The King's Horse (Shioni of Sheba Book 2) (6 page)

Annakiya
raised her eyebrows at Shioni. She winked back. Mama and the General, eh? She was right! The sparks were definitely flying between them!

But what of Talaku’s developing madness? His plight seemed to her a fearful dark pit of unknown depths; a place that if she chose to peer into it, filled her with a sense of profound sadness. Quietly, Shioni
buried that sadness deep in her heart. Even more quietly, she resolved that if she could help Getu or his son, she would find a way to do so.

S
hioni eased her aching
back muscles as she swam across the rocky pool. Annakiya had the afternoon free from lessons, as Hakim Isoke was nursing a head cold and had returned to her bed, red-nosed and full of bitter complaints. Mama had been dosing her with
tosign
tea, a herbal brew, mixed with honey and lemon.

The Princess had rightly pointed out that Isoke would have been incensed had she learned of their secret conference two nights before
. The Hakim was very learned, Shioni thought, and it would serve Sheba well to include her in their discussions. Maybe she could mention to Annakiya? She didn’t like meddling in the Princess’ business.

Maybe she should just enjoy her swim.

Shioni and Annakiya had a favourite pool. It was a short walk downriver from the place the slave-girls usually bathed and collected water. Here the river bent around a wooded bank, before plunging over a series of flattish boulders arranged like a giant’s staircase down into a short ravine that petered out lower in the valley, like a wide mouth spitting out a broader, lazier flow. Several secluded pools nestled between clumps of boulders. When it was sunny, like today, the flat tops of the boulders heated up and she could stretch out on a deliciously sun-warmed rock and dangle her feet in the cool water at the same time.

In several places the river
was obliged to force its way between the boulders’ shoulders, so Isoke had warned Annakiya not to swim too close to them lest she be sucked between the rocks.

She
rested her arms on a rock now, kicking her legs idly, and checked that Zi could not be seen from above. The Fiuri was bathing beneath the waterfall at the top of the pool.

Annakiya was not a strong swimmer, so she was not allowed to bathe without Shioni or another slave in attendance.
And since their meeting with the General, the Princess’ list of attendants had grown to include two female Elite warriors from Takazze–both archers, young, and visibly anxious to make a good showing.

“It’s a new thing Father started,” said Annakiya, following Shioni’s gaze up to the
overhang above the pool. “Sheba has always used women warriors, although not often in the front line. Isoke told me once that the oldest scrolls in Takazze record a story that the great Queen Makeda used to lead numbers of female warriors into battle. She thinks–well, she hasn’t actually said as much, but I know she’s thinking it–that I should become a warrior like you.”

There were another ten warriors scattered around a wide perimeter, Shioni
knew, protecting the Princess while she swam in the river. While no more Wasabi had been discovered in the valley, the mystery remained as to how they had slipped though the Sheban patrols in the first place. The male Elites had instructions to keep a ‘decorous distance’… hence the female archers, she supposed.

Shioni
pulled a face. “You’re not suggesting there’s something Isoke actually
likes
about me? Surely you jest!”

The Princess laughed at her droll expression.
“Heaven forbid! Next the stars will be falling from the skies–”

“Anyway,
I’m only a novice warrior, and that won’t change until I’m at least sixteen.”

“You’ll be a full warrior long before then!”

“Not once Captain Dabir arrives. I’ll be mucking out stables until…. forever!”

“How’s your new
training regime going?” asked Annakiya, her wistful tone making it sound almost romantic. “Didn’t the General instruct the warriors to train you properly?”

“
You’re telling me!” Shioni groaned. “I’m not sure which is better–being beaten quickly by a bully, or being beaten slowly and thoroughly by a weapons master.”

The Princess wiped some imaginary sweat off her forehead.
“Hmm, that’s a tough one.”

“
This morning we ran an hour down the valley carrying our staves like this, at arm’s length, practised there, and then ran back again. Then we helped move rocks. As if my shoulders weren’t killing me already. Whoever or whatever tore down that defensive wall collapsed it right into the moat… ugh! I feel like I’ve been run over by an elephant.”

“
Don’t you come begging for sympathy at my door, you wretch. I had to get my own breakfast.”

“Aw,
how did you manage without snapping a fingernail?”

“
You lazy, impertinent slave-girl!” Annakiya declaimed in a fake rage. “How dare you address your mistress that way?” They both hooted with laughter.

Upriver, Shioni heard a delighted, trumpeting squeal. The hardworking elephants must have been brought down to the river for a break from hauling rocks. It was a perfect, warm afternoon–utterly
still. Even the crickets seemed to have been stunned into silence by the heat. However, all along the horizon, for the first time since they’d come to Castle Asmat, a dark rank of thunderheads was boiling up like a grey army invading an otherwise pristine sky. They were due the little rains soon. In the villages and hamlets, the famers would be waiting for these rains to plant their second crop of the season. And then the land would change colour, dramatically so, from tans and browns to a deep, lush green; from reddish dust to a rich burgundy-coloured clay; from burbling streams to muddy, frothing torrents.

A few
vultures were drifting along on the warm air currents, high in the searing sky. Buzzards and vultures, Shioni reflected idly. Could they lead Sheba’s warriors to the Wasabi camp? They’d gather in large numbers wherever the Wasabi threw their waste. Could the scouts follow them?

“Come on, Anni!
Let’s see you practice your swimming!”

Annakiya slipped into the water like a
lithe brown otter, and paddled gamely towards Shioni.

“It’
s free-eee-zing!”

“Make bigger circles with your arms.
You aren’t a dog.”

Atop a rock covered in spongy moss, b
eside the waterfall–which would swell to bursting once the rains swept in upon their cloudy chariots–Zi was splashing happily beneath a finger’s breadth of falling water. Her voice softly trilled a song at a register no human voice could possibly have attained, and in a lilting glissade of notes that would have caused all the songbirds in the King’s menagerie to gnash their beaks in helpless jealousy. It was a wild, fey tune, bringing to mind images of butterfly-people dancing and leaping and twirling on a moonlit night. Shioni felt her toes twitching and her legs itching to dance in response.

“Swim, o scroll-warrior!
The reed is mightier than the blade!”

Annakiya stuck out her tongue in reply, lost concentration, and gave a shocked cough as she sank beneath the water!

Shioni dived back in at once, but the Princess was fine. She waved to her anxious guards as she swam up to the waterfall.

“Your hair’s grown, Shioni,” said Annakiya. “Look,
it’s right past this dimple on your back. Apparently long isn’t in fashion. Hakim Isoke’s been saying I’ll have to cut my hair and style it ‘as befitting a Princess of Sheba’ when I return to Takazze.”

“She ordered me to take hairdressing lessons,” Shioni grimaced, trying to hide the pang she felt at the thought Annakiya might return to the capital city.
“She said, ‘Your hair’s a disgrace! You
obviously
haven’t learned the first thing about which end of a comb to hold. You will learn the
proper
management of your mistress’ hair, slave-girl. Perhaps you might learn to dress your own fittingly too.’ I need help, Anni!”

“You are a desperate case,” Zi added, helpfully.

“Thanks!”

“It’s just that
your hair is different,” said Annakiya, unable to keep a straight face at Shioni’s impression of her much-disliked tutor. “Hardly a curl in sight. It doesn’t behave. People here don’t know what to do with it.”

“Yes, and my sk
in freckles in the sunshine and–”

The Princess sighed.
“We’ve talked about this before, friend! Your skin is fine. It is lovely. It is a perfect map of bruises, each of which tells its own story.”

Shioni was about to complain again when Azurelle interrupted, “
Right, Princess, make her listen.”

“Listen to
what–hey!”

Shioni surfaced from the pool with angry words ready on her tongue, but found her friends beaming sweetly at her.

“What happened?” asked Annakiya, the very picture of innocence.

“Her foot slipped on a rock,”
said Zi, “I saw it. Now listen, you two, I’ve been thinking–about Talaku. Well, before that. Shioni, doesn’t it cross your mind that just as humans and the Fiuri are different, you as a ferengi might be different to Sheban girls?”

Shioni held onto the
rocky edge with her fingers, letting her feet drift freely in the water. “I’m human too, and I don’t
want
to be different!”

“
The main trouble’s right between your ears,” said Azurelle, but softened her words with a knowing smile. “It’s hard–trust me to know; I’m only just taller than your ankle! Now, about Talaku–have you seen how much he eats? Do you think he’s even human? How big do you humans get?”

The girls looked at each other and chorused, “No idea!”

“Is he a giant?”

“Are giants
even real?” asked Annakiya.

Azurelle snorted
like a zebra, only ruder. “What do they teach Princesses in the Kingdom of Sheba? Sewing, music and the womanly arts of conversation? I’ve spoken to Shuba about this, and she says that so many human tribes have legends of giants, there must be some truth masked by all those fanciful tales.”

It
had to be the dragon’s venom. But Zi had a good point–how massive could Talaku still grow? Too large to fit through a doorway? Large enough to stomp on huts and eat whole cows for breakfast? Shioni’s mind boggled at the thought! Had anyone measured how fast he was growing? She had to ask the General. After all, he was the one who should tell them about Talaku’s heritage, not her.

“And here I thought you were all sparkle and
shimmering wings,” said Annakiya, gamely trying to get her own back.

Zi drew herself up to every one of her four inches and pinned the Princess with her fiercest stare.
She stamped her tiny foot and shouted, “You witless grasshopper! While
some
Fiuri are all glitter and no brains I am
not
one of them and I will
not
stand by while you assassinate my character–even if it is only between us friends! If I had my magic and my sword, why, I’d show you a thing or two about what we small people can do! How brave, honourable and true we are… get me my towel, Shioni. Please.”

Thinking it wiser to keep
her silence at this point, Shioni picked up Annakiya’s embroidered handkerchief and passed it over. Zi snatched the cloth from her fingers and fell to drying herself vigorously. “However, my magic does make my skin sparkle all along my exquisite spirals and patterns,” she added, examining her smooth limbs with a melancholy air. “My true beauty is lost forever. Now I just look like a bit of painted wood.”

Shioni picked her up to comfort her, which earned her a hiss and a pinch on her cheek.

“As a Princess, I certainly cannot tolerate you becoming any more beautiful,” said Annakiya. “Why, you already outshine the brightest of my jewels!”

Zi’s voice was muffled
by Shioni’s hands. “I do?”

Annakiya rolled her eyes at Shioni and shrugged, momentarily lost for further compliments to rescue the situation.
“Oh, you do, you do!” said Shioni, hastily. “Like–er… um…”

“Oh,
stop it. I know exactly what you two are doing.”

“
Well, we’ll simply have to steal your magic back from Kalcha, won’t we?”

For a long time, there was only the sound of
tumbling water, and the faraway cry of a hunting eagle. Shioni’s light-hearted words seemed to drop like heavy stones into the pond, spreading ripple upon ripple of meaning.

“You’d do that for me?”

“Fought a giant python for you, didn’t we? Jumped into waterfalls looking for rare flowers, wore chains for fun, and beat the Wasabi hordes. All thanks to you.”

Zi’s moist green eyes blinked up at them. “Haven’t you crossed mountains and rivers enough for me?”

Shioni chuckled, “That leaves only the swamps, jungles, deserts and seas, Zi.”

But her heart was laden with a knowing, a
sinister feeling wholly at odds with the sunlight dappling the pool, the idyllic warm afternoon, and the company of two wonderful friends.