“Wouldn’t you need Council’s support for that?”
“Not if I issue a proclamation that it’s a reward for the help of a slave, given freely to the Zeninan Empire under exceptional circumstances and the Crown funds the building.”
“It’s a step in the right direction Charles, I doubt you’ll get a better deal,” advised Marina.
“There’s one more thing I want,” said Charles. “If I win I want Marina’s promise I’ll have her to myself for a whole day, no interruptions, no work, no other men, no waifs and strays; just the two of us alone.”
“I’ll promise that.”
“I want it in writing and her majesty’s promise.”
“Done,” said Kerina.
“I can understand negotiating for a Parliament but to seek time with one’s own mistress seems pretty funny to me. Are you sure he’s good enough to win?” laughed Kabaneev.
“I’m glad I can amuse you, your royal highness,” Charles commented sarcastically bowing ironically.
“Don’t take it so badly Charles. If they give you the Parliament, you’ll have done more for Zeninan slaves than any slave for centuries. I’d never have had the nerve to negotiate like that. Perhaps my daughter’s taste isn’t that bad after all; at least you use your brains.”
“Thank you but to get the Parliament, I have to win. Is there any chance of observing the opposition in action?”
“Klivina is going to invite him to a party tonight.”
“Fine, I can watch and get his measure. Where does the girl stay?”
“At the Green Lizard Hotel, but she doesn’t go out much.”
“I’ll get to see her.”
“You’ll need to see her in action, looking at her isn’t enough,” said Kerina.
“I thought with my Mistress’ permission, I’d try her for size.”
“Granted!” laughed Marina. Waves of laughter rang out around the room. Then Queen Kerina led the party out to see the last leg of the four by four kilometres relay. Chilka was in the lead but Serengia caught her; this time her mother had to settle for third place. After the queen handed out the florettes, Marina congratulated Chilka.
“We’d have won if you’d been running.”
“It is not the winning but the spirit in which you compete that counts. Do you come to Klivina’s party tonight?” asked Marina.
“I haven’t been invited!”
“I’m inviting.”
“Does Baraneev come too?”
“Yes and Riyal.”
“But not Charles?”
“Only to spectate.”
“Yes, I’ll go, after all I’m not entered for the Gymnastics. Thank you for the invitation. What time will it start?”
“Midnight.”
Chapter Forty-Eight - Rights of Treaty
Marina went home and did not return to watch the Rough Riding which Klivina won, making it easy to justify an impromptu party to celebrate. When Marina got home, she had a leisurely bath, but could not relax. She could hear Neman calling her through the water. She got out and knelt and prayed for guidance. She did not expect any answer. She was at most Christian by default. No clear answer came to her but she felt more peaceful inside. She picked up Neman’s gift and put it on. She could hear his voice louder despite the mental proofing of her room. She dressed leaving the house through a back door walking to where the river had been partially diverted to make a small stream and artificial waterfall.
She reached the waterfall, knowing what she would find there. She would not deign to consider Neman as human; he remained to her, it. Neman sat in the spray of the fall, waiting for her.
“I’ve come for you,” he said. “I’m pleased you wear my gift.”
“The cattle for slaughter are always marked. I am not yet queen. You have no right to demand me until after my coronation.”
“I crowned you myself. From that day forth to the sea-people you are Queen of Zenina. I insist you honour the treaty.”
“I will do so; I’ll not hinder you in any way. I will return to my bedroom and undress to await your pleasure. However I do so under duress. I won’t fight you but I’ll not enjoy you. You may have my body but you’ll get little joy from it.”
“You know I cannot breathe for long out of water. It is a long way to your house and you sleep upstairs. It may kill me to reach it.”
“Then the sea-people will need a new Crown Prince. None of us is indispensable. Die or accept defeat. I’ll stay out of your reach while you’re in water.”
“It is ordained it should be so, you cannot alter what will be. The consequences of our not coming together before your mother dies will be catastrophic. This must be.”
“Then you will make it so. I’ve not refused you, nor placed obstacles in your way, but if it must be so, it will be on my terms. If you can’t reach my bedroom alone, perhaps history can be moulded by me. I will run a fresh bath for you.”
Marina walked away from Neman but his mind called after her.
“I cannot walk unaided.”
“Then crawl, like the mudfish you are!” This time she shouted it mentally as well as aloud.
She did not look back, but walked fast to the house. The door she left wide, walking back up the stairs. Marina ran a bath of cold water and added sea salt. She undressed and unbound her hair, as she waited she sharpened her knife. It was a nervous habit, nothing more. She thought he would not risk being so far from water, but at last she heard him dragging himself up the stairs.
He is so slow, have I really killed him? No, he still comes on.
His face was blackened and his skin torn but she felt no pity. Who can feel pity for a fish? He flung himself into the now nearly full bath of cool salt water, immersing himself totally.
After some minutes he emerged from the water once more. Marina stepped towards the bath, her knife and a bowl in her hand. With the knife she opened the veins of her left wrist and holding the bowl underneath offered it to Neman. He drank deep of her blood and she walked to her bed. She lay down and waited. Neman was not long reaching it. Now he had her blood in him, he could breathe for a while. It would be a few hours before he would need more. He pulled himself up to the bed, still soaking from the chill water and threw off the furs. He touched her body and she shuddered.
“Just take what you want and go,” she said angrily.
“Don’t you want me to loosen you up first?” he asked.
“I’m no shrinking virgin. Do your worst.”
“Spread your legs wider.”
She looked down at him naked for the first time and could not believe what he expected of her.
“It’s not possible. I’m not wide enough,” She said curling away from him.
“I think you will be,” he chuckled although no sound was emitted, “If you relax. Zeninan women are remarkably elastic. You promised to co-operate, open your legs.”
She did as she was bid, but she was no longer calm about it and as he climbed aboard her, terror shone in her eyes. His mind pushed into hers before he entered her body and her mind resisted him, putting up blocks which he bludgeoned down.
“Must you rape my mind, as well as my body?” she asked.
“I will take all of you. I will know your deepest thought and dive into your greatest depth. You must not resist me; take down the blocks.”
Reluctantly she did as she was ordered and he studied her mind, but at the same time he let her know his without limitation. Only then did he gently thrust himself between her legs, pulling her open to make his entry possible. Even so, she cried out in pain as he pushed into her.
His mind comforted her and told her “Relax your muscles and don’t fight me. I’m not yet fully in, swallow me up.”
She thought she could not bear the pain; that nothing could be worse and she wished for a swift termination.
Neman was in no hurry and shortly after her body relaxed a little, submitting to his domination. Still he did not finish and she could feel her own body betraying her
mind’s determination to remain detached from its actions.
Realistically her mind told her that Neman was exceptionally skilful. He would not let her hold back and how could she? He could read every thought she had. He had permitted her no shred of privacy. He knew her fully. He was laughing at her feeble attempts to remain unmoved by his attentions. She would have to give in, she wanted to give in, and she could not stop herself. The sighs that broke from her were hard won, but now she knew why her father hated Neman.
To be best on land must seem an insult when once a year your wife makes love with the best in the universe. Marina had never had a better lover and thought she never would. This was Neman’s greatest power; how he made sure Zeninan Queens kept the treaty. Such a lover would be addictive; such a man would spoil all other men for a woman by unfair comparison. Marina would not love Neman; she could not fool herself into believing she did. She might hate him a little, but nothing would stop her wanting him.
“Will you take Plavina too?”
“Of course I will, but not until after her coronation. She will not be queen long but at least she’ll die happy.”
Marina was jealous of Plavina, of Kerina, of Folada, of all the other women who had enjoyed Neman’s lovemaking. She wanted him never to stop, to lock him up and keep him for herself alone, she knew it was not possible but whilst he was with her, she wanted it. Once a year would not be enough but perhaps it might make being queen more bearable. He laughed at her again.
“You promised me not to enjoy it, I thought you’d hold out longer,” he teased. “There’s no rule that says the Crown Prince can’t visit more often if you wish it. Or you could come to me. The invitation is always open, come and stay beneath the waters in my Pearl palace. My wife will welcome you.”
She was appalled she was taking another woman’s man. She had not even asked permission but Neman explained she had misunderstood him. His chief wife would welcome her.
“I have many wives. I belong to no one woman. I get old Marina, but my sons are young and lusty. When I am no longer able to come to you, I will send my son. You’ve met young Nadan, they say he is already better than me, but then he has much land blood. He wouldn’t need to crawl up your stairs. Will you carry me back to the waterfall or will you really keep me prisoner in your bath?”
“Don’t tempt me Neman. If you don’t come soon I’ll have a heart attack and die beneath you.”
“I’ve only just started, we’ve got until midnight when you go and pick up Baraneev. I doubt he’ll find you easy to satisfy tonight, but wasn’t that your plan?”
“I’ll need some sleep. I’ve Gymnastics all day tomorrow and then,” but she could not say what would happen.
She pushed the thought to the dustiest corner of her mind and tried to pretend to herself it was not there. Neman made no comment but continued to bind her to him. The dual realms of Zenina were one together personified in their flesh. The union might be transitory and partial but it was very satisfying. If the women of Zenina realised what they were missing, they would not think Marina their heroine but their enemy for she was withholding the knowledge of Neman’s prowess from them.
It was simpler to think of the sea-men as cold fish; or not to dream of the sea-men at all. For Marina knew Neman would fill her dreams and that she would wake with an ache knowing he did not sleep beside her.
Chapter Forty-Nine - Eve of Destruction
Charles checked on the Zigan girl. It was easy to see her; she was seated in the bar with Baraneev. He looked bored and Charles understood why. The Zigan girl was prattling on and Baraneev could hardly get a word in. He was nursing a glass of one of those fake beers that look like the real thing but taste like boiled sawdust. From a distance she looked tasty, but closer up, Charles decided the hair was bleached blonde and the fresh innocent face wore a heavy coat of paint. 25, he guessed, trying to look sweet sixteen, going on forty.
He returned home, bathed and dressed. It seemed strange to wear so many clothes. First he donned underwear and a silk shirt which he left unbuttoned at the neck. He put on a beautifully tailored Zigan man’s suit in a dull textured silver silk, socks and reptile skin shoes with silver buckles. He sleeked his hair back and arranged it into the rumpled curled style fashionable that year in Ziga. The men’s perfume he put on was expensive but he did not like it. Marina would not either, the only smell she liked on men was fresh sweat generated in her pleasure. Charles removed Marina’s badge and placed a piece of artificial skin over the slave mark on his breast bone. He coloured his skin a deep tan matching the artificial skin.
He put on a heavy gold ring, slid business cards and plastic money into the pockets of the suit. Then he removed a large bundle of notes from their hiding place, peeled a thick fold off, and tucked it into an ornate gold clip and into his inside pocket. The rest of the bundle he returned to its hiding place where there were many similar bundles.
***
Queen Kerina sat upright whilst her servant brushed her floor length hair. Tiring of the fuss, she dismissed her women and was alone.
“It’s my last night alive. How should I spend it? I don’t feel like sleep. My will is written, my funeral planned. Father O’Flaherty has heard my confession. What is there left to do but wait? I could order up some pretty lads to pass the night, but have no enthusiasm even for fresh young bodies. I don’t want to be alone, I could summon a friend to talk but all there was to say has been said. My doom is close and all those near to me feel it. I don’t want to inflict my tension on my friends. There was a time when I shared things with Kabaneev, but circumstances drove us apart. There were faults on my side too, but now is not the time for regrets. What can I change in one night and day? I thought myself lucky to have three beautiful Golden children. They are not the consolation to me they should be.”
Divak, her son whom she had hoped so much for, had run from Hemithea at her final hour like a rat fleeing a sinking ship. Plavina was all right but she was closer to her sister than to her mother and she was too weak. Marina was more than she hoped for in a Princess, yet so cold a daughter. Kerina wished she could go to her and tell her how much she loved her, how she felt for her in her struggle to accept her destiny.
“The time for conciliation between us has passed. Marina is with Neman and will pass the night at Klivina’s party. Marina plays the part written for her. She’ll be an extraordinary queen. Well that is one consolation at least.”
So Kerina sat down again and wrote a letter to her daughter Marina. She handed it to her lawyer with instructions it was to be kept until the day of Marina’s coronation. She tried to pray to her new found God, but it seemed forced and she finished by telling the ultimate being if he did not know what she was feeling he could not be much use anyway. There was a knock at her door and Kabaneev entered, dressed in an indigo silk dressing gown and shut the door behind him.
“Excuse me, your majesty but I wondered if you might like my company. I don’t like to think of you alone on this long night.”
“It’s been a long time since you came to my rooms Kabaneev, I appreciate the gesture but I don’t need your pity.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone, Kerina. Often during the years I’ve wished for your death to free me from our marriage. I haven’t been a good husband. I even turned your daughter against you and was joyful as she hardened her heart against you. I seek your forgiveness, Kerina.”
“You have it and my blessing, Kabaneev. Your faults and my failings, events and personalities all conspired to destroy the love we had. Feel no remorse, have no regrets we could not keep our love alive and hold on to what we believed in. The conflict between us was too strong for us to remain in love.”
“Does no spark of love remain? Is nothing left to let our union end in peace? I’d turn back the pages of time to when our love was fierce if I had the power. To have those few years again, after you carried me off from Ziga. To go back to that time when my anger and rebellion had cooled and I was on fire with passi
on for you, before I tried to interfere with that for which I was not intended. I could never accept you were queen and I wasn’t king but only consort. I was first among slaves, but a slave only. You had no choice, but to turn from my counsel, for I’d have ruled you. I forgot my duty to support you and intrigued against you. I’ll miss you, but part of me rebels against your death. We had so few happy times together. I know I’ll never love a woman as I loved you, like I love you still.”
“It took a great effort to say that Kabaneev. I suppose I should fall into your arms and we’ll spend our last night married gazing into each other’s eyes, trying to recapture our youth. I’ve seen my death so many times I can’t react naturally. Every word I say, every thought I have, I’m wondering if this is how it’s supposed to be. I feel drained of all emotion and yet afraid I’ll break down. I can at least have dignity in my end. I never stopped loving you Kabaneev, I’ve been too proud to tell you. I’ve missed your company; I’ve missed your rages. At least they were better than these years of public ceremony and private indifference. Yes, stay with me at least we can end our marriage in some semblance of harmony.”
Kabaneev went back to the door and locked it.
“You’re not serious, Kabaneev?”
“How else will we spend the time, we’ve talked more this evening than we’ve done in most of our married life. We never really had much time to talk...”
Kabaneev never finished the sentence because he pulled her to him and was kissing her hungrily. Perhaps Kerina would have pushed him away and fled his arms but he started to shimmer, not gently but furiously. Even a queen could not resist Kabaneev like that. Deep down a queen did not want to.
***
Zadina put the finishing touches to the bouquet. She would not leave this to an underling. She had endured the slights too long. Kerina had everything. She had been stronger, faster, and prettier. She became Queen, she got Kabaneev. She bore living children. Where were Zadina’s babies? Every one died unborn. Vellina could find no cause yet each child she conceived shrivelled at a few weeks old and fled her body. Still, she Zadina would be queen and she would have it all, the crown, Zenina and Kabaneev.
Heroine of Zenina Page 23