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watched it flutter out an open window one night. Only dread remained, but as it was ever-present, it could not serve as marker for the passing time.
    The days at Maiden Hall had neither beginning nor end, for sleep passed in the blink of an eye. I slept as soon as my worn body touched my pallet; then I heard the door bang open, and I pulled awake again as if no time had passed at all.
    Little by little, I grew familiar with the other girls and the ways of the House of Tahar. I learned that only the sons of warriors could be warriors; the children of servants would always remain slaves, although the girls became maidens for a short time.
    Daughters of warriors were given as concubines to other warriors either at their Lord’s House or at another’s. Anyone could take a servant girl, but the taking of a maiden was punishable by death, as was all disobedience. Some of the Great Houses had different laws, but Tahar kept with the old ways.
    I made friends with as many of the maidens as would let me, and was glad never to be chosen for chores in Pleasure Hall, for I heard many tales about the cruelty of concubines.
    The hatred of some of the maidens was enough, almost more than I could bear, for I gave them no reason to treat me so. But a few, seeing Kumra’s obvious dislike of me, sought to gain her favor by doing whatever they could to torture me. One had gone as far as dropping a small cauldron of boiling water on me to see how fast I could heal myself. I howled with the pain of the welts that covered both arms to the tip of my fingers.
    The following morning, as Kumra sent us to do our chores, her gaze landed on my hands. Her lips flattened into a severe line. “What have you done?”
    “An accident, my lady. I beg your pardon for it.” I hoped she would allow me a day of rest so I could think of a poultice that could be made from the meager things available to me.
    “You useless, clumsy murna,” she yelled, and other offensive names followed. Then she suddenly calmed, which scared me more than the yelling. A cold gleam came into her eyes. “You will be assigned to the wash today. See that you make fine work of it.”
    I bowed, not wanting to anger her further by showing any emotion. A hard day that turned out to be. The hot water and lye like thousands of sharp talons and teeth attacked my injured flesh. I fainted twice with the pain of it, but dared not to leave any of the work undone.
    These things happened and worse, and I learned to keep out of Kumra’s way. I did nothing to bring myself to her attention and tried my best to do my work as well as I could to give her no excuse for punishment, not that she needed a reason.
    The spirits watched over me, for no illness came to the House that would have required any true powers. The few cases of sour stomachs were righted easily with steamed borlan, and the various cuts and sores needed only cleaning and bandaging. Thus my lack of true worth remained undiscovered as winter progressed, each day colder yet than the one before.
    The work remained hard, the food scarce, and my heart shivered within my body, for I could never get warm enough. I tied rags around my feet and stuffed them with dry grass for added protection. To keep the chill from the rest of my body, I folded a large rag into a triangle and wore it over my shoulders as a cape, the edges wrapped around my waist and tied in the back, but still my sunborn body shivered.
    I was determined to gain my full strength back before true winter arrived. My limbs, always strong from climbing, had grown weak. So wherever I had to go, I ran instead of walking. If anything heavy needed to be lifted, I jumped first to grab it. I did my chores fast, then helped the other girls. All the time, I planned, asking the spirits to help me. And then one day they answered.
    I was running through the kitchen with a bucket in each hand, on my way to the creek, when I saw a man whose familiar thudrag, the traditional wear of Shahala men,