Things were moving fast, too fast. In the morning I sat in my glorious bath alone, soaking away the aches of the night before, and ruminating on the deeply ingrained lessons of history imparted through my education at Cassipe's hand.
Ours was a violent Queendom. Once we had been hundreds of tribes, all quite different, according to many even some of those tribes had been ruled by men. Then slowly overtime, in each of the five regions, a strong leader emerged who led their tribes to conquer others. The small battles had lasted two hundred years, and when the dust settled there were 5 Queendoms: North, South, East, West, and Central. The Central was Caldor, a very small city-state of high wall, the great pyramid, small dusty streets, long row houses, and temples. For a 1,000 years this had been life, until the first red-haired queen called both the moons at once and was told by the Great Mother to conquer all the lands.
Since that time there was no direct lineage. Rulership passed from one red-haired woman to the next, and many systems had been erected to make it as smooth as possible. At first they lived together in the pyramid until murder became a problem, then the heir was given to foster with a noble family. Plots and schemes became common and so a hundred years ago care of the heir was given over to the Cult Of the Goddess, the extremist temple that ruled all others in the Capitol. It's where Antal had been raised; it was where her predecessor, Cassipe's love, had been raised.
Antal had been the most recent to change tradition again. Other Queens had kept harems; men of their family who needed protection, lovers, a consort, concubines, landless priests and knights under outside threats. It had always been small and friendly, a place of protection and respite. Some earlier queens had kept women there as well, as lovers or just as friends or family. Antal had changed it all, filling it with the powerful, those of good families, those who could threaten or challenge.
I still did not know how the old queen got her to agree to let a priest foster me, but I knew I was the first of a new line, Antal a strange, failed experiment. In the past to the citizens it may have seemed abrupt violence often changed Queens sitting upon the throne, but every other one had been raised in Caldor. Every other one knew the city guard, the priestesses, the nobility the merchant princesses. Everyone but me.
Lucius and Cassipe believed in me, but I knew I was young, unfinished, and even if I could kill Antal my hold was tenuous at best. My plan to soften the nobility by appealing to the men was a slow plot at best. They wanted me to move quickly and I understood why. Torture at the queen's hand was no easy thing, and though I loved both men in their own ways, I could not put their happiness above that of the Queendom.
My responsibility was to the people, and I knew nothing about them.
The queen had ridden her stock hard and slept late, and after my bath I was left free, with no combat training commanded. I found myself back amongst the archives, reading histories of the five kingdoms. I had servants bring my meals in there, assigned one scribe to read scrolls to me as I ate so I may not dirty them.
After my meal I did the necessary and for all the pleasure the night before had wrought I had to have one of the healers apply a salve so I could sit comfortably. As evening neared I was alone in the archives when Lucius appeared.
"You are a fine warrior, an excellent priestess, perhaps the best, but I begin to feel were you not the Queen's heir you would be a scholar by choice."
I set down the scroll I was reading, a history of farming exports from my own North country. "Is knowledge such a bad thing?"
He sat beside me on the small bench. "In this world Queen Antal has created it can be most dangerous."
"Just as a sword, it is necessary."
He stared at me, so beautiful, his amazing green eyes quietly searching my face. "Did it work?"
"What?"
"Did she drive a wedge between us?"
I pulled his face to mine and kissed him deeply, as much as the night before. "You tell me."
He pulled back and looked to the narrow windows. "I wish it could say it did not, but..."
"Yes?"
"I do not like to see you with others."
I reached for his hand with mine and gripped it tight. "Would that I ruled the world, I would want no other. The Queen rules and the Queen commands, and we must follow. Remember she controls our actions and our bodies, but our hearts and souls are our own. Take pleasure in the acts she deems cruel and know you bring pleasure to others. We must be patient. What good is acting rash and taking what we cannot hold?"
He understood my meaning and pulled my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles softly. "We could leave."
"And go where? Where can we hide? Two nights, a priest and priestess, and I so marked by my hair? Where would we not be hunted?"
"The Queendom starves as drought covers two lands, the rich are paying exorbitant taxes, and the queen spends it on her friends, on crooked priestesses, on training more and more commanders of the city guard to instill martial law across the land, and she lives for sick torture. This cannot go on."
"It won't, but would chaos be the answer? Should the head of a family fall, and her heir is too young or unable to hold the estates, what becomes of them?" I spoke in metaphor, not knowing what ears leaned towards us for snatches of conversation to be carried straight to the queen.
Lucius looked away. "I was resigned to my fate, living in the hope the Queen had no heir and when she faltered, the world would change. I welcomed the thought of chaos. Then you came, and now I find myself hoping for more."
I shifted to kiss him and winced at the sharp pain in my bottom. He placed his hands on my arms. "You're hurt."
"The healers have salved me, but yes, it does ache."
"Let me heal you." He did not wait for my response he kissed me and pulled me gently into his lap. Sitting sideways I steadied myself with my arms around his neck and enjoyed this kiss, sweet melancholy, and slow.
His hands slipped easily under the loose white dress I wore and he palmed one full breast with his hot hand. I shivered, impossibly arousal was yawning awake in me. His switched hands so that one wrapped around me, caressing my aching nipples, and the other slid now along my thigh.
Though only fingers had been inside me the night before after the calling of the moon, I was still sore and stiffened. He nipped at my lips and suckled it to steady me., and his lower hand did not move my skirt aside, instead he stroked over it.
I gasped when I felt his fingers part the folds of my sex, the thin fabric softening the sensation, making it lighter. My body softened as he began to stroke in a steady, circular rhythm around the nubbin. My juices flowed and my hips began to move with him, begging more. His hand at my breasts pulled back, finger tips fluttering over a nipple as light as butterfly wings.
I clutched at him, kissing him deeply, feeling the hard heat of our tongues sliding together. The world melted away, there was nothing but this man, this feeling of being surrounded by his strength and yet victim to his gentility. On that thought I broke, gasping and crying out simultaneously. He swallowed my cries and refused t stop his movements. My hips ground for his hand, rubbing against the steely length of his arousal.
In desperation I moved, kissing him harder and harder as the waves of pleasure washed over me. I wanted to feel Lucius inside me more than anything, but all he did was slowly rub and tease me, and kiss me with immense passion.
I expected a break as I came down but there was none. My consort kept up his ministrations and soon the vortex of need drew me in and I crested again. I rode this peak just as before, but my desire did not diminish, it increased. Madness touched me.
I forced his hands away and straddled him, rubbing my aching wetness over his hard length, chewing on his lip, and perversely asking permission of my own subject to impale myself and sate us both.
"Virtal, we mustn't," Lucius groaned out, breaking the kiss to hold me back.
I stared into his eyes, seeing my own desire reflected there. "Please," I begged quietly, and a dark shiver passed through him.
"We must call the moon tonight, and this desire must be allowed to grow, to build, and when we come together we must show the Queen how strong we are."
At mention of Antal ice cooled my veins and I sat still, pressed against my consort still, but no longer rubbing end enticing. "We must succeed and yet what penalty must we pay tonight?"
He kissed my temple. "Think of it not. You feel better, don't you?"
I shifted one leg between his and sat on a powerful thigh with only a distant, dim ache. "Much better."
He smoothed my hair back from where it had escaped from the thin gold net. "I don't want to face tonight. I want it to be you and me, and let the world watch, I care not, but I don't want to face her."
"We must live our lives one moment at a time. I have spent all day reading the histories of all the lands. Cassipe taught me to rule, but he taught me to rule Caldor, not everything. It was expected the Queen would finish my education but I must finish it myself. We must be patient. I will protect you as much as I can, but you must be strong for me. Yu are my consort and one day I shall be Queen. Until that day, you must never act rashly. Promise me, Lucius."
He nodded and kissed me softly and quickly.
I climbed off him and stretched. "It is time to prepare for the ceremony. I will see you shortly, and again, tonight,, do as I do and trust me," I called back as I walked to the door.
