After Troy

Chapter 24 – Queens and Their Desires

The Trojans cheered as they leapt of the ship, finally back on dry land and relishing in the sensation of sand between their toes, recently bared as they excitedly shed their shoes and some of the children jumped in the water to escape the heat.

Aeneas stretched his muscles and walked up on the sand. He peered out over the horizon and saw very little, only a couple of shepherds out with their flock.

"Only two shepherds." He said as Hector joined him.

Hector smiled. "Shepherds and sheep." He said, his mind making mental leaps that often surprised some people. "And it's a large flock, so there must be a town nearby. I shall enquire." He said, wandering over to where the sheep grazed.

Aeneas went back to the boat to supervise the unloading of the people and their belongings. So far every person on the ship had escaped. Be it into the shade of the vessel, or the shallows of the water, or sanding on the sand and admiring the open expanse of land about them.

"Should we get everything off the ship, sir?" A young man asked, approaching the now-acknowledged leader of the group.

Aeneas opened his mouth to reply, but paused. "Not just yet." He said. "If we have to move along the coast it will be easier by boat than on foot." He smiled and the young man returned to a pretty young girl, with whom he had been wading in the calm shallows.

Sure enough, Hector returned just a few minutes later with the news that they were closer to Carthage than originally believed, and if they were to take the ship a little further west they would find it easily before the sun hit midpoint in the sky.

With the promise of the city, fresh food and water, and a good bed in which to sleep, the Trojans boarded back on the ship and launched back out off the shore.

Sure enough, as the sun hit its height, the ship sailed smoothly in to rest at in the docks of the city, nestled between fishing ships and a strange kind of warship.

The Trojan survivors poured off the ship and began to unload their belongings. Andromache ordered her people, as only she could, into an organised group and sent a few people to find food. Hector and Aeneas wandered off through the streets to find where they could meet with the leaders of this city to seek aid.

After leaving the mocking voice of Achilles ('Off for a casual stroll in the city? Have a nice afternoon!') they had not wandered far before a young woman ran towards them. She appeared somewhat out of breath and held her orange dress about her knees so that she could run. Her sandals had long since been abandoned as she preferred to run bare foot, and she now carried them with her bundled up dress.

"Excuse me." She said, bowing her head so her dark, braided hair fell forward about her face. Her dark brown eyes looked back up at each of their faces. "Are you Hector and Aeneas, the ones of whose travels we have been hearing?" She asked, looking between them.

"We are." Hector replied.

"I was sent to look for you, and the man on the ship told me you had gone for a leisurely stroll in the city to relax."

"Achilles." Aeneas grumbled the name in contempt.

"And I assumed you were Aeneas and Hector because of your blue clothing." She continued unfazed by the angry interruption. She drew a deep breath and her voice became very formal, if it had not already been so. "Queen Dido requests and audience with you both, immediately." She added.

"Queen Dido?" Aeneas asked Hector as they followed the messenger girl through the streets.

"She is Queen of this young city." Hector told him. "She is a little like you, in her story. She escaped great troubles in her homeland, and came to a new place to establish a new life. She lead these people to a higher level of being than that in which they previously existed. She has treated them well, where other new leaders in this area have exploited the native people."

"Then her homeland is not here?" Aeneas asked.

"This is her homeland now, but not her place of birth." Hector looked around the well-established city, impressed by what had been accomplished therein.

"How do you know so much about this woman?" Aeneas asked, a devilish glint in his eye, and a smile on his lips. "Andromache would be jealous."

"If Andromache were capable of being jealous! She is far too good natured for that." Hector smiled. "I met Dido's mother in the Underworld, and some of her friends and enemies." He replied.

Aeneas opened his mouth to continue, but it hung open, speechless, in awe of the grand palace they now approached. The tall building had been erected from a strong stone, pale in colour to deter the heat. Tress and gardens surrounded the palace in which people were free to come and go. The building itself was easily as tall as the Trojan towers, and more ornate in its design. It seemed to radiate a calm atmosphere that affected all around it.

"It's beautiful." Aeneas commented.

"It rivals Troy's best." Hector agreed.

"In here." The messenger said, ushering them through the tall entrance. The doorway was covered in long, beaded strands that fell to make a curtain. The wooden beads snapped against each other as she released the curtain and the temperature dropped acutely when they entered.

The design inside was as everything else seemed, calm, simple and beautiful. The floors were bare, so as to deter heat, and thin cloths covered all the windows, lessening the sun's heat and allowing the breeze through. Huge statues could be found at every corner or meeting of the halls, depicting tall, gangly-looking people carved from dark wood or stone.

They followed the messenger through various halls, eyes wide with fascination as they took in all of this new culture, so unique, yet will small similarities to their own. Aeneas supposed it was a mixture of Dido's homeland and the new one, creating a stunning hybrid style.

The hallway ended abruptly with twin doors that stretched from floor to ceiling, the entire height of the tall hallway. Small carvings had been made on the doors, around the edges and a symbol of a lion in the centre of each, etched into the light wood with its rich, red tone.

The messenger signalled to two men wearing light brown robes. One man was of similar colouring to Aeneas and Hector, but the other was of the same deep, beautiful colouring of so many people they had seen in the city. The light brown robes set a contrast to his skin and his bald head bobbed quickly as both men opened the door to admit the trio.

The next sight that greeted their eyes was, if possible, even more beautiful than what they had already encountered today. The huge hall with its high ceiling was a pale, sandy, cream colour, the same as the stone outside, but refined with a pale wash of some kind. A single crimson strip of what appeared at first to be carpet ran from the throne at the end of the room to the doorway in which they currently stood.

Huge stone vases stood along the sides of the room, filled with exquisite flowers in colours which complemented the room excellently. Carefully crafted statues, the like of those they had seen outside, appeared here and there in the room, though these had more detail, as if of gods, instead of just men. The same curtains of beads and the thin cloth they had seen elsewhere hung over the long windows, and a huge sheet of it draped the open end of the chamber behind the throne so that one could see the gardens outside.

The messenger stepped forth and bowed, indicating that Hector and Aeneas should do the same. They did so and as Aeneas stepped onto the red mat, looking down, he realised it was in fact, finely woken grasses and thin reeds, dyed with some rich red powder-based substance, he supposed.

"Remove your sandals in this room." The messenger whispered as she slipped off her own shoes. Aeneas and Hector quickly obeyed and, stepping back onto the mat, both noted the cool, soft surface of the thatch and thanked whatever gods had invented it.

They followed the messenger quietly but swiftly up the long mat. The throne was shrouded in the same beads as the curtains bore. The beads hung down from the hight ceiling to form a circular veil around the queen. Aeneas noted two ornate hooks he supposed were used to draw the curtains back for certain meetings.

The men kept their heads low while attempting in vain to peer through the wooden screen. When they reached the slightly raised area on which the throne sat, the messenger indicated for them both to kneel on the ground, and they bowed their heads as they complied.

From behind the wooden hangings they heard a shifting of cloth and a shuffle of feet, but they kept their eyes on the ground, being all too familiar with royal proceedings and desiring no trouble from this new monarch.

"Arise." Said a controlled, commanding woman's voice from behind the veil. Aeneas glanced at Hector briefly, who nodded only slightly and both stood up slowly to face where they supposed the queen was. Again the voice spoke, though in a language neither men understood, and Hector only vaguely recognised it as an African tongue he had been taught of in his younger years. It occurred to them, now, that it had been strange that the messenger had spoken to them in their tongue, where most people in Carthage would not understand what language they spoke.

Upon receiving some command, all the guards around the room turned and swiftly departed. The messenger, however, looked angered and again speaking their own dialect attempted to reason or argue. The queen's voice remained calm, but anger was evident and she answered quickly. With one last look of horror mingled with annoyance and defiance, the messenger nodded her head and departed after the guards.

All this Aeneas noted without once moving his eyes from the wooden beads.

"Welcome." The voice said, returning to the tongue that all present understood. Both men bowed their heads in greeting and thanks. The queen continued. "You are Aeneas and Hector, of Troy. Are you not?" She asked.

"We are." Hector replied as he had earlier. "I am Hector, and this, my cousin Aeneas."

"Well met." Aeneas said quietly.

"Well met, indeed." Dido said, a smile in her voice. "I am Dido, Queen of Carthage." She spoke smoothly, and with a fluency that astounded both Trojans. "This is my palace, and my city. My home. And I offer this to you as your home as long as need be, for I have heard of your plight and I wish to aid you in your quest."

"We thank you, Queen." Aeneas said, but Hectors hair bristled on the back of his neck, fearing his cousin had interrupted the queen's speech, for Hector remained wary of this woman, and the power she wielded.

The queen, however, seemed not to notice, and almost silently she drew back the curtain that surrounded her throne and stepped out to look properly at the new arrivals.

Aeneas gasped slightly at the sight he beheld. The queen was tall, almost as tall as Aeneas himself. It seemed as though she was a mixture of blood from both this land and somewhere over the sea closer to their home, for her skin and features had adopted the more regal, beautiful features of each race.

Her skin was dark, though not quite so dark as those native to Carthage, but dark enough to contrast with the bright crimson dress she wore. The dress crossed over her upper chest and tied behind her neck, falling gracefully and leaving her back bare. Her hair, pitch black, was braided and pulled from her face with a thick band of the same cloth as dress, though interwoven with a golden thread.

Golden bands encircled each of her upper arms, emphasising the muscles that were there, a strange thing for royal women, Aeneas noted, to have such well defined muscles, but her arms remained slender as well. The same gold appeared with a wide, flat band on each thumb and several circular bracelets around each of her wrists, and a ring on each of her centre toes.

Around her neck hung a circlet of the same style, but this one clasped onto a disc that bore a symbol. Carved into the disc of polished wood, and embossed with gold, was a stylised lion's head, the symbol for Carthage, strength, and courage in the land. Upon seeing this around her neck, Aeneas realised it was also the symbol for this Queen, and he wondered how deeply her courage was vested in the people over whom she saw.

"Aeneas," she said suddenly. Her eyes were wide with a strange fire, a keen interest that suddenly flared. "The tales I have heard told of you, and the messengers that return with news of the world so often, tell me that you carry the weight of a people on your shoulders." She looked over to Hector. "A weight that used to be yours to bear."

The men nodded and Aeneas spoke quietly, though loud enough for her to hear. "We fled Troy in the hopes of starting a new life for our people." He told her. "There is but a ship load of us and the gods have given us a purpose and a destination."

"I wish to help you in any way I can, and I hope your people thrive as mine did. I was in a similar position as you, not so long ago, and I know the help I should have liked, so I shall offer it to you." She smiled slightly.

"We thank you, Queen Dido." Aeneas said, nodding his head.

"And your thanks are warmly received." The queen bowed her head to dismiss them. "Return to your ship and you shall find aid there. They shall direct you, and I desire for you both to return here at sunset. Bring your wife, Hector, and bring Achilles also, for I have heard he travels with you."

"As you wish, Queen." Aeneas said, smiling. "Many thanks." And with that, they returned to their ship.

A/N: Greetings children! Sorry for my laziness. This one actually sat for about a week on my desk half finished… but I finished it so it's all good! Before I respond to you lovely children who are still reviewing and whom I love and adore for that! I must question you all on something, and it is vital that you respond. I was attempting a slightly different style in this one, with more description. I do this because I need to try it out before I put my plan into action with my HP fic, which I shall be writing after this is done. And I need to ask, what did you ponder? Do you accept or refute the descriptive style. Was it good or did it bore the pants of you? Do tell. But, now, back to reviews. Yana, my dear, always good to hear from you. I am most pleased that you enjoyed the chapter, and I too have missed you on MSN! How is Scotland? Still raining? :) x-shadowcat! I'm glad you are pleased about the father-knowing thing. I was actually excited in writing it! Crazy me. And I read the first of the 'Secret' trilogy, by Thalisirwen. It was excellent! I'm reading the second right now, and loving it. Ooh, the sexual tension. And it's not even sexual, it's bloody love! I respect that so much! So beautiful. Oh, and I'm off to check out this other one, the D/H one. Aside from Cloud/Zack in FinalFantasy XII, and Sirius/Remus, Harry/Draco is the most excellent pairing! OK, put it this way, since that made no sense. My opinion is this; my favourite pairings are Cloud/Zack and Sirius/Remus, but the best pairing is Harry/Draco. There. Oh, excuse my thinking on page, I do that sometimes… and Spezlee, greetings and welcome to the world of Cerasi's fanfiction! I hope you enjoy the ride. So toodles, all, and please tell me what you think of the style. Good/Bad/Couldn't-give-a-flying-fuck!! Do tell, and I swear, it's just a style so I don't care if you hate it with a passion! Just tell me! :)

Story: 2,446

A/N: 352