Chapter 21 | The Queen Who Ruled by Herself

At the Spectacle

Temmin, Senik, Anda and Bessa came pelting out of the Gods' Chambers into the gardens, hot on Nerr-in-Issak's heels. "Don't lose Him!" shouted Senik.

The gardens were packed with people, but many wide paths had carefully been picked out among the throngs, lined with lanterns so everyone could see. Temmin saw faces he recognized as he raced along behind Senik. The Baron and Baroness of Leutefloss were in the front ranks, which, if he had had time to think on it, would have surprised him. He wouldn't have supposed people as ancient as the Baron and his wife would have been interested--they had to be at least 40.

The four ran and ran, chasing the Twins through the flowers and the sculpture gardens and at one point threatening to burst out onto the street if Neya-in-Allis had had her way. The Gods had gotten out ahead of them, into the area where there were no people or lanterns, and Temmin couldn't see them; he just followed Senik's back blindly.

He was beginning to feel as if his lungs would collapse when there were two screams, one triumphant, one enraged. "Nerr's Caught Her," puffed Senik. "Lights!" Only then Temmin realized that a small fleet of servants carrying lanterns were hurrying behind them in a long stream, marking the Gods' trail for the crowd to follow. The lantern-bearers flowed forward, reaching the Gods at the same time as Temmin, Senik and the girls and forming a ring around the struggling bodies on the ground.

Senik pulled Temmin into the ring with the other Supplicants. "It's our job to make sure they're left alone during this," said the postulant.

"Alone?!" exclaimed Temmin, watching as the crowd swarmed around the circle of lanterns for a glimpse of the Holy Twins. "We're surrounded!"

"We make sure hands stay to themselves," said Anda, scanning the crowd. "Bessa, take the east, I'll take the west." Senik moved to the south and nodded to the north and Temmin took his station there. Lovers and Beloveds filtered through the lantern circle, one of each standing between Senik and each of the three Supplicants. All twelve faced inward toward the Gods with their backs to the crowd.

Inside the circle, Allis struggled to get away from Issak--no, it wasn't them, Temmin reminded himself, it was Them--until finally Nerr-in-Issak had Neya-in-Allis firmly pinned and unable to get away. She snarled and thrashed even so, and Temmin was amazed there was that much strength in Allis's small, soft body.

Suddenly, They both began laughing. "I surrender!" called Neya-in-Allis, weak with giggles. "I surrender!"

"So You are Mine again this year?" said Nerr-in-Issak, looking down on Her.

"I am My own, Brother, this year and all years. But I share," She smiled. "Now kiss Me, before I change My mind!" Nerr leaned down and kissed Her, almost chastely. "Ah, Brother," She whispered against His borrowed lips, "how I miss You when We are apart! We were never meant to be two. Be One with Me tonight!"

"Be One with Me tonight, Sister!"

Temmin turned away slightly as Nerr-in-Issak and Neya-in-Allis kissed, if you could call it a kiss, he thought; they looked as if they were devouring one another. They were so very beautiful. It was a sight indeed, but the whole thing--the possession, the incest, the watching crowd--was making him extremely nervous.

She moved to be atop Him. What were They doing now, Temmin thought a second before the realization hit him. He blushed hard, his cheeks burning against the spring night air as Allis's voice cried out in ecstasy and her body began a quick rhythm. An appreciative growl rose from the crowd. People began to cycle reluctantly around and away from the circle to allow everyone to be blessed by the sight of their Gods in delight.

It would be different, Temmin reflected as he watched the avid faces come and go in the lantern light, if he didn't know the twins, if they were just a pair of religious figures to him as they were to the crowds outside the circle. His thoughts were interrupted when a hand reached out of the masses and pinched him, hard. He jumped and angrily slapped the hand away, unable to see who it belonged to.

Anda grinned over at him. "Getting groped is a duty hazard," she called. "We accept it to spare the Gods." As if on cue, a man reached over the lantern-bearers' linked arms to cup her breasts, but instead of batting him away, Anda leaned back into the touch with a happy sigh.

Temmin looked across the circle at Senik to see hands both male and female slipping in and out of his trousers and shirt. Bessa smiled as a hand slid around her waist and down under the band of her skirt. "I will never get used to this," muttered Temmin as fingers danced down his back and cupped his ass with a soft squeeze. The Beloved next to him, a young blond woman with the prettiest blush to her fair skin, almost fell to her knees in a swoon from all the caresses; he caught her in his arms, and she thanked him with a thrilling kiss and an even more thrilling squeeze of his very erect cock.

Perhaps, he thought, he might get used to this.

But as much as he was subjected to the touches of strangers, he noted he was relatively unmolested compared to the rest, and wondered why. Was he that unattractive?

The figures inside the circle shifted positions again and again, never uncoupling; streams of people came and went, disappearing two by two (and sometimes more) to follow the Gods' holy example. The air slowly filled with distant cries, though Temmin could see no one beyond the circle of lantern light.

Outside that circle, though, he was quite visible, especially from the portable dais set up so that the royal couple could watch the Spectacle unimpeded. While the king avidly watched the Gods at play, the queen focused on her only son, anxious, worried and embarrassed. The first time a roaming hand found its way into Temmin's clothing, Ansella winced and called over the captain of the guards.

"The lantern-bearers around the Heir are our men, correct?"

"Yes, your majesty," replied the captain.

"And why aren't they doing their jobs?"

"Pardon, ma'am?"

"There are strangers' hands on my son, captain," she said sternly. "That shall not be tolerated."

"That's--I'm sorry, ma'am, it's traditional--"

"Not in this case," said the queen. "You will instruct your men to keep everyone at bay, by force if necessary. They may themselves place an occasional hand on the Heir's back or shoulders to keep up appearances, but under no circumstances are the public to be given direct access to the Heir, ever. I should not have to explain this to you, captain."

"Yes, ma'am," he said humbly, then turned to his second and gave a sharp command. Ansella noted with satisfaction that any touches thereafter were from their guards, and were chaste. Relatively so, at any rate, she sighed, as Temmin kept the blond next to him from toppling over and ended up in an impromptu clinch. The sooner this night was over, she thought, the better.

Harsin, on the other hand, was enjoying himself immensely. Neya's Day was close to his favorite Spectacle, though as a boy he of course had waited all year for Eddin's Day as all children do. But once he'd started attending the Lovers' Temple Spectacles at age 14, his enthusiasm for the day of toys and candy had dimmed considerably. Now it was a toss-up between the tournaments of Farr's Day and the lovemaking of Neya's Day; when he was at either, he gave himself to the spirit of the holiday thoroughly.

He glanced over at his wife. Her little bud of a mouth was thinned, lips pressed tightly together, and though her hands were clasped quietly in front of her, the observant would note that they were actually minutely twisting a handkerchief. She really was one of the most beautiful women Harsin had ever seen, and not for the first time he wished that things were different between them. Oh, not that he'd ever give up his little bits of fun like Twenna Shelstone--in fact, there she was, moving into the circle of lantern light on the arm of that loathsome husband of hers.

But it would be nice were he able to lay his head in Ansella's lap again, as he had before they'd had children, before she'd moved back to Whithorse and left him to his conquests, in and out of bed. It would be more than nice, he thought, lettng his eyes slip down her trim little form.

Ansella looked up in time to catch his eyes on her, a small smile twitching at the corner of his mouth. "My lord?" she said.

His smile widened. "I was only thinking of when we were first married, Ansella." The queen blushed and pretended to watch the Gods, which made her blush harder. "Don't look away," he said, his voice quiet and gentle.

"That was very long ago. What brought those times to mind, my lord?"

"I should never have let you go to Whithorse with the children," he said.

"So you have told me many times, my lord," she answered.

"Ansella, look at me." She returned her blue eyes to his face. "Were those times so terrible for you? We found a solace with each other, didn't we?"

Her eyes dropped down into the past. "We were not a love match."

"And yet," he said, taking her hand, "and yet we have three children. Had you stayed, there would have been more."

"I did my duty," she whispered.

Harsin raised her fingers to his lips. "It didn't feel like a duty to me, and the way you always screamed my name made me think it didn't feel entirely like a duty to you, either."

Ansella felt as if her throat were closing. "What are you doing, Harsin," she managed to choke out.

He looked down on her with his dark, hooded eyes; she was in a confusion he hadn't seen in her in many years. "I'm seducing my wife," he said quietly, surprising them both. "Be one with me tonight, Ansella."

Her breath caught. "I--"

"Tell me you will, say 'Be one with me tonight,' say yes, Ansella," he said urgently.

Ansella found she couldn't look away; she was caught in his gaze. It weighed down on her like a hand, firm but gentle, and something she hadn't felt in a very long time shivered at the base of her spine. "You're serious," she said wonderingly. He nodded. "I...oh Gods, I don't know what to do!"

Harsin stooped down. "Say yes!" he whispered in her ear.

Ansella closed her eyes as his voice reverberated against her neck, his beard softly brushing her skin. "Yes," she finally said. "Be one with me tonight, Harsin."

Harsin pulled back and stared down at her so fiercely she felt naked before the crowd. "If you were not the queen, I'd have you right here."

"But I am the queen."

"And so we are leaving. Right now."

"But the end of the Spectacle--Temmin--"

"He's a man. The last thing he needs is for his parents to be present for this. We're leaving." He gave a quick nod to the captain of the guards, who immediately began parting the crowd. Harsin took Ansella by the hand and drew her quickly down the path to the garden gates. "I wonder if we might secure a room here," he murmured to her as they hurried along.

"Harsin!" she laughed. How good to hear her say his name with happiness in her voice. "I don't think so, not tonight of all nights!"

"Then it will have to be the carriage," he said firmly, and they ran through the gate down the Temple steps together, laughing.

Just outside the circle, Twenna Shelstone watched the royal couple leave, shock widening her eyes and rounding her mouth into an "O" before she fainted dead away into Elbig's arms.

Just inside the circle, Temmin wondered what on earth could be going on out there in the dark with all the guards shouting and stomping about and someone shouting for water for his wife. Didn't they know there was a Spectacle under way?