by Isabel Wroth
Her pale brown eyes were flat, hard, and mighty unwelcoming. Jalia felt herself being sized up, and apparently found lacking.
She was as old a Minoan as Jalia had yet come across, her skin soft and supple, just beginning to wrinkle.
There were hints of silver appearing in her long dark hair, the gold tips of her horns proclaimed her as a prince who had run the Nine.
No one had said women weren't allowed to govern territory, but for some reason Jalia had thought the Golden Bulls were all male.
"Antehe." Dhega grunted tersely in greeting.
The dark-haired female returned it with a jerk of her chin, "Your majesty." Yikes. Did the temperature drop another few degrees? "Which one of you is responsible for the one called Prowling Bancroft?"
Jalia heaved a sigh, raising her hand with a disappointed shake of her head, wondering why the princes closest to her took a step back and shifted to protect their genitals.
"I am. I sincerely apologize for whatever he's done to offend you, your highness."
"You are not surprised he has offended?" the woman asked, her gaze narrowing to dangerous slits.
"I wish I could say I was, but Croft is...a handful. I beg your forgiveness, and so long as you don't maim, kill, or irreparably damage him, I consent to whatever punishment you see fit."
The woman arched a dubious brow, running her tongue across her teeth.
"Would you consider castration irreparable damage?"
Jalia blinked at the casual delivery of the question, wondering how much practice Antehe had with castration.
Castration would surely do the trick, and Jalia had been threatening the mercenary with the same since their arrival, but it came down to one simple fact.
Croft was on loan to her from an extremely revenge driven Merc Boss. If she allowed Croft to be so irreparably damaged he couldn't do his job, Bloody Boudreaux would kill her.
Strike that, he'd have Tom kill her.
"Most definitely. Also somewhat maim-y. What exactly did he do?"
The female's eyes warmed by the barest fraction, her chin lifting as she made some decision about Jalia and her idiot attendant.
"He arrived yesterday evening, pinched one of my maidens on the ass and offered to scale Mount Pleasant and defrost the fancy bits of another."
Jalia struggled for a straight face, biting down on her cheeks pressing her fist to her lips, dying to laugh at the absolutely terrible and so true to character innuendo.
"Most inappropriate and so disrespectful," she choked out. "Where is he at the moment?"
"My dungeon."
"I see. Well, he can wait until after dinner. This is my other attendant, Tom, and I guarantee he is much better behaved. You won't even know he's there."
Antehe responded with a dubious, "Hmm." She waved everyone into the large, blissfully warm hall, telling the handful of princes to see themselves to the guest quarters like an impatient mother.
"You know where to go. Do not be late for the evening meal. You'll be served nothing once the kitchens close." Impressed, Jalia watched the nine other princes hustle to get out of Antehe's sight without so much as a peep of protest or affront.
"The Peak has been readied for you, your majesty. I trust you remember the way?"
"I do. Ladies," and off Dhega went without another word.
"You do not cater to your males. I approve." Axtasusa stated firmly.
In a much more diplomatic manner, Entayta asked about the occupants of Myonaea. "I was told your ladies are called Ice Maidens?"
Antehe snorted as she led the way down an opposite hallway, "It is a derogatory term the males use because this is a sanctuary for any female who has been abused or abandoned by their herd.
“They renounce all desire to ever take another male to their beds and come here to live out their days in peace.
“Myonaea is a small palace, but we make do. Your quarters will be less luxurious than you've become accustomed to."
"So long as it's warm and dry, I don't care." Jalia promised, glancing back to see Tom following along with Entayta and Susa's attendants, all male, and gave a jump of her brows.
Poor Croft couldn't have chosen a worse place to misbehave.
Antehe directed them to their rooms, and she hadn't been joking. Compared to the expansive, luxurious suites in all the other palaces, this one was a closet. But it was warm, an actual fire lay burning in the hearth, her bed was placed directly in front of it.
Once out of the dungeon, Tom and Croft would be sleeping on the floor in the same room with her.
There were a pair of windows situated on either side of the fireplace, foggy from the heat, but when she looked out Jalia could see straight down to the yard they had arrived in.
The bed was the only piece of furniture in the room, her bathroom was an even smaller closet with a tub, which had several buckets of water beside it.
"If you want a bath, heat the water over the fire. We eat at sundown." Antehe announced and disappeared to leave them to their own devices.
"Well," Jalia sighed, meeting Tom's wary look. "At least you don't have a ton of places to check for a hidden enemy in here."
Tom grunted and dropped their luggage by one of the windows, "Want me to find Croft?"
"Nope. Maybe he'll learn his lesson this time." Tom gave her a look that needed no interpretation. "Yeah. You're right. Probably not."
*****
The evening meal was a quiet affair, clearly uncomfortable to the men at the table, but Jalia was too hungry to be bothered by all the stone-faced women pretending unwanted guests hadn't invaded their home.
She did see a pair of familiar faces farther down the way, the princesses Renaya and Hyrmina with their babies in arms while they stared at their plates with a hollow sort of exhaustion.
No one had so far said a word, the only sounds filling the dining hall were slurps and clicks of spoons against their bowls.
The fare was simple, a delicious, thick vegetable soup with crusty rolls of golden bread, and a strong brewed herbal tea.
No frills, no extras, no special requests. Simple, but hearty, served in the large, subterranean hall built beneath the palace.
Even Axtasusa seemed to be taking care to be quiet for once, no belching or demands for wine or meat, no braying laughter or table rattling thumps of her hand, which was more than slightly unnerving.
Jalia flinched in surprise when Antehe finished her meal and pointedly cleared her throat.
"So, Marchesa. What will we do with your offensive attendant?"
Every eye in the hall turned to her, and the comfort she had found in her belly full of warm soup turned to a churning mess of nerves.
"Ah..."
"Maiming and irreparable damage are off the table, so I cannot castrate him or lop off his hand as we would usually do for his transgression," Antehe told her, seemingly annoyed to be denied her usual methods.
Jalia thought about it, about what would satisfy her if she had been pinched on the ass by a man like Croft, and so ludicrously propositioned. It didn't take her long,
"Have you got some sort of post or—" before she had finished speaking, Antehe pointed a long finger down the length of the table to the odd contraption down at the opposite end of the hall.
With a large hole in the center and two smaller ones on either side Jalia assumed it was a restraint system of some kind.
"Wonderful. And you have how many residents?"
"One hundred and twelve."
"Good, good. I propose you situate Croft into that contraption over there and allow each of your residents to pinch him on the ass as hard as they like.
“By the time they've finished, I am certain he will never again dare to lay a hand on a woman without her direct invitation. Will this satisfy you and the offended parties?"
Antehe huffed, glancing down the table, giving a tight nod after a moment. "He is not to leave your room until your departure."
"Understood."
"Come, then.
We will fetch him together." Antehe pushed away from her place at the table, leaving Jalia no choice but to do the same.
The lady of Myonaea led her out of the dining hall and into a long corridor. They passed door after door, allowing her a brief glance of an indoor garden through the lone pair that stood open,
"Do you grow your own food here, Lady An—"
"I am a lady no longer." The brusque female interrupted. "And yes, we grow some root vegetables, but our main crop is the tea you had with dinner.
“We use it to trade with the farmers in the low lands. Myonaea is completely self-sustained. We receive help from no one, but we are independent and beholden to none."
Down they went through an arched stone doorway and down, deep beneath the foundation of the palace. It was so cold, ice formed wherever there was moisture, making the stairs treacherous and slick. Antehe took a torch off the wall, lifting it high to banish the shadows, her boots crunching on the salt covering the floor.
Jalia heard the rattle of chains, then a muffled sound of urgency coming from farther back.
"Here," Antehe stopped at the cell door, and when Croft saw her, he hopped up and down, his eyes huge and pleading. Jalia couldn't help but feel sorry for him; he was bound hand and foot, a thick gag shoved between his teeth, but that didn't stop him from trying to speak. She understood none of what he said, but she imagined he was begging her to do something.
Jalia sighed and went forward with the key Antehe handed her, unlocking only the chains around his ankles, poking and prodding to get him moving while he comically tried to get her to take his gag out and unbind his hands.
"Go on, your punishment awaits."
Whatever he garbled in shock was lost in the gag. Why hadn't she considered purchasing one before?
"Can I keep the gag?" Jalia asked, poor Croft looked horrified, but Antehe finally cracked a genuine smile.
"Certainly."
Jalia grabbed Croft's elbow at the top of the stairs and continued, leading him through the dining hall like a prize, glad to see Tom at the opposite end waiting for her.
Antehe told her the contraption was called a stock, and when Croft struggled to avoid it, Tom reached out and slapped him clean across the face.
Croft was so shocked that his comrade in arms, his friend, his accomplice, would slap him like a little girl he forgot to put up any further protest.
The shock lasted long enough for Tom to shove Croft into the stock, head, and hands, leaving him bent over in a very prone position.
Jalia sighed with false sadness as she crouched at his head and unbuckled the gag from his mouth,
"This isn't funny anymore! Get me out of here! I'm freezing my balls off!" Croft hissed desperately, shivering non-stop from having been down in that frigid basement.
"Remember that chat we had about you being on your best behavior?" Jalia asked, brushing his curls off his brow with a pitying smile. "I told you, no more screwing around, and don't try to tell me you were helping. You're not. Don't worry. It'll be over soon."
Croft's eyes were so wide it was a wonder they weren't popping out of his head, "Over? What will be over? What are you letting them do to me?"
"You got lucky. I was able to talk the lady of the house out of chopping your freezing balls off. Or a hand. You're welcome."
She shot him a wink and stood up, wiggling her fingers at Tom. He took his task seriously and in one hard yank had Croft's pants around his ankles.
She was pretty sure the mercenary had never been so humiliated in his life, but Jalia couldn't drum up much sympathy for him.
*****
The sun had risen only an hour ago when Antehe had come banging on their doors announcing breakfast and the required search for contraband devices. Croft had mutinously glared at her from the palate on the floor, apparently grateful to have his cock and hands still intact, but he wouldn't be sitting down any time soon. Every single woman in Myonaea had lined up to get a piece of him, and not in the way he wanted.
Croft would be spending the day in relative peace, warm and cozy up in her room, unable to see the unbelievable structure looming before her. Someone had carved a face into the mountainside. A woman's face, with a delicate neck and graceful features. The snow clinging to the mountainside was her hair, her skull the roof of a dome made of glittering ice, held up by her crown of horns.
The stone woman looked out onto the valley below, hidden from sight as they had arrived yesterday by fog and the heavy fall of snow. There must have been a natural waterfall or thermal spring behind the rock face because it looked like the towering statue was crying.
"Who is she?"
Antehe stood beside her on the wide ledge carved into the mountainside, a half-open tunnel that followed the natural shape of the range, all the way over to the stone woman's ear. "No one knows for sure. There are stories that hers is the face of the one who birthed the first of our species, and when she realized what the Rir intended for her children, she wept. We call her the First Mother."
Jalia hummed, falling back into step with the rest of their party. She saw intense sorrow on the face of the First Mother, but she also saw the love someone had taken to immortalize her and ensure she was there to keep watch over the children she had born.
"Where is the labyrinth located?" Entayta asked.
Antehe pointed out across the way, "Behind the eyes of the Mother." And the entrance to the labyrinth was through her carved stone ear.
Standing between Entayta and Axtasusa, Antehe ominously gave them one final set of instructions.
"Only two stones are waiting at the heart of the maze. I will not see one of you again."
Jalia glanced back to see Dhega standing still and silent as stone. They hadn't had the opportunity to speak alone since leaving Ephidon, and as she faced death again, Jalia wanted one kiss. Odd, wasn't it? There were so many things she could have wanted to do before she died, and the one most prevalent in her mind was a kiss.
Well. Guess I'm just going to have to stay alive long enough to get one, Jalia told herself and marched into the maze.
It was beautiful. A glittering death trap. The weak sunlight outside was magnified by the carved dome overhead, raising the temperature a few degrees, causing mist to roll across the floor, yet somehow none of the ice walls around her showed any signs of melting.
It was a circular maze, no twists or turns, only one path that wound around and around until it spit her out in the center.
Axtasusa had just come out ahead of her, Entayta was moving forward, hurrying to the bowl seated on a pedestal in the center of the room. Unobstructed, no obvious traps or pitfalls in the way. It was too easy.
She had barely gotten out, "Wait!" before the ground two inches in front of her toes shifted and rocked. Axtasusa's weight tipped the floor down, lifting Entayta higher into the air.
With the floor raised, Jalia could see down into the space beneath. Down, at hundreds of frozen corpses impaled on fingers of ice. There was no surviving that fall.
Her heart in her throat, Jalia cried out, "Run to the middle! Now!"
By some miracle, both of them listened, meeting in the center where the bowl of gems sat, the platform there just a few feet wide, the only thing that didn't move.
Entayta said something to Susa that caused the Duggan's eyes to widen. Then in the next moment, Entayta snatched up both jewels from the bowl, leaped up higher than Jalia thought possible, and kicked Susa square in the face.
As the Duggan fell back and rolled across the floor, her weight caused it to shift back toward Jalia. Entayta ran up, threw herself off the edge to safety, and in the blink of an eye Axtasusa was gone.
The slab of ice gently settled back into place, the fog rolled across its surface and once again the labyrinth was silent.
Entayta stood beside her, and Jalia waited for the deceptively aggressive female to throw her out there. To snap her neck. To her surprise, Entayta slapped the second gem into her hand.
It was so cle
ar, as big as her fist, cold enough Jalia thought for a moment it was just a chunk of ice. But ice didn't shoot rainbows like that across the floor.
"Why?" was all she was able to say.
Entayta gave a careless sound. "One of us had to die. I'd have done the same if you had been in her place. Why do you cry for her?"
Was she crying? Jalia reached up to touch her face, gather her tears on her fingertips, watching them slowly freeze.
"She was my friend."
"I told you, befriending us would gain you nothing." Entayta's voice was every bit as cold as the ice around them. Not out of cruelty or wickedness, but of total nothingness.
She had just killed and felt absolutely nothing. Jalia wondered how she hadn't ever seen the absence of all life or feeling inside the Nirian's dark eyes before now. Entayta left her standing there, and long after she was gone, Jalia was able to respond.
"You're wrong," she whispered fiercely, but there was no one to hear.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dhega ground his teeth, the cold stone of the balcony rail biting into his skin as he gripped it with all his might. If they had been in any other palace, he would have been with Jalia right now. His relief to see her emerge from the icy labyrinth had been short-lived as she pressed the gem into his hand, passing by him without a word. Without a reassuring glance.
The Labyrinth of Tears asked much of someone like her. To choose which she would sacrifice in order to advance, decide who would die, it would prey upon her tender heart like a carrion bird. In truth, he had been surprised to see Entayta emerge, having thought Jalia would have opted to work with Axtasusa.
Then again, Jalia wouldn't have wanted to choose at all. She had no desire for death. Some might have called her lack of ruthless selfishness a weakness, and not so long ago he would have been among them. She was cunning, his human. Of that he was certain. But Jalia was not calculating or cruel. She had no will to inflict harm on others.
In the solitude of his quarters, Dhega could admit it was only one of the many reasons why he was so captivated by her.