya’s stead. The courtier stood and bowed.

“That is the end of the missive, your majesty,” he said, his face not divulging any emotion. The men that worked closely with the emperor were just like that, reflecting the same coldness as their master.

Katya could feel Linette getting displeased on her behalf, but she managed to scrounge up a magnanimous smile and dismissed the young man from her presence. Linette tried to push a small, satin pouch of coins into the man’s hands as she escorted him out, but the man was airtight, quietly but politely refusing the bribe before stepping out.

“Your majesty,” Linette lightly complained as she began to massage Katya’s shoulders. “The Emperor is too unfair with you. You gave him two children and he never bothers to so much as visit!”

“It’s fine,” Empress Katya said, pretending to be the bigger person leaning her head into her hands as Linette began to pull out the tight pins in her hair from the Spring Ball. In truth, she was furious, perpetually simmering in a quiet rage at being ignored by her husband, but what could she expect? Helio, himself, had told her not to expect anything over a decade ago when they had woken up side by side after she had used prohibited magic to dampen his aura and seduce him on a fateful night.

Besides, now that Helio was going to be out of the palace for an extended amount of time... A sinister grin spread across her face that would have chilled her personal maidservant to the bone if she wasn’t standing behind Katya.

“Linette,” Katya said, monstrous happiness rising within her. “Summon Princess Winter to my palace tomorrow morning. I should like to speak with my new daughter.”

“Shall I summon her before or after the Ladies’ Court, your majesty?”

“Before of course. I’m sure my dear sisters would like to meet my newest daughter,” Katya said in a faux-sweet voice.

Linette was quick on her feet and read between the lines of what Katya had said.

“You are so smart, your majesty. This is the perfect time to put that slave brat in her wretched place. When you are through with her, that stain upon our family will cower obediently in your blessed presence.”

“Blessed be,” Katya fervently murmured the words used to conclude every Holy Church’s prayer.

The words the maid had spoken were cruel, but Katya did not correct her as she enjoyed using her maids as a mouthpiece for the things that were too vile for a beloved empress like herself to say. Katya fantasized about how she planned to kill the young princess’s spirit using the numerous special and subtle ways she had taken out her competitors in her debutante days.

As maids streamed into the room to undress her from the fine golden gown she no longer delighted in wearing, Katya almost felt better about how Helio had slighted her by not deigning to see her before departing.

Almost.