Chapter 4

"Good morning."

"Mmmmmmm... good morning to you."

"I've been watching you sleep."

"You could have woken me up."

"But you looked so peaceful..."

"Come here."

"... ohh... I would have waked you if I knew I'd get a kiss like that..."

"I'll give you more than a kiss, sweetie. Here, roll over a little... like that..."

"... mmmmm... baby, you're incredible."

"Let me take... off... your skirt... there."

"Oh, honey... ohh... oh yeah, touch me just... like that..."

The silky whispers floated on the early morning breeze an hour before dawn. It had been two days since Anna's shaky recovery from the water-snake's venom, and Jaide had spent most of her time caring for her weakened friend and lover.

The pair of travelers had spent considerably less time walking as a result of the ordeal, and in the additional time they had spent resting their affections for each other had grown. The night had passed uneventfully in the little shelter which the princess constructed, with two female bodies intertwined, and as they roused themselves and shed their clothing, much of their pent up energy was spent through the skillful use of tongues and fingers.

As they made love, their skin grew sweaty, their breath short, their voices excited and unsteady. Leg muscles strained and soft, smooth thighs gripped tightly. Each delighted in the pleasured moans she drew from the other, and anxious fingers toyed with thick locks of black and silver hair. The throes of orgasm passed between the couple several times, and when the ripples had ebbed into a slow, soulful kiss and arched backs had relaxed in a long, satisfied sigh, one woman or the other would resume her touching and the passion between them would again become inflamed.

"Now we make pillow talk with no pillow," said Jaide, when at last they had exhausted themselves.

"Then when we get to your palace, I'm going to make love to you in a big bed filled with pillows."

"Mmmm... that sounds nice."

"Sweetie... tell me what it will be like when we get there," said the dark-haired alien with her brown eyes blissfully closed.

"Well. You'll meet my father, the great lord of the Hai Lei. And my brother, the prince. Iordan." With a sly smile, she eyed her friend and said, "You'll think he's really cute."

The two women giggled a little.

"And you, my dear, will be treated as a royal guest," the princess continued. "Like an ambassador or senator or something."

"Well, actually," Anna said with opened eyes, "My world gave me status as an ambassador to yours before I left. I have the documents in my pack... of course they'll need to be translated."

"Even better! You'll be an official visiting dignitary! We'll get pampered by the servant girls and dressed up in gowns, and there'll be feasts and balls in your honor. Everywhere you go, people will call you 'miliana' and bow."

"Miliana," Anna tried the word out.

"Just like me. You can't be 'my lady' until you're married, no matter how old you are."

"Hey! What are you saying? I'm not old!" Anna cried out indignantly.

"No, no, no! That's not how I meant it, sorry baby."

They kissed briefly.

"No one would guess you're twenty anyway. They'll all think you're seventeen or so, like me. But here, most women are married by their eighteenth birthday."

"Are the marriages arranged?"

"Some are. But mine won't be, because of my father's position among the royal houses and because my brother is the oldest."

"On my world, I would be twenty-four and you would be twenty. Some women would be married by that age, but some not until thirty. Some not at all."

"Sad."

"Maybe."

The two women lapsed into silence as they dressed and gathered their packs for the day's walk. They had crossed another river the day before - Jaide called it the Crystal River - swimming its clear blue waters without incident, and were within ten leagues of the main road which would lead them North to Iordantan. Laden with their ever lightening packs, two sets of feet moved through the brambles and two sets of eyes kept watch through the trees for any sign of trouble.

"Sweetie," said Anna.

"Yes, babe?" came Jaide's reply.

"Do you want me to call you by your title? I've never been around royalty before, and..."

"No, no baby. We're equals, ok? We're friends. Remember, you're royalty too."

"I don't think my world intended my to be royalty when I got here."

"Even if you weren't an ambassador. There's never been anyone like you before. Ever."

"I can imagine..."

"So what were you on your world if not royalty?"

"It's a little different there," Anna said after a pause. "There is no royalty and common people. At least not in my nation. Everybody is supposed to be equal, and different people take turns sharing the leadership powers."

"But if everyone is equal, how do you decide who will lead?" Jaide was intrigued by the idea.

"There's this thing called 'voting' that we do every year or so, and everybody picks the new leaders."

"Everybody? Even the stupid people?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

"Even crazy people?"

"Them too."

"Everybody gets one vote?"

"Yes"

"And each vote counts the same?"

"More or less."

"And the population is educated enough to make the correct decision?"

"Well... not really, no."

"But if the population isn't educated, and the population is who chooses the leader, then how does the right leader get chosen?"

"Sometimes they don't."

"Interesting," said the princess, shaking her head. "That doesn't sound like a very good system to me."

"I don't know if I can argue..."

As the sun moved overhead, the travelers emerged from the trees at the edge of a small village. Huts, houses, and other buildings stood in groups, all made from strong timbers with thatched roofing. Cobbled stones in varying shades of reds and browns and blues lined the center of the village, and a small stone well stood off to one side, also with a thatched covering. Here and there, sections of ground were fenced off to enclose an open space where livestock tethers were visible.

In the distance were rolling farm fields with hay bales and planted crops; wooden ploughs and other tools were lined up beside several large barns. Sunlight struck the cobblestones and the glinting reflections bounced and played around the buildings - and over the bodies.

Both women gasped as they took in the gruesome scene unfolded before them. Pools of spilled blood were visible all across the ground, staining the grass and dirt. Many of the building were damaged, their doorways and walls smashed beyond repair, and the straw thatching burned or pulled away. Fences were broken down all over the remnants of the small village; carts and wheelbarrows were upturned in the middle of the streets, their supplies thrown about haphazardly. And everywhere their were bodies; the slaughtered carcasses of livestock and people littered the grounds; men with spears in their hands, men shielding their wives, women protecting their children. And the bodies of children, who had been running for their lives.

The sight was more than either could bear to witness, and they clung to one another in horrified silence.

"Do you see who's missing?" asked Jaide in a shaky voice, after more time passed than either could count.

"Who?"

"The girls. And the young women." The princess took in a deep breath to regain some of her composure. "It's pirates. They raided the village and took the girls as slaves." She sighed, "I didn't know they came so far North as this. We'll have to tell my father when we reach the capitol."

"Pirates," breathed a shocked Anna, still taking in the carnage with wide eyes.

"They're slavers from the East. From the Wastes. They steal girls for slaves and then sell them overseas. They've been around for as long as I can remember... I heard stories about the things they did... but they've never come so far inside our borders before."

"There's not even a man left alive to send word for help."

"I've never seen a raid. I never knew it was this bad... These people out here on the edge of the fief know they're taking their chances. That the army is far away. But this village is close to the main road... I'm sure they thought they would be safe."

"I'm sorry," offered Anna, looking into her friend's eyes.

"So am I," answered Jaide, shaking her head sadly.

The two women spent the next two hours constructing a large pyre from pieces of the damaged buildings. They took care placing the hacked bodies - or in some cases, pieces of bodies - atop, and set the thing ablaze. Jaide watched the cremation with tears in her eyes, and Anna said a soft but solemn prayer. They washed most of the blood from the streets with bucketfuls of water from the tainted well; Jaide, with parchment and ink from one of the homes, wrote up a royal decree explaining the state of the village and condemning the pirates for their actions. With heavy hearts and mute voices, the pair left to the North, hands clasped together and feet slow upon the ground.

They walked together for several hours, saying nothing, looking neither left nor right. Jaide grasped the hand Anna had offered tightly, and its steadiness reassured her. Passing between bushes and trees more open than in the wilder part of the forest, the couple moved along the small dirt path which connected the village they had left with others around it, eventually leading to the main road. The sun had moved the world into late afternoon by the time the wearied travelers approached the next village to the North.

Anna's eyes flicked up when her sharp ears began to pick out sounds floating away from the village on the air. Though she was not yet close enough to discern the source of the noises, something about them was harsh and angry.

Then, a scream rang out.

Anna felt the hand in her hand clench tightly in surprise, and she looked to see pain and anger and fear all boiling together in the blue eyes. Without a word, the pair broke into a run toward the village ahead, feet pounding lightly - almost silently - against the ground. Their exhaustion forgotten, the women felt adrenaline pumped by hammering hearts as they approached, carefully hiding themselves in the tall grass on a hill overlooking yet another scene of destruction.

The clumps of buildings below them were similar to those they had seen before, though differently placed and greater in number. Aside from the size, this slightly larger village had one other glaring difference: there were people yet alive.

Amid the spilled blood and crumpled bodies, a few brave men were fighting spear to spear with a very nasty looking lot of brutes.

The pirates were mostly short but stout men with long, ratty hair and beards. Their grass-fiber pants and vests were crudely made and course, and their bare arms were covered in ugly tattoos of skulls and nude girls. Those that fought with the village men were using wooden spears and clubs, but also carried large bone knives in their belts. Even as the two women watched in horror, one particularly nasty pirate drew his knife and slashed away a man's left arm below the elbow. A second slash across the poor man's abdomen let coils of his intestines spill to the blood-stained dirt.

Jaide and Anna both opened their mouths to scream at the sight, but before any sound came out, a scream like the one they had heard before rang out from below. They looked away from the immediate carnage to see another group of pirates standing around a series of large horse-drawn wooden carts with thick-barred cages built atop each one. Inside each cage were the village's population of girls, bound hand and foot with tight leather thongs and piled carelessly on top of one another.

Anguish was obvious in their frightened, tear-stained faces, and pain in the cuts and welts on their arms and legs. A pirate walked angrily to a cage and, viciously pulling the hair of the one who screamed, he dragged her to the side and forced a gag down her throat. She did not scream again, and it appeared likely that she might never scream again.

The stunned princess tore her eyes away from the scene to see her friend drop her pack to the ground, still crouched in the tall grass.

"Can you use one of these?" asked Anna, expertly stringing her bow and swinging the full quiver over her shoulder.

"I... I..."

"Can you?" Anna repeated, a bit more gently, looking straight into the blue eyes.

"Yes, I can," Jaide answered, and after a split-second of hesitation, she reached for the bow fixed to the back of her own pack.

"This?" Anna asked, this time about the new weapon she drew from a leather sheath on her pack. It was a blade of about arms' length, made not of bone, but of the same type of material as her strange flying house. The silver color cast a deadly gleam in the fading sunlight which sent a chill up Jaide's spine.

"I've never seen anything like that before," offered Jaide.

"It's ok. You just keep shooting arrows until there's nothing left to do and we have to run."

"Alright," came the unsteady answer.

"Sweetie," said the dark-haired warrior with a gleam in her eye that clashed with the tenderness in her voice, "you'll be ok. I'm going to keep you safe, alright?"

"Alright," this time much more sure.

"Shoot to kill, babe."

These were the last instructions offered before the two women made their stand on the hillside. Setting their feet, they began to unleash a volley upon the pirates in the village below. Jaide did not have Anna's deadly accuracy or blinding speed with the bow, but she did her part well. She stood with a notched arrow, turned towards her acquired prey, pulled back against the surprisingly stiff resistance, and loosed her first shot. Her first arrow struck a pirate in the leg, but her second missed. By the time she had loosed her third, Anna had already dropped four of the foul brutes with arrow shafts protruding from their skulls.