As for the young Zapulian queen, they brought her too, to Rhuctium, she with her maidservants. They were unharmed as Ephron did not allow any man to touch or abuse them. And everyone in the city, and soon in the land whispered about when he would marry the beautiful Zapulian queen. But Rapheth had his mind set upon another woman.
"What other woman? Why? Queen Putuale is perfection! A Zapulian, a prize in a wife and beautiful in form. Zapulia is also a neighboring ally."
"Political allies do not take precedence in sacred things. That is the problem in this land. This woman I am to marry, she was given to me by sacred means. She was named my queen when I walked the Cave of Forever. She is a prophetess. This is who I am to marry." But some would-be counselors kept asking and imploring him to marry Queen Putuale. Finally, he brought her in for an audience.
"My lord, Rapheth I hear your name is called."
'"It is so-called."
"Why have you brought me here?"
"To set matters straight before the court. I am to marry another woman. You are a queen in your own right."
"I am with child."
"Whom shall you appoint as protector of this child while you rule?"
"I do not know, yet. I shall not become your queen?"
"No. No matter what my counselors have to say about it."
"Do you even know what she looks like?" The young queen implored.
"It is difficult to tell. My lady, even you must know that marriage is not simply about what one looks like but who fits the realm."
"Are you saying I cannot fit as your wife and queen?"
"I am saying that I have a path chosen for me and I have decided to walk it. My bride is chosen for me and I am at peace with it." She rested her wide eyes upon the sun outside, high in the sky. And it seemed to Rapheth that she breathed a sigh of relief. And then she spoke what was in her heart.
"I have never been free before in my life. Free to do as I please. To. . rule. I have always been under thrall of others Under. . . my father. Under thrall of my mother. She was very religious woman, you know. Far more. . . than my father King Temuz. The night before she died she. . .pray I might find my path before the gods as ruler of men's hearts." She said in lilting, broken Alhar.
"Really?"
"She thought I would never rule. . .directly. Zapulian women do not. There is no law against it but we have not. This. . .will be first time. I do not think some people will like. . . my court. But I know in my heart I want this new path. But I have never seen and do not know how to walk it."
"Then we are on similar paths in that respect, my lady. I walk a path I have not walked before in my life. It can be frightening and joyful all the same. Choose your own husband. Rule your own kingdom. You shall have my backing should you need to put down any insurrections."
"I have your support as. . .ally?"
"Once our kingdoms were as one. Later broken apart they eventually became allies. They should remain allies today." They drew up a contract on this and on future trade agreements and he sent her on her way with a large retinue of warriors. His father's brothers and their men also accompanied her as an official delegation back to Zapulia.
"Let trade and good things once again flow from the land of Zapulia," said the king. Then he called for his new queen: "The prophetess! The prophetess! Let her reveal herself, for her king is here!"
Chapter Thirty-Five
The king had made his call for the prophetess.
"If I am to be a wife it must be the first wife, the queen. The Shaikha."
"Do not worry so much Anet. You will land where you are meant to be. You know that well by now." Said Mother Berenice happily. Anet's heart was tangled in knots. She was at her childhood home once again. But she was entering a new phase in life. When she was younger she had never contemplated marriage.
She had finally consented to make the trek from the Crescent Moon Sink. Many tribes were celebrating there together the victory in the land, Karig, Raea, Arvadites and others. Along her trek she once again encountered the Sons of the Mountain who were going down to Rhuctium. Achin was among them. They had just come from Galieh.
"Little mother!" He'd said, putting his hands together and bowing. She did the same.
"My brothers!"
"All that you have spoken has come true."
"Where do you come from?"
"From Galieh. Our work there is not done but the worst of it, lying, corrupt officials and their hatchet men and thieving merchants, have been dealt with. Their heads are piled up outside the city gate."
"That is good to hear. The king shall hear of it," she said. And they escorted her to the Crescent Moon Sink before going their way to Rhuctium.
Anet sank down into the sands once she got underground, reveling in the coolness of rock and sand, feeling the blessed moisture on her skin from the pure, blue waters of the sink before descending further toward the encampment. Once she arrived in the great caverns she was greeted with joy, especially from the women of the various tribes.
"Happy is the woman who has found an excellent husband!" They cried. The women and girls painted her face, hands, arms, legs and feet, bathed her in hot water perfumed with fine tea leaves, oiled her, washed and oiled her hair, braided it in thick piles and adorned it with polished stones and bone combs. Since she was a prophetess-bride, the older women, wearing their great headdresses of bone and precious stones, felt it necessary to travel with a great retinue of women to the citadel and make her wedding procession from there.
Anet wondered what he would think when he saw her. She had seen glimpses of him in dream. He was handsome and fair like a Gilphaen or an Egian, with black and brown waves of hair and eyes like fire. A fleeting panicked worry washed over her at what everyone in the cities would think of her. She was sunburnt; of the complexion of cassia bark with thick, unruly long, black hair that crashed in waves at the crown and curled at the ends at times, held back only by the stoutest of bone and stone hair ornaments. The tribal women also dressed her arms and legs in gold and silver bracelets. When they had finished adorning her, they all clapped and embraced her.
"Beautiful! May his love flow like wild honey upon you!" Said one of the elder mothers.
"When he sees her it will run alright!" Said another young woman, her eyes glinting with mischief. This garnered much laughter.
"Virgin woman-child to wife, mother, queen. Eternal prophetess. Go, my daughter," said Kela, one of the eldest of the elder tribal mothers and shaikhas. They danced and sang songs of love and songs of the camp of women.
"But I am old. Too old to be married by some." Anet said later. Lala handed her a highly polished round of silver so she could see her reflection.
"What difference does that make? If God has determined that this may be a new path for you, if you consent to it, their words are useless chatter. Do not listen to their talk."
"Yes, the epolei have all kinds of nonsense they adhere to. Ignore it." Said another. "As long as a woman can birth a healthy child, she can be married and be useful to a husband."
"And even when she is past fertility, her wisdom should not be cast aside. Though many seem to do just that in the cities!" Said Lala.
"True. That is true," she knew it but people had the tendency to talk and they could be cruel. Still, if this was her new path she would walk it. She wondered if she would lay eyes upon him and all of a sudden her love would immediately blossom like the kata flowers of the desert? Just like the bloom of young love? Or would she see him and her heart fall in disappointment? Or even worse, what if he was displeased with her? Still my trembling heart, Oh my God. Let me not walk through the desert amidst arrows and spears and serpents only to become fearful under the gaze of a man.
They eventually took her in a great litter to the citadel in Gamina. When she saw Mother Berenice she slipped from the litter and ran up the hill to the gate. Mother Berenice, more gray than before and with a few more lines creasing her face was still the tall, strong and serene mother fig
ure Anet had always known.
"Mother Berenice! If only I could just explain all that has happened! All that I have seen!"
"I know! I also know that the kingdom needs a woman such as you as queen. I had foreseen it long ago, even when I sent Diti to be queen of Hybron."
"She was one of the great women. Let her sacrifice always be remembered," said Anet.
"And let the next queen be you. I pray for it, daily. Come and let all your retinue come and have rest before you enter the city. He is waiting for you in Rhuctium, my daughter." They embraced and then Mother Berenice ushered all the tribal women who had escorted her into the citadel.
It was nearing high summer. Young scions were bringing in buckets of fresh milk from the goats and the sheep to fill the urns, Sister Madea was making the cheeses they would need for the fall and winter. The vines and trees were swelling with fruit, and the air was fragrant with the fruitage of the land. The seasonal dance of life and nature continued on. Peace was not just an isolated place in Gamina; it seemed to kiss the souls of everyone all across the land as the news traveled from village to village, town to town and city to city that perhaps now they would live in true peace and security.
She heard shuffling footsteps coming down the stairs in the main hall of the citadel. Ilim was descending. He had been reading into the law and pouring over it all night. His eyes were red from reading late and perhaps weeping. She ran to him and embraced him.
"My daughter, my daughter, Anet."
. . .
The new vassal and Lord-Chieftain of Egi was Cardith, an Egian man and a general. There was a fight amongst some Egian generals as to who would take the throne. One had even seized it for three days but the young Hybronian king had settled it with the star sword of Ishuye and placed his head on top of the tall obelisk in front of the great palace in Egium. The others who had risen up against him were also found and swiftly executed. Cardith survived and was placed upon the throne because he had not tried to reach for it. And Lord Erol Motudar, to his immediate relief, and then later, growing consternation, had mysteriously vanished.
"I perceive that your heart is good which is why I have placed you on the throne. Egi will continue to be vassal to Hybron in all things and you are to bring tribute to me as long as I and my sons reign in Hybron. As my father instituted it, it will remain. I appoint you as king over Egi. As to the revolt, I shall leave it to you to deal with it as you see fit."
"My lord," said Cardith, only in awe at how quickly things were changing. He had lived through the corrupt authority of the Kushigyar, the barbarian king, through the usurpations of two ruthless Egian monarchs and now this Red King. He'd heard how this young one cut down the warrior-king, Teraht. Even with Teraht's fearsome might and his own great sword, he lay dead. And still, this one gave the dead king honor.
"Take Teraht back to his people and their dead, and bury him in the manner of kings. Even though he was my enemy I will not allow his body to be abused. He was a king, he died like a king. Send him off in the manner of a king." And Cardith went his way back to Egi as Lord-Chieftain and buried King Teraht.
. . .
Demos was ready to return home and start a new life. How things would turn out in the end between the slaves and the rest, especially the nobles, he did not know but his place was back home. He felt the call in his soul. And he vowed that any slaves who had fled to Hybron he would help find work and a life, any who came across his path.
When he'd arrived at Uephis he took his rest with a young family there who greeted him gladly and then he immediately inquired as to where the Lady Hazad was staying. He found out after a day that she was staying with an old woman on the outskirts of the village, an old herbalist who had been tortured many years earlier he came to find out later, for practicing alchemy without being a member of a guild. The woman found her way into the mountains years ago and made a name for herself as a healer.
"This woman, she resides by the old, twisted blood cactus." The villagers told him. When he had reached the woman's house, it was actually a small cave in a large blade of flint rock. He walked a naturally made path up a small cliff through the tough blood grasses and he saw the cactus. It was a large red thing, twisted so it seemed like a giant, gnarled hand.
"Ho! Who is here?" He called inside. The hanging in front of the cave opening quivered a bit and soon an old, crinkled hand flapped away the hanging. The old woman's eyes were large, alert and shining and they seemed young, perched in a heavily lined face. She had snow white brows that bristled up and down and large, square yellow teeth, all strong and none missing.
"I do not know of you. Do you come for ointment or salve? Or some potion?"
"I come for a beautiful woman that is staying with you. Her name is Lady Kaisha Hazad."
"Ah!" She gave him a knowing look and ducked back inside. "Lady Hazad, someone has come calling for you! And who is it that has come?" She turned back to him.
"My name is Demos Alictus."
"Demos. Of the people. I have heard of a man with that name. Quite popular with the people who seek freedom. It is not Egian."
"No, I am not Egian, madam."
"What sort of name is it?" She asked, giving hm a searching look. Demos was tired but he humored the woman. And he was not entirely annoyed with the opportunity to recall his proud family lineage.
"Truly, my father was Pallinonian and so was my grandfather. My grandfather actually was Eritosian and Nalian by blood. The Eritosians were assimilated into Pallinona long ago. My grandfather was born and raised in Pallinona and moved to Hybron and became a mercantile merchant and married the daughter of a Pallinonian merchant. My father followed in his footsteps in the mercantile trade and did very well for himself and he, though Pallinonian by blood and culture, was raised in Hybron and that is how I was born and raised in Hybron with a foreign sounding name."
"I see. It is interesting how and where people end up in this world. You must forgive me, my son. I do not get many visitors besides the same people from the villages, so I am nosy. And here is the lovely one now," said the old woman pleasantly. Powerful medicinal scents were wafting up from inside the cave and he could hear the bubbling of pots and apparatuses doing their concoction and boiling work. It was a comforting sight and it brought a certain satisfaction to his soul to see and hear it in the background. Kaisha smiled, her light brown eyes lit in golden amber tones. Her lashes nearly reached her cheeks. Her silken, light brown hair was wound several times into a high knot and pinned with leather strips at the very top of her head. He noted that she was less plump than when he last saw her. If she would have him, he would try his best to correct that. But now he came to it and as she was here, staring at him, it surprised him that he felt that disturbing nervousness and apprehension return again.
"You have come! How did you know I was here?"
"I asked. We had to make a dash from Yilphaeus. The Black Guild burned down Senetta's house." Her mouth opened in shock.
"Where is Senetta. . ." He shook his head.
"Oh no! Demos! And she was such an integral supporter of the cause!" Kaisha nearly wailed.
"No one feels her loss more than I but they did not get to her, Kaisha. She was dying anyway. It was a long and slow progression of death from her surgeries, from the alchemists that made her one of the dakhmin." Her lovely face darkened. Even in anger she was beautiful.
"Airend-Ur will take care of these evils in time," she said.
"He will take care of them sooner than we think. The Red King has come, Kaisha." He pointed to the sky. Her face turned from anger to immediate awe and reverence.
"I know. I saw it too," she said. He cleared his throat.
"Kaisha, I came because I wanted to see you. I know that I am not much of a man. I am lame in my feet and I am no great warrior or great scholar but I have acquired some means of money to care for a wife. I do come from a good family. One of the merchant families of Hybron. I am a man of the Golden Temple, or I used to be. I was a scribe
there before I ended up here and from what I was given by Lady Senetta, I now have the means to care for a wife and family. . ." he could hear himself rambling. "What. . .what I mean is, I would take you for my wife. If you would have me. I perceive you are a woman of the Aishanna-La, as I am a man of the faith as well." He stood there, feeling the sweat form in beads under his arms and on his forehead. It had been blurted out, all of it with no grace or poetry and now he would either be the happiest man alive or be turned away, humiliated. She looked thoughtful for a long time. Then she said: "Yes. I will be your wife."
. . .
Kaisha was not in love with him. At least not at first. But she'd had time to think about him as a man all through their ordeals with the slave revolt. Time and again he came to her thoughts unbidden and most times she would banish him away. He was not tall, he was thin and ungainly. While he was not ugly or unattractive, he was simply too plain. And he was lame. These things, she always told herself, made him unacceptable as a husband. And then she wondered, if he were unacceptable, why did she continue to think of him in that manner? She had always thought to marry a strong and exceedingly handsome man, a man of great glory, honor and old wealth - and that was what she had married. And it had turned to bitter ashes in her mouth. Kaisha had thrown herself into other things after that, at first gathering finery and luxuries and going to parties, then the revolt, which rekindled her interest in the healing arts. The mysterious Ioltoslav had helped her further with that. She had always thought longingly in the back of her mind of a husband to care for her and of children. Demos was a good man and now that she had time to think, away from all distractions, he was rather handsome to her. And kind, gentle and a stalwart faithful man of the First Pillar. A spiritual man even during times of great stress and hardship. He'd remained Aishanna-La.
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