Chapter 9

A pair of eyes looked up through the invisible dome which held back the sea. The eyes saw water, clear and blue, like any other pair of eyes. They saw fishes of red, blue and orange, saw tiny bubble rising to the surface, saw the shimmering beams of the morning sun from above bend and twist as the currents moved the massive sea. The eyes blinked against breeze and watered against dust, like any other eyes. They moved side to side in their sockets to follow motion, widened in surprise and squinted in the darkness, like any other. But these eyes were not like any other pair on the planet; these eyes were brown.

The brown eyes closed in contentment; on the same face, the mouth turned to a soft smile. Anna Petrova sighed, her bare chest heaving, as she leaned back in the steaming bath water. The sensation was as interesting one, with the comforting warmth of the water against the skin of her legs, then the bubbly froth of soap ringing her upper abdomen, then the cool contrast of air against her chest and shoulders. And then there was her lover's touch, fingers moving softly over the newly shaved flesh of her thighs beneath the water.

Jaide Lei sat back against the side of the tub, her legs spread apart to accommodate the body of the dark-haired alien; Anna leaned back against her. The princess let out a sigh of her own, savoring fragrance of the bath, the smooth skin, the newly washed hair. She was comforted by the body pressing against her, leaned her head forward to kiss the small neck and nibble gently at the ear.

Anyone who might have watched would not have understood the look of bliss the pair of young women possessed; their features were broken by ugly cuts and bruises which should have twisted their expressions in pain. Yet they smiled and relaxed, the mark of a fist moving with the closing of an eye, the bite of a whip stretching across a chest with each breath, the gash across a pair of lips twisting when the lips opened to sigh.

"Sweetie, your fingers feel so good..." breathed Anna, eyes still shut.

"That's good," answered Jaide, placing another kiss on the exposed earlobe.

The princess had been against the idea of lingering in the city when they had first arrived. She wanted to leave at once for the Hai Lei, arrows at the ready with the enemy in her sights. At first trying to refuse the offers of food and bath from their gracious hosts, she understood why the newly freed slave girls jumped at the chance to bathe, but had been baffled when Anna suggested they stay as well. She was certain that after the beautifully engineered escape, the dark-haired warrior would want to be the first to take up the battle cry.

"Honey," Anna had said, "we can't just go running into battle now."

"Why not?" Jaide had asked, "I thought that was the whole point of breaking out! To help my father!"

"It is, but..."

"But what? The army's closing in on them even as we speak! How can we..."

"Exactly. The army. Five thousand strong. How large an army does your father have?"

"Three thousand. They'll be horribly outnumbered. It'll be a slaughter. That's why we have to go..."

"No, that's why we have to stay."

The words replayed through Jaide's mind as she sat in the bath. It was infuriating how Anna could argue a point without ever raising her voice. She was so calm as she spoke that it was impossible to disagree.

"We need an army of our own if we're going to make any difference," Anna had continued.

"We have an army! What about the girls that just came with us this morning? That's two thousand, that makes us even..."

"Sweetie, they were slaves just hours ago."

"And now they're freed. And they'll follow you wherever you tell them."

"I know. But they don't know how to fight. They were just farmer's daughters before; they're the ones who'll be slaughtered."

Jaide had not wanted to listen, but she could not argue with Anna's logic. After all, what could an army of farm girls do against an army of well trained and fully armed men?

"What, then? What are we going to do?" Jaide had asked, eyes flashing.

"We ask the Hai Menadin for help."

"They won't... they can't..."

"I thought they were your allies."

"They are... well... trading partners, business... things like that. There hasn't been a military campaign since..."

"Well it's time now for a military campaign. That's what allies do when you're in trouble: they help."

"I don't know if we can convince lord Ramad to commit his army... and besides, it would take too long. We're under attack right now."

"I know. We don't need his army; we need our own army. That's why we're not going to talk to him."

"Who..."

"We're going to talk to the people. There must be soldiers living in this city. I might not know the way your governments work, but I know how people work. I'm sure we can convince at least some of them to help us."

"You think you can convince people to leave their city and commit an act of war during a time of peace?"

"We are at war..."

"We are. They aren't."

It had gone back and forth for several hours that morning. Anna had been so sure of herself, her speech so calm, that Jaide had more and more trouble finding flaws in her argument. In the end, they agreed to stay. The princess had made arrangements to address the city that afternoon, and word had been sent to several neighboring cities as well. So with nothing else to do until then, the former slaves were treated to hot baths and as much food as they desired. Residents of the city made admirable accommodations, making room for two thousand extra bodies and filling two thousand extra stomachs.

In the interest of time and energy, many of the slave girls agreed to bathe in pairs, sharing the water and soap; Anna and Jaide found it natural to do the same, also sharing tender kisses and touches while they cleaned themselves. Submerged in the water, they dragged sharpened bone razors across their legs and under their arms, and scrubbed their hair with coral and balia extract. Bruises began to heal in the warmth and steam, and whip cuts began to close. And now clean, their bath essentially over, the two young women remained in the water, caressing one another.

"... so good..." Anna hummed again, as the fingers continued to brush against her thighs. The frothy surface of the water rippled as she pushed herself back more firmly against the warm body behind her.

A moment passed. The dark eyelashes fluttered. Then a sharp intake of breath; the brown eyes opened. Anna felt the soft fingertips move to the insides of her thighs, and with a sigh let her legs spread farther apart under the water. In the depths beneath the bubbles, the fingers massaged gently; the brown eyes closed again and the breathing quickened.

"... oh... honey..." The sounds escaped Anna's lips as bare whispers, the breath caught in her throat as she felt the fingers enter her. Her muscles contracted; her legs tensed under the water and her back arched in a gracious curve. The movements continued and her chest rose and fell more forcefully as she fought to keep oxygen in the blood to her brain. She made more than one attempt to moan or scream, but found herself unable to utter a sound.

When the blood coursing through Anna's veins had reached a boiling point, she took a breath which was more of a whimper, sat upright, got to her feet and turned to face the princess. The bath water splashed as she stood, and small cascades washed over the sides and onto the floor. As bubbles raced away in waves from the tub toward the corners of the room, Anna kneeled before her silver-haired lover, her body dripping with soap.

"Please, sweetie," pleaded Anna, her eyes wide, her face flush. "I need you."

The princess put her hands on the hips which had been presented before her face, pulled the hips closer, said: "Come here, then."

Anna felt the touch against her hips, allowed herself to be pulled closer. She sighed. She felt the kisses on her stomach, the fingers trailing down past the curve of her hips to her thighs. Gazing down at the silver-topped head, she ran her own fingers lovingly through the wet hair, gently pulling and twisting. The kisses moved lower on her abdomen; she felt bared teeth nipping at her flesh, a tongue extended against her tender skin, the softness of lips between her legs. Her heart beat faster, thundering against her ribs, threatening to erupt from her chest as the waves of pleasure crashed upon one another, building steadily into a singular, uncontainable force.

Then, the scream she had been trying to scream finally broke from her lips and rang about the room. Anna's fingers clenched in the silver hair, pulling perhaps harder than she had intended. Her legs shook and she struggled to support herself; she was dizzy. She screamed and screamed again, her chest heaving with exertion and her spine bent backwards. Still shaking and gasping for breath, she lost her balance and slipped on the ceramic surface, falling back into the water with a splash that emptied almost half the tub onto the floor.

Dazed, Anna lay submerged below her neck. She was only dimly aware when Jaide, smiling, leaning forward to kiss her lips.

And she was only half listening when the princess bent to whisper in her ear: "Have I told you that I love you?"

Through the dome overhead, the sea grew brighter as the morning sun rose higher. Schools upon schools of fish of every shape and color swam by, and the currents carried tiny bubbles shooting up toward the surface. Outside the door, people went about the business. Word had spread that a princess and a strange woman with black hair were going to address the city - the addition of two thousand teenage females had not gone unnoticed either - and the majority of the population was busy making arrangements to clear the afternoon.

And so passed the morning in the bustling underwater city.

To the North, an army was on the move. Three thousand strong, they marched almost at a run, the blood-red dragon on their gray tunics rising and falling with each step. Captain Burke smiled grimly as his orders were executed. Half an hour earlier, the lead scouts had reported a village on the road ahead: the target for which Burke had been looking. Now the army had split and was coming into position around the village, smaller parties to converge from all sides with the main body entering from the South. For half an hour men had been dodging between trees, crawling on their bellies through tall grass, quickly and quietly moving to form the jaws of a hunter's trap. And now the trap was about to snap shut.

The villagers were yet happily unaware; a group of old men playing scribige around a tired old table, farmers and their sons guiding horse-drawn ploughs through the fields, women hanging laundry on the line; here a pair of young boys carrying a block of ice on a string, there a group of teenagers carving their names into the side of a barn; one boy stealing from his father's supply of malt beer, another about to take the virginity of the reverend's daughter, another learning to write his name for the first time. It was a small village with less than five hundred residents and only a handful of farmers. Most of their business revolved around the trading post which stood off the main road, ceramics, skins, and fabrics lining its shelves.

The sun reached its zenith. A jug of malt beer slipped and spilled. The reverend's daughter cried in pain. Then, the wind died as if caught in a stranglehold. Farmers looked up from their ploughs and women from their clothes; a block of ice thumped to the dirt and two boys ran screaming toward the village square. The sound of three thousand footfalls hammered the air like the sound of death.

The villagers look around in all directions; gray-clad figures bearing the Hai Krun dragon stormed in from the South road, the North road, they came from the trees and the fields all around, all at once.

A woman screamed: "Oh my God!" Other women called for their husbands.

The footsteps came closer.

One man called: "It's an invasion!" Another called: "To arms! To arms!" The cry was taken up; men rushed from the buildings and the fields to grab their spears.

Closer.

The people gathered in the center of the village, frightened women and children huddled at the center, frightened men forming a tight knot around them.

Closer.

A group of teenage boys emerged from behind a barn; the one who had been carving his name when the cry rang out still held the knife in his hand. He glared at the enemy soldiers bearing down on him, threw the knife. One of the gray clad men fell dead with the blade of the knife sunk in his skull, blood from his face pouring over the blood-red emblem on his uniform; the boy fell dead with an arrow shaft protruding from his chest; his friends died an instant later. A door burst open, and another boy came running out holding a spear in a white knuckled fist, barefoot and still fastening a belt around his waist; he crossed spears with one man before his head was severed from his body by the deadly edge of a bone knife. The reverend's daughter screamed from the same doorway, standing nude, with a trickle of blood running down her thigh; a gush of blood then poured over her naked chest as the same bone knife made its second slash.