“Not often,” Lara said. “I can tell you that this revolt of Hetar’s women will also cause many men of the lower orders to rally to your side. The farmers cannot plant and bring in crops without help.”
“The women who ordinarily might help in the fields will not,” Gillian said and now she was smiling in earnest. “And the small merchants will not like a war. They cannot earn a living if their sons are gone fighting. There will be no cubits to purchase their foodstuffs or other goods. You are a clever woman, Lara, Domina of Terah.”
“Then you will help me to prevent this war?” She felt her spell beginning to weaken.
Lady Gillian nodded. “Will we speak again?”
“Soon,” Lara promised and then she let herself fade away into sleep as her companion disappeared, as well.
Over the next few weeks Lara burned the magic powder she had formulated and slipped onto the Dream Plain during the night to speak with other women in Hetar. By observing Hetar in her reflecting bowl she was able to find women of intellect and backbone who were not at all content with the status quo. Many were located in the quarter where the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the Mercenaries were housed. Others she found, to her surprise, among the women who lived in the Garden District, the area inhabited by the Crusader Knights. Her stepmother, Susanna, was not among those, however; Susanna would speak up only in defense of her husband and sons.
Lara sought discontent among the women of the Midlands, and there she found a hotbed of anger to serve her purpose. In the Coastal Kingdom the women were feeling like second-class citizens as Hetar’s magnates took their lands and polluted the air with their factories. Even in the forest the concubines of the Forest Lords were becoming more and more unhappy with their lot in life. The women in the Outlands, however, were too beaten down to be appealed to. They would have to see women in the other provinces of Hetar rise up before they would join their own voices to those already protesting.
Having found these women and seen their unhappiness, Lara began bringing them to the Dream Plain to speak with them. Winterfest had come and gone and it was but another month to spring. Now Lara brought not just one woman at a time, but groups of women whom she encouraged to speak up before their lives and those of their families were completely destroyed by the greed of their emperor and his cronies. But having found their voice, the women of Hetar were not certain what to do with it.
“You must march to the emperor’s palace,” Lara told them.
“In the Golden District?” one woman said. “The guards will stop us.”
“Nay, they will not. They will be so surprised by a great mob of women that they will be confused and not certain what to do. And Gaius Prospero’s greatest fear will be for his empress, Shifra the Fair,” Lara told them.
“We must have a list of demands drawn up,” Lady Gillian said.
“And if all we seek at first is to put those demands in the emperor’s hands,” another woman from the Midlands spoke up, “who can fault us?”
“But you must be certain that you see the emperor. Do not let Lord Jonah intercede for him,” Lara said. “He will attempt to prevent Gaius Prospero from hearing your voices. Remember that the war is to his advantage,” she reminded them. “It is rumored that he seeks to take Gaius Prospero’s place.”
“A wily snake in exchange for a fat rat?” the wife of a Coastal King said. “’Tis not a good trade, I’m thinking.”
And the other women laughed.
“Do not be distracted by that rumor,” Lara told them. “Your single purpose is to stop a futile war, to force Hetar to deal with Terah diplomatically. I have told each of you individually and I tell you as a group, I mean no harm to my native land, and my husband, the Dominus of Terah means no harm to you or to Hetar. He is a man of peace and loves his own land. To be honest, he does not like Hetar,” she concluded with a small smile. “I don’t think he’d have you even if you offered yourselves to him.”
To her relief the women clustered about her on the Dream Plain laughed aloud.
“How can you live in Terah when you have known the glory of Hetar?” a mercenary’s wife asked frankly.
“I love my husband,” Lara told them simply, allowing them to believe that she was making a great sacrifice.
There was much nodding among the group, but Lady Gillian caught Lara’s eye with her own, a small smile touching her lips. She had come to like Lara over the past weeks on the Dream Plain and realized now that, while she once might have made a magnificent Pleasure Woman, her true talents would have been wasted. Perhaps it was fortunate that Lara’s beauty had caused such dissent among the Pleasure Guilds that they had had to forbid the sale in an effort to keep the peace. If women could indeed rule as men ruled, Lara would make a great leader, Gillian thought.
IN THE CITY THE TIME was drawing near for war with Terah. There were parades every day. Crusader Knights in their armor on their great war horses, squires and pages going before them with flags and music. The Guild of Mercenaries marched wearing their leather breastplates and helmets, carrying their weapons. But oddly, there seemed to be little enthusiasm for these displays of military might.
And then upon a bright and sunny spring morning an enormous crowd of women left their homes and their hovels to march through the streets of The City. They were women of all classes and ages, done up in their very best clothing. They were led by the lady Gillian, and the fact that they were silent as they marched was just the tiniest bit menacing. Only the stamp-stamp of their feet could be heard echoing through the narrow streets and across the open market spaces. When they reached the gates of the Golden District the guards, as Lara had predicted, fell back in the face of their might and allowed them through.
Silently the women marched on toward the emperor’s palace, tramping down the graveled paths of the Golden District beneath the budding trees with their new yellow-green leaves. And when Gaius Prospero’s enlarged house, which was now a palace, came into view, the women stopped briefly, amazed, for few of them had ever even seen it. Then as one they moved toward it, and the men guarding the entrance to the palace gaped in surprise to see the huge crowd of women approaching. But the women were quiet and, while menacing, did not seem violent.
“Halt!” One of the guards said as the women stopped before them, “Why has this mob assembled?”
“I am Lady Gillian, headmistress of the Pleasure Guilds,” Gillian said. “We wish to see the emperor. Tell him the women of Hetar are not pleased with him. We are not pleased at all.” She waved her hand at the guardsman. “Go! Hurry!” And she almost laughed, as did many of the women, as the guard scampered away, leaving his mate to protect the entrance to the palace.
After many long minutes, as Lara had predicted, an official appeared from inside the palace. He glared at them-as if his look could quell them. “What is it you want?” he demanded in a high-pitched voice.
“We wish to see the emperor,” Lady Gillian replied.
“The emperor cannot take time from his day to see a bunch of noisy women,” the official said to them. “Be gone back to your husbands and masters!”
“We wish to see the fat slug who calls himself our emperor and who would lead us once again into misfortune,” Lady Gillian said firmly. “We will wait until he completes his
The official’s mouth fell open in surprise. He recognized Lady Gillian and was horrified to see her a part of what appeared to be a undisciplined rabble.
And then Lady Gillian raised her hand and pointed a single finger at him. “Go!” she said in a stern voice, and the official turned and hurried off.
Seeking out the emperor’s right hand, the official told Lord Jonah of the women now waiting before the gates of the palace.
“Who are they?” Jonah asked the man.
“They seem to be women of all classes, my lord,” the official said.
“Do you recognize any?”
“The headmistress of the Pleasure Guild,” the man replied. “There are other women of high caste, as well as those who are poor. I even thought I saw Maeve Scarlet.”
“And exactly what do they want?” Jonah asked.
“They say to see the emperor. I told them the emperor was busy but they refused to leave. My lord, it is as if they are all bewitched. I have never seen women behave as they are behaving. It is quite shocking,” the official said.
Jonah considered for several long minutes during which the official shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Finally he said, “I will speak with them myself,” and hurried from the chamber. He moved swiftly through the
