Then the lurching of the horse would disturb my dreams, and my boc would complain loudly, and I would grit my teeth and study Coel’s straigh graceful back to distract myself from the discomfort. He always seemed 1 sense whenever I felt my muscles ache, for he would always pull his horse bac until we rode side by side, and engage me in pleasant conversation until in aches were forgotten.
SO WE CONTINUED.
For several days we journeyed through wooded country in a northeaster! direction. It was not always
as beautiful as that first day’s ride, for sometime we rode through patches of woodland where the trees had died, and the grasse turned to mildewed mush. On these occasions, if I happened to see Coel face, I noticed that it was grim, and his usually laughing mouth closed in a thi line.
Usually, as we rode through these dark patches, he would swivel about o his horse, his eyes seeking out Blangan, and send her a glance of such male’t’t olence that it left me breathless.
It was the only time that Coel ever acknowledged Siangan’s presence.
The weather continued amenable, although it was cold at night, and I wa glad for Brutus’ warmth against my back and the roaring fires that either Jagi or Bladud or one of the Trojan warriors tended throughout the night.
The horse’s rocking gait and its slip-sliding spine continued very painful fo the first two days, but after that I grew more used to my conveyance, and m; muscles slowly ceased their grumbling.
Like a virgin who grows used to a man’s intrusions… as Coel had inti mated.
For this period of traveling Achates continued mostly in Aethylla’s care After all, it was her breasts he fed from. Besides, she had a broader back thai mine, and it was better he traveled bound tight against her than against tm teetering form. But at night when we dismounted, and in the morning, I wa!
G glad to hold him and caress him, and sing to him the songs that my nurse Tavia had sung above my own cradle.
After three days the landscape changed. The woods fell back until we traveled over gently undulating meadowland, filled with flowers and birds and the most heady, sweet scent that rolled down from the highlands to our west. Now we rode into the land of people, for every day we encountered at least one collection of round houses atop a small hill or mound, often surrounded by a palisade of wood, and always with a patchwork of fields encircling the village compound.
The villagers were unsettled by us, and whenever we approached, Coel would hand my mare’s halter rope over to either Bladud or Jago and ride into the village. There he would reassure the villagers—I could always see their shoulders relax and their faces lighten as Coel spoke to them—and he would request from them some provisions, which they always seemed to provide willingly.
As we waited for Coel to return to our party, I would glance about at the village. All the houses were circular, their walls made either of stone or, more usually, wood or mud-packed wickerwork, with a single, low door for egress. They had no windows, and I thought that inside they must be smoky indeed, as the houses’ thatched conical roofs had no opening for their occupants’ cooking fires.
There were always flocks of sheep and goats and pens of massive, blotched, and ill-tempered tusked pigs. Often some of the beasts looked sickly, and I wondered what ailed them.
One day, I saw a sheep attempting to suckle a lamb with five legs, and I felt sick to my stomach, and grateful that Achates was such a beautiful and healthy child.
TWO DAYS INTO THE MEADOWLANDS, WE CAMPED FOR the night a little distance from a clutch of tumbled rocks that held within their midst a hot spring.
I could hardly believe my luck. After five days of riding, even though the pace had been easy and we
rarely moved the horses out of a walk, I felt filthy with sweat—not only mine, but my mare’s as well, for she was much given to lathering and foaming. Brutus took one look at my face as I stared at the steaming pool some twenty or thirty paces distant, and laughed, and told me that I had time enough for a good soaking before our meal was ready.
It was bliss. I swear I almost tore off my robe in my haste to jump into the water—which jumping I instantly regretted as the overly hot water bit into my flesh. But within minutes I relaxed and closed my eyes, sighing with delight as I heard the distant sounds of people talking and working to set up our night’s camp.
When I opened my eyes again, I saw that Coel—completely naked—was sitting at the edge of the pool, about to slip in himself.
His nakedness—or mine, for that matter—did not perturb me in itself. Nakedness was never frowned upon in Mesopotama, and most of the court had spent their time in a state of near, and even complete, nakedness.
And on the voyage to this land, there had been little opportunity for privacy on board those crowded vessels. Every time I moved about the ship I stepped over naked men and women trying to wash themselves, or changing their garments, or simply enjoying the feel of the sea air on their exposed flesh.
Neither was it unusual to have to move over or about men and women coupling: every part of life had to be lived amid the crowd.
A naked body, whether a man’s or woman’s, simply did not bother me.
But Coel’s unclothed body made me very, very uneasy.
‘Am I intruding?” he said.
‘No,” I said, meaning “Yes!” and then stared at him as he ignored my unspoken discomfort and slid slowly down into the water, closing his eyes in exquisite discomfort as the hot water crawled up his body.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He was like this land, almost an extension of it: powerful, mysterious, beautiful, haunting.
He slid under the water completely, his black hair floating momentarily over the spot where he had disappeared, then it vanished as well.
I felt a tingle of apprehension, and glanced about, hoping Brutus was close, and yet, at the same time, hoping he was far away.
His voice sounded, and I jumped, but it was indeed very far away.
And then I jumped again, even more so, for Coel surfaced in a foam of bubbles directly before me.
I slipped on the rock on which I had sat myself, and Coel grabbed at me, steadying me in the water.
His hands were about my waist, and we were suddenly very, very close.
‘Do you know,” he said, “that in Llangarlia women do not take husbands? That there is no one to
guard women’s beds in sustained and outraged jealousy?”
‘I had heard that,” I stuttered.
‘Instead, women take men as men appeal to them. There is no jealousy, no bad feeling. Merely”—his hands moved, running up my body to my breasts—”the seduction of freedom.”
‘Coel,” I said. “Don’t.”
‘You want to,” he replied, his dark eyes reading mine with a disconcerting accuracy.
‘I—” I began.
‘Your mind has barely strayed from the pleasures of the bed since we set out,” he said, my ever-deepening flush all the confirmation he needed.
‘I was thinking of Brutus.”
‘Really?” he said. “And now?”
I hoped to every god I could think of that Coel could not read the images that filled my mind at this moment.
He smiled, very slightly, and I knew that he could.
Something clenched, deep within my belly; a tightness that I could hardly bear.
‘The water is freedom,” he said, running his thumbs over my nipples. “Can you feel it?”
‘Yes,” I whispered, closing my eyes. Damn him ! I wanted to resist—it would be my death (or at least the death of my hopes) if Brutus found us together like this—but there was something in him that called to me as powerfully, as irresistibly, as did this land.
Was be the man I waited for in the stone hall ?
No… no. That was Brutus. I was sure of it.
‘Can you feel the power of the water?” he whispered.
Indeed, I could feel it. Come to that, I could feel the power that was in him.
‘If you allow me entry to your body, if you allow me to slide deep inside you in this pool, then it will not be a betrayal of your husband, but merely a prayer to Mag herself. A confirmation of your own womanhood and the power of your womb.”
I could feel his breath fanning over my face, feel his words— a prayer to Mag herself—vibrate through my body and touch something very deep inside me. Without thinking about it, without considering the consequences, I leaned forward, and let him kiss me.