"I have fought with and befriended both the witch Jazel and King Persius's wizard Hellibolt, and I believe neither of them are as powerful as Jestia. Jazel herself has told me this. The girl is able to cast spells from pure thought. So again I say, don't cross her. Certainly don't cross her over something over which she has very little control. You can't help who you fall in love with."
Hestia nodded and sighed, "Perhaps you are right Tarius." She lowered her voice. "My children . . . Well I was never close to any of them not as a mother should be. I had them because I had to, not because I wanted them and . . . Well I do envy her Tarius. Part of me always has because she has always just done whatever she wanted and . . . These walls could never hold her as they have me. She had more spirit in her at five than I've had in me in my whole life and the only time I ever really felt alive was when I went to the Amalite with you to fight in the Great War." She looked at her consort briefly and then back at Tarius. "Him, well I love Dirk, but it's the way you love a good dog, not like what you and Jena have. Maybe if I had ever had that sort of love I would have known how to love my children."
"You can love that one," Tarius pointed at Jestia, "by letting her marry Ufalla, by letting her have her love on her terms, by not forcing the life you've hated upon her." Hestia still looked uncertain. Tarius sighed, glad that Jena was too busy talking to Kasiria at the moment to pay attention to their conversation. "That lovely perfect girl my son has bound himself to, the one that's so right for my family?"
"Yes?" Hestia asked curiously.
"Well she doesn't just have good courtly manners because she's had academy training. She is Persius's own daughter."
Hestia was openly shocked.
"That's right and she
will
bear my grandchildren and his blood will run through them with mine. I think that if I and even Jena can deal with that you should be able to deal with Ufalla in your family."
Hestia nodded thoughtfully. "As always, Tarius, you give good council."
"Yes, and I've had enough of it. Let's enjoy good food and good company. In our youth we discussed business as we feasted, now we're old I find it annoys my digestion. Tomorrow we discuss war, let's enjoy the rest of the night."
* * *
"I see you still have your head," Jabone teased Ufalla. He was glad she had sat beside him. He had been busy with Kasiria and she'd been busy with Jestia and they really hadn't seen each other, much less had a chance to talk. He guessed this was what happened when you fell in love. The person you fell in love with took the place of everyone else in your life, but that didn't mean he didn't miss just being with his friends all the time. He was sad to look around the table and not see Tarius. He had hoped he would have met them there but no doubt he was quite happy at home in the Katabull Nation telling stories of everything they'd been through in the Amalite to the whole of their people.
"So far, of course I've managed to avoid her 'til now. So you'll notice I put my gorget on just in case," Ufalla said, once again taking a sideways glance at the Queen.
Jabone laughed then said, "My madra would never let her harm you."
"
I'd
never let her harm her," Jestia said, glaring at her mother with real contempt and then actually sticking her tongue out at her when she glanced their way.
"I can't believe you put me in exactly the same dress your mother is wearing, as if I weren't uncomfortable enough," Kasiria said, gazing around Jabone and Ufalla to glare at Jestia.
"If it was the 'exact same' dress you'd both be very uncomfortable," Jestia said, and Ufalla and Jestia both laughed and Jabone had to bite his lip to keep from doing so.
"It's not funny. It's bad enough I'm only half dressed," Kasiria said, an embarrassed expression on her face.
"You look even more beautiful than usual. The dress looks better on you than it does on Hestia," Jabone said, smiling at her. Tonight he had decided to not think about why they were here and just enjoy being there with Kasiria. "Is the food to your liking?"
"I would enjoy anything but stew but everything I've eaten since I've been here is so good that I can see why you all complained about our food so much. All your food is so full of flavor." Kasiria seemed to relax some.
He leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Do not be self conscious, Kasiria. My dear love if all eyes are on you it isn't because of what you're wearing but because you are by far the most beautiful woman in the room. Relax, you are part of the Marching Night now. We are not in your country now we are in mine. You are the Katabull and here that alone makes you the most celebrated of the queen's subjects."
Kasiria smiled and whispered back to him, "I keep thinking if I could just drink the wine . . . Look at Ufalla. When she first walked in here it was obvious that she was even more uncomfortable than I am. A couple of drinks and, well I don't even want to think about where her hand is right now."
Jabone glanced where Kasiria was looking and he could see where Ufalla's hand disappeared under the table cloth. "Just resting on Jestia's thigh would be my guess. If she was doing any more than that I'm sure everyone in the castle would know." He smiled, thinking of hearing them in the next room at Jazel's. While Kasiria had been lying in a comma he had resented the sounds of their energetic and more or less constant love making but when Kasiria was awake again and not an imbecile it had just reassured him that life did go ever on. Then when he and Kasiria had started making love again he was sure they gave even better than they got when it came to noise.
Kasiria smiled too, nodded and said, "True. Still my point is I'd like to be able to take just a little drink to relax me."
"Hestia doesn't care about having her feasting hall filled with Katabull," Jabone said. He looked around Kasiria at his mother. "Mother tell Kasiria that Hestia doesn't mind having the Katabull in her feasting hall."
Jena looked at Kasiria. "The very first time Tarius met with Hestia the whole of the Marching Night were with us . . . "
"All of them?" Jabone said, looking at the size of the hall where almost every seat was filled.
"There were considerably less of us in those days. Any way, Hestia said she didn't mind if the Katabull drank and," she smiled at some distant memory, "this hall was filled with drunken Katabull."
"The drunk part is what I fear," Kasiria said.
"She's nervous," Jabone explained, and didn't understand why Kasiria gave him a dirty look.
"Relax girl," Jena said. "No one here bites." Then she smiled and said, "Except Tarius." Jabone felt himself blushing. Jena saw him blushing and reached around Kasiria to slap him in the shoulder. "So, do you bite too then, Jabone?" He watched as Kasiria turned a bright shade of red and his mother laughed and said to her, "Oh so you're the biter."
"Mother! I don't think you're helping Kasiria relax."
* * *
Kasiria just stared at Jena in disbelief and wondered how she had known. She had in the throes of passion bit Jabone on the shoulder hard enough to draw blood, for which she still felt guilty. She had explained that she was sorry and that she wasn't really used to either being the Katabull or making love. Jabone had just laughed and said it didn't hurt, which she was pretty sure was a lie.
She looked around the room. It was not like any feast she'd ever attended. There was no sober air to it. There were minstrels playing music and singing and everywhere people were talking in wide-sweeping hand gestures that reminded her of the way her unit talked. She smiled. After all that had happened she still thought of them as her unit.
People were talking too loudly and laughing too much, obviously having drunk a great deal.
Then suddenly the tempo of the music changed. It got louder, became more primitive in tone with more drums. And then four people, two women and two men, walked in wearing next to nothing. The men wore only loin cloths, the women see-through skirts under which they wore only a small piece of bright red cloth and over their breasts they wore only a single piece of red cloth tied in the back. They started to dance. Or at least she supposed that was what they were doing. It certainly wasn't like any dancing she'd ever seen. And Jabone, he was watching them.
She slapped him without thinking. He looked at her with no understanding what-so-ever. "Don't look," she said, and leaned over her plate staring at it. He laughed at her and kissed the back of her head.
"They're just dancing. It's the entertainment we are supposed to watch," he said.
Ufalla said something to Jabone in Kartik and he laughed. Kasiria turned to glare at Ufalla.
"What did you say?" she demanded.
"That you're the oddest Katabull I have ever known," Ufalla said, and her speech was slurred so she was half drunk.
"They aren't even that good," Jestia said.
One of the women dancers danced right up to Tarius the Black and danced in such a provocative way that Kasiria found herself covering her eyes and then looking out through a hole because she wanted to see but was embarrassed to have anyone think she might be watching. Tarius clapped approvingly and then as the dancer moved away from Tarius, Jena got up, walked around the end of the table and took the dancer's place in front of Tarius and Tarius seemed even more pleased.
"See? Even Jena dances better," Jestia said.
"My mother is a great dancer," Jabone said, an insulted tone to his voice.
Jena's hips gyrated and her hands gestured for Tarius to come to her. Tarius stood up, jumped onto the table, and then onto the floor in front of Jena and then . . . Well they were dancing with each other in a way that seemed more like love making though, most of the time they weren't even actually touching.
"Now that's dancing," Jestia said. Then she jumped up and grabbed Ufalla's arm. "Come on," she ordered when Ufalla didn't get up right away.
"Jestia . . . your parents," she said looking over at them.
"So, drink the rest of your wine and come on. You know you want to."
Kasiria watched in near astonishment as Ufalla downed the wine in one gulp and then walked around the table to where Jestia was waiting, and then . . . Well it became obvious why Jestia was so judgmental of the dancers. The girl just moved like there were no bones in her body, and Ufalla moved with her. It was beautiful. She put her embarrassment aside and just watched.
Their hands and arms moved slowly and with purpose, enticing one moment, loving the next, then shy, their bodies moved together in rhythm and then apart again. And each dancer, each couple, told their own separate story to the same music. Jena and Tarius's dance was a story of old love grown stronger with the years but still fresh. Ufalla's and Jestia's a dance of new love still seeking, still exploring, still unsure, fired by an aching need to just be close. The song changed and their movements changed but what their bodies said to each other as they danced never really did.
Jabone had stood up without her noticing and he reached down and took her hand. "Come dance with me."
She looked from his hopeful face to the dancers on the floor and shook her head violently, "Oh . . . I couldn't Jabone. I don't know how, I would be an embarrassment to you."
He smiled down at her, "There is no knowing how."
"Jabone, you aren't going to tell me that," she motioned with her head towards Jestia and Ufalla, "that those girls haven't been dancing like this all their lives, that they haven't taken classes and trained." He was silent. "That's what I thought. Look at your mothers. I imagine you've been dancing like this all your life. You think that it's easy because you have always known how to do it. I will look a fool."
"Not to me and who else will be watching?" He motioned around the room. No one else was sitting. Everyone had moved to the floor between the tables. Even the queen danced, and Jabone was right, no one watched the other dancers. They were all caught up in the music and each other. He took her by the hand and led her onto the floor. At first she was embarrassed and clumsy but as she watched him, his every move a testament of love and desire only for her she just couldn't be bothered with what she might look like and just moved as her body felt like moving.
"Not bad," Jestia said at her shoulder and as Kasiria turned Jestia moved away pulling Ufalla back across the dance floor. Kasiria relaxed completely and just gave herself up to the dance.
* * *
Ufalla looked around the room at the moonlit expanse of fancy dresses and toys. She remembered coming here as a child thinking how grand everything was. Playing with Jestia with these toys which were nothing like what she'd had at home.
We have danced togther hundreds of times in classes together and with each other and it was never like that. Our love making has been fantastic but tonight it was so much more. She gave me so much more and I don't remember doing anything at all special today.
Jestia was lying with her head on Ufalla's chest in this huge, comfortable bed in the palace in the room Jestia had grown up in surrounded by all her magnificent positions and . . . What could Ufalla ever give to Jestia that she didn't already have? She held Jestia even closer as if she was afraid she might lose her hold.
"What?" Jestia asked.
"I was assigned a room. I'm pretty sure that's where your parents expected me to sleep."
"And I expect you to sleep here with me so I win again," Jestia said. She moved her head then so that she could look at her. "What's wrong, Ufalla?"
"You really want to marry me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I love you, Ufalla. You know that."
"Why? I'm nothing special. You have everything you could ever want, I can't give you anything. I don't have anything."
Jestia smiled at her and kissed her lips then said, "Are you going to force me to get all sappy and sentimental? Ufalla, you see all this?" she asked, sweeping her hand around the room. "I had all this, and I ran from hither to yon and back and tried many different men and many different things and nothing, absolutely nothing, made me happy until you loved me. It's not the love making that has made me stronger, it's you Ufalla. It's what you give me. What you've given me that no one else ever has. You love me."