Fantasyland 02 The Golden Dynasty (48 page)

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.