Page 58 of Born for Silk
I look at her. "What does that mean?"
Blossom glances across at me. "Nothing lasts forever? Well, she is a Silk Girl today and in love. Then she’ll be a Sired Mother, and she'll have the love of the babies. She will be fine in both places.”
Oh. I see.
"Love is such a Common issue.” Iris turns her nose up and takes a sip of juice, as though to swallow the conversation. “It's simply parasitic."
Suddenly, a blur of white catches my eyes.
I glance out the long, sweeping window that exposes the large courtyard surrounded by high limestone walls.
Through the thick glass, a girl drops backward to the lawn as though she passes out. A man thunders over, Kong, I recognise him, and he drops to check on her.
Wow, he got to her side fast…
He reaches for her cheek, but she flinches away. She looks like a tiny fairy, and he is her monstrous Guardian. Kong is a huge Xin De male, easily two feet taller and three times thicker than her. It dawns on me then, that must be what I look like beside the king.
Ana interrupts my thoughts when she addresses Iris with subtle disdain. “I’m in support of The Revive, Iris. So, if by Common, you mean Human, then yes?—"
"Who is that?” I interrupt, protecting Ana from oversharing her thoughts with Iris.
“Who?” Blossom turns around just as the girl waves Kong away, and lays still like a doll on the greenery. Her honey-brown hair arches like wings in the emerald mesh. “Oh, that’s the Queen."
No…
Tuscany?
The king’s sister?
Can’t be.
"How old is she?" My gaze rolls over her petite body, at her chest she clutches a small brown fluffy toy eagle.
Ana says, "She is in her late twenties, I believe. She was ten when she became Queen. So twenty-eight, maybe."
I cannot stop staring. "She looks no older than me."
"It’s the Xin De genus,” Ana offers, and I return my gaze to her kind face.
I know about this. Kong shows no signs of aging yet must have past his fiftieth year. Will I die of old age before the king even does?
Ana lifts one brow. “The treatments also help.”
"Treatments?" Iris asks.
"My lord told me,” Ana mentions, directly. “Men like to talk after the act, Iris. They don’t want a statue. She is given all these treatments to keep her looking youthful. She looks younger than us if you ask me.”
Iris straightens. “Treatments? Genetic engineering is completely illegal. You are either born with the genus or you don’t have it. That is it!”
Ana frowns. “I didn’t say anything about engineering, Iris. I said treatments.”
Daisy presses her hand to her chest, clearly unsettled, and whispers, “Can we stop talking about treatments and engineering, please?”
I sway the conversation a little. “She looks sad.” My heart aches looking at her, the thin shell of a girl—or woman.
"What could she be sad about?" Blossom asks.
"Why is she holding a doll?" Iris points out, the smallest hint of bitterness punches through her words. The only girl more precious than a pregnant Silk Girl is the queen.