by Robin Roseau
She lifted her head for the first time since Sha-shi had arrived, paused, and then said, “Yes. I can’t do this to her if she wants to stay here, but I won’t leave without her.”
“I wouldn’t, either,” I said. “Mariya, we need Sakaala and one more of the slaves, maybe Valsine. And one of the Ressaline women.” I paused. “Lisolte, if she’s free.”
I turned my attention back to Rubarae then put my hand on the back of her head and pushed. She laughed but lowered it back to Sha-shi’s shoulder. “She smells nice.”
“She does,” I said. “Partly that is her, and partly it is the clothing she is wearing. It’s magic.”
“It is?”
“Yes. I don’t understand it, but pleasure slaves always smell good, no matter what they’ve been doing.”
“Pleasure slaves?”
“There are other kinds,” I said. “But if she’s wearing red like this, she’s a pleasure slave. She feels very good to hold, doesn’t she?”
“Yes. Sha-shi, do you mind that I’m holding you?”
“It feels very good for me,” she replied.
“Princess Darfelsa said this was your idea. I don’t understand.”
“I wanted to help,” Sha-shi replied. “I’m still learning other ways I can help the princess, but I knew I could help this way. I knew we would find people who liked holding me. And we have others with us, women who might be nervous. I help them feel nice, instead. This is how I was introduced last year. It’s hard to be afraid when holding me.”
Rubarae laughed. “You’re right.”
We talked, and then three more people joined us. It wasn’t Va; it was Tess. I smiled at that.
“What’s going on?” Sakaala asked.
“We’ll answer that in a moment. Would you like to sit on a bench and hold Tess?”
“Yes!”
We got settled. I introduced Lisolte and then said, “She was my First. We were just talking about that, Rubarae.”
“You belonged to her.”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on?” Sakaala asked again.
“I told Princess Darfelsa,” said Rubarae.
“Oh.”
She lifted her head from Sha-shi’s shoulder and looked at her daughter. “If I suggested we could have a very good life in Ressaline, would you be angry with me?”
The girl thought about it, then she turned more towards Tess and emulated the position her mother had taken. “Would we have a farm?”
“We might have to share a farm with a few other women,” Rubarae explained. “It would be hard, just for us.”
“I wouldn’t be angry, Mama. I thought maybe that’s what you were talking to Princess Darfelsa about when the two of you went outside.”
“There’s more,” I said. I explained it, yet again. And then Lisolte took over. “We know this is very strange for you, and possibly scary. Your First can be scary, just at the very beginning. It’s not for us. I can’t remember being so young that I wasn’t looking forward to my First. I know for a fact I was talking about it by the time I was seven. I didn’t understand all of it, certainly not, and I didn’t learn about practice challenges, either, not really, until I was twelve, I think.”
We talked for a while. Eventually we came back to the difficulty of running a farm, and that was when I told Mariya, “I think it’s time for Olivia.”
By then, Olivia was clearly waiting, as it took little more than a gesture for her to join us, Gionna and Allium both with her. They collected the last of the seats. Olivia listened and said, “I can promise you a life. Farming is hard, and I won’t pretend it’s not, but there are options. We’re visiting more villages, and there will be more women who feel the same way you do. It may not be many; we don’t know. But you could work together. We can give you enough land for all your families, even if you can’t work it all from the beginning.”
“Maybe they’ll raise sheep,” I said.
“Yes. That’s work, too, but you can let them use the land you’re not cultivating.” Olivia paused, only a moment. “There are details. You wouldn’t own the land.” She talked about that, about the agreements we had made.
We talked for some time. At one point, Rubarae said, “Something just occurred to me. There’s two princesses, a duchess, and an ambassador talking to Sakaala and me. In the meantime, who is inside, dancing?”
“Oh the 30 other women with us,” Gionna said with a laugh.
It was Sakaala who said, “Mama, I want us to go with them.”
“We may never be back, if we go,” Rubarae said. “You may have to say goodbye to everyone you know.”
“We’ll be together, and we’ll make new friends.” She turned to Olivia. “You have villages, just like ours.”
“You can hardly tell the difference,” Olivia replied. “There aren’t as many of us. Flarvor was more heavily populated than Charthan when we moved in, and then we cut the population in half besides, sending many of them here. There is land everywhere.”
“I want to be near a good village,” said the girl.
“Who will take care of Sakaala while I’m…”
“Having your First,” Olivia supplied. “That’s a good question.”
“I think she could work at the embassy,” Allium said. “I can even pay her. But maybe you had a better idea, Olivia?”
“Not necessarily,” Olivia said. “She could foster with a variety of the families in Charth. Some have girls her age. She’ll be safe and cared for, Rubarae; I can promise that. Would letting her stay at the embassy be okay with you?”
“I don’t want her to be a burden.”
“She wouldn’t be a burden,” Allium said. “She would have ten big sisters watching over her, and we can teach her things while also getting a little work out of her.” She looked at the girl. “If you’re used to farm work, anything I can come up with will seem like a vacation.”
The girl laughed. “And you’d pay me?”
“And I’d pay you an appropriate amount for the work you do.”
“You’re all being so kind,” Rubarae said. “Sakaala, are you sure you want to go?”
“I think it’s a perfect idea, Mama. Yes, I want to go, and I want to work at the embassy.”
“Let’s not make that a final decision yet,” Olivia said. “In case we meet other girls your age, and all of you decide you like another idea even more. It’s the current plan, but we’ll make a final decision in Charth.”
“If that’s what I want to do, after we reach Charth?”
“Then that’s what you may do,” Olivia said. “That assumes you are the sort of girl we all think you are, from what we’ve seen today.”
“She is,” said her mother.
“We’re leaving in the morning,” I said. “We aren’t in a hurry. We’re just traveling through the morning.”
“You’re doing this at all the villages.”
“Not all,” I replied. “But one each day. Will you be able to leave with us?”
“Yes.”
* * * *
We didn’t get any more from Keafina. Rubarae and Sakaala went home, transported in my coach, which made Sakaala giggle as I handed her in myself. But they were back at first light, their meager possessions with them. We invited them for breakfast, and Va assigned Tess and Sha-shi to them for the day.
They were going to be just fine. Just fine indeed.
We didn’t get people from every village. We got one here, two there, a mother with three daughters somewhere else, two of them young, one of them 18 years old. Near the end of our visit, the eldest daughter of a cobbler approached us, and with her, the younger daughter of the cooper. Coopers were rare in the region, but this particular village was known for its apple orchards, and so they needed casks. “We don’t want to be farmers,” said the cobbler’s daughter. “But farmers need shoes.”
“We want to be together,” said the cooper’s daughter. “We’re only interested if we can be together.”
And
Olivia said simply, “That isn’t a problem at all.”
“Our families don’t approve and have tried to keep us apart,” said the cooper’s daughter. “Father didn’t want to let me stay tonight, because he knew I’d want to dance with Ava. But I’m 21, and she’s almost 20.”
“You are welcome in Ressaline,” Olivia said.
They didn’t change their minds when we told them the rest, and when we explained practice challenges, they both began trash-talking with each other.
Mariya sent guards with each of them to collect their things, but they spent the night in our camp, and they became welcome members of our expanding troop.
And then, two weeks after leaving Tebradine, we came to the next opportunity to cross the Verlies river, and we turned north.
Red
We made camp within sight of the river. Oh, we could have traveled further, but we didn’t.
I took Sha-shi into our tent and freed her. She clung to me for a while afterwards, drawing me to the bed. We didn’t make love; we simply held each other, not speaking for a long time until finally she said, “I was good.”
“You were amazing.”
“I was important.”
“Yes, Shalendra; you were. You helped so many of these women, the ones we brought with us, and the ones who decided to join us.”
“It felt so good,” she said. She offered a grin at me. “The sex is good, too, but this was different.”
“I understand entirely.”
“I want a new challenge.”
Her tone was playful. I laughed. “Right now, you’d be too easy to beat.”
“Like that would bother you.” I didn’t respond to that. “This evening?”
“Let’s see how you’re doing,” I said. “But if you want one, we can, or we can wait a day or two.”
Eventually we emerged. The other temporary slaves had all been freed, but Rubarae and Sakaala were hovering about and practically pounced on us when we emerged. “That’s Sha-shi,” Sakaala said.
“My name now is Shalendra, but yes.”
“You look so different.”
“I imagine.”
“Has anyone described how to behave around a freshly-freed slave?” I asked.
“Olivia talked to all of us,” Rubarae replied. “How are you feeling, Sha-shi?”
“Shalendra,” my wife corrected. “Good, but needy.” She looked at me. “How long will this last?” She was still half-clinging to me.
“You could shake it off now if you had to,” I replied. “But you’re otherwise fully articulate. It could go a few days if you nurse it, or a few hours is more common by now. You could remain susceptible for a few days to as long as two weeks, especially to me. For Valsine, that period has become almost nothing. She’s probably entirely herself by now. We won’t be having our challenge until you finish recovering.”
“What challenge?” Sakaala asked.
“She wants to turn the tables.”
“And you’d let her?”
I smiled. “Well, it’s not like I’ll make it easy for her.”
“I want a duration until the morning after we arrive in Charth,” Shalendra said.
“We can do that.” I looked at Rubarae. “Ressaline girls begin attending practice challenges when they’re 14.”
“I’m 14,” said Sakaala.
“I wasn’t allowed to attend any until I was 18,” I added.
Sakaala put on a mutinous expression, but she didn’t actually comment. Rubarae looked at me, looked at her daughter, and then looked at me. “And Firsts?”
“Those are typically more intimate, and personally I wouldn’t want to be in the same room with my mother when either of us was having that experience. But you’ll decide that for yourself.”
She turned to her daughter. “You will not attend my First.”
“I want to see you in red!”
“The clothing is different for your First,” I explained. “But it’s still red.”
“I want to see.”
“That, you may see,” Sakaala agreed. “But you will not see the actual event. Do not argue with me, or I won’t ask Princess Darfelsa if we may both attend her practice challenge with her wife.”
The girl paused then nodded. Sakaala turned to us. “You are both my witnesses. If she puts up a fuss, you may lock her in the dungeon for a week of bread and water.”
I laughed, but it was Shalendra who said, “You’re both invited to our practice challenge. Sakaala, you do understand what is involved?”
“I believe I do.”
“Well then.”
* * * *
Shalendra wasn’t the only woman clinging to someone, but it seemed to wear off soon enough, and then the only slaves in camp were the permanent ones: Dee, Bee, and Ahm.
It was over lunch that the trash talk started. I eyed Valsine, but she held her hands up defensively then pointed to my wife. I laughed. She was probably right.
We actually engaged in some easy games for the afternoon. We taught the Ressalines a game from Flarvor. And then someone asked for a fencing demonstration. “I’m sorry, I didn’t bring… my… gear.” Renishta appeared, holding my fencing gear. “Um. It takes… two.” Valsine appeared, already dressed. I swore.
Valsine had always been a better fencer than I was, and she competed years longer than I had, too. I stopped when I was 15, after all.
And while she was now years older than a 21-year-old, she wasn’t old.
“You planned this,” I accused.
“I might have been involved in the planning,” she replied.
I looked at Renishta. “She’s better than I am. Did you know that when you let her sucker you into bringing my gear?”
“So she says, but I don’t see her training every morning with Captain Felist.”
“Have you ever seen Captain Felist and I engage in the pretty little make-believe bouts of a fencing competition?” I asked. “No. You’ve seen us brawling.”
“Weren’t you the one who declared yourself the best fencer in Gandeet?” Valsine asked.
“I’m sure I don’t know how you came to that conclusion. I had exactly one fencing match in Dennaholst, with borrowed gear, and he wasn’t half as good as he thought he was.”
“I heard he was seven feet tall and used a six-foot sword.”
“I find it unlikely the tall tale has grown that much,” I said. “However, he was the tallest man in the room with a very significant reach.”
I shook my head and collected my gear from Renishta, then disappeared into a tent to change. When I came back out, Valsine was explaining the rules of fencing. “You know there probably isn’t anyone here qualified to judge us.”
“We’re both honest. We might need to call a few as ties.”
I nodded, donned my mask, and stepped into position.
It was a rout, due at least in part to my holding back. I couldn’t do any of the things Mariya had been teaching me, and it had been six years since I’d competed under the constrained rules of fencing. I got one clear first touch, and we had two others that were so close to each other we declared a tie and no point.
She got the rest, and she made it look easy.
After one exchange, she whispered to me, “You used to be better.”
“I have different instincts now. I think you might get upset if I kick you.”
She laughed. “Yes, I would. Darfelsa, I actually thought you’d win easily.”
“You did not.”
“I thought… Well, I was wrong.”
“Let’s finish this, and then I can loan my gear to someone else.”
She laughed. I got the next point, and she got the last two. Then we had to explain what had happened, and why. After all, they’d all seen my training with Captain Felist.
We let a few people try. And I decided Valsine would make a decent fencing instructor, at least for beginners, if she wanted. I quietly told her that.
Someone tried to get Shalendra to fence with me. “I�
�m still basking,” she said. “And I’ve never touched one of those in my life.”
A little trash talk started, but I immediately said, “No. You heard her. She was a pleasure slave until this morning, and we do not pressure someone who is still recovering from that.” I turned to my wife. “I love you, Darling.”
“I love you, too.”
* * * *
It was over dinner, however, that the trash talk started up again, this time for practice challenges. Shalendra quietly sat beside me, holding hands but staying out of it until she said, “My wife is afraid of me.”
“I am not afraid of you.”
It stepped up from there, however. Renalla accepted a three-day-duration challenge from Gionna but said, “Shalendra is trying to sucker Darfelsa. We’ll do whatever they do, and I get to pick roles.”
“Fine,” Gionna said.
And then every pair of eyes turned to Shalendra and me. I sighed. “Are you sure you’re ready? We can wait a few more days.”
“Chicken.”
“Uh, huh. That’s bravado.”
“Something simple,” she replied. “I want a fair chance, but if you win, that’s okay, too.”
“There’s a game you can play,” Tyleeza offered. “Do you know it, Darfelsa?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We play it at the embassy,” Tyleeza said. “We worked out the rules ourselves.”
“Oh, I want to hear this,” Gionna said. “Renalla, I think we should play this game.”
“We’ll see,” Renalla replied.
“It’s pretty simple. You play a game; it doesn’t matter what game, but it should be something short. We usually play over cards. But you start by writing down two lists. The first list identifies the handicaps Shalendra wants to apply, and the second list are what Darfelsa wants.” She explained the rest. And Shalendra smiled broadly.
“You can then do it two different ways,” Tyleeza said at the end. “You can have a fixed number of games, and whatever happens, happens. Or you can play until one of you has achieved your list.”
“We should do that,” Shalendra said. “If we can find people to partner with us.”
“I’ll partner with either of you,” Tyleeza said. “Who wants to challenge me?”
“I do,” said Tess before anyone else could speak up. “I want Shalendra as my partner.”