Page 93 of Joy Guardian
“No!” I shoved her away, running into the city after the guards who dragged Kurai away. “Let go of him! He didn’t do anything wrong. He saved us! He didn’t harm us.”
The Joy Vessel Keeper ran after me. “Please, let me show you the way to thesarai, Sweet One. You look like you could use a warm bath.”
Her calm soothing tone had an explosive effect on my frayed nerves.
“Fuck you and your bath,” I snapped, trying hard to keep up with the guards on the busy city street. “Where are they taking him?”
“To the dungeon,” the Keeper replied evenly, unfazed by my snappy tone.
“Kurai doesn’t deserve to be locked up in the dungeon. He isn’t a criminal.”
“That’s for His Highness, Prince Rha, to decide.”
I squeezed past a man leading a camel, trying to keep the guards in my view.
“Where is the prince?” I asked the Keeper, who remained on my heels. “I need to speak with him.”
“Prince Rha is currently occupied on one of the lower levels of the city. Teneris is a large place. Our ruler’s attention is constantly requested somewhere.”
As we turned into a narrow street densely packed with pedestrians, I could no longer see the backs of the guards or Kurai.
“Where do you have the dungeon here?” I demanded from the Joy Vessel Keeper. “Take me there, too, please.”
“It’s unheard of to put a Joy Vessel in a dungeon,” she bristled.
“But I need to be with him!” I gripped my hair, aimlessly turning in circles around the pedestrians gawking at me. “Please, please, I can’t let them hurt him. What if they kill him?”
The Keeper caught me in her arms, stalling my useless pacing.
“No one will execute a prisoner without a due process in Teneris,” she said soothingly. “He will get a chance to speak in his defense. And you will be able to plead his case, too, if you so wish. But you’re far more likely to see Prince Rha in his royalsaraithan in the dungeon. And while we wait for him, let me take you to the royal baths. No need to offend our poor prince with your current appearance.”
I let Jotti, the Joy Vessel Keeper, take me to the public baths in Teneris. The only other thing I could do while waiting for the prince to grace me with his presence would be to pace inside thesaraithat was currently absolutely empty. The three humans who came with me to Teneris had all happily gone to the city baths, too, and all the prince’s Joy Vessels had escaped in their failed attempt to return to the human world.
Unlike them, I didn’t mind staying in Alveari for the rest of my life, but only if Kurai was with me.
“What would you like me to do with your hair?” Jotti asked, lifting a handful of my soggy braids.
We stood in the pool, both she and I completely naked. Her slick, pitch-black body shimmered softly. With no genitals ondisplay and with her nipples being the same color as the rest of her, Jotti didn’t even seem nude despite having no clothes on.
Shyanne splashed nearby, in the hot shallow pool next to ours. But Peter and Maria had asked to bathe in private.
“I’m not sure.” I speared my fingers between the braids at the roots and scratched my skull energetically. “The best would be just to cut them off I guess. Listen, how long does Prince Rha usually take to do his city business?”
“It depends on the business, I believe,” Jotti replied in her soft, soothing voice.
Under different circumstances, I would’ve probably enjoyed spending time with her. The calm manner with which she did her job was in stark contrast with the hurried tension of the Joy Vessel Kippers in the queen’ssarai.
Jotti picked a few jars from the tray with toiletries, then grabbed a pair of scissors.
“How short do you want me to cut your braids?” She turned to me with a purpose.
Even without the pile of sand now surely stuck in my braids forever, it was long overdue for me to get rid of the braids. My hair had grown, and my braids had taken quite a beating in the past two months, looking fuzzy and messy now.
However, I hesitated to accept Jotti’s help, eyeing skeptically her hair that was long and straight like a horse’s tail.
“Are you sure you know how to do it?” I asked.
She nodded confidently. “I used to take care of Shyanne’s hair, before she decided to shave it off.”
