The Golden Dynasty(97)

The rain came down in sheets, already washing her blood in a dark river across the light stone.

“No,” I whispered as the tears filled my eyes, the rain beat against my skin, my hair, my clothing, all of it soaked within seconds.

Dortak roared in triumph, my eyes went to him and he pounded a fist in his chest then punched it in the air, turned and pushed his way roughly through the crowd.

Then I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Two men and four women. The men were carrying something and one of the women had a huge wad of white material in her hands. They made it to the fallen woman and the women arranged the material flat on the wet stone as the men lifted her with care and then set her at one end. They moved away as the women gently rolled her lifeless body, wrapping her tight in her wet, white gauze shroud; the blood still seeping from her wounds staining it red.

Once she was wrapped, the men came forward, lifted her onto a stretcher and swiftly all of them moved out of the clearing.

“Kah Lahnahsahna,” Lahn called.

Fogged like I was in a dream, my head slowly turned to him and I saw his paint dissolving down his body as the rain beat into him.

His arm was extended to me.

I stared at him.

“Go to your king,” Diandra whispered in my ear, her hands at my waist, pushing. “Now, my love.”

I moved to my king, he took my hand, pulled me close, bent our arms and held my hand tucked close to his chest, me to his side and we stepped off the platform, walked down the rise, through the gathered throng that was standing, silent and unmoving (except to let us through) in the driving rain.

I kept my head up, my eyes straight but that didn’t mean I didn’t cry the whole way home.



My girls were in the cham when we arrived and they sprung into action.

My clothes and jewels were taken away but before Packa could put a cloth to me to dry my wet skin, Lahn murmured, “Tahkoo tan,” and they hurried out of the cham.

Lahn, also still wet, his black paint seeping, but now hideless, came to me and gently he pulled me into bed not only under the silk sheet but also under the first layer of hides.

Then he pulled me into his arms, face to face, his hand cupping the back of my head pressing my face to his throat.

I listened to the rain beating on the top of the cham and wondered how the material didn’t get saturated and the wet didn’t seep through.

As I wondered this, Lahn held me close.

Then I whispered, “Your Hunt did that to her.”

“Rayloo, kah rahna fauna,” Lahn said softly, giving me a squeeze.

He understood my words even though I spoke my language, I knew it.

“Your Hunt drove her to that.” I was still whispering.

“Rayloo, Circe.”

“She was beautiful.” I kept whispering.

Lahn didn’t respond.

“He killed her beauty and slaughtered her soul.”

Lahn said nothing for a moment then he asked quietly, “Soul?”

“My people’s word for pahnsahna, her spirit,” I said just as quietly.

That got me another squeeze.

Then his hand slid from the back of my head and around to cup my jaw where a thumb under my chin pressed up gently so my head tipped back. He was looking down at me, his eyes, I could see, soft in the candlelight.

“The heavens wept,” he said in Korwahk.

I knew the air felt wrong all day because of the impending storm but I still replied in English, “That happens when innocents are punished.”

“Innocents?” he whispered.

“Ones who did no wrong,” I answered in Korwahk.

His head tilted so his forehead could rest on mine.

I closed my eyes.

Then I opened them and whispered in Korwahk, “You were right, she wished that.”

“I know, my tigress,” he whispered back in English.

I kept whispering when I said in Korwahk, “Thank you for not punishing me.”

His chin jerked back slightly and his forehead came away from mine before he replied, “I would not punish you for being what you are.”

I blinked then asked softly, “What?”

“Kah Circe, you are kah Lahnahsahna, you are my warrior queen. It is who you are. It is not what anyone made you. It shines from your eyes. It is what I see in the boys I select to serve Suh Tunak. It is why I chose you. It is why we suit. It is why together we begin the Golden Dynasty of legend.” His thumb started stroking my jaw as he went on. “I cannot say I do not wish you would have thought before you acted today. If Dortak took her life, it would have ended her torment sooner and saved her from what she endured tonight. But I recognize it is who you are.” I stared up at him, heart in my throat. He was speaking in Korwahk but he was doing it slowly and I understood most of what he said and what he said, I had to admit, moved me. Then I watched his mouth twitch before he finished, “Though I will caution you at least to attempt to rein it in in future. I do not like my queen in black.”