Lahn did tell me my guard would number five hundred.
And he also told me fifteen thousand competed for these positions.
Yes. Fifteen thousand.
I was amazed and touched by this.
Then again, who wouldn’t be?
* * * * *
I got to attend the Ceremony of the Paint where the queen’s warriors painted each other with their new stripes (the Xacto, I’m sure, not there because of me and the other wives who attended).
I sat on my throne of horns in the massive clearing at the very top of the top plateau that was meant for official business and I watched as the warriors were painted with three thin black strips that curved from a point at their shoulder blade, over their shoulder to a point at their pectoral. Three more were painted from that point and around their arm to the front. And one thick gold strip was painted in the middle around the tip of their shoulder.
They did not wear this paint for ceremonies. They wore it every day.
Lahn told me they did it with pride.
I was amazed and touched by this too.
So much, I burst into tears.
Lahn held me until I cried myself out.
When I was done, I explained it was hormones. Then I explained what hormones were.
He looked at me like I was crazy.
Then, wisely, he let it go.
Zahnin was their commander. Bain, Feetak, Bohtan, Tark and Yoonan his lieutenants.
Narinda told me Feetak, a young warrior who’d only made his first kill nine years ago (which meant at sixteen years of age, um… yikes!) was very pleased at this huge jump in rank.
It meant more sarongs for her for Lahn was paying them all out of his own coin and it was more than they made raiding or warring (seriously, my man had to be loaded… I mean, five hundred warriors?).
It also made her happy.
So I was happy too.
* * * * *
Yes. I was happy. Korwahn was good. Life was good. The only thing that wasn’t good was morning sickness but that only lasted until around ten.
Everything else was good.
And would be for one more day.
Then my husband went to war.
* * * * *
“Kah Lahnahsahna, kah lipa,” Lahn muttered, I blinked and looked up at him.
It was time to do his hair.
He sat on the bed beside me and planted his hand in it on my other side.
“Do you feel well enough to do it?” he asked, his eyes on my (probably pale) face.
I did but I probably wouldn’t once I sat up.
But there was no way I was giving up the chance to have my fingers in his beautiful hair. Not now. Not when the day after tomorrow brought Lahkan to our door, Lahn on Lahkan’s back and my king riding off to war to avenge a wrong done me.
“Yeah,” I whispered, sucked in breath, got up and walked to the small trunk that held his gold bands. “How do you want it?”
“Bunched,” he stated, I nodded, grabbed what I needed and returned to the bed.
He moved to sit cross-legged on the floor by the side of the bed. I sat on the bed cross-legged behind him, gathered his hair and memorized the feel of it as I bunched it.
When I’d put the last band in, I circled his shoulders with my arms and rested my chin on one.
“You know I love you,” I whispered in his ear.
“I know,” he whispered back, turned, I pulled my arms away and he got on his knees in front of me, his hands framing my face.
I looked in his dark eyes.
“Do you know how much?” I kept whispering.
“How much, baby?” Lahn kept whispering too.
I bent my forehead to his and told him the truth. “More than my world.”
I watched his eyes smile. Then I felt his fingers press in my scalp. Then I felt the touch of his lips.
Then he gained his feet and he was gone.
*Translation: “Yes, I will.”
**Translation: “Give my queen a tour, now. The others will be here soon enough for you to boss around.”
***Translation: “Yes, my king, I live for your command.”
****Translation: “As you command.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Affairs of State
I was lounging on the mats and cushions with Sabine and Narinda watching the sun set over Korwahn. Ghost was lying on her belly on the mats by my feet, front legs stretched out before her, head up, blinking and sniffing the air.
From my vantage point, I could see the weakening rays of the sun striking deep pink, gold and vermillion through the sky, the last shimmers striking the gold on the statues of the Avenue of the Gods.
My eyes moved from the breathtaking view to slide across the roof where I saw my girls gathered around the table at the opposite corner. I saw the sun twinkling off the bangles at their wrists and their earrings.
Gaal was on her knees draping a bolt of fabric around a standing Quixa’s hips. Vibrant swathes of different colored cuts of fabric were strewn everywhere around the table, the bolts of fabric I bought my girls in the marketplace that day.
I had decided some weeks ago that a queen’s girls did not wander around in drab, threadbare sarongs and bandeaus but they wore jewelry, makeup and brightly colored, fashionable clothing. To their delight, they each had received four pieces of fabric since the first one I bought so many weeks ago and a new piece today as well as their jewelry and pots of makeup for their own. They also had more than one candlestick by their bed and each had mirrors in their rooms as well as small pieces of art and brightly colored quilts on their beds to break up the monotony of cream adobe in their quarters.
Movement caught my eye, I looked to the winding, black, wrought iron staircase that led to the roof and I saw Twinka was arriving.
Twinka disapproved of me outfitting my girls and made this very clear nonverbally, as she was doing now with a tight-lipped look in their direction.
I ignored it and so did my girls but I watched as she made her way to me.
She stopped two feet from our mats.
“Does my queen actually need a slave to do something?” she enquired.
We’d already had dinner and I looked down at the plate of carob drops, candied fruits, honeyed almonds, the jug of wine, the jug of mango juice and Sabine, Narinda and my silver chalices that were littering the mats, all of which my girls had brought to us before they’d settled with their fabric.
Then I looked up at Twinka and replied, “Me.”
Her lips got tighter and she inclined her head.
Then she turned and walked three feet away.
That was when I called, “Twinka?”
She sighed visibly, audibly and heavily and turned back then she lifted her brows.
“I bought three bolts of fabric for you today. Gaal will make you dresses,” I told her for she didn’t wear sarongs around her hips and bandeaus or halter tops to cover her breasts but a long, wrap of material she crossed under her neck and tied at the back.
She had one. It was always clean but also threadbare.
“Your kindness is extraordinary, my queen,” she lied about her opinion with obviousness, “but my clothing is fine.”
“I disagree,” I returned.
“The old Dahksahna gave me this fabric,” she informed me.
“Well, the new Dahksahna is giving you more,” I replied, she opened her mouth to retort but I got there before her. “Fine, if you want to wear that in the house, that’s your choice. You leave this house; you do it representing your Dax and Dahksahna and wear your new sarongs.”
She glared at me. Then she inclined her head. Then she turned and moved quickly off the roof.
My girls watched her and waited before they emitted their low giggles, doing so only after she was well out of sight.
I smiled down at the mats, picked up my chalice of juice and took a sip.
“You’re very hard on her,” Narinda muttered, I put my chalice down and looked a
t her in surprise.
“Sorry?” I asked and her eyes went from the top of the stairs to me.
“She is old and she is stubborn, set in her ways. She has the running of this house for months and lives alone, clearly liking it that way,” Narinda replied. “She is a slave and this is rightfully your home with your husband but you must understand the way she feels.”
I made no response for this was true.
Narinda carried on. “And my father taught me the best way to handle someone who is stubborn is to let them be stubborn and live with their decisions. If she wishes to wear shabby sarongs, then she denies herself kindness and beauty. That is her choice, Circe, and it is the wrong one but it won’t hurt you to allow her to live with it.”
I still made no reply for this was true too.
“You can’t force kindness, my lovely,” Narinda said softly.
And this was true too.
“All right, sweet Narinda,” I replied, “I’ll ask Gaal to make them and I’ll tell Twinka it’s her choice whether or not she wishes to wear them.”
Narinda smiled at me. I smiled back thinking it was good, having wise friends.
Then I said quietly, “Your father was very wise.”
She nodded and took a sip from her own chalice before her eyes drifted away and she said quietly back, “Indeed, he was.”
She was smiling her small, weird smile so I left her to her thoughts and looked back at the view. The pinks were disappearing, the gold was gone and stripes of vermillion and midnight blue slashed the sky as stars started to come out. I heard one of my girls moving around and, as the roof illuminated, I knew she was lighting the torches that were stuck in holders around the edge of the roof.
I felt my leg nudged, looked down at it and saw that Narinda had given me a light prod with her toe. I looked at her to see she wasn’t smiling small and weird but knowing and amused. Her eyes were on Sabine who I noticed belatedly had been completely silent for at least the last ten minutes.
I looked to my friend who was lounging across the top of the mats at Narinda and my heads to see she was gazing at the vista as well, her face soft, her lips tipped up, her eyes, though, were heated.
Someone was thinking good thoughts.
I pressed my lips together and bugged my eyes out at Narinda.
She smiled big, tipped her head back and called in Korwahk, “Sabine? My lovely, are you with us?”
Sabine started and her head jerked to us. “Sorry, so sorry, I was miles away,” she replied in Korwahk.
“No you weren’t, you were in bed with your savage brute,” I teased, watched her face flush then her eyes light then she scooted her cushions closer to us and asked, “Can I be forthright?”
This was familiar, and therefore was likely to get good, so Narinda and I closed into each other and Sabine as Narinda replied, “What you can do, my lovely, is not ask if you can be forthright every time you want to be forthright. I think you can take it as given you can be forthright.”
I stifled a giggle for this was true. Sabine always asked if she could be forthright before talking about what she got up to with Zahnin. And after breaking the seal on it the day I was attacked, she talked about this a lot. We never demurred so she had to know she could be forthright.
Sabine nodded then she leaned deeper into us and whispered, “Did you… did… erm, you know… did you know you can… do it on top?”
“On top?” Narinda asked mock innocently and I nudged her shin with my foot as I stifled a giggle.
Sabine’s eyes danced and her body gave a slight excited jump. “Oh yes, Narinda, on top. See, you know when… before, well, I told you how, after Zahnin got injured, I was hesitant to, you know… move things forward for before, erm… when we… um… when he… well, it seemed with all that grunting and groaning it took a lot of effort. I didn’t want him to aggravate his wound.”
“Yes, sweetheart, we know, you told us,” I muttered not able to hide the amusement in my voice.
Sabine nodded again and went on. “So, as I told you, I didn’t… erm… move things forward. But he, um… continued to use his hands in that way I like.”
“We know that too,” Narinda mumbled and we did, she’d told us, sometimes in some detail and it wasn’t only his hands but his mouth that he used in ways Sabine liked.
Sabine kept talking. “But, I was… well, something was, I don’t know. I liked it, you know, quite a bit. Erm… a lot, really. But… something was missing.”
I knew what was missing. Zahnin’s savage brute sword was missing.
Narinda and I kept quiet.
Sabine kept talking. “I didn’t know what but, it was good… I mean, beautiful but, I wanted more.”
“Yes?” Narinda prompted.
“But I didn’t know what,” Sabine repeated.
I pushed closer to tell her what she wanted but she continued before I could.
“So, I asked Zahnin.”
I blinked.
One could say that things were progressing… slowly… between Zahnin and Sabine. When he said he could be a patient teacher, he didn’t lie. He had been very solicitous with her and this included him doing things with his mouth and hands that she enjoyed very much but that he had to find very frustrating since she didn’t return the favor.
There was a poetic justice in this, I felt, for Zahnin had twice the amount of time giving and not receiving after he took and didn’t give. Not to mention his month of courting.
But I was beginning to feel sorry for Zahnin and that it might be time to intervene. At my request, the healer had long since visited his house to remove the stitches and even before that he was not wearing the bandages. The gash was still pink but it was mostly healed. But he was a warrior; he could survive a little somethin’ somethin’. But weeks had passed and he was giving, a lot, but he wasn’t getting anything.
And Sabine was still timid about it. I was shocked she asked him.
“You asked him?” I whispered, my voice filled with the shock I felt and she nodded again.
“Yes, we were, I was… erm, close. But I made him stop and told him what I felt and that I was worried I would hurt him and then… then… then...” her eyes got round and Narinda and I leaned in, “then he rolled to his back, picking me up as he did so and planting me astride him.” Her eyes drifted faraway and before I could lift my hand and snap in her face to regain her attention since she was definitely in hot sex la-la land her body jerked and she came back to us. “He said, that way, I could do all the work and he wouldn’t get hurt.”
He wasn’t wrong.
I stifled another laugh and Narinda nudged my leg with her toe again as I heard her swallow a snort.
“But…” Sabine went on, totally missing all this, “I didn’t… erm, do all the work. In the middle of it, he lifted up to sitting and used his arms and hands on me to make me go, um… faster and erm… you know, harder. So, I… you know… did.” Then she pressed her lips together before she burst out with, “After all he’d done before and how he felt inside me I couldn’t stop myself!”
I bet she couldn’t.
“Sabine –” I started but she cut me off.
“And it was fantastic… it was… it was amazing. And I think he liked it too.”
I was sure he did.
“Sabine –” I tried again but she kept talking.
“But, I don’t know… I’m worried. What if I hurt him? He seems strong and healthy but, I don’t want…”
I tried and succeeded in not bursting out laughing thinking of tiny, sweet Sabine hurting big, strong Zahnin and decided it was time to be heard.
“Sabine,” I called, reaching out to grab her hand. “Come back to the roof and out of your bedroom, my sweet friend.”
Her eyes focused on me.
I squeezed her hand. “He’s fine. Absolutely fine. Don’t worry about him. You’re taking care of him now in the way he needs. He’s been trained since five to know what his body can and cannot do. Let him decide w
hat he can take and just… uh…” I grinned, “enjoy the ride.”
Her eyes got wide, her face got so red I could see it in the torchlight and then she giggled so when she did, I thought it was safe to giggle with her and Narinda joined in.
After another squeeze, I released her hand and she looked back over the rooftop which now showed a sky that was mostly midnight blue and twinkling stars with hazy streaks of pink.
“My warrior husband is gentle and patient,” she whispered to the night sky. “I never, ever would have thought…” she stopped and her eyes came back to us. “It started as a nightmare but now seems like the sweetest dream.” Her head tipped to the side and a small, confused smile played at her lips when she whispered, “How can that be?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart, but somehow these boys can pull it off,” I answered with feeling.
“They sure can,” Narinda agreed, we all looked at each other and then we all giggled again.
That was when I heard a low, warning growl come from deep in Ghost’s throat. I turned my head to her to see her head was turned to the top of the stairs. Then she gracefully gained her feet but in a watchful, guarded way that made me brace and I looked to the stairs.
Bohtan and Bain were ascending them. I started to smile but caught the looks on their faces, felt the vibe and heard Ghost growl again and I realized something was wrong.
I knew it definitely when Bain ordered my girls, “Prepare your queen to take her throne. Official business. Do it swiftly, we cannot delay.” His eyes came to me. “We await you at the front with Zephyr.”
He said no more before he turned and both warriors disappeared down the stairs.
What on earth?
“What’s happening, Circe?” Sabine asked in a hushed, worried voice as I watched all five of my girls scurry to me, leaving their fabric where it lay.
I didn’t know.
What I did know was that very soon I was going to find out.
And I was queen so I needed to get my ass in gear.
So I rose to my feet and whispered, “All is well, I’m certain, but I must hurry.”