The Sighs of the Priestess

**This chapter annoyed the hell out of me to write. I rewrote it four times. It looks like just a bunch of vignettes to me, but underneath everything, I get to where I want the reader to be and it lays the ground work for the next chapter which will be really busy and a little fast-paced.

If they seem a little fixated, try to remember what each of them have been through, and when you think of Yanna and Illya, bear in mind that this is a simpler (and more visceral) time, and the two are a very young couple. 0_o

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Yanna was standing on all fours in the water with Illya behind her and leaning on her shoulder a little. It had been her idea to make love in the reeds like this, and now they were both out of breath. The sun was hot, almost directly overhead, there were flies buzzing around in the thicket where they stood gasping a little as she felt him slide out of her. There was no breeze to be felt where they stood. Yanna was panting from the exertion and the heat and Illya was sweating.

But it had been fantastic.

She looked back at him and they grinned at each other before wading out into the open to bathe a little. When they turned to go to shore, they walked hand in hand and hadn't noticed right away that Daggat was on the shore looking at them. Yanna was quite used to being seen without anything on more often than not, but she was a little concerned for Illya.

But Illya didn't care much. "I am not certain, since we have never spoken of it," he told Yanna quietly, "but I do not think that I have much to interest - or upset our friend there." He walked to where his loincloth had landed and began to put it on. What he didn't notice -- and what Yanna did -- was that Daggat had a bit of difficulty maintaining eye contact with Yanna. She kept glancing at Illya.

"I have been looking for you," she said, "we still have a little time, but Shahbek asks to see you before we go."

"Did you hear anything of a large cat making noise in a thicket around here?" Yanna asked.

"I might have," Daggat replied, "Why?"

"You should be careful," Yanna said, joking a little, "a large wounded cat can do a lot of damage if you blunder near to it."

"That was a cat?" Daggat held her eyes wide open as if in wonder, "I had no idea what that was. And wounded you say? That explains all of the grunts and the moaning that I heard. All that I knew was that it splashed a lot and kept howling out its love for someone named Illya."

"Ha," she exclaimed, "I learn something new every day."

She rolled her eyes, "I do know what you sound like when you are fucking, Yanna. We have all learned the sounds these last nights. Everyone thinks that you either kill Illya, or that he must be some sort of magical warrior to survive it with you. Screeches, howls and long wails, I think that you are being sent away so that everyone might get a little sleep at night," she laughed as she looked at Yanna's shocked face, but then her face fell and she muttered, "Not that it helps me. I will still have to listen, won't I?"

"Am I that loud?" Yanna asked as Illya began to notice Yanna's embarrassment.

Daggat was pleased now that she'd had the last laugh, but she laid her arm on her friend's slender shoulders , "No, only sometimes, Yanna. It is not too loud, but the cat in you adds much to the cries that you might make as a woman and the ones in the nearest tents probably know exactly what you do."

She grinned. "And it is not all your noise, my friend. Your husband is no quiet mouse either when he gushes and shouts his love for you. Smyrna and I keep a count for him most nights."

Yanna was astounded, "Really?"

"Of course," her friend replied as she led them to the chieftain's own large tent, "We cheer for him."

Yanna felt self-conscious and found that she was getting a little tired of the jokes. But she put a good face on it and grinned a little, "What? Does no one cheer for me?"

Daggat leaned in close and her own grin showed as she whispered, "We cheer for you as well, Yanna, and we are very thankful for your wild sounds. When you moan and yowl, it drives us both mad with desire. We cannot keep our hands away from each other while you fuck. It is as if we were new to each other once more." She leaned in quickly and kissed Yanna's cheek. "Thank you for that."

They walked into the tent and found Shahbek waiting for them. She was just finishing a quiet conversation with a slightly shorter, thin woman who gave Yanna a slightly longer glance than she gave the rest. Yanna saw the same deep blue eyes that Shahbek possessed as they flashed at her for an instant before she turned away. As the two entered, the woman busied herself with cleaning and tidying.

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"I wanted to speak with you both of some things that are a little different for you now," she said. "These things, I learned because of the one that I loved, but I found far more than I really searched for. I seem to have become a source of knowledge on large cats," she shrugged.

Unlike the other times that they'd seen her, Shahbek now wore nothing on her head, and due to the heat, she'd left her over-robes off as well and the many blades, jewels, and rings that adorned her almost shimmered in the light from the doorway. Her long reddish-brown hair hung in braids, but even so, it hung long down her back.

Her face bore a few faint tattoos in symbolic patterns, and while she wasn't pretty, it was clear that in her day, her beauty had been breathtaking. Even here like this, she carried her own kind of beauty and her deep blue eyes could appear both dangerous and alluring, depending on the mood or the moment.

"You have been together for a few days now, "she said, "and so, I am sure that you might have noticed certain ... tendencies and directions to your feelings, Yanna. I can see the happiness in you both from where I stand and it does my poor heart much good to see it. I only wish to tell you of other little details which you may or may not have noticed."

She nodded, "From a human view, you are wed. It means that you are mated to each other. From the view of certain types of large cats, it may or may not be the same thing. In the case of my love of long ago, she had well-developed lion-like tendencies. When we loved, I took the part of the male -- for I am very dominant, and she was my female, just the way that it is with lions."

Shahbek raised one finger, "But with lionesses, there is usually more than one female in the harem of a male. They are happy to share his love between them in these cases, and one acts as the queen of the lionesses, enjoying the, - if you will pardon the allusion -- lion's share of his affection, though none are left out. For us, that meant -- once I had learned of this -- that I could bring another into our loving at times. I am rather strong-willed when I love, so even if the third person was a male, we shared him, but he had to be submissive to both me and her."

"I mention these things because I find that I like you both so much that I could wish that you were the children that I have always missed having in my life, so I wish for what is between you to succeed, but you both will need to be aware of some things regarding the nature of large cats, and they are not all the same."

Yanna felt the assassin's gaze. "You are not all woman. This is obvious. But from what I see, you are not all the same sort of cat, either. You feel a strong need to be mated by the one that you love so much," she indicated Illya, "and that is something noble to aspire to as a cat, believe me. Most do not feel this way at all."

"I am as a cheetah," Yanna declared, "I am dark, but that is from the magic that was done to me and my dark hair. What else could I be?"

Shahbek smiled, "You do not see it, Yanna, but there are big differences between what you look like and the other one that I see in you. You have far more power than any cheetah could ever have -- even if she was as large as you. The color patterns of the cheetah are there on you, though a little hidden, but your strength and the shape of your skull tell me of another breed."

"Far to the East of here in high mountains, I have seen a kind of leopard different from all other leopards in many ways. One of them is the shape of the skull so that the passages above the nose can stand the cold air and the height of the mountains where they live. Another is their strength, and still another is the way that they breed. They live alone until they mate, and then they pair and stay paired. They mate often then, more than thirty times a day, many of them. This is the way of the Snow Leopard, and that is what I see in you."

She saw the disbelief in Yanna's face.

"I see your doubts, Yanna," she said, "so I will show you other things that are not right for a cheetah. You told of climbing a tree today. Cheetahs can jump, but they cannot climb because they cannot curl their pads and claws inwards -- which I have seen you do myself when you held up your hand at our first meeting. It was one of my first clues to your nature. You have trouble sometimes grasping things? A cheetah cannot close its paws at all, not even a little. Yet you can, though you must get used to it. And while I speak of your pretty feet, I can tell you that they are large for your size, because they are like a Snow Leopard's feet, and that cat can walk on top of snow oftentimes without sinking."

"Tell me, when you hunted today, did you rely on what you saw or on what your lovely nose told you?" The chieftain already knew the answer, because she had seen what Yanna had done before she began her chase.

"I smelled where the men had run to and I followed," she said, "and when I was close enough to stalk, I used my eyes."

"Well that is fine, "Shahbek replied, "but a cheetah hunts by sight only. You hunted in the way of a leopard because you have a better nose. And when you neared what you hunted, what did you do then?"

"I, - I chose to trip him." Yanna replied.

"What would your other choices have been?"

"Well, I could have brought the king down by striking with my claws, or I could have just pulled him down with my teeth."

"Not as a cheetah," the chieftain smiled, "they are built for their speed and lack the strength to pull game down. They trip their prey. But you knew that you had a choice because you killed the archer in the dark square by just ripping into him. I have been there since, and I saw the marks on the body, and one more thing..." she fixed Yanna with a hard look, "cheetahs never hunt at night. They lack the eyes for that as well, but your eyes are fine in the dark, are they not?"

Yanna nodded, "Alright, Shahbek, I see what you mean to say."

"Good, "the chieftain nodded, "because without this part of that cat's nature in you as well as the fine girl that you still are in there, you very likely would already have broken Illya's heart and if not, then you would very soon."

Yanna's jaw dropped. "But ... I never ... I never would."

"All that I wish to say is that you both need to be aware of these things. A cheetah female -- any cheetah female, will mate with any male who might catch her eye. I say this so that you know where it might come from if you feel this."

"How you deal with it -- if it happens -- is something that you may wish to talk about between you first -- before it happens. See if there is a way that Illya will allow it. See what ways there might be around it. See if you can withstand the urge if it comes to you."

"You are such a fine couple," she said with a warm and genuine smile, "I felt that I had to warn you of this -- and I pray that I am wrong, but if this happens and he cannot accept it, you could lose him. It was what I meant when I said that you would cry many more bitter tears."

"Know what it is and where it comes from if you feel it," she said to Yanna. To Illya she said, "Try to understand her, Illya, and always give your love. It is not only Yanna's heart in danger here," she said to them both, "it is Illya's as well, for I see the kind of love that is between you. It never happens to most people."

She leaned close to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Illya, know one thing here. These ones, the one that I loved, the ones who died in that cage, and this one here, they are all tortured in their way because of what has happened to them. Your beautiful girl here seems to be able to keep the sadness from her, no doubt because of your love, but do not be too quick to close the door if she falls a little. I do not need to tell you what she might do if her sadness grows too dark."

He nodded, understanding completely and feeling a cold and terrible fear in his heart.

"I did not want to darken what has been a fine day for you, but I know what it is to lose what you can never have again. Once lost, Yanna, you can never regain his trust, for I can see that he would carry this in a hard way and never offer anyone his trust again to the end of his days. He is not a cat, but I know the animal that he is, for I have loved one like him before and that is another sadness of mine."

She led them back to the door of the tent. "See that man there," she said.

The couple was surprised to see a man that they'd walked right past on their way in and had not even noticed.

They looked at a heavily-scarred and muscular man who sat sharpening a blade more than fifty feet away. Other than his physique, there seemed little that was remarkable about him. That all changed when he noticed that he was being looked at and returned their gaze. Seeing nothing of interest to him, he went back to what he had been doing, but the memory of that moment when he'd looked at them remained with them. A man who had no reason to care might have noticed them as people and at least seen Yanna as a curiosity. They saw that he regarded them as objects -- living objects of no consequence to him. They'd seen his gray eyes, but not his soul. He'd looked right through all of them.

"Sorn there is my other tragic mistake," the chieftain said quietly. "He was once like you, Illya, just as open and trusting as you and he was just as beautiful as you are once, long ago. All that he wanted was my heart for his own, but I was never that kind. I have always been more like ... a cheetah, you might say. That is all very well and good, unless a heart like his -- or yours - hangs in the balance."

"When men are hurt, only a few do irrational things. Almost all of them simply walk away. Some men do not even seem to notice the pain if the woman that they love takes other men behind their backs. It is harder for most. Most men go on after having their hearts and their trust broken," she said, "It might be a painful thing to them for a time, but they leave the hurt behind them sooner or later much as we do, though like us, they hold some of it for longer."

"But there is a kind of man who is a little apart, and after their few and quiet tears which they show to no one, well ... those ones only go on breathing."

"In our case, I could not leave him alone but I still took other men to love with, and when I was done, so was he. He left for a time and came back to me years later, but not to offer me his heart anymore. He had none to offer. He came to offer his skills, and you know what trade my clan works in. Sorn is the single deadliest man that I have ever known. He works alone and is as a shadow that one never sees the other side of. For a price, he would kill anyone quietly without a thought, other than how to go about it and return to collect his fee. A long time ago, Sorn was just like your man, Yanna, open and honest, kind and caring, until I cured him of it. He would have done anything for me out of his love for me. He still would do anything for me -- but now, the price must be negotiated first."

"When he came back, there was nothing inside of him anymore and that was all my doing. He speaks very seldom. He stayed alone. He never laughs. He cared about nothing. He felt nothing. He trusts no one, because I took all of that away from him in my selfishness. He lives, but as a person, he was very dead inside."

"Now I have such hope for him again, but not for my own heart," she smiled a little as she turned back to glance at the other woman who still cleaned the tent. "He was passing through a marketplace and his path took him past a slaver's stall. He does not look at women, but he always looks around him. It is one of the things which keep him alive in this business. He saw one woman there that day who no one wanted among all of the young and comely slave girls. No one even looked at her, for she was too old at well past thirty and it was plain that she had endured much hardship in her life. But something caused Sorn to stop and look hard at her. He paid the slaver a silver to have the woman to himself for a few minutes at the back of the stall alone to try to speak with her, and afterward, he asked the slaver for his price."

"Slavers do not keep ones that no one wants to buy for too long, and this woman's time was almost up. But I know that slaver myself, and we have spoken since because I journeyed to him to learn what I could. He told me that even though he saw that Sorn wanted the woman for some reason, he did not seize his chance to ask more than he would have anyway."

Shahbek smiled, "It was a good thing, too. If Sorn had marked it, the slaver would be dead now."

She looked at the young couple, "Sorn paid the slaver three times his price, but he had demands, and wished to know everything that the slaver knew of the woman. He even paid the slaver for his time in the telling of it. He paid in gold to know, for the woman would speak very little. He took her to other stalls and bought her some clothing, for she had nothing, and then he took her so that they might eat a meal. They went to an inn and Sorn paid for three nights and then he left her there after the first night, for he was in that place to kill a man for me. When his task was done, he returned and brought her to us, the two riding on his horse together slowly. That was when he spoke more words to me in one evening than I have heard him speak in fifteen years and even so, it still was not much."

"A few days later, he left to find any of the ones who had done what she had suffered and still lived, and he has now returned after two months. Two women and seven men are dead in four towns, one of them a foolish Sumerian priest, one of them a greedy and self-righteous Ba'al, and one of them a relation to his woman. I know that he whipped some of them at least some in retribution for what they'd caused her to suffer because she'd been whipped. He said nothing to them all about who he was or why he'd come. He never does, unless he has instructions to tell those he is sent for anything of importance. Then he killed them, and that is all that I will tell of it."

"While he has been gone, I made my trip to see the slaver and I have done my best to help his woman. I have showered many things on her in my hope for their happiness, for I have learned what I could so that I might make their lives better together. Like him, she rarely spoke at first, but now we talk a little between us. They knew each other long ago, but were parted by others and neither one knew what had become of the other. Sorn found his way to me much later after searching for years, and as his heart began to heal from the thing that I knew little of, I crushed it in my selfishness and completed what had already been begun."

The other woman excused herself as she was about to leave and Shahbek spoke with her a little in a dialect where little was known to the others. She nodded and walked out to Sorn with a small shy smile. The change in him was startling. His stern and blank face lit up and he stared at her for a moment before he came to lift her right off the ground with his hug. They walked off together, her hand in his. The woman said a word or two and he looked back at Shahbek and nodded his thanks.