by Gwen Benaway
They reached the cell just as the final syllables of Sindy’s spell fell into place, launching all the energy she had been gathering at the spot that Kai had indicated. The cell wall held for a moment before cracking and exploding outward. A backwash of super-heated air rolled out of the cell, scouring the corridor clean. Where a moment before there had been a crowd of orcs all jostling for position, now there was nothing apart from a few scraps of twisted, molten iron.
For a few moments, everything was silent apart from the pinging of cooling stone. Then, with a creak and a crunch, the door to the cell in which the four women had hidden themselves was shoved outwards, falling from it’s now twisted frame to the floor. They looked out, across the passageway and into the cell opposite. The doorway now framed a view of the clear blue sky. A breeze blew in, caressing their faces, already helping to dispel the smell of the inside of the orcish stronghold.
“What did she do?” Mirabella said, awed and slightly terrified.
“Where is she?” Kai asked.
The Bitch pointed. “There.”
Apparently entirely unharmed apart from a profound lack of consciousness, Sindy lay in the middle of the cell, a light coating of ash and dust covering her from head to toe. As Mirabella got closer to her friend, she saw that, actually, Sindy wasn’t entirely unharmed. The palm of her left hand, the one in which she had held the torch, was red and blistered.
“You’re going to need this,” The Bitch said, handing Kai back her axe before moving past the halfling and, not entirely ungently, picking up Sindy. She looked tiny in the larger woman’s arms.
“We need to go. We’ve still got to get away from here,” she added.
Scrambling through the hole, they found themselves standing about halfway up the hillside. The force of the explosion had wrecked much of the hill around them, and rubble had even showered down and smashed open part of the surrounding wall. They didn’t need any discussion to hurl themselves headlong down and out onto the plains. Even without any obvious signs of pursuit they didn’t stop until they reached the edge of the forest.
Once under cover of the trees, they stopped and almost fell to the ground. Even Farielle was covered in sweat.
“We can’t rest for long,” Mirabella said. “Come dusk they will have trackers out after us.”
“That’s if they bother,” Farielle replied. “They can’t think that anyone survived that explosion. Surely they will be more worried about patching up that hole?”
“We can’t take the chance. We have to keep moving. We need to get Sindy to a healer.”
“Yeah, this one’s too valuable to let die. I mean, if he wakes up, I’m going to have to think about keeping him around,” The Bitch said with admiration evident in her voice.
Kai wheeled around and shoved the flat of her axe head underneath The Bitch’s chin.
“Before we go any further—and this is not open for any conversation or discussion either now or in the future—she is a woman. Her name is Sindy, and you do not refer to her as ‘him’ or ‘he’ or anything else like that. If you have a problem with that, then you have a problem with me, and that really will be a problem.”
“Hey … whoa there …,” The Bitch said, holding her arms up in total surrender. “It’s no problem at all. Not for me. I’m sorry—I really didn’t realize. I’ve been told more than once that I must be a man. I know how horrible it is. She’s a woman. You’re all women. And really capable ones at that. I should thank you for rescuing me. I don’t actually know what Nhurthr’s plans were but they won’t have been nice.”
“Yes … well … That’s okay then. Just don’t forget,” Kai said.
“And you can thank us by taking us to the Staff,” Mirabella added.
“Really? You really want to get that thing?” The Bitch asked.
“Definitely,” Farielle said.
The Bitch looked around at them and then smiled and nodded.
“I like you,” she said. “You’re my kind of women. Let’s get Sindy sorted out and then let’s go and get this Goddess-damned Staff. I haven’t fought a demon in ages.”
She got to her feet and picked up the human girl once again. The other three followed suit and then, following Farielle, they disappeared further into the forest.
The Knighting
Alexa Fae McDaniel
Daphne was used to blood. She was used to the smell, which was much better out here in the fresh air than it was in the infirmary, where it intermingled with the smell of bedpans that needed to be emptied. She was used to being careful not to slip on blood coated stone tiles, which was a non-issue out here on the sand of the riverfront. She was even used to seeing bodies in such large numbers, like the dozens now scattered across the beach. She just wasn’t used to seeing her hero bleeding, unconscious, and deathly pale. Ever since childhood, Thais had been her idol—strong in ways that Daphne could never be. Thais was the first woman in Epirus ever to be knighted, a renowned warrior never bested in single combat. The three corpses surrounding her probably hadn’t given that kind of fight.
Breaking out of her shock, Daphne stepped down from her carriage and placed a hand near Thais’s mouth to check for breath. She could feel a weak current of warm air.
She still had time.
Daphne carefully hoisted the knight into the carriage, where two other wounded soldiers already lay. There was space for one or two more, but the longer she tarried, the less chance Thais and the other soldiers had for recovery. With a sigh and a frown, Daphne stepped up into the carriage and took hold of the reins.
When they arrived at the infirmary, Daphne carried Thais in first. When Daphne set her down on one of the cots, the growing red stains on the sheets gave an indication of just how quickly the knight was bleeding. One of the infirmary apprentices hurried over carrying a roll of gauze. “Tend to Sir Thais. Right now, please,” Daphne said to him, before rushing back to the carriage to carry the others in.
At some point, the sun had risen. Daphne wasn’t quite sure when. She had lost count of the wounded that she had brought in over her multiple trips—at least two, maybe three dozen, not counting the ones who had been well enough to walk themselves to the infirmary. Even once everyone had been brought to a cot, her work wasn’t done; she was the second-most senior physician available. She had passed the point of feeling hungry and into the territory of gnawing pain in her abdomen—there were too many patients for her to have a chance to eat more than an apricot, which had done little more than whet her appetite. Still, the end of her ordeal was in sight. Those with minor injuries had all been sent home, and most of the severely injured patients had been given emergency treatment and were now resting. For most of them, further procedures such as surgery or having thei bones set would need to wait until Aceso was available, and as the only competent fleshsculptor in the city, she had a long line. All Daphne had to do at this point was eat and keep an eye on the patients in precarious conditions.
As Daphne made her rounds checking on the various wounded, she passed Aceso.
“I’ll be in the surgeon’s quarters tending to Sir Eos. Make sure I’m not interrupted. By the way, your shoulders are tensed,” she said to Daphne. But before Daphne could respond Aceso kept walking.
Daphne pulled in her shoulders, making them seem smaller and less prominent. Even in the middle of a crisis, Aceso nagged her about how she carried herself. Still, at least the fleshsculptor practised what she preached—even as Aceso made her way to the surgeon’s quarters she walked with poise and grace. That was the main reason Daphne bothered to listen to her advice at all—no one ever questioned that Aceso was a woman. She spoke with a woman’s register, she moved in a woman’s gait, and she regularly practised her own magic on herself in order to keep herself in a state of perpetual youth and beauty. She and Daphne may well have been the only ones in the world who knew just how much work she put into her appearance.
Daphne was less sure of how she’d find the energy to carry herself like that when she had so many patients to watch over. Thais was one of those patients. She still couldn’t quite believe that. Yet there she was, the mighty knight with a broken collarbone, several broken ribs, and a terrible cut on her left thigh that had caused most of her blood loss. Even though Thais was stable and occasionally lucid, Daphne needed to check on her for a fever or poor circulation every so often in case one of the apprentices had wrapped the bandage too tight or hadn’t disinfected the wound sufficiently.
Daphne felt along Thais’s shin, below the bandage. It was warm to the touch and covered in coarse brown hairs. Although Daphne didn’t particularly want leg hair, she was still a bit envious that Thais didn’t have to spend so much time and energy doing little, meaningless things like shaving. Aceso would have been aghast if Daphne went so much as a few days without taking half an hour to shave her legs.
“Do you normally take so long feeling patient’s legs?” Thais asked, tilting her head a bit off her pillow to look over at Daphne.
“Sorry. I was just, uh, checking your circulation. One of the apprentices had wrapped your last bandage poorly, so I wanted to make sure that this one was alright. How do you feel?”
“A bit like I was hit with an axe a few times. I can’t possibly imagine why.”
“That’s to be expected. How do you feel as far as your temperature goes? Too hot, too cold?” Daphne asked as she felt Thais’s forehead.
“No such thing as too hot, but I will admit that if anybody were, it’d be me.” Thais clicked her tongue as she winked at Daphne, though even the simple facial movement was clearly taking quite a bit of effort. As far as Daphne could tell, Thais didn’t have a fever, and though that sort of flirting would have normally made Daphne a bit warm herself, Thais’s pallor somewhat lessened the effect.
“That’s good to hear. Alright, you seem to be recovering well enough. Sorry that I can’t stay to keep you company, but I’d best go check on some of the other patients.”
“Fine. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”
As Daphne turned, a woman approached her carrying a compartmentalised golden case holding at least a dozen scrolls. Before Daphne could greet her, the woman turned to Thais, hardly giving Daphne a glance as she removed a scroll from the case and laid it on the bedridden knight’s lap. “Sir Thais. It is my honour to present you with your invitation to tonight’s feast in celebration of our victory on the shores of the river Arachthos.” Despite the formality of the words themselves, she spoke with a rather bored tone as though reading froma particularly dry script.
“As long as Miticus is cooking, I’m happy to be there. Thank you, Isadora.” Thais said without so much as lifting her head off of her pillow.
“My pleasure, Sir Thais.” She said, before turning on her heels and looking Daphne up and down. “Now, not to be rude, but which one are you?”
It was a question that Daphne heard some variation of several times a day. When she had gone to Aceso in order to look more feminine, the fleshsculptor prescribed that Daphne model the exact same sort of femininity that she did. Eternal youth, silky uncut hair only at the top of her head, and a face exactly like the Queen’s when she was young. “Everyone knows that Queen Eurydice of Epirus is the most beautiful woman in the world,” Aceso had said to her, “and since we must be beautiful, we must look like her.” Daphne never looked exactly like Eurydice—the Queen was already more than fifty years old when Daphne came out as a woman, and Aceso insisted on using a portrait of a much younger Queen as a model—but she did look exactly like the fleshsculptor, who was herself following the same beauty regimen even though Aceso was the same age as the Queen herself.
“Sorry, I’m Daphne. If you’re looking for Aceso, I’m afraid you may need to wait until she’s finished with her current patient.”
“No, you’re the one I’m looking for,” the woman said as she procured a scroll with the Queen’s seal. “Daphne, daughter of Kassandra, it is my honour to present you with your invitation to tonight’s feast, where you are to be dubbed a knight before the Queen’s court. I advise that you arrive early so that you may be briefed on how to conduct yourself during the ceremony.”
Before Daphne could respond, Thais interrupted, “Fantastic! Good for you, welcome to the club, Sir Daphne!”
Daphne was too caught off guard to feign celebration. “Don’t call me that, please,” she said, almost without thinking. Thais and Isadora both gave her an odd look as she reddened. “Sorry. I, just, um … why? If I may ask, I mean, I didn’t … I didn’t really do anything in the battle, is all.”
“It is my understanding, and the understanding of the Queen, that you were instrumental in rescuing a number of knights and militia members. Is this not the case?”
Thais interrupted again before Daphne could respond. “That is absolutely the case. Come on, Daphne, you deserve it. You saved me and who knows how many other people. That’s more than most of us did to get knighted.”
Thais and Isadora both looked at Daphne in expectation for a moment as she tried to find the words to respond. “Right, yes, of course, I suppose I did. And it’d be foolish not to accept such an honour from the Queen. Ah, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go tend to some of my other patients.” Daphne bowed her head slightly as she quickly made her way to another room, invitation in hand. This was too much for her to process right in front of a knight and the Queen’s seneschal.
It was almost noon by the time Daphne and Aceso could both take a break at the same time. Daphne had been making a point of tending to the patients just outside of Aceso’s office so that she might sneak a word in one of the few short breaks that Aceso took to have a bite to eat, and as soon as she saw the fleshsculptor head into her office, Daphne was quick to follow.
“Uh, sorry, do you have a moment? There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
“Of course, dear, what do you need?” Aceso asked, giving a small smile. Daphne couldn’t help but feel that Aceso was lying, making time that she didn’t have. Still, Daphne continued.
“The Queen’s seneschal was here. I think her name was Isadora? She gave me this.”
Daphne passed the invitation to Aceso, who took a moment to read it. First her smile widened, but it disappeared as she read further down the page. “Oh. I’m sorry, dear. This must be quite a bit for you to process.”
As often as Aceso’s little assumptions about how Daphne felt at any given moment were irritating, they were sometimes right. Daphne gave a nod.
“Well,” Aceso said, setting the invitation on her desk. “We don’t really have much time to think of a response, do we? Do you plan on going?”
“I have to, don’t I? It’s the Queen, I don’t really think I have a choice.”
“Of course you have a choice. You are absolutely permitted to refuse. I can even say that I need you here, tending to patients, if you like. If you do refuse, however, it’s polite to at least respond, and she’ll likely keep trying to arrange a knighting ceremony unless you explain the situation to her.”
“If I decide not to be knighted, you mean.”
“I would advise against accepting the offer. ‘Sir’ isn’t exactly the most feminine title.”
“I don’t know. I mean, it’s an honour, isn’t it? And there are other women who are knights, aren’t there?”
“Three lady-knights aren’t exactly enough to change how masculine the word is. People will go to the castle and see knights and expect them to be men until they take their helmets off.”
“I suppose so. It just, I don’t know, seems like a bit of a waste to turn down this sort of opportunity.”
Aceso sighed as she stepped forward to clasp Daphne’s hands in her own. “Daphne, dear, I just don’t want you to be hurt, is all. And being called Sir every day, several times a day … I certainly wouldn
’t be keen on it.” Before waiting for Daphne’s reply, Aceso started toward the door, glancing back as she did. “In any case, think about it some more while we tend to the wounded, yes? It wouldn’t be at all a stretch of imagination to say that you needed to stay here and work tonight.”
“Thank you,” Daphne began, but the fleshsculptor was already out the door and tending to patients. She supposed that she ought to do the same. Thais in particular needed her attention, now that Daphne knew that she was likely going to be back on her feet by nighttime. Sighing, Daphne made her way from Aceso’s office and back toward the infirmary proper.
“Excited?” Thais asked as soon as Daphne stepped into her chamber.
Daphne gave a small smile and thought about giving a white lie of an answer. Thais certainly seemed excited, and Daphne didn’t want to dampen the knight’s spirit. Still, her face would probably have given it away sooner or later. “Not really. Sorry.”
“Hey, that’s alright. Usually I’m not either. It’s all so formal and boring, and the Queen Euridice gives these excruciatingly long speeches. But still, the food’s fantastic, and you’re getting knighted! You’re the toast of the town, so enjoy it while it lasts, yeah?”
“Uh, that’s not really it. I mean, honestly after the really busy day and a half I’ve had, a nice boring dinner would be welcome. It’s just, um … I’m not really sure how I feel about being called Sir and all,” Daphne said with a sigh as she sat down at the foot of the bed.
“Oh.” Silence hung in the air for a moment as Thais tried to figure out how to best respond. “I mean, I get called Sir all the time. It’s not really a gendered thing anymore.”
“Um, I’m sorry, it’s just that… You know, just because there’s a couple of knights who are women doesn’t make the word feel less masculine, right? Does that make sense?”
“Not really. Or at least, I don’t get it. But if it bothers you, then it bothers you, I guess. Is there anything I can do to help, maybe?”