by YatesNZ, Jen
Taur was training with his warriors down on the military arena but he would be returning to their apartments soon. She planned to stay right where she was until he found her. A smile formed on her lips and she closed her eyes and let her head rest on the smooth golden ledge. He was gone before daylight to the Temple for Dawn Ritual and she'd barely seen him all day. Soon. He would be coming soon.
The smile had scarcely curved across her lips when he erupted into the bathing cavern, already naked and proclaiming, ‘We have news at last!’
Gynevra jerked upright and opened her eyes in time to see him step into the bath, his magnificent body glistening with sweat and steam.
‘What news?’ she asked, watching with amusement as he made vigorous swipes at his body with the bathing sponge.
‘Ahron's fleet left Poseidyr Harbor and sailed north yesterday.’
‘Only yesterday? Then we have at least five more days?’
‘Ta’a. The Gods know what took them so long!’
He dunked his head and surfaced with water and hair streaming over his face. Again he dived and came up with a flurry of splashing which usually elicited a protest from Gynevra. But today she was more concerned about the imminent arrival of her father's warships than the mess on the floor.
‘What are you planning to do now?’
Lunging to his feet, Taur gathered her into his arms. Water streamed from their bodies and Gynevra clung to him, laughing and protesting and trying to focus on the gravity of the threat that faced them.
‘I'm planning to kurn you, that's what I'm planning,’ he growled, lowering his head to her breast and suckling deeply.
Much later Gynevra thought it would've made no difference if the Poseidonian fleet had been sailing into Heceuda Harbor. She'd have lost all awareness of anything other than the flow of liquid energy from wherever he touched her to the point of ignition in her feminine core. With this man it would always be so and in some deep place in her soul she'd recognized it on that long ago day when they'd stood naked on opposite sides of the Sacred Pool in Fyr Poseidyr, a day she now thought of as the first of her womanhood.
Before they set out for the evening meal, which tonight would be attended only by the members of the council and their sacred partners, Taur led her out onto the balcony. The last notes of Evening Latreia faded on the air from sacred points around the city and a lazy curl of smoke from braziers in the city center and the docks drifted across the water. Though the nights were warmer, many of the braziers were lit and there were still vendors selling chestnuts, hog-crackle, fish cakes and meat patties to cook over the hot coals.
Taur held a cloak around Gynevra's shoulders with his arm and drew her attention to the peninsula jutting into the sea at the toe of Castle Crags. It was there he planned to erect the Star Path Pyramid. Then he pointed out the masts of a loaker from Khemu in the port and a string of donkey carts carrying goods from the ship to the warehouse on the wharf. Further along, the four Nyaldan warships were being readied for action. Men swarmed over hulls and decks, and up masts.
‘Every finger-width of those ships is being checked. Nothing will be left to chance. We’re poised ready for action the moment our enemy arrives.’
With a flash of knowing as strong as any she’d ever had, Gynevra said, ‘I don't actually have any presentiment of them arriving at all.’
‘You don't?’ Taur asked with a quirk of one eyebrow. Unlike Gotham, he’d quickly accepted the ‘knowing’ that came with her emerald vibration. ‘But they are on their way?’
‘Oh yes. No doubt at all they left Fyr Poseidyr as you were informed but I believe either they aren't making for Nyalda or something will happen to them before they get here.’
Taur shuddered.
‘That I can understand. Our trip home was the closest I've ever come to exploring the Caverns of Merea and I can almost feel sorry for them if that's what happens.—Cloaba! I have some good friends on those ships. I know they must follow orders but many of them are actually in command. I can't believe they'd sail against me!’
‘Perhaps that's it. Perhaps they just followed orders until they reached the open ocean. No one could stop them then if they elected to change course.’
‘Cloaba! Our warriors will be unhappy at being cheated of a fight. They are primed and ready to explode into action. If the Poseidonians don't show I will have to think of some constructive way of channeling all that energy.’
‘They could always help with the construction of the pyramid or some other project,’ Gynevra suggested.
Taur shook his head skeptically.
‘It is a destructive energy they are fired with, a fire to kill and fight. I think it could only be assuaged by a hunting competition or a festival of war games. But we must wait and hope they do arrive.’
Gyn'a sighed.
‘You're just as bad as your warriors. I'd just as soon the ships didn't arrive!’
Taur hugged her into his side and chuckled. Then slapping the heel of his palm against his forehead, he exclaimed, ‘I almost forgot the other thing I wanted to talk to you about! I've made some enquiries about the Qeggi affair and you were right. Judge Lomy appears to have been easily swayed by bribery to bring in any verdict a wealthy Paggi would pay him for. I promise you our people will know they can trust our judges in future. Lomy is a judge no more and Lord Reggo who needed the Qeggi silenced has already fled on a loaker heading for Khemu. I wish him a very uncomfortable trip.’
‘Thank you,’ Gynevra murmured. ‘It feels right that justice is served, but I really fear it is too late for the victim of their avarice. What can life hold for him now?’
‘Perhaps a Queen could think of something,’ Taur suggested.
‘Perhaps she could,’ Gynevra agreed.
One afternoon three days later as she sat on the balcony brushing Qerlim's molting winter coat, Taur stormed into the apartments. His face was ruddy from the wind and his hair a tangle on his shoulders. But what most startled Gynevra was the blazing fury in his eyes.
Halting the brush in mid-stroke along the wolf's back, she asked, ‘What's wrong?’
‘D'you know what those arabo have done?’ he demanded, throwing the horned helmet onto a chair as he strode out onto the balcony, his cloak flying behind him like a pennant. ‘By Cronos! If they were my men I'd hand the lot of them over to the priests! Infidel arabo! Traitorous arabo!’
Qerlim growled, bared her teeth, and snapped at his ankles as he stormed past. For once he neither noticed nor commented on the ingratitude of the animal. Gynevra gentled the cub with her hand and a murmured order to hush, then asked calmly, ‘Who are the arabo and what is their crime?’
Taur halted his savage pacing. Dropping onto the stone seat at her side he dragged his hands through his hair and turned a fulminous gaze on her.
‘They mutinied,’ he said in a voice of utter disgust as if he'd not even heard her question. ‘The general troops took over Ahron's ships, threw overboard any, Commanders, Generals, or warriors, who stood against them and commandeered the supply ship. They sank the command kanzuc and brazenly returned to port under pretense of a troop-ship damaged by foul weather to secretly pick up their families and sail for a destiny unknown.’
‘I collect we're talking about my father's warriors?’
‘Your father's rat-pack more like! From the thirty-odd men of the Command, aside from those few who went with the mutineers, two survived, washed ashore on the coast of Gadeirus, more dead than alive and babbling about mutiny and men being ripped apart by sharks!’ Taur trembled with the fury that shook him. ‘I've fought alongside most of those men. What happened to their oath of allegiance?’
Gynevra sat still with her hand buried in the wolf's fur, digesting Taur's disclosure and concentrating on relief the threat of invasion was over. Anything to keep the images of death from forming in her mind.
‘Didn't you take that oath and break it?’ she asked quietly. ‘Aren't you relieved we're no longer under threat from them? I know
you'll never know now, but maybe they never intended to seriously threaten us anyway, just to appear to be following orders.’
Taur sat forward with his head in his hands and for a long time the only sound was the sigh of the evening breeze about the high castle walls and the cry of seabirds as they gathered to haggle for prime roosts along the cliffs.
At last he lifted tortured eyes.
‘I didn't break my oath easily, Gyn'a, and whatever their intention in coming against me, they were only following orders as they'd vowed to do. I understood that, even though it made me mad, and I would've honored them for it. Now, not only have they betrayed their oaths but they've left Fyr Poseidyr without protection of either ships or warriors, a prime target for every filthy pirate who ever sailed the seas!’
‘What is it about this that upsets you most?’ Gynevra asked, genuinely confused. ‘I thought my pavuon was our enemy and now he's been vanquished without sacrifice of a single Nyaldan life I'd have thought you'd be dancing with delight.’
Taur stood up and started pacing again, raking his hair back from his face with violent stabs of his fingers.
‘I should be! I should be crowing like a cockerel and breaking out the celebratory ale along with the Commanders, Generals, and City Fathers—and I might yet if I can get my head straight! But there's something in me that's just realized how tenuous a King's control over his people actually is. The moment we got that communication I put myself in Ahron's shoes and felt sick as a midden-bred mongrel. All I could think was, how would I feel if that was me? If my people, my Castle, my woman and my son, were left with only a city full of children, women, old men and Paggi dandies to defend them?’
The vision of her childhood home and many faces she held dear, a defenseless prey to ruthless ravagers was not one she dared let form. Gynevra drew in a steadying breath and her troubled gaze followed Taur as he strode past her yet again, then slowly she came to her feet and placing herself in his path held her arms out. When he came back to her, she wrapped them about his waist and hugged him close.
‘Gouging a foot trail in the balcony isn't going to change or solve anything,’ she said firmly, pressing her lower body against his. ‘Come bathe with me and maybe we can bring some clarity to your thinking.’
Sliding her hands around the muscular torso, over the flat, dark nipples and up to cup the clenching jaw, she traced a finger down the straight bridge of his nose and brought it to rest against the full lower lip. Slowly the faraway look of fury left his eyes and his focus centered on the woman pressing against his body.
‘Ah, Gyn'a,’ he murmured, dropping his cheek to hers and folding his arms tightly about her. ‘It was for you I broke my vow to Atlantis and its King, for there was no other way I could have you and I'd do it again. But there's still a large part of me that feels honor-bound to Ahron and his realm, that feels I should send him a pledge of assistance should he need it. I left the Council to their celebration plans in case I suggested it and they thought I'd run mad! It might win back the element among the greater Council and the general citizenry who feel I've betrayed them by seceding from Atlantis. But that's only a small minority, mostly Sons of the Dragon like myself who feel their roots are in Poseidonia. True Nyaldans are fiercely patriotic in their delight at being given autonomy at last. They would see me as a traitor if I showed any leniency to Ahron.’
Gynevra leant back a little and gently lifted his face so she could look into his eyes. Little by little she was discovering her big beautiful warrior king was a caring, thinking man. He was so much more than she'd expected and she'd loved him without seeing this side of him. How to cope with the wash of emotion threatening to fill her eyes with tears yet again?
Pressing her face against his chest until she'd regained control, she said, ‘I see it as an act of compassion. After all, you'd be ceding nothing by promising to act in case of invasion by hostile forces. You come from a position of strength. You have the warriors and ships. Ahron doesn't. You're not retracting your act of secession or even apologizing for it. Nor are you returning me to Qrazil. In fact you could very well be bringing a speedy peace to a war-like situation, which all should welcome.’
Taur held her against him a moment longer then said gruffly, ‘Come bathe with me. You're definitely going to sit in Council with me in future. You bring such clarity to every situation. I've had another problem on my mind for some time which I'd like to run through your thought processes as well.’
Much later as they lay back in one another's arms in the pool, Gynevra asked, ‘What was that other problem you wanted to discuss with me?’
Taur harrumphed and settled her more comfortably against his shoulder.
‘For some time now, I've been concerned about the youngsters in the Paggi House of Children—and the Temple House for that matter.’
‘In what way?’
‘If I knew specifically I guess I wouldn't be worried about it. But it seems to me that Paggi children these days are—not as balanced as they used to be? I know they're more intelligent and more beautiful or handsome, but those things are measurable or obvious. There's something else about them that bothers me. There are more outbursts of temper, more fighting, less ability or even inclination to rationalize or step back and take stock of another's point of view, as we were taught to do. I don't believe it's the fault of the teachers. They're following the same codes of conduct we were raised on and yet the children are less inclined to assimilate them. I thought it might be a general trend of the times so I checked out the Moera House of Children and the Qeggi House and found a very different story.
‘The young ones there are just as receptive to the training programs as they ever were with the same percentage of failures and rebels as at the time of Isidor's reign. Which begs the question, why are our Paggi children different? I can only come up with one answer. The breeding flabria. Most Paggi born now are second, and many even third generation, Dragon Blood. Have we bred beyond perfection to distortion and if so, how do I convince people to abandon the flabria and return to sacred partner siring?’
Absently Gynevra stroked her fingers up and down his arm under the water, her mind roving thoughtfully over the problem. At last she said, ‘I haven't been to the Moera and Qeggi Houses and in that perhaps I've been remiss but I think you're right about the Paggi children. They are much more volatile and—in some cases even schizophrenic—than they used to be. When you think about it, farmers have known for generations if you interbreed stock for long enough you strengthen genetic flaws along with desirable traits. I don't see why it should be any different with humans.’
Resting her hand against the slight rounding of her belly, she said, ‘I don't believe our son will be unbalanced. Solon certainly wasn't,’ she said with a hitch in her voice. ‘But I can imagine if I'd borne a son to Gotham he could've been. Now there was a man who was seriously unbalanced.’
Taur said gruffly, ‘I doubt people are going to be impressed by being told their children are unbalanced. I need a ploy to make them go for the idea of abandoning the flabria. Every Son of the Dragon, especially the younger ones just starting to make their money, will cry foul and I could have a revolt on my hands.’
‘You've said yourself the adult Sons of the Dragon are in the minority still. Have you considered there are more men who would be delighted at being allowed to sire their own offspring at no cost to themselves, than otherwise? In another few years this won't be so. Right now I think you'd garner more support than you'd lose. Stop thinking like a Son of the Dragon for a moment and think like a man who has to watch others sire his children on his woman and see if you don't change your perception.’
Taur dropped his head back to the edge of the pool and closing his eyes, said slowly, ‘There are many who feel I've cut them off from their perceived motherland by declaring independence from Atlantis, though there are just as many, if not more, who consider it a decision long overdue. Whatever a King does, he garners friends and enemies. I guess the trick is
to make sure I always keep the balance in my favor.’
‘Perhaps,’ Gynevra conceded, ‘but personally I believe it more important to do what your heart tells you is right. That way you do it with conviction and commitment which is more likely to carry the people with you than if you only try to do that which you think will please them.’
Taur turned and took her face between his hands and gazed down at her, eyes glowing with a deep satisfaction.
‘I knew I had to have you by my side. You're the other half of me, that which has been missing all my life. You know I'll never let you go, don't you?’
Gynevra gazed silently back, her eyes wide and troubled.
‘Taur,’ she said at last, ‘if Ianthe dies I must—’
‘No!’ he growled fiercely, and stopped her words with his mouth.
Chapter 26
The fate of the Poseidonian fleet and King Cadal Isidor's magnanimous offer of aid, which King Ahron had rejected, had been the high topic of conversation and fierce debate for days. But by the time the Paggi of the city gathered for the luncheon to celebrate the completion of the Emerald Pavilion and Gardens the King had built in honor of the Queen, the Poseidonians were all but forgotten. The air was abuzz with the possibility the King might abolish the breeding flabria. As with all controversial topics there were many who spoke vociferously for and against and there were many more who rumbled and festered quietly below the surface.
Realizing they had a prime opportunity to discover what people were really feeling, Taur and Gynevra moved purposefully around the courtyard talking and listening.
Gynevra approached a group where Lord Camud, a leading city financier, was explaining to the library director and the chairman of the business association and their sacred partners how men like themselves would regain their attraction for women if the King abolished the law stating every Paggi child must be sired by a Son of the Dragon.
