The Sighs of the Priestess

**This is one of those chapters that seem to plague me every now and then. It's nice having a ton of characters doing things, since you can just Brady Bunch it as you go, but the other side of that is that there's a danger of bogging the storyline. Ah well, we'll see how I cobble this together. 0_o

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The mid-morning sun shone down on in the training area as the Martu fighters went through ordered drills called out by one of them who had been designated by Anat for the day. She was with Timna as they did their washing.

"They sit like that for hours," Timna said with a nod at the priestess and her warrior, "Only their hands move sometimes and now and then, there is a smile passed between them. Other than the motions of their prayers, I do not know what they do this for."

"They pray together," Anat said, wiping some sweat from her brow, "and she teaches him more of the faith. I know that when they are like this, they can speak between themselves and not say a word."

"Watch now," she said, "see her hand there. He stares as he learns a new prayer by watching her hand. In a moment, he will begin what he has learned. It is said that he learns faster than anyone before him. My old friend the priestess tells me that we will all need him soon. All over the land around here, there are cities, and each one has a king. Each king preaches some lie that he holds the favor and the love of their goddess Ianna and beds her every night. They say this so that the people will believe they are wondrous and follow them."

"Well," Timna smiled, "that is all either a great pile of dung, or it is one busy goddess. I know that I have my own work ahead of me every night." She looked at her companion, "And I try to keep my prayers humble. I find that it works better for me that way."

Anat smirked back, "Why? Do you need to pray for the love of those two? I do not think it would be necessary, Timna. I know how they feel about you."

Timna said, "I do not have to pray at all for that, Anat. I only prayed for someone to come and help me with the washing work and here you are!" They laughed at each other.

She chuckled,"But why will we need the Ba'al as you said?"

Anat's face grew a little grim, "It will come to pass soon, I am sure, that since none can prove who the goddess ruts with, one or another of these fools will need to have a war to show the size of their little bollocks and many will die. Our Ba'al and I share many thoughts about fighting wars, and one of the things that we agree upon is that if the Martu are drawn into anything such as this, at least one of the kings involved must die. We care nothing for the arrogance – or the goddess – but the suffering of the people is another matter and someone must pay."

"But Lugalbanda is a Sumerian, Anat. Does he not care about that goddess?"

Anat stopped her scrubbing and grinned at Timna. "See him there, Timna. He was born a Sumerian, though a poor one. Those gods have nothing for one such as him. He is far more a Martu now, and from what I have seen, he has the favor of our gods, and you know it, my friend."

Timna stopped and looked at Anat, "What do you mean?"

Anat grinned, "The two hold the lock between them and it makes them strong in all things, Timna. You saw how we captured the city. I have heard for myself how they make you cry out in the night from the joy that they give you one after the other or together. What is he like to love with? I have often wondered."

Timna was thoughtful for a moment as they hung up the clothes together. Finally she shrugged, "They took me to bed the one night and a few nights later, they asked me if I wanted things to stay this way. No one loved me, Anat, and so I agreed. It was wonderful at first, and I still like it with them a little. But he is the Ba'al and she is the High Priestess, Anat. They call me to their bed every night and I must go, just as though I was a slave-girl though they tell me that it is not so. I enjoy it when she makes love to me, just as I enjoy it when he does. But no one ever asks me what I want. These are my blessings, Anat, and I should not question them."

Anat caught the sound in Timna's throat and stared at her, seeing the small tear that Timna wiped away quickly. Anat put her arm around the girl's shoulders. "Timna, what is wrong here? Please tell me."

Timna sighed, looking down, "I should feel loved and honored, but I do not. After almost a fortnight, I am only the one who has the cunny that they both use to challenge one another. They try to see which one can make me cry out the loudest or the most often."

She looked away, blinking hard, "But no one lets me make love at all. It is like going to bed with two tigers every night. I think that they love me, but I feel like a toy that must be shared between two children very often."

She looked at Anat, "She offered once to teach me of the love between women. I know what it is to receive this now, but I cannot say that I have loved a woman even still. She is the same as him. I am given no chance to try by myself, and I can only make love to him while she does. I have never had the chance to love her by myself, other than to kiss her here and there while he does the rest. It is a great night for me if I am allowed to kiss her breasts a little."

Timna looked down and shook her head, "I have only one thing to learn here anymore," she said with a hint of determination, "and how my question is answered will decide what I do next."

"What do you mean?" Anat asked.

"I have a question for Adad, and it is between us only. Since it was said to me that I am not a slave, you can all serve your own suppers tonight. There is meat and bread and vegetables, but I will not be there with you. Timna is tired."

No matter what Anat said after that, Timna would say no more.

When they were finished for the moment, they sat in the shade. Though she wanted very much to comfort Timna, Anat felt only the wall that the girl had put up between them. To Timna's mind, she'd already said far too much and she knew how close Nisi-ini-su and Anat were. The priestess joined them there a few minutes later.

"Where did you leave our priest?" Anat asked.

"I left him with a task to struggle over," she laughed, "He must recite what he has learned today while holding up a feather in the air before him with his mind. It is hard to do, for the slightest change in thought moves the feather a great deal and if one such as him tries too hard to change the fall or the rise of the feather there will be broken crockery," she chuckled. "His head will hurt before long. What are we talking about now?"

Anat shrugged, "Loving,"

"I always seem to find myself in the middle of the most important things," Nisi-ini-su smiled. "Tell me, Anat, since we have had no time for it, what is it like with Dagon?"

"Just as I hoped it would be, my friend," she grinned, "you know how it must go soft with me. I want to have a man in me, but once there, I want caresses and kisses all the while, as soft as may be. I love a man who can take as well as give. Such men are rare – or at least hard for me to find. I think that I have found my match in him."

Nisi-ini-su grinned, "Then you have made the best investment." She turned to make a joking comment to Timna, but she was gone.

"What happened here?" Nisi-ini-su asked.

"She is very unhappy, I think," Anat replied, "It came out suddenly, so quickly that I was not ready to hear it, and it was gone even quicker than it came out. I asked a little, but she would say nothing more of it."

"I will go to ask her," the priestess said, leaning forward to get up, "I do not wish for Timna to be unhappy over anything."

Anat held her back, "No, my friend. It would be the wrong thing to do here. Let Timna have a little time alone. I will answer for her."

Nisi-ini-su stared, "Go on then, Anat. Tell it to me."

"Nisi-ini-su," Anat began, "you have done something here that is not right. Timna is hurt..."

The priestess sat in shock as her friend related what she'd been told, and by the end of it, she sat with her mouth hanging open, "But if she did not want it, she had only to say it to us."

"Nay," Anat shook her head, "you do not see it from her side, my friend. Think on it a little. She is the servant here to two powerful people. To her, it was as though she was commanded and she would never have refused for this reason. She knows that she is at the bottom here among us all - even though none of us see her in this way. We all love her for what she does for us."

Nisi-ini-su felt her own tears then. "I have done something terrible to one who was a friend to me. At the least, I must tell her that I am sorry and try to make this better." She looked at Anat, "I feel awful."

"I do not know if it is too late, but I think that you should think about what you will do without her. I believe that she thinks to leave. I can help with the serving of the meal, but the rest is between you and Timna. Give her a little time."

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Timna wandered from the kitchen doors and along the wall, trying to brighten her outlook while staying out of the way of the fighters as they drilled. It had taken her this long to decide it and she had to ask something of the smith. She found herself near the stables and walked inside, stopping to watch Adad work at trimming the hooves of one of the horses. It took a few minutes before he noticed her.

"Timna," he smiled, "I haven't seen you here before. How are you?"

She found herself struggling a little to find her words, but finally held out the platter and the wine jug and said, "I – I came to ask if you wished to share some food with me. I work from dawn to night and never see you much and you are always so busy here."

He wondered at her meaning, and whether she meant the way that the fighters always seemed to come to him. At last he smiled as he finished trimming the hoof and led the horse to its stall. "No one here says what they mean to me, Timna. You and I have not spoken much at all. Please, can we have it so that at least we two say what is meant? If you can do that, you would make an honest friend in me."

Timna grinned, "Then that is what I want, Adad. More than anything here, I want an honest friend."

"Then set those things down here and let us talk between us." He said, "I can set the work aside for a time."

"Of everyone here," he smiled, "you and I are the busiest, I think, and I mean that plainly." He shrugged and looked down as he raised his hand to run his fingers through his hair, looking for the words to say.

"Stop!" Timna cried, stepping closer to grab his hand, "Look at what you would do first," she chuckled.

He looked at his hand as she held him very firmly by the wrist and felt suddenly thankful.

"There are much better things to put into a man's hair, even here," she smiled.

He nodded and went to wash his fingers. "Thank you. I was going to say that you and I work the whole day long and then again at night. I cannot complain, I suppose, since I live the dream of many men, I guess, but it is not what I would want if I lived in my own dream."

He looked at the place on his wrist where she'd seized him. "You are very strong."

"Fat girls usually are," she shrugged.

He shook his head, "I know what you think to say, and it is not so."

He looked at Timna and saw that she'd forgotten a few things in the heat of the day and from her washing. Her dress was pinned and bunched up high on her thighs and the neck of the garment was wide open. He wondered to himself if he ought to tell her. Then again, he thought, he wasn't wearing all that much either and decided to enjoy it.

She smirked, "I know what was meant when you spoke of your dream. I feel that I shouldn't complain, but what I have is not what my heart wants either."

She looked past him to the other end of the stables. "Why are there two troughs for the horses, do they fight if they must wait for a drink?"

He chuckled a little, "It was done for that purpose, but the horses do not care, and that large one is in the sun too much and so the water grows warm. They do not like it, but I do." He smiled at her in a conspiratorial sort of way. "That is my private bath, since even the horses do not want to drink there."

Timna laughed, "Then come with me, Adad and I will tell you of my own little dream."

He was surprised, but liked the feel of her hand holding his and so he followed. Standing at the deep trough, she tested the water and smiled, "This is perfect for a day such as this. The water is warm, but not hot."

She reached out to him and touched his shoulder. "I will tell you a few pieces of my own dream, Adad, and then you must tell me some of yours. But first," she smiled, "I will tell you the things that I like in a man, since it says much in my dream."

He nodded in encouragement, fascinated by her voice.

"I like a man who is strong and one who has no fear of work, just as I am the same. The small thing that is a drawback is that such a man often has a very nice smell, but the work adds its own to that and in the middle of the day, even the cleanest man of this kind in his habits does not smell at his best to me. You understand me, don't you? I have seen you bathe often when we were on the road to Uruk and back."

"You watched me?" he asked, suddenly a little embarrassed.

"Yes," Timna nodded, "as often as I could manage to steal a moment for it. I like to look at you, and when would I have any other chance to see your body for myself? I love to watch you bathe."

He smiled though not with quite so much embarrassment as before, so she stood a little closer to him and placed her hand on his chest. "That is why you must step into the trough here. I wish to bathe you, Adad. I know that it is the middle of the day, but right now, no one calls out to either of us over some work that needs to be done. There is no one here, and I want to do this for you very much."

Adad wasn't stupid, and so he didn't argue. He'd found Timna in his dreams often and wondered if her dream was something like the one which haunted him.

"I know that you have been doing the washing all morning," he said softly.

She nodded with a smile and a helpless shrug, "And so I am a fat prune now."

He shook his head. "If you want to bathe me, then I want to do the same for you, Timna, so you and I will have to take our rags all the way off here. I wish to show you something." He helped her out of her dress and then she removed the loincloth that he wore. She motioned to the trough, but he shook his head and pointed at their reflections.

"Look at yourself there, Beauty," he said, "I see a girl who is lovely and strong. You are larger than the stick women here, but I see nothing of the word that you have used twice now to me. Have you seen the horses here? They are all but one of them fine and healthy horses, all but one, and that one is the master here among them all and they know it. Do you know which one I speak of now?"

Timna stared at the two people looking back at her in the water. She nodded absently as though she was a little lost in her thoughts, "Yes," she whispered, "the Ba'al's steed."

"Good," Adad sighed with a smile, "so then you have a bit of an eye for horses. And what is different about that one, Timna?"

She wanted to shrug, but she didn't, "He is a different breed, being a war mount."

"Aye," the smith replied, "not really the same as the others at all. Bred from solid working stock, but also given speed and the ability to use his power and feel proud for it. He has no shame, just as he has no fear of men. He stands there in his stall pleasuring himself, and knowing all the while that the mares here all stare at him and nicker, wanting his attention even though they are not in season. He cares not and does it in front of them often all the day."

Timna laughed a little, "I did not know that a horse can pleasure himself. How it is done by one who has no hands?"

Adad grinned, "He stares at the mares and has wishful thoughts and then he hardens. It hangs long and the mares cannot look away anymore by then. He knows this. He begins then to tighten his muscles and it slaps up against his belly, over and over until he gushes, usually all over himself. You ought to see the looks on the mares then," he laughed, "they stare even more, watching it run down and drip from him. I have seen him whinny then and do it again before he softens too much, just to sling it around even more for them. I am a little afraid of what will happen when a mare comes into season. If she is one that he fancies, I think that he could break the stalls here apart easily to get to her."

His hand came out to rest against her hip for a moment before it ran up and down. He kissed her as he did this for a moment. "There are no rolls on you and none on me either. Feel my hand here." It was not really a caress, it was more of an appreciating touch and it was not lost on the girl, what he was trying to say with his gesture. Timna felt her heart begin to flutter a little.

He pointed to the trough and then he helped her in easily before he climbed in himself. They smiled at each other as the displaced water poured over the rim a little. He pulled her to him to kiss her lips once very lightly. His reward came to him in her soft sigh.

"There is strength in his build, Timna, just as there is strength in the way that we two are made, and Beauty, I can say that while we are all larger than the rest here aside from the Ba'al, there is none of that word here between the three of us. You should feel proud, I think."

She kissed him then and her lips trailed along under the side of his jaw, "Only from you, Adad, I can believe it at the last, and I thank you for what you have said here," she nodded and smiled softly at him as she began to wash the sweat from the muscles of the blacksmith.

"Tell me of your dream, Adad. I love to hear you talk, and I am happy to be this close to one such as you. I would like to tell you that if you wish it, you could have me, but I think that if you had wanted me, you would have shown it to me before."

He shook his head, "When Timna? I am beset with the work and after, then the fighters would come to me. But I sleep alone now from the second night on the way back from Uruk."

"Really?" she asked, "What has happened?"

"Close your eyes a moment, Timna, and tell me what color my hair is," he said.

"You do not have the coloring of most of us," she said looking down, "your hair is dark brown, just like the mane on the cart horse."

"That is true," he said, "I am Martu, but I am a little different. And what of my eyes, then?"

"Brown as well," she laughed, "I know this because I like your eyes very much."

"You see?" he smiled, "It says something of you that you bother to look."

He shrugged "I grew tired of what the fighters want of me, for there is no feeling from them. They are all glad that I am here, but I do not need a face for what they want. When I said no the first time, that one went away, but then I faced four of them, all wanting to know what was wrong. Since it was dark, I asked them just what I have asked you here, and none of them could answer on the first guess - and that was what it was; only guessing."

He chuckled, "It made them all a little angry with me, but I told them that they did not need a man so much as they needed a thick carrot."

He glanced at her and smiled with a little bit of frustration, "I had a thought to speak to you when we traveled, but you were never alone. I even wanted to come to you as you bathed in the salt pools, but I could take only two steps and the priestess was there with you again."

He threw up his hands and laughed. "For a time as we traveled, my dream became one where I had the chance to sit next to you on the cart bench as you drove it, but I never could manage even this. I would decide it and one of the others would come to visit Timna."