“Yes, he did. I, uh, got the impression that he, um, didn’t like her much,” Selena said carefully. She wasn’t sure how much you could or couldn’t say about Royalty here and she didn’t want to get into trouble.
“Well of course not—nobody likes that little bimbap!” Pashmeena exclaimed.
Selena was surprised—she’d thought that the derogatory term only applied to non-Ma’shorkan women, but apparently it was used across the board as an insult.
“Yes, you want to watch out for Empress the Third, my lady,” Pashmeena went on. “I know for a fact, because my first cousin twice removed is one of her lady’s maids. How’s the water temperature?”
“Oh, perfect.” Selena sighed as she relaxed back in the vast, round tub. The water had a silky quality that felt wonderful against her skin—it if wasn’t for the damn harness she was still wearing around her breasts and hips, she would have said it was the best bath she’d ever had in her life. “So what about the Empress? I mean, Empress the Third?” she asked. “I mean, what’s her story—she isn’t a, uh, double-face—which means she doesn’t have any royal blood, right?”
“She’s about as royal as my hind foot!” Pashmeena said, with surprising vehemence. “She started out as his Highness’s chambermaid, don’t you know. But that wasn’t good enough for her—oh, no! Pretty soon, she was beside him in his bed and pretty soon after that, she was beside him on the throne.”
“So she slept her way to the top,” Selena murmured. “I guess that figures.” She was remembering the way the hyper-sexual Empress had rubbed against the Emperor and then given him a hand-job right at the table. Then again, in a patriarchal society like the one on Ma’shorka Centra, how else was a woman supposed to get ahead? Clearly Empress the Third used her sexuality as both a weapon and a commodity. Selena didn’t blame her for that—but she did blame her for being so generally all-around nasty and mean.
“She’s one to watch out for, all right.” Pashmeena was shaking her head. “I certainly hope she doesn’t find out you took her harness, my lady! Things could go badly for you if she did. Why, you might end up like Empress the Fourth.”
“Wait—there was a fourth Empress?” Selena asked, frowning. “What happened to her?”
“Why, Empress the Third, happened to her of course!” Pashmeena widened her faded purple eyes. “She went off on a trip one day—just visiting the mountain village she came from, don’t you know—and the next thing you hear is that she’s fallen off a cliff. But she grew up there—folks say as a girl she could climb like a mountain horner—terrible limber and agile, she was. Some say that’s why the Emperor was so tooken with her—her flexibility, don’t you know.” She nodded and tapped her cheekbone, just below her left eye solemnly in a knowing gesture. “Mark my words—she was pushed.”
“By Empress the Third?” Selena asked, feeling shocked.
“Oh no—not by her directly, though I wouldn’t put it past her to do something like that if she had half a chance,” Pashmeena said. “Empress the Fourth was pushed by those that are loyal to Empress the Third. Rumor has it, she was sleeping with several of the palace guards before she got herself into the Emperor’s bed. And they remain loyal to her to this day. She sent one of them to do it—mark my words!” And she tapped her cheekbone again and nodded solemnly.
“But that’s terrible—why didn’t anybody do anything about it?” Selena asked.
“Why, nobody could prove anything, could they?” the Ma’shorkan woman said, frowning. “Empress the Third may be nasty but she’s clever too—much too sly to be caught in the act. In fact, she put on the white mourning clothes faster than anybody and cried the loudest at Empress the Fourth’s funeral. Afterwards, of course, she ‘consoled’ his Highness. And nobody has dared to seek the Fourth Empress’s seat again.”
“Are there supposed to be four Empresses then?” Selena asked.
“Oh, there are s’posed to be as many as the Emperor wants,” Pashmeena said, shrugging. “The saying goes that the Emperor marries his first Empress for her wisdom, the second Empress for her political connections, and all the others to slake his lust. But every time he lets his attention wander from Empress the Third, something very unpleasant seems to happen to the one he casts his eye on.”
Selena shivered.
“That’s awful!”
“So it is, my lady, so it is,” Pashmeena said matter-of-factly. “But that’s Court politics, for you. Makes me glad I’m just a simple single-face without a drop of royal blood in my veins, so it does.” She shrugged. “It was sad about Empress the Fourth, though. Folks said that Emperor had truly given her his heart—he honestly loved her—as much as he could love anyone besides himself, that is. He was grief-stricken when she died, you know.”