DAYMARA:
I helped the Queen with her bath. Every two days she cleaned her hair with special herbs recommended by the court healers, which I used to prepare the essences and soaps.
Unlike the late Queen Catherine, her Majesty Antonete was much fonder of the bath.
The healers recommended not only body cleansing, but also constant hair removal in the armpits and in private areas.
According to those familiar with the subject, the body hair could harbor dirt that could lead to infections or bad odors.
It caught my attention, that while she was scrubbing the body of Her Majesty, she hadn't removed her golden necklace with an amber stone in the center of it. In fact, she never took off that jewel.
I once had the audacity to ask her:
"Your Majesty, why do you never take off that necklace?"
She didn't answer me. She just gave me a reproachful look. Then I understood that I had crossed the line of a simple maid.
Note to me: the necklace is a sensitive subject.
One morning the Queen was so relaxed in the tub; she didn't mind when I told her I had to go get more herbs.
"Okay, go for the herbs" she said with her eyes closed and a wide smile.
Of course the herbs thing was a lie. It was my excuse to leave the room and go to Her Majesty's office. I wanted to find some document with information that would serve Lord De Fiore and his Ashaasins. However, after taking a good time searching, I found nothing but letters of good wishes from other houses in Alba Terra.
Was that all?
No juicy secret?
I don't know what I expected to find. Maybe that she had a lost child. A bastard out of wedlock.
Oh no, that was me.
"Daymara? Why are you taking so long? " I heard the Queen calling me from the bathroom.
I ran to her call.
"Forgive me for the delay, Your Majesty."
"And the herbs?"
Dumb!
"Um ... excuse me, Your Majesty, I didn't find them," I apologized.
The Queen didn't seem to mind.
The next morning, I met The Vulture. So they called him. A man who served as a contact with Lord De Fiore. It was supposedly safer for everyone to report my findings to the Vulture and not directly to the spymaster, leader of the Ashaasins.
The meeting point was the market in the east square of the capital. There he was waiting for me, behind a stand of watermelons. The Vulture had the appearance of a ramshackle peasant. Dark skin, rickety. Always with dirty hands, dark greasy hair, and yellow teeth.
When I got closer, he asked me to walk away from the market.
"And? What you got for me?" He asked me.
"I've been going through the documents in her office, but I didn't find anything."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
"That is all? Come on, maid! I was hoping you could do better. "
"What do you want me to do? I can't find proof of anything when it doesn't exist. All I found were letters with the Dumont house stamp on them. Many, in fact. "
The Vulture looked at me as if I had just revealed very important information to him.
"Letters from the Dumont house?" He asked me suspiciously.
"Yes."
"Mm ... what did the letters say?"
"I don't know. They praised each other. Their respects were expressed. They exchanged gossip. They talked about organizing dances and visiting country houses. Normal things of the nobility. "
"Mm ... how many letters?"
"Oh, I don't know. Many."
"More than ten?"
"Yes, surely more than ten."
"Mmm ..."
"Something happened?"
"The Ashaasins intercept all letters to the Royal Palace. There is no record of so many exchanges with the Royal house and the Dumont house. "
"That means the Queen has another channel of communication," I realized.
"Exactly. The question is why?"
Interesting…
I must admit that I was thrilled. I felt like I was in a palace intrigue novel with a great mystery to solve.
"Daymara, tell me the truth," asked The Vulture, "does it seem normal to you that more than ten letters are exchanged with the same house, in less than a month and in secret? Also… all the letters seem to be about trifles. Doesn't it make you a bit suspicious? "
"Well ... well, It certainly does sound strange."
I was new to spying. The Ashaasins were what they were, among other things, by their nose to detect minute details that the rest of us would miss. They distrusted everyone and everything. They could detect changes in voice, looks, and body language.
They could spot stains on clothing just by looking at a person once. Perhaps a drop of blood on a skirt, a thread of cloth that does not correspond to a man's jacket, that kind of thing.
They could even accurately identify odors. Their sense of smell was so keen that they could track the body scent of a person that they "marked." That's what they called when they began to monitor a suspect.
For example, the Queen was "marked." It was against the law for the Ashaasins to investigate the Royal house, so they came to me. Technically, I was the one spying, not them. The gray area of the law.
"Daymara, I'm sure there are hidden messages in those letters," said The Vulture. "The safest thing to think is that they use invisible ink."
"What can I do?"
"There is a way to reveal invisible ink on parchment. Simply heat it over a candle and the message will be revealed. That is all."
"But, if I do that, the Queen will find that someone read the message."
"Right, but surely you will find a solution for that."
Great… thanks for the help.
If I was discovered, they could always kill me before the Queen interrogated me. That was another advantage of me doing the dirty work. The one who was taking the risks, was me.
I returned in the afternoon to the Royal Palace and found that the Queen's office was closed and guarded by two guards.
What could I do?
"Excuse me ...," I told the guards. "I have forgotten something in Her Majesty's office."
"Her Majesty has requested that no one enter in her absence," growled one of the two guards.
"Sure ... but ... perhaps... you can make an exception."
"No exceptions!"
"Yes, but ..."
"Are you deaf, girl?"
Girl?
"Get out of here!" The guard roared.
I would have to find a way to recheck those letters.