Tales of the Queendom of Maadre

by Barbara G. Tarn

  "You can't," Jessamine said. "Enjoy Carino's company and leave Notturno to me."

  ***

  Jessamine and Notturno were exercising under the sun with both sword and shield. The princess had a real sword, but the slave's weapon was made of wood. Still, he was taller and stronger, and every attack on him failed.

  "You're out of breath, princess, maybe I should allow you more time to warm up," he teased as they paused to drink.

  "You mean 'tire you uselessly'?" Jessamine’s cheeks were red not only from the heat and exertion. "Don't you understand you’re the reason for my being breathless?"

  She gulped down some water under his black-eyed stare.

  "I know it was you during the Rite," she continued. "Don’t deny it. I came looking for you."

  He quickly recovered from his surprise and smiled, lowering his eyes.

  "I should have known there was something behind this," he said.

  "I want you and only you," she said.

  "Did you try other men?" he asked.

  "I have no intention whatsoever." She caressed his face, then put her arms around his neck, rising on the tip of her toes to reach his mouth.

  "Now you don’t have the mask," she whispered leaning against him. "Show me what you can do with your mouth."

  He gulped, unsure, then held her tight, kissing her deeply and passionately.

  Jessamine was startled by his tongue, but soon abandoned herself to those new, exhilarating feelings, kissing him back with all the passion she had inside her.

  ***

  "What about this one? It looks more recent..." Jessamine followed with her finger the long scar on Notturno's belly. They were both in bed, naked, and after he had made love to her, she had started to study his scars, asking him when he had received them.

  He nodded at her question, lost in thoughts.

  "It was the last day in the Arena," he explained. "I almost died. The Queen called her personal healer to take care of me. Then she took me to her Apartment."

  "Did she use you?" Jessamine frowned at the thought, but she hadn't ever seen him next to her mother.

  "No," he answered, amused. "She thought I deserved a quiet retirement after ten years, and her Apartment was the quietest place she could think of."

  "Did you miss women?" she insisted.

  "Which women? The ones who came into our cells during the days off? I'm a slave, Jessamine, I have no rights and nobody cares about what I want," he said patiently.

  "I do..." she whispered, eyes low. "Why are you a slave?" She continued her query.

  "I come from a faraway land," he answered. "I had a family, but we shipwrecked on your shores. Almost everybody died and the survivors were sold as slaves. I was well built and was sent to the Arena for training."

  "You're very good." She stared at him, awed by his strength in both body and heart. Maybe the Goddess was wrong when she said men were lesser creatures.

  "I started young," he smiled. "I had my first official fight at thirteen. I had sworn to survive, and here I am."

  "You're so cold and efficient when fighting!" she sighed, wishing she could be like him.

  "I fight with my head, not my heart," he said. "Every move, every movement is under control. I don't allow emotions to drive me."

  "I hope you'll help me to do the same."

  "I can teach you the moves and make you repeat them until they come natural to you. But nobody will ask you to fight in person."

  "If a war breaks out, I'll be on the battlefield like my great-grand-mother."

  "Why should a war break out? I believe the Kadenites learned their lesson at the time of Queen Shawanna!"

  "I don't know." She shrugged. "Notturno, would you like to go back to your home country?"

  She looked him in the eyes, serious. She'd hate to lose him, but if he really wanted it...

  "I don't even remember its name," he chuckled. "I grew up here. And I'm done with my Gladiator career." He pulled her closer and caressed her. "As your Favorite, I reached the highest rank a man can hope for. Why should I go back to a place I don't even remember?"

  "You know you're not only my Favorite," she said, caressing his face and feeling warm inside. "I love you."

  "You will be the Amazons queen," he said tenderly. "You can have all the men you wish for."

  "But I want only you," she whispered, nestling herself against him. It felt so good, he was so sweet...

  "Thank you, my lady," he said, holding her tighter. "I knew I was doing the right thing when I volunteered for your Rite."

  She pulled back, surprised.

  "You... volunteered?" She blushed, certain she had misunderstood. But he nodded with a smile.

  "The queen called us and told us she needed someone. I immediately stepped forward," he said.

  "Why?" she wondered.

  "I thought I owed her, as she had saved me. It was something new for me as well. And you were so beautiful..."

  He pulled her close again, and kissed her passionately. Jessamine curled up against him one more time, still incredulous that she had found a man who met all her needs. The pleasure of the first time had been just a taste of more to come.

  Every time was different, new, a discovery of passion in all its forms. She had never enough of him. But she was also learning to control her feelings during training, while she learned weaponry. She had an archery teacher and a horse-riding teacher, but her favorite lessons were with Notturno, mostly because afterward they bathed together, had dinner and made love until they fell asleep in each other's arms.

  Jessamine was in love and hoped all her subjects were in her same, blissful state of mind.

  ***

  Ileana observed Jessamine's chosen with curiosity. He didn't look that old, after all. He had nice muscles, and would be an excellent bodyguard. And he looked so quiet, wise yet sweet and... yes, such an expert he made Carino and the others look like overgrown boys. And he wasn't even a Public Man. How a Gladiator could look so charming was beyond Ileana's understanding, but she attributed it to his being born in a foreign land, albeit educated in the Queendom of Maadre. He had a natural class coming from his ancestors that made him different from the men she had met so far.

  "You've been smarter than me, Jess," she sighed as they relaxed under a tree in a sunny summer day. Their mates were preparing the picnic lunch under their eyes, too far to hear them talking. Blond Carino and dark haired Notturno seemed to get along well in spite of their different upbringing. "I guess I'll have your brother's daughter."

  "You can always look for somebody else for the next one," Jessamine smiled, toying with a bunch of wild flowers and trying to make a crown with them. "Although Carino loves you."

  "We grew up together," Ileana mused. "It was so natural for me to surrender to him!"

  "And you did the right thing. It's not your fault if you don't have a brother I could turn to. Do you already know when you'll give birth?"

  "Five months, I think."

  "Mmm." Jessamine looked dreamy for a moment. "Missed my period. Guess I'll follow you fast enough!"

  Ileana giggled and hugged her friend.

  "Pregnant already? That Notturno is a real wonder! You should lend him to me!"

  It was a common game among the Amazons, especially the Aristocrats who could afford Apartments. Ileana had tried her friends' men and traded Carino for a night or two.

  But Jessamine surprised her again. Not only hadn't she accepted other girls offers, now she didn't want to share her slave. That was unheard of, but Ileana knew better than to contradict the princess.

  Maybe she should stop lending Carino as well, following Jessamine's example. Although her feelings for him looked like a crush compared to Jessamine's love and passion for Notturno...

  Ileana decided that she was not the princess and didn't have to do everything like Jessamine. But she'd keep an eye on her friend and her lover to see what could happen to that unique relationship.

  ***

  At fift
een Ileana gave birth to a boy and called him Primo. A few months later Jessamine did the same and called him Prince. Motherhood at the same time bonded them even more and Ileana started considering keeping Carino for life.

  "You should," Jessamine winked when she told her. "Isn't he marvelous?"

  Ileana smiled and left with her baby, leaving Jessamine, still bed-ridden, alone with Notturno.

  "I am surprised," Notturno told Jessamine as she breast-fed the baby. "I thought I'd be dismissed, at least as a lover, after I performed my duty."

  "Why should I dismiss you?" she smiled, staring at him with adoring eyes. "You're everything I need, I don't see why I should look somewhere else."

  "I'm eleven years your elder and you can have much younger and better-looking men in your bed," he said.

  "But would they be as good as you?"

  "I wasn't that good, it's a boy!"

  "My mother gave my father a second chance. Thus I was born. Therefore you will have a second chance too, and a third, a fourth..."

  "Enough," he chuckled. "I don't deserve all this."

  "You deserve this and more," she said. Prince was falling asleep in her arms. "Put him in the cradle," she passed the baby to him. "And come here."

  He obeyed, tucked the baby in its bed and went back to embrace her with passion.

  ***

  Jessamine was twenty when her mother died. Prince hadn't survived his first year, but had been followed by Joelia, now three, then Desiderio, eleven months, all of them Notturno's children. She still loved him like the first day and had moved him to her (empty) Apartment - which saved his life. Being the Favorite of the new queen meant he didn't have to die with the late queen.

  Tradition dictated that the men in the Queen's Apartment join her in death. Therefore they had to be sacrificed on the Goddess altar and buried with the queen. At the time of her death, Queen Tabitha had still fifteen men in her Apartment, including Raggio.

  Jessamine's father didn't plead for his life, he simply ran away. In the open, men had to wear the Modesty Cloth, so it was easy to disappear once out of the palace.

  Heartbroken for her own father's disobedience, Jessamine ordered a search over all of Maadre, but couldn't postpone her mother's burial: summer had exploded and the heat didn't allow any waiting. Raggio's body would be added when found.

  Both Carino and Notturno stood next to her in the Temple of the Goddess, covered from head to toe with the Modesty Cloth, as the High Priestess performed the sacrifice of the other fourteen men. Half naked and dazed by drugs, they all died without a moan.

  The temple was full, as Tabitha had been a much loved queen. Jessamine observed the Modesty Clothes in the crowd and wondered. Where was her father hiding? How could she find him if he hid under that long sheet with only a small, laced opening for the eyes?

  Jessamine accompanied her mother's body to the Royal Tombs outside of Madre, still pondering what to do. Her first decision as a queen would be a tough one. She'd have to break tradition one way or another.

  "You must put your father to death," her younger sister Morwenna said. She was born from another man who had died years earlier of an unknown illness.

  "I can't find him," she frowned.

  "There's only one way," Ileana said. "Abolish the Modesty Cloth. He won't have anywhere to hide afterward."

  Jessamine looked at her friend, thoughtful, while Morwenna gasped.

  "The High Priestess would never allow it!" she protested.

  Slowly, Jessamine smiled.

  "We'll see," she said. She had never liked the Modesty Cloth that hindered movements. She thought men could be very good fighters, but only in the Arena were they allowed to show their prowess and bodies. They weren't admitted in the army, and still had to cover themselves whenever walking the streets of the Queendom of Maadre.

  She knew Ileana hated the Modesty Cloth as much as she did, even if Carino was always in the palace, therefore didn't have to wear it much, and she was grateful for the suggestion. She wasn't afraid of the High Priestess like Morwenna seemed to be.

  She went to the temple and met Theresa, who had been High Priestess for twenty years already. Barren like all the Priestesses, the woman had devoted herself to the service of the Goddess with all her heart from the very beginning. She knew traditions and customs, but was also aware that sometimes some things had to be discarded or adjusted in favor of something new.

  She listened to Jessamine's suggestion of abolishing the Modesty Cloth to find the runaway man, and slowly nodded, thinking before answering - after all, what the newly appointed queen suggested was to give up one tradition in order to fulfill another, it couldn't be all bad.

  "After the war with the Kadenites, Queen Shawanna and the High Priestess Melissa agreed to abolish the Fall human sacrifice," she said, thoughtful. "The Queendom of Maadre is aware now of most of the other lands, and all are ruled by men. I think it would show wisdom on our part to abolish the Modesty Cloth. We'd still prefer dealing with female ambassadors or traders and won't really open up to male-ruled countries, but we'd show that we can evolve and adjust to a new rule."

  "And we'll keep sacrificing the men of the Queen's Apartment anyway," Jessamine added.

  Theresa smiled.

  "You know the Black Emperor is buried with all his wives and concubines?" she said. "And they're buried alive... talk about barbarian customs! We don't have to give up all our traditions, but it's important to keep some. I don't think the Goddess will be displeased if we show off our men a little bit, though."

  Jessamine felt relieved. She sat with Theresa to write down the new law and both stared at the parchment with satisfaction. Scribes of both sexes were instructed to copy it and messengers were sent out with the new law.

  ***

  Soon the main square of Maadre had a crowd gathering to throw the Modesty Clothes in a big bonfire. Men and women's faces smiled, voices chanted the glory of the Goddess, and Jessamine watched from her balcony, waiting, wondering.

  Two days later Raggio was caught and brought to her.

  "I knew you'd be be greater than your mother," he said with a proud smile, not bothered by the chains that blocked him.

  "Why did you run away?" she asked, upset.

  "Because I wanted to see your glory," he replied. "Now I can join Tabitha and rest in peace."

  He went down on his knees, still smiling.

  "Do it, my queen," he said. "I'm ready."

  But she couldn't. It wasn't her duty anyway.

  She called Theresa. She saw the High Priestess's admiration for the man who had dared defying tradition just to see his daughter's first weeks of reign.

  That night she cried bitterly in Notturno's arms. How many of those tough decisions awaited her? Would her reign be prosperous like her mother's or would she know war like her great-grand-mother? At the moment she felt lost and weak and unfit to be queen.

  "You will be the most glorious queen who ever was," Notturno told her gently, stroking her blond hair and caressing her forehead with his moving lips.

  "Really?" her voice trembled, but he gave her strength with words and cuddles, and she fell asleep knowing everything would be all right.

  2. Keldar

  Jessamine rushed into Ileana's tent with a lump in her throat and her heart threatening to explode. Notturno lay on the stretcher, laboring to breathe with his chest wound bleeding. Ileana raised her head from the healing and looked at her friend with sorrow.

  Jessamine fell on her knees and grabbed Notturno's hand with both hers, squeezing it with her fingers. The parched lips tried to say something, then the labored breathing stopped. The black eyes remained closed for ever.

  "I'm sorry." Ileana averted her eyes. "I couldn't help him."

  Tears started running down Jessamine's cheeks and she sobbed on her beloved's body. Only nine years together and then this stupid war and even stupider death! Why did he have to go so early? Why did the Goddess call him when she had allowed her own daughter to reig
n for one hundred and fifty years?

  Jessamine would gladly give up some years of reign to grow old with Notturno. She would abdicate as soon as Joelia was old enough... but now that dream was shattered along with Notturno's life.

  Ileana got on her feet with a sigh and prepared a calming potion. She pulled up her friend and forced her to drink.

  Jessamine went from sobs to sleep, losing consciousness for a few blissful hours.

  When she woke up, Notturno's body was gone, and Ileana sat near her, chewing at her nails.

  "Jess... how do you feel?" the healer asked, worried.

  "Empty," she answered flatly. She was now twenty-three, but her life had lost all meanings. Three years of peaceful reign as a quiet Aristocrat, then she had to become a Warrior Woman because of an attempted invasion. She had kept Notturno by her side all along, and now she had lost him.

  "Jess..." Ileana pleaded, worried.

  She hardened. She was alive, she was queen, and the war wasn't over. It had barely begun. She would punish the man who had dared what the Kadenites had already failed at the time of her great-grand-mother. She'd show him the Goddess's descendant could outlive him for many years and defeat him like the Kaden king had been defeated.

  "He'll pay for this," she grunted, pulling herself up a little too fast. Her head spun and she had to steady herself. The man who had brought back war after three generations and caused Notturno's death would pay.

  "Jess, this war is ugly enough already," Ileana said. "You did well to allow men to join the army, don't do something stupid only to avenge Notturno."

  "With him everything was possible," Jessamine grumbled. Her ex-Gladiator lover had proved himself strong and courageous on the battlefield as much as the other (few) men who had chosen to join the army of the Goddess. They were a hundred next to thousands, and half had already fallen under the Kelvan attacks in the two months since the start of the hostilities.

  "We can win even without him," Ileana said. "We will send King Keldar back beyond the sea."

  "What reason did he have to attack us?" Jessamine frowned. She had never really talked to the attacker, meeting only his ambassadors and messengers. She knew he was king of a small country up north, but not much more.