Lucius walked me to the stairs as men and women had done for centuries, and it felt intimate. I had just shared myself with him in the presence of two other men, and I found myself blushing like an adolescent when he kissed me goodbye.
I climbed the stairs, passed the guards who nodded, and descended into the women's section.
At the bottom of the stairs beneath a high bronze bowl of flame was a dark figure, instinct made me slow.
"Did you enjoy the men?" Mystrike said in a threatening purr. "They are so sweet, so almost...innocent. Lucius is my favorite, making him beg for mercy is the most erotic sound I can think of."
My blood turned cold. "But this is a place of...pleasure."
"And my pleasure is pain, so is the queen's."
I felt dizzy, frozen, and she took advantage, moving closer. She wasn't as tall as I, but she was older, wiser, and probably the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. The knowledge of those things was in her bearing, and she smiled at me, those strange purple eyes dark.
"You are joining a doomed dynasty, the time of the red hairs is coming to an end."
"What do you mean?"
She smiled and traced a sharp talon of a nail across my cheekbone. "Our regent is the fuel, the source of magic the world feeds upon. Our queen takes more lovers than any other, and just like those before, she is weakening. When she weakens too much it is customary to replace her with the next. But that won't happen, red hair."
She walked around me in a slow circle, the stealthy stalking of an animal I knew had seduced countless men. I was not so easily fooled, tensing, waiting to feel her strike. When it came, it was not with fists but words.
"Only the strongest can replace her and you, red, you're far from it."
"And you are, I suppose?" I said mildly.
Stopping in front of me she smiled. "Of course, for I can do the one thing someone like you can never do."
I just raised my brows, eager for her to leave.
"I can kill her."
***
We had begun with all seven women in the ring, but now it was down to Mystrike and me. It wasn't that she was the best of the group, t was that all the women had a strange way of deferring to her. Here was a woman who was queen of the realm made to serve another.
In the end I took down each opponent until she had no one left to take her blows. I was tired, my two sai felt as if made of lead, and I was bleeding from a small wound on my shoulder. She looked cool, refreshed, smiling. I felt like a dying dog in the summer heat, I knew I was dripping sweat.
She twirled one of the tridents around in a showy maneuver and struck the archer's pose. I had one thing she did not; an unconventional teacher. Lady Callie Marlowe had carefully studied every position, style, and theory of traditional teachings, as she made me, and come upon the conclusion that such show was unnecessary.
"If the object is to kill; kill your opponent, don't dazzle. If it's to drop them, do so quickly without the bother."
I stood a wide target, feet planted shoulder width apart, my three pronged sais at my sides. Laughing she charged at me but I had studied her moves as we sparred. She led with her right, her left drawn back, and that was the hand to watch out.
I whirled and spun around with full force. Her left sai swung up as the right went through my hair. I used both to catch her left and pull back, jerking it free. It clattered to the marble ground as I rounded and landed a solid kick in her chest.
She went down like a sack, the last sai clattering. At first there was silence and I turned to look grimly at the watchers. The queen and Marxim, the men who had sparred before, the lower levels of women who had yet to take the floor.
They began to applaud but the only smiles I saw were on Morganna and Lucius' faces. Something to remember, I thought, and bowed deeply to the queen.
She motioned for us to leave and I turned, ignoring the women as the crowd swallowed us up. The next level moved onto the floor and I moved to the edge of the arena, towards quiet.
Leaning against a large pillar in the corner I spied Cassipe. He looked tired but still as handsome as ever, dressed in golden robes he was resplendent. I moved towards him and when our eyes met he started.
"Virtal!" he whispered, grabbing me and forcing me behind the pillar.
"Cassipe!" I said and moved to hug him even as he shushed me. He stepped back and worriedly shook his head.
Frowning I bit my lip, wondering if what had happened between us precluded friendship now that we were in the harem. "How are you? Are you staying here or going out to teach someone else?"
"I am to stay here," he said with hooded eyes.
"Come, why would you not hug me, Cassipe? I know you may not be counted amongst my lovers here, but surely we are friends. Why, I've known you for as long as I can remember."
"Virtal," he said as if my name was a pain on his lips, "the queen keeps those of us who served her predecessor as...she calls us here 'private stock.' Like her consort we are forbidden to even touch another in the harem."
"But why?"
"She says to insure our loyalty. Virtal, it is too dangerous to even be seen talking to you."
"Why?" My shoulder wound began to ache and I knew I had best cleanse the wound and bind it soon, but I could not bear the thought of my great Cassipe living in fear.
"Virtal, the queen is very strict, nothing like the old queen. Death of even her favored lovers is well known, most infractions are punishable by death. She is harsh, and...well it is best to say she is nothing like the old queen." The way he spoke of Antal's predecessor showed clear love, and for a guilty moment I felt bad for having kept him from her all those years.
"I wish I could free you somehow," I said.
He shook his head. "Virtal, I am a priest. I was never much of one, but I had my moments. I sense great danger for you here, I have for long. I had a vision that the priest they sent to you that...night would kill you, and so I slew him."
I gasped, truly shocked. Cassipe was a man who never showed the slightest inkling of violence. "But why? Why would a priest kill me?"
He shook his head. "So much has changed here, if I knew how much Caldor had changed since the old queen's death I never would have delivered you. Virtal you must guard yourself wisely and tread carefully. Find your friends and keep them close. I can say no more."
He reached to brush my cheek as he had so many times in the journey to Caldor but stopped at the last minute. I watched him disappear back into the crowd knowing he felt the same longing I held in my heart.
"Virtal?"
I turned and saw Morganna smiling at me. "Yes?"
"Good fight today, but you must get cleaned up. Soon it will be time to greet the first moon."
I gulped nervously. My first true test with the queen, and I had reason to believe she had sent a man to kill me.
***
We had many gods and goddesses, but the father of us was the sun, our mother the first and largest moon. For a brief moment in every eve the two great orbs hovered in the sky at the same time, the briefest moment of mating between the greatest of the gods.
Caldoria ruled women, magic, and the moon. It was believed that the queen, the strongest in magic, granted Caldoria the brief time to propagate with her husband Ilarniat, the sun. From each mating came the new life of the day, the promise of the future. Should they not meet...great disaster would befall the people.
As her second I would channel the energy, guide it with the priests and priestesses. I was dressed in soft white robes, twisted about my shoulders leaving much of my skin bare. The skirt was split in the front almost to the apex of my thighs, but where it hung it brushed the floor. My new maids braided my hair and then the call came.
