Fantasyland 02 The Golden Dynasty (52 page)

Then I rolled to my back and examined the
state of my stomach.

I was fine.

I was about to call out to inform Lahn of
this when a roil of nausea slid through.

Okay, so I wasn’t fine. Therefore, I didn’t
call out to Lahn.

But I listened to him and watched him as he
moved around in the other rooms and our bedroom. And as I listened
and watched, I committed what I heard and saw to memory.

And I processed the last six weeks and I did
this in an effort not to think about what the next six weeks (and
longer) would bring.

* * * * *

We had stayed at our camp for two weeks
after the attack. Lahn again mostly disappeared during this time as
planning a war was obviously time consuming. But every day he woke
me to say a very nice good morning then he’d be gone and I wouldn’t
see him until my next good morning.

As he ordered, a new cham replacing our old
one was sheltering me in a week (actually, more like five days).
This one was made with darker, thicker fabric and had a variety of
new poles. Where the other one just had those holding up the roof,
this one had four in a star shape between each support so that even
if a knife could cut through the fabric, there wasn’t enough room
for anyone to squeeze through unless they chopped their way through
the wooden supports.

Lahn was clearly not taking any chances.
This felt nice. But, every time I saw those poles, it made me sad.
I missed our old cham and I missed my Teetru as I knew her to be
(not, obviously, who she ended up being).

I didn’t dwell on the sad.

Our cham was also bigger, perhaps two feet
all around but two feet added to the circumference of a circular
tent was a lot. It seemed cavernous compared with our old one.

I would understand this added room when our
long, narrow table was not returned and one just as long but three
times as wide was set in its place with four chairs around it
rather than just two at the ends. Also, another chair with a small
ottoman were introduced to our décor (yes, an actual chair!). The
chair was heavy on the wood but the back and seat were cushioned
and covered with rose velvet with a design cut into them.

These were spoils of raiding.

I didn’t think of that. I thought instead my
new furniture was perfect for girls’ night in and I used them for
this purpose. Copiously.

I also had a new slave (more spoils of
raiding). Her name was Quixa, she was older than Jacanda and
Beetus, younger than Gaal and Packa and she was Korwahk.

Jacanda, who had naturally taken over as
leader of the girls after we lost Teetru (a surprise, I would have
guessed Gaal or maybe Packa, but Jacanda was really good at it, the
girls took to her and settled very quickly), took Quixa under her
wing and was delighted with the addition.

And she told me Quixa was delighted too. And
she explained why.

“
Quixa is born slave and her masters were
kind. But when they were travelling through Keenhak, their party
was set upon by Maroo and her masters were killed. She was taken by
Maroo and
everyone
knows
that the Maroo treat Maroo slaves one way, all slaves from other
nations another and not in
good
ways. She is happy to be in service to a Dahksahna and she
is
very
happy to be
home. These last three years,” she shook her head, “they have not
been good for Quixa.”

Okay, well, I had to admit that made me feel
better about Lahn stealing her from someone else while out
pillaging. Not a lot better but it was something.

For me, things were business as usual,
outside of Lahn being absent most of the time and the fact that my
personal guard swelled from two to six. Lahn added Bohtan, Feetak
and Char and Vuntus’s husbands Tark and Yoonan (respectively) to
their ranks. This was explained one morning when I’d asked about
his choices and Lahn had the time to answer.

“You share a bond with their wives. Through
that they are bonded to you more than you simply being their golden
warrior queen. This intensifies loyalty. Their wives want no harm
to come to you because you are their friend. And these warriors
hold deep feelings for their wives so they will make this so.”

I thought that was a nice way to look at
it.

It was nicer when he went on.

“And they all came to me separately, knowing
I would be seeking more protection for my Dahksahna, and they
volunteered for this service.”

Definitely nicer.

I never went anywhere without at least two,
but usually there were four of my guard with me and after what
happened, their presence was definitely welcome.

During these two weeks, I saw three of
what Diandra told me were “raiders” or “raiding parties”, in other
words, groups of The Horde who went out marauding. They rode over
the horizon to swell our ranks. In each raiding party, there were
about a hundred horses all together (warriors and wives) plus their
convoy of wagons. I also saw one “patrol” (again, this info gleaned
from Diandra) which was a troop of The Horde that patrolled Korwahk
to keep the civilians safe from other country’s marauders or to be
on the lookout for invasion. Korwahk did it themselves but they did
not countenance others doing it back. That said, it happened on
more than the rare occasion so these groups found action often. The
patrol had what looked like a few hundred horses (plus
wagons).

Lahn explained to me that these returning
warriors were the groups that were closest in location to the
Daxshee and would ride with us. We had been waiting for their
arrival and the day after the patrol joined us, Lahn announced we
would be packing up the Daxshee and meeting the rest of Suh Tunak
in Korwahn.

Korwahn, by the way, was the largest city
in Korwahk, where all the members of The Horde kept permanent
residences even if they didn’t spend much time in them.

It was a four day ride to Korwahn and the
morning of the day we were to arrive, my girls gave me the
business. I would not, Jacanda informed me, ride into Korwahn for
the first time as Suh Rahna Tunakanahsa Dahksahna Hahla looking
anything but head-to-toe queen.

I put my foot down about gold dust in my
hair and my feathers (in other words, I did not intend to wear
either). The Korwahk Horde rode as one, I wasn’t going to shine
like a beacon while everyone else had four days of dust on
them.

But I did don a sarong made of pure gold
silk, my belt of gold disks, a gold silk fold of material tied
around my breasts with earrings that were simply long, thin gold
chains with a gold ball at the bottom and a matching choker
necklace of a bunch of the same chains with intermittent balls
adorning them. I had peach tint on my cheeks, peach gloss on my
lips, pearlescent peachy eye shadow and I allowed them to dust
around my temples and eyes with gold dust (because every girl
knows, a little glitter was always okay, even if riding a dusty
trail). I also allowed them to clip my curled, twisted hair in a
fall in the back with a heavy, gold clip.

That was all but, I thought, that was more
than enough.

I should have listened to Jacanda.

When Korwahn came in sight, Bain’s horse
came back to mine and he plucked me off Zephyr, galloped us to
Lahn, Lahn plucked me from Bain and planted me in front of him and
away went Bain and Zephyr.

Apparently, I would ride into Korwahn at the
lead with my Dax.

Lahn confirmed this with a squeeze of his
arm and a murmur in my ear.

I didn’t make a comment; I was too busy
staring at the two, large, stark, cream stone plateaus jutting into
the blue sky in front of me. They were at a forty-five degree angle
to each other with one slightly taller than the other, the shorter
one jutting out further. And there was what looked like an
enormous, jumbled, interconnected building made of cream mud and
dark beams that rode up their faces and sprawled across the
landscape.

It was phenomenal.

And that was from afar.

It got better up close.

The Dax’s Horde had been seen and therefore
people had time to prepare. We were greeted boisterously by men,
women and children who had run out of the city to do so. Therefore,
when we reached what Lahn whispered in my ear was called the Avenue
of the Gods, the podiums of the enormous statues that lined it were
thick with people, all of them tossing petals at Lahn and me,
crying out our titles and cheering.

Even if the colorful petals weren’t drifting
through the air, the Avenue of the Gods that led into Korwahn would
be breathtaking.

Starting at the wide end of a sweep of
statues that curved to (somewhat) narrow, were two cream stone
podiums at least the height of a man and on each was an identical
stone woman (the height of at least
three
men and we’re talking Korwahk men) carved out of what
looked like ivory marble. She was full-on pregnant, her big belly
protruding over her sarong, her large breasts covered in a bandeau.
One of her arms was curved under her belly, the other arm lifted,
her hand held over her eyes as if blocking out the sun or peering
into the distance to locate something (it was the latter, Lahn told
me, the True Mother’s eyes were peeled for the return of her
warrior). Her hair was long and fell in carved marble curls and
twists but was adorned with gold clips all around, these looking
they were made out of real gold and sparkling in the bright sun
(and Lahn confirmed they were, indeed, real gold). There was also
gold at her neck, her ears, her wrists and her biceps.

The next one in was a coiled snake, part of
its long, thin body raised as if to strike. Its mouth was open and
its fangs and thin, forked, protruding tongue were gold. The
diamond-shaped markings down his back the length of the coil were
also gold.

The next was a jackal, standing at
attention, the spots on its back and tip of its bushy tail both
gold.

Then came a grand, stately, reclining lion,
its entire mane gold.

Then the horse, up on its hind legs, both
front hooves clawing the air. Each hoof, its mane and tail all
gold.

And finally, the tiger, carved on the prowl,
its stripes gold.

They were fah-ree-king
amazing.
Every. Last. One.

And I told Lahn so (after I pulled out a
petal that landed in my mouth).

It didn’t get better than that but it was
still tremendously cool as Lahn and I rode a sedately walking
Lahkan into the city.

And what a city.

It was a hustle and bustle of people; they
were everywhere (as were the cheers and petal throwing). And I was
not wrong about it from far away. Everywhere you looked, there were
windows covered with wrought iron crosses and there were tons of
doors. There was one wide road trailing through the city, some less
wide ones leading off it but there were a bunch of narrow winding
paths or steep, stone staircases that cut through the buildings.
Mostly, though, it was all a bunch of buildings clearly built with
no city planning in mind. They rose one, two, three, even six
stories up, dark wood beams visible jutting into the sky or out the
sides from the roof. All of it made from what looked like a
cream-colored adobe.

Everything, in fact, was cream. The dirt and
stone of the roads (not paved, just natural), walkways, the steep
steps and the buildings, all of it.

But there was color. The wash lines that ran
from building to building over roads or narrow pathways on which
vibrant tops and sarongs hung. There were window boxes and brightly
colored pots on small balconies and at the sides of doors that were
filled with vivid flowers and trailing greenery (I had to say,
there weren’t many of these, Korwahk clearly wasn’t filled with
green thumbs – but there was enough to break up the cream, add a
splash of color and give your eyes a beautiful surprise). The large
squares that opened up off the main road were filled with market
stalls that had colored tent tops over tables or striped awnings
over stalls. And although most of the doors were bare wood, some
were painted green, some red, some blue, some white, some black
with blue, white and red stripes and some black (these were
warriors’ homes, Lahn whispered in my ear as we rode, their doors
painted to match the paint they wore on their bodies).

And the foot of each door held a small pile
of blooms, a welcome home (again, whispered to me from Lahn), from
the grateful citizens of Korwahn.

And as we road with petals drifting, The
Horde that followed broke off when they arrived home or needed to
turn down a lane so they could make it home so there were very few
left at the top of the smaller plateau where Lahn stopped Lahkan at
a double arched door that was painted in black with a glimmering
gold stripe painted across them both. The only one with such
markings that I saw and I was certain the only one with such
markings in Korwahn.

Home.

At the sight of my gold and Lahn’s black on
our door, my heart warmed and my belly fluttered. I was nervous and
excited. I couldn’t wait to go through those doors and for some
bizarre reason, I was scared to death at the same time.

I didn’t get a chance to puzzle through
these emotions. Lahn dismounted, he pulled me off and then he took
me inside.

It was cool inside; this was the first thing
I noticed. The second thing I noticed was that there was a
courtyard in the middle that was exposed to the elements and in it,
with a beautiful mosaic-tiled base, was a small, gurgling fountain.
All around the fountain and courtyard were colorful pots filled
with spiked or trailing green plants. There were two stories and
every door opened out to a balcony that faced or looked down on the
courtyard.