by P J Berman
How am I going to get past them? Ezrina thought to herself, looking at the two guards at the tent’s entrance. As with each previous pair, there was one Divisioman and one Verusantian. In her haste, she hadn’t thought this far ahead and she didn’t have a story ready this time to explain her presence. It was then that she realised that Accutina hadn’t entered. Again she appeared to be considering returning to Jostan’s tent and trying again and this time she strutted back the way she came. Ezrina bowed subserviently as Accutina blustered past, barely appearing to notice her presence.
Thinking on her feet and taking a deep breath, Ezrina strode towards the empty tent, or at least she hoped it would be empty.
‘I’m the Dowager Queen’s new Lady’s maid,’ she said when the guards blocked her from entering. ‘The King selected me and sent me here to prepare her bed.’
Amazingly, the guards’ faces lightened and they removed their spears from her path, but she still endured another grope as they searched her before allowing her in. Once inside, she noticed that the tent was similar in layout to Jostan’s, save for the colour and size and like his, the bed was far from the entrance, behind a thin curtain. Looking around, she was frustrated to see that as before, there were no obvious weapons. She’d have to improvise. All she could do now was wait. Some indignant gabbling outside heralded Accutina’s return.
‘The new servant’s inside, your Highness,’ the guard reported.
‘What new servant? Another girl he wants close by just in case he feels the urge?’
She didn’t wait for an answer and strode inside. Ezrina turned and bowed, trying to look like she’d been busy, while Accutina appraised her with a steely-eyed look.
‘Be careful,’ Accutina said. ‘The next time the King gives you an order, it’ll probably be to mount him or to let him mount you. Now, get on and help me undress.’
I hope I haven’t been gone too long, Ezrina thought as she stood behind Accutina and stripped off the young woman’s clothes. She’d hoped to have done this quickly, but Jezna had been left alone for some minutes now. Within a few moments, Accutina stood only in her undergarment, a thin, white, knee-length chemise, which Ezrina slipped over the girl’s shoulders and down to the floor, fully revealing her soft, curvaceous body. She was pretty, Ezrina decided. What a shame.
Once naked, Accutina raised her arms, waiting for them to be put through the sleeves of her negligee. Behind her, Ezrina raised the garment, then set it aside on a table a few feet away. She might well need that later. She took a moment to look at Accutina’s bare body, wondering how this woman could be at this very moment carrying a baby. She had no idea how far along she was, but still, she was tiny. Either way, that baby could not be allowed to live. Inwardly she laughed at the girl’s stupidity for leaving herself so vulnerable.
Quickly she sprang forward and grabbed Accutina by the neck, using her fingers and thumbs to block her victim’s windpipe. Accutina didn’t have enough air to scream and as Ezrina spun her around and they fell upon the bed; all sound of the attack was mercifully muffled. Ezrina leapt on top of the stunned Accutina, sitting on her chest, still maintaining her grip on Accutina’s neck with one hand while using the other hand to cover her mouth as the girl grappled to push her away.
‘Stop struggling and I will let you breathe,’ Ezrina whispered forcefully. Accutina ignored her and carried on fighting; her screams still stifled by Ezrina’s hand.
‘If you scream I will be forced to kill you. You have to be quiet if you want to live. Can you do that?’
Accutina stilled her arms, paused, then nodded and obeyed, so Ezrina loosened her grip enough for her to breathe, though she still sat astride the girl as Accutina gasped for air. She took hold of Accutina’s arms and moved each so that they were pinned down by Ezrina’s legs.
‘Good.’ Ezrina surveyed her victim menacingly, savouring the moment. She smiled as she looked upon Accutina’s small breasts. ‘You may be a royal, but your tits aren’t as good as mine! Still, one can’t be choosey,’
‘Tell me what you want!’ Accutina asked defiantly.
‘Hmm...what could I want?’ Ezrina pondered, with a look of deadly seduction in her eye. She leaned down and brushed the hair away from Accutina’s face, breathing in her scent, before lightly tracing her hand down the girl’s cheek; her fingers gliding down over her neck, caressing over her shoulder and down to her left breast, grasping the warm mound of flesh in her palm, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply; all designed to further unsettle her victim.
Suddenly she opened her eyes again and looked back down at Accutina, all erotic pleasure now gone from her face, leaving just the dominance.
‘Where is the Amulet of Hazgorata?’ she demanded.
‘It’s been stolen.’
Ezrina clasped the Dowager Queen’s neck again, cutting off Accutina’s supply of air for a second time. ‘Don’t lie. I know you have it. Bennvikan Queens never go anywhere without it. You know what I think? You weren’t content with the subjugation Bennvika has wreaked upon my people for years. You had to destroy us completely. You’d accuse innocent Hentani towns and villages of being centres of malcontent and rebellion. You and your King thought you could come south and claim to your troops that you’d found the Amulet in our hands. You’d pin the theft on us and command them to reap terrible revenge on our people, while simultaneously giving yourselves holy protection against us and against anyone who said that your bloodthirsty tactics against us were unjustified. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand and anticipate basic propaganda like that. But then this little rebellion flared up here and delayed your campaign against us. Am I right?’
Accutina gasped for air again as the hand was removed.
‘And what would you do with it? You’re just a barbarian,’ she hissed once she’d got her breath back.
Ezrina smiled thinly, then leaned down so that her lips almost touched Accutina’s.
‘A barbarian with the power over your life and death,’ Ezrina sneered.
She clamped down on the girl’s neck again, this time with both hands. Accutina pulled her arms out from under Ezrina’s legs and grappled at her arms and hands in an effort to remove the pressure, but only when she became desperate did Ezrina loosen her grip.
‘Alright, alright,’ Accutina gasped.
‘Good. Is it in here?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then get up and show me. Quiet now. If you alert the guards I’ll gouge out your eyes.’
Ezrina allowed Accutina to stand, but took hold of her wrists so that she couldn’t escape. They moved over to a drawer.
‘In there. Top drawer,’ Accutina stated, jerking her head. Keeping a strong grip on Accutina’s neck with one hand, Ezrina reached for the drawer with the other and opened it. Out of the drawer Ezrina pulled a small but heavy, shining gold pendant and chain. Depicted on the pendant were two figures; a man and a woman, both surrounded by flame, clutching their swords. These were not Vitrinnolf and Lomatteva as the Bennvikans said, but the Daughter of Ashes and her warrior accomplice. They were destined to one day deliver the Hentani from oppression.
Far from the Hentani stealing it from the Bennvikans as Jostan and Accutina had clearly hoped to lead their subjects to believe, the truth was that this holiest of pendants was of Hentani origin, stolen from them two millennia ago when the Hentani had been evicted from their homes in Hazgorata, centuries prior to its unification with the powerful city-state of Kriganheim and the birth of Bennvika.
The Amulet was hollow, and it featured a tiny screw-on lid at the top.
With her spare hand, Ezrina held the Amulet and turned it around. Yes, this was it. On the back it featured those immortal words, ‘Mother of many, Mother of none, a Queen will fall and a Warrior will come.’
‘They may say it protects both the wearer and their country from any threat,’ said Accutina scornfully. ‘But rest assured it will do nothing for you. Given that all your warriors are here, once we’ve taken the city
there will be no one to stand in our way when we march on your villages and burn them to the ground!’
That was all it took. Ezrina let the Amulet drop to the floor and wrenched the girl towards her, digging her fingers into her neck and again burying her thumbs into her windpipe. Accutina was trying to remove Ezrina’s fists, but she wasn’t strong enough; her slender hands gaining no purchase on her attacker’s muscular arms. Almost laughing at her feeble opponent, Ezrina could see her trying to scream, but with no sound coming out. It felt wonderful to have this much power over a high-born noble, even as she transferred back to using just a single hand.
With the other, she picked up a heavy, metal candlestick holder, blew out the three candles and started moving Accutina back in the direction of the bed, back out of earshot of the guards outside.
‘On you go. Keep moving. Quiet now. Good girl.’
All the while Accutina was still struggling to breathe and to remove the hand, even though she was otherwise doing as she was told. Her face had already gone red and was now starting to go a little blue. Once at the bed, Ezrina hooked her foot around Accutina’s ankle and sent the girl toppling backwards while pushing down with her arm and leaping on top of her, raising the candlestick holder above her head.
She smashed it down hard on Accutina’s skull and blood poured out of a gaping gash. She brought it up again and rained down blows on Accutina’s head with all the force she could muster, with the pillows and bedclothes going a long way to muffling the sound. Again and again she hit her with it until finally she ran out of energy and she stopped, breathless, as she looked into Accutina’s dull, lifeless eyes staring out from under the blood and pulp oozing from her smashed skull.
Once she’d composed herself, dripping with blood, Ezrina got up and quietly padded over to where she’d dropped the Amulet. She knew she couldn’t wear it, as her cleavage was low enough for at least part of it to be completely visible if it were hung around her neck. However, it was on quite a long chain and this gave her an idea. Putting her foot through the loop, she pulled it up her leg, over her knee and as far up her thigh as it would go, hoping that the tight fit would be enough to hold it in place, at least temporarily.
The blood was a more immediate problem, but one that Ezrina hoped she’d also found an answer to. Taking off her dress, she wiped herself all over with the parts that had not already been soaked with red, removing the blood that covered her body as best she could. Once done, she slipped into Accutina’s clean white negligee, which she was amazed and relieved to see had been far enough away to be unaffected. Surely nobody would notice the difference?
Then, just as she had done in Jostan’s tent, she moved to the back and pulled out two pegs. Before leaving, she took one final look at Accutina’s bloodied corpse. She’d have to act quickly. It was only a matter of time before the body would be found. Once outside, she headed straight back to the first tent to find Jezna.
She knew there was no way she could use the front entrance again. The guards would discover the Amulet on her and anyway, they might remember that they hadn’t seen her leave and grow suspicious. Keeping to the shadows, she moved round to the back. Her heart pounded as she looked for any sign of movement inside, but there was nothing she could make out clearly enough. There was no sound coming from within though, so she guessed that must be a good thing.
Finally, she found the section where there were two pegs missing from when she’d crawled out earlier. Hadn’t Jezna thought to replace them? Ezrina prayed to Bertakaevey that it hadn’t been noticed. Checking to make sure nobody was watching, she squirmed under the flap and back inside.
‘What took you so long?’ Ezrina’s heart lifted at the sound of Jezna’s voice and then doubly so when she looked up to see that nothing had changed since she had left. They were alone.
‘I told you what I was doing,’ she said, trying to make light of the situation, while replacing the pegs, then moving to sit next to her on the bed. ‘Look what I’ve got.’
She removed the Amulet from around her leg and presented it to Jezna, who gasped at its beauty.
‘Is that…? But how?’
‘I’ll tell you later. For now, I’m going to hide it under the bed. We don’t want anyone finding it, do we?’ Ezrina said as she did so.
‘No. Oh Ezrina, I was so worried waiting for you to come back. I’m just glad you’re ok.’
The girls wrapped their arms around each other and hugged tightly in comfort.
‘I love you.’
‘I love you too,’ said Ezrina, kissing Jezna hard on the mouth.
Ezrina pulled back a little, looking deep into Jezna’s eyes, before hugging her again.
‘Touching.’
Both looked up with a start as a male voice broke into their private moment. A tall, handsome man who could only be King Jostan had entered the tent. He strode forward and opened the curtain.
‘We have heard it said that there is no friendship more intimate than that which is held between two women. But, alas, we must come between you tonight, but we’re sure that will be no hardship.’
With a heavy heart, Ezrina moved away from Jezna and made a show of greeting Jostan with an enthusiastic smile, while patting the bed seductively and watching his eyes drinking in their exotic beauty.
‘Come and join us, your Majesty,’ Jezna said.
He sat down between them and immediately Jezna undid the clasp on his cape and began unfastening the buttons of his tunic. Once Jostan was naked to the waist, Jezna grabbed his face and kissed him aggressively. Taking this as her cue, Ezrina slipped away from the bed and quietly bent down to pull out a steel tent peg, which was more of a sharp nail in truth.
Taking the weapon in her hand, feeling a tension quite unlike anything she’d felt before with Accutina, Ezrina moved in behind Jostan.
‘Your Majesty! Urgent news!’ A Divisioman raced into the tent, breathless. ‘It’s-oh Gods!’ He’d spotted the raised weapon in Ezrina’s hand.
‘What? Argh!’
Seizing her chance, Ezrina stabbed the sharp, thick bladed nail as deep as she could into the back of Jostan’s shoulder and he reeled in pain. She’d aimed for the back of his neck but missed as he moved. There was no time for another attack and, unable to pull the weapon out of Jostan’s back for further use, Ezrina knew they had to make their escape now, especially as the guard was now supported by the two from outside.
‘Come on!’ she called to Jezna, snatching up the Amulet as she went and slipping it around her neck.
‘Stop them! Stop them!’ cried Jostan.
They launched themselves at the first Divisioman; their speed and combined force knocking him to the ground. The second thrust his spear downwards wildly but both rolled out of the way, causing him to hit his own comrade in the chest and though the wound did not look fatal as the chainmail took some of the impact, he was out of the fight. While the second man looked shocked at what he’d done, Ezrina took the first guard’s sword and buried it in the second’s neck and he fell to the ground in an explosion of blood. That just left the third, the Verusantian.
‘Stop them!’ Jostan raged.
Ezrina allowed herself the briefest of looks over her shoulder to see that Jostan had now pulled the steel weapon out of his shoulder and was now turning to face them. In a last gasp bid for freedom, she threw herself at the guard’s legs just as he jabbed his spear at Jezna, causing him to trip and as he did, she stabbed up into his groin, felling him. Quickly, Jezna armed herself by snatching a throwing axe from the dead Divisioman and both ran for it.
‘On to them! On to them!’ Jostan bellowed, calling for more guards.
He chased them as far as the tent’s entrance and picked up a spear dropped by one of the guards, hurling it like a javelin. Due to his wound his throw lacked range, yet still Jezna screamed in terror as the metal shaft came terrifyingly close to skewering her like a piece of meat, but they kept running.
They dodged this way and that as soldiers tried
to stop them; their speed and agility proving to be much more protection than the weapons they each carried. Panting, they rushed towards the nearest gate, while the guards blocked their way. They had no choice but to attack, with Jezna following Ezrina’s lead. Ezrina jinked round the tip of one guard’s spear and stabbed her sword into his lower abdomen, never stopping running.
‘Ezrina!’
‘Jezna!’ Turning around at the scream, Ezrina saw with horror that Jezna hadn’t been so lucky with the timing of her axe blow and the other guard had easily blocked it with his spear shaft, knocking the blade from her grasp and he dragged the screaming, terrified girl back towards the King’s tent. Ezrina started to run after them.
‘No Ezrina! Run!’
Ezrina stopped, consumed by indecision as the first guard writhed in pain at her feet, clutching his gut as a river or scarlet streamed on to the ground. What could she do? How could she abandon Jezna, her lover? Yet that was exactly what Jezna was begging her to do.
‘Ezrina, run,’ Jezna screamed again, pleading with her as she was dragged away.
With her vision blurred by tears, Ezrina turned and ran. More soldiers appeared from between the other tents and gave chase, but she didn’t care. She had the speed to evade them. All that mattered now was Jezna.
She’d been forced to abandon her one true love; forced by those damned Bennvikans. She felt like such a coward as she fled. She would have her revenge. She would save Jezna. But trying now would be pointless and would bring only certain death for them both.
‘I will come back for you!’ she called as she ran, although she doubted that Jezna heard.
‘Where’s Jezna? And what’s that?’ Gasbron asked as she flew out of the last gate, where they had started.
‘No time to explain! Run!’