The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix

by Ava D. Dohn

  * * *

  A foul curse rent the cabin as a missile of crumpled paper smashed harmlessly against its outer wall, tumbling ingloriously to a floor strewn with earlier similar wreckage. Groaning in frustration, Mihai angrily tossed her quill aside, burying her face in tired hands supported by elbows carelessly resting on sheets of her finest linen stationary scattered across her tiny desk. Filled with self-loathing, she went on to excoriate every aspect of her very being.

  What a fool she had been! Throwing away the beautiful treasures they had brought was only an embarrassment compared to the total stupidity of her other actions. Then to top it off, she had disregarded the very person Ma-we provided to advise Mihai at the exchange, discounting her as unstable and possibly dangerous! And yet, Trisha’s actions secured the safe release of the prisoners. And now, faithful to Mihai’s orders, that same selfless servant was departed EremiaPikros on a cattle barge when it was she who deserved little more, if as much.

  Coming events would require a leader to have the unquestioned trust of the people. Mihai’s fiasco at the exchange certainly didn’t engender much of that. If her heart hadn’t ached so, she probably would have broken down and cried. What good was she, anyway? Just a failure, yes, always had been just a failure...

  A soft knock came at Mihai’s cabin door and a sweet, almost cheerful voice called out from the other side, “My dear, may I please come in?” Mihai remained silent. She buried her head further into her hands, wishing to be able to shrink into nothing and disappear.

  After a moment, the sound of the latch turning and rollers moving on their tracks sounded the warning of an opening door. Mihai did not look up. A gentle swirl of air lightly brushing the woman’s face made her aware of an intruder’s uninvited entry. The door slowly closed, the castle’s wall breached. Mihai stiffened in anticipation of the coming onslaught… something that did not occur.

  As she sat there, face buried in hands, Mihai could hear soft, rhythmic breathing playing a soothing tune upon her ears, quickly followed by the nearly imperceptible sound of quiet footfall from naked feet on metal deck plates. Her muscles tensed up in dreaded anticipation of what might follow, so much to be craved, but so repulsive because of the mood she was in. Then it struck, the magic touching of Mother’s fingers, and all Mihai’s resistance to Ma-we’s presence melted away. Ever so gently, Ma-we undid her child’s blouse. Then pulling it down off tired shoulders, she began to dance her fingers across Mihai’s naked skin.

  Mihai’s heart attempted to ignore the rapturous tingles racing down her back and flooding her extremities, but she quickly surrendered to Mother’s lenitive touch. With a weeping moan from the intoxicating pleasure and a crying heart, Mihai sighed, relaxing, dismayed.

  “Please, please don’t… don’t…” Mihai’s lips attempted a coup against Ma-we’s sensuous onslaught only to fall victim to Mother’s witching powers. Tipping her head back, she reveled in the emotion, becoming lost in the innocence of long-forgotten childhood memories.

  Ma-we leaned close, whispering wistfully in her child’s ear, “I’ve missed you, your company these several days since the Prisoner Exchange. I worry sometimes you know, about you. So I ventured over here to see my darling daughter.”

  Mihai reached over, placing her right hand on her left shoulder, covering Ma-we’s hand with hers as she did. Craning her head until she looked into her mother’s eyes, Mihai bemoaned, asking, “How can you still love me, still care for this worthless brattling when she has failed you so? This wicked child deserves nothing but the whip and wheel! Indeed, they are too good for her... Look, that rebellious child stole from you gifts most precious and cast them before swine, even worse, nearly cost you the lives of your younglings.”

  Cocking her head, troubled eyes staring into Mihai’s, Ma-we asked, confused, “So, which one of my children do you speak of? No message has arrived upon my ears regarding such a catastrophe.”

  Mihai frowned, exasperated. “Don’t fool with me this day! The jester with stolen crown danced upon Salem’s walls, gleefully tossing all her peoples’ treasures to the enemy below, all the while casting aspersions upon the valiant warriors holding the gate before the foe. Again, the hero of Memphis showed her mettle under duress, trusting to the wisdom of a frightened waif while ignoring the counsel of valiant officers. You gave to me a treasure beyond measure, one of the Three of Prophecy and through insult and derision, I threw the treasure away. Now I cannot find the words to express my regrets regarding my actions.”

  Looking toward the ceiling, she cried, “And what did I do in all my selfish pride?! Sent the gift of God given to me away in a cattle barge... A cattle barge!”

  Ma-we stepped back, aghast, her eyes twinkling deception. In mock surprise, she exclaimed, “My! My! Oh what a wicked child. Or do we merely feel sorry for ourselves? Why, if I was in the mood to please my little brattling, I’d leave right now. But I’m in no mood to grant any wishes at the moment.”

  Mihai threw her hands to her face. “Mother, why do you do this to me?!”

  Ma-we cooed, surprised, “What? What am I doing to my little darling?”

  Mihai stood and spun around, taking hold of Ma-we’s arms. “Enough of this! You do not fool me at all! Your act of naivety is wasted with me. Do not think I could not see your face, feel your piercing gaze, as I played folly with innocent lives. So easy it is to see my stupidity in all of this.”

  Looking into her child’s eyes, Ma-we asked, “Stupidity?”

  Mihai’s exasperation reached its limit. “Must I spell it out?!”

  Ma-we frowned as if perplexed, puzzling over having missed something too obvious. “Well, yes, I confess that you must.”

  “Oh, you...!” Mihai’s frustrated reply carried on it an icy tinge of anger, Ma-we silently ignoring it. “A fool I am, and you know well that to be the case. No secrets can hide from your gaze, but seeing you wish to play the ignorant waif, I shall humor you. A fool I am for not accepting your gifts in councilors and their wisdom. Had I been successful, my entire company may well have been exterminated in heated contest while the prisoners murdered before your eyes. If not for the far-sighted action of the field marshal, Lord Trisha, and her personal bodyguard, the Witches of KordianHasur, the day would have ended in total disaster.”

  Mihai slammed her fist into an opened palm. “I walked into a trap with my eyes wide open, refusing to accept the visions of impending doom they screamed out to me! And I having no excuse this time! Unlike Memphis where, for want of knowledge, I slaughtered my people, the outcome of this day was shouted out to me even at the last great council meeting. She I pushed away, proclaiming her birth to this world illegitimate, accusing her of having a twisted, demented mind, lifting her up as a greater enemy of mine than even the Snake.” Sitting back down, Mihai rested tired arms on the writing desk and lowered her head in sullen remorse.

  Ma-we again stepped up close to her child and returned to softly massaging weary shoulders. After a long interlude, she quietly answered, “Why, yes, that is exactly what you did. Very foolish! Very foolish, indeed! Not one thing right did you do, not one! Mistake upon mistake, countless they were, oh, and with foreknowledge you did them.”

  There was a long pause, the room falling silent except for the distant throbbing of the ship’s engines. Mihai was about to burst into tears, knowing everything Ma-we had spoken was true, but not having expected those truths to be so blatantly expressed and so openly. Yet even more shocking were the following remarks that fell upon her ears.

  Ma-we continued to stroke Mihai’s shoulders. “To do the right thing may not always be the correct thing to do. A master of the game may misjudge his opponent if he believes the person greatly inferior. Your brother believed he faced an opponent far his inferior, and you did little to disappoint. Yes, indeed, everything done wrong, all the wrong moves, or at least he felt it so, but for the true Master of the game, your moves were on the
mark, and he fell right into my trap.”

  Ma-we wrapped her arms about Mihai in a big bear hug, whispering in her ear, “To defeat your opponent at the game, it is better to know the weaknesses of the players rather than their strengths. Search first for your own faults, for you must control the board. Then search out the others of your players, and look afar to the opponent who stands the contest against you. When you control the board, your adversary must always be playing catch up, following your whims. Do not give up the chase, even in defeat, and always stay on the hunt despite the hounds nipping at your heels.” She stood back. “It is a lesson you must learn, especially now that you will not be playing the field, but shall be watching the players.”

  Mihai asked, concerned, “So you have played me to proffer the great folly I have committed against my sister-gift and all the others?”

  Ma-we denied such a thing. “I said not that I controlled you, or anyone else. Indeed! I remained true to my word and stayed out of matters until your evil brother demanded I enter them, but true also, I controlled the field. Did you expect less?”

  Dismayed and curious, Mihai asked, “It makes little sense to my ears. You say that I was successful in my failures, and that you controlled the goings on at the Prisoner Exchange?”

  “I say ‘no’ to both your conclusions.” Ma-we waved her hands in denial. “Your failures accomplished my purpose, thus I was successful, not you. Second, I knew the players well, so set the board accordingly in advance of the game.”

  Mihai stood and turned to face Ma-we while reaching out and placing her hands on her mother’s shoulders. She began to argue. “You said that…”

  Ma-we interrupted. “Look, I do know a thing or two. Mere oppression can make one act crazy, even the wisest among us. You know that to be true. Asotos had been playing you for some time in order to prepare you for this day - a fact you should have known if other emotions and loyalties hadn’t gotten in your way, which they did. I also have little birdies that tell me things I need to know. I understood the field, the game your brother was attempting to play, and I was well aware of the mess you were in.”

  She reached up and began to massage Mihai’s upper arms, casting her gaze at the work she was doing. “It took no wise magician to understand what you were going through. Even my Trisha understood it well - well enough to make you hate her in order to take your mind off him. It’s one of her great strengths, you know.”

  Ma-we grinned, looking Mihai in the face. “Then I used her greatest weakness… something I must address soon… her ignorance of Asotos’ real power. She faced the Dragon with fearless indignation and resolve, something I doubt the child could have done had she known the true glory and might of that man. So, both you and she played to my success by manifesting your weaknesses.”

  Mihai blurted out, as if all other matters told her were of little importance, “You called that snake ‘Asotos’!”

  Ma-we loosed her hold on Mihai and turned, walking a few paces toward the far wall of the cabin. Staring down at the floor, she sighed, subdued. “Yes… I guess it is so...”

  Mihai watched her mother quietly standing there in thought, she pondering the moment. Had Mother aged? No, impossible. Ma-we was immortal in flesh and spirit. Still, there was no question about it, she looked small, shriveled up into a tiny little thing, tired and worn, used up and beaten, having weathered one too many storms.

  As if with great effort, Ma-we turned about, looking into her daughter’s eyes, her hands clasped together, shoulders stooped. A troubled smile gradually grew on her face. “I think… I believe I finally fell out of love with the man. So long I had hoped, dreamed, that he would change, held back the storm-winds in hopes he would. ‘After all’, I argued with the spirits, ‘there is time. I still have time.’ They wagged their fingers at me, warning that pain and heartache would find me sooner or later and, if later, would cause that much greater the pain.”

  She sighed sadly. “I refused to believe them, that is until this Prisoner Exchange, the blazing fires upon the plain bringing me to my senses at the last moment. I finally opened my eyes in time to see his wanton act of my little Rachel’s rape and murder, it then occurring to me there was no hope, never would be…” She lowered her head in remorse, her lips quietly releasing, “never had been...”

  Standing erect, Ma-we stepped up to Mihai, a sad smile growing on her face, a tear running down her cheek. “There is nothing left of the person I once loved, only the living carcass of a decaying being who once shared my bed, my soul. Bereft of heart so long I had lived, refusing to admit the emptiness within and forgetting the loyal love I received from so many others. Yet it took the selfish act of a child so dear to me to show me my own selfishness. My Rachel chose a course that would pacify her soul rather than force her to live in a world of darkness.”

  She took Mihai’s hands. “In her moment of despair, I saw not my child, but myself staring back at me from the looking glass. The scarecrow I beheld chided me for my evil dreams and wicked acts. ‘The road! The road!’ It cackled. ‘Why does Rhiannon find excuse when there is none to be had? For what wanton reason have you cast your child into the burning sea when, but for your own selfishness, no pain would the child ever have known? Did you truly believe he would change and suddenly become a good man? Was your hope so great that such a thing would happen that you risked all living things in chanced hope he might see his own evil and turn from it?’”

  “Suddenly, with the sound of crashing thunders, the mirror shattered before my eyes just as my child fell to the sands as if dead. It was at that instant that the scales fell from my own eyes, and I could clearly see the hideous Snake, deformed in all his demonic splendor, and my heart was rent asunder and also renewed in that moment.”

  Softly stroking Mihai’s arm, Ma-we mournfully crooned, “You see, I guess we all learned something new the other day.” She looked into Mihai’s eyes, asking, “You did learn something, didn’t you?”

  Mihai nodded, tears beginning. “Yes, yes I did. I learned that I can no longer go it alone. My glory, if I have any, rests in the strength and power of others. What do I do, how do I harness that power to do my will when I don’t know what my will is other than to see this madness end? Alone I stand now, on a mountaintop destined not for any man to ascend to. How do I carry the weight of the universe and all the souls dwelling within?”

  “Oh, my dear child!” The Mountain Rock, the Jahouk was returned in all its magnificence. Ma-we’s voice resounded again with the strength and dignity of the Power Divine. “You have learned, but not yet with the understanding needed. Allow me this word: Three are the swords, the first you have been witness to. Two yet remain in deep shadow, but blades of even greater might they each possess. You are not the wielder of these swords, but only the caretaker. By your crown, death you shall declare for your world, but blood and slaughter will be meted out by the declarations of others.”

  Mihai moaned, “Mother, I have murdered enough, my hands no more righteous than my forbear who was denied his wish to build your house. Now you say I must declare the world’s demise. Should I play the incubus to the full?”

  Ma-we lowered her eyes to stare at the floor, sullen despondency wafting upon her reply. “No my child, no, for I released the incubus upon this world three days past. For too long I held the demon in check, hoping beyond hope it would somehow fade away into only fitful dreams, but it has already sired Damian, so dreadful, so dreadful! I must now turn the tide before the moon sinks forever beneath the sea. Damian shall be twisted into what is to become holy so that his dark deeds deliver the new day. That is why I have done what I have done, myself changing times and seasons.”

  She looked up into Mihai’s confused face. “You, my dear, have only the hour to choose for the world’s demise. The ship has sailed, its sails set, and tiller tied fast. The north wind already is driving it onward, its stern to the biting gale. Choose the
n your world’s hour of death. That is all you are to do.”

  The two fell upon each other’s shoulders and wept profusely, they both in want of forgetfulness, a wishing for the Elder Days when the universe was fresh and innocent. Both knew the past could never be again, and each blamed herself for its destruction. Yet deep within the troubled hearts of mother and child was the understanding that this coming hour was assured to one day come, the Fates whispering in Ma-we’s ears on the day she revealed future secrets to them, and in all the children’s hearts as they stood upon the ramparts of the palace, yearning to journey beyond those walls into the unknown.

  Yes, freedom of will, the very essence of life, by its very nature, promised this day was to come. Only then, when all knowledge was gained, and innocence was lost, could the universe be spared again from such evil. The Whispering Spirits had seen it, warning of its coming approach. Ma-we felt it, the twinge of dread the day she birthed her first child, a son, into this universe, and the children sensed it deep within their souls, troubling visions of shadows passing in the afterglow of fitful dream shares.

  When the flood of tears had ebbed and the embrace satisfied troubled hearts, Ma-we stepped back, taking Mihai’s hands as she did, warning, “Your brother will strike soon, for I have built an inferno within him. As before, you and your brothers shall take the blow with resoluteness.”

  She released Mihai’s hands and began to slowly pace. Suddenly she turned, hand outstretched, her voice filled with anxious defiance. “But this time it will be different! Something beyond the fool’s wildest imaginings will happen. Rising above the bloodied plain, three flaming swords shall sing out a vengeful song, all my loyal children joining in its chorus. Before him, the rage of Sharon will fill the very heavens, and he will awaken to the dread of coming days. My children will have finally waked, and there will no longer be found any place or hope for him.”

  Ma-we looked into Mihai’s eyes, pleading, “Please don’t resist what the future must bring. I looked into the hearts of the children I have delivered here from the Worlds Below and even I could little fathom the monsters I have released upon this world. Fearless, reckless, and full of hate they are, with a malice so dreadful that I dare not speak of it even to you.”

  She lifted a hand, shaking a finger. “Oh yes, filled with love they are, but oh, what has been done to them that I cannot undo without destroying their very souls! Somehow, in some way that I must study further, they have wound the cords of love and hatred together into a harmonic bond that resists life and death. So strong is this bond, so perfect in its balance, it draws the powers of the universe to it, binding them together into one unbreakable cord. It, I believe, is the final unknown in the equation of your EbenCeruboam, and they the progenitors of it.”

  To say that Mihai was surprised to hear that the Maker of Worlds, the very inventor of all logic - mystical, ethereal, and material - had not known the final solution to the secrets of their sacred mathematics was astounding, her face reflecting such wonder.

  Recognizing Mihai’s dilemma, Ma-we offered answer waiting for no question. “Even I am not all knowing, contrary to what many fools in the Worlds Below - and maybe a few up here - believe. My heart could not see this world’s ending, its violence and rebellion, and there are others things I am still waiting on to discover. Then I made intelligence with freedom which, in and of itself, creates uncertainty. Since, by their creation, all the possibilities in mortal math are limitless then, too, the evolution of intelligent thought and its effective outcome need be the same. That being the case, how can even I be omniscient when possibility is limitless, thus uncertain?”

  She looked at the floor, quietly puzzling, “This unknown I have not yet studied, recognizing it for what it was only at the Prisoner Exchange, but I believe it will strengthen the universal fabric in the end. Yet how it will change it is still an unknown.” Ma-we shrugged. “Oh well, it is the unknown horse that makes for an exciting race.”

  Mihai did not like it when Ma-we gathered herself to the ‘somber moods’, as she and her siblings called the times when Mother became so self-reflective. Truth be said, Ma-we rarely acted this way, and with only a very select group of her trusted children. Darla was a new initiate to such revelations and to the depths of self-deprecation Mother might sink to at these times. But it was part of Ma-we’s nature, as it was with all her children, even before the veil of darkness consumed their worlds. As the Maker of Worlds had often said, “One cannot fully appreciate the jubilation found on a mountain’s peak if he has not first experienced the shadows of the deep chasm.”

  (Author’s Note: Some readers may find it difficult to believe the Maker of Worlds being prone to gloomy moods and depressive thoughts, but so true it was, and still is. Lowenah is more human than most of us wish it to be, or should I say that we are more Lowenah than we can fathom. True, fear of death and injury are foreign to this person, the very reason she did not contemplate the depth to which her math regarding it must be executed before the equation of the whole could be satisfied. Yet fear of failure, of having overlooked some important detail to the harm of her children, troubled her constitution at times, troubles her even down to these days.

  We should not feel shocked at learning that the Maker of Worlds shares our very nature of both heightened exultation and deep sullenness. No! Our shock and surprise should be that she so honestly reveals to her lowly creation this part of her being, a sterling example to us all. More than that is the truthful evidence that never did Lowenah allow her feelings to affect her decision making to the harm of her creation...also a good example that her children should follow.)

  “Please.” Mihai quietly begged. “You are too cruel to yourself. The best is all anyone should expect of oneself, yet you chastise your very being with what-ifs and should-have-beens.”

  Ma-we chided, mockingly, “Heal thyself, oh ye great physician.” She turned away ,throwing her hands high. “Memphis! Oh Memphis! Oh what an evil child I am to have murdered my brothers and sisters in that awful place! Oh woe is me! I’m so evil! I’m so evil!”

  Mihai covered her ears crying, “Enough, Mother, enough!”

  Turning back to her daughter, Ma-we began to play her fingers across Mihai’s arm, quietly cooing, “So my child must do as she tells her mother, ‘Put behind you what you cannot change.’”

  She added in little more than a whisper, “Now, dear one, start anew the calling hour and listen and learn. You, my child, shall change the future, renewing breath and hope. Is that not good enough?”

  “Oh, Mother.” Mihai moaned.

  Looking into her eyes, Ma-we kindly admonished, “You have learned many lessons these past several days – one is that you are now king over these people… not field marshal. Like me, you cannot afford to display self-pity, always being the strong, knowing leader, always the one with an answer when the helpless ask questions. As you step out before the waiting crowds in coming days, gone will be your uncertainty and self-derogation. It must never return for them to see. So goes the king, so goes the people, the Empire. Your energy they will consume, your light they will reflect. They will need that light, a very powerful one, during the coming darkness.”

  A shadow grew across Mihai’s face as she pondered the weighty responsibilities now carried upon her shoulders, wondering if she had the inner strength to be successful.

  Reading her daughter’s thoughts through the girl’s heart, Ma-we answered troubling questions without being asked. “Child, do you believe I have misjudged your power and abilities?” She grasped Mihai’s arms. “No, child, no! I wove you in my belly long ago, laid out the cords upon which you were built. I know every fiber of your mind, heart, and soul. Strength there is within you, greater than most, and not all by my making. The tools I presented to you, but you constructed the tower. And mighty it is, too. There is immeasurable strength hidden within you - you, my most brash of humble children. It is there.” S
he paused. “Believe me...”

  Sitting down on the cot, she looked up at her child. “Besides, as you well know, you do not stand the field alone. This kingdom you have accepted rulership over is not everlasting. You merely sit a throne that has long existed – mine - at least the part of mine that directs your siblings. This is no revelation to you, for I thoroughly explained it to you as we journeyed toward the Prisoner Exchange. Is that not so?”

  Mihai agreed, nodding. “Yes, Mother, you did, but I had so many concerns at the time, I paid little attention to what you were telling me. Please forgive me for not listening attentively.”

  “Pooh...” Ma-we replied jauntily. “Harm you did only to yourself, and that but of little damage. Remember, you will, all that is necessary when the time is right. For now, I will remind you of just these few little matters.”

  Inviting Mihai to sit, Ma-we went on. “I have set some powerful players on my board, children from both the realms. And yes, in a way, you rule over both these worlds of mine...in a way. Although kingly you are to act - and truly, you are a king - you are more so a steward over what shall be given to another. The Swords you will wield are only loaned to you until that promised one’s arrival.”

  Ma-we mused. “As the king on my board, you are extremely important to the game, but you have very little power. Do not impose your will upon those of greater might who stand in lesser positions, for they may well humiliate you in their hour of revealing. It is not just in my Swords that greatness abides. Brothers and sisters aplenty I have delivered to the game who will sway the battle. Use them wisely by allowing them the freedom to choose when and how to unleash the powers given them.”

  She squeezed her daughter’s hand. “I must also warn you, as I have already warned you: you are a stiff-necked child, stubborn and self-reliant. Good these traits have done for you in past hours, but an evil shadow they now cast upon you even as I speak. Tools for your own destruction they are when wrapped in the music of deceitful lovers and trusted companions. Remember please, poison is not hidden in bitter drink, but what is smooth to the palate is where the evil one pours the venom.”

  Ma-we sadly sighed. “You love me so, my child, but your heart betrays to me its stubbornness to not heed my counsel. Trust you do too much to the sweet tongue of lovers and counselors who sing merry tunes upon your senses. So, bitter must be the drink and rancid the food you must consume before the sun will shine upon Hope’s new day. I wished it not to be so, but you have forced the Fates to choose a deceptive road for you.”

  Mihai vehemently denied it to be so. “No! No, Mother, it is not that way at all! I love your counsel and want so much to carry out your slightest desire. My heart I will bind with an oath to accomplish all that is according to your wishes. This I promise!”

  Staring into Mihai’s eyes, Ma-we softly answered, “Yes, my child, I do see you believe it is so.” She then leaned forward and kissed her daughter tenderly on the lips.

  After a moment or so, Ma-we stood, preparing to leave. She offered some parting counsel. “You have become the furnace that will forge my children into the weapon that will bring down Asotos’ house. Remember well that your brother has already given himself over to the god of fortresses. You must do the same. Turn these worlds of yours into a great machine of war. Use it up without mercy. Turn you pruning hooks in spears and your plows into fighting axes. All my children must learn the art of war. It is the only way you will win.”

  She looked into Mihai’s face, asking, “Has Paul been of assistance with your night dreams? Do you sleep better now, since the Prisoner Exchange?”

  Mihai smiled. “Paul is a good man. He refreshes my soul, makes me feel like a maiden again, wanted again. Yes, he has soothed my heart so that I sleep comfortably in his arms.”

  Ma-we smiled in return. “Good. Good.”

  Sliding open the panel door, she began to leave, turning as she did to offer one more bit of advice. “Cherished one, use that man to the full. He loves you so much. Feed off his love for you. Confide in him with your inner thoughts and dreams. Wisdom is to remain in his arms, speak the secret matters of your heart to him. The innocent will understand and the guilty will remain unknowing.”

  She threw another kiss, extolling her deep affection for Mihai, and took leave for her shuttle. As Mihai stood there, silently pondering the recent conversation, a sound of gentle footsteps fell upon her ears. She turned to see who was approaching, smiling her hellos.

  “It is so good to see you, my dear.” Planetee called, sweetly. “Are you ready to dine with me as we have arranged this eve? I have so many things to share with you, to tell you.” She laughed carelessly, taking Mihai’s hand, ignoring the lingering ache of her earlier injuries.

  Mihai grinned, sliding the panel closed while replying she was ready. Tomorrow she could finish the note to her field marshal. Yes, tomorrow would be a good time to complete that and other business. Tonight she would forget all these stressful, troubling thoughts and relax with friends and companions. Tonight she would play the child, innocent of any kingly responsibilities. After all, the real ruler of the universe was still in her company. Tomorrow would be a good time to contemplate her new responsibilities regarding that, too.

  She kissed Planetee on the lips, looking at her with flirting eyes. “I have been told there are a few bottles of Medeba wine secluded aboard this ship that the captain has saved for this eve. Shall we see if it is really so?”

  Planetee smiled seductively, asking, “So, it is only my company with the wine that lifts your spirit? I had hoped for more than the elixir that merely excites the palate.”

  Mihai’s eyes twinkled as she answered, “I’ve elixir that not only excites the palate but stirs the heart into heated passion. Rich with cream it is. Full to overflowing is my larder, for no milkmaid has found my stable in many long hours. Drink first, with me, the wine, then I shall make you drunk with my intoxicating potion.”

  Planetee kissed Mihai passionately on the lips, cooing, “Your milk, so sweet upon the tongue it is. Too easily you give your treasures away.” She reached up and gently squeezed one of Mihai’s breasts, feeling its fullness. She winked, crooning with desire. “So ashamed that we must first suffer the wine...”

  The two women laughed and hurried away.