Free Horns for the Harem Girl by Lynn Red Page B

and touches me,” she drew a breath, “I can’t—“
    “You’re intimate ?”
    “Well,” Helena said, slightly blushing. “I suppose I—“
    “You and a djinn have been intimate ?”
    Helena sighed a deeply held breath, laughing on the tail end of it. “Oh Alara, you always were a jackass. Me and the prince. I have been with a prince ,” she hissed. “Well, sort of, he was insistent that we save the most special for, well, he kept saying that he was going to save it so he could do it right.”
    Alara shook her head. “My first time involved the stable boy from down the way, and straw that smelled like camels. Yours involves a prince who is willing to keep his desires in check and some kind of lavish rose petals in the bath seduction? Anyway, how do you manage to be in the harem for six months and still have this be your first time?”
    Now, Helena was blushing as fully crimson as dawn had been six hours earlier. With a bashful smile, she looked down at her toes. “Well, I’ve been training more than anything. Haven’t had much time for, er, extracurricular activities. And the king is very set in his ways. He’s got his favorites and he sticks to them. And before I was in the palace, you know how reserved and demure I am.”
    At that, Alara snorted a laugh. “By that you mean that as the family’s baby, Papa always watched you closer than he did anyone else.”
    “Well, that too,” Helena said. “But you’re right about the fires. I wasn’t entirely honest.”
    “Listen to me, sister,” Alara said, drawn up close to her baby sister. “Whatever has happened, whatever trouble you’ve got us in, or got yourself in, I’m sure it’ll all work out.”
    A heavy sigh escaped Helena’s lips. “That’s what he says. And that’s what Maret – she’s my mentor in the harem, and apparently the prince’s mother – says. I don’t know why I can’t have the same optimism.”
    “Because you haven’t spent your life in a sequestered palace full of cushions, hookahs, and court jesters. They do have those, right? Fools that entertain the king? And the prince, isn’t he some kind of regional governor? Where’s his land? Certainly not out in the middle of a wasteland desert, is it?”
    Helena shook her head. “I don’t know, to be honest. I’ve only rarely been to court. I’m not a favorite, or experienced at all, so I spent most of my time entertaining at the feasting hall attending to the partying dignitaries.”
    “I don’t know how you do it,” Alara said. “I wouldn’t be able to keep my nose out of all the intrigues were I in your position. There’s so much to poke around in, so much trouble and gossip to find.”
    And here is where her sister finally got excited. She got giddy at the idea of news, secrets, and all other sorts of things she wasn’t supposed to know. Helena watched her sister’s face for a moment, studying her expression. “I only know one secret. Well, two, really.”
    Alara’s eyes lit up. “Aside from the fact that the prince is waging a war with his father?”
    “That’s not exactly secret.”
    “True, the enormous fires and the armies kind of gave that away I suppose.”
    “Well, you know how I said the prince is the son of my mentor? And not fully royal?”
    Alara sat forward, edging up to the end of the bench where she was sitting. “I’m listening,” she said with wide open eyes and excitement in her voice. The thing about being all analytical and intellectual is that she couldn’t get enough tidbits of news, gossip, whatever you wanted to call it. If it was there, Alara wanted all of it. “Although princes are often born to harem women, as I understand it.”
    “Well, it’s true, in a way. Often kings bear sons on harem women. But, not before they become king, and not with her not being his first wife.”
    “Oh this is good. How is he the heir, then?”
    “Maret was, is, I mean, the king’s favorite. She’s his confidant, his best friend. If