by Robin Roseau
“Thank you.”
“Gionna?”
“No special requirements,” Gionna said.
“Very good.” Judge Erissa explained the event. “Do the four of you agree these rules are consistent with Amode’s requirements?” They did. “Shortly, we will offer an inspection. I have checked the records. There is no evidence either of you has recently ended her First, or is in any other way under undue influence.”
“I’m not,” Gionna said.
“I know what I’m doing,” said Amode. “And no one pressured me.”
“Pressure can be subtle,” said the judge.
“I want to do this.”
“Very well. Witnesses, I am going to ask you whether you know this woman well enough to answer a second question, which is whether you feel there is any reason I should stop this event. Ambassador, you go first.”
“I believe I know Gionna well enough to respond,” Allium said. “She is of a clear head and can make her own decisions.”
“Tasili, I believe you had objections.”
“She’s being an idiot!” Tasili said. “If she loses, she’s a slave, and the princess is leaving. If she wins, then she’ll…”
“Risk angering the queen?” Lisdee prompted.
“Yes.”
“This is our way of things,” Lisdee replied. “I would be more frustrated with my daughter than your sister. I do not know how else I might respond, but I will not take any action against your sister or your family. Frankly, if I did, I would deserve to lose my position. It would be deeply unethical.”
“I still think she’s being foolish,” Tasili said. “And I don’t think you should allow this, Your Honor.”
“It’s not your decision!” Amode said.
“She’s the queen’s daughter.”
“If she wins, I get to live in the palace.”
“You’re not taking this seriously.” She shifted her gaze. “Your Honor, she’s been talking about this since she beat Gionna last summer.”
“If I beat her once, I can beat her twice.”
“I keep telling you, it was a fluke.”
“Maybe I’m doing this because my older sister thinks so little of me.”
Tasili closed her mouth, paused, then said, “Your Honor, she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
“If I lose, you can say ‘I told you so’,” Amode said.
“I’m sorry, Tasili,” Judge Erissa said. “I’m a little surprised your sister brought a witness who doesn’t support her.”
“No one else would do it.”
“That’s not fair!” Amode complained. “I invited you because I love you, and I wanted you beside me for this. Is that wrong?”
Tasili turned away, and I barely heard when she said, “No, it’s not wrong.”
“Tell the judge you’ll sign the papers. Or leave, and I’ll…” She looked around. “I’ll ask Princess Darfelsa to be my witness.” A few people chuckled.
“I’m fairly sure I don’t know you well enough to answer those questions,” I replied.
“Come on, Sis. We’ve got the ambassador, a duchess, and a foreign princess here. Maybe I should really challenge her instead.”
“I’d have to decline. So sorry.”
“I’ll sign the cursed papers,” said Tasili.
“Tasili, I understand your frustration,” said Judge Erissa. But if anything, I am quite convinced your sister has had her mind set for some time.” She had papers. She separated them into two piles. “There are two copies of the agreement. I personally guarantee they are identical. Each side should read one copy thoroughly but then also verify they feel the other is identical.”
Heads bowed. Gionna tapped the papers a few times, pointing out important clauses. They finished first. A minute later, papers were traded. They read, and I thought she was reading just as carefully, still tapping the important places. But then she collected a pen and signed before sliding the papers to Allium, and indicating where to sign.
A minute later, the judge collected both stacks and signed appropriately.
“Witnesses, please perform your inspections.” There wasn’t much to inspect, and so that only took a moment. “Very good. Witnesses, please prepare the stools.”
Allium accepted one of the devices from Gionna. I didn’t see where Tasili got the one she would use. But Allium crossed to the other side of the waiting tub, removed her boots, hiked up her gown, and then climbed in. She smiled, swirled the device in the waiting resin, and then spent a minute securing it in place on the stool. Tasili went through less fanfare and simply secured the device.
“Challengers, take your places.”
Amode walked around and entered the tub nearest Allium, moving to stand before the stool. Gionna did the same thing, her back to her old seat. I could see both of them in profile, Gionna slightly closer.
“Do either of you wish to say anything?” the judge asked.
“Would you like to go first?” Gionna offered.
“Do you mind?”
“No.”
Amode looked at her sister. “I know you think this is a mistake, but it’s what I want. Either way, be happy for me today.” Tasili nodded, but said nothing. Amode turned around and spoke to her friends, and then turned to the queen. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“You’re welcome.”
I don’t know what the thanks was for.
Gionna smiled. “Some of my closest friends are here. I’m glad. Mother, I love you. Amode, I was surprised by your challenge, but win or lose, it’s going to be fun.”
“It will be fun,” Amode agreed.
“For this event, it is traditional for two assistants to help the challengers into place.”
“I want Princess Darfelsa!” Amode declared. She looked over at me. “Please?”
I laughed. “You don’t want one of your friends?”
“It should be someone from Gionna’s side,” she said. She looked down at my feet. “But you’re in a gown.”
“If you’re sure, not to worry.”
“I’m sure.”
I stood up. Shalendra grinned at me then helped me with my boots. This was one of my dancing gowns, and it came equipped with the means of pulling it up on one side. I pulled it as high as I could then looked at the other side. “Hmm. Ideas?”
“Hair clip,” Olivia said. “Who has a big hair clip? Oh, look at this.”
I laughed, stepped over, and then let her clip up the other side. She looked at her handiwork. “You might want to be careful.”
I stepped to the tub. Allium offered a hand, and then Gionna was there, helping as I climbed in. She grinned at me before retreating to her place.
I carefully sloshed to the other side then asked, “Am I expected to stay here?”
“No. Only help her get up,” said the judge. “Good luck getting back out, though.”
“Not a problem,” Olivia replied. “I have that handled.
In the meantime, one of Amode’s friends was ready to see to Gionna.
“Princess Gionna, are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“Amode, are you ready?”
“Ready.”
“Helpers, do you all know what to do?”
“Yes.”
“Let us begin.”
Allium did the hard parts. For the most part, I simply steadied Amode as she squirmed into place. I pulled her shift out of the way and made sure she didn’t fall. Allium secured her ankles in the resin as I stood by, keeping my skirt clean.
By the time we were done, Olivia was near the tub, and she had a chair, right against the tub. “Darfelsa, sit down and rotate out.”
“Good, Amode?”
“I’m good.” She smiled at me. The judge nodded, and so I moved to the edge, sat with Olivia’s help, lifted my feet so they dripped clean, and then rotated out. Easy as pie. Amode’s friend had it far easier in her leather, and then the judge called, “Begin.”
* * * *
It was, perhaps,
the shortest challenge I’d ever seen. The red never climbed to Gionna’s knees. The moment the judge called to begin, she began whispering to Amode, offering encouragement. Other than that, not much happened for several minutes, although Gionna’s feet and ankles turned red. She drew Amode’s attention, and then encouraged her to squirm.
And she did.
After that, it was pretty much all over. Gionna encouraged squirming, demonstrating herself. And Amode basically beat herself.
From begin to final shudders, the entire event was barely more than five minutes.
The judge declared Gionna the winner and a citizen. Gionna saw to the needs of her new slave. Tasili, Allium, and the judge signed the papers a second time. And then Gionna led her new slave away.
“They’ll want privacy,” I said.
“And they’ll have it,” Lisdee replied. “They’re going to my quarters.”
* * * *
I walked Shalendra home. “That seemed… anticlimactic.”
“Yes,” I said. “Something doesn’t make sense.”
“Sure it does,” she said. “Gionna cheated.”
“Gionna didn’t cheat.”
“She suckered that girl,” Shalendra said.
“That’s actually considered part of the game,” I replied. “But I have never seen Gionna do less than her best.”
“There is no way that girl beat Gionna, not based on the evidence today.”
“Well, you can bet I’ll be asking.”
* * * *
“Get any sleep last night?”
Gionna looked quite dashing in her new leathers, although I was going to miss the variety. “No,” she said with a grin. “I gave Ahm to Olivia and asked Bee and Dee to wear her out.”
“That will do it,” I said. “So. Explain.”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m sure you do. Shalendra thinks you suckered her.”
“Lies.”
“Gionna.”
“I won fair and square.”
“I could have beaten her.”
“Probably not,” she said with a grin. “I’m willing to let you try in a few months.”
“What happened, Gionna?”
“Well… Last summer.”
“Yes?”
“I was here.”
“So I gathered.”
“There was an open event. I offered myself for a sort of raffle.”
“There is no way she beat you.”
“I’m not very good,” she said.
“Uh huh.”
“In fact, here at home, most people are better than I am. I seem to lose. A lot.”
“Are you suggesting everyone in Charth is that bad?”
“You don’t play this game very well. You’ll be a permanent slave for sure if you don’t catch up.”
“As I’m immune from permanent challenges, no, I won’t.”
“That particular event may have been the hardest of my life.”
“Last night?”
“Last summer.”
“So, it particularly played to her strengths?”
“Yes, but that’s not why it was hard. Do you know how difficult it can be to let someone win but make it look like you were doing your best?”
I laughed. “So you suckered her.”
“Actually, I was shocked when she approached me. I was suckering everyone else. I’ve been carefully managing my wins any time I’m near Ressaline City. I get my real practice in Charth.”
“And yet, you accepted. Was this like taking candy from a baby?”
“About that, yes. I’d feel guilty, except someone was going to catch her. Why not me? She told me she had four other women ask her for a permanent challenge, but she’s had her heart set on me. Darfelsa, I’m fairly sure she knew she wasn’t going to win.”
“Is this going to seem to people like her family is, I don’t know, sacrificing her to your family?”
“No. This is going to seem like a woman who made a choice of who would own her. It’s uncommon to ask for a permanent place in the winner’s household, and even less common to ask about children. She’ll have a good life, Darfelsa, and more interesting than most.”
“Congratulations,” I said again. “I’m going to miss your gowns.”
“No way,” she said. “First, leather is way, way too hot in Barrish. And second, I like my gowns. I’m going to set some new trends. Leather for daily wear, but gowns for events.”
“Good.” I hooked her arm. “But leather tonight,” I said. “I want to dance with you like this.”
“Count on it.”
And then Mariya let me beat Gionna up. It was her first day of training.
Pairings
We were two more days from Charth when the trash talk began. It took about two hours to sweep through our entire group.
Allium wasn’t with us. She would take an extra week or two. She, Ressie, and Wesla, along with Lisdee’s experts, were going over the road in greater detail. I’d forbid her from working on it, but she was welcome to offer all the expert advice she wanted.
“Princess,” she’d asked. “If I want to send any of Lisdee’s people to our university, may I?”
“I’ll authorize one,” I said. “If you want more than that, either Lisdee needs to pay for it, or you need to talk to Father.”
“Thank you,” she said.
And so, we’d left her behind, but she’d promised to arrive safely in Charth. We’d wait for her there.
I was glad to be out of the mountains. I’d gotten over my difficulties with Lisdee, but I found it unlikely I’d ever warm to her. Gionna quietly told me no one warmed to her mother. “As mothers go, Ralifta is way better. I can’t wait to get to Barrish!”
But we were now two days from Charth, sitting around a bonfire in our open camp near the road, and the trash talk had been going for a while. And it seemed like everyone was involved.
I presumed Valsine started it, but I didn’t catch her at it, and she was being remarkably quiet. That was probably a bad sign.
It was Ahm, Gionna’s new slave, that dragged Shalendra in. And that meant that Gionna was involved, although she was being quiet, too. Unlike Bee and Dee, Ahm was typically the type to be seen and not heard, or had been so far.
Well, we heard her at night, but that’s not what I meant.
But Olivia was teasing Gionna. Myria, one of Gionna’s honor guard, was taunting Mariya. For her part, Mariya simply pointed out she had important duties. I got a dirty look when I suggested Charth was safe, and she should relax while she could.
Tess was teasing Rosaniya. Lyeneru was egging her on and then publicly said, “I’ll take a challenge from anyone who promises to treat me kindly.” She promptly received six offers and probably would have received more, if she’d wanted them.
“Can we do it right now?”
“Not if you want resin,” Olivia replied. “And for your first practice challenge, you want resin.”
“I have to wait?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Several barbs had come my way. I smiled sweetly and said nothing.
Colonel Melstie took a little teasing, most of it from the other Ressaline soldiers, including Gionna’s honor guard. Then Shalendra whispered, “Go for a walk with me.”
We didn’t go very far before “a walk” turned into “a whole lot of kissing”. We eventually made it to our tent, but we weren’t alone, so we had to satisfy ourselves with cuddling.
* * * *
The trash talk continued the next day, consuming the bulk of the conversation. The challenges and cross challenges grew increasingly outrageous. Olivia said, “I’m not holding anyone to any agreement made today. If you want to challenge each other, you can come to sane agreements once you’ve stopped breathing whatever you’re all breathing.”
Melstie immediately threw a challenge offer at her. Olivia simply shook her head and muttered something about troublemakers.
A few m
inutes later, Shalendra asked me, “Are they all serious?”
“I am fairly sure if you want a challenge, just about anyone here is happy to give you one.”
“Not you?”
“Sure,” I said. “I don’t actually know what’s going on. This seems like something Valsine would start, but if she did, I haven’t seen her stirring the pot.”
“I think it was Gionna, but no one seemed to require much encouragement.”
“That would be my second guess.”
“Are you going to let yourself be sucked in?”
“Well, here’s the thing, Shalendra. There’s this woman.”
“This woman?”
“Yes. She’s one of my suitors.”
“Oh, I see.”
“And unless it’s changed, she’s currently my only suitor, having outlasted all the others.”
“She’s very determined.”
“She’s very Flarvorian,” I said. “And while I have spent several years in Ressaline, I haven’t lived here so much I’ve forgotten the rules in Barrish.”
“I imagine you remember them well.”
“If I didn’t consider her suit seriously, I might let myself get drawn in. It would be the Ressaline way.”
“Even if you did consider her suit seriously,” Shalendra said, “it would be the Ressaline way.”
“True,” I agreed. “But she and I are both Flarvorian, and I am taking her suit quite seriously. And so I’d say she’s probably the only one who could draw me into a practice challenge. She looks so good in red, after all.”
“Why, Princess Darfelsa, that last part sounded suspiciously like trash talk.”
“Oh, my,” I said. “Well, she does look good in red, but I withdraw my comment.”
“You don’t stand behind your words?”
“It’s not that at all,” I replied. “But that would be me trying to draw her in, and as I said, if it’s going to happen, she’s the one who will start it.”
“I thought you liked to lead.”
“I’m quite capable of leading,” I replied. “But in this particular case, given the foregone conclusion, at least of the first event or two, I have moral issues with issuing a challenge she’s going to lose, especially as she might agree simply to stay in my good graces.”