Fantasyland 02 The Golden Dynasty (23 page)

She wrapped her hand around my bicep and
squeezed. “My beautiful Circe, your king is a ferocious warrior. He
believes his spirit guides him into battle. It protects him. It
keeps him strong. He would not allow anyone close to that. He would
do anything to guard it and keep it safe just as he would do
anything to guard his flesh and bone, his heart, his innards. He
would no sooner allow a Xacto or whore or a girl he’s taken during
plunder to come anywhere near that.”

Girl he’d taken during plunder?

Before I could ask, she started us walking
again and advised, “And now, perhaps, he doesn’t even think of it.
If it is not part of the…” she paused and said with a smile in her
voice, “
festivities,
I
would suggest,
you
introduce it
to the…” her hand gave mine a squeeze, “
festivities.
”

“Maybe he doesn’t want me near his spirit,”
I muttered, she chuckled and squeezed my hand again.

“Oh, my dear, from what I’ve seen, I think
you have no worries about that.”

Hmm.

“Circe!” I heard, my head came up and I saw
Narinda walking out of a cham her head turned our way.

“Narinda!” I cried, let Diandra go and ran
to my friend.

When I got to her, I threw my arms around
her, she threw her arms around me and we rocked each other back and
forth as we embraced like identical twins cruelly separated by an
evil stepmother and reunited after decades.

Then again, sharing the horrors of the
parade, Hunt and wedding rite would do that to a girl.

Our torsos separated but we kept our arms
around each other and smiled in each other’s faces.

“I don’t know, my queen, should I be
touching you or bowed in a deep curtsy?” she teased.

“If you curtsy, I’ll have your head chopped
off,” I teased back.

We grinned at each other then we sobered. My
eyes moved over her face and I saw she looked healthy, fed,
watered, her eyes were clear of the resignation I’d seen that night
and she looked like she might even be happy.

I pulled her back in my arms and whispered
in her ear, “You’re faring well?”

I felt her nod. “You?”

“Hanging in there.”

Her arms tightened. “He treats me well,
Circe, I think… I think…” she paused and her lips came to my ear
where she whispered, “I think he
likes
me.”

I giggled and moved my torso back but kept
my arms around her. “Rumor has it, he’s kept you to your cham he
likes you so much.”

I watched pretty pink stain her cheeks, she
started then let me go and looked over her shoulder to the tall,
handsome warrior I saw with her that night. He was standing just
outside the cham looking forbidding and his arms were crossed on
his chest.

“Feetak, Queen Circe, erm… Circe, my
husband, Feetak,” she introduced, her hand moving back and forth
between me and her husband in a shy way that was cute.

He bowed his head to me. “Kah rahna
Dahksahna hahla,” he rumbled with an added thump to his chest then
his eyes turned to Narinda. I watched them warm and he moved to his
wife. He said some stuff to her softly and ended it with “Narinda
sahna”.

She looked up at him and nodded but I knew
by the semi-baffled look on her face (a look I was certain I’d
adopted on more than one occasion the last few days) that she
didn’t catch half of what he said.

“Dohno,” he said softly, moved to her, put
his hand to her waist, bent his head and touched his mouth to hers.
Her cheeks got pinker, he jerked his chin to me and then Diandra
and he strode away.

“He said, ‘I will leave you to your friends,
enjoy your time, beautiful Narinda’,” Diandra translated and
Narinda’s looked to her, eyes wide.

“Is that what ‘sahna’ means?” she asked, her
voice breathy.

“It is, indeed, my dear,” Diandra replied on
a smile.

Narinda’s eyes took on a faraway look as she
gazed in the direction where her warrior disappeared and she
whispered, “Golly, he says that all the time.”

I pressed my lips together and met Diandra’s
eyes which were dancing.

Welp, it didn’t take a love doctor to see
things were going well for Narinda and her savage brute.

Narinda seemed to shake herself out of it,
she focused on Diandra and her fingers went to her cheek. “Oh! I’m
so sorry! We haven’t met. I’m Narinda.”

“Diandra,” Diandra said, moving in to touch
cheeks.

When they separated, Narinda asked, “Are you
from Hawkvale?”

“I am Korwahk but many years ago, yes, I was
from the Vale.”

Narinda smiled at Diandra then at me.
“Well, isn’t this wonderful? Now I have
three
people I can talk to and actually
understand.”

“Yep, it’s pretty wonderful,” I replied.

She jumped and cried, “Oh my goodness! What
am I thinking? Come in, come in. I’ll ask one of my… erm, people to
get us some refreshments. Let’s get out of this sun.”

I smiled at Diandra as Narinda hustled us in
her cham thinking the change was remarkable. That night that seemed
years ago, Narinda might not have been cool but she was collected.
Now she was acting like a schoolgirl with her first crush.

My savior my first night in this world was
in a good place and I was glad of it. It felt nice to have one
worry off my mind.

We went into her cham and I saw immediately
that it wasn’t like mine. It wasn’t as big, for one. And there
weren’t as many trunks. Nor chests. Nor candlesticks. The furniture
was nice but not heavily carved. The sheet over the hides of the
bed (which was smaller) was gauze, a pretty gauze but not silk. And
there weren’t as many pillows and only a few of these were covered
with silk or brocade, the rest were covered in cotton.

Though, I had to say, her outfit was kickass
but it wasn’t shot with silver or gold. The sarong was red, her
belt was braided red, purple and blue and her halter top was
purple. She had earrings on, some bangles but nowhere near my
finery.

Okay, maybe it
was
good being queen.

We settled lounging on her bed, her girl
brought us fruit juice and a platter with slices of cheese and
grapes and we chattered away. She told us she had picked up some
Korwahk words while being transported and held prior to the Hunt
but she wasn’t even close to fluent and obviously hadn’t lucked out
and had an interpreter almost from the beginning like I did. And it
was clear Feetak wasn’t doing his talking with words. Nevertheless,
it was also clear what he was saying was stuff Narinda liked.

After I ascertained she was settling, she
took over the conversation, her eyes coming to me. “I’ve been so
worried about you. I tried to ask my girls and Feetak about you but
they don’t know what I’m saying or, when they answer, I don’t know
what
they’re
saying.
The king,” she shook her head and shivered, “he was frightening.
How are you handling everything?”

“It’s taken a bit of time and I was lucky to
have Diandra’s help but I’m adjusting.”

She leaned into me and whispered, “It’s all
very strange, don’t you think?”

I smiled at her. “You can say that
again.”

She returned my smile and leaned back.
“But, I’m thinking, not a
bad
strange, just a
strange.
Though, I’m also thinking it’ll take awhile to get used to
it.”

And I was thinking she was not wrong about
that.

She turned to Diandra. “How long did it take
you?”

“I, like you and our queen, was lucky to be
claimed by a warrior who grew to care for me very deeply, very
quickly. So, I’m happy to say, it did not take long at all.”

Narinda’s eyes came to me and they were
wide. “That large, fearsome man cares about you already?”

“Uh –” I started.

“Deeply,” Diandra said firmly, Narinda
looked at her and then at me.

The she cried, “Isn’t that lovely! Oh,
Circe, maybe this won’t be all that bad.” I bit my lip but she
missed it when her head snapped to Diandra and she asked, “How long
did it take you to learn their language?”

Thus commenced Narinda asking Diandra
approximately one thousand seven hundred and twenty-three questions
about all things Korwahk, Diandra answering these questions in
great detail and then Diandra offering up juicy snippets of
my
life for the past
week.

“
Oh my,” Narinda breathed, “how wonderful
he was so worried for you when you were ill. It’s almost, I can’t
believe I’m going to say this but…
romantic.
”

Diandra beamed.

“
The brute
did
leave me out in the sun for nine hours,” I grumbled, the
light shining from Diandra’s face extinguished and she gave me a
narrow-eyed look.

“Oh, I saw you,” Narinda said. “I tried to
catch your eye but you didn’t see me and I couldn’t get Feetak to
understand me when I said I wanted to go see you. Night had fallen
and for some reason he didn’t want me close to the dais.”

Feetak was sounding better and better by the
moment.

Narinda went on. “You looked kind of bored
but
very
beautiful.
All that gold. Your clothing was
amazing.
And your
jewelry!
Feetak has given me a chest full of it but you were wearing
more just during that celebration than I have in my entire
chest.”

Yep, there it was. Proof it was good being
queen.

“Our Dax showers great bounty on his golden
queen,” Diandra announced.

“I can see!” Narinda exclaimed, her eyes
scanning my clothing and my jewelry which was again, I had to
admit, a pretty spectacular show then she reached out and grabbed
my hand. “But I’m sorry you were ill, Circe. I’m glad you’re better
now.”

“Thanks, Narinda,” I said softly.

“The golden queen,” Narinda replied just as
softly.

“That’s what they say,” I returned
noncommittally.

She smiled a smile I remembered in a way I
knew I would remember it until my dying day. It was small, it was
weird, it was attached to not-so-good memories but it still was a
treasure.

“It was awful,” she whispered her
understatement. “But maybe we didn’t do all that badly.”

I recited words that I would also remember
until my dying day but I had forgotten until just then,
“
What has been has been
but what will be is what
we
make
of it.”

Her eyes got moist and she squeezed my hand,
I squeezed hers back at the same time I felt something settle in my
heart.

What will be was what
I
made of it.

I needed to remember that.

There was a sudden commotion outside, all of
our heads swung to the cham flaps and when it penetrated the noises
sounded urgent, we all jumped up as one and ran out of the
tent.

People were running towards a cham a few
down and there were shouts.

“What’s going on?” I asked Diandra who I
could see was listening to the shouts.

“A child in distress,” she answered, we
three looked at each other then we all rushed to the cham. Once to
the outside of the group surrounding it, people started noticing me
and stepping back, clearing a path for their queen. I pulled my
girls forward and when we got to the cham, just outside, there was
a child, maybe two or three, his face purple and he was clearly not
breathing. His mother was shaking him, fear saturating her
face.

“My God,” I whispered at witnessing her
distress then I noticed a large slab of dried meat on the ground.
“Shit, that child is choking!” I cried, not thinking, and dashed
forward.

It took some effort but I pulled the boy out
of his mother’s arms, there were cries and shouts at my actions and
she clawed at me to get him back but I ignored her, turned his back
to my front and did the Heimlich maneuver that I’d learned during
the health and safety class I made all my father’s movers take. It
took four cautious (considering his age and size) heaves but the
meat finally flew out of his mouth and he instantly choked in
air.

When he was sucking back his next mighty
gulp, I turned him into his mother’s arms and his arms feebly went
around her neck. She collapsed on her ass, shoved her face in his
little neck and burst into tears.

Shoo. Well, thank God for that health and
safety class. It was finally worth all the bitching the boys
treated me to for making them take it.

I smiled down at mother and child, touching
his hair then touching hers then I turned to see a sea of faces all
watching me silently.

Oh man.

All eyes remained on me and not a sound was
made.

Damn,
now
what did I do?

Then someone suddenly shouted,
“
Kah rahna
Dahksahna hahla!
”

“
Kah rahna Dahksahna
hahla!
” another shout
rent the air.

Then another. And another. Then a chant.
Then they started the clapping.

Jeez. It was just the Heimlich maneuver.

I looked at Diandra who was beaming ear to
ear and Narinda who was looking at me funny but still smiling huge.
Then I rolled my eyes at Diandra which made her break out into
laughter.

Then I turned to the crowd and lifted my
hands and pressed palms down to get them to stop chanting. It took
a couple of palm presses but I was their queen, my husband could
kick anyone’s ass so they shut up pretty quickly.