One would half expect a corpse to be found in the entrance hall from the racket the girl was making but, considering Marie-Fey was the only one who had received a recent death-threat and she was still very much alive, she assumed it was something less exciting.

Like a mouse.

One could hardly say she hurried to the commotion. She kept her graceful gliding pace, fan open as if they were continuing on to tea – revelling in the knowledge that Zaydan was clearly desperate to know what was causing all the excitement but refused to rush ahead and leave her. (He possibly half expected she might not bother to investigate if left to her own devices).

She would, of course. If for no other reason than she could tell Maanah and Gharam wanted to see.

They reached the first-floor balcony that overlooked the towering entrance hall and Marie-Fey paused in fanning herself.

Well...

It wasn't a mouse.

In fact, it wasn't anything she had expected.

It was a girl screaming, but she did not belong to the palace.

She was in the hands of Sobia, the older woman holding the girl's wrists as the newcomer screamed and lashed out and tried to bite at her captor while other women of the palace stood around talking and sniggering, watching the display like they were watching a bearbaiting match.

Marie-Fey didn't care for bearbaiting and she didn't care for the noise that feral brat was making either.

The resounding slap of Sobia striking the girl echoed through the halls and Marie-Fey felt everyone tense at the sound – something all too familiar to them.

Sobia must have been as old as time itself and had seen many of the girls arrive in the palace. She was charged with their care at the beginning, making them presentable if nothing else.

Many of the girls in the palace had no come willingly.

And many of them had felt Sobia's open palm against their cheek.

The girls feared her, even Zaafira. She lorded her fear over the girls with delight, like some monster ruling from the shadows.

Marie-Fey rarely saw her however.

She had attempted to lord her power over Marie-Fey too when she had first arrived, going so far as to strike her to remind her that she was new and would never be welcome and would only survive if she knew her place.

So Marie-Fey had struck her back and reminded her her place was on the executioner's stand but she was the one holding the axe and Sobia was on the chopping block.

It had worked.

Sobia did not interact with Marie-Fey. She openly despised her. Not enough to try and kill her though, since she despised everyone.

Including the girl she was wrestling with.

Lord, how could such an old bat still be so strong? Why didn't she have the decency to keep over and die already?

"Who is that?" Marie-Fey said instead as she, Zaydan and her ladies watched from above.

"That, I would assume, is a new gift for my brother," Zaydan said, folding his arms on the balcony wall.

"One of your gifts?" Marie-Fey asked and was surprised to see the look of anger flash across his face before it smoothed out again.

"I do not deal in the trading of humans," he muttered.

Marie-Fey raised an eyebrow at him. "How noble," she said with dismissive sarcasm. He straightened up and she walked past him, heading for the stairs.

Her ladies followed and, after a moment, so did Zaydan.

The screaming did not stop when Marie-Fey finally arrived on the ground level. The girls around them bowed out of the way of her and Zaydan and Marie-Fey strode across the floor as Sobia tangled her knobbly fingers in the girl's hair.

"Are you struggling, Sobia?" she said with cool disdain and Sobia turned her wrinkled, hateful face on Marie-Fey.

Then spotted Zaydan and swallowed whatever her response was. "Just a new girl, M'Lady. Nothing for you to worry about."

"Oh yes? Because you seem to be struggling with a wild beast."

"Nothing for the likes of you."

"Does this thing have a name you could perhaps use at least?"

"Azeeza, but she doesn't speak, and feral as a cat."

"CHIARA!" the girl suddenly howled, "My Name is Chiara!"

Marie-Fey glanced at the girl. "I would say she speaks just fine, just not your language," she commented. "She certainly has a pair of lungs on her."

The girl took a moment of distraction to twist her head and bite down hard on Sobia's wrist.

Sobia howled and the girl drew blood – and the women around the hall bit back approving laughter.

"And teeth," Marie-Fey muttered.

Sobia went for the girl's throat as the girl went for another bite.

Marie-Fey used her fan to strike Sobia's hand aside and her free hand to clamp onto the girl's jaw, squashing her cheeks and forcing her to stop.

"No more biting. You don't know where it's been," she snapped and everyone stared at her.

Marie-Fey assumed it wasn't because she had got between the pair and more because she had smoothly and fluently spoken the girl's language, silencing her in an instant.

She despised the flood of hope that appeared in the girl's eyes and she scrambled to grip Marie-Fey's arms.

"Please! You have to help me! I was kidnapped! You need to—"

Marie-Fey shoved her back, brushing off her sleeves and snapping open her fan again, looking at the girl with disdain as she took in the brat for the first time.

It was hard to put an age on her under all the filth, but she was young. She was dressed in rags, torn to bits from travel, a cape covering the awful dress and she clutched a battered, ruined cloth bag to her side.

The bag caught Marie-Fey's attention.

It was awful and ruined and covered in dirt.

But under that, she could spy fine, shimmering details of golden thread and hand-stitched patterns.

The cape and dress revealed much the same.

Those weren't the clothes of some peasant girl.

She returned her cold gaze to the girl's face and closed her fan.

"I am the mistress of the palace," she said with cool distance, "The women here all belong to the man I am married to. You are now one of them. I refused to converse with you in such vile attire. Clean up and make yourself presentable and then we shall talk. Until then, get out of the main rooms, you're ruining the floors."

She spun away but not before pointing her fan at Sobia, making the crone freeze.

"You are done. You clearly have no place with us here today. Get back to your shadowy corners."

Sobia looked like she would slit Marie-Fey's throat then and there.

"Gharam, see to the creature," Marie-Fey said.

Gharam curtsied and went to the girl.

The girl instantly looked ready to attack but Gharam wasn't Marie-Fey's lady for nothing.

Her gentle eyes and calming smile were effective immediately, and the girl started to relax before she even knew she was doing so.

Gharam managed to coax her away, leading her out of the main hall and Marie-Fey returned to Zaydan and Maanah.

"Now that noise is dealt with, can be please get this tea over with?" she said, striding past.