Blood of the Goddess Book I: The Locust King
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Locusts at the Gate Chapter 2: A New Name Chapter 3: The Capital Prepares Chapter 4: The Princess is Dead, Long Live the Princess Chapter 5: Outside the Gates Chapter 6: Inside the Black Tent Chapter 7: Surrender at the Temple Chapter 8: The Cult of the Locust Chapter 9: The Locust's Tenets of Faith Chapter 10: Mourners on the Cliff Chapter 11: The Eye of Betrayal Chapter 12: The Dead King's Bedchamber Chapter 13: The Arms of the Goddess Chapter 14: Zayaan of the Narim Chapter 15: The Eyes of the Priestess Chapter 16: A More Permanent Disguise Chapter 17: Tribute Chapter 18: Sacrifice of the New Moon Chapter 19: The Lost Bird Chapter 20: Manah and the Priestess Chapter 21: Desert Creatures Chapter 22: Become the Swarm Chapter 23 The Price of Betrayal Chapter 24: Life Under the Locust Chapter 25: Wild Rose Chapter 26: The Lady Wren Chapter 27: Thought and Desire Chapter 28: The Lady's Captivity Chapter 29: The Wine Maiden Chapter 30: End of Childhood Chapter 31: The Children of Aisha Chapter 32: The Forest Runner Chapter 33: Three Sisters Chapter 34: The Hunt Chapter 35: Bones in the Forest Chapter 36: Lullaby Chapter 37: The Hunter's Horn Chapter 38: Ways Between Ways Chapter 39: Morning Star Chapter 40: A Prophecy for Baraz Chapter 41: Equinox Fires Chapter 42: The Lord Prince Takri Chapter 43: Evening Star Sets Chapter 44: Chaos in the Courtyard Chapter 45: Dasha Chapter 46: Memories Chapter 47: The Body Slave Chapter 48: Caged Beasts Chapter 49: Message from the Capital Chapter 50: Heresiarch Chapter 51: The Color of Blood Chapter 52: Winter Winds Chapter 53: The Bookmaker's Closet Chapter 54: Wrapped in Dignity and Beauty Chapter 55: Vessel of the Goddess Chapter 56: Cracks in the Walls Chapter 57: Two Brothers Chapter 58: The Court of Women Chapter 59: Favored of the King Chapter 60: The Sweetest Fruit Chapter 61: Daughter of the Temple Chapter 62: A Nation of Bastards Chapter 63: The Lute Player Chapter 64: Aisha's Prayer Chapter 65: Promises Chapter 66: Lives Lost Chapter 67: The Tea Maker Chapter 68: Object of DesireChapter 24: Life Under the Locust
Takri's travel across the desert to the capital of Adyll was tedious and uneventful. His excitement to see the famed royal city on the mountain was quickly replaced by disappointment once he arrived. The months of occupation by the Swarm changed the city from the place he remembered into a city of ghosts. Grey suffering and servitude to Mahleck replaced the vibrancy of Adyll's culture.
The once-busy streets were largely empty except for members of the Swarm. To avoid harassment by Takri's fellow soldiers, the populace only left their homes if it was needed. Now, only male proprietors ran the shops lining the main streets. After the siege, women no longer dared to move about the city without a male escort. Black robes and veils took the place of bright gossamer silks once worn by Adyllian women. Takri noticed the lack of street people begging on corners from. No children played in the open, and all business was conducted by men. A feeling of danger lurked everywhere he turned.
He came upon the marketplace where his people traded exotic spices and delicacies from across the desert. Even the goods sold there seemed lacking. Takri soon learned why after he arrived at the palace. The Swarm and the temple took their share in all things before the people. And the palace took the best of the fruit of the land before it could be brought to market, even beyond the required tithes. The Locusts inspected the farmers' storehouses and livestock weekly, taking whatever was of highest quality.
Inside the palace walls, servants whispered fears of oncoming famine. The rains from the ocean came weaker than usual as the summer passed, reducing the harvest. Food was scarcer than before the siege, and fewer citizens could afford the meager offerings from the farmers and the shepherds. Those living at the palace remained unaffected by the drought, for the Locust King received his portion before the rest. And he would feed those who were part of his household before the people of Adyll.
Summer began to turn to Fall. Life at the temple might be monotonous if it wasn’t underpinned with the constant threat of punishment or death for any misstep, deliberate or otherwise. The High Priestess ruled over the women with tight control. No one came or went without her knowing. Even time spent in the latrines or baths was tightly monitored. Every morning she and her Eyes walked through the dormitories inspecting the women’s undergarments for blood. If there was deviation from their normal cycles of more than a week, the offending woman was given a tea made from pennyroyal to bring on their menses, regardless of if the woman desired the tea. Some of the women tried to refuse, but found their food laced with the herb instead. One woman hemorrhaged and nearly died, but the Holy Mother did not waver in her convictions. No one would bear a child of the Locust under the Holy Mother's watch.
Aisha was spared the nightmare of the pennyroyal tea as her cycles had yet to begin. This did not prevent the daily inspection of her underclothes along with every other woman. She was terrified of the day she would begin her monthly cycle. She served as Eyes the day the woman almost bled out. She had no doubt the Holy Mother would allow the same to happen to her.
The only women in the temple the old woman held in lower regard than Aisha were Nasreen and the other temple prostitutes. The Holy Mother seemed to forget she was the one who requested them to make their avenue of service a holy sacrifice for the others. Now she viewed the temple prostitutes as contaminated by their physical closeness to the men of the Swarm. The act of joining was no longer a sacred act in her mind. It desecrated anyone who had was touched by it – and that included any woman taken against their will. Under Mahleck's rule, the women of the temple were the property of the Locust King, things to be used by his priests or soldiers. But there were also consensual acts between those women and men that had true affection attached to them – in the Holy Mother’s eyes, these were even worse than the acts done in service to the Temple by the Temple prostitutes. To her, any fruit of these unions needed to be destroyed in the womb.
Aisha’s hips and breasts had swollen over the last few months as her body gave up girlhood. She wanted more than anything to remain unnoticed and hidden by the shadows, to hide her changing body. She walked with her shoulders purposefully hunched now, her elbows out and her head down, trying to hide her changing shape from the view of the priests of the Locust.
Nasreen told her some of the men preferred young girls with untouched hymens. They even had a word for such a girl – a virgin – and these girls were highly prized, for a man who broke the hymen of a virgin became her owner. Aisha and Nasreen’s people never had need for such a word. In the old ways, each person possessed their own body which could never be owned by another. Most young women did not experience a broken hymen through intercourse with a man. In fact, many times hymens were broken during physical activity or stretched through self-pleasure. Aisha agreed with all the women of Adyll that placing value on a small membrane was ridiculous.
Yes, in all countries controlled by the Locust, women were considered unclean creatures, subhuman at best, breeding livestock at worst. During their monthly bleeding, women were considered so foul, so disgusting, that they were expected to seclude themselves for as long as they bled. While the thought initially offended the women, they quickly saw it as a gift. If you bled, you could not be in the presence of a man. You could not be within the same walls as the men who oppressed you. During one week every month you were safe, you could breathe. Aisha loved the weeks that Nasreen was sequestered in the dormitory and women’s yard because the rest of the month, she would only see her when she woke in the morning.
Nasreen’s days began shortly before noon when she would rise, eat a small breakfast, garb herself in her red Temple robes and veil then walk to the brothel next to the women’s quarters. There she would be perfumed and inspected for disease by a former temple midwife who now bore the title of Procuress. When the elderly woman was finished, she gave each woman wine laced with valerian and other herbs. These helped to reduce anxiety and soothe pains from the previous day’s work. Before the days of the Swarm, the women and men who served in the temple brothel drank wine laced with different herbs that opened one’s eyes to glimpse their partner’s souls. Now the wine had a more practical purpose – to dull the senses, to help the women endure.
Sexual intercourse had been healing for the Adyllian worshippers who came to the temple brothel for solace. In those days, male prostitutes served alongside the women, and both served women and men. This type of service had come to an end. Abuse was the way of things now, and if a temple prostitute found herself with a man who was gentle, she considered herself to be blessed.
As Nasreen held the wine goblet in her hands that morning, she silently repeated the ancient prayer to The Lady. In the joining we are made one. In the joining we are made whole. As I serve, may my garden become filled with dew, welcoming those who would know the glory that is loving The Lady.
She knew these men did not come to worship. Some came for release; others came to defile. The bruises on her body were constant reminders of the latter. But she still held onto hope that by performing her service, she would be able to heal at least some of them.
She and the other women disrobed and lined up along the wall, keeping their veils covering their eyes as all women had been commanded. Time for their work to begin.
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