Chapter Nineteen

The Judgment

 

Six days later…

“Poyah, kah rahna Dahksahna!” I heard, turned my head and saw Keenim, the boy who sang to me days ago in an open space. He was with a bunch of other boys kicking around what looked like a ball. It was bigger than a football but shaped like one without the pointed ends.

“Poyah, Keenim!” I called back, waved, he waved and his friends all stared at me in shock, their eyes then turning slowly to their friend in more shock that the queen would know his name and wave. Clearly, he had not told them he’d been to my cham twice since his initial visit (where I played his guitar and he played with Ghost) or they didn’t believe him.

This made me smile until I made my way back into the sea of chams then my smile faded and my thoughts wandered.

I was walking, thinking and most importantly, being seen. With the return of The Horde, there were thousands more warriors, their wives, their children, their slaves and other hangers on. The din of the Daxshee had escalated as had its sprawl.

The good news about this was that Lahn’s returned army kept my husband busy.

And the bad news about this was that his returned army kept my husband busy.

Therefore, for the last six mornings, he woke me with his hands then wasted no time getting me hot before he fucked me fast, hard and brilliant. He always forced my orgasm before he let his go. It was sweaty, it was energetic, it was heated, it was freaking great but it never lasted long. Then he’d demand my mouth, I’d refuse, he’d grin his knowing, scary grin that told me, clearly, he was biding his time. Then he’d drag me out of bed so I could give him a quick bath and braid or arrange his hair how he instructed. Then he’d pull me to him with one arm, wrap his other hand around my jaw to position my face so I couldn’t escape, touch my mouth with his and then he’d be gone.

As in gone. I didn’t see him all day and even though I tried to stay awake at night (though, I was not admitting this fact to myself); I was never awake when he slid in bed beside me.

The good news about this was it made it easier to resist his sweetness, his hotness and all other things Lahn.

The bad news about this was I missed him. It sucked to admit but there it was.

I missed my scary, savage brute, king of a marauding horde in another universe husband.

How whacked was that?

The other bad news about this was that it gave me plenty of time on my own.

Diandra had a husband, a daughter and a cham to see to and I wasn’t her only friend so although I spent time with her every day, as the days went by, I opened my eyes and saw cham, it seemed I was settling into this world and doing it on a permanent basis. This meant I actually had to find some way to settle into this world and I couldn’t have Diandra by my side every second.

The same with Narinda who had a very attentive savage on her hands and he didn’t have a legion to command. So she was tied up a lot of time (hopefully not literally, or, maybe, if he was sweet about it, then hopefully literally).

Nahka, the same with cham, husband and two kids.

And my girls seemed to be always busy pounding rugs, rinsing out baths, cleaning my sarongs, polishing candlesticks, baking flatbread in a clay oven, roasting meat on a spit over the fire and the like. I tried to help (more than once) but Teetru had a fit when she saw me laughing with Jacanda and Beetus while pulling my tops and sarongs off a drying line and she lost her mind (in her quiet, solicitous Teetru way) when she caught me rinsing breakfast dishes at the creek with Packa so I stopped doing it.

I was a queen. I needed to do queen things. And queen things clearly didn’t include doing the dishes.

The thing was, I knew no other queens of primitive, savage hordes to tell me what queen things I should be doing and although Diandra was a great advisor, she’d never been a queen. My husband wasn’t around to advise me, I wasn’t sure he’d be good at it and his advice might be scary.

So I decided the best queen thing I could do was to get out amongst my people, smile, nod, talk (as best I could), get to know them and let them see me. Therefore, every day I took walks through the Daxshee followed by whoever was guarding me that day.

Today it was Bain, or the grinning warrior, who was friendly, unlike Zahnin, the other warrior who kept watch over me (and the one who had plucked me off my horse twice that day we were riding). Bain walked with me and talked with me all the while scanning the people and chams. Zahnin walked two feet behind me and never looked at me. However, he did look like he was in a perpetual bad mood. The first time he was with me, I tried to engage him in conversation. This was so unsuccessful, I didn’t try again.

And talking with Bain was fun. He had no clue when it came to English so I was forced to try out my Korwahk on him. This made him laugh (a lot, my Korwahk was really bad) but after he quit laughing, he was a patient teacher. He would correct me and as we walked he would point things out and tell me what they were called (for instance, firepit, pahkah, torch, pahkan and just fire, pahk). He also intervened when I chatted with my people, often miming what they were saying which made me laugh.

But today, I was in my head and Bain sensed it so although he walked close and often spoke softly to me; he was letting me have my thoughts.

Bain doing this made me think that perhaps somewhere his new bride was grinning too.

I was in my head mainly because the day seemed weird. I couldn’t put my finger on why but it was weird. I woke up feeling it in the air and it hadn’t gone away.

But also, I was thinking about what Lahn said about how I came into the possession of a Korwahk scout. He clearly knew, thus must have asked, how that came about. This was not surprising; curiosity about your new mate, and that didn’t bother me. What disturbed me about this was that there was a story to tell. I thought I’d woken in a pen filled with women.

How could I be on a pirate ship?

That didn’t make any sense in a situation that made no sense. I was here, I’d been here nearly three weeks and it seemed I wasn’t going home.

But how did I get here?

And who was the Circe (or whoever) who was on a pirate ship?

I needed answers but I didn’t know how to go about finding them and I wasn’t sure I wanted them. The knowledge might be more frightening than the reality.

That said, Diandra had said something I hadn’t paid attention to at the time because I felt crap, was shaking uncontrollably and Lahn was extremely pissed, so I had other things on my mind, but when I had sunstroke, she told me the medicine was natural, not “witchcraft”.

If you could hear animals in this world (and Ghost spoke to me, she was a baby, she didn’t have a lot of words and all of them were Korwahk so I didn’t know what she was saying half the time, but I still understood her mews and purrs and growls like human language), if horses could be so white they shone ice blue, if innocent women could go to bed in Seattle and be transported to an alternate universe – then there could be magic.

And perhaps someone here practiced it.

And perhaps that someone knew what the fuck was going on with me.

And, if I knew what that was, then maybe I could figure out what I should do.

“Dahksahna Circe,” Bain muttered and I belatedly noticed that he’d tensed at my side.

I came to myself, looked up at him then looked where his eyes were aimed.

The Eunuch was headed our way and his eyes were on me.

“Tee lapay lee Xacme,”* Bain said under his breath to me.

I looked back up at Bain and before he rearranged his features, I saw distaste in them.

Oh man.

“Kah Dahksahna,” The Eunuch murmured, bowing his head as he stopped before me.

Hmm. He called me “kah Dahksahna”. Most everyone called me “rahna Dahksahna” or “rahna Dahksahna hahla” or “Dahksahna Circe” if they knew me pretty well.

No one simply called me their queen.

How weird.

“Poyah,” I greeted and his head came up, his face masked.

Oh man.

“I am The Eunuch,” he stated and I blinked.

“You know Eng… I mean, Valearian?” I asked.

“I speak the language of the Vale,” he answered, lifting his chin a bit.

He spoke English. Very weird. Why didn’t Lahn use this guy as an interpreter?

“Well, um… cool, uh, that’s great, I mean. Lovely to, uh… finally meet you,” I stammered. “Uh, what’s your name?”

He stared at me. Then he repeated, “I am The Eunuch.”

“Uh… okay, I’ve um… heard that but…” Yikes! “I was asking your name.”

“My name?” he asked back.

“Yes, the one you were given at birth,” I told him.

His face, already masked, closed down.

“That name was taken with my manhood, kah Dahksahna,” he informed me coldly.

Okay, there were a lot of uncomfortable conversations a person had to have in their life. When they broke up with someone, for one. When they fucked up and had to admit they were wrong, for another. But talking to a dude who had his balls cut off about his balls being cut off beat them all.

I held his eyes. Then I said softly, “Right, but you are still that man no matter that that atrocity happened to you so… I’d like to know your name.”

At this point, Bain said something that sounded like he was asking, “What does your queen require of you?” but I wasn’t sure.

“Kah trooyha,” my name, The Eunuch answered (there it was, I was right about Bain’s question).

“Uvoo tee luh zah,” give it to her, Bain ordered firmly and impatiently.

The Eunuch looked hard at Bain for a brief second then turned to me. “Karrim, my queen,” he answered on another slight head bow.

“Shahsha,” I said softly.

He stared at me a second and then said, “You will beg my pardon; I have had many things to do. The Hunt, the selection, the ride, I have been too busy to present myself to my queen. I am giving you my apologies.”

“There’s no need, I understand.” I threw an arm out to indicate the busy Daxshee at the same time I gave him a smile. “Your responsibilities are vast. Anyone can see that.”

Another obsequious head bow and a muttered, “Shahsha.” His eyes slid to Bain and back to me so fast it was almost like I was seeing things before he went on. “I am asking you if you are managing well with tahna Dax.”

I tipped my head to the side. “Sorry?”

His eyes pointedly went to my cheekbone, now, I would suspect, without any discoloration and then back to me. “You and tahna Dax, I have the hope that all is well in your cham.”

A tingle slid up my spine before I said, “Everything is fine.” Then, because I wanted Bain in on this conversation, I said in Korwahk, hoping I got it right, “Jak lapay yahka.” All is well.

“Jak lapay yahka? Zut tela?” Bain asked and I looked up at him.

“Kay loot kah Dax,” I answered his question of, All is well? With what? then I looked at The Eunuch. “Kah Lahn lapay uh… busy gahn we are, um, coping well, uh, ta lapay yahka. Fahnahsan.”**

The obsequious bow from The Eunuch again then, “Dohno, kah Dahksahna, very dohno,” he was obviously avoiding Bain’s eyes and, perhaps, the unhappy vibe Bain was emanating and it was clear he wanted to seriously avoid it and I knew this when he said with another mini-head-bow, “I will leave you to your… wanderings. Goyah, kah Dahksahna,” a bow without any eye contact to Bain and a muttered, “Goyah, Tunakan.”***

Then he hurried away.

It could be said I didn’t like how that went and when Bain touched my arm to move us forward again I knew by his continued unhappy vibe he didn’t either.

Then he spoke in Korwahk and used easy words so I could understand. “I do not like that man.”

Uh-oh.

Then he went on to warn, “Be cautious, Dahksahna Circe.”

I pretty much got that.

“Okay,” I whispered.

At that point, an almighty scream pierced the air, so hideous it sent ice shards tearing through my veins.

Instantly, one of Bain’s arms lifted high, his hand going behind his neck where he smoothly and swiftly unsheathed his sword while the other arm went around my waist and he pulled me to him, inching back even as people all around were running to a cham three tents down.

Bain barked a question at someone who was running the other direction, got an answer and the man spoke so fast, the only words I could make out where “Dortak” and “zak bahsah”, his wife.

Oh shit.

Then another scream split the air.

Oh shit!

Bain’s body went solid at the answer and then he tried to pull me back but I planted my feet and twisted my neck to look up at him.

In Korwahk, I did my best to shout, “We need to go to her!”

“Me, kah rahna Dahksahna,” he denied.

“Bain! We need to go to her!” He kept pulling me back so I screeched, “Nahna Dahksahna tahnoo tee!” Your Queen commands it!

He stared me in the eyes for a heartbeat, clearly read something then muttered, “Tooyay kay.”

Diandra had told me what “tooyo” meant and it didn’t have a literal translation but the description made it sound like it meant “fuck” which meant Bain just muttered, “fuck me” which would have been funny any other time but obviously not then.

Then he let me go but took my hand, kept his sword unsheathed and we jogged to the tent. He shouted orders at the people surrounding it, they turned, saw me, parted and then we got to the front of the cham and I beheld a nightmare.

Dortak had his wife on her knees in front of him, his hand fisted in her hair, he was bent to her, the blade of a knife at her throat and blood dripping from a huge, gaping gash at his shoulder. His face was red and twisted with rage, she had clearly been recently beaten about the face and we weren’t talking a little slapping around, which would be bad enough, but fists, her cheeks were awash in a river of tears and I knew he was about to slit her throat.

So without a single thought, I whirled, gripped the hilt of one of the knives in Bain’s belt, pulled it out of its sheath, whirled back and advanced like a shot until I had the knifepoint at Dortak’s jugular.

“Stop,” I commanded in Korwahk.

He glared hatred up at me and then the blade sliced her flesh, blood immediately dripping from the shallow slash but she screamed her terror in a way it crawled along my skin.

I pressed the point of my blade in his neck. “Stop!”

“Kah rahna Dahksahna,” Bain said softly, he was close.

“Your queen commands it!” I shouted in Korwahk at Dortak, ignoring Bain, my eyes glued to the dark, cruel ones of a monster.

He slid his blade in deeper and another scream rent the air, she twisted in his arms (not the smartest thing to do, I thought vaguely, considering his blade had opened her skin) and tears dropped off her chin.

“Your queen commands it!” I shrieked, pushing my knifepoint in deeper and a bead of blood surrounded the point.

He stilled and glared at me and I held his eyes. We were in a stare down. I was breathing heavily, my chest expanding deep and falling so hard I could feel every breath.

“Your queen commands it, Dortak, drop your blade,” Bain said in Korwahk from behind me and Dortak’s eyes slid to him.

“Your queen commands it, drop… your… blade.” Another voice came from a little further away, one that was familiar but I was concentrating on not shoving my blade in his throat and/or passing out so I didn’t have the capacity to place it.

Dortak’s gaze came back to me and I held it.

“Drop your blade!” Bain thundered.

Dortak’s eyes moved over my shoulder and up again then slid across me to take in something else then his lip curled in a sneer and he dropped his blade but shoved his wife so she fell face first in the dirt in front of their cham.

I started to move to her but I didn’t even get a step. Bain’s hand curled around mine and he took off, dragging me with him. When he pulled me through the crowd of people I caught a glimpse of several warriors including Zahnin who was the voice I couldn’t put my finger on (mostly because he’d never said much to me, most of what he said was monosyllabic and all of that was grunted).

I was surprised he took my back.

I was also running through the Daxshee to keep up with Bain’s quick, determined, urgent strides and I was shaking like a leaf.

When we got to my cham, he shoved me inside, snatched his blade out of my hand, sheathed it then bent, put a finger in my face and growled in Korwahk, “Do not leave.”

His face was scary but there was also something else there.

Concern.

Oh shit. I’d fucked up.

As he stalked out, he barked something at Teetru who was standing just inside the flaps. Her eyes went wide but she nodded, he prowled out, she called to the girls and they all came dashing in. Then they all listened to Teetru talk. Then they all nodded and stood at the flaps.

I looked at my girls lined across the flaps.

I guess I wasn’t going anywhere.

And I had a feeling I hadn’t fucked up, I’d fucked up.

* * * * *

“What possessed you?” Diandra cried.

I was right. I hadn’t fucked up. I’d fucked up.

“I don’t… I… I don’t… I don’t even know where to begin!” she yelled.

It was at least two hours later but it felt like two years. My girls were no longer at the flaps. No, they’d disappeared. In their place were two, large, scary looking warriors standing inside the cham at the flaps.

I was definitely not going anywhere.

Diandra had arrived fifteen minutes ago already in the know about what went on mainly because it was spreading through the Daxshee like wildfire.

She was pacing.

I was sitting cross-legged on the bed silently panicking.

“Did I not tell you what happens in a warrior’s cham is nobody’s business?” she shouted.

“They were outside the cham, Diandra,” I said softly, she stopped mid-pace and whirled on me.

“This is not amusing, my dear, nothing about this is amusing,” she hissed even though I wasn’t trying to be amusing, just informative but I didn’t share that when she took two quick steps to me, bent and snapped, “You held a weapon to a warrior.”

“Yes, but –”

“You are a woman and you held a weapon to a Korwahk Horde warrior!” she bit out.

“Diandra –”

“It matters not that you are queen, you are a woman and he is a warrior!” she clipped.

I lifted a hand. “Sweetheart,” I whispered, “please.”

“He was not trying to force himself on you. He was not looting your cham. He was not mishandling your slaves without your permission and refusing to stop at your request. He was with his wife!” she shouted.

“But he was –” I tried again, dropping my hand.

“What he was or what he wasn’t is not your concern!” she yelled.

“He was going to kill her!” I exclaimed.

“And if he did he would face the Dax for that, not you. Not you, Circe. The Dax.”

“Two members of The Horde took my back,” I told her quietly.

She straightened and snapped, “What?”

“Bain and Zahnin both backed me up, they supported me,” I explained.

“Yes, I heard that too. And you can only hope that the Dax, who never but never in all the years I’ve known him as Dax been tolerant, today feels tolerant, for he could order their heads for standing against their brother.”

I sucked in breath, felt my throat close and my eyes widen all at the exact same time.

She saw my look and nodded once. Then she said softly with strained calm and more than a little fear, “Yes, he could do that, Circe.” She paused before finishing, “And, he could order yours.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“That’s a good idea, my friend, pray to your God. I fear you will need Him right now,” she whispered back and I saw fear had saturated her eyes and her hands were shaking.

Yep, I’d seriously fucked up.

The tent flaps slapped opened, my eyes snapped in that direction to see the warriors tense then step aside and then Lahn bent and entered.

I stopped breathing.

Bain, Zahnin and Seerim followed him but I only had eyes for Lahn.

I took him in, trying to read him but his face was blank as he took four steps toward me, stopped and crossed his arms on his chest. He was watching me the whole time but giving nothing away.

When he stopped moving he kept watching me.

I didn’t know if I should bow before him, ask him if I could explain, plead for my life (and Bain and Zahnin’s) or burst into the terrified tears that threatened to singe my throat.

So I just sat there, staring up at him.

This lasted awhile.

Then he turned his head and jerked a chin at Diandra which I didn’t know what that meant until he immediately turned back to me and started talking.

Diandra, catching his drift, translated.

“My tigress, it seems, unsheathes more than her claws.”

Oh fuck. I didn’t think that was a good start.

I felt it prudent to stay silent.

Lahn spoke. “You drew a warrior’s blood, my queen.”

I pressed my lips together and stayed quiet.

“You were the second woman today to draw his blood. He caught steel from his wife before you.”

The wound in his shoulder. She fought back.

There was something tragically beautiful about that.

I didn’t share this with Lahn. I kept my mouth shut.

He stared at me. I withstood it and kept my peace.

Then he said softly with Diandra interpreting, “I see it, even from here, shining in your eyes.”

I sucked in a breath that I dearly needed and ventured softly, “Linay tela?” See what?

“Your spirit, my warrior queen,” he replied just as softly using my language.

Okay, was that good?

He kept talking softy but reverted to Korwahk with Diandra translating.

“I have passed judgment, my tigress, and it will not be a decision you will like. But I am your king and it is my ruling so it will be done.”

“Wh… what is your decision?” I whispered when he didn’t go on.

“My warriors stood by their queen; they are not to be punished. They have been assigned as your personal guard and were doing what I commanded. They have vowed to take a blade should they need to do so in order to save your life. The situation you placed them in was grave, Dortak’s intention was to end his wife’s life and your intervention meant once he’d used his blade on her, he would have turned that steel on you. In order to keep you safe, they acted on their vows to me. They did what they were expected to do therefore they will not feel my censure.”

Well, that was good.

“Oh… okay.” I whispered.

“You, my Circe, should not have put them in the position to have to choose between their queen and their brother. It was not them but you who made a bad decision.”

Oh shit.

He stared at me again. My mouth went dry.

Then as his gaze stayed locked on mine, I watched as something I didn’t get flashed in his eyes before he murmured, “Kah teenkah rahna tunakanahsa.”

Diandra whispered, “My little golden warrior.”

Okay, I didn’t know. Was that good?

Lahn fell silent. I swallowed.

Then he spoke with Diandra translating. “I ask, in future, my tigress, that if you intend to be a warrior, you think like a warrior and that would mean, before you bare your claws or unsheathe your steel, you… actually… think.”

Okay, he said “in future” which would intimate I had one.

“Lahn,” I whispered.

He spoke over me (as did Diandra). “I must have her life, Circe.”

I blinked.

Then I asked, “What?”

“She took steel to her husband, this is forbidden. I must have her life.”

My lungs contracted.

Then I repeated, softer this time, “What?”

“This is my judgment,” he declared.

He couldn’t be serious.

“You know how he treats her,” I whispered.

“I do.”

“She had no other choice,” I explained.

Lahn nodded. “She didn’t,” he agreed. “And now, neither do I.”

“But you’re king,” I said quietly.

He took a step toward me and I used my hands to scoot back on the bed. His eyes dropped to my body, he stopped then they came to mine.

“I am king,” he said quietly. “And in one week, I face the challenge of Dortak’s blade. But today, I face the responsibility of releasing his wife from the prison he has made of their cham. Dortak will fall. She had to wait one week for release. She decided not to wait that week. She is Korwahk. She knew exactly what she was doing when she took steel to him. She knew if he didn’t end her life, I would. She was asking for this judgment, Circe. She is asking for this release. She knows, I know and you, my tigress, know that her treatment at his hands has broken her spirit. It is dead inside her. It is gone to another realm. She wishes to rejoin it. And you will sit on your throne beside me as I cast this judgment and the sentence is carried out. You will be there as my queen, as is your duty to me and your people. But you will also be there for her. It is your eyes she wishes to see before she moves to the next realm. It is your spirit so close to the surface that will guide her.” I had my eyes glued to him and I was panting as he finished in a gentle voice, “This is my judgment, my golden doe. Prepare yourself for your throne.”

Then he instantly turned and strode out of the tent, all the warriors following him.

I stared at the cham flaps for long moments after they were gone and even after my girls came bustling in.

Then my eyes slid slowly to Diandra.

“Did he just say I was attending that woman’s execution?” I whispered but she was close to the bed, reaching out to me, her manner hurried.

“He did, my dear, and we must not delay. For the sake of that poor girl, we need to end her suffering quickly. Therefore, we need to get you prepared.” She grabbed my hand, tugged me to my knees and automatically I crawled out of bed.

And then, without a word, stuck in a haze of horror, I allowed my girls and Diandra to prepare me to take my throne and witness an execution.

 

*Translation: “It is the Eunuch.”

**Translation: “Me and my king… [to Eunuch] My Lahn is busy but we are, um, coping well, uh, we are well. Happy.”

***Translation: “Farewell [until later], Tunakan.” [Tunakan: Warrior of Suh Tunak or the Korwahk Horde]