I'm giving you guys a longer chapter 'cause I'm going to be in France on my school trip for two weeks, so this is a "forgive me" in advance.
Vivian Alexandra is one of my new favorite reviewers (yay for her one o'clock review!)and yes, I do try for humor, good to know it's appreciated.
A/N- for those who have my story on alert I have only one thing to say- I know you're out there. It's no use to hide any longer. Just give in to your urges and review. It makes me happier that way. God, I sound like such a stalker. ewww.
Disclaimer- yes, yes, we know, just rub it in. I OWN NONE OF THE KA PPL/CHARACTERS AND I NEVER WILL! (unless Joel Edgerton magically dumps his gf and waits for our relationship to actually be legal) sigh
Damara had half walked, half ran, down the halls until she had finally realized that Arthur was a) not leading her, and b) not behind her. She looked around, seeing a few open window spaces. Walking over, she looked down, seeing a clump of roman style roofs. At the sound of neighing, she grinned. She had not only managed to get out of that hall with some former shreds of her dignity, but she had also managed to find her way to the stables.
Looking around the hallway, she couldn't find any apparent stairwell. She looked down at the roof. It wasn't so far, she thought, and the roof didn't look too far. Besides, there was a gigantic pile of hay to the side if she fell to hard and rolled off. Hearing voices, she spun quickly. Hana and Kiri had appeared at the end of the hallway, chatting in low voices. Seeing her at the window, they stopped.
"Damara, what the hell are you doing?" Hana asked in a serious voice. She looked uneasy.
Damara grinned. "I'm getting where I'm going. I am only a playful αέρας after all" she said, mischievously (A/N- that weird word is Greek for wind).
"Don't you even think about it Damara!" shrieked Kiri, "This is not what you're –" Damara didn't hear the rest. She had already heaved herself up through the window and out.
Gawain had exited the hall soon after the Amazon women, and if he wasn't a Sarmatian knight, it almost could have been called scurrying. Bors was after gossip, plain and simple, and Gawain was not about to give it to him.
He had simply grabbed some food and walked out. He went through some corridors, quickly choosing a destination in his mind. Walking down a stairwell, he munched on a piece of bread and cheese. Thinking back to earlier, he couldn't help but imagine what would have happened if he had stayed in his room when she had tried to rise from the tub. He could see every insinuation of her body in her clothes when she had walked into the hall that morning, and it made him simultaneously want to tear her clothes off and ravage her and at the same time, it made him want to scold her and cover her up in a thick wool blanket. She was driving him crazy with every action she made, and she had only been at the fort for less than a day.
Musing on this new development, he didn't see Damara poke her head out the window and look at the stables that he was now walking past. He did however hear Kirima's shouts.
Looking up, his mouth dropped open just as Damara shot out of the window. What the hell was she thinking! He stood, halted by incredulity at what the insane woman was doing.
Damara opened her mouth in a yell as she fell, aiming for the soft, thankfully high mound of hay. She saw Gawain standing a few feet from it. She was glad that she could shock him.
She hit the hay, falling swiftly into the thick depths of it. Crap, she thought, now my hair will be covered in hay. At least she still had her old skills.
Thrashing her way out of the pile, she struggled with the overpowering strands. She reached out for a handhold, anything to keep her afloat.
Suddenly, a hand snaked into the confusion of the hay and grabbed her wrist.
Damara looked up, surprised. It had better not be a stupid roman soldier looking for some fun, she thought grimly. She reached down and gripped a hidden dagger fastened to the inside of her thigh.
The hand gripped tighter as its owner felt her draw back a little for her dagger. Damara was suddenly yanked forward, straight up against what felt like a solid wall of muscle.
She braced her fingers against what must have be the persons chest and found tangled blond hair twisted into her fingers. Looking up, she came face to face with a not-so-happy Gawain.
"What the hell were you thinking?" he asked in disbelief. "Are you insane?".
She grinned.
"You could have been injured. Hell, you already are injured!" he said.
"And why are you getting so worked up about it?" she said, raising her eyebrow.
He sputtered, looking for an answer. He gazed around, for an excuse. His chin came up. He lived here, not her. Why was he looking for an excuse? She should be the one looking for an excuse. He looked back down at his chest, where she was still braced with her fingers intertwined in his hair.
She was smirking at him.
That's it, he thought, let's see how well she plays this game.
Moving his hands from the position they had caught her in, he slid them over her sides, down to her waist. Her eyes widened.
"Well, I don't know", he said slowly, "maybe it's because there was a beautiful woman bathing in my room this morning, and maybe, just maybe, I wish to see her in that position again" he said, savoring her expression.
She had gone from shocked as his hands roamed her body, then to infuriated, and finally to shy. She had blushed furiously when he had spoken of the morning. He was enjoying the sensation of her body pressed up against him.
Damara was stunned. Men didn't usually respond like that to her teasing. They usually became infuriated, or they made up some ridiculous excuse for their actions. But the knight had decided to play her game. Oooh, he was gonna get it now, Damara thought. Then he'd touched her sides, and she promptly forgot what she was so mad about. Why was she even mad? She was snuggled up to a handsome man's chest. A blond, tall one at that. With very toned muscles. Damara really couldn't see a negative side to this.
Hmm, no, she decided, He doesn't deserve all my attentions, just yet.
"Well, that's just too bad for you then isn't it?" she said, sweetly with a hint of acid in her voice "because it won't be happening ever again". She shoved him against his chest, throwing him off balance and off her.
She smiled faultlessly at him as she swept past him towards the door of the stables. He was left standing looking at her with a quizzical look on his face. As she went through the doorway, his face broke into a devious grin. Spinning on his heel, he walked off towards his quarters.
Damara entered the stables with mixed feelings of regret and elation. Elation that she'd bested his wit, and regret that she had bested him, and felt obligated ( by her own stupid instincts for flirtation) to end the conversation with the last word.
Oh well, she thought. At least now she could make sure her horses were here.
She would bet her own kalindi dress from her sixteenth birthday that the Romans had taken their horses for auxiliary purposes.
Yeah, she heard a voice in her head say, because they can't even take care of their own friggin' mounts. Poor things.
Damara shook her head, laughing at herself. Looking up, she slowly started down the aisle of the barn. Looking back and forth, she scanned the stalls for her horse. Walking down, the long aisle, despair grew heavier and heavier in her heart as the amount of stalls shrank and still her horse was not there. She gritted her teeth and kept moving.
Her worry overwhelmed her as she reached the end of the barn. Hana's, Kiri's, and her horse were nowhere in sight and she didn't know where any other stables where. Sighing loudly, she leaned back against the wall.
A loud neigh sounded behind the wall, striking the sadness from Damara's heart. She turned, her hands probing the wall for the latch she knew she had missed. She should have known, Romans always had possession issues.
Finding the thick latch hidden in the shadows, she grasped it tightly and tugged as hard as she could. The metal made a thick popping sound as it broke off in her hand. Dropping it impatiently, she grabbed for the thin sliver of light that had appeared with her reckless hunt for her horse. Sliding the heavy wood door, she came across another whole side of the barn she hadn't known existed.
Her face filled with light as she saw a gigantic head poke itself out of a stall. The stallion whickered softly, saying hello.
She walked over to him slowly, happy that the colossal horse was still near her.
"Magnus, what have you been up to, eh? She said softly to him, cupping his velvety muzzle in her hands. He nibbled at them, looking for food.
She laughed, looking him over. His unique coat was shining and clear, without a sign of blemish, dirt or maltreatment upon it. He was still gigantic, and in good health too.
Magnus snorted at her, blowing a little saliva at her after having finished his search for treats and having found none.
"Oh, so that's the thanks I get for coming to look for you, huh?" she said, looking at her now gooey overtunic.
A loud whinny turned her head. Eight other heads had poked themselves out of their stalls in response to her familiar voice. Hana's Shadow, Kirima's Wit, and her other horse, Hippolyta, were closer to her. Beyond them were the horses of her comrades, the ones whose remains were now scattered to the winds, although not in the way they would have wanted them. Tears welled up in her eyes.
She turned her head down to Magnus, putting her forehead against his velvety head. Sobbing quietly, she sniffed, and looked at Magnus as he nudged against her head. His coat had always been a problem while out on trips. It was also one of the reasons she had taken to him as soon as she had seen him. The horse-raiser who sold him to her had called him a "leopard", apparently some kind of cat in faraway lands.
He certainly didn't look like a cat, she thought, with a smile. His coat was white, with light golden brown spots all over. He also had to be one of the more gargantuan horses that she had ever seen.
Hippolyta was a different story entirely. She was a roan mare bred from the royal stables, completely captivating, at least in Damara's mind. She was also related to the horse Damara had brought to Briton for Annuska.
Damara sighed, closing her eyes. She hadn't thought fully on Damara since she had been in the claustrophobic prison that roman had put her in with Kiri and Hana. Now her mind turned to the sister whose location she again did not know.
Damara had been born part of the royal house of the extensive Amazon Empire, or at least what was left of it. Her mother ruled alone on the throne for years, which had made Damara ask frequently why didn't she have a daddy like the peasant girls?
Her mother had always said that her daddy had had to go away a long time ago, before Damara was even born. Her mother always looked sad after that, staring out over the ocean from her throne.
Damara had grown up in her mothers and aunts courts, taking tours to see the cavalry, and army. At thirteen, she was permitted to dress as a lady of the court, and to actually appear at court. Her mother told her later that she had immediately received proposals for her marriage, but her mother had scoffed at them, saying that filthy roman habits of taking child brides was not looked upon favorably in her court.
She had routinely trained in swordplay, knife fighting, and something her mother called martial arts since she was six. Damara had learned very early on how to defend and take care of herself. Oftentimes, her mother sent her out to provincial towns to help healers attend the ill, in order for Damara to understand sickness. She had learned how to dance, how to read and write, and how to speak in several languages, including what her mother called "pig language"(latin). She had even learned a language called Gaelic, a tongue her mother said would serve her well. Damara had never met anyone besides her mother and her teacher, Cuckoo, who knew Gaelic.
She had grown up with Hana, Kirima, Nissa, Dolara, Beofre, Lucia, and Qatara, all playing together. When she had started training at six, they had been training for two years already, learning how to protect their monarch. They had lived, eaten, breathed, together. Now only Hana and Kiri were still alive with her.
At sixteen, she performed the kalindi dance for the celebration of summer. After that, her mother had had to beat off her suitors with a stick. Literally, Damara had almost been accosted by a repeatedly refused suitor who had gone mad with his "love". Damara had already tossed him in a fountain by the time her mother arrived on the scene, just to see the insane man go at Damara again. Her mother, Lillithia, had grabbed a wooden sword from the mistress at arms and had started bashing him on the head with it. He finally understood the word "no" when he woke up the next morning with a concussion.
However, she had not spent her early years chasing away from bad suitors. She had learned from the example her mother had set for her, and she learned from the situations around her. Until the day she was no longer around them, but in them.
A few weeks after her nineteenth birthday, Lillithia had started to get snappish with Damara, withdrawing into her private chambers and allowing no one to see her. Finally, after days of solitude, Damara was summoned to her mother's chambers. There, Lillithia finally told Damara about why all the other children had fathers.
When Lillithia had been young, the heir to the throne, an envoy had come from the Britons to the Amazon court. They were requesting peace, and a possible treaty for goods between the two countries. All this was done under the nose of Rome.
In her mother's personal library, she was told of Arden, a young woad possessed of a fiery passion for learning, and knowledge of all things. Lillithia was High Princess, and had to meet every day with the ambassadors. She told her daughter how she had been fascinated by their choice of dress, and had wanted to learn more. One day, in the palace library, she had stumbled upon a woad looking at a book. He couldn't understand the greek letters, and was trying to figure out what they meant. Peeping around a corner, Lillithia had been captivated by his want to learn.
Damara sighed. It was easy to think of it now, but back then it had been such a hard tale to accept.
Lillithia had come out and asked if he wanted to learn how to read her language. He had not been surprised by her sudden appearance, although she thought she had been fairly quiet when she had been watching him. He had accepted her request.
Lillithia began to teach the woad how to read the languages of her world, and in return, he had taught her his. They had also exchanged the knowledge of their countrys' fighting tactics, practicing different techniques with each other.
Eventually, the envoy left, leaving Arden at the court at his request to stay. He lived there for two years, spending almost all of his time with Lillithia. And then everything happened at once.
There was a feast to celebrate the new year, and Lillithia had celebrated with Arden. Before she knew it, she had woken up in bed with him the next morning. Both shocked at what they had done, Lillithia forced herself to go before the High Queen and ask for forgiveness. Although this act brought shame upon her, Lillithia had never been happier in her life. She had loved Arden, with a love shelved in the distant reaches of her heart, since she had seen him trying to read in the library. He had spoken the same words to her the night of their joy, and she had blossomed with elation over this newfound fact.
Seeing their love, the High Queen had given them permission to marry, with Arden as Lillithia's consort.
Lillithia thought she was in heaven, no more so than when she found she was pregnant. Arden was ecstatic. After nine months, Annuska came into the world, to the sound of her mother's curses upon her father for being a man. She forgave him when she saw Annuska for the first time.
Her mother had told her that Annuska would be twenty one now, considering that Damara had just turned nineteen.
I have a sister. Damara had been confused. "Why is she not here now?" She had asked her mother.
Her mother sighed, looking defeated.
"Well, we lived together, until Annuska was one year old. Then the High Queen died, leaving me as heir. I ascended to the throne, with a half woad child and a woad husband. The Roman ambassadors didn't like that. They had wanted me married off to some sadistic lord who would lock me away in the country and make me atone for my "sins".
They sent messengers to Rome, and to the Emperor. He sent a message back demanding that his royal cousin submit to his wishes and marry a Roman. I worried over this for many nights, before sending my reply" Lillithia said slowly, woefully.
"How did you respond mother?" Damara asked, anxious for the story.
"I told the Emperor that if he did not accept my consort, he did not need to expect our friendship" she said, a slight smile on her lips.
"That's all?" Damara said, unbelieving. She knew many Romans, and she did not especially like a single one of them.
"No" he mother said, "I also told him we would ally with the Huns and take over Sarmatia, then march on Rome".
"Oh" was all Damara could muster.
"But that had spooked both me and your father. We were now slightly worried about the state of affairs around us, but we stuck through it. But something else happened".
"What?" Damara said, entranced.
"Right after the debacle with Rome, Arden received a message from his brother, Merlin. He told of the Roman oppression of Britons, in their very own country, and how he needed his brother's aid in order to fight them." Lillithia sighed. "He was torn, just as I had been at Rome's request. He had been distant for only a few days until another message came from Merlin. In it, Merlin told Arden that their younger sisters had been sold into slavery by the Romans after their village had been attacked while Merlin had been out on a raid. Merlin sounded heartbroken at these news, and Arden was struck just as hard."
A tear ran down Lillithia's face as she spoke these words now.
"Then pressure started from Rome about whether our marriage had been a true marriage. They didn't believe that Annuska was a legitimate heir, not to mention the fact that she was female. The Romans had become sick of women being in charge of one of their allies, although our culture is based upon women in power. They wanted to put a man on the throne, and they thought that they could foist a roman prince on me."
"What did you do, Mother?" said Damara softly.
"At first, I just let your father do as he would, leaving the decision to him. He was a very fair man." She said, another slim smile on her face at the thought of Damara's father. Then she looked at Damara. Her look turned serious again.
"Then Annuska was attacked."
Damara's eyes had turned the size of dinner plates.
"It was in her nursery one night. Mercenaries came and tried to kill her. A small, defenseless baby, and they tried to kill her. However, she had started crying before they even made it inside, and was surrounded by a dozen guards. They managed to get a mercenary alive. I myself interrogated the woman, and found that she had been sent from a Roman lord, who wished the Emperor to bestow his son the title of heir to our tribe. He wanted the lands that our country exists of. After that, I told Arden what I wanted him to do." She said, brokenhearted.
Tears were now coursing slowly down Damara's cheeks as well.
Lillithia continued "So I told your father to go aid his brother in revenge of his sisters, and to take Annuska with him, for she would be safer with him than she would be with me. After he left, I found myself pregnant, with you. I tried to reach him, but my messenger returned telling me that the Romans had cut off any kind of contact to woads beyond battles and skirmishes. The Romans only want to conquer Briton now, as they did then. I was unable to tell your father of you, as I have been unable to for nineteen years. It has hurt me more than you can imagine, to not share your life with him, or to not be able to share Annuska's growth as well. But I have endure for yours, and Annuska's sake." Lillithia finished, satisfied.
Damara sat on the lounge opposite her, trying to absorb all the information her mother had just given her. As her mother stared at her, a thought occurred to Damara.
"How did you keep me safe when you knew the Romans would want me dead?" she asked.
Her mother grinned.
"I showed them just what would happen to them if they tried to hurt a child of mine ever again." Lillithia said with a smug tone in her voice.
"Mama, what did you do?" Damara asked, suspicious at her mother's self-satisfied attitude.
"I had a… special detail sent to them. I ordered the leader, your aunt Anna, to show the lords and commanders just how much they would lose if they continued with their efforts to eradicate my children from the earth." She said, her grin completely out in the open now.
"I repeat, WHAT DID YOU DO MOTHER?" Damara said, almost grinning herself.
"I had Anna threaten to castrate them and convince their serfs to rise up against them" Lillithia said quickly, examining her fingernails as if they were more important than anything else in the world.
Damara sat, flabbergasted at her mother's audacity. "But, but, before…" she said weakly, grasping for anything.
"Before what, darling?"
Damara straightened her mind out. "Before, when they threatened Da, you said you were so worried about him, but with me, you just sent Aunt Anna. Why-"
"Damara, when they threaten your man, you worry. When they threaten your baby, you send detail squads to make sure that they know their error. You'll understand one day" Lillithia said with a smile.
Damara shook her head. She had spent the rest of the day on that lounge, thinking about her father and the sister she had never known. Lillithia had looked at her, smiling in that faraway tendency she had developed lately. Damara now knew that it was because she was thinking of Arden and Annuska.
For the next few months, Damara spoke with her mother often of their Woad family. Damara abounded with questions, and Lillithia supplied them with answers as best she could. Until the fall.
Damara had been out riding with Hana, chatting about their practice tomorrow. Shouts from the palace wall had drawn her attention. She and Hana had hastened their pace, worried about a possible threat from some marauding bandits of late. But as she neared the wall, she could tell that this was not about bandits. Her old nurse and tutor, Cuckoo, was out, staring at her with grief.
"It is your mother" she said, tears coursing their way down her cheeks.
"What is wrong with my mother?" Damara had demanded, trying to tear her way through the crowd. She threw people willy nilly, oblivious to all others until Hana appeared in front of her. Damara attacked her trying to get past. They fought, kicking and punching, until Hana was backed up against a wall. Damara was told later that she had fought with the strength of the warrior sorceresses of old, with no heed for others. She was about to descend on Hana when her air supply was cut off.
Damara remembered Hana's eyes appearing before her, beseeching her. Damara had stopped, looking at her childhood friend. She stepped back, after Hana loosened her grip on Damara's throat.
"Mara," Hana said slowly. Damara looked at her mutely.
"Your Ladyship?" came Cuckoo's more timid voice.
"How is my mother ill?" Damara said cautiously.
Cuckoo came around and stood in front of her. She started, cautiously.
"She is…" She paused, closing her eyes. She breathed, in and out, deeply. Opening her eyes, she looked straight at Damara. "She is dying".
Damara breathed deeply against Magnus' cheek. He snorted slightly at her, chewing on a piece of hay he'd liberated from his stall. She still remembered every detail of that day, going up to her mother's room, sitting by her bed and receiving her last wishes. It had been one of the hardest things Damara had ever had to do.
Her mother had asked her to seek out her sister, and tell her of her heritage, or at least teach it to her properly. If her father was still alive, Lillithia had said, send him all my love and my promise of forever to him. Damara had cried then, quietly, not interrupting her mother's commands. Lillithia had sighed, and wiped away her daughter's tears.
Do no weep for me, darling, she had said. I go to our ancestors, and they will embrace me. I hope only for you to meet your sister, your father, if he is alive, and to love a man as I loved your father.
With that, Lillithia had sighed, and still smiling at her daughter, had laid back against the pillows of her bed. She closed her eyes, her breathing slowed. Damara had watched as her chest ceased to fall.
At that point, Damara broke for the first time in her life. She collapsed to the floor and sobbed next to her mother's deathbed. Then, straightening her shoulders, she rose and went to the throne room. She spoke the dreaded words "The Queen is dead" to the hushed court, and went to her chambers, to grieve. Four weeks later, she had left, leaving her cousin as Queen in her place. Her cousin was really serving as regent, but Damara had had a strange sensation that she would not be returning to the Amazons soon. She had brought gifts, leaving orders for a small convoy to set out a year after she did, to bear gifts for her sister. She had been determined to find her within a year, at least. She had brought only her horses, gifts for Annuska, and her friends. And now she only had so many of those things.
Damara stroked Magnus' face slowly, savoring the feel of his velvety jaw. He shook his head, jarring her grip on his face. Sighing, she looked at him. He nibbled at her tunic again. Smiling softly, she gazed up and around her, savoring the memory of her mother. Lillithia had laughed when she had first seen her daughter ride into the keep on a spotted white horse. His gentle nature had won her over in the end though. She had even bred him with a few of her mares, trying to see what a coat of his would make for offspring. She had been delighted with the foals, many spotted. Damara had even started to train one, until her mother's death halted all fun exercises.
Damara snorted. Her mother had been a true softie at heart.
"I thought horses snorted, not Amazons" came an amused voice from one end of the barn.
Damara whirled around, and upon seeing Gawain, snorted again.
Putting her hands on her hips, she replied "Why wouldn't I snort if there are men like you as possible husbands in the world. Although I highly doubt that you even put yourself in a 'Possible Husband' category." She sniffed, still a little watery from her weeping.
Gawain's expression changed from teasing and light to serious and concerned in one breath.
"Have you been crying? Why have you been crying?" He said, walking towards her.
"That is none of your business!" Damara said, nervous at his concern.
"Well, maybe it is, or maybe it isn't. But then again, you were naked in my room this morning, if I kept you there it might have to be my concern."
Damara half laughed, still backing up. He was still advancing on her, keeping the distance between them even. Damara was getting more and more nervous. Then she hit the barn wall at the end of the aisle.
It did not improve her state.
Before she had a chance to react, Gawain had her pinned to the wall, with his arms out to the side to block her escape.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "It is not a wise idea to trap an Amazon against a barn wall. You might lose something valuable to you" she said.
"Oh, really, something like my life?" he asked, teasing in a serious manner, more intense than before.
She stared back just as intensely.
"No" she said. "Like your manhood".
His mouth dropped open. His arms were also less braced on the wall. Damara saw the opening and took her chance. Ducking under his arm, she dove for the door and was gone, leaving him staring after her in shock and amusement.
A/N- I know the explanation of Damara's dad is cheesy. I was having a pathetic moment, what can I say. But still, REALLY LONG CHAPTER!