Chapter Twenty-Five

The Attack

 

Late that afternoon, when Bain escorted me back to my cham, I knew it was the changing of the guard because I saw Zahnin standing outside.

I smiled at him, he tipped his chin up at me but for some weird reason he watched closely, his head turning to do it, as Teetru scurried beyond him and into the tent.

Then he turned back and called loudly to Bain, “Do not go far.”

I froze at these words but my neck moved so I could look back at Bain who was studying Zahnin intently. He gave a jerk of his chin to Zahnin then moved away. I watched him fade into the chams and turned back to Zahnin. Then I moved to him.

“Is something amiss?” I asked.

“I do not know,” he replied. “But I am warrior. I am trained since five to trust my instincts and my instincts tell me something is not right.”

Oh shit.

“What?” I asked.

“Again, my golden queen, I do not know. Let us just hope that my instincts are wrong.”

“Are they ever wrong?”

He held my gaze. Then he grunted, “Me.”

Great.

“You are safe,” he announced and I focused on him. “Nothing will harm you. Ever.”

The good news was, he sounded firm about that. Very firm.

I decided to leave it at the good news without exploring the bad partly because he sounded firm but mostly because he didn’t look in the mood to continue that particular conversation. And when Zahnin wasn’t in the mood to talk, queen or not, we didn’t talk.

So I decided to change the subject to something he would wish to talk about.

I got closer to him and said quietly, “All right, my protector, this goes against all the girl club rules but for her sake and yours, I’m going to share.”

He stared down his nose at me and crossed his arms on his chest. From my experience with Zahnin, I knew this meant I had his attention even though he likely had no clue what I was talking about at this present time.

“I had a chat with Sabine today,” I informed him, saw his eyes flash but that was all he gave me before I continued. “Or, she had one with me.”

I stopped talking and waited for his response.

He just stared at me.

Seriously, Sabine said he chatted with her but I couldn’t believe it. I knew he had words, just not many of them.

So I laid it out for him. “You’re in, Zahnin.”

That got a reaction. He blinked in puzzlement.

“I’m… in?” he asked

I grinned. “In. In. In,” I answered. “Whatever you’re doing and whatever you did a couple of nights ago,” I watched his body jerk slightly in surprise that I had this knowledge but again that was all he gave me so I kept right on talking, “she likes it. Like, a lot.”

He stared at me but said not a word.

I sighed. “What I’m saying is, you were her first, that didn’t go so well for, um… her so she has no idea what she’s doing but she wants…” I leaned in, “more. She just doesn’t know how to ask.”

There it was. His eyes warmed and his mouth curled up slightly at the sides. He got me and what he got was hot. Way hot. If I didn’t have the super hottest guy around, I would think it was ultra hot.

Boy, Sabine was going to get lucky.

“So, I advised she make a move and you’re going to have to watch for it,” I went on sharing. “It might be timid, shy maybe awkward and will definitely take some courage for her to do but she’s going to make a play, you’re going to need to receive it and take it from there… gently.”

“Right,” he grunted.

“I can’t stress enough that she’s still a little scared of you and her feelings. She’s not experienced. You’re going to have to teach her.”

The lip curl got bigger and he said low, “I can be a teacher.”

I bet he could. And he looked like he was looking forward to it.

Still, I cautioned, “A patient teacher.”

His lip curl spread into a smile.

“I can be a patient teacher,” he assured me.

Oh yeah. He was looking forward to that too.

Sabine was definitely going to get lucky.

I grinned up at him. Then I whispered, “Have fun, my protector.”

I moved to walk around him but he caught my bicep in his hand so I tipped my head back to look at him.

He dropped my arm as I noticed the smile had faded but intensity was deep in his eyes.

“Shahsha, kah rahna Dahksahna hahla,” he murmured.

“Lapay fahnahsan, kah jahnjee,” Be happy, my protector, I murmured back.

He jerked up his chin.

I moved around him and into my cham. As I moved in, Teetru was scurrying out. I smiled at her but she tipped her head slightly to the side in a weird way, not returning my smile, looking hurried and nervous and she left the tent with all due haste.

I stared at the flaps as they swung back in place behind her.

Okay, now my instincts, instincts I didn’t know until then I had were saying something wasn’t right.

I felt my body get tight as I gazed around the tent. The gold fabric I bought that day was laying folded on one of the trunks. My eyes moved and scanned as they did but nothing seemed different.

Until I saw the table.

And when I did, I stared at it.

Then, woodenly, I walked to it.

On it was the gleaming wooden box Bohtan had given me, opened, the dagger brilliant even in the muted light of the cham. At its side, a fold of blue fabric and on top of that, the blue bangle I gave Teetru. The money pouch was not there nor were any of the other bolts of fabric or bangles I’d bought the other girls. Teetru, I noticed, had carried the fabric out. The pouch she did not have but I reckoned she’d locked it away in its trunk.

I stared at the table and what was on it as a tingle slithered up my spine.

Then without thinking, my hand snaked out, I grabbed the dagger and screeched, “Zahnin!”

But it was too late.

From all around, I heard the sounds of ripping fabric and I looked to the side of the cham to see a dagger had been planted in it and was tearing through.

I whirled and took them in.

There were daggers all around!

Shit! I was surrounded!

My arm shot out and I grabbed a heavy candleholder in my left hand as I heard steel clash with steel at the front of the cham. The candle toppled off my holder as huge men with skin the color of Teetru’s pushed through the slashes in the cham.

“No!” I shrieked as they came at me.

Then, out of nowhere, something came over me and whatever it was was coming from inside me. In a weird way I saw but did not see. In a weird way my body was not at my command. It just moved of its own accord.

I bashed out with the candleholder with all my strength and caught the first man who got to me upside his head. His eyes rolled back into his head and he careened to the side as arms closed around me from behind, picking me up.

I kicked out with my feet with all my might as I turned the dagger in my hand and tried to strike at his head behind mine with the candleholder, and missed. But my tactic worked, he was having trouble defending himself at the same time containing me.

Then I kicked out with my feet again as I plunged the dagger back and connected its blade with the flesh at his side. He howled, his arms loosened and I was dropped to my feet. My fist still wrapped around the hilt, I yanked out the dagger, whirled and, even as I felt more hands start to close on my waist, quickly, before his hand could make it to the knife on his belt, I sunk my blade into his chest, aiming at his heart, then pulling it out.

My aim was true.

Blood spurted out and he dropped like a stone but another one had me.

For a second.

Then I heard a ferocious growl I’d never heard before in my life and I was suddenly free.

This was because my sweet, little tigress cub came out of nowhere and jumped him. Surprised by the attack, he stumbled to the side and her not-quite-so-baby-anymore tiger teeth went right for his jugular.

I had no time to watch, I was again captured from behind and this one came smart. The blade was nearing my throat before I tossed my dagger up, caught its handle and again thrust back, finding flesh. At the same time, I jerked my head back and it collided with his chin. He went back and I again moved the dagger in my hand, whirled and slashed out, opening skin at his chest.

I felt the presence of more bodies in the cham, heard the clash of steel and the sound of men’s grunts and my guess was Zahnin and/or Bain had entered the tent. I didn’t look as I slashed another slice through my attacker’s chest. On my third go, he caught my wrist and twisted it, pain shot up my arm so strong, it took me to my knees. His other arm came back to my throat with the knife but I moved quickly. Dropping the candleholder, I grasped his wrist, jerked it with all my might and leaned forward, using the only weapon I had at my command. My teeth.

I bit hard, so hard blood spurted into my mouth and he yelped. Then he let me go, I turned swiftly on my knees and plunged my blade into his belly, my other hand going to cover the one on the hilt, I jerked it up, slicing him open, blood spurting out and flowing down.

He stumbled back then fell to his knees.

I gained my feet, lifted one and kicked him as hard as I could across his face. As he fell to the side, I was shoved out of the way and then I watched Bain heave his sword in an arc, separating head from body, blood spraying out as his body dropped to the rugs and his head flew away, fell and rolled behind the bed.

Bain’s arm hooked me at the waist and he pulled my back tight to his front as he shouted, “Lock down the Daxshee! Every warrior on alert! Search parties sent out to see if there are more Maroo!”

My eyes lifted to the tent flaps and I saw a warrior I didn’t know nod then exit immediately.

Then my eyes moved round the tent, searching for new threats and automatically counting the bodies on the ground, bodies (or, disgustingly, body parts) that seemed to fill all the available space. One, two, three, four, five… I got up to what might amount (if put back together) to ten, taking in the blood that was splattered throughout Lahn and my cham before I froze.

Zahnin was at the back of the tent, his body heaving with the deep breaths mine was sucking in and I felt Bain’s pulling in against me. Zahnin held his bloody sword in one hand, pointed down, an equally bloody knife held in the other. Ghost was sitting at his feet, jaws bloody, tongue lolling, blinking like she was bored and ready for a nap.

And I also saw a jagged slash of opened flesh scored down Zahnin’s chest and through his abs.

“No,” I whispered as I watched the blood drip down his hides. “No!” I shrieked and Bain’s hold tightened around me.

“It is fine, he is fine, my golden queen, it is a flesh wound,” Bain whispered.

These fucking savage brute warrior guys.

A flesh wound!

His blood was dripping down his hides.

With a heave I tore from Bain’s hold and ran across the cham on a direct route to my protector. That was to say, I ran over the bed. Ghost jumped to all fours and crept back, clearly reading her Loolah’s mood and wanting nothing to do with it.

When I got to him, I put a gentle hand on him and tilted my head way back to look at him.

“We need to get you down. We need to cleanse this. We need –”

He cut in to grunt, “Queen Circe, I am fine.”

I stepped back and screeched, “You are not fine!” Then I turned to the tent flaps and screamed, “Jacanda! Get in here!”

“My golden –” Zahnin started but I whipped my head back to him, raised the point of my own bloody dagger toward his face and his mouth snapped shut as his eyes went to my weapon.

“Quiet, Zahnin, you will allow me to see to your wound. Your queen commands it!” I ordered.

His gaze moved from my blade to my face, his lips twitched and then his eyes slid to Bain.

“Our king told us of this,” he remarked drily.

“Indeed, our queen gets something in her head…” Bain trailed off, sounding amused… yes, amused... as he agreed with his brother from behind me.

I turned to glare with narrowed eyes at Bain then I swung my glare back to Zahnin and I snapped, “No more banter. You!” I jabbed my dagger at Zahnin. “Lie down.” I swung the blade to the bed. “I’m seeing to your wound.”

“As you wish, warrior queen,” he muttered, also sounding amused, deeply, my narrowed gaze got squinty and Jacanda scurried in, face pale, eyes wide, fear visible on every inch of her frame.

I turned to her. “Boil water. I need soap, clean cloths and cleaner bandages. I’ll need a needle and thread uh…” I stopped because I didn’t know the Korwahk word for “sterilized” then said, “Cleaned.” When she looked confused, I explained, “Boil those too… for a long time.” She nodded though now she looked less afraid and more perplexed. I ignored it and kept going. “Bring the healer to me. And send someone to get some zakah. A lot of zakah.”

“I could use some zakah,” Zahnin muttered and I whirled to him.

“You’re not going to drink it. I’m going to use it to clean your wound.”

He stared at me with unconcealed surprise.

“Don’t question me,” I ordered. “They do it in my land. It’s a good thing to do.”

“It’s a waste of good zakah,” Bain commented under his breath from across the tent but I caught it and I turned to him.

“Don’t you have a Daxshee to lock down or possible enemies to round up or something?” I prompted.

He pressed his lips together I knew to suppress a twitch and I squinted at him.

“Yes, my true golden queen,” he muttered, his amused eyes slid through Zahnin then he left the tent and I noticed Jacanda was still standing there.

“Go, sweetheart, now,” I urged, she nodded and shot off.

I turned to Zahnin and noted, “You’re not lying down.”

“Right,” he muttered, I moved to the bed and pulled the bloody sheet off and also any hides that had blood on them. Then I shoved off any pillows that had been bloodied.

What I didn’t do was look at any of the cut up bodies or body pieces littering my tent or think of the fact that I, myself, had taken at least one, possibly one and a half lives (I might have delivered a killing wound but it was Bain who definitely executed the kill so I was counting that as a half). Nor did I allow myself to think about the obvious news that my Teetru had betrayed me to her people.

She betrayed me yet got out my dagger, exposing it openly both to warn me and to give me a fighting chance by providing me with the only weapon she, or I, had at our disposal.

And lastly, I did not think about why she would do either of these things, betray me first then warn me second.

“May I have my queen’s leave to find a warrior and ask him to gather other warriors to collect these bodies?” Zahnin asked solicitously from behind me, far more solicitous than he ever spoke to me (mainly because he never spoke to me solicitously) and I heard the humor in his tone and something about it made the adrenalin surging through my system and subsequent temper flare evaporate.

I straightened from the bed and turned to him.

“I’ll do that,” I said softly, “can you please, for me, lie down?”

He read the change in my tone and his face softened, the amusement faded and warmth hit his eyes.

“I am fine, my golden queen, this is my vow.”

“You bleed for me,” I whispered, “please, please, I know you don’t need it but I need to take care of you. Please.”

He studied me. Then he nodded. Then he lay down.

I ran to the flaps of the tent, stuck my head out and saw two warrior guards on either side.

“We need clean up in here, if you don’t mind,” I said to the one on my left.

He nodded but didn’t move. Instead, he bellowed my order to a warrior standing post some ten feet away. That warrior nodded, turned and bellowed my order to someone else.

I didn’t hang around to watch the rest. I saw Packa running toward me with the big bath cloths Lahn and I used and I moved back into the tent.

* * * * *

Needless to say, everyone was a little surprised, and get this, sickened, by the medicine I explained was practiced freely in my land.

They did not sew flesh together, Bain informed me with curled lip, eyes filled with disgust.

Yes, this from a man who cut up a bunch of the enemy in what amounted to my freaking house. And, after, stood amongst the carnage bantering with his comrade.

Furthermore, they didn’t have a word for germs, because they didn’t know what germs were, so my explanation of why I would waste good zakah cleansing Zahnin’s wound fell on deaf ears.

Luckily, I was queen so they had no choice but to give into my commands and they did.

Though Bain and Zahnin did it obviously humoring me.

However, when I commanded a clearly squeamish Gaal (Jacanda told me she was a very gifted seamstress when I demanded she find the best one in the Daxshee) to sew together the edges of Zahnin’s wound, the healer, standing and observing, saw the wisdom of this.

“Very clever,” she muttered as Gaal, swallowing with nerves and aversion but still game, started to use the needle I’d further sterilized in a candle flame and thread that Jacanda had boiled in a pot over the fire and I’d soaked in zakah to sew Zahnin’s wound together.

Gaal looked like she was about to heave a couple of times (and I was right there with her, talk about gross) but she stuck with it mainly because I stayed close for moral support. Her eyes kept lifting to me, I nodded to encourage her and eventually she lost her distaste for it and did, from my extremely limited experience, what looked like a very good job.

For Zahnin’s part, he didn’t even wince but lay on my bed with pillows I’d shoved under his head, one arm bent, hand behind his head, chatting amiably through the whole thing to Bain who was standing at the head of the bed, arms crossed on his chest and one ankle crossed over the other in a casual warrior pose which didn’t fit with what had become a minor medical procedure in a primitive examination room.

Once closed, I cleansed the wound again with zakah when Gaal moved away, the healer gooped him up with some salve she promised aided healing (after I made her wash her hands with soap and rinse them in zakah) and then he sat up so she could press a long bandage down his front then roll a clean gauze tight around and around his torso, tying it expertly at the end.

The bodies, by the way, had been removed by young trainee warriors and Packa and Beetus, faces pale, had grabbed the sheet and pillows and pulled up the rugs to take them out as Jacanda went to work wiping down furniture and trunks.

Boy, I needed to go back to the market and buy my girls more gifts. They already went beyond the call of duty and got nothing for it except food, cham and minimal clothing. Wiping up blood went so beyond the call of duty, it wasn’t funny.

Ghost, by the way, was lying on her side at the foot of the bed, napping in a dead to the world fashion and I knew this because, even with all the people and activity around, she didn’t even twitch.

When I put pressure on Zahnin’s shoulder to press him back, he went without complaint but he looked at me when he was fully reclining.

“Can I have some zakah now?”

I studied him. He was not pale. He had never been faint. And his eyes held no pain. None at all. In fact, he looked totally normal.

Boy, they trained these boys to within an inch of their life.

Literally.

I sucked in a calming breath and answered, “Yes, my protector, you can have –”

I stopped speaking when the cham flaps slapped and I was turning toward them when I heard a soft, feminine intake of breath.

Sabine was standing inside my cham and Diandra and Claudine were entering the flaps at her back. And Sabine was staring at her husband and his bandage, her eyes wide, her face pale, her mouth soft. I watched those eyes drift up his chest to his face then I stared as they got bright with unshed tears.

They slid to me. “Circe?” she whispered.

“He’s fine, sweetheart, we’ve fixed him up,” I assured her.

She held my gaze for several moments before she nodded. Her eyes went back to Zahnin who I noticed had not moved and he was watching her silently. Then they swiftly came back to me.

It hit me that she didn’t know what to do.

I was sitting on my knees in the middle of the bed next to her husband and I extended my arm to her.

“It’s okay, you can come to him. He’s fine and you won’t hurt him,” I called softly, her body jerked slightly then she bit her lip.

I held my breath.

Then slowly, foot in front of foot, she walked to the bed. When she made it to the end, she put a knee to it and crawled on all fours to me.

Zahnin watched without a word.

I scuttled back and she stopped when she took my place, sitting ass to calves, knees an inch from his hip.

My feet hit stone at the side of the bed when I heard her whisper, “You are all right, husband?”

“Meena,” Zahnin replied instantly.

A pause then from Sabine, “Are you in pain?”

“Me,” Zahnin answered again instantly.

I heard her soft intake of breath and let out my own when her hand tentatively lifted, then settled lightly on the bandage at his stomach as she whispered, “Dohno.”

At her word and touch, with his gaze warm on his wife, his face soft, Zahnin lifted his hand and her body didn’t move or even tense as she allowed her husband to cup her cheek.

Then she did something that proved I was right about how sweet Sabine was.

She slowly and carefully dropped gracefully to her side and curled up next to him, her head on his shoulder, her hand light on his bandage. As she moved, Zahnin’s fingers slid through her hair so when she was settled, they cupped the back of her head.

My eyes went to his to see his were on me.

And they were communicating.

I nodded, getting the message loud and clear.

His fingers started sifting through his wife’s hair.

“Everybody out,” I ordered softly and I didn’t need to ask twice.

Jacanda quit wiping, grabbed her bucket and scurried. The healer and Bain moved to the tent flaps that Claudine had exited and Diandra was currently moving through. Gaal was already gone.

I wanted to look back but didn’t, it wasn’t right, but I really, really wanted to.

I didn’t need to.

I heard Zahnin mutter, “Thank you for coming to me, my beautiful one.”

Before I dropped the flaps behind me, I heard Sabine’s soft sigh.

And as the flaps settled, I heard Sabine ask with cute, quiet surprise, “Oh my, Zahnin, is that a tiger?”

This was followed by a quiet manly chuckle.

Hmm. It seemed I never shared about Ghost with Sabine and it occurred to me I’d never hosted her at my cham.

I walked toward Diandra and Claudine thinking I was going to have to do that. I’d had lunch or dinner at all my posse’s chams. I was falling down. It was way my turn.

These thoughts were wiped from my brain when Diandra’s eyes came to me then drifted the length of me.

Then they filled with tears.

“Oh, my Circe,” she breathed, I stopped moving, looked down and saw I had blood all over me.

I hadn’t even noticed.

I looked up to assure her I was fine when suddenly the air changed and I heard the thunder of hooves.

My head turned to my left just in time to see Lahn on Lahkan clear the cham closest to us. I had no time to experience shock at his early return, or delight. I didn’t because he was coming at a full gallop and he wasn’t slowing.

I registered vaguely he was followed by a number of other horses but I didn’t pay much attention because suddenly his body was swinging off his horse while Lahkan kept galloping!

“Lahn!” I cried, frozen stiff in panic when his feet solidly hit ground and Lahkan zoomed by me so close, I felt the breeze of motion and a whisper of touch from his tail but I couldn’t concentrate on that either.

Lahn was on me.

Or, his hands were. Travelling over my limbs, my shoulders, my breasts, my belly, my waist, drifting over the dried blood, he jerked me so my back was to him and did the same.

It finally hit me what he was doing and I tried to turn back, saying, “Lahn, I’m okay.”

I didn’t turn around. He jerked me back around and my body swayed with the force of it and only remained standing because his hands clamped on either side of my jaw.

Then he stared into my eyes and I held my breath because his spirit was there, right there, right at the surface, burning golden, bright and brutal more than it had even after Dortak called out his threats.

He was not pissed. He was not angry.

His spirit was filled with wrath.

Oh shit.

“I’m okay, honey,” I whispered, my hands lifting to curl my fingers around his wrists and his fingers pressed in so hard they caused pain. “Honestly, I’m –”

I didn’t finish because he released me but threw back his head and roared with rage. No words, just a primal shout he thundered to the heavens that came straight from his gut and was filled with a fury unsurpassed. I took a step back in shock and surprise at this uninhibited, savage display as he dropped his chin and roared again, thumping his fist on his chest and turning his massive body toward the phalanx of warriors on their horses who had crowded thigh to thigh in the limited space.

He thumped his fist on his chest again and roared, “We ride on Maroo!”

Oh shit!

The warriors on horses, those standing around, others standing sentry and all of those guarding our cham roared in response, punching fists in the air or thumping their own chests.

“The blood of our enemy stains the gold of my queen!” Lahn kept bellowing, thumping his chest on the word “my” then swinging a powerful arm around to point at me. “They closed on her in my cham,” another thump, “shattering the safety I provide her,” another thump, “and spilling the blood of our brother!” He beat at his chest with both fists. “In return, we will create rivers of Maroo blood. The stone of our earth will weep with it and we will know vengeance!” Another thump and another returning roar from his warriors, now, their numbers were growing as more were joining or closing in.

I felt Diandra and Claudine move in on my sides, Diandra’s hand finding mine as Lahn turned but he didn’t look at me.

He looked beyond me and ordered, “Bathe their blood from her golden skin. Remove our possessions and burn this cham, now. Order a new one made, I want it up and sheltering my golden bride in a week.” He paused, leaned forward, I turned my head and saw Gaal and Beetus staring at him, frozen, and he roared, “Move!”

They moved and they did it fast.

Lahn again didn’t look at me when he turned back to his warriors and kept thundering, “My seed has been planted in her womb and she carries my child. They attacked my tigress and your golden warrior queen. They attacked all that is the beauty of Suh Tunak and my unborn. They will know a vengeance that their grandchildren will understand and knowing it through the ages to come they will still quake in their beds!”

Okay, he wasn’t calming down, like… at all.

“Lahn,” I whispered, for some reason my voice not able to get any louder but Diandra squeezed my hand.

“No, Circe, not now. Not at all,” she murmured in my ear. “Even a normal warrior’s wife is off limits and the enemy knows it. The Daxshee is never penetrated, ever. In times far past, this happened and in that past, Suh Tunak has ridden just like our Dax now describes and the brutality of their vengeance has not been forgotten… until now.” I looked up at her and she finished quickly. “To invade a cham is akin to them taking you by force. It is symbolic. It is the safety he offers you as your husband and it was violated. He will taste vengeance and the Maroo will bleed for it.”

Oh God.

My eyes snapped to Lahn when I heard him ask, “She is taken?”

I saw he was glowering at a warrior who jerked up a chin.

Then Lahn ordered, “Bring me the traitor.”

Oh no. No.

No.

My body got tight.

He wanted Teetru.

“Still, my friend, still. Be strong. He will know vengeance,” Diandra murmured, her arm going around me and Claudine, at my other side, did the same.

I was glad for it for I was suddenly shaking and not just a little.

“Send messengers, my brother,” Lahn barked at another warrior. “They ride out tonight. Suh Tunak amasses.”

That warrior nodded, turned and stalked through his brethren, quickly disappearing.

Lahn suddenly turned and again looked beyond me. I looked over my shoulder and saw Zahnin outside the tent, his arm around his wife who looked tiny next to him and was visibly shaking at his side. He had her turned, front to his side, and held close with his arm around her shoulder but his eyes were on his king.

She’d seen, heard and understood and she was pressing her lips together probably in the effort not to whimper.

That was my girl.

Her eyes darted to me and I smiled at her. I knew it trembled. Hers trembled too when she returned it.

Yep, that was my girl.

We weren’t Korwahk but we sure as hell were learning to be.

Fast.

Then Lahn spoke and I turned back to him. “Your blood will be avenged.”

From behind me, Zahnin replied, “Yes, my king.”

He jerked his head my way. “It will also be rewarded.”

“Yes, my king,” Zahnin repeated and Lahn’s gaze cut to Bain who was standing several feet from him.

“The stains on your steel will be rewarded,” Lahn stated.

Bain jerked up his chin.

Then horses sidled, a pathway cleared and I sucked in breath.

Diandra and Claudine held on tight.

Thinking quickly, knowing in my heart what would happen, I twisted and caught Zahnin’s gaze.

“Hide her eyes,” I called, he grunted unintelligibly but his big hand lifted, covering Sabine’s eyes as he turned her to his front, burying her face in his bandaged chest.

He bent to her and said gently, “Cover your ears, close your eyes. I will tell you when it is done.”

I turned back when I heard a pained cry and then winced when I saw that Teetru had been tossed to the stone ground.

She’d also been mishandled, gravely. She wore no clothes, bruises had already formed around her arms, her wrists, her hips, her knees, her throat and there was a dried, white substance liberally splattered everywhere on her body including her face and I knew what that was.

My knees gave out but Diandra and Claudine closed in, holding me up until I forced my legs to stand strong again under me.

Teetru’s body was on its side but down, only her head lifted up and her eyes came to me then they travelled through the blood on my body.

They were full of pain but, to my shock, it was not just the pain she felt in her body. Mingled with it was a different kind of pain.

Then I heard her whisper, “You should not have been kind to me.”

My body jolted and tears filled my eyes.

“Prepare her,” Lahn barked.

Her gaze stayed locked to mine as Bain strode forward and, using her hair causing her to cry out but she still didn’t break her connection to me, he pulled her to her knees.

The wet streamed down my cheeks and pain burned my throat.

With a hiss of steel, Lahn unsheathed his sword.

“I wish you hadn’t been kind to me.”

Those were her last words before Bain stepped free and Lahn severed her head from her body with a vicious swing of his sword.

I turned into Diandra’s arms and shoved my face in her neck so I missed the flash of lightning that rent the sky, trailing down the cliff five hundred yards behind me.

“Throw it off the cliff. Return the head to the Maroo king with one of their warriors you captured. Unman him before you free him. Her head and his balls, my gift to their king before we lock steel,” Lahn ordered.

I stifled a painful sob by swallowing and that hurt even more.

“Bathe my fucking bride!” Lahn bellowed, I felt Diandra nod and then she and Claudine gently guided me toward my girls’ cham and I heard Zahnin’s soft, “Attend your queen,” as I went.

But I heard no more and felt no more and this was because I slunk into my head to sort it out.

I was Korwahk, Queen of Korwahk and we were at war.

I was Korwahk, I repeated to myself, Queen of Korwahk and we were at war.

I had to find some way to get my shit together.

Somehow.

* * * * *

“You must eat, my golden queen.”

I turned and looked down at Jacanda.

I was in her tent. Whatever belongings she and the girls had were gone, whereabouts unknown (to me). Our bed with a clean silk sheet had been moved in, our scrubbed trunks and our cleaned furniture. The tent was smaller, the stuff crammed in the space.

I was bathed, my hair washed and the skin behind my ears and at my wrists had been anointed with perfumed oil. I was wearing my robe of blue.

Incense Teetru had sourced weeks ago at my request burned, smelling of berries.

Packa set this to burning because she knew I liked it and probably thought it would soothe me. But I would find the stash and get rid of it later, when they weren’t around. It reminded me of Teetru whose actions could have killed me, or harmed me, they did harm Zahnin, but at the same time she did what she could to save me. A paradox I would never understand because she was no longer breathing for me to ask.

“You sleep with Diandra’s girls tonight?” I asked and Jacanda nodded.

“Yes, my true queen. But we will be here before the dawn in case you need us.”

“Sleep in, my doe, today has been busy. You and my girls need your rest. I will get on,” I assured her.

“We will be here,” she replied firmly.

“I will –”

She cut me off. “The king will expect it.”

I stopped talking and nodded because this was true, Lahn would expect it.

Then I lifted two hands and put them on her cheeks, dipping my face to hers.

“I’m so sorry about Teetru,” I whispered and I watched with surprise as her eyes went hard.

“She is a traitor,” she hissed, pulled away, turned her head to the side and then made a spitting sound with her mouth though no spit came out before she turned back to me. “I was born slave. I was lucky to have good masters, like Beetus. Packa and Gaal were not. This makes Packa timid and Gaal guarded. But we have talked many nights of you, our golden queen, who laughs with us and speaks kindly, touches kindly, whose warrior provides us with plentiful food better than we’ve ever had. You are our true golden queen and she was of Maroo but she knew the gold of your touch, just like us all. Slaves are normally commanded, not asked and not included; we do not exist, even though we serve. We exist for you. It feels good to exist. She nearly took you away from us. This is unforgivable and this will not be forgiven, not by warrior, not by warrior bride, not by free man or woman, not by slave, not by anyone Korwahk and most especially not by what you call us, Your Girls. She was honored to be among us and now her headless body rots at the bottom of a cliff, a body that will never join her spirit in the next realm. We will not miss her, not one of us. Your Dax was too good to her. He should have turned her over to the warriors to do what they are forbidden to do even to the Xacto instead of taking her head.”

Okay, mental note, do not get on Jacanda’s bad side.

This was what I thought. What I said was a whispered, “All right, sweetheart.”

She nodded and moved to the cham flaps but stopped and turned back.

“I burned her bolt of fabric with your cham as well as her other belongings and Beetus threw her bangle over the cliff. She no longer exists.”

I nodded. I got the message. I was not to speak of her again.

She nodded back.

“Goodnight, Jacanda,” I whispered.

“Eat something,” she tipped her head to the table where she’d put food. “Then sleep well, my golden queen,” she whispered back then exited the cham.

I sucked in breath. Then I lifted my hands to my cheeks and pressed in.

Then I felt the tears and shakes come again and I struggled to keep them in check.

I won this fight as the tent flaps slapped back, my eyes flew there and I watched my husband bend low and enter, accompanied by Ghost.

I stared at him as he took a step in and stopped. Ghost didn’t stop. She ambled to me so I bent in a knees to chest squat and she kept coming until I had her head in my hands. When I had a hold on her, I started to scratch behind her ears.

“The animal sprung to your aid,” Lahn declared and I kept scratching as I tipped my head back to look at him. “From now on, she sleeps with us.”

I nodded and studied his face.

He still looked pissed.

I bit my lip.

This made him look more pissed.

I stopped biting my lip.

His eyes dropped to Ghost and he looked even more pissed.

What on earth?

He looked back at me and ordered tersely, “Rise, wife, and come to me.”

I didn’t want to, mainly because he looked pissed, but I did. I gave Ghost’s head a rub, straightened and walked to him.

I stopped a few inches away.

“Put your hands on me,” he commanded and I felt it prudent in the face of his continued anger to keep quiet and do what he said so I lifted my hands and rested them on his chest.

The minute they touched, his hands came up and, as they did earlier, they clamped on either side of my jaw but this time he pulled me roughly in and up so I was on my toes as he bent toward me.

“No one,” he ground out, his eyes an inch from my own, “no one touches my queen.”

“Okay, baby,” I whispered.

“No one threatens her with steel.” He kept grinding out his words between his teeth.

My hands drifted up to his neck. “All right,” I said softly.

“No one betrays her,” he kept going. “No one and especially not one she’s shown generosity and kindness, who has felt her golden touch.”

I nodded as best I could with his hands on me. “Yes, honey.”

He scowled into my face. Then he asked, “You have no words for the collaborator?”

“I…” I started, shook my head, again as best I could with his hands on me, then went on. “Honey, I promised you before you left that I wouldn’t again question who you are and what you do and I’m keeping that promise.” His burning eyes didn’t leave mine and I continued. “It’s hard, of course, because, you know me, I have something to say about every –”

I didn’t finish. His hands left my jaw, his arms locked around me, one hand at the back of my head, he tilted it to the side, slanted his the other way and his mouth crushed down on mine.

I held onto his neck as his mouth and tongue took their fill and then he tore his lips from mine. Then he shoved my face in his chest, I turned it so my cheek was pressed there and I pushed my hands under his arms and wrapped them around him.

“You came home early,” I noted (a little breathlessly) in order to take our conversation to the mundane.

“Zahnin says you felled a Maroo,” Lahn returned, not, obviously, in the mood for mundane.

“Tee…” I hesitated then went on cautiously, “she knew the attack was imminent and left my dagger that Bohtan gave me out for me. I had a moment to prepare.”

“That kut* did not save your life, Circe, Zahnin, Bain, Ghost and you did,” he growled on a squeeze of his arms. “I’ll listen to no talk of her giving you a moment to prepare.”

“Uh… okay,” I whispered.

Another mental note, don’t mention Teetru around Lahn either.

He was silent. This lasted awhile.

Then he said quietly, “I give thanks to my god you are warrior.”

I nodded. I gave it to mine too, on several occasions the last few hours. I had no idea I had it in me but I sure as hell was glad I did.

Then he went on. “And I give more thanks you hold magic. As you were battling, your lightning filled the sky. Warriors and everyone in the Daxshee knew the lightning storm was not natural but something to do with their queen. This gave warning and meant the traitor did not escape and other Maroo warriors lying in wait for the return of their brethren were also captured.”

Whoa.

Wow.

I didn’t know that. Any of it.

“Yes, magic is good,” I agreed, the light pressure he was exerting on my head relaxed and I tilted it back to look at him. Then I changed the subject. “Why are you home early?”

“Early this morning, we had a messenger from Keenhak. Keenhak spies close to the Maroo king heard of the plot and came to me. This decision was smart. They build alliances while Maroo seeks to end the Golden Dynasty. Keenhak will be rewarded for this act.” I nodded and he finished. “We rode hard to return to the Daxshee but we were too late.”

“I’m okay,” I said quietly.

“All day, I rode blind, the only thing I saw, visions of my golden queen covered in blood.”

Oh God. That had to suck.

“I’m okay,” I repeated.

“And I ride into the Daxshee only to see you covered in blood.”

My arms gave him a squeeze. “Honey, I’m okay.”

“I can see that and feel it, my doe, but I do not care. Vengeance –”

I pulled an arm from around him and lifted my hand to touch my fingers to his mouth.

“I know, Lahn. Rivers of blood. I know. It freaks me out and scares me and I don’t want you or anyone to be hurt but I know. This is what you must do. So you will do it but now can I ask a favor and can you be quiet for just long enough so that I can give you a welcome home kiss to add to your, ‘thank God my golden queen is all right’ kiss? Then you can rant all you want about vengeance.”

He stared down at me. Then he said against my fingers, “Remove your fingers, Circe, you can hardly kiss me with your hand over my mouth.”

I smiled up at him as my body relaxed in his arms and I moved my hand. Then I went up on tiptoe, he bent his neck and I gave my husband a welcome home kiss that was, I was guessing, pretty damned good. I guessed this because he lifted me up in the middle of it, my legs wrapped around his hips and he strode to the bed and I went down, him on top of me.

Ghost growled with irritation and jumped off her perch.

Eventually, Lahn’s mouth left mine and he buried his face in my neck as my limbs tightened around him.

There he was. So big. So strong. My husband. There with me. In our bed.

Then it hit me and I couldn’t hold it back so my breath hitched.

His head came up and his eyes found mine. When they did, his warmed.

“Baby,” he whispered and my breath hitched again.

“I killed one and a half men today,” I whispered back, a tear sliding out of the side of my eye.

His head twitched and he asked, “A half?”

“Bain cut his head off but I’d already sliced through his innards, a wound he survived right then but he wouldn’t survive it for long.”

I watched Lahn’s jaw get hard and I didn’t know if it was to bite back laughter or a roar of fury.

Then he informed me quietly (and scarily), “I am glad you did for if you had not, they would have killed you. The plot was to capture you, take you outside the Daxshee but murder you close and leave your body for us to find. Instead, they encountered a warrior queen, her extraordinary pet and guards with good instincts. As things did not go as they had planned, they would have needed to execute their plan as best they could and instead would have killed you in our cham.”

I knew this to be true. The first man had grabbed me and done it unarmed, probably underestimating me. The last had not done the same and came at me with a knife.

That scared the shit out of me but I sucked it up as best I could and nodded.

Then another tear slid out of my left eye followed by one from my right and I felt my nostrils quiver.

“She betrayed me,” I whispered and Lahn’s face went soft, his hand lifted to cup the side of my head, his thumb moving through the wetness at my temple. “Why would she do that?”

“I do not know,” Lahn answered in his own whisper.

I sucked in a breath that broke twice on the way in. “And since she did, why would she put out my dagger… warn me?”

“I do not know that either, my golden doe.”

I didn’t either.

I thought of Teetru’s face looking at mine after I gave her the bangle.

“She was my girl,” I said so softly it was barely audible, my breath hitched and my vision melted as my body started shaking with sobs.

“My Circe,” Lahn murmured, rolling off me but pulling me tight and cradling me close as I cried into his chest.

Lahn didn’t get the chance to rant about vengeance. It could be said that I had a tough day so I pretty much passed out right in the middle of bawling. I didn’t know what he did.

But later, I woke to feel his weight and heat, the sheet up to our waists and Ghost asleep at the foot of the bed.

For that moment, I was safe, my husband was home and all was well.

So I drifted back to my dreams.

 

*Translation: Bitch