Mekos stroked her hair. “Let’s see if the men can hold to Sojee’s plan.” He moved his head sharply to one side. “There are guards waiting for you, as well as those women.”
She knew he meant the three odious maids. “The queen’s spies.” She held him tighter. “I want to stay with you.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I don’t mind knowing that you’ll be safe today. Sojee has more faith in the men than I do. Some of them look on women as wild, exotic creatures. I don’t know if they can restrain themselves.” Bending, he kissed her,then held her at arm’s length. “Your jailers are getting impatient. Think of tomorrow.”
“Everything is ready?”
“Grandpapá is bringing the dragon. It’ll keep Nessa busy while you and I...” He didn’t finish, just kissed her again. “Go!”
Reluctantly, Aradella went to the door. She took a deep breath to give herself courage, then looked back at Mekos, but he was already gone. She opened the door to see that waiting for her were the three spy-maids with four of the Queen’s Guard. With Aradella in the front, they started walking toward her prison.
“The queen has ordered that you’re to be protected,” a maid said, her lips held tightly, primly. “The Cauldron has been locked against those... those...” She could hardly say the word. “Men. Those barbarians from Selkan.”
“Wewill be spared what will happen, unlike our beloved friends who are in the other guilds. They don’t have the safety of the Cauldron.” The second maid was wiping at her fake tears of sorrow that she supposedly felt for the unfortunate women.
Aradella grit her teeth, then turned and began to walk backward. “You’re right to stay here in safety. I heard that the men brought special food that will give them the potency of gods. It’s said to be so delicious that it makes women’s bodies quiver with desire. And their ship is loaded with tools that have been specially made to give pleasure to women. However, only the men know how to use them. And...” She lowered her voice. “Allof the men will be half naked. All those sweaty muscles will be exposed.” She shivered in disgust.
The spy-maids looked faint and even the well-trained guards’ faces showed shocked interest.
Aradella smiled sweetly. “It’s good that we’ll miss all that. I think we should play cards today. All day. Perhaps we can get a court musician to perform so we can drown out those nasty screams of pleasure from those poor women. I heard that the men’s tools poundveryhard. I’m sure the whole island will echowith the cries of the women.” She gave an even stronger shudder of revulsion. “How truly dreadful!”
One of the maids stopped walking. “I believe the queen needs our help.”
“Yes! We are very loyal to her and if she needs us, we must go.”
“We have to...” The third maid didn’t finish, just hurried away with the others, heading toward the front gate. Each step they took got faster.
“What about our card game?” Aradella called after them.
One spy-maid waved her hand but the others didn’t bother.
Aradella looked at the four guards. “I’m sure that two guards at a time will be enough to protect me. If you’d like to have some time off, please take it.” She didn’t wait for an answer, but turned her back to them. She smiled all the way to her little apartment. Once inside, she went straight to her library.
At the wedding, Jobi had given her a new stack of books and she very much wanted to see them. He’d said they were from the stash that Rita, Kaley’s grandmother, had brought from Earth. “You may recognize some of the stories in this one,” he’d said. The book was titledThe Greatest Fairy Tales Ever Told. She began reading—and yes, some of the stories were of things she’d seen or had been told about.
It was hours later that a divine smell reached her. She looked up to see Hale standing in the open doorway. In her hands was a great earthenware bowl full of... “What is that?”
Hale rolled her eyes in what looked to be ecstasy. “Beef, but this is like nothing we’ve ever tasted. The men are cooking great piles of it.”
Aradella closed her book and followed Hale into the sitting room. There was a big jug of beer on the table. “Tell me what’s going on. How many guards are still here?”
“One, and she’s on the roof looking for her companions to return so she can leave.” Hale dished out a huge serving of beef. “I don’t think they’ll come back.” She took a deep drink of her beer. “Out there, it’s wonderful. The men are putting this placeback together. I know we have carpenters and plumbers, but the men... Oh! But they are fast. It’s like they’re full of some wild energy and they’re trying to use it up. Hammers, saws, I’ve never seen such workmen!”
“So they’re keeping their lovemaking quiet, then?”
“There is none!” Hale grinned. “You should see the women. They’re wearing so little clothing they may as well have on nothing. They bend over buckets and tables and toolboxes. They walk with their legs so far apart, you’d think they just got off a horse. But the men barely look at the women. Yet when a scantily clad woman shows up, the men seem overcome with enormous strength. They pick up...” Hale shook her head. “Three of the Beauty Girls walked by and I saw a man pick up a wagon—horse and all. It was extraordinary!”
Knowing what she did, Aradella couldn’t keep her laughter in. Between the beef and beer and the images conjured, she laughed hard.
“I’m glad you find some humor,” came a familiar voice. They looked up to see Arit buzzing into the room. “It’s awful out there. I was afraid one of those men would swat me all the way to the lake. May I have some of that?”
Aradella got up, took her silver thimble out of her sewing basket, washed it, then filled it with beer. She turned over a teacup, showing the ridged pedestal on the bottom, and filled it with beef. Her big needle for leatherwork was the best she could do for a fork. She put everything on the low table, with a soft pincushion serving as a chair. “Tell us everything.”
Arit said thank you, then sat down on the cushion and started on the beef and beer. “The women are working to get the attention of the men but they’re being ignored.”
“I bet Olina is angry about that,” Aradella said.
Arit took a drink of beer and smiled. “Yes, she is. She’s riding around on her horse and frowning at everything.”
