"I swam here," Hypatia half-answered. At this point the other woman in the room stormed off, leaving them alone in the wild night.
"And you're a princess?" he asked, looking at her sideways as he began to pace.
"Yes," she answered. At this he stopped and started to gesticulate a little wildly.
"And why are you here?" he asked, throwing his hands in the air.
"I- I am fleeing...an arranged marriage." She cowered a little under her blanket and Belial began to pace again. He massaged his chin, thinking.
"An arranged marriage... To whom?"
Her words came out in a disgruntled sigh, "Prince Satus, my brother."
Belial looked shocked and stopped pacing. His hand fell from his chin. "What? You are supposed to marry your brother?" he nearly shouted at her. She rearranged her arms inside her blanket.
"Why? Is, is that not the custom here?" the girl asked.
"No, no, that type of thing is illegal here. Is it everyone that does this in the West?" he asked.
"No, mostly just the royalty." She paused.
Belial looked thoughtful as he inhaled from his smoke stick. He began to pace, hands behind his back. "And you are royalty?" he asked skeptically.
Even though she was nationless and naked she held her chin high with impenetrable dignity as she replied, "Yes. I am Princess Hypatia Windsor of Laodicea in the Western kingdom."
"Is there any way to prove that?" Belial questioned as he walked away from Hypatia, only to turn around and come back.
"I...well, no, I don't imagine there is. All I can do is offer you my word," Hypatia said, quaking slightly.
"I'll be sending emissaries to the West to confirm that their princess is missing, of course," Belial said, almost to himself. Hypatia's eye grew wide.
"Oh, but your highness, you won't give me back to them, will you? I can't marry my brother! Please, I'll do anything!" she pleaded, hopeful beyond measure. There were a few tense, silent moments that could have been years while the King considered the half nude girl with fair yellow hair and blue, actual blue eyes. She was like a colored jewel among black stones to him. He had stopped pacing and was massaging his chin again.
"No," he said slowly. "I think not".
"Thank Boj!" The girl proclaimed and actually twirled in a circle; and Belial allowed himself a small smile.
But even as this girl's dream came true, another's were crashing down around her. The woman who had left the room was in her new chambers seething. Why had this happened, tonight, on her wedding night of all nights?! Who was that tramp and where did she come from? Delita's mind raced, considering options. She sat at her mirror, taking off her make up in jagged, tearing motions, but greater action was called for. Since she was supposed to be sharing the King's bed until morning, her things had not been put away yet. She stood up and was still for just one second before she began to thrash and grab and tear and fling everything that was hers. She ripped at furs and pulled at pearls, grabbing silk and taffeta and velvet dresses and throwing them across the room. Boxes and bags were upended and stomped on: detritus lay everywhere. In all her rage, the only thing that remained unmolested was a stand with a huge black bird sitting on it. All throughout her fit the bird simply watched, unnerved and confident in his station. Only the shine in his black eyes marked them as anything different than feathers, so black was he.
------
Hypatia was over the moon. She hardly listened as the King called in servants and had them take her to empty chambers. "Have her report to me at breakfast," he had said, though Hypatia had barely heard him. She had done it! She had escaped! And she had not even died getting here. She had already met the King and he seemed not to disfavor her. And everything was so beautiful! Windows were carved wooden filigree in complex patterns or else alight with stained glass. The lighting was artful and came from real fire. Everywhere she looked there was lush fabric, the drapes of every room stood out especially. Each curtain had three different layers with three different colors and patterns. Even the people were elegantly beautiful with eyes that folded and hid their upper eyelids. Their skin tone was darker than Hypatia's pale white but not as dark as the women who lived in the North, and certainly lighter than those men who lived in the South. It was almost a translucent golden yellow hue, quite lovely in Hypatia's eyes.
Gold did seem to be a theme here: all the furniture was golden. Hypatia wondered if it was paint or if there was some other, subtler way of applying gold to things here. Everything here seemed to glow with craft and beauty, while mystery lay in the shadows. She noticed that some rooms she passed through were not lit and at these times the torch her servant companion carried was all the light around them. In these dark intervals Hypatia gripped Belial's blanket more tightly around her, for that was still all she had to cover her nakedness.
Eventually she found herself in a grand chambers with several rooms. Someone had laid out for her a gauzy night dress she donned as soon as she was alone. The dress was thicker than it looked and Hypatia warmed up as she took a look around. The lighting was again mysterious, with many shadows playing in the corners of the rooms. She had a receiving room with a low table and cushions around it. Flowers sat in an elegant vase in one corner and a small fountain trickled in the other. The sound reminded Hypatia that she was in desperate need to relieve herself and she looked for the bathroom. It was off the bedroom; there was a veritable pool for a tub and the whole place was done in white marble with high ceilings and gold fixtures. Lovely blue, yellow and red curtains framed the dark window and the floor was done in ornate tiling. It also smelled incredible, like vanilla and oleander with a hint of cinnamon, or some other rich scent.
Hypatia relieved herself and then went back to the bedroom and examined the bed. These people have a fondness for color she thought as she peeled back layers of crimson, violet and viridian green. How different from the austere white of her former home, she thought, and found her way to the last remaining room. It was a large closet, full of vibrant and elegant dresses. She flipped her way through some of these before she noticed a wall of many drawers. She approached and slowly reached for one, wondering what she might find inside. In the drawer was fantastic jewelry with huge gems and large pearls. Braids of silver and ropes of gold lay in concentric circles in the drawers. Another drawer was full of metal hair ornaments, or so Hypatia thought. In the West there had always been a utilitarian underpinning to all the buildings and design. This land was bursting with beauty, and it teemed from the very seems.
------
In the South, Bair's absence was felt that night. King Publius was livid. He spit at and kicked anyone who came near him, even his mate Sihon. The next morning, he addressed his men. He was bare-chested and in the leather skirt they all wore. He had wooden and metal beads mixed with bones and claws for jewelry. From each ear dangled a snake fang. He paced in front of his men like a caged thing and looked them all in the eye as he passed.
He stopped in front of a shorter boy and squinted at him. "You know what I hate?" King Publius addressed the scared boy. He drew his face close. "Bleeders" he hissed and as if from nowhere his fist came at the young man and connected with his nose. Blood immediately spilled from the boy's right nostril and Publius roared with laughter. All the men laughed at the blood. Eventually Publius held up his hand for quiet and there was silence.
"Where is he?" he asked, his voice loud in the quiet now that all the tribe had dispersed. The elders lounged on cushions made of animal hide. They did not immediately speak. Eventually a lanky old man on Publius' left slowly turned his head to look at him with his one good eye. He held out his hand expectantly. Publius ripped a bracelet of copper coins from his wrist and dropped it into the veined, papery hand.
"Somewhere dry," was all the old man said.
------
In the South, Bair's absence was felt that night. King Publius was livid. He spit at and kicked anyone who came near him, even his mate Sihon. The next morning, he addressed his men. He was bare-chested and in the leather skirt they all wore. He had wooden and metal beads mixed with bones and claws for jewelry. From each ear dangled a snake fang. He paced in front of his men like a caged thing and looked them all in the eye as he passed.
He stopped in front of a shorter boy and squinted at him. "You know what I hate?" King Publius addressed the scared boy. He drew his face close. "Bleeders" he hissed and as if from nowhere his fist came at the young man and connected with his nose. Blood immediately spilled from the boy's right nostril and Publius roared with laughter. All the men laughed at the blood. Eventually Publius held up his hand for quiet and there was silence.
"Listen up maggots. One of ours is missing and I want him found. The tribe's honor is at stake! If any of the infidels have him, we're all to blame. You worms here," he indicated half his men, "go North. You pricks search South," he waved at the rest. "And don't forget to hunt your fair share!" he barked. "Dismissed!" he yelled and turned back to the fire, instantly forgetting the pain he had just caused.
There, as always, were the old men. Malformed, corrupt, decrepit. Lounging about the fire, white hair shocking against their black skin. Each man had a large staff of Yew. Publius hated them like fire but what could he do? They were the Oracles. They knew things he did not, although they wouldn't so much as speak a word without the coins. Publius must go to them bearing gifts on bended knee. He must have their approval for almost any decision he made that concerned the tribe. They were too old in body to hunt or work and valued themselves too highly to do either; each old man contributing to the supernatural demonstrations that bespoke the truth. These Publius took less seriously but he was rarely set square against the council. This morning he addressed them with one question.
"Where is he?" he asked, his voice loud in the quiet now that all the tribe had dispersed. The elders lounged on cushions made of animal hide. They did not immediately speak. Eventually a lanky old man on Publius' left slowly turned his head to look at him with his one good eye. He held out his hand expectantly. Publius ripped a bracelet of copper coins from his wrist and dropped it into the veined, papery hand.
"Somewhere dry," was all the old man said.
Publius snorted and walked away.
------
In the North, Stella and Lux were having a breakfast of quiche brought to them that they enjoyed with fresh grapefruit juice and crystal clear water from the river. They were both dressed and ready for their unusual day. They would be spending a lot of time flying and would be in need of free range of movement when they found a man. They needed to be prepared. The women who had a daughter stayed behind with her, but those childless would go seeking seed to sow more daughters and expand the tribe. The entire community was preparing for something close to combat. The men never came quietly and the deed was unpleasant. The whole process was unnerving but desperately needed. Fewer daughters than ever ran through the campsites and the whole tribe almost seemed to be shrinking. Today would be a critical day.
Lux followed Romala out when they were both dressed. The rest of the women were doing the same. The pine trees used for the magic of flight were not far but required a short walk. Morning light with its charmed hue lit on the pine needles as the group of women approached. Romala was the first to actually jump up into a tree. She carried with her a small ax and, having found a serviceable branch, she began to hack it down. The other women followed suit. Soon the area was full of the sound of whacks and thwacks. Lux had gone off on her own a little and was looking for a low hanging branch where she would not have to jump into the tree. A further ways off from the rest she found a beautiful sweeping branch that was hanging down so low it almost touched the ground. Delighted, Stella cut the branch at a good length and thanked the tree for its sacrifice. She felt and saw the slight shiver in the other branches and needles that let her know the tree was content with its gift. Lux made her way back towards the sound of the tribe, which was dying down as most women had cut their pine branch. They were all long and sturdy with a bristle of pine branches and nettles at one end.
"Ready, ladies?" Romala called out and gave a devilish grin. "Happy hunting," she said loudly, as she swung her leg over her branch. She reached into a belt on her waist and pulled out a powder which she sprinkled into the pine nettles at the end of her branch. The other women did the same. Lux retrieved powdered Birch bark from a pouch at her waist and sprinkled it into the pine needles at the end of her branch. At the same time she was whispering and concentrating and pushing upwards with her mind.
She had already infused the Birch bark with her magic and now all that was needed was a little direction. Soon she rose above like the rest, a pack of shadows in the sky. No one noticed that Lux was the last to leave, or that she did not seem to follow the rest. Something about the desert still called to her and she heard it on the wind and in the trees that the desert plants had something to tell her. Lux was not feeling particularly kind towards the tribe at the moment and their purpose for the day escaped her. She would take the day away from the tribe to scour the desert in search for she knew not what...
------
Belial was overwhelmed by all the women. His harem, his late wife, his new wife, and this new addition were all tumbling around him in a horrendous brigade. But it had been his choice to keep the new girl, and that knowledge steadied him. He could still choose. He was in charge. He breathed deeply as he sat in his study before breakfast. He would have to entertain the new addition, or at least find something for her to do. She would be having breakfast with him, and he thought it might be a good time to ask her further questions about life in the West. He would not favor her too clearly, however, since he was not looking for any additional women to join his bed.
The idea that he might ought to have breakfast with his new bride quietly slipped his mind. Belial got up and made his way out of his chambers and down to the dining room. He was a little apprehensive about seeing the girl again and he vaguely wondered what she would look like in clothing. She was not present when he got there but arrived shortly after him.
The young girl was arrayed in ice blue silk with a coral peach under robe and a pearl ornament in her hair. Her pale complexion was flattered by the color palette and her lips were rouged pink. Belial was struck by how lovely she looked, albeit she was a fragile beauty. She had not looked anywhere near so well on their first meeting when she had climbed the stair wet and naked. She had glowed a little at the time, but it was nothing to how she shined now. Her silvery blonde hair was radiant like no other person's hair in all the East. Everyone in Pergamon had black hair unless they dyed it a different color. Though her beauty was foreign, it was not diminished by this. Indeed she was a rare jewel and Belial felt a sudden trepidation at having to talk to her.
------
Hypatia had been dressed by two centaur maids who had layered clothing on her after helping her bathe. Hypatia had never seen a centaur and was amazed at their raw beauty; she particularly appreciated the smooth transition from skin to fur. She had heard that the East had slave creatures, but she did not know that they were half human. The centaur women told her they usually had more time to prepare a woman for the King and that sometimes women sat in myrrh for days on end in preparation. This had intimidated Hypatia and made her a little queasy, but at least she would be more presentable than she was last night. Although, this was all new and he was still a King, so Hypatia felt anxious at seeing him again. She wondered if she could even eat in front of him, or at all. But she recalled that she had had meals with her father who was also a King and felt better about her behavior. She would just be very calm and passive, like a pool of water.
She spun around in a mirror after dressing and decided she liked very much the fashion of this new land. Her old clothes were more a daily uniform than anything, quite unlike these tailored yet drapey gowns that cinched at the waist with a sash but were full in the arm. She thought the look of her new home suited her.
The King greeted her a little stiffly as she sat at his table and the centaur servants disappeared. They were quietly alone again. She blushed a little and looked down and he cleared his throat. "Are you well?" he asked and looked at her. She looked up and met his eye.
"Quite well," she assured him.
"And your quarters, your clothing, they are all acceptable?" he questioned her, reaching for his glass of water.
"Yes my lord, quite acceptable. Thank you." she answered and dropped her eyes from his gaze.
"Good, good," he nearly muttered, as if to himself. They sat in silence for a time. Belial ate grilled watermelon with sweet cakes while Hypatia ate nothing.
------
King Publius fretted and stomped and paced all day. His favorite punching toy was missing. Where could Bairfinias have gone? What could he be doing? Publius snapped at any emissaries that came back without news of Bair. He even questioned the council again about Bair's whereabouts and received a most ridiculous answer.
"With a woman!" the old men said in frightening unison and then they all looked up. Publius turned to where they were looking. A small cloud of dark shapes was coming at them from the sky. His heart crashed inside him and his breath caught in his throat. Witches! From the North! Flying in the air like vultures to humiliate and rob them. Publius knew there were more not in this main clump that scoured the edges of their land searching for any male body around. All around the fire men and boys scattered away from the incoming hoard. Women crashed to the ground and pointed small pieces of wood at his men, freezing any man they touched with colored fire.
Publius did not feel like running and instead stayed to fight. They were only women, after all. This was his last thought as he was hit in the back by a streak of silver. He fell forward onto his face and stayed down. Eventually a shadow fell over him and booted feet approached. A foot jabbed underneath him and flipped him over. He was looking up into the face of a dark woman. Her hair was somewhat like his, though the curl seemed loser. All around him women were pinpointing his men and turning them rigid with their magic.
------
Romala had landed next to her prey. He was the biggest one, as far as she could see. She liked that even though he was large he could not turn her away. She swaggered up to him and stared into his frozen face. They both had brown eyes, she noted, and similar hair. He was wearing many necklaces of wooden beads that would have jangled above his flat stomach and black leather kilt. On his legs and feet were tall leather boots, also in black. They came above the knee and seemed more like armour than clothing. On his wrists were primitive wooden bracelets. Romala sneered at these; her own bracelets were complex braids of horsehair and silver.
Once she had taken him, she started the ritual. First she removed the man's kilt by unwrapping it and letting it fall on either side of him. His sex hung limply to the side and Romala stared at it avidly, intrigued by this masculine anomaly. Next she dug around in her belt pouches for the proper herbs to induce sexual arousal. Lavender, cinnamon, ginger and parsley should do. Honey would be nice but it was too messy to travel with, Romala thought as she sprinkled the powders and leaves over the man's dark penis. She then saw it rise in her mind's eye. Romala lowered herself onto the man's lap. The pressure was familiar and unfamiliar to her as she had done this before, but only once every six weeks. The next part was easy and required little more than the mental effort of insisting with her wand that the man's tool render its goods hers. She pointed her wand at his hip, concentrated, and a line of silver light issuing from her wand was all that let her know that she had gotten what she came for as the man himself was frozen, a look of hatred devoid of fear on his face.
------
While Hypatia and Belial dined that morning, a very different scene was happening elsewhere in the castle. The second wife, Delita, was in a high temper. She had not picked up her things from her earlier fit but instead waited for the maids to come. She had a cold breakfast alone in her chambers. Without her husband's favor, her days stretched out in front of her empty and devoid of meaning. She had not even been given a fair chance, a fair shot at winning the king. That other woman, the round-eyed, yellow-haired bitch from the West had ruined everything. Who was she? Why had she come? And most importantly, why did the king seem to favor her so? It was not as if Delita were not comely; she knew herself to be beautiful. But this new beauty, with white skin that blushed pink and hair the color of gold, it maddened her. She could not make herself be more like this new girl anymore than she could move mountains. What she intended to do about it, she did not know.
Several floors up, Belial was watching his new charge follow his main tax collector away, down towards the city. She had seemed willing to explore the kingdom and follow his magistrate around all day. Perhaps she would not be a worry to him as most other women were. He put her from his mind as he settled into his morning work. He reviewed expenditures and charts and checked up on the latest notes his clerks had about the economy. Technically everything in the Eastern kingdom was his. His people paid him out of what they produced for their homes and fields and seed. It had always been so.
But lately the numbers were off. Production was down and mistakes were more frequent. Twice this year shipments had been disrupted and product wasted. Within his kingdom, he had to spread out the resources. His regents had fiefs at the outskirts of his land and protected the perimeter but the cost of shipping supplies to these small castles was great. Each thing had to be accounted for and written down and the cost of oversight was real. The need for honest workers was growing as the pool of likely candidates diminished. The people languished in drink and passion. The city surrounding his royal palace was growing more and more depraved as time wore on. When all women were Gypshas, it was hard to convince men they needed anything else.
------
Back West, the Kingdom of Laodicea was in uproar. Not only had the Princess run away and a royal wedding been put off, but the sex rites for the Summer Solstice had been disrupted. There was no royal couple to gawp at and project onto and envy. There was no wedding full of the glory of the kingdom, there were no vows and no dress and no song. At the moment when Princess Hypatia would have walked out she simply did not. No one had noticed her leaving until she was not where she was supposed to be. Her brother, Satus had waited impatiently for his bride to come to him from the depths of their home, but she had left him waiting at the alter. Eventually the King had actually stood up and put a hand over his eyes and looked into the doors of the castle for his youngest daughter. Everyone had held their breath at such a ridiculous situation. Where was she?
Little did they know she had escaped to the East. At some point Prince Satus, a mask of fury, had stormed down the aisle and into the palace. Though he hardly knew where his sister slept, he found her chambers and saw them empty. Later her dress would be found, ripped open at the side, on a set of stairs that went right into the sea. To the public, she was officially a kidnapping victim, though the suspected culprit was never stated. Rumor ran rampant among the people. Some said she killed herself, drowning herself at sea. Some say pirates came and took her away. Others just thought she was a Princess kidnapped, understanding that she was a thing of value in itself. But for the most part it was decided that it was Prince Satus who would and should get her back. She had almost been his bride, after all, and was therefore his responsibility.
------
While the rest of her tribe targeted his brothers, Lux sought Bair. She did not know exactly what it was she was looking for, but the plants told her it was a gift from the Gods. There was something bigger than small plants but not as big as the large dry cacti lying on the ground several miles into the desert. There was urgency in the way the plants described what they were seeing. Something would need to be done when she got where she was going. High up she flew on her pine branch, then lower and lower as the plants whispered to her that she was near. Suddenly there was a dark shadow on the ground, some distance ahead of her. This must be it, this must be the thing I was dreaming of, Lux thought. She flew in closer. It was a person, a dark-skinned boy curled up near the base of a cactus. At first she was put off, she had been expecting a rare animal or a great desert bird; something useful, something that would have inherent value. Lux was surprised that her treasure was a man, of all things.
She flew down and landed softly next to the boy, who could have been sleeping. The cactus in front of her chatted to her about him, about how he needed food and water and how long he'd been there and how he had taken some of its excretion and it had made him sweaty and crazed. She thanked the plants all around her and felt their consciousnesses recede to a watchful post over the humans. She knelt down and felt the boy's pulse, it was faint but even. She checked his breath and saw that it, too, was even. She felt his forehead and his chest for a heartbeat. He was certainly alive. She wondered if she would wake him if she moved him just so... She held him up a little and pulled one of his arms out from under him.
She looked at their skin next to each other, hers was a lighter brown, but not much lighter. As she was examining their flesh she did not notice the boy's eyes open, but she did notice when he sat up. She lept back and crouched down, ready for anything, but nothing happened. The boy shook his head slowly and touched his forehead and that was all. He did not seem threatened by her or in need of reassurance. Eventually he turned and looked at her and both were startled to see sameness in the other's eyes. Each of them had green eyes. It was rare among both their cultures, so rare that no other in their tribes had these eyes. To find them here, in each other, on this day, after what each had seen about the other, it was more than kismet: it felt like fate.
------
Bair was struck dumb. It was the girl from his crazed dreams of the previous night. And she had green eyes. And she had come to him out of nowhere, at his hour of most need. It felt indescribable. Who was she? Who was this vision with hair ranging from dark red to golden peach? It hung in dreaded locks, with whisking ends dancing over her rounded rear. She wore violet fur and skins in a skirt and midrif-bearing top. Her boots were black leather and she had a long pine branch with her. It dawned on him suddenly: she was a witch. She was one of the witches of the North! He knew her kind from days like this: when his countrymen were being harvested for seed. He instantly grew weary. Their magic was unmatched by anything he knew. Even the old men Oracles could do nothing against them. They used and abused his tribe and then flew away, leaving them not far short of mortal enemies.
This girl, though. This one, had to be different. She had found him out here among all this sand. He watched her wearily. Not breaking the intense eye contact they had, she reached into her belt and pulled out a flask. Her voice cracked as she offered it to him, "I know you need water" she said. He cautiously took it from her, upended it. It tasted better than anything had tasted in his entire life. He had never been so happy to have water. He gave it back to her and thanked her. She also handed him dried fruit, without saying anything. Their hands touched slightly in the exchange and they both looked up at each other: a shock of electricity had run through their hands at their touch.
He thanked her again, chewing the food. It also was the best thing he had ever eaten. He had never had fruit or even sugar. He found it brightened his mood considerably. If he had not just almost died or been sitting in a desert, he would have been enjoying himself. He did not mind being with this woman. She was not attacking him or using any witchcraft that he could see. How strange that he should find solace in an enemy, Bair thought as he looked at Lux. Their green eyes never wavered from each other.
------
Since that morning when Belial breakfasted with a new young woman of striking countenance, with light, light skin and round, blue eyes, it was known throughout the palace. On the heels of his first wife's death and his new marriage, news of another Princess bolstered the public's opinion of Belial as a playboy King. He spent the afternoon accepting regents and masters and all sorts of notable people who seemed to be searching. a little. They peeked around corners and looked down hallways hoping to view the new, exotic conquest. The second wife already forgotten, the servants all wondered if the new Princess would dine with the King, for the gossip of the palace started with them.
The servants were not disappointed. Hypatia did indeed dine with Belial and it was again, just the two of them. He asked her about her day and if she liked her new home. He was surprised by her answers. She spoke to the kindness of strangers and the beauty in the land. She expressed a desire to know more, see more, in articulate, graceful speech. Belial was impressed. An underlying sense of spirit was latent in her: her presence and point of view soothed him. She was like the clear sea; she was more than novel, she was fundamentally different. He let her talk as he picked out a subtle accent in her speech. Though he was enjoying himself, he felt ancient and stolid next to this bubble of freshest water.
------
Hypatia had enjoyed her day. She had seen many parts of the kingdom, spoken to many people, and learned a lot about her new home. She found the people here more original than the masses of uniformed men and women that constituted her subjects back home. Here there was individuality, color, design. The women wore sumptuous fabrics in jewel tones with ropes and strings of jewelry. The men had interesting facial hair and wore jewelry themselves. Everything was loud and bustling and there were vendors down most streets. The tax collector she was following took her many places. There was a pervasive gratitude to her that day. She could not believe her good luck. She had risked her life and been rewarded with a fabulous treasure: a beautiful new home.
At dinner that night Hypatia tried to demonstrate her worth via her voice. She had always felt that her speech was pleasing, and she used it on her new king. She let her words lull him and release him and give him succor. She had done the same thing with her father many times.
"I was most interested," she was saying, pouring milk and honey into her words, "in the potters' house. It seemed to me that one must maintain balance in the flesh in order to best sculpt the clay."
Belial looked at her over arched fingers and said only, "Yes, it is decidedly so."
------
"Why are you here?" the words escaped Bair. The woman appeared to think. She seemed hesitant. Bair rolled over and got to his feet.
While Hypatia and Belial dined that morning, a very different scene was happening elsewhere in the castle. The second wife, Delita, was in a high temper. She had not picked up her things from her earlier fit but instead waited for the maids to come. She had a cold breakfast alone in her chambers. Without her husband's favor, her days stretched out in front of her empty and devoid of meaning. She had not even been given a fair chance, a fair shot at winning the king. That other woman, the round-eyed, yellow-haired bitch from the West had ruined everything. Who was she? Why had she come? And most importantly, why did the king seem to favor her so? It was not as if Delita were not comely; she knew herself to be beautiful. But this new beauty, with white skin that blushed pink and hair the color of gold, it maddened her. She could not make herself be more like this new girl anymore than she could move mountains. What she intended to do about it, she did not know.
Several floors up, Belial was watching his new charge follow his main tax collector away, down towards the city. She had seemed willing to explore the kingdom and follow his magistrate around all day. Perhaps she would not be a worry to him as most other women were. He put her from his mind as he settled into his morning work. He reviewed expenditures and charts and checked up on the latest notes his clerks had about the economy. Technically everything in the Eastern kingdom was his. His people paid him out of what they produced for their homes and fields and seed. It had always been so.
But lately the numbers were off. Production was down and mistakes were more frequent. Twice this year shipments had been disrupted and product wasted. Within his kingdom, he had to spread out the resources. His regents had fiefs at the outskirts of his land and protected the perimeter but the cost of shipping supplies to these small castles was great. Each thing had to be accounted for and written down and the cost of oversight was real. The need for honest workers was growing as the pool of likely candidates diminished. The people languished in drink and passion. The city surrounding his royal palace was growing more and more depraved as time wore on. When all women were Gypshas, it was hard to convince men they needed anything else.
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Back West, the Kingdom of Laodicea was in uproar. Not only had the Princess run away and a royal wedding been put off, but the sex rites for the Summer Solstice had been disrupted. There was no royal couple to gawp at and project onto and envy. There was no wedding full of the glory of the kingdom, there were no vows and no dress and no song. At the moment when Princess Hypatia would have walked out she simply did not. No one had noticed her leaving until she was not where she was supposed to be. Her brother, Satus had waited impatiently for his bride to come to him from the depths of their home, but she had left him waiting at the alter. Eventually the King had actually stood up and put a hand over his eyes and looked into the doors of the castle for his youngest daughter. Everyone had held their breath at such a ridiculous situation. Where was she?
Little did they know she had escaped to the East. At some point Prince Satus, a mask of fury, had stormed down the aisle and into the palace. Though he hardly knew where his sister slept, he found her chambers and saw them empty. Later her dress would be found, ripped open at the side, on a set of stairs that went right into the sea. To the public, she was officially a kidnapping victim, though the suspected culprit was never stated. Rumor ran rampant among the people. Some said she killed herself, drowning herself at sea. Some say pirates came and took her away. Others just thought she was a Princess kidnapped, understanding that she was a thing of value in itself. But for the most part it was decided that it was Prince Satus who would and should get her back. She had almost been his bride, after all, and was therefore his responsibility.
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While the rest of her tribe targeted his brothers, Lux sought Bair. She did not know exactly what it was she was looking for, but the plants told her it was a gift from the Gods. There was something bigger than small plants but not as big as the large dry cacti lying on the ground several miles into the desert. There was urgency in the way the plants described what they were seeing. Something would need to be done when she got where she was going. High up she flew on her pine branch, then lower and lower as the plants whispered to her that she was near. Suddenly there was a dark shadow on the ground, some distance ahead of her. This must be it, this must be the thing I was dreaming of, Lux thought. She flew in closer. It was a person, a dark-skinned boy curled up near the base of a cactus. At first she was put off, she had been expecting a rare animal or a great desert bird; something useful, something that would have inherent value. Lux was surprised that her treasure was a man, of all things.
She flew down and landed softly next to the boy, who could have been sleeping. The cactus in front of her chatted to her about him, about how he needed food and water and how long he'd been there and how he had taken some of its excretion and it had made him sweaty and crazed. She thanked the plants all around her and felt their consciousnesses recede to a watchful post over the humans. She knelt down and felt the boy's pulse, it was faint but even. She checked his breath and saw that it, too, was even. She felt his forehead and his chest for a heartbeat. He was certainly alive. She wondered if she would wake him if she moved him just so... She held him up a little and pulled one of his arms out from under him.
She looked at their skin next to each other, hers was a lighter brown, but not much lighter. As she was examining their flesh she did not notice the boy's eyes open, but she did notice when he sat up. She lept back and crouched down, ready for anything, but nothing happened. The boy shook his head slowly and touched his forehead and that was all. He did not seem threatened by her or in need of reassurance. Eventually he turned and looked at her and both were startled to see sameness in the other's eyes. Each of them had green eyes. It was rare among both their cultures, so rare that no other in their tribes had these eyes. To find them here, in each other, on this day, after what each had seen about the other, it was more than kismet: it felt like fate.
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Bair was struck dumb. It was the girl from his crazed dreams of the previous night. And she had green eyes. And she had come to him out of nowhere, at his hour of most need. It felt indescribable. Who was she? Who was this vision with hair ranging from dark red to golden peach? It hung in dreaded locks, with whisking ends dancing over her rounded rear. She wore violet fur and skins in a skirt and midrif-bearing top. Her boots were black leather and she had a long pine branch with her. It dawned on him suddenly: she was a witch. She was one of the witches of the North! He knew her kind from days like this: when his countrymen were being harvested for seed. He instantly grew weary. Their magic was unmatched by anything he knew. Even the old men Oracles could do nothing against them. They used and abused his tribe and then flew away, leaving them not far short of mortal enemies.
This girl, though. This one, had to be different. She had found him out here among all this sand. He watched her wearily. Not breaking the intense eye contact they had, she reached into her belt and pulled out a flask. Her voice cracked as she offered it to him, "I know you need water" she said. He cautiously took it from her, upended it. It tasted better than anything had tasted in his entire life. He had never been so happy to have water. He gave it back to her and thanked her. She also handed him dried fruit, without saying anything. Their hands touched slightly in the exchange and they both looked up at each other: a shock of electricity had run through their hands at their touch.
He thanked her again, chewing the food. It also was the best thing he had ever eaten. He had never had fruit or even sugar. He found it brightened his mood considerably. If he had not just almost died or been sitting in a desert, he would have been enjoying himself. He did not mind being with this woman. She was not attacking him or using any witchcraft that he could see. How strange that he should find solace in an enemy, Bair thought as he looked at Lux. Their green eyes never wavered from each other.
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Since that morning when Belial breakfasted with a new young woman of striking countenance, with light, light skin and round, blue eyes, it was known throughout the palace. On the heels of his first wife's death and his new marriage, news of another Princess bolstered the public's opinion of Belial as a playboy King. He spent the afternoon accepting regents and masters and all sorts of notable people who seemed to be searching. a little. They peeked around corners and looked down hallways hoping to view the new, exotic conquest. The second wife already forgotten, the servants all wondered if the new Princess would dine with the King, for the gossip of the palace started with them.
The servants were not disappointed. Hypatia did indeed dine with Belial and it was again, just the two of them. He asked her about her day and if she liked her new home. He was surprised by her answers. She spoke to the kindness of strangers and the beauty in the land. She expressed a desire to know more, see more, in articulate, graceful speech. Belial was impressed. An underlying sense of spirit was latent in her: her presence and point of view soothed him. She was like the clear sea; she was more than novel, she was fundamentally different. He let her talk as he picked out a subtle accent in her speech. Though he was enjoying himself, he felt ancient and stolid next to this bubble of freshest water.
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Hypatia had enjoyed her day. She had seen many parts of the kingdom, spoken to many people, and learned a lot about her new home. She found the people here more original than the masses of uniformed men and women that constituted her subjects back home. Here there was individuality, color, design. The women wore sumptuous fabrics in jewel tones with ropes and strings of jewelry. The men had interesting facial hair and wore jewelry themselves. Everything was loud and bustling and there were vendors down most streets. The tax collector she was following took her many places. There was a pervasive gratitude to her that day. She could not believe her good luck. She had risked her life and been rewarded with a fabulous treasure: a beautiful new home.
At dinner that night Hypatia tried to demonstrate her worth via her voice. She had always felt that her speech was pleasing, and she used it on her new king. She let her words lull him and release him and give him succor. She had done the same thing with her father many times.
"I was most interested," she was saying, pouring milk and honey into her words, "in the potters' house. It seemed to me that one must maintain balance in the flesh in order to best sculpt the clay."
Belial looked at her over arched fingers and said only, "Yes, it is decidedly so."
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"Why are you here?" the words escaped Bair. The woman appeared to think. She seemed hesitant. Bair rolled over and got to his feet.
"I found you," was all she said. She stood up from her crouch and they were even in height.
"But how?" he put his hands out in exasperation.
She seemed to wrestle with the words and then they came tumbling out, "I found you because the plants told me where you were." A pause and then, "And because I had a dream about, about something in the desert," she finished quickly.
This reminded Bair of his hallucinations and a piece of it surfaced and somewhere in his brain it clicked and he pointed at her.
"I also had a dream about you!" he practically shouted. They both stood dazed in the sun, surrounded by sand and prickly, dry plants. The sheer impracticality of it all weighed on them. Something was afoot. They continued to gaze at each other in wonder. At the same time, they each said, "Who are you?"
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Lux was flummoxed. It was clear to her that this was what she was supposed to find. She had just not expected her treasure to be a person, let alone a man, and one of those she normally disdained, at that. It all seemed ridiculous. After the double question they both had fallen silent. It was all too much, but eventually Lux answered.
"I am Queen Lux of the Cun tribe from Thayati'ra, the Northern kingdom." She drew herself up a little as she said it. He seemed unaffected.
"I am Bairfinias of the Phoenicia tribe," he said, rather less enthusiastically than Lux.
They stood staring at each other until Lux asked, "Why are you out here? I thought your kind lived in the forests of the south."
"We do, I just...got lost," the young man finished lamely. Lux highly doubted this but did not pry. He seemed keen to move the conversation forward from there: "So your name is Queen?"
Lux laughed and the sounds seemed to surprise him.
"No, that is my title, my name is Lux." She looked around a little. With nothing else to say she said, "So, you are Bairfinias?"
"Bair for short" he said. She tried the name out.
"Bair" she said, liking the sound.
"Lux," he said back, and they both stared at each other out of eyes the color of Earth.
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Lux was flummoxed. It was clear to her that this was what she was supposed to find. She had just not expected her treasure to be a person, let alone a man, and one of those she normally disdained, at that. It all seemed ridiculous. After the double question they both had fallen silent. It was all too much, but eventually Lux answered.
"I am Queen Lux of the Cun tribe from Thayati'ra, the Northern kingdom." She drew herself up a little as she said it. He seemed unaffected.
"I am Bairfinias of the Phoenicia tribe," he said, rather less enthusiastically than Lux.
They stood staring at each other until Lux asked, "Why are you out here? I thought your kind lived in the forests of the south."
"We do, I just...got lost," the young man finished lamely. Lux highly doubted this but did not pry. He seemed keen to move the conversation forward from there: "So your name is Queen?"
Lux laughed and the sounds seemed to surprise him.
"No, that is my title, my name is Lux." She looked around a little. With nothing else to say she said, "So, you are Bairfinias?"
"Bair for short" he said. She tried the name out.
"Bair" she said, liking the sound.
"Lux," he said back, and they both stared at each other out of eyes the color of Earth.
