The Telepath and The Sorcerer, Tome 1 : The Sorcerer's Concubine

CHAPTER 1

Most of the men who came to the House of Perfumed Ribbons knew what they wanted. The girls came in a few classic types. There were the innocents with their youthful air. The vixens, sultry and experienced—the only girls who had been with men before. The bodyguards, trained in fighting. The “Little Wives” who would provide domestic comforts along with the physical, and the entertainer girls who could play an instrument and make witty conversation.

Velsa already knew she was not a bodyguard or a little wife, or she would have been pulled aside at a younger age to learn how to cook and nurse, or wield a bow and arrow. And certainly she was not a vixen, who periodically spent time with a more experienced male concubine.

She had spent hours upon hours plucking the strings of a bastir, in the hopes of being an entertainer. She figured any man who came to buy an entertainer girl must be well educated and appreciate the arts; maybe he would value her mind and not just her body.

Now that Velsa was finally old enough to be acquired, she found out exactly where she stood.

“You’ll be with the Village Girls,” said Dalarsha, the House Mother.

“The Village Girls?” Velsa was dismayed. “But…”

“I know, you have been very diligent with your music practice, but I’m afraid you just haven’t achieved the level of skill men will expect. You still make mistakes. There’s nothing wrong with being a Village Girl.”

“There’s nothing interesting about being a Village Girl either,” Velsa said.

“Listen, my dear,” Dalarsha said. “You don’t need to be interesting. Men don’t really care about that anyway. Just give them your sweetest face, and some man will be happy to treat you well.”

Soon Velsa would be a stranger’s possession. With luck, he would be kind. He would treasure her and give her gifts and take her to parties dressed in fine clothes to show off his wealth. But every girl knew they might not have that sort of luck.

And even the luckiest girls had still been created for a single purpose, in the end. Even a man who was generous and complimented her beauty would expect to have his way with her, any time it pleased him.

“Anyway,” Dalarsha said, more solemnly. “You have a golden band. We don’t want you to seem too dangerous.”

Velsa put a hand to the circle of gold locked around her throat. The enchanted band suppressed the telepathic abilities she had been born with.