“I advise you stop taking your fists and your cock to your bride, Dortak, so you can heal. I want you fit before I bring you to your knees and take your head.”

“I claim the Dax,” Dortak shot back, “the first thing I do is thrust my cock into the yellow one, spilling my seed until it leaks out of every orifice in her body.”

I sucked in breath but Lahn grinned and I stared at his reaction in shock.

Then Diandra gasped again but quickly translated Lahn’s words,

“You take my head, the Gods would weep because the world is falling from the sky. You get near my tigress, she’ll sink her claws in you and you’ll be looking at your innards spilling out before your last breath escapes your body.” Diandra looked at me. “This is a grave insult to any warrior, my dear, to infer a woman could best him.”

It would be a grave insult to anyone. Still, it was a pretty awesome comeback.

Diandra started translating again as Dortak spat, “The yellow one owns your cock!”

To this, Lahn returned, “You speak truth and I’m glad of it, she knows what to do with it and she likes what she knows how to do.

While I was driving it inside her last night, my queen gasped that she loved my cock right before I planted my seed in her womb, seed that might make a warrior, seed that’s already more warrior than you.”

“Holy crap,” I whispered. That was a good comeback too, perhaps a little on the personal side, but a good one.

“I don’t even know what that means and I’ll say you can say that again,” Narinda whispered.

Diandra translated Dortak shouting, “I take your head tomorrow!”

To which Lahn replied, “No, I want you fit before we toss your headless carcass on the pyre. You’ve got two weeks, Dortak. Then our steel clashes.”

Dortak glared at Lahn a second before he swung his angry gaze to Bohtan who was still close.

Diandra interpreted. “Before I claim the Dax, you, ” and he jerked a finger at Bohtan, “watch yourself and keep your mind off my bride.”

“You, ” Bohtan returned, “treat her like a bride and I will. You keep treating her like a dog I’ll be forced to put her down like one to put her out of her misery.”

I pulled in breath at Bohtan’s words (words I hoped he didn’t mean) as Dortak’s face got so red I thought his head would explode then Lahn entered the conversation.

“Bohtan, enough, your point is made.”

The king spoke so Bohtan took a step back but his eyes didn’t unlock from Dortak.

Then Diandra translated Bohtan saying, “After the Dax cuts your tail from your lifeless head and it falls from his saddle, I will be the first to seize it and present it to your bride as my wedding gift.”

Then he turned and walked away, his eyes coming to me briefly before he bowed his head for a second and then he stormed out of sight.

“What’s a tail?” Narinda asked softly while I tried to catch my breath but instead caught my husband’s eyes.

“It is their hair.” I heard Diandra answer. “After a challenge, the victor ties the head of the vanquished to his saddle and rides through the Daxshee. When he’s done celebrating, however long that takes,

he releases the head from his saddle by slicing it off at their tail.

After that, the head is at the mercy of whoever grabs it, they can do whatever they wish with it and the warrior’s body is burned headless on his pyre. It is important to anyone to have their pyre so their ashes can drift to the heavens, body joining spirit. The Korwahk, Maroo, any person from the Southlands has this same belief and any body not fired is thought to roam this realm as an unseen, unheard, powerless phantom. Not burning the head is a final indignity for a warrior’s defeat for they will wander eternity headless, a reminder of their humiliation.”

I was listening but I was also, weirdly, communicating with my husband. As Diandra talked, his eyes stayed on mine then he jerked his chin up, slightly, once. I knew he meant to ask if I was all right so I nodded. Once I did, he turned away.

And that was when I remembered I had the boy’s instrument, my body jerked and then I turned to him and smiled, offering it up to him and saying, “Shahsha.” Boy and mother were both clearly shaken by the events that took place and he swiftly took it back as I asked Diandra to tell him to come see me again, with his instrument, so we could play and sing together. The mother’s face beamed but the boy looked like he wanted to do this about as much as he wanted to be forced to run naked through the Daxshee with his hair on fire.

So I decided when he came, I would play and he could take off and have fun with his friends.

They wandered away as Narinda asked, “Do these… erm, confrontations amongst warriors happen often?”

“No, sweet Narinda, it happens, they are men, so it is bound to.

But it isn’t frequent. Though Dortak is not a favorite of anyone and I have seen warriors get impatient with him or he says things that force them to have words. Bohtan is a good man, a good father, Seerim says he is a good warrior. He and Nahka didn’t leave their cham for nearly two weeks after her claiming; he was that taken with her. The Horde rode after the selection, leaving them behind.

He is a good husband and cares for his wife.” Diandra smiled gently at Narinda, a smile that spoke volumes about the warrior who had claimed her. “There are some men, no matter what blood flows in their veins or what teachings were drilled in their heads, who are just good men.”

Narinda smiled back and there was nothing small or weird about it.

Gaal came forward and set a plate of candied fruits on our hides. I smiled at her and she smiled back then scuttled away.

I watched her go thinking that Teetru was a little distant because she was older, she seemed to take her duties very seriously and I’d learned yesterday that part of her duties were keeping an eye on me.

But Jacanda, Beetus and Packa were younger, friendlier and more talkative. As the days passed, even Packa was coming out of her timidity and becoming more outgoing. Our conversation was halting but, even with Teetru, I felt like we were all forming a bond.

But Gaal remained distant and watchful and after what Diandra said to me yesterday, I hated to do it, but I wondered about it.

Shit, I was going to have to keep an eye on my girls, especially Gaal.

Then I heard it, a rumble like distant thunder. It was familiar and yet seemed strange. It hit me what it was the minute the horizon filled with horses. It was the sounds of the hooves of a vast number of horses beating the earth. I’d heard it for the last six days but this was different and it was different because the horses coming our way didn’t number in the hundreds.

I stared as more and more came visible.

Holy fuck! There had to be thousands of them!

I tensed, my first thought was to run to Lahn when Diandra said calmly, “Oh look, The Horde arrives.”

My head snapped to her and I asked, “The Horde?”

She was reaching for some candied fruit; she popped a piece in her mouth and looked at me while she chewed. She swallowed then she said, “The Horde.”

“But,” I blinked, “I thought we were with The Horde.”

“We are my dear, some of them. Warriors who attended the Hunt, others whose sons were up for selection, trainers who’ll need to take charge of new warriors, others who enjoy or their wife enjoys the celebrations. But the rest are out patrolling or on campaign.”

I looked to the horses moving our way and the wagons, vast numbers of them, could now be seen coming up the rear.

“The rest?” I whispered.

“Circe, my beautiful friend, a few hundred warriors cannot keep an entire nation safe. The Horde numbers at a little over seventy-five thousand, the last I heard. It could be more.”

My mouth dropped open and I stared at her.