Authors: Tracy St. John
Michaela had wanted to become a mother right away, but she had to admit her Imdiko was right. With Korkla and Raxstad supporting Govi’s wishes, she had no choice but to wait and try to come to terms with her dual-sexed reality.
“I need something to do to prove how worthwhile I am,” Michaela muttered as she wandered up and down the balcony, trying to figure out where she would meditate. “They’re sweet to tell me to relax and enjoy my free time, but I need a purpose.”
But what purpose was there for someone like her? Michaela’s skills were made up of slopping food on trays in a mess hall, cleaning kitchens, and belly dancing. Somehow she doubted a clan as high ranking as hers would allow their Matara to perform menial kitchen work. They would definitely not be enthusiastic about her shimmying for the pleasure of the mostly male Kalquorian Empire.
“Too bad.
Raqs Sharqi
is what I love and what I do best,” she muttered, finally giving up on finding one area better than another. She flopped down on the nearest seating cushion and folded her lean, muscular legs in the lotus position Jessica had taught her.
Michaela closed her eyes and drew a deep, steadying breath. She liked the calm meditation gave her, but it was one of the most frustrating things she’d ever done.
Breathe in, feeling it in the nose and chest. Notice the moment between the inhalation and exhalation. Breathe out. Breathe in. Nose and chest. Quiet moment. Breathe out. Breathe in. Relax the shoulders. I could take classes if I figured out what I was interested in learning, couldn’t I? I could be a nurse like Jessica, maybe. But I’ve never wanted to be a nurse. All I ever wanted was to get away from Earth. I never thought about anything else.
That and dancing. I wish I could find a way to make dance a valid occupation here. I don’t even need to be paid. Kalquorians have versions of theater and concerts. What about dance recitals? Didn’t Raxstad say there were a few Kalquorian women who did something called ‘expressive dance’? The men don’t dance though, except to demonstrate ancient tribal rituals for educational purposes. What the hell is wrong with these guys? How can an entire race of men not dance?
Oh hell, I forgot to think about my breath. Okay. Breathe in. Smell the salt in the air. Gosh, the seashore does smell good. It’s so nice out here. Pause for quiet. Breathe out. Just the breath. In. Quiet. Out. If more Earther girls came to Kalquor I could give lessons. Jessica enjoys it. But we were all taught it was a sin. Would anyone dare to take my dance classes? Because if they’re fucking clans then dancing’s not so – shit. Breathing, Michaela. Think about breathing.
I wonder if the guys are missing me yet or if they’re too busy? Okay, just breathe. Think about the next damned breath, would you?
Jessica had assured Michaela that most people’s thoughts strayed all the time during meditation. Michaela still thought she was the worst person to have ever attempted it.
She’d been struggling with keeping her mind focused on her breath for about five minutes when the home’s door announce went off. It interrupted her thoughts, which had strayed to how much fun sex in the shower had been that morning.
“Well hell. So much for mindfulness,” Michaela grouched. She pretended that she was irritated by the interruption in her meditation. The advanced soul didn’t get cranky over disrupted contemplation on delicious, wet men.
“It should,” she muttered.
She stood, slipped her flat-soled shoes back on, and hurried to the elegant greeting room to answer the door. “Who is it?” she called.
“Me, myself, and I,” Jessica answered.
Michaela chuckled. “Enter.”
The door hissed open. “Welcome, your Highness,” Michaela greeted her friend teasingly. It was still funny to think how Jessica was now a princess.
It was the other woman’s first visit to Michaela’s home. Jessica goggled at the opulent greeting room. “Holy Hannah. If I’m royalty, why is your greeting room so much nicer than mine?”
Michaela laughed. “Ask your Dramok. He hired the decorator for this room. The rest of the house is extremely understated. At least, until I have my say. I was going to ask you if you wanted to visit the market today?”
Jessica shook her head, looking flushed and excited. “Some other time. I’m glad to see you’re already dressed. Come on, let’s go.”
Michaela was taken aback at her friend’s obvious hurry to leave. “Where are we going?” she said, not moving towards the in-house conveyance.
“The Royal Council meeting. Clajak is announcing me being his clan’s Matara to everyone.”
“Including the head councilman who is the father of the woman they were supposed to clan,” Michaela said.
“The very one.”
Michaela was reluctant to naysay Jessica. However, she remembered how relieved Korkla had been that the newest royal was being kept out of today’s proceedings. “That’s going to be dramatic,” she said.
Jessica trembled with anticipation. “There could be trouble. As princess, I’m supposed to be a part of these meetings, but Kalquorians are really crazy-protective of pregnant women. They act like the least little thing is going to cause me to fall over dead or something.”
The men’s protectiveness was ridiculous, as Michaela had already pointed out to her own clan. She was in complete agreement with her friend on that point. “You’d think our vaginas were made of glass or something.”
Despite being in accord on that point, Michaela was concerned about Jessica going to the Royal Council meeting. According to Korkla, the princes had been adamant that she not go. Korkla’s reservations on the matter were one thing. When it came to Jessica’s safety, it was Clan Clajak’s opinion that mattered.
Pretending innocence, Michaela asked, “Clajak and the rest of the boys aren’t keen on you being there?”
Jessica laughed outright. “Would you believe they actually forbade me from going? What am I, five years old? One of these days, they’ll learn that telling me ‘no’ only makes me want to do something all the more.”
Michaela knew from their many conversations that Jessica’s clan was every bit the disciplinarians her own was. She also knew if they went and Korkla saw her there with Jessica, he’d be angry. He’d made it quite clear he didn’t think the princess needed to be anywhere near the Royal Council meeting today.
Michaela bit her lip. “I don’t know, Jessica. I got in real trouble with my clan only a couple of days ago. I’d kind of like to keep things happy at home for a little while.”
Jessica waved off her concerns. “We’ll watch from the gallery. Clajak says it’s always full of the general public. A lot of the Earther women who are on Kalquor are clanned to councilmen, and they attend these things all the time.” When Michaela still hesitated, Jessica’s tone turned wheedling. “No one will know who you and I are, and our men won’t know we’re there. Come on, Michaela, where is your sense of adventure?”
Michaela scowled, folding her arms over her chest. “I think I’ve had more than my fair share of adventure. So have you.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “Fine, you big stick-in-the-mud. Stay here. I have every right to be there, so I’m going.”
Michaela groaned. Jessica was in one her more obstinate moods. She was determined to know what happened when it happened, and all the threats of punishment would not sway her. Clajak, Bevau, and Egilka had been morons to think she’d accept their dictates on a matter as important as this was.
Michaela knew she would pay heavily if she went along with her friend to the council meeting and Korkla caught her. She also couldn’t allow Jessica to go alone. The potential for ugliness from Councilman Pwaldur over his daughter’s broken betrothal to Clan Clajak was likely. Jessica’s fiery temper might be ignited when he confronted the Crown Princes. The situation was war waiting to happen.
Giving in with bad grace, Michaela stormed past Jessica to the transport door and summoned it. She told her friend, “Fine, I’ll come with you. I swear though, you’d better not get me into trouble with my clan.”
Jessica followed her to the door, her pique disappearing now that she was getting her way. “I thought you liked being spanked.”
“Spanking is one thing. They’ve figured out other ways of punishing me, ways that aren’t all that fun.” Michaela thought of the pleasure room and some of its less pleasurable devices. She shivered.
Jessica smiled and breezily said, “I’ll tell them to leave you alone. What the hell is good about being a princess if I can’t order people around for the benefit of my friends?”
The door to the transport opened as Michaela relaxed enough to laugh. Jessica linked arms with her and they boarded the conveyance.
Getting to the Government House was an easy matter: it resided in the cliff right next to the Royal House. Michaela and Jessica rode the transport down to the ground level, which opened out to the pink sanded beach. From there, they joined the dozens of other people flocking to the seat of the Empire’s power.
Michaela had half-hoped Jessica would be recognized by the sentries that stood at the ground entrance to the Government House. However, just as Clan Korkla had not budged from their home in the two days since arriving at Kalquor, neither had the Crown Prince Clan. No doubt members of the Royal Guard had received notification of Jessica’s presence and possessed a still vid of her for identification purposes, but few had seen her in person. Besides that, it was not the Royal Guard keeping tabs on the spectators vying for space in the public viewing gallery of the council chamber. The Government House kept its own security force of black armor-formsuited men, whose main function appeared to be making sure no one brought weapons into the building. They also scanned for known persons who had made threats to various councilmen.
Michaela’s hope that two Earther women would stick out like sore thumbs, garnering enough attention that Jessica would change her mind about attending today’s proceedings, were also for naught. Just as Jessica had said, there were plenty of other Earther women streaming into the building from nearby cliff homes. From the chatter Michaela picked up, most of those did seem to be clanned to councilmen.
The vast majority of spectators were male Kalquorians. Many were talking about the rumor that the Crown Prince Clan had claimed an Earther female for their lifebringer, snubbing their fertile betrothed Matara Narpok.
“It’s the doing of Prince Clajak,” Michaela overheard one man say to another. “He’s always laughed in the face of honor. I have no doubt his fathers will force him to de-clan the girl.”
The other man, younger than his companion, responded, “Those Earther women are a lovely lot though. If Matara Narpok is as spoiled as my parents say, I can hardly fault any man for casting her aside.”
The original speaker bristled. “Do you wish to bow and scrape to an
Earther
, Dramok? By the ancestors, you are promised a Kalquorian woman for your own Matara. Do you want your pureblood children led by the progeny of those backwards Earther fools? Do you want them to have to vie for status and positions against hybrids?”
Whatever the other man’s response was, Michaela didn’t hear it. The crowds were getting bigger and more congested, and louder as well.
She gave Jessica a worried look. Jessica’s face was flushed with excitement as they navigated the hallway that led to both in-house transportation and stairways cut into the rock of the cliff.
Michaela knew full well that Emperors Zarl and Tidro had accepted Jessica as their son’s Matara. Nobek Yuder was harder to read, and she wasn’t so sure he was as fond of the idea of having Narpok ousted. It wasn’t that Yuder particularly cared for Narpok; he’d made it quite clear he was not the Kalquorian woman’s biggest fan. His main concern seemed to be the enormous pain in the ass Narpok’s father Pwaldur was – and how much bigger a pain he would be when he found out he would not be the father of the future empress.
The conversation Michaela overheard had her wondering how many Kalquorians were against being ruled by an Earther and the children that would result from Jessica’s clanning with her princes. Michaela had assumed that the nearly extinct race would be thrilled to have guaranteed asses on the Empire’s throne. She’d apparently thought wrong.
Seeing how all the men automatically took the stairs that led up five levels to the public gallery helped her feel a little better, however. The males left the in-house transports for the women, mostly Earther, to use. Maybe those who didn’t like the idea of Earthers mixing with Kalquorians were in the minority. After all, the men Michaela caught looking at her and Jessica seemed friendly enough.
The two women joined the crush in a transport car among the other giggling women. Two were Kalquorian, and they stood head and shoulders above the Earthers. They had muscles just like their male counterparts, though neither woman carried the monumental bulk of Raxstad. They were friendly too, speaking with the few Earthers who knew some Kalquorian.
“You gown beautiful,” a blue-eyed blonde gushed at the taller of the two Amazons. “Where to buy? They can make dress for me?”
The Kalquorian smiled wide, her teeth blinding in her dark face. “This was designed by the Plasian Wallella and made on Joshada. You are clanned to an established councilman?”
“Yes. Dramok Gorstu.”