Stone of Tears

The other young men in collars wanted to show Richard the city. Two, Perry and Isaac, who lived in Gillaume Hall with him, took him into the city and showed him the tavern where many of the guards drank, and he soon after bought Swordsman Kevin Andellmere the ale he had promised him.

Richard discovered that most of the young men spent their nights away from the palace, staying in various fine inns around the city. It didn’t take Richard long to figure out why. They were provided money, the same as he, and they were practiced at spending it. They bought themselves fancy clothes, dressing like princes, and on their overnight stays they picked the finest accommodations.

There was no shortage of women wanting to share those accommodations. Astonishingly beautiful women.

When Perry and Isaac took him to the city, they were always quickly surrounded by attractive women. Richard had never seen women this brazen. Every evening, the two men would each select a woman, sometimes several, and buy them presents, maybe a dress or a bauble, and then depart for their rooms.

The two told him that if he didn’t want to bother with spending time buying gifts, he could simply go to any of the houses of prostitution, but they assured him that those women were not as young, or nearly as pretty, as the ones who approached them on the streets. They admitted, though, that they went to prostitutes sometimes when they didn’t feel like wasting time being sociable for no more than a simple coupling.

When he was spotted with a collar, Richard drew women the same as Perry and Isaac did. Richard was beginning to see in a new light what Sister Verna meant about him soon finding another pair of pretty legs. The other two men thought Richard was mad to turn down all the offers. Sometimes, Richard wondered if they might not be right.

Richard asked Perry and Isaac if they weren’t afraid of a woman’s father cracking their skulls. They laughed and said that fathers sometimes brought their daughters to them. Richard threw his arms up and asked if they weren’t concerned about getting some woman they didn’t even know pregnant. They explained that if a woman “got herself” pregnant, the palace would provide for her and the child, even her whole family.

When Richard had asked Pasha what was behind such a bizarre convention, she folded her arms across her breasts and presented her back to him while she explained that men had uncontrollable urges, and those urges would be a distraction to learning to use their Han, so the Sisters encouraged the men to satisfy their needs. That was why she didn’t go to the city with him at night. She was restricted from interfering with his… needs.

She had turned back to him and begged him to come to her with his needs, saying she would see to it that he had no desire to go to other women, or if he did go to the city, to at least allow her to be one of the women he slept with. She told him that she could satisfy him better than any other woman, and offered to prove it.

Richard was dumbfounded by such talk, to say nothing of the behavior. He told Pasha that he only went to the city to see the sights. Having grown up in the woods, he had never roamed around in a city before. He told her that where he came from it wasn’t right to treat women in such a way.

He promised that if he was ever overcome with need, he would come to her first. She was so happy to hear this that she didn’t mind when he reminded her that he wasn’t ready yet. She had no idea that there were times when he felt so lonely that he was sorely tempted to give in to her. She was unquestionably alluring, and it was sometimes difficult for him to make himself keep her at arm’s length.

Richard had Pasha show him everything she could of the palace. He had her show him some of the city, and take him on a tour of the docks, to see the big boats. She said they were called ships, because they went to sea. Richard had never seen anything that large afloat. She told him that they brought trade from cities of the Old World farther down the coast.

Pasha went with him to the sea, and they sat for hours, watching the waves, or explored the tide pools. Richard was astounded to learn that the sea went up and down, with tides, all by itself. She assured him that it was not the magic of the palace, but did such a thing everywhere. Richard was spellbound by the ocean. Pasha was content to simply sit with him. But Richard couldn’t afford to sit and watch the ocean too often. He had things to do.

Pasha wasn’t permitted to go with him to the city in the evening, in case he chose to be with a woman. He had to constantly reassure her that that was not why he went out at night. Since it was the truth that he wasn’t sleeping with any of the women, he had no difficulty being sincere and convincing her. He did not tell her the truth, however, about what he really was doing.