“Good morning,” I mutter to her, with a soft, secret smile, and then I kiss her.
“There's no time for that!” yells Alinor from the other side of the door.
Okay, that gets my attention.
“Um...how do you know what we're doing?” I ask, sitting bolt upright after rolling off of Virago and covering my bare breasts (ball gowns weren't really made for shenanigans in bed) with my arms.
“I can see you,” Alinor mutters, as if it were obvious. The “duh” is implied in her tone.
“She has the power of far sight,” says Virago, her mouth twitching up at the corners as I stare at her, horrified. “She can see through pretty much anything she wants to.”
“That's...great.” I bite my lip, my head tilted to the side as Virago gets up, chuckling a little as she rubs the back of her neck, then stretches.
“We'll meet you in the practice yard in a little while, Alinor. Go wake someone else up,” Virago says, and I can hear Alinor sighing from the other side of the door.
But all this pounding has caused Shelley to stand up, and she bounds over to the door, whining and scratching at it.
“Actually, can you take the small beast with you? She'll love the practice yard,” says Virago, turning to me. I nod, still a little bit mortified, and Alinor opens the door (didn't we lock the door last night?) and sticks her head through, positively beaming at us.
“Did you have a good night, you love birds?” she asks, batting her eyes, and Virago picks up one of her boots from beside the bed and throws it at the door. It does not hit Alinor, even though Virago has pretty spectacular aim. Instead, it bounces off the already closed door that Shelley was just whisked through.
Hmm. I hope my dog behaves for that knight.
“The day's assignments are given out to the Royal Knights at sunrise every morning in the practice yard,” Virago explains, picking up her leather shirt from the ground and sliding it on over her head. She crosses the room, and I try very hard not to stare at her toned rear; then I don't care at all, and I stare away. Virago notices, glancing over her shoulder and chuckling at my expression.
“So we best get going,” she tells me gently, opening the wardrobe and taking out a new pair of panties. These are obviously handmade, black, and of great quality (they look super comfy, actually). It's gratifying to know I've at least got underwear options here, in case I run out of my own.
“What about me?” I ask, as she starts to pull on her leather pants. I let the gown fall the rest of the way to the floor, and then I get up and glance around the room. There's a washbasin in the corner with fresh water. How the water is fresh and cold, I'll never know, but I'm assuming it has something to do with magic. “What am I going to do today?” I ask her, pouring a little water out from the big pitcher into the washbasin and splashing my face with it. I pick up the little cake of soap on the corner and start to wash up. The soap smells a little bit like lavender—but not quite.
“I figured you'd come with me,” says Virago with a shrug. “I'll be given an assignment, but you can certainly come along, no matter where I go. There are a lot of things for you to see in Arktos City, and we could get a start on that.” She has a soft smile as she turns to me, beginning to lace up her old silver armor, picking up the pieces from where they were neatly stacked on the trunk at the foot of the bed. “If that's what you want to do,” she amends, as she places her chest and back pieces on over her head. She starts to tie up the thongs along her sides. “Of, if you'd rather, you could stay in the castle. I have many friends you might spend the day with...” She trails off.
“I want to stay with you,” I tell her softly, as I dry my face on a very soft, woven towel. I'm standing there in just my Supergirl panties, but Virago crosses the room to gather me in her arms, my breasts pressing against the cold metal of her chest plate. I shiver against her, the sensation sending a little thrill through me as she holds me close, as she bends her beautiful face down to me and kisses me fiercely.
“Whatever you choose to wear today,” she says, kissing my nose gently before breaking away, “make sure that it's comfortable for a lot of walking. And, perhaps, horseback riding.”
I stare at the wardrobe in dismay. Pretty much everything in there is a dress. I usually only wear dresses, but I'm kind of doubting they ride sidesaddle here.
I dig through the wardrobe and find a forest green dress with a very full circle skirt, so even if I am riding on a horse, it's going to work out okay. I hope. It's a simple, medieval-style dress with embroidery along the hem, the sleeves, and the neckline. I pull out a new pair of panties from my own bag (today's geek underwear is brought to you by Wonder Woman!), and then I'm drawing on a chemise from the wardrobe, settling that forest green dress over it, and tying my hair in a quick ponytail with a matching ribbon.
“Good?” I ask Virago, whose eyes are hooded with pleasure as she glances at me, then draws me close.
“Perfect,” she breathes. She's kissing me again...but then there's more pounding at the door.
“Virago? Holly?” It's Magel. “I'm here to wake you two.”
Virago opens the door to Magel, who is raising her hand to knock yet again. Magel smiles quickly at us and lowers her hand, glancing inside the room. “Wow, these are nice accommodations. The queen likes you, Holly,” says Magel, her brow up as Virago and I move past her, shutting the door behind us.
“She does,” Virago agrees, as Magel falls in line beside us. “Which is good. It distracts her from her heartbreak,” says Virago, her mouth falling into a thin line.
Heartbreak?
“Um...what happened to her?” I ask now, clearing my throat, but Magel and Virago are both shaking their heads.
“If she wants to tell you, she'll tell you,” Virago says firmly. And that, of course, makes me feel terrible for asking.
I grimace, shaking my head. “Sorry. It just looks like she was really hurt, is all,” I mutter, shrugging a little uncomfortably. Virago glances sidelong at me and wraps an arm around my shoulders gently.
“Just be kind to her, like you're kind to everyone, my love. It will mean a great deal to her,” says Virago, as Magel raises a brow, glancing at us but saying nothing.
We go down about a million staircases (give or take a few), through about a hundred halls (approximately), and then we're exiting a wide set of double doors, made out of thick, wooden beams. Finally, we're outside in a yard filled with women wearing armor.
Along the edges of the yard—though it's difficult to see since the sky is just starting to lighten—there are dummies that are vaguely human-shaped, made of burlap-type sack and stuffed with straw. There are large wooden contraptions with bulls-eyes painted on them, hay bales with bulls-eyes, more dummies with bulls-eyes... It looks like a lot of target practice happens in this yard. In the far left corner, there are several very large horses, already tacked up with big saddles and thick leather bridles with different-colored saddle pads that droop over their rears. Each horse has a different color combination, and every single one of the horses is massive. I would have guessed you'd need a big horse for such tall women, but, seriously, they must feed the horses whatever they feed the knights to get them that damn tall.
The knights are all milling about, but when Magel enters the yard, they stand to attention. I'm also realizing that most of the women are glancing my way, curiously.
“Is this the woman from the other world?” asks the closest knight, a tall redhead with a chainmaille circlet around her forehead, her armor just like that of the other knights. She's gazing at me so inquisitively that I smile a little, and then she's beaming back, her own smile huge.
Magel's voice raises as she chuckles. “Get a good look, ladies. This is Virago's lover, Holly, and, yes, she does hail from another world.”
There's whispering and murmuring amongst the knights as Magel leaps up onto a table in the center of the yard. In a moment, though, the women shift their attention from me and back to her when she raises her ar
m.
“Your orders,” says Magel, her mouth turning up at the corners as she crosses her arms, “if you're awake enough to receive them, are...”
She begins to instruct each knight who steps up to her as to where she is stationed, and what her mission for the day is, overtaking the night shift of knights. (Which, even to Magel, was kind of fun to say). She talks about things like the west gate of the city and the field that they'll be using for the opening ceremonies of the Hero's Tournament (taking place tonight). And then she gets to Virago.
“The queen has expressed a wish to spend the hours leading up to this evening in the royal library, preparing herself for the opening ceremonies,” she tells Virago. “You and Kell both are stationed there today, specifically near the entrance of the library, but keep the queen in sight at all times, understood?”
Virago stiffens a little, and Magel cocks her head. “Yes?” she asks in a lower voice, so only the knights closest to us can hear.
“Only two knights to watch the queen today, Magel?” asks Virago, crossing her arms in front of her, her face cloudy with worry.
“You and Kell are the best,” says Magel with a soft smile. “You know you can call for aid should a situation arise. Do not worry.”
Virago sighs for a long moment, then nods. “As you wish,” she says, then turns to me. “Let us go,” she says. “We'll pass through the kitchen to get breakfast on the way.”
We cross the yard and head into the palace by a different door. This one leads immediately into the kitchen. The room is long and low, and there are many tables heaped with fresh vegetables and woven bags of grain. Several women are making tarts and pies, their fronts covered in flour. We're halted by a stout woman wielding—I kid you not—a rolling pin.
“Virago, you are a knight, and like the other knights, you must abide by the rules,” she intones, threatening the much, much taller Virago with the rolling pin as she brandishes it overhead. This woman is shorter than me, and she's wearing a plain black dress and a big white apron, her thick, curling black hair cut short around her face, a dab of flour highly visible on her copper cheek.
“Asha,” says Virago, bowing low with a wide smile and a flourish, “I would like you to meet my lover, Holly. Holly, this is Asha—head cook to the queen, and one of the most lovely—”
“Save it,” Asha mutters, but she looks mollified and even indulgent as she smiles a little at Virago. “There are seven sister pies on the back stove. Take what you want for breakfast.”
“You're a wonder,” says Virago, darting forward and placing a kiss on Asha's cheek. “Come, Holly. We don't want to keep the queen waiting!”
Virago approaches the back stove, scooping up several hand pies from one of the pans. She balances them in her palms, wincing a little, as they're evidently hot, but she tosses one to me, and I catch it, anyway, wincing as the pie burns my thumb.
“The dinner was marvelous last night!” Virago calls over her shoulder, and this causes Asha to roar.
“I had to use the Cauldron of Plenty! Me! Resorting to that sub-par piece of junk!” Asha moans, setting the rolling pin down on the counter and wiping her hands off on her apron with a sigh. “Please tell the queen that I was happy to do it, but that it—”
“That it wounded you to do so. Got it,” says Virago, opening the kitchen door for me. I step through as Asha laughs.
“Have I said that before?” she asks absentmindedly.
“Every time you use the Cauldron,” says Virago, offering another bow as she takes a bite of the pie and then closes the kitchen door behind her.
“Asha,” says Virago, one brow raised as she chuckles, “is Magel's sister. Head cook and head knight. It runs in the family, needing to be in charge, I think.”
“Oh, my God, this is so good,” I say around a mouthful of pie. It tastes like there's squash in the pie, and onions, but it doesn't exactly taste like those things. Regardless, it's one of the most delicious things I've ever had, and I burn my entire mouth while devouring the thing as I follow Virago down the hallway.
I'm licking my fingers when we turn a corner, and the serviceable, plain carpeting beneath our feet—a mouse gray—turns into the sumptuous cobalt blue rug that was in the main hallway at the entrance of the palace. Virago inclines her head to me as she points forward, toward the tall, white double doors with golden handles.
“This is the royal library,” she says in a hushed voice. And then she smiles, and her smile is as warm and bright as the sun. “I think you're going to like it,” she says mildly; then she take the final step forward, grasps the handles, and pulls the doors open.
I let out a low whistle, my heart literally skipping a beat.
“Wow,” I whisper.
Imagine every book you can possibly think of, imagine every large bookstore you've ever been in, then multiply that by ten. We step into the room, and I look up, and up (and up) and realize that we must be in the center of the palace, and that this room must be the central tall tower I saw when I was down in the Meadow of Memory after we first arrived in Agrotera.
There are countless shelves of books before me, with wide, white staircases leading up to different open-air levels. The center of this wide, sprawling tower is hollow, so you can see up and up and up to the different floors with each one's uncountable number of books.
And, seated in front of us, in one of the many comfortable-looking, carved wooden chairs, is Calla. She's wearing a simple gray gown, shot through with strands of silver (the gown shimmers a little when she turns and smiles at us), and she's holding a thick book open on her lap.
“Virago,” says Calla, setting the book on the small table next to her chair and rising. She's smiling when she says Virago's name, but Calla isn't looking at Virago; she's looking at me. “So good of you to come,” she says, and then she gestures to two knights I hadn't even seen standing there. They were positioned on either side of the door when we entered. “Rami, Lilla, you can go. Thank you so much for your watch over me last night.”
The two knights stand at attention, bow low and turn to leave, but Virago stops the closest one, reaching out and curling her fingers over the woman's black arm.
“Was there any sign of threat, Rami?” she asks, her voice dropping low as she gazes into the knight's eyes.
Rami shakes her head, her full mouth set in a grim line. “No, but tonight is the opening ceremony... Be careful,” she murmurs.
Virago nods, then tightens her grip on the knight's arm and draws her in for a small embrace, each knight tapping the other on the shoulder once with a fist before letting go.
Rami and Lilla are already out the door when I hear running steps in the hall outside. The rug goes down the center of the hallway, but there is bare wooden floor on either side of the rug, and this is what the person is sprinting over, sounding as if they have the hounds of hell behind them.
The woman skids to a halt outside the door, but she was going so fast that she skids right past the door and keeps going.
It's Kell.
“Sorry I'm late!” she chirps, ducking inside and shutting the door before Rami, who had an angry look on her face and was about to say something, can speak. “Your Majesty!” announces Kell, leaning forward in a sweeping bow. “Sorry, sorry,” she tells the queen with a small wince. “I know I'm late.”
Calla hides a smile behind her hand, and when she clears her throat, she looks all business. “And you are late because?” she asks, one brow up.
Kell grins widely. “I met a lady last night, Your Majesty.”
“That was last night,” says Calla coolly, though her mouth is trying to twitch upwards at the corners, despite her best efforts to look stern. “This is this morning.”
“Well, I was still, um, meeting her this morning, too,” says Kell, her grin almost splitting her face in two.
Calla chuckles at that, and Virago just sighs, shaking her head with a small smile as Kell leans against the door, adjusting the buckle of her scabbard over her c
hest and running a hand through her hair to “comb” it. All this achieves is to make it stick up in crazier angles, her curls spilling over her shoulders.
“And what about you two?” asks Kell, grinning at us now. She waggles her eyebrows. “How was last night?”
“Good,” says Virago, glancing at me with a soft smile. “Holly tried Magin!”
“How much did you drink?” asks Kell, looking impressed in spite of herself.
“Just one glass,” I tell her with a shrug.
Kell shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “Virago, she should have had more than one. None of the good stuff happens until you have more than—”
“The merits of drink aside,” says Calla, clearing her throat, “I would love to speak with Lady Holly, if you would both not mind.”
“I dunno,” says Kell, sniffing. “She looks like an assassin to me.” And then Kell starts to laugh. It's a jerky laugh, an I’m-kind-of-an-asshole laugh. The kind of laugh that says, “Yeah, right, she probably can't even wield a vegetable peeler.”
I'm about to say something in my defense, but Calla shakes her head, inclining her chin toward me, and I cross the room, glowering a little, to stand before the queen.
“Come walk with me,” says Calla softly, and we both cross the floor, getting farther and farther away from the knights until we're definitely out of hearing range.
“Now, Holly,” says Calla, turning toward me, her face warm and open, “you were very kind to me yesterday. I thank you for that.” She looks earnest, relaxed, and so much younger than when she puts on her game-face of queenliness. “And I feel like I can talk to you freely. That's...precious. Something that’s in short supply around here,” she tells me with a small, sad smile, but then she's shaking her head quickly. “Not that the knights aren't wonderful. I could tell them anything, really,” she says, folding her hands in front of her, “but they are so protective. They don't want to hear about my heartaches. They just want to take action and destroy whatever or whoever made me sad. They're good people, all of them,” she adds softly, “but I feel as if I can tell you what happened to me.”
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