by Loki Renard
"Well I don't like it," Vix grumped. "She doesn't show me any respect. She doesn't show me anything."
"She just showed you the flat of her hand, and she'll show you a lot more of it if you don't settle down," Trebuchet said. "I might too."
If the talk was supposed to be calming Vix down it was failing terribly. She fell into sullen silence and walked a little faster so she would not have to listen to Trebuchet's chastisements.
"What's wrong?" Moon fell into step beside Vix.
"Your lady friend is threatening to beat me," Vix said in less than impressed tones. "Everyone's a brute."
"She's threatening to beat you? Why?"
"Because I dared express my feelings about our dear leader," Vix snapped. Trebuchet's lecturing, however mild, had not been appreciated one bit.
Moon nodded slowly. "I'll talk to her."
She hung back while Vix sloped off to the side a little, close enough to hear what was going on, not close enough to be seen.
"Quit being mean to Vix," Moon said to Trebuchet, broaching the subject with all the tact of a bull. "You know she's having a hard time."
"Her hard time isn't an excuse to act out," Trebuchet rumbled in reply. "If you want to come and play soldier, then you have to be disciplined about it. Kira was gentle with Vix, and I was even softer. She's got no cause for complaint."
"I don't think anyone else gets to decide if Vix has reason to complain," Moon said. "I think it's good she's complaining. She never used to. She used to just accept any old treatment. We should support her standing up for herself."
"She's picked a bad time to start,” Trebuchet sighed.
Chapter Twenty
While what remained of Kira's armlette made a fairly disgruntled attempt at escape, many miles hence three riders moved at a smooth trot across a grassed plain. They rode sturdy battle chargers, tall horses with fine heads and strong bodies. At the head of them Queen Cadentis jostled and bounced atop a much smaller bay cob, a broad backed sturdy mount which was jigging between a trot and a canter and occasionally, a frustrated walk.
"What's wrong with this beast?" Cadentis flung the question over her shoulder.
The cob was the only horse in the royal stables able to stand up to the rigors of being ridden by the queen, not because the queen was overly large, but because she was not in any way an equestrian. She preferred her clockwork carriages to beasts of flesh and blood and it showed.
The riders looked at one another. It was not their place to correct a monarch, but the cob was growing impatient and it seemed that sooner or later there was to be a falling out between queen and horse. As horses tended not to honor the monarchy, it would not go well for Cadentis.
"If it pleases her highness to not dig her heels in, and instead to let her body move with the horse so she does not plunk up and down," the lead rider suggested with a tone of mildness.
"Don't give me a riding lesson, get this damn beast under control!"
The rear riders exchanged looks. The queen was known for her passion and her foresight, but also for her temper and her vigor. The cob was the quietest animal in the stables, but under Cadentis' rear it was flaring its nostrils and tossing its head and beginning to prance.
"If the queen would do me the honor of riding with me," the lead rider suggested. "I might alleviate some of her troubles."
"I'm not going to ride two to a saddle like a peasant," Cadentis snapped, tossing dark hair out of her eyes. Her regal lips and strong jaw were both set in displeasure as she lurched to the left and then the right. "This horse should do as it is told!"
"I'm afraid the horse is doing as it is told," the lead rider informed her smoothly. The answer did not please Cadentis, who tried to turn around and curse at her bodyguard but was unable to due to the fact that her mount had decided to increase its speed at rather short notice.
"Help! I say help!" Cadentis threw her arms and legs up just as the horse came to a halt. She did not come to a halt at quite the same time. She only stopped her not very regal motion when she slid over the horse's shoulder and abruptly onto the wet grass where she sat, entirely discombobulated and quite furious.
Having unburdened itself, the cob began to graze.
"Are you hurt, your highness?" The lead rider dismounted quickly and went to her queen's aid.
Cadentis let out a stream of profanity which eventually confirmed that she had bruised her hip and her ego. The lead rider did not respond to any of the queen's anger, letting it roll over her cloaked shoulders like water off a pig's back. She waited until Cadentis had stopped shouting and helped the queen to her feet.
"I will tie the cob to my steed," she said. "That will keep her nicely under control."
"Ah yes," Cadentis snapped. "And then I will be a queen being led on a lesser steed. What will the people say?"
"They will no doubt admire the queen for her many accomplishments and the good she has bought to the kingdom," the lead rider said smoothly.
Cadentis' eyes narrowed, thick lashes weaving together as they almost closed. "Do not handle me, Minerva. I will not be handled, understood?!"
The lead rider bowed her head. "That has not been my name for a very long time, your highness. I am your humble, nameless servant."
"If I am to take you to task you have to have a name," Cadentis replied. "And it may as well be the one that is yours."
Minerva, the lead rider, she who had been nameless, nodded. "As you wish, my queen."
Cadentis also nodded, slightly mollified for having stridently corrected her bodyguard. "I will not ride that mount," she said. "We will travel on foot to the nearest village and there we will send for a carriage."
"As you wish, my queen," Minerva agreed. "Though the nearest village is three days walk at least, and time is of the essence if we wish to overtake the witch."
The queen's face performed unsettled contortions. "I cannot be seen to be weak by the common folk," she mused. "It would do untold damage." She thought a little while longer, then snapped her fingers. "I know!" She pointed at Minerva. "You will give me your cape and cowl and you will wear my emerald of office. You will ride at the head of our party and you will act as queen. I will travel incognito, lead between the others on my mount."
Minerva paused a moment, then agreed. "As you will, your majesty."
Cadentis beamed and held out a hand, snapping her fingers. "Well, take it off, I want to don my disguise!"
The lead rider hesitated a moment. This was unprecedented. A rider did not remove her coverings except in private and in the company of other riders. She did not bare her features to the sun, or speak to common people, or partake in every day life. The queen was asking Minerva to act directly contrary to her sworn oath.
"Quick!"
At Queen Cadentis' urging, Minerva complied, removing the cowl and cloak which had been hers for many years. Revealed in the light of day, she proved to be quite a beauty. She was a middle aged woman of good strong stature and excellent health. Her dark hair fell about her shoulders in a silken curtain, her skin was pale, and green eyes flashed out of a face of uncommon wisdom and kindness. She was much taller and had a more elegant bearing than Cadentis, though nobody would ever have dared say so, and once she had the emerald in place on her forehead, she looked every inch a queen.
Cadentis might have taken exception to that, but Cadentis was more concerned with her own appearance than Minerva's. Having donned the rider's attire, Cadentis did not quite look the part, for the cape was a little long and dragged on the ground, and the cowl fell all the way to her nose.
"I'm quite hidden," she announced, very pleased with herself though she appeared to be little more than a walking nose with a pair of boots sticking out the bottom of a thick cape. "This will do very well."
Chapter Twenty One
The armlette's walking eventually terminated in the stopping of walking, that was to say in making camp in a cave. There the seven women sat around a fire, chewing on dried beef in relative silence. T
hough many were friends in their own right they were not a natural group in their entirety. Kira and Ayla sat near one another with Aeron to Kira's rear. Moon was sitting in Trebuchet's lap while Vix leaned against the wall somewhat distant. Liz sat furthest away from the group toward the mouth of the cave, staring out at the stars.
"So this seems stupid," Liz eventually announced. "You think a queen doesn't know how to look in a cave?"
Nobody much responded but Vix nodded her agreement in the shadows. She had said as much herself, but Liz seemed to be able to say what she could not. Liz seemed to be able to do anything with impunity.
Taken with sudden curiosity, she scooted toward the front of the cave and nudged Liz. "How do you do it?" She whispered the question.
"How do I do what?" Liz whispered back.
"How do you say things without anybody being angry at you?"
"Ah," Liz nodded. "Well. That's a kind of magic."
"I open my mouth and people jump down my throat," Vix said, unburdening herself to the one person who was no risk at all.
"You don't have enough practice at it," Liz replied. "You don't usually speak up, so when you do you misjudge the speaking."
Vix looked at Liz in surprise. For once, Liz actually made sense. Good sense, even.
"You're so serious and reserved," Liz continued. "Even when you're hiding in bushes like some kind of rat animal. You take yourself seriously. And that makes other people take you seriously."
"You know, sometimes I think you're not stupid," Vix said.
"There you go," Liz said. "If I were inclined to believe words, I would be upset by that. You say a lot of mean things sometimes."
"I do?"
"You do," Liz confirmed. "About me especially. Probably because you think I can't hurt you."
"Well that makes me sound like a bully."
Liz shrugged. "I don't know. You're definitely uptight. You got to loosen up. Say whatever to whoever whenever."
"That sounds like a recipe for disaster."
"Oh it is," Liz agreed. "But you need a few disasters. Disasters are good."
Maybe it was the moonlight, or the oddness of the situation, maybe it was the stress of the day, but Vix was starting to think that Liz had some very good ideas.
"Tell you what," Liz said. "You say what you have to say, and I'll back you up."
"What do you mean you'll back me up?"
"I mean you won't get in trouble for it. I promise. Go ahead. Say the thing you're most scared to say. Say it loud."
Vix glanced over her shoulder at the group over by the fire. "I couldn't."
"You can," Liz encouraged her. "You can say whatever you like."
"I don't want to," Vix said, still looking over her shoulder at Kira and Ayla and Aeron and the rest. "I want to..."
"You want to go and sit in a bush," Liz said. "How long are you going to live in a bush for?"
"They don't care about what I have to say," Vix muttered more to herself than anything.
"So? You don't say it for them. You say it for you. So you can feel good about yourself."
Vix thought about that and it seemed that it was a good idea. Liz nodded encouragingly as Vix rose to her feet and faced the group.
"Kira," she said. "You don't treat me very well. And it's not right and frankly, I hope the queen does catch you because you deserve to be caught, playing all these games with everyone. Pretending to be immortal and on a mission from a goddess. You just want to have the last witch in your pocket as a bargaining chip, that's all."
The resulting silence was broken by Liz's low whistle.
There was a creaking of leather as Kira stood up slowly. "Let's you and I have a little chat, Vix." The tall warrior took a step forward, long legs cutting the distance between her and the hengineer. Her expression was unfathomable, her eyes narrowed more in concentration than annoyance.
Vix stood her ground for all of two seconds before turning tail and running. Kira did not give chase, but Aeron did. She was like a blonde streak, moving after Vix almost as fast as an arrow. Vix was just outside the cave when she was bought down in a heap. She squealed furiously and called for Liz.
"You said you'd help me!"
"I didn't think you were going to say that," Liz said, leaning against the mouth of the cave with her arms folded over her chest. "That was really incendiary. Shocking, even," she said with a soft tutting sound. "So disrespectful."
Vix jaw dropped as she was pulled up from the ground and delivered to Kira. She vigorously wished that she had not taken Liz's advice, and that she had grown several more inches as she was at a distinct physical disadvantage caught between the two larger women.
Kira reached out, taking her by the hand. "Come here," she said, her voice devastatingly calm. "It's time I paid you a little more attention."
"I would be okay with no attention," Vix said hastily. Her words were to no avail as she was lead back into the cave, where a flat rock provided a place for Kira to sit and take poor Vix over her thighs. Facing the pebble strewn floor, Vix deeply regretted the events of the previous minutes. She was keenly aware of the eyes on her, of Ayla and Trebuchet watching in silent approval and Moon's gaze locked on her with a sort of mute concern.
Nobody said a word. The cave was silent save for the crackling of the fire and Vix's somewhat panicked breathing. She had never been so close to Kira before, never imagined how hard the warrior's thighs were. It was like being held by someone not quite human, someone more than human, some sort of human rock hybrid, maybe. There was nothing yielding about Kira, there was no softness to be felt. From the ridges of her thighs to the flat of her stomach she was hard.
Nothing happened at first, Kira just held her there in place, letting her contemplate her position along with the fact that she was about to be punished publicly.
"You hold a place in history," Kira said, her voice resonant with meaning. "You don't understand that yet, because your beliefs are so mundane you can't begin to fathom just how important this moment is. That's alright. I don't need you to believe me. I do need you to do your job. Understand?"
"Yes, ma'am," Vix agreed. She would have agreed to anything to avoid being struck.
Kira lifted her hand high and bought it down in a sweeping arc. The musculature of her arm rippled as her palm swing toward Vix's vulnerable cheeks with a wicked swiftness. It seemed Vix was about to be very, very sore and very, very sorry but at the very last moment the warrior caught herself and the blow landed with no more force than a light tap.
Vix's resulting high pitched squeal was therefore more borne of anticipation than pain, a fact which put little smiles on Kira, Ayla and Trebuchet's faces.
"Keep your own counsel," Kira murmured down at her captive. "Your hide is not tempered enough to take the consequences of being bold."
Squirming, Vix could only nod. Her britches were riding high and tight between her thighs, putting pressure on parts of her anatomy which were starting to brim with excitement as she realized she was not in nearly as much strife as she had imagined.
"Keep your mind on your little cogs and wheels," Kira said, her voice becoming sterner with each passing word. "And keep a respectful tongue in your head. You will not be warned again. The next time I hear a disrespectful word from your mouth... or if I so much as see an untoward expression on your face I will strip you bare and lash your bottom until sitting is a distant memory. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am, I understand," Vix agreed hastily. "I am sorry."
The warrior helped Vix to stand, then sent her on her way with a light slap to her left cheek. Vix scuttled quickly into the shadows, loathe to make eye contact with anyone. There was no doubt she had been vanquished as surely as any of Kira's foes.
As the conversation resumed she curled up in her cloak and kept her counsel. She no longer had any intention of crossing Kira. Liz, the traitor, was another matter altogether.
Chapter Twenty Two
Some time later Liz was at the mouth of the ca
ve smirking up into the stars when Ayla's fingers slid through her hair from behind. The witch gently drew Liz's head back so she was forced to look upwards and backwards.
"That was not nice," Ayla said mildly, giving Liz's hair a little tug.
In spite of her uncomfortable arched position, a slow smile spread over Liz's face and a little twinkle established itself firmly in her eye. "What wasn't?"
"What you just did to Vix."
"I didn't do anything to Vix."
"Oh yes you did," Ayla said, dropping her hand to from Liz's hair to Liz's buttocks. One swift slap later and Liz was cursing and holding her cheeks in both hands, for Ayla's long and witchly palm had managed to catch a significant portion of her rear.