"No, I was not far enough along that it caused me much pain other feeling like my hearts was ripped out."
Orestes reached up and wiped away the tears from her cheeks. “Finish getting dressed. Everyone is worried about you. They will be happy if you make it to dinner. Tonight you can cry and I will be there."
"Would you stay? I do not think I am ready to be alone again.” Orestes smiled and kissed her forehead.
"I will not move from this spot."
When Kybele turned to face him, her chiton was bound at the waist by a golden ribbon with dangling gold pomegranates. Her hair, pulled with long corkscrews, escaped here and there., The most impressive item was the gold diadem with the scene of a lion attacking a bull that her hairstyle arranged around. The styling allowed him to see a pair of good-sized pendants with a figure of Eros hanging from each ear. Around her neck hung a beaded gold necklace, semiprecious stone acorns attached to every other bead.
"Kybele, where did you get those?"
She looked down self-consciously. “They were in the bags of the men I killed. Your mother insisted I keep them."
"Mother is right that you should have them. You have earned them.” Then another thought crossed his mind. “If you will not let us forget the debt, you could sell them and pay it off easily."
Kybele looked at the gold finery she wore. “I have little in my life. I think perhaps I would like to keep them and work off my debt."
Orestes wiped off the tears that still fell freely. “Is there another reason you refuse to let us forgive the debt or pay it off early?” Kybele pulled back slightly so that she could look at him.
"I missed you while you were gone.” She whispered.
"I missed you, too.” Orestes kiss remained gentle despite how strongly he'd missed her. Losing his child had hurt the both of them. When he finally released her from his arms, the tears had subsided. He hoped for good..
"Now you are ready to go.” He whispered as they headed to the door.
Kybele was smiling for the first time in a week. “Orestes, can you not tell the others about Thessius? Even if they can guess the rest now."
He smiled faintly and kissed her palm. “Of course."
* * * *
The whole family went to the festival of Greater Dionysia, the wine god, in Athens with what remained of the wine from the last harvest. Everyone wore huge flower crowns as they traded wine for everything they would need for the coming year. It was, in essence, the yearly vacation for the family. The one time, for people living so far from the city-states, to actually celebrate. Many more to choose from but the fact it was a festival to the wine god proved too much of a lure to sell wine, it became both.
"I suppose I should have guessed you were an Amazon.” Aeneas announced as he rested against the doorway to the courtyard where they were staying. “I suppose it would take a woman of strength to resist me."
Kybele turned slowly. He wasn't a boy anymore so calling him one would have just been petty. “Orestes knew the day he bought me. I think your mother knew for some time. Are you so blind?"
Aeneas turned red at her words. “You might be fucking the man, but he doesn't love you! You think any Greek man loves the woman he's married to. Too many mistresses out there who give a good lay and aren't encumbered by money and land."
"Just who are you talking about, Brother?"
Aeneas froze before slowly turning to find Orestes behind him. “Orestes, please.” He muttered knowing what was coming.
Kybele could play that game as well. “You said yourself no man loves his wife and I am no man's wife. I have a lot of money to pay off though and I might as well have pleasure while I do it. Go find some girl, Aeneas, and make your mother proud. I made my choice a long time ago. Your acting like a child won't change that.” The boy ran. Orestes hand skimmed her back barely tempting the hairs there. When had he moved? He was there but nothing in his touch would confirm it.
"Liar.” He whispered in her ear, his breath sending shivers down her back.
She'd fought at battles that killed and known with less fear than in her stomach right now. “I have admitted that this is more than me taking pleasure, but he is right. If becoming your wife means you taking up with other women, then I will stay your mistress."
"Maybe they only take mistresses because their fathers picked out their wives for them for the sake of money and land. If I thought you would not have taken my head for bringing it up, I would have chosen you long before you came to my room. I love an Amazon, Kybele. Mistress or wife, there will be no others in my heart."
"Until your mother chooses a wife for you to propagate the line. A nice woman of good family with a large dowry you can take to her bed out of duty. Then one day she will complain one time too much and I will be sent away. Probably taken as a slave before I ever reach home, a home that is destroyed. I have nowhere to go back to.” His finger over her mouth stopped the reason she kept telling herself she stayed. She knew she should not fall in love. It was foolish.
"So you refuse to pay off the debt even though we both know you have the gold to do it. As my debtor, you feel you have a place with me.” A single arm wrapped around her and he lifted her easily off her feet. “I would have thought a warrior would fight more for what she wants."
"Where are you taking me?” Orestes growled in her ear and Kybele felt the want pool between her legs.
"The debts gone. If you are staying, it is because you want to be here. Now if you do not want me to show how I feel, you better start fighting."
Fighting, start fighting, no she wrapped her legs around his waist. Each step he took towards his room rubbed against her mound.
"No sword to take my head, good.” The door slammed behind him and they were alone for the first time on the trip. It was the first time since she lost the child that Kybele wrapped around Orestes wanting him inside her.
"You know I'm good at using a man's weapons against him. How about I use your sword to defeat you?” Pulling her legs from around him, Kybele pushed Orestes back to the bed. When he lay his lips at her breasts, she pushed him away, not letting him play. Kneeling, she flipped his chiton up and put her mouth to his sword. At the first moan, Kybele knew she had all of him, heart and body. Maybe it was time to realize she had a place even if she never married him.
Part Three
Some two years later Kybele leaned over the table in Orestes room. Knowing he was to meet her, she hiked her chiton high making sure he would have a view of all when he opened the door. The whispered whoosh of air told her Orestes was there but she kept her eyes to the tablets dealing with the trading the trading they would soon need to do in Athens. His hands settled on either side of her hips and she could feel the tip of his cock teasing the entrance she left bared for him. All the time they had been together and she still could not help but sigh when he slipped inside.
"Now that is a sound I love to hear.” He rasped in her ear.
Kybele grabbed hold of the table to give her leverage as he stroked in and out. The curly hair on his chest tickled her back as he leaned over with her. Strong hands slipped around to her front and lavished her nipples with care. Then suddenly Orestes froze without letting go, feeling her belly now without the previous passion.
"Have I been blind and just completely missed that you have gone without your courses for a while?"
"Must be blind, but do not just stop. It is making me horny as Hades."
Kybele's words drove him fast with need and his hands picked up the measuring he had started. Only now, they covered her stomach searching for the bump that was his child within. Horny did not cover what it was making her and her breathing quickly grew to pants. Orestes ran a hand down her side until they were skin to skin wherever possible, his free hand finding her mound.
"Why did you not tell me?"
"Sofi was talking of her coming child and she told of how your mother said that in the early part, it is easy to lose the child. I have lost one. I want this one."
>
Orestes planted a soft kiss in the middle of her back. With one hand on her breast, one circling her mound, and his cock deep inside her as he took up his rhythm again. It was difficult her not to come immediately. Kybele tried to just enjoy the feel of Orestes but he wasn't going to let her. She felt the tightening grow before the explosion started. Orestes, thrust even faster, grabbing hold of her hips and, joining her in orgasm before she'd finished. Legs barely recovered, Kybele felt herself lifted as Orestes took her in his arms and carried her to the bed.
"Now that I am not distracted with that ass of yours in my face, let me feel our baby."
* * * *
"Then we have an agreement of marriage between my Kariakoula and your Orestes.” Carrying in a jug of wine for supper, Kybele froze when she heard the words.
Helene must have caught the movement in the hall and looked up to find Kybele's eyes wide with surprise and fright. Kybele could only run. Busying herself in the kitchen, she could not break the feeling her heart was to be ripped out again. She had no home to return to, there was only one man she loved and the thought of him with another, even if he proclaimed he still loved her, made her sick. That he seemed so happy the day before when she told him she was pregnant again stabbed at her heart. Did he know the negotiations went on?
"Mama asked that you meet her in the courtyard.” Marina said quietly.
"Kybele, come and join me? There is a talk we need to have.” Helene called as Kybele found her. Helene sat on one of the stone benches and patted the spot next to her.
"Is there something I have done to displease you?"
Helene laughed. “No, in fact, quite the opposite. It seems that your price has been paid off in full."
"Orestes forgave all that two years ago."
Kybele found no look of shock or surprise in Helen's green eyes. “I knew long before he told me of it. There has always been something in the way he looked at you and you him. Why have you treated yourself as a slave, never giving yourself freedom, even when you know of his feelings and he freed you of your obligation?"
"I have no dowry, no position, and no family. I am not even Greek. What kind of a wife would I make for him? At least, this way, I am with him. What can I offer him? What can he take from me?"
"Love."
"Orestes already has that. I gave it freely a long time ago and he knows he has it.” Helene smiled knowingly. Kybele had to know why.
"What?” Kybele snapped.
"Well, that is the one other reason I know. I have the room on the other side of Orestes.” Helene watched the beautiful woman at her side blush furiously. “I am going to tell you something that I have not even told the children, something I think you need to hear most of all. Many have come seeking my children's hand in marriage, despite the fact we live so far from everything. I could have amassed a fortune if I accepted the offers, but I would also have the most miserable of children. If you want to stay, as it sounds you do, marry Orestes. You have my blessing. I would never arrange anything, with Kariakoula most of all. I have not seen him as happy as he has been since you came to us. You are the best thing for him."
"I am nothing more than a freed slave!"
Helene chuckled slightly. “Nor am I and Theron never held that against me nor has Orestes held it against you. You have your past and I have mine. Perhaps it is time that you heard of mine."
"Orestes told you everything?” Kybele asked her voice faltering a bit.
"I only know that it is rare for a woman to kill three men, especially when she is carrying no weapon of her own and used her attacker's weapon to do the job. There is a past in that."
Kybele lowered her head, but Helene continued without letting her answer.
"It is a story that many know, but since it happened so long ago, no one talks of it anymore. Over thirty years ago in Sparta, there was a soldier named Theron that I met while serving him at dinner at an acquaintance of his father's. The very next morning he was back to see me again. That I was a slave did not matter to him, and I was truly a slave. No master freed me as soon as I was purchased, as Orestes did with you. I was born into it, my parents captured as mere children. Theron came many times before my owner found out we were already talking of marriage. He would just buy me and he would free me. My owner refused any price, refused to let me go, and even branded me thinking that it would turn him from his suite of me. To the man that owned me, he was saving the Spartan city-state. Every man had the duty to marry and have more sons to fill the army, Spartan sons not some half blood slave. He was wrong that the brand would change Theron's mind. Theron waited until my owner was at a dinner away from the house and stole me."
Helene laughed faintly. “Well you could not exactly call it that since he left the fair price with an influential friend to deliver the next day. He could not call him a thief when it could be proved that he was paid. Theron had been here when he was fighting. He always thought that Lake Pombatius would be where he would live one day. So here is where we came. We lived here for almost five years in a little shack no better than any of the shepherds we were friends with. We were happy. By then we already had Orestes and Melasandros. I was carrying a child that I lost. A messenger arrived telling us that my husband's brother died several years previous and his father only the day before. He was the youngest of four and he was his father's only heir. We were wealthy with a fortune we never expected to possess. Life dealt us differently. We went back for the funeral and lived there while this house was built. We were still snubbed because of what I had been. We have never been back. I bore nine of Theron's children, two died as children, all far stronger than most that are from the city and because he actually loved me well, far more than most women would have. None of them have been raised to believe they should marry for position and money and find their pleasures elsewhere. Theron taught the boys to fight as any Spartan would and Orestes and Melasandros have served in the local Army. They have heaped new honors on the family. We tried to see that our children were not brought up in a way of life that made me a slave for seventeen of my years and my parents for even longer. They would never be happy trapped by those we left behind. They have been free to do as they wish, the girls especially. They would never do well married to a man who would make them prisoner in their own home.” Helene took Kybele's hand and dropped a gold key in it and closed it back around.
Kybele slowly opened her hand, she could only stare. “What is this?"
"The key to your freedom. For the chains that any other master might have put on you. That is why that man was here. He is the gold smith and he came to deliver that. He just thought he would try to arrange my eldest son to gain a vineyard for his bratty daughter."
"Where is Orestes?"
"Up in the northern fields.” Helene pushed her toward the door, smiling as Kybele left. Now if only the rest of her children would find someone as Orestes had. Sofi had and now a child was coming. Aeneas spoke of a dark eyed girl selling in the market of Delphi every time they returned. Perhaps something would come of that. Now if Melasandros would only do more than take the neighbor girl to bed, he might get somewhere.
* * * *
Kybele walked through the vines of the northern fields. All that distinguished her from the other women of the house was her arm with its tattoo and gold of vines. Somehow, now it was more appropriate than it had been in her old life, for she now made her life among the vines. Orestes was nowhere to be found. On a hunch, she made it up to the mountain top. There she found him with his back to her, staring at the reflection of the red sunset blazing in the water of the lake. Kybele slipped her arms around him and entwined her fingers with his.
"Did you have your Mother come and talk to me?"
"I should have thought of it. Even with the child, you never made mention of us, only that you wanted the baby."
"I was a slave. How was I ever to think your future included me?"
"You were never a slave and even if you were, I would not have cared."
/> "I know that now."
Orestes turned and kissed her forehead. “Does that mean that if I asked you that you would say yes to marrying me?"
Kybele buried her head against his chest. These words she thought she would never hear, words she thought she would never be able to answer. “Yes."
* * * *
Only weeks later they married. Helene softly smiled when asked about the impending child. How no one else saw it happening was beyond her. Kybele entered the room to go to bed and there, laid out on a table used for the accounts, was an entire treasure trove of goods from her homeland. Cloth in colors only be found through trade. Scarlet and purples interwoven and embroidered with gold and silver thread, cloth of fine linen, costly perfumes, gold jewelry in the form of necklaces, headdresses, and every other item of the finest quality. The lid of a chest lay open to reveal jewelry of many designs from all over the area. A gold Scythian pectoral necklace filled with scenes of animals in combat, gold lion headed bracelets, earrings of exaggerated gold boat hulls on which dense clusters of gold ducks dangled. Gold beads yet to be strung, buttons, plaques for clothes, one with the bust of a woman embossed on it. Earrings of smaller styles, one pair even with goats heads decorated with emeralds and pearls, and a heavy gold toque. Many other pieces, including a gold necklace of Colchian design, beads with very detailed graduated turtles around the whole length, the largest of which was the size of an egg and would hang almost to her waist. A choker necklace of red coral, a ring with the bust of Athena, a pair of earrings with the figure of Nike on them as well as carnelian, garnet, emerald and glass. Most spectacular of all though was a gold wreath of thinly hammered gold ivy leaves and bunches of grapes hanging from it. The rest of the horde removed from the men she had killed, the part she insisted Helene keep. Without hearing a noise, Kybele turned to find Orestes there watching her.
Romp Fantasy Digest Page 15
