My Pop lost a wife and now his daughter had gone missing. He’d loved Mom; he’d told me time and again they were the perfect match, made for each other. He’d dated, he was a good-looking guy, but he never got even close to serious with any of the women he’d had in his life. No one could replace Mom, I knew. He’d never said that but I knew it.
And he loved me, totally and completely, and he’d be sick with worry that I’d disappeared.
I also worried about my friends who I knew would worry about me. And I worried about the state of the office because, Lord knew, those guys didn’t know where anything was, they’d mess everything up and they’d do it in a way where it would take me a year to get it back the way I liked it.
I didn’t know what to do but, even so, I felt guilt that I wasn’t doing anything. And more guilt that I had laughed here, cheered here, smiled here, had sex I enjoyed with a man here and got myself a freaking pet.
“What am I doing?” I whispered to the tent and Ghost jumped up, all four paws landing on my chest and belly. I grunted, then giggled, then wrapped my arms around Ghost who squirmed and I heard the tent flap slap back.
I looked to see the girls streaming through, Teetru coming straight to me, Jacanda dragging the tub, Gaal, Beetus and Packa all following her with buckets of steaming water. Their faces were smiling but their manner was urgent.
Oh well.
One step at a time.
Teetru came to me, snatched Ghost off my chest and dropped her on her feet on the ground. Then she tugged at the sheet once, smiled at me and scurried off, coming back in seconds with my robe.
First step, get up.
I was sitting at the table taking my next step which was eating the breakfast Teetru served of passionfruit and grain mixed with a thick, velvety, sweetened cream cheese (totally delicious) and coffee when I heard a call of, “Poyah!”, the tent flap slapped back and Diandra and Sheena were there dressed, for the Korwahks, to the nines.
“Hey,” I smiled at them, taking in their cool-as-shit fancy duds.
“You will not believe what’s happened, Dahksahna Circe!” Diandra cried then didn’t wait for me to respond, she clapped her hands together in front of her and semi-yelled, “The Dax sent word to Seerim! He wants me to act as your translator! Isn’t that wonderful?”
I stared at her, Sheena grinned with pleasure for her Mom and then Diandra grabbed her daughter’s hand and dashed over to the trunks, all the while babbling.
“We must hurry. The ceremony is fast approaching and there is much to do to prepare you,” she straightened from the trunks and whirled to me, eyes bright, “and I get to stand on the dais next to my queen and translate!” She clapped her hands again and whirled back to the trunks, dropping to her knees where Sheena already was digging through. “I must tell you, Dahksahna Circe, this pleases me greatly. For years, my boys have been gone, in training. And Sheena, she’s not a baby anymore. She’s off and about with her friends, at her studies. Seerim is busy with training his warriors so I rarely see him. I’m alone a lot, too much and sometimes, it’s difficult to find things to do.” Her head twisted to me. “And now I have something to do and it is an important something being interpreter to our queen!”
She smiled and I smiled back at her. I couldn’t help it. Her excitement was catching.
Then Jacanda came forward, took my hand and pulled gently. I stood, grabbing my coffee cup and taking the last sip before I put the cup down and allowed her to lead me to the bath.
“Uh…” I started as I moved through the tent, “speaking of interpreting. Some things happened last night.”
“Oh I know!” Diandra cried, still digging through the trunks, Sheena at her side holding a sarong up and studying it. “It’s all over the camp. Well done you again!”
“Well done me?” I asked, allowing Jacanda to take away my robe and I quickly stepped into the warm, milky, fragrant bath.
“More proof you are the rahna Dahksahna,” Diandra answered, slipping the sarong Sheena was holding from her fingers then carrying a bunch of stuff in her arms to the bed and dumping it there. She turned to me and put her hands to her hips and I was pleased the milky water and floating flower blossoms covered me up to my chest. “How did you do it?”
“Do what?” I asked as I tipped my head back and Gaal poured fragrant, warm water over my hair.
“Consume the zakah?” she asked.
I blinked water out of my eyes and turned to Diandra.
“Zakah?” I asked back.
“The distilled spirit they drink.” Her face twisted. “I do not know a woman who can abide it. It’s a man’s drink and not even that, it’s so strong and foul, it’s a warrior’s drink. Tales sweeping the camp say you didn’t even make a face.”
“Uh… in my, um… land, we drink shots like that all the time. Not that raw but –”
“Unusual,” she muttered, interrupting me and whirled back to the bed where Sheena was separating clothing. “Well, even young warriors cannot drink it for the first time without gasping for breath or spitting it out. Learning to consume it in vast quantities is part of being a warrior.”
There it was. Guys were guys in this world, my world, probably every world.
“You honored a warrior with your accolades too,” she went on. “It is said you watched with avid interest. Another thing wives do not do. They were deeply impressed.”
I definitely got that.
“Diandra?” I called and changed the subject, “Lahn and Dortak fought last night –”
She turned to me and announced, “This, too, is sweeping the camp.”
I had no doubt.
“It was…” I made a face but didn’t go on.
“Not less than he deserved,” she declared, her expression going slightly hard. “Seerim told me he dishonored the games. Unlike in my land or, I am sensing, in yours, these acts amongst men and women are not as guarded, they do not happen always behind cham flaps. If there is a celebration or the men come back from war or plunder, it often gets quite,” she paused to search for a word, “sordid, as we would see it in our lands. And, I will say, there are other times too. They do not hide these things. But the games are a gathering of warriors, it is about men, strength, fortitude, cunning. It was not looked upon positively he did that to his bride, it was not looked upon positively that he even brought her considering it is clear he carries no feelings for her. And it was even less agreeable that he challenged the Dax to a match and did it armed. You do not fight in the games armed. That is not done.”
I got that last night too.
Gaal lathered my hair as I caught Diandra’s eyes and whispered, “But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about Lahn killing him.”
She waved a hand in front of her face and breathed out, “Oh posh! He left his mark on him and Seerim told me it was a short blade. A flesh wound. Dortak, unfortunately, will be up and about in a few days. Dax Lahn knew what he was doing. Dortak is attended by healers and he’ll be just fine.” She leaned toward me. “But he’ll carry the Dax’s marks for all to see until he’s foolish enough to extend the true challenge and his headless body will burn carrying the marks of the Dax. This was the Dax’s intention. This was his punishment for dishonoring the games, a punishment I heard the Dax seemed not to intend to carry out, likely because you were in attendance but Dortak, in all his wisdom, essentially asked for it. And the Dax, given the opportunity, as you witnessed last night, does not hesitate in meting out punishment.”
Oh yes. I witnessed that last night.
Gaal whispered something to me, I’d heard it before, it included the word linas, which I’d figured out was eyes, so I closed my eyes and she rinsed my hair with another jug of warm water.
Diandra said something to Sheena and I opened my eyes, wiped the water from them and Gaal massaged what I suspected was a kind of conditioner in my hair for this was what she did the last two mornings. It didn’t lather but when my hair was dry, it left it shiny and soft. Or maybe the gunk they put into it did that. I saw Sheena move to Teetru who was sorting through the smaller trunks that held my jewelry. Sheena smiled at Teetru and they carried on digging through the trunks.
