She’d also been mishandled, gravely. She wore no clothes, bruises had already formed around her arms, her wrists, her hips, her knees, her throat and there was a dried, white substance liberally splattered everywhere on her body including her face and I knew what that was.
My knees gave out but Diandra and Claudine closed in, holding me up until I forced my legs to stand strong again under me.
Teetru’s body was on its side but down, only her head lifted up and her eyes came to me then they travelled through the blood on my body.
They were full of pain but, to my shock, it was not just the pain she felt in her body. Mingled with it was a different kind of pain.
Then I heard her whisper, “You should not have been kind to me.”
My body jolted and tears filled my eyes.
“Prepare her,” Lahn barked.
Her gaze stayed locked to mine as Bain strode forward and, using her hair causing her to cry out but she still didn’t break her connection to me, he pulled her to her knees.
The wet streamed down my cheeks and pain burned my throat.
With a hiss of steel, Lahn unsheathed his sword.
“I wish you hadn’t been kind to me.”
Those were her last words before Bain stepped free and Lahn severed her head from her body with a vicious swing of his sword.
I turned into Diandra’s arms and shoved my face in her neck so I missed the flash of lightning that rent the sky, trailing down the cliff five hundred yards behind me.
“Throw it off the cliff. Return the head to the Maroo king with one of their warriors you captured. Unman him before you free him. Her head and his balls, my gift to their king before we lock steel,” Lahn ordered.
I stifled a painful sob by swallowing and that hurt even more.
“Bathe my f**king bride!” Lahn bellowed, I felt Diandra nod and then she and Claudine gently guided me toward my girls’ cham and I heard Zahnin’s soft, “Attend your queen,” as I went.
But I heard no more and felt no more and this was because I slunk into my head to sort it out.
I was Korwahk, Queen of Korwahk and we were at war.
I was Korwahk, I repeated to myself, Queen of Korwahk and we were at war.
I had to find some way to get my shit together.
Somehow.
* * * * *
“You must eat, my golden queen.”
I turned and looked down at Jacanda.
I was in her tent. Whatever belongings she and the girls had were gone, whereabouts unknown (to me). Our bed with a clean silk sheet had been moved in, our scrubbed trunks and our cleaned furniture. The tent was smaller, the stuff crammed in the space.
I was bathed, my hair washed and the skin behind my ears and at my wrists had been anointed with perfumed oil. I was wearing my robe of blue.
Incense Teetru had sourced weeks ago at my request burned, smelling of berries.
Packa set this to burning because she knew I liked it and probably thought it would soothe me. But I would find the stash and get rid of it later, when they weren’t around. It reminded me of Teetru whose actions could have killed me, or harmed me, they did harm Zahnin, but at the same time she did what she could to save me. A paradox I would never understand because she was no longer breathing for me to ask.
“You sleep with Diandra’s girls tonight?” I asked and Jacanda nodded.
“Yes, my true queen. But we will be here before the dawn in case you need us.”