The Return to Sarmatia 7
Sorry for the long delay, but it has been hard to get this next chapter down. Not only did I have a hard time thinking about how this one will go, but I had a horrendous time of it trying to get it into some semblance of order!!
Remember, Babai's brother served with Uther that's how he learned to read and write Latin. He then taught Babai who in turn taught Lancelot. Ama's brother ALSO served with Uther!!! Lancelot has two uncles who served with Uther Castus. Look to The Sun and Moon of House Lyon for references to Lance's other uncle.
Queen Tyze of the Panther Tribe gazed upon her twenty plus year absent heir and son. She was amazed at what she saw in his eyes and in his stance.
He was as tall and lithe as always, but in his eyes she saw a silent strength that Aorgi never had. In his eagle slate gray eyes, she spied the fierceness that he had once possessed as the First Prince of the Panthers but now it was ten times stronger! She couldn't help but be drawn in by his strength of character and his boldness as a warrior.
As her eyes fell down his body once more in awe, she could see his eyes gentle as he gazed lovingly down upon his small family of four and his brother's-n-arms.
He had a strong presence that announced to all his importance and his leadership qualities that had not been there as a child. In fact, Tristran had always been in Tsar's, her first-born son's, shadow ever since he was born. Although, underneath that control was an undertone of passiveness that allowed him to be a loyal follower that gave her pause because he was a Prince and princes follow no one's command but their own.
But as she met her son's eyes one more time, she had to smile internally. While he was all of this and more, the most important thing to her was that he was alive, he looked happy, and he looked healthy.
King Aorgi of the Panther Tribe, once a Knight of Sarmatia more than twenty years ago, nodded in pride.
His son was a superb example of what a warrior and prince of the Panther Tribe should look like. His second born son, but his only 'of-age' heir looked as broken as he had after his fifteen-year tenure under Christoph Regalus, but at the same time he looked well put together. It was almost like Tristran had found his peace with his demons. It was almost like Tristran forgave Rome and the Romans for sentencing him to hell on Earth.
But that was impossible!
Britannia was a death sentence to more than three-fourths of the Sons of Sarmatia, for it was the resting place of their dead fathers, brothers, and sons.
And yet, and yet Tristran's eagle slate gray eyes held a serenity that he, a retired warrior of almost twenty-five years, had yet to find.
With a gentle shake of his head, that went unnoticed by everyone before him, Aorgi cast those unnerving thoughts aside and looked at his son once more.
He was aloof and stoic.
He was cold and bland and yet like with his earlier thoughts...
Tristran was gentle and sophisticated.
He was loving and kind-hearted.
Most importantly, to him at least, he was a warrior whose name would go down in the tomes of history like the heroes of old.
All this, King Aorgi and Queen Tyze realized in just a few seconds because that was all they needed to realize that their son was not the young man he once was so long ago.
Tyze and Aorgi nodded to their son as Tyze said sweetly and slightly apologetically, "Hello my son, your family looks beautiful. Ilona's letter home to us left us all excited to meet them."
Calbur, who had been waiting impatiently for Tyze and Aorgi's arrival, felt her jaw drop. Her future in-laws were encouraging Tristran's marriage with the Briton?! How could they do this?! Especially after she had patiently waited for more than twenty yeas for her wayward husband-to-be to return to her!
Coincidentally, she forgot about how she had murdered their oldest son, and caused Tristran to leave for Briton in the first place.
As Tristran pulled Ula forward to meet his parents, she jumped in front of Tristran threw her arms out and cried out enraged, "Tyze!!! How could you encourage this blasphemy! He has married one of those blue-demons! He has spawned two half-blood mongrels that will destroy our tribe! I have waited for him to return, and this is how you reward my patience!!! Because of you and him, I have remained in my position as princess-to-be, who retains NO power and only a little influence!"
Demeter, Tristran's little sister who was now twenty-seven years old and still unwed, rolled her ice blue eyes that were just like her mother's, and exclaimed, "Calbur! It's because of you that he was taken to Briton in the first place!"
Diane, Tristran's baby sister of twenty-five, added with a slight frown on her normally cool face, "He has a new family now! You've lost your chance."
Ilona, who was standing passively behind Tristran's family smirked and signed a few things that made her siblings chuckle :Not only that but you DID kill our eldest brother...you've been living a dream bitch!:
She tilted her head at her sisters and then at Calbur. They smirked back in agreement. As one, they jumped on the wildly thrashing Calbur and dragged her away from Tristran's family.
But they didn't get far.
Ama stepped forward and said as Lancelot and Tarkan replaced the three women as keepers, "Let us hold her. She won't cause you any problems until your family is ready for her."
Ilona nodded to her trainer, who nodded back with a small smile, and lightly pulled her sisters back to their family secure in the thought that Lancelot would kill Calbur himself if the crazy Panther Tribeswoman tried anything to harm Tristran or his family.
Tristran was shocked.
This is not how imagined how his reunion with his family to be. Almost every night since they left Britannia's shore's he dreamed of this, and in those nightmares his bloodthirsty pureblooded deranged family murdered his tiny family of four. Instead, he found himself floundering as he struggled to come to terms with Tyze and Aorgi's temperate acceptance of his choice of wife.
As he lightly glared at his mother, he saw something in her eyes that made him pause. There was none of the immaturity from before and none of the rage. In fact, his mother's eyes held a tender tranquility in them that could only come from admitting her wrongs and working diligently to change those wrongs. Her ice blue eyes were soft as they gazed down upon him and his siblings. They were especially devoted when they landed on his youngest sibling, their third son, Galatan, who was just fifteen.
Tristran bit his lip; he must have been born while he was entering his fifth year of servitude in Briton.
Tristran turned to his father and frowned. His father still had that haunted look about him. Tristran shuddered as he remembered how cold and unemotional his father had been because of his internal wounds, and he could see that time had only weakened the wounds not terminated them. His father had yet to forgive himself for his preconceived notions guilt, rage, and hate. While he felt sympathy for his father, he couldn't help but pity him too. While his father served under a fair commander who followed his own set of rules; Christoph Regalus was a sadistic man who loved to watch as innocent Britons, Irish, and Romans died under his orders. As a trained assassin for Rome, Aorgi was the man Regalus sent to fulfill his vicious urges for blood, gore, and death.
Whereas; he was lucky. He had trained under the watchful, nurturing eyes of Arthur Pendragon-then Artorius Castus.
He couldn't help but smile as his sisters put Calbur in place, and said nicely for his siblings' sake, "Mother, Father, my siblings new and old, this wonderful woman is my wife, Lady Ula Healing Palðer of the House of Palðer, Lady of Medicine, Marquess Ula Healing Palðer of Albion."
Ula smiled tightly up at her in-laws and said in fluent Sarmatian, "I am pleased to meet you all at least. Tristran has told me so many things about you."
Tristran nodded at her as he agreed with her on responding as she did and continued despite his families shock that his wife knew their sacred language, "And this is my first born son and heir, Lord Dunham Palðer of the House of Palðer and our little one, Lady Amage Palðer of the House of Palðer."
Dunham, with his eyes wide, stepped forward and said smoothly, "I am happy to meet you King Aorgi, Queen Tyze. I hope we will be friends whilst we stay in Sarmatia."
Tyze closed her eyes in pain. It was apparent to her that her son, while he never told his family about the terrors he experienced as a child, still held anger for her and her husband. If she was being honest with herself, she couldn't blame him. She had been a horrible mother to him, Tsar, and Ilona when they were children. She had abused Tsar sexually; she had ignored Tristran emotionally, and had all but disowned Ilona for her muteness.
What was worse, all she had was an excuse...
She had been to young to be a mother of three by the age of nineteen, and a mother of two rambunctious boys by thirteen. In fact, she had still been an egotistic child herself when her father married her off, and she had been repulsed by boy's touches still when Aorgi, fifteen then, got her pregnant with Tsar.
Not a real good excuse she had to admit, but it was all she had.
Aorgi nodded at the greetings. His grandchild, while not being raised in Sarmatia, already had a good grasp of their language and if Ilona's letter had any credibility, he also knew their culture too.
Tyze smiled down at Dunham and said warmly, "I am pleased to meet you as well my grandson. We shall talk more, I promise."
Dunham nodded and she was pleased to see that her grandson was a bright boy-an improvement over her first grandchild who had no intelligence at all that she could see. But despite that, she still loved Ilona's child. She would NOT make the same mistakes with her grandchildren that she did with her first three children.
She turned to Ula and said with a smile, "While I am proud of my son for finding himself a wife he cares for, you will still have to battle Calbur for her place as his fiancée and wife."
Tyze was impressed by Ula's impassioned response, "I will fight for my family, My Queen, make no mistake about that."
Aorgi couldn't help himself; he had to say what he thought of her, which matched Tyze's and the watchful Ama's thoughts too, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you to be a Sarmatian!"
Ula smiled as she asked and gentle shifted the napping Amage in her arms, "And who are these wonderful people before us?"
Tyze smiled and said, "Forgive me! Tristran, Ula, Dunham, and Amage these are our children and your other family. As you know the oldest is Ilona, the young woman with straight black hair and ice-blue eyes is Demeter Blackclaw Panther of the Panther Tribe; the young woman with gray eyes and shorter black hair is Diane Sleek-Shine Panther of the Panther Tribe, and the youngest is Galatan Sharpclaw of the Panther Tribe."
As his sisters oohed and awed over their nephew and niece, Galatan looked up at his elder brother and asked with great respect in his voice, "Will you train me? Ilona wrote that you and the others helped her improve a lot!"
Tristran wasn't quite sue how to deal with his brother, but he also knew that he couldn't hold anything against the young teen as he wasn't even born when he left his family twenty years ago.
As he gazed into the blue eyes, he nodded and said, "Tomorrow morning, you are welcome to join in as Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad, and myself train the knights."
While this was occurring, Lancelot and Tarkan, who were standing watch over the newly bound and gagged Calbur, winced in guilt as she yelled and screamed in rage. He had NEVER felt comfortable with the thought of harming a woman-his guilt regarding Agrimpasa was proof enough of that, but he also knew that Calbur was a danger to Tristran and his family. So, he buried his protests, and loyally stood guard over her as Tristran attempted to make peace with his family.
Also, as this was happening, Ama felt herself being torn in five different directions at once.
First, she wanted to watch over and protect her wounded children and clansmen.
Second, she wanted to talk and get to know her eldest son once more like a true mother should.
Third, she wanted to get to know her daughter-n-law and grandchild.
Fourth, she wanted to comfort Tyze, as it was clear to her that the mother of five was struggling.
Lastly, she wanted to desperately talk to Lancelot and Ula about Ula's parentage.
She couldn't help it.
Ula looked so much like her dearly departed mother, Queen Prioska of the Snake and Cheetah Tribe. Her mother had been the first and only princess of the Snake Tribe, and as such when she received her womanhood, she was married to the new king of the Cheetah Tribe, King Gedeon. Unlike Prioska's mother before her, Prioska was blessed with more than two children. In fact, Prioska's contribution to the furthering of the Cheetah Tribe included six children: First Crown Prince Hakan, First Crown Princess Jihan, Second Crown Princess Aliz, and Prince Vilmos and herself Princess Ama (they were twins).
Like Babai, Vilmos had been drafted to fight in Briton under the command of Uther Castus at Vindolanda.
But it was impossible! It just had to be!!
For more than twenty years, she had forced herself to believe that her elder twin brother had been lost to the mists of Briton. But, her family never received notice from Uther Castus of his loss...
More importantly was when Babai had returned to Sarmatia and had chosen her as his wife and Queen, Babai had told her that when they received their discharge papers he had simply vanished into the forests north of the wall and had never returned.
So...perhaps it could be true then...Ula could actually be Vilmos' daughter, my niece, and Lancelot's cousin! The only problem now, is how to tell them of my suspicions.
Well, perhaps straight out would be best??? I've never curbed the truth before so why should I now????
She nodded purposely to herself and marched up to her son.
As he lifted his head to greet her with a small smile, she said flat out, "Lancelot, I do believe you're brother's wife, Ula, is of my blood. Only those of my line possess the brown eyes of Aries."