“Oh yeah,” I repeated, dropping my hands but capturing both of hers. Then I told her, “You know what happened to you is the way of the Korwahk and I do not condone it. This does not happen in my land either. I endured the same as you and I didn’t like it any more than you did. I did not endure it for as long, but I endured it. What I do know is that your husband is a proud warrior and he wanted your happiness enough to put his pride aside and ask for my assistance in helping you settle in your new life, with him, in your cham. This was not an easy thing for him to do, but he did it.” I squeezed her hands. “For you.” She pulled in her lips and I finished. “He did what he did because he knows no other way. This is not an excuse, it is simply the truth. He does what he does now, and what he has been doing these past weeks since he brought Diandra and me to you, because he cares for you and wants your happiness. I would try to focus on that instead of the path you took to get here and my hope

is, my friend, that he will continue to show you tenderness and work for your happiness. And I care for you enough to wish that for you in your life with him and tell you this as the truth I believe it is and not lie to you in the hopes that you will simply find a way to tolerate a cruel life that was forced on you.”

Her eyes filled with tears, her teeth bit her lip and she nodded before she said softly, “I believe you, Circe.”

I nodded back and gave her another squeeze of her hands.

Then I shared one last thing, for her and for Zahnin, “Zahnin told me when he saw you in the parade, he knew you were the only one for him.” I watched her face go soft as this surprising compliment penetrated and I continued sharing. “Lahn told me that when he claimed me, even in the moonlight, he saw my spirit shining in my eyes and it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. To me, he was raping me. To him, he was receiving a gift he’d treasure always.

This is a contradiction that it is difficult to come to terms with and although it does not heal the pain we felt, a memory seared into our brains, the terror we experienced, I cannot say it does not provide just enough balm to allow me to live with it.”

She licked her lips, nodded and squeezed my hands.

So I concluded. “Find a way to forgive him, sweet Sabine, and he will reward you. I promise.”

“I hope so,” she whispered.

“I do too,” I agreed.

She grinned at me, it was tentative but it was still hopeful. I grinned back.

Then I turned us toward the stalls lined in front of us, wrapped my arm around her waist and she mine, and that way we walked back to our posse.

I searched for Teetru and found her holding folded bolts of material, my gold shimming grandly against five other fabrics in different colors that were pretty but nowhere near as luxurious. She was standing at the side of a stall that had a table that held nothing

but a sparkling array of bangles. I let Sabine go and moved to her to see her finger extended, timidly touching a silver bangle that sparkled with inset blue stones.

I reached beyond her, picked up the bangle and she jumped, her head snapping to me.

“I am sorry, my golden –” she started to say but I looked at the merchant.

“I will take this for my Teetru,” I looked down at the bangles and quickly selected four more that would compliment my girls, “and these.” I held them up to the merchant, he told me the price and I turned to Teetru, slid the pouch from her frozen hand, dug in and pulled out coins.

Then I realized I had no idea what value they carried and thus ensued a back and forth with Nahka coming forward to make sure I didn’t get gouged as I paid for my gifts. Once the payment had been made, Nahka faded back and I took Teetru’s forearm and slid the bangle on her wrist.

“Beautiful,” I said, my eyes moving to hers to see her head tipped down to the bangle.

Then it tipped back to me and I saw something I couldn’t read shining in her eyes.

“You cannot –” she started.

“Funny,” I cut her off on a smile, “I just did.”

Then before she could say another word, I slid my arm around her waist and pulled her away from the table. Then I let her go, dropped the other bangles in the pouch and handed it back to her.

“When we get back home, you can give those to the girls. The green one is for Jacanda, the yellow one, Gaal, the pink one, Beetus and the red one, Packa. Yes?”

“Yes, my golden queen,” she whispered, I smiled, lifted a hand and squeezed her upper arm then I looked to my girl posse who were all huddled together admiring a bolt of fabric the color of violet shot with copper that Narinda was holding out.

“Let’s get lunch!” I called and when the queen spoke, everyone listened.

So we got lunch.

But, even if I was queen, we’d been shopping for hours and I knew my girls had to be hungry.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Attack

Late that afternoon, when Bain escorted me back to my cham, I knew it was the changing of the guard because I saw Zahnin standing outside.

I smiled at him, he tipped his chin up at me but for some weird reason he watched closely, his head turning to do it, as Teetru scurried beyond him and into the tent.

Then he turned back and called loudly to Bain, “Do not go far.”

I froze at these words but my neck moved so I could look back at Bain who was studying Zahnin intently. He gave a jerk of his chin to Zahnin then moved away. I watched him fade into the chams and turned back to Zahnin. Then I moved to him.

“Is something amiss?” I asked.

“I do not know,” he replied. “But I am warrior. I am trained since five to trust my instincts and my instincts tell me something is not right.”

Oh shit.

“What?” I asked.

“Again, my golden queen, I do not know. Let us just hope that my instincts are wrong.”

“Are they ever wrong?”

He held my gaze. Then he grunted, “Me.”

Great.

“You are safe,” he announced and I focused on him. “Nothing will harm you. Ever.”

The good news was, he sounded firm about that. Very firm.

I decided to leave it at the good news without exploring the bad partly because he sounded firm but mostly because he didn’t look in the mood to continue that particular conversation. And when Zahnin wasn’t in the mood to talk, queen or not, we didn’t talk.

So I decided to change the subject to something he would wish to talk about.

I got closer to him and said quietly, “All right, my protector, this goes against all the girl club rules but for her sake and yours, I’m going to share.”

He stared down his nose at me and crossed his arms on his chest.

From my experience with Zahnin, I knew this meant I had his attention even though he likely had no clue what I was talking about at this present time.

“I had a chat with Sabine today,” I informed him, saw his eyes flash but that was all he gave me before I continued. “Or, she had one with me.”