The Second Mango (The Mangoverse Book 1)

by Shira Glassman

  Once more, Rivka had her back to a door and was moaning over love and desire for Isaac the wizard, but this time he was on the right side of that door -- pinning her to its surface, holding her, and now joining with her. She stood with her legs wide and her arms around him, clutching at him and pressing him closer. Like a river overflowing its banks, ardor and relief poured from her heart and made her feel as if she were floating. Isaac was in her arms at last.

  When the room stopped spinning, a panting, somewhat sweaty man rested his head in the soft place between her neck and her shoulder, his nose buried in her skin. “Who is this brave woman,” he said softly between gasps, “who has pierced my heart?”

  Rivka smiled, at peace, and held him.

  She was still wearing her sword.

  ***

  When Rivka and Isaac’s clothing had dried enough to wear comfortably they emerged from their chrysalis, taking the lamp with them. They found the rest of the holy women scattered throughout the temple, mostly reading peacefully, but some cleaning or praying or working at various crafts. Aviva sat against the wall on a cushion made from something coarse and green, with her hands massaging Shulamit’s head, which lay in her lap.

  There was something suspicious about the position of Shulamit’s body, and Rivka quickened her pace as she approached them. “Is everything okay?”

  “Everyone else bites pita, but with my darling, the pita bites back,” said Aviva.

  Rivka lifted an eyebrow. “Shula, what did you--”

  “I just wanted to see if the curse antidote had cured me.”

  “She just ate a bite or two, so it’s only stomach cramps, thank God,” Aviva explained. “But I couldn’t even get her to a bed.”

  “Sorry.” Rivka poked the queen’s shoulder affectionately. “I can carry you somewhere more comfortable.”

  “I’ll be all right,” Shulamit said weakly. “I’m used to this.” She drew her knees up closer to her chest. “Aviva didn’t want to let me, but if I didn’t try, I’d never know.”

  “Do you need anything?”

  “Water might help,” Shulamit mumbled.

  Rivka and Isaac ran off in search.

  ***

  “I’m so happy you’re here to take care of me again,” said Shulamit, burying her face in Aviva’s lap. “Losing you hurt worse than these cramps.”

  “I hurt myself too,” Aviva reminded her. “I just couldn’t think of anything but how I owe my mother my life, and...” She hugged the girl in her lap.

  “But we could have figured out a way to make everybody happy -- maybe not honestly, but Nathan was a wicked criminal and he deserved to be tricked.” Shulamit winced with pain, and when the wave of squeezing in her gut had subsided, she continued. “What’s more, I want you in my life, by my side, forever, but now I’m scared that the next time you’re in trouble you’ll run away again and I won’t know anything about it. My brain runs and runs around in circles and keeps thinking of all these perfectly logical reasons that you wouldn’t want to be around me, except they’re really probably silly--”

  “What do you want?”

  “I--”

  “I want you to feel safe. I’m sorry about the way I did things before, and I want to make sure I do better.”

  “Now I feel ashamed. What you did for your mother was wonderful. I don’t think I have that kind of strength.”

  “I need to know what will make you feel safe.”

  “Just please -- promise me that you’ll tell me things from now on. If you need money, if someone threatens your family, anything. Owww...” Shulamit breathed heavily for a few seconds. “Whatever it is, we can -- tackle it together.

  “I promise.”

  “In any case, my father’s money paid for your mother’s operation, so I’m glad at least to know the money went somewhere good.”

  Isaac and Rivka returned with the water, and Shulamit drank deeply and rested.

  That night before dinner, Keren examined the queen and determined that it was safe for her to eat again, and even that her wrist sprain was healing up quickly. She also declared that Aviva had recovered fully from her ordeal back at the fortress. The two ate heartily and then prepared for bed in the room in which they had slept the night before.

  Only, this time there would be no Book of Esther, only their own version of the Song of Songs. Tonight would be a sanctified reunion of hands and bodies and dreams and sighs. This night would be the warmhearted self-satisfaction of knowing that you had brought her pleasure, and the sweet gratefulness of your own pleasure under her touches.

  They eventually dozed off, but as appealing as it sounds to fall asleep tangled up with another person without any clothes on, sometimes your arm falls asleep or they breathe on you funny and the situation may be more comfortable in the heart than it is on the limbs. Shulamit woke up again while it was still dark. She felt sticky and stale from falling asleep sweaty. In her effort to extricate the arm that had fallen asleep from beneath Aviva’s body, she inadvertently woke her up. “Mmm,” Aviva mumbled. “Your face smells of flowers.”

  She wasn’t talking about the ones that grew on trees.

  Shulamit grinned awkwardly. “Yours too. We should probably go out to the creek in the back of the temple and clean up before we present ourselves to anybody.”

  “Good idea,” said Aviva, still groggy. The only movement she made was to plant a hand on each of Shulamit’s hips and pull her back on top of her.

  “Well, since we haven’t bathed yet...” Shulamit murmured, and slithered down in between Aviva’s legs.

  When, as Aviva phrased it, “the soft little kittens had finished meowing,” the girls put their clothing back on and made their way to the back of the temple as best they could without being seen. They dodged two women who were on breakfast duty and a third who was doing the cleaning, holding themselves flat against the wall and moving in shadows, all while trying their hardest not to giggle. Finally they were outside, in a quiet gray world of predawn mist. Birdcalls rang from distant trees, preparing the way for the inevitable sunrise.

  Rivka was already in the water, scrubbing away her own trophies. “She’s glowing,” Aviva whispered, giggling. “I bet she can even understand the birds.” Then she raised her voice. “Good morning, Riv! What are the birds singing about today?”

  The warrior raised her eyebrows in amusement and waved to them. “They’re saying it’s good you two are up. We can get an early start. We’ll stay in Ir Ilan tonight, but we’ll have to make it to the marketplace in time to get Shulamit her dinner.”

  “Where’s Isaac?” asked Shulamit.

  Rivka cocked her head upward. “He went back to sleep.”

  Shulamit and Aviva looked up and saw the snoozing dragon on the rooftop. “So, we can fly on his back the whole time on the way home?” Shulamit asked as they removed their clothing and entered the water.

  Rivka nodded. “His stamina will be much better now that we’ve lifted the curse.”

  “But you won’t have a horse anymore.”

  Rivka smirked at her. “Guess I’ll only have a dragon!”

  “And a husband,” Shulamit pointed out. “We should be home by tomorrow night. Then I can send Nathan away and put you in his place. His crime doesn’t fit his position.”

  “Will the rest of the guards resent me if I displace him so suddenly?” Rivka asked.

  “There’s something neither of you know,” said Aviva. “Each time King Noach gave him more money to increase the wages of the guards, Nathan told himself it would be permissible, just this once, to keep it for himself -- because of his growing family.”

  Shulamit’s eyes were once again saucers. “How did you find out?”

  “He sent his older sons with the money in the bag to pay the surgeons directly, when they treated Ima,” said Aviva. “I was thrown together with them a bit during the ordeal. They liked me a little too much, and it was hard to get away from them. Remember what I said about my bosom. Anyway, I encouraged t
hem to flirt with the Lady Wine instead of me, and they told her many secrets that I had the benefit of overhearing. Lady Wine knows everyone’s secrets.”

  “When I’m drunk, I just sing louder,” Rivka muttered. “So if I pay them the wages they deserve--”

  “Besides, they’ve already heard of your reputation,” Shulamit pointed out. “They hired you to rescue me from the kidnappers.”

  “Some of my captures -- as a bounty hunter -- are a bit well-known, to those in the trade,” Rivka acceded.

  “How did you get the job at the bawdy house, before you had all your war experience?” Shulamit asked. “I mean, I know Isaac had taught you how to swordfight, and you’d been in the one battle back home, but you weren’t, you know, the mighty Riv yet.”

  “I was staying there as a guest -- it was also an inn -- mostly just keeping to myself so I could practice with my sword, except when I was looking for odd jobs to earn money. And one night, one of the customers tried to attack one of the willing women. Seems he was, uh, having some trouble.”

  “His leaves had wilted,” Aviva supplied helpfully.

  “Exactly. Anyway, he blamed Raizel for his own deficiencies, and things got violent. I heard the commotion and the screaming and grabbed my sword. He ended up tossed out the window into a pile of rotting kitchen scrapings. I threw his luggage out after him, after taking out Raizel’s fee.”

  “I wish I could have seen that,” said Shulamit admiringly.

  “The rest of the willing women were clustered in the hallway at that point, and they’d all seen what happened. They pretty much demanded that I stay on as their guard. Shayna -- the madam -- her lover had walked out on her and he’d been the guard before me. That’s why they didn’t have anyone to protect them that night. So I agreed to stay on. Of course, a few of them found it necessary to insist that I understand their rule against the guard making free with their services. You’ve known me for only a week or two but you’ve already seen how direct I am -- and this was the middle of the night, only weeks after I thought I’d lost Isaac and left the only home I’d ever known. I simply opened my shirt, and said that I had a pair of my own and wasn’t interested, so they didn’t have to worry.”

  Shulamit wilted.

  “I’m sorry, Queenling,” Rivka added. “I wasn’t really thinking about women like you two. To be honest I’m not sure I knew it existed at that point.”

  Shulamit’s expression softened, and then broke into a smile. “And then, despite all your talk of loving only men, you spent three years loving a soul imprisoned inside a female body.”

  “I knew you weren’t going to let that alone.” Rivka splashed her in the face, then quickly got out of the water and started pulling on her clothing. “Better get dressed before the holy women see all this and bust up my cover.”

  Shulamit grinned. “Right before I met you, I was thinking that I wanted to fire all my guards and replace them with men who were like Aviva and me. Now, with you and Isaac around, that’s what you’re going to look like.”

  “Feh,” Rivka said with a shrug. “I’ve got Isaac back, and I’m about to start my dream job. Plus, I’m good at what I do! So the rest doesn’t matter.”

  ***

  Rivka walked away a little distance into the trees, giving the girls some privacy. Gazing back at the temple, Rivka could see the black-green of her husband still asleep in dragon form on the roof. She felt overwhelmed by joy, and clasped a paper to her breast.

  In the golden light of sunrise, she reread the words to which she’d awoken.

  My beloved, my wife, my Mighty One--

  You’ve fallen asleep (and no wonder, considering our exertions!) but I can’t sleep just yet -- I’m still getting used to being myself again, and my mind is too active. So I snuck downstairs to find paper and ink and now I’m writing to you, with my clumsy left hand just as I did all those years ago when you were borrowing my books.

  The morning you left your uncle’s castle, I carried you away in a mix of sorrow and joy -- I had lost most of my human faculties, but I was also filled with elation that we were together, fighting as we’d dreamed. You wept for me, and told me things about myself without knowing to whom you spoke. I was flattered and it felt good to hear it, but I quickly worked out a plan to reveal myself to you.

  As soon as we’d gotten beyond the forest, you told me to land so you could bathe in the river. That was exactly what I’d wanted. But when I reached my claws to the mud, I realized to my mind-numbing horror that I’d forgotten how to write. I was devastated, and panicked. Do you remember how I scraped around, frantically, hoping physical rote memory would take over for my poor, feebled, curse-riddled mind? I think I even rolled in the mud, frustration shutting out all other thought.

  Oh, Rivka, Rivka! To have you so close and not be able to tell you!

  Then I had another idea, and used my left hand to point to my right hand, hoping you’d recognize the position of my scar. You were kind to me, but I think you said something like, “What’s the matter, girl? Did your paw get hurt in the battle?”

  Once my mare form had put the idea into your head, it never occurred to you that I was anything but female. Dragons’ anatomy is confusing for a beginner, I admit!

  I was filled with despair, but then, the very next thing you did was peel off all your clothing to bathe, and I was so overcome that I lost control and turned back into a horse.

  Do you remember saying kaddish for me that night? As a dragon, I curled around you and held you, breaking that you were in such pain, but reveling in the straightforwardness and strength of your love.

  Writing this has calmed me down enough to sleep. I’m leaving this for you to find when you wake up -- please let me sleep a little longer so I have enough stamina to carry you and the girls all day.

  I love you, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you -- NOT AS A HORSE.

  Your husband,

  Isaac

  Chapter 18: The Queen of Perach

  The troupe joined the holy women inside the temple for breakfast, and after everyone had eaten, they said their farewells to the sisterhood. Then they were off once more on the dragon’s back.

  “Thank you for carrying us around this whole time,” said the queen, who was riding in front because she was the smallest. “I’m a little bit embarrassed that we work you so hard, now that I know who you are!”

  “She rode me into battle for two years,” the dragon responded in a booming voice. “I’m used to hard work.”

  “Your voice sounds different when you’re a dragon!” Shulamit tried to quantify the difference -- the low tones were louder, somehow, and some of the beauty had fallen away, leaving behind a sort of raw, naked power.

  “His voice comes from inside a great cavern now,” Aviva observed.

  “Ay yay yay, I’ve just figured out that you were in your dragon form when I first came to your door that night in my uncle’s castle!” Rivka’s head was thrown back in laughter.

  “That only took you a whole day,” quipped Isaac.

  “I’m amazed that you could fit inside in this form!” Rivka exclaimed. “You must have been cramped.”

  “I was, but I think maybe I found it comforting at the time.”

  “But then why weren’t you squeaky when you were serenading me as a lizard?”

  “I used extra magic to be able to use my human voice. Would you have been as impressed with me if I’d spent that whole night with you talking like a lizard?”

  “You’d impress me even if you never spoke again,” said Rivka, “but I do love listening to your voice.”

  “You have a wonderful voice,” piped up the queen. “I’m not going to make you sing to us when you’re already doing so much work to get us home, but I’m looking forward to hearing what that sounds like.”

  It was very late in the afternoon by the time the travelers reached Ir Ilan, but luckily for Shulamit, most of the stalls in the marketplace were still open. The northerners went off t
o buy Isaac some new clothes so he wouldn’t be stuck wearing a black cassock under the tropical sun, leaving the two younger women on their own. “I got lamb over there last time.” Shulamit pointed to the left. “It was pretty good, and I didn’t get sick.”

  “Sounds good to me,” said Aviva. “If Riv will let me use one of his smaller knives, I can make a salad for you from those vegetables over there.” In public, they were already using all male words for Rivka.

  “I’m sure he will -- and I’d really like that.”

  “I’ll come with you to get the lamb, first, and then we can pick out our crunchy friends.” Aviva followed Shulamit over to the kabob stall, which both scrutinized for any trace of fowl before happily forking over coins with King Noach’s picture on them.

  “You’ll be on the money soon, won’t you,” Aviva whispered as they left.

  “I will! Isn’t it weird?”

  “Ooh, look at these lovely cucumbers.” They were about five inches long and dappled dark green. Aviva began collecting them, while Shulamit swept her gaze over the rest of the vegetables on the table.

  “What about onions?” asked the queen.

  “Those onions are sweet,” the farmer announced proudly.

  “Oh, then definitely,” said Aviva. “And lemons? Were they able to come to the party today?”

  “I don’t know what you mean, but I don’t have any lemons. You can buy them two stalls down, from the man with the mustache. He’s also got lemonade, and mint lemonade too.”

  They paid the man for the cucumbers and onions and hurried off to the lemon grower. “I’m so glad to be back to this market with you,” said Shulamit. “When I was here last week, you kept popping into my head. I thought about how you always liked to shop for your own ingredients to get ideas, and I wished I was here with you.”

  “That’s some wishing power,” said Aviva, nuzzling her cheek against Shulamit’s since she had too many thing to carry to take her hand.