Garden Thorn, Part 1

by Nuit du Loup

"Begin!"

On opposite sides of a bare circle of earth trodden down hard by countless feet, two teenage girls stood silent and still.  They watched each other for a brief moment, each shifting down slightly into a fighter's ready position on the balls of their feet.  A soft wind blew, cutting a little into the hot summer sun and blowing the long, silky black ponytails of both girls so that they streamed like thin banners.  Like all their people, their skin was a deep olive color and their almond shaped eyes were jade green.  One was only slightly taller than the other, so the only real difference between them was the slightly more generous curves of the slightly taller, older, one. Then the loud cry of a hunting falcon in the far distance cut though the afternoon air and the eyes of the taller girl twitched just a fraction.

Instantly, the shorter girl leapt, crossing the thirty pace gap as if it wasn't even there.  Her body shifted quickly in mid-air with her shoulders rotating forward towards the ground. A leg spun out in a blur, making the front panel of her split skirt drop, briefly exposing her clean white loincloth. No one cared about that though, they were busy watching as the girl planted a single hand on the training ground and shoved up into the air with it, increasing the rotational velocity of her attacking foot. 

The taller girl, knowing that she had the disadvantage now, started to move as a well.  Her right arm shifted up towards her head to block the attack.  The shorter girl's leg stopped just as it hit that forearm heel first. Surprised by the sudden lightness of the blow, the taller girl was unprepared when the shorter girl planted both hands on the ground and spun her whole body.  The leg whipped back down blindingly fast.  A blink later the taller girl's legs flew out from under her and she slammed down onto her back in a small puff of dust.

As training dictated, she was already rolling to get out of the vulnerable position, but another blow came, keeping her there.  Then she stopped cold because two painfully obvious fingers were poking hard into her neck, just over the carotid artery.  The taller girl's face shifted into a grimace of hate and displeasure as she gazed up into the perfectly calm, heart-shaped face of her opponent.

"Victory goes to Briar!"

At the call the shorter girl, Briar, leapt backwards away from the taller one in a body bridge.  She planted her hands and flipped, landing lightly on the balls of her feet.  Turning to one side of the training circle, around which ten other girls of varying ages sat watching, she bowed to a woman with just a feather's touch of grey in her inky black hair. Briar straightened, brought her heals together and did another quick ninety-degree bow.  The Mai-han nodded her acceptance of the respectful gesture and Briar quickly left the circle, seating herself down next to another, slightly younger girl.

"Did you have to put her down so hard?" asked the girl once Briar was settled, sitting with her knees brought up to her small chest. They watched the Mai-han move towards the downed girl and help her rise. "Tae already hates your guts, so must you rub it in her face that you're the best of us?"

"This is training, Sano," Briar answered her friend with a small smile. She reached up to the small bamboo tube through which her hair hung and pulled it tighter to her skull.  It had come a little loose. Like most girls she had it back in a tail, but she also had two long curls to either side of her forehead that framed her face. "It's not my fault that she can't keep up anymore and it's definitely not my fault she is weaker with the Gift than me.  I won't improve if I hold back will I?"

Really?" Sano snorted and raised an admonishing finger. "I don't remember you using your Gift to blind rush me in our sparring match yesterday.  Nor did you go for my throat."

"So?" Briar grinned confidently. "You happen to be my dear friend.  Think of it as a marvelous privilege."

"I hope you remember that privilege when you're Shai-ta of the Mai, Briar," Sano grinned back with laughter in her bright eyes.

Briar frowned over at her friend. "Shai-ta? I'm fifteen summers old, which is only a year older than you. So what makes you think I'm anywhere near that lofty position yet? The youngest in memory was forty when she was raised."

Sano rolled her eyes. "By the stars and moons Briar!  The entire village knows that the Mai leadership is eyeing you already. I've heard that all three of the Mai-sha have spoken to your parents on the Shai-ta's behalf. I think you'll be a Mai-han before the next summer is done.

Frowning deeper, Briar leaned back onto her arms and turned her face away from her friend. Instead she looked outward.  The training circle was on a small terrace, dug long ago from the side of the mountain.  Only a pace away was the edge, which then dropped to the next terrace down.  As always, the view was spectacular.

The village of Haren's Spring was nestled in the deep and very narrow valley between several large mountains.  From here she could see quite a few of the scattered homes built from the plentiful rock with thatch roofs.  A couple had the newer roof tiles, but they were few still.  From a distance the houses looked like they were clinging to the mountainsides, but Briar knew better.  Before building a house, a new terrace was carved for it, and then more terraces were dug around the home.  These were the shelves for the fields that were everywhere her people lived, growing food for the village.  The valley floor held their village's namesake spring as well as a fresh water pool and the public buildings that surrounded it. One was the House of Mai, where she had been living since her Gift had quickened during her ninth summer. 

Like all the others it was made of mountain stone. But village artisans had done beautiful work, carving intricate designs of lines over most vertical surfaces.  Behind the House was the smaller building in which Briar and all the others slept at night since only accepted Mai-han were allowed to dwell within the main building of the House.  During the day, they trained.

No one really knew the origin behind the Mai, but the warrior women of the village trained their bodies and their Gift constantly to defend their home.  Briar was still a Mai-wa, an initiate.  The Mai-han were the next step in advancement.  They made up the bulk of the House's numbers and were the ones that did all the training. It was only when a girl reached this stage that she learned the true secrets of the Gift instead of the little tricks the Mai-wa learned.  The Mai-sha is a triumvirate of older women that did most of the work running things, but only earned their position by prowess.  The Shai-ta led them all and her word carried enormous weight on the village council.  Her opposite was the leader of the male militia.

Most girls did not advance to Mai-han until their twenties.  This was not such a bad thing since women born with the gift usually saw two or three centuries if they were lucky.  But Briar couldn't help agreeing, at least in her own mind, that she had been receiving a lot of attention lately.  Several times over the last several moon cycles she'd noticed small groups of the Mai-han watching her closely. Two had even come down to the small bathing hut behind the barracks and silently watched her bathe with intense, unspeaking scrutiny.

She wasn't sure she wanted to become a Mai-han yet.  When she became one, village law and custom decreed that she would be given a lover from the male warriors with whom she would bare at least one child before final acceptance as Mai-han.  The idea was that such assigned unions would birth new, stronger generations of sons and daughters.  It seemed to be a successful enough practice because over the last several decades many more with the Gift had been born. Like Briar. Though, oddly, there had also been quite a few births were a father was completely unknown, but none of the Mai-han seemed at all concerned with these.

Briar was not looking forward to having a lover.  She did not really like men vary much and she could count on one hand the number she had spent any great time with other than her own father.  The thought of a man rutting with her was distasteful and unpleasant.  The unfortunate irony was that because of her success and skill, as well as a body she was quite proud of, she had drawn more than a little attention to herself.  The village leadership would consider it their responsibility to breed her strength into further generations of children.

"Look," Sano hissed. Briar turned and followed her friend's gaze and saw one of the Mai-sha watching them while talking to two Mai-han and a Tao-sha from the male fighters.  He was a younger man and Briar was sure he'd left his warrior's vest behind intentionally to show off the sweaty muscles of his body.  He saw her watching and gave her a confident smile she found pretentious. She could kill him in a few minutes. "I told you."

"Do you know him?" Briar asked warily. Sano knew all sorts of things she wasn't supposed to know.   She'd been reprimanded for it once, but then their elders gave up.  There had been rumors of late that she'd been sneaking out at night to let one of the trainee boys fondle her.

"I do," Sano nodded with a bright, knowing smile. "He's Raldo and he only just became a Tao-sha.  He is not yet assigned a Mai to give child and the council is eager to find him one. Rumor is, he's been waiting for you."

"Stars, Sano!" Briar cursed in disgust. They both turned to watch the current sparring match.  Ten year old Mina was new to the sisterhood, but she was holding her own against an older opponent with pure speed.  Briar sparred and trained often with Mina and liked the girl a great deal. "I have no intention of pairing with that oaf."

"Oaf?!" Sano laughed. "You don't get to be Tao-sha by being an idiot.  Plus, it doesn't matter what you want.  The council chooses the father of our children for us.  It's the law.  What is so bad about him anyway? I'd be perfectly happy if he was scouting for me. He has all those nice muscles."

"Then you can have him," Briar groused. "Even if they pair us, he won't be getting in my bed.  I find nothing about him attractive; so I'd be too dry for it to work."

"I really don't understand you sometimes, Briar," Sano sighed resignedly. Then she changed the subject and perked up. "Are you going to the midsummer festival tonight?"

"No, I don't feel like spending an entire night telling men that I don't want to dance with them," Briar answered after a moment.  "I volunteered to take the dark hours watch tonight for Junesta.  She really wants to go.  For me the night will be nice and relaxing up on the mountain."

"Only you would think being on patrol of the pass in the middle of the night as being relaxing," Sano smirked. "But I'll miss you.  I finally have a chance to wear that new dress my sister made for me and I want to be seen in it."

"The one that almost shows off your breasts and hangs just below you butt?" Briar asked with an amused smile, wondering why the memory of her friend trying on that dress two days ago almost made her want to go to the festival.  She did think Sano looked really great in it.

"That's the one," Sano chuckled. "Ooh! Mina won!"

"Good for her," Briar said approvingly, smiling at the excited young girl's first win on the dirt.  Mina was glowing with the accomplishment and Briar thought it made her cute face even prettier.  But the Mai-han, Litana, raised her hand.  They all arose to their feet and bowed respectfully at the signal that training was done for the day.  It was much earlier than usual, but it was a festival day. 

"Excellent progress has been shown today," Litana smiled. She stood alone now in the middle of the sparring ground.  "Have fun tonight and keep an eye out for each other.  I won't be accepting any excuses tomorrow morning from those who can't keep up on the runs.  Dismissed!"

Gathering together into knots of friends, the girls began to file down the many narrow paths that lined the mountainsides.  Briar descended with Sano and another of her close friends.  Both were quite excited about the coming night of festivities and Briar was happy for them.  If she hadn't been at such an odd point in her life, she might have been more inclined to join them.  Instead she just listened in politely as they headed down towards their living quarters to bathe and change.

******

Much later that evening, Briar stepped out of the door to the trainee barracks dressed appropriately for a warrior at night. This consisted of mottled grey trousers that were loose and allowed for easy movement, and the tight grey vest all warriors wore that left their arms free and bare. On her belt were several sheathed knives, a pouch with a late-night meal in it, and two small torches with their heads covered by a paper wrapping to prevent the pitch from getting all over her pants.  She completed her silent inventory check and continued on into the night.

She could see the lights and hear the raucous sounds of revelry from the village center, but she made no move towards the festivities.  It would go on late into the night, perhaps until dawn if the party goers were in the mood. Around her the houses of the valley floor were empty and dark by contrast since their owners were absent.   She just hoped her friends were having fun.

When she reached the landmark she was looking for, a large boulder jutting up from the ground between two houses, she leapt easily to its top.  Perched there, she was bathed in light from two of the three moons.  The third was still below the horizon and wouldn't arise until the sun did at this time of the year.  She sighted over the rooflines, surveying the darkness.  Her duty post tonight was near the southern pass, a relatively low saddle that had been blocked off generations ago by both rocks and magic. 

No one alive remembered why that pass was forbidden and closed.  Some of the older folks said the people of the valley used to live on the other side of that pass and had come here while fleeing a terrible enemy.  Briar didn't really care about such things, but there were other peoples around if you were willing to travel the rough, mountainous terrain.  The easiest way was north in the direction the valley ran; to where a mighty river cut a clear path.  It was traders from those northern people from whom they got the iron for her knives.

Seeing her desired route, Briar crouched slightly and then leapt in a prodigious leap, arching high over the houses.  She passed over three of them silently and landed, only to spring again into the air, bounding over the town in great, distance eating jumps.  The Gifted, like herself, were capable of great physical feats as well as magical ones when they applied their training correctly.  Briar was very good at both and she loved they way the wind rushed over her as she crossed over the entire length of the valley floor.  There were other dark shadows like herself, traveling in other directions, heading towards patrol posts, but she paid them no mind.  This night was hers.

When she reached the sharp incline where the mountain slope arose before her, she leapt in an even more impressive bound onto the fourth step of farming terraces.  She continued that way, all the way up the side of the rise.  It wasn't often she got an opportunity to fully let loose her abilities so she let herself enjoy it; until she reached the dense knot of trees blocking the pass at least. The copse in question had been allowed to grow as a further barrier to passage, and as a place of concealment for a guard.  Briar's last bound brought her near the bare bole of a dead tree.  She snagged it, and shimmied quickly down to the rocky ground.

Now in her area of responsibility, Briar focused her mind on the task at hand.  Using the grove as a central base, she slinked through the night and scattered boulders like any other shadow.  It was going to be a long, peaceful night, but Briar knew her job and she did it well.  Come morning, she'd wish it had lasted a little longer.

****

Briar froze in place where she crouched near the debris of an old rock fall. It was very late into her patrol duty and she wasn't sure what had caught her attention.  She trusted her senses though, and her Gift was saying something was wrong as well. Then it came again, a soft scrapping sound like leather against rock.  It was an unnatural sound and not something that one of the Mai or Tao would make.  They wore only soft-soled shoes or went barefoot, neither of which made a scrapping sound like this.  Then she heard the softest clink of metal.  It was very faint, barely louder than her heartbeat, but she caught it nonetheless.

 The night was deep now and the heavy cloud cover that had moved in made the ground hard to see, with pools of darkest black behind the bigger rocks.  The echoing effect of the mountains also made it hard to determine where exactly the sounds were coming from.  She did know however that it had to be nearby for her to have heard at all. 

With no warning, Briar whipped around completely, foot leading the way.  She wasn't sure what had alerted her, but it didn't matter.  Her powerful blow caught the sneaking man just under the jaw and she heard the sickening crunch as larynx was crushed.  Since it wasn't a sparring match she'd used her full strength, greater than that of any normal human, and her follow through sent the man up into the air and onto his back. He lay still with a liquid gurgling noise emanating from his mouth.

"Hai-hai-HAI!" she gave the outcry as loud as her lungs could manage and leapt away from where she'd landed after the kick. Sure enough, another man, even taller and burlier than the first, came out of the dark like an oily beast.  He was dressed strangely but his aggressive intent was clear. That was the only thing she needed to know him for an enemy.

The stranger wore a knee-length skirt of leather and wool like a woman would, but it looked thick and durable, if sorely unwashed.  His belt had a number of pouches on it and a big metal buckle.  His sweat stained tunic had been white at some point in its dim past, but now it was covered in an untold number of unidentifiable stains, even as it covered powerful muscles.  Briar's eyes flicked down briefly to heavy leather boots with straps and buckles.  Those were what she had heard. 

The man's face was greasy and he had a full beard of red hair.  The eyes watching her were dark and more menacing than anything she had seen before.  She thought they had a feral light to them, like the wild dogs that sometimes tried to sneak into the village.  His hands were huge and one had its meaty fingers wrapped wound the leather wrapped handle of an axe.  It wasn't one of the small throwing axes the men of her village used to fight with, but a massive slab of metal that probably weighed half of what her entire body did.  When he smiled a gapped tooth smile at her, Briar's arm blurred of its own accord.

The small, well-balanced knife slid through the air with a sibilant hiss.  From her hands it traveled faster than an arrow from most bows and in the low light it was impossible to see.  There was a wet thump and the man staggered back like he'd been punched in the chest.  Instead, the hilt of the blade jutted out from where his heart would be and he collapsed to the ground, dead even before the back of his skull smashed into a sharp rock and split wetly it open. 

More cries like her own were being raised throughout the large valley.  All over the mountain slopes, small lights burst to life as all the others on patrol lit their torches.  It started with those closest to her and swept outward like a wave.  They would see the dark empty space where her own torch should be and those closest would come running to aid her.  A deep booming came from the village below, the war drum.  The alarm was raised. These men would not survive.

"Time to stop pussy-footing around, you bunch of empty skulled shitheads!"

Briar whirled, smooth as silk, at the excited, deep-voiced bellow.  The night around her was shoved back as more torches were lit only a short distance away.  These were held in the hands of at least thirty men like those she had downed.  They exited the tree-blocked pass like deformed monsters.  In the lead was a particular giant of the breed.  He was head and shoulders taller than all the others and instead of the maces and axes the others carried, he had a sword.  Not like the gracefully curved things of beauty her village forged, but a single-edged beast.  His eyes were locked on her and his grin was pure predator.

"She's just a tiny thing," he rumbled, boasting to his comrades and giving a deep belly laugh. "So she stings a little bit. Isn't there one of you who isn't afraid of a girly whelp?"

"I will take care of her for you me-lord," said another man.  He looked diseased with sallow skin and a bald skull. 

"Good," the leader nodded. Then he raised his blade with a grin "Let's get this raid started proper like! Burn and take what you can! Now have at 'em!"

Like a rockslide, the beast-men began charging down the mountain.  Knowing how vulnerable they were like that, Briar reached inside herself for her Gift.  But as she did so, something else told to that to do so would be a mistake. She heeded the instinct and instead got out of the way of the charging mass of men.  The man who had volunteered to "deal" with her separated instantly and lunged with a swipe of his axe toward where she had stood.  Several others, more than she thought she could possibly handle, also moved in her direction. The others continued on down the mountain, leaping down the terraces and ruining the crops as they went.

Briar knew they were doomed to die, they were far too few, but she was in trouble.  Her opponents out massed her by several orders and there were a total of eight of them.  Diseased Man stepped towards her cautiously with a nauseating leer on his face.  He flicked his tongue out and she was repulsed to see that he had intentionally split it like a serpent's a long time ago. She knew it was stupid of her, but again her right arm blurred and she felt relieved that the world was free of that man as soon as the blade entered his left eye and killed him.

"You're out of fancy knives now missy," this new man's use of her language was rough and barely understandable.  He stepped over his dead comrade as if he mattered nothing at all and hefted his axe menacingly. "I might be inclined to let you live if you play nice and let the boys and I pierce you with our spears." He gave a lewd thrust of his hips in emphasis of the offer.

"I'll bash in my own skull first," Briar promised, burying her fury for later.  Anger was useless in a fight, so she maintained her calm as she'd been trained.  "But there are only seven of you."

Normally Briar could have taken and killed all seven, as she had just boasted she could.  But that instinct inside her was still saying that using her Gift was not the best idea. She was tempted to ignore it and take what came, but she would wait until the last second for that.  Carelessness killed more fighters than weapons did.

Two of the men roared in challenge and came at her, weapons leading.  Their movements were slow and obvious, so it was child's play to weave between them.  An eye blink later both men were sprawled onto the ground with one sporting an arm that bent the wrong way at the elbow.  No matter how strong a man was, the joints were his weakness and this one would be a very long time in recovering.  She was about to deliver a blow to the other man's neck when she heard a click from behind her and twitched aside with supernatural agility.  A metal bolt plunged into the downed man and he screamed in pain, clutching at the thing spearing his belly.

Briar spun in the same movement and saw two men pointing things at her while a third was reloading his. Briar had never seen such weapons before, but what they did was obvious. She had unconsciously used a little of her Gift's power to dodge the first shot and she didn't want to keep doing that.  That was even if she could manage the same feat consciously from two different enemies at the same time.

"Alright girly," sneered a new leader, grabbing at his crotch with his empty hand. "Time for—"

"She's mine!" a bolt of blinding, sizzling light followed the feminine decree and the man dropped to the ground when it blew a steaming, meaty hole into his chest.  Before the other men could react, another bolt arrived like a hammer-blow and Briar had to blink when the head of the man directly in front of her flashed and vaporized into a steaming mess all over the surviving men around him. They shouted in confused rage and turned, ignoring Briar and focusing on this new, dangerous enemy.

Briar also gave some attention to the new arrival, for that light had been magic at work.  Nothing else but magic could have done what she had just seen.  It was not one new arrival however, but five.  Four women wearing white, flowing trousers with gold belts, white, silk blouses and white, hooded cloaks stood in a protective line in front of the fifth woman.  They each stood calmly with a wooden staff held in one hand and planted on the ground.  The ends of the staves were capped in polished copper. 

The fifth woman was a little older and dressed in a rich, burgundy divided skirt that was nothing like Briar had seen before.  Like Briar though, her arms were bare, and her pale skin contrasted well with the strangely intricate leather and cloth garment that had laced ties up the front and cupped a generous pair of milky, smooth breasts. Like the four other strange women, her hair was a length of sunny golden curls. Her stance held nothing but confidence in her own power and there was no hint of fear of the men. Instead she had one hand casually propped on one hip with the other hanging at her side.

"She is ours, Preceptor," one of the men growled. Briar picked out from the tone that the name was a title, not a personal name. The man also feared this woman. "She has already killed several of us. We want our due!"

"This skinny little girl scares you?" the woman said, smiling in a way that carried supreme insult with her words. "She can not be more than 12."

"I'm fifteen," Briar said, not liking that these tall people thought her a child.  It wasn't her fault that the women of her people were rarely ever of any great height.

"Ah, fifteen," the woman smiled wider as if pleased with the tidbit of personal knowledge. "You will leave her to me, or I will finish the job she started and leave your steaming corpses for the warband to piss on if it leaves." 

"Can you even subdue her?" the man said in a snide tone to chuckles from his fellows. "She fights well for a youngling."

"So I saw," the woman smirked. "But it is no great task. Isanda?"

"At once, Preceptor," said one of the guard women.  Briar noticed now that when she moved and her arm rose up with the staff and came clear of the cloak, she had an elaborate tattoo around her bare, upper right arm like an armband. Briar tensed at the movement but suddenly she found she could no longer move at all.  It was as if her entire body had been encased in invisible glass, except that she could move her chest a tiny fraction to breathe. From the tingle she felt inside, it too was a working of the Gift. 

"See?" the woman said with a casual hand gesture towards Briar. "She is perfectly well behaved now. Isanda, please bring her along to my wagon.  I think she will have to be drugged while we travel for her own good. She appears to be a very promising resource."

"It shall be done," the guard answered smoothly.  The four women approached, ignoring the scowling men, and touched the barrier holding Briar like a living statue.  When they did so her stomach clenched as gravity seemed to vanish and her sense of up and down disappeared, except for the fact that she could see the ground.  This changed quickly because she was flapped onto her back and unceremoniously carried in that position, all the while staring up into the dark sky.  She heard the scuffing and angry mutters of the men tagging along, but the women walked as silently as she could have.

After a long, but indeterminable amount of time later she sensed when they came to a halt. She wasn't sure how she knew, but it was confirmed when she heard the squeal of an ungreased door hinge being opened.  Then her vision finally had something new to see besides empty night sky, red painted wood.  This view was brief because her captors laid her down onto the reed matt covering the floor of a smallish room. Once she was still, one of the women that had carried her leaned into view.  Briar got one look at pleasant curves and a pretty face, and then a hand touched her cheek and she could move from the neck up again.

"What are you doing with me?" Briar asked immediately in a dry, raspy voice.  She was dreadfully thirsty after being carried unmoving for hours.  Her throat was parched and scratchy.

"Shh," the young woman said with a small smile that was meant to be comforting. "It would be best if you remained quiet.  If you upset her too much, the Preceptor might actually give you back to the men.  You would not enjoy that at all since I think they are more animal than human. My name is Corina and I have been tasked with caring for you until we reach the city."

"City?" Briar asked, tasting the new word.

"A very large population center," Corina answered.  She reached out of view for something and Briar heard paper being torn.  When the sound of water being poured reached her ears, her body yearned for it.  Her face was titled and elevated a little by a gentle hand and a cup was placed at her lips.  She drank thankfully, ignoring the odd taste, until she remembered the comment about being drugged.  By then it was too late and the cup was empty.

"What did you give me?" Briar asked.

"Just a little sleepy powder," Corina said. She started stroking through Briar's hair and she was more than a little disturbed by how much she enjoyed the sensation.  It sent a quick, odd shiver all through her body too.  "It will make you sleep for many hours."

Briar felt a strong bolt of terror at the thought of sleeping with those men around her.  Every instinct in her body told her that was a bad idea, but it was no use.  She began to feel oddly numb in places and her eyelids became quite heavy.  Her head was placed on something warm and soft and only moments later the drug won the battle against her adrenalin and she slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

***

She awoke to a gentle, if random jostling sensation and the occasional bump.  When she opened her eyes she saw her enclosure more clearly by the sunlight leaking in from the sides of a small, square window near where she lay.  Every side, including the floor was made of a uniform wood except that only the floor was left unpainted but covered by the reed mat.  She lay near one of the long walls of the rectangular room and opposite her was a small, empty cot that was mounted to the far wall and supported by a pair of chains at either end.  Near where her head was an open area and a floor to ceiling chest of drawers. A curtain of blue was mounted on a rod that could close off the open area.  Her feet were at the end by the closed door. 

The room jostled around her again with a particularly rough jolt and she tried to sit upright.  Instead of the smooth movement she had intended, her arms were slow to obey and when she finally got them under her, her muscles felt weak and nearly useless.  Another bump sent her sprawling again. As her frustration mounted, she heard a clicking from the door and the latch turned.  When it opened she felt her mouth open silently at the sight of the ground moving behind Corina.  The room was the wagon and they were traveling at a quick pace.

The pretty blonde was without her cloak this time, and she entered with a pleased smile. Her appearance gave Briar a brief pause, because it was accompanied by an odd sensation and reaction by her body. But when it didn't continue, she dismissed it as a random occurrence.  In one hand Corina held a woven basket.  As soon as she closed the door, the smell of cooked meat filled the room and sent her tummy to rumbling.  She must have made a face because Corina's smile grew broader as she approached with careful steps.

Briar arose again on her arms, this time expecting the weakness, and glowered at the woman. "What have you done to me?" she demanded, trying not to look like someone who hadn't eaten since lunch the day before and was as weak as a day old kitten.

"It's a side effect of the drug I gave you last night," Corina answered with genuine apology in her voice.  She knelt and aided a grudging Briar into a sitting position and then helped her move to sit back against the wall. Briar felt dizzy for a moment, but then settled. "It makes your muscles weak for a couple days after taking it. Its purpose is so that you are unable to fight and injure someone or force us to injure you."

"I'm your captive," Briar said with a confused frown. "Why would you or the woman that commands you, care about my well being?"

"None of us bare you any particular malice or have any desire to cause you harm," Corina answered, taking a cloth off the basket, revealing a ceramic plate with the pleasant smelling meat, a couple small rolls of bread, and a closed flask that sloshed with liquid. "The Preceptor could have left you to Jorick's men. Would you rather have been raped repeatedly and then left broken on that mountain to die?"

"Well, no, but I would also prefer not to be a captive," Briar answered back, putting heat back into her voice. "How is this any better? Are the men not yours?"

"No the men are not ours," Corina said sternly and emphatically, handing her one of the rolls.  She bit into it and despite being a little stale, it was delicious.  Corina then had to hold the flask of water because her hands shook too much when she tried to lift it to her lips.  Briar hated the helpless feeling, but it was hard for her to direct that hate towards Corina; she just acted too damn nice and something about her gave Briar a pleasant feeling in both her body and her Gift. "They belong to a...neighbor...of our Queen.  They do not follow our orders unless we threaten them with death, like you saw.  You are alive, healthy, untainted, and under the protection of my mistress.  We can not let you go because she has ordered it.  Even if we did, we are surrounded by those men as we travel and they are furious at you since your people killed everyone that didn't retreat from their little side-raid on your village.  They would brutalize you in every way their filthy minds can imagine; even knowing we would kill them for it. I've seen what they leave behind and it gave me nightmares for Moon-cycles."

"Then why do you allow them around you at all?" Briar asked, barely noticing now as Corina hand fed her slices of the meat in a motherly fashion.  It was coated in a sweetly spicy sauce that she found very tasty. "I think the world would be a better place if they were all wiped out of existence."

"Perhaps," Corina smiled gently. "But we follow the commands of our Queen, and for now she calls Jorick and his dross, neighbor.  Only when she calls them an enemy, will we attack preemptively.  So you will come with us all the way to the city as our captive because the Preceptor has decreed it so. Your life will not be unpleasant as long as you make no fuss."

"What if I don't like the idea of going anywhere with all of you," Briar responded, flushing with anger. "What if I fought back?"

Another slice of meat was brought up to her mouth and Briar felt another odd, pleasant sensation when a slim finger slipped into her mouth for just a moment. Corina smiled a little warmer and seemed to color a little. "We would be forced to make you drink the drug I gave you instead of taking that small dose on your own. Then, when you got to the city, you would be punished. If you make no fuss, your life will be long and pleasant.

 "But what about my home? My friends and family?"

"You must leave your old life behind," Corina answered, setting the now empty food basket aside. "I regret the necessity of that, but you will not be permitted to return to your village.  There are reasons for this, but they are long in the telling."

Briar realized then that she truly was doomed to this new fate.  There was no action she could take now or in the foreseeable future if she was going to be drugged all the time, which would alter the course of events.  She sensed that Corina's words rang with the truth and both her words and actions were kind; blunt and honest, but kind.  She thought for a heartbeat that this was all a trick somehow, but that made no sense at all.  She could not logically carry any great value to these people, yet it seemed they wanted her for some unknown purpose.

"I suppose then, that I will not cause you any trouble," Briar answered calmly. She noticed then, the armband tattoo on Corina's right arm. It was an intricate weaving of lines and geometric shapes.  She lifted her weakened arm slowly and touched her fingertips on the smooth skin and they both shivered at the contact. "What does this mark mean?"

Corina smiled wider, as if very pleased for some reason that Briar had touched her. "It is the mark of who we serve. That one belongs to the Preceptor.  If I commit a crime or perform an honorable deed, this will tell people who to report it too.  It means I am part of her personal household."

"Are you a captive as well?" Briar asked in shocked surprise.

"No," Corina seemed amused and it gave her already pretty face a very pleasant appeal.  Briar found that she liked the way Corina lifted just one corner of her small mouth when her smile carried laughter.  It baffled her as to why she liked it so much, but she did. "In our city, Mathras, and in the Realm of Windross in general, all must serve or work in some capacity. I was trained as an acolyte to the Great Lady, and when I was good enough, I was taken in by the Preceptor to serve in her personal guard. I enjoy what I do."

"You really respect this woman?" Briar said, sorting the new names and things Corina had just given her in her mind. No doubt they would be relevant to her soon.

"Oh, all of us do," Corina nodded emphatically with a proud smile, tucking her long legs to one side under her body. "Each city of the Realm has a Preceptor that has governing responsibilities. My mistress often serves as Queen Arianne's direct representative to the other cities.  She never treats people badly unless they make themselves her enemy and is quite prone to showing kindness.  I would serve no other if I had the choice."

"Thank you for that evaluation, Corina," said a crisp, feminine voice. Startled, they both turned their heads and saw the Preceptor standing on the wooden platform outside the door.  She entered into the wagon and calmly sat on the cot directly across from where they sat on the floor and placed her hands together in her lap.

Now that she had a better, closer look, Briar saw she was in her middle years, but very striking.  Her bountiful chest was very obvious, but there was much more to her.  She had a fuller, curvier figure that was very rare in Briar's village.  Had she been in her home, many of the men would have desired her just for that.  Her face was strong, but not unattractive with well defined cheekbones, smooth skin, a narrow nose and clear, blue eyes that held decades of intelligence.  One finger began tapping slowly on the back knuckle of the other hand as she regarded Briar.

"I am sorry if I misspoke, mistress," Corina said, doing a quick, seated bow. "I was explaining things to—Oh my! I never asked your name!"

"My name is Briar," she told the mortified young woman.

"Well, Briar, have you decided to come along calmly and with no fuss?" the older woman asked, sounding like all of her instructors combined.

"I agreed not to fight you," Briar answered, speaking plainly. "Corina has explained the futility of such actions. As for fussing, I sometimes have a fussy, stubborn personality, or so I am told.  It will be hard to fight my nature."

"Hmm, well at least you give me proper forewarning," the Preceptor chuckled. It displayed old laugh-lines on her face. "I don't know if Corina told you this, but I am not going to deliver you unto something monstrous.  Your life won't be unpleasant because both I and my Queen take care of those we are responsible for."

"She has told me that as well," Briar answered "I am being treated much better then I figured a captive normally would be."

"To do otherwise, would be uncivilized and barbaric, you're not a criminal," the woman responded firmly.  "Have you eaten?"

"Yes, we just finished," Briar responded.  She felt another need and she figured now was as good a time as any to take care of it. "Corina helped me with that, but can I ask for something else?"

"Hmm?" both Corina and the older woman seemed interested, not annoyed.

"Well, I've been asleep for a while. I fear I am in desperate need for a privy. Would it be possible for me to go to one?"

"There is no need for that," Corina smiled and then looked at her mistress. "May I?"

"Of course."

Corina arose to her feet in a smooth, graceful movement and went to the door.  She opened it and reached out for something that Briar figured must be on a shelf or hook.  When she pulled back in and closed the door, she held a small urn with an oddly shaped opening.  She set it down in the open area of the wagon-room and it thunked as if it was heavy.

"Come," Corina beckoned with one hand. "You can go into this and it will be dumped outside."

Briar stared at the urn bemusedly for a moment.  It was an odd way to do it, but she supposed there was little other choice.  So she very slowly and carefully moved onto all fours, the only stable position for movement she could manage, and crawled over to where the urn was.  Corina saw her difficulty in moving around and approached her, making a maternal cluck of admonishment. Briar was horribly embarrassed by her weakness, but her muscles just wouldn't let her rise stably to her feet.  The best they managed was a waddle on her knees with Corina supporting her upper body by an arm.

"Was the drug too strong?" the Preceptor asked in what sounded like real concern.

"It seems Briar is more susceptible to the side effects than most," Corina answered unhappily.  She reached down and began undoing Briar's belt and then the tie of her trousers.  Normally Briar wasn't very body shy after living in a communal space with many other girls, but she still blushed at having another woman taking her pants and underwear down to her knees like this.

"Oh my!" Briar turned at the pleased exclamation from Corina and saw that the woman was giving her womanhood a more than clinical look.  Briar looked down as well and saw what she always saw, a narrow, tight slit with a tiny spot of silky black hair above it. She was a little slow developing at first compared to other girls her age, but she was well on the way now. But Corina's regard sent a flush of heat and magic through her.

Corina picked up the urn and when she moved to put it between her legs, Briar complied by spreading them a little more.  She hissed once in surprise when the strangely sun warmed ceramic touched her sensitive place, but Corina adjusted it a little and it was better.  At a nod, Briar relaxed and did her business into the container, unable to help a small, relieved sigh that escaped.  When she was finished, Corina took it to the door and called out to someone.  The urn was taken and the door closed yet again.

Returning, Corina went and opened one of the small drawers and pulled out a small, ragged square of soft, un-dyed cloth.  Before Briar had a chance to realize what she intended Corina's hand went between her legs.  Briar gasped at the contact and intimate touching as her slit gave her a jolt of pleasure. Two more oddly pleasurable swipes had her clean and Corina tugged her garments back into place.  The soiled cloth was simply tossed out of the small window.

Briar returned to her previous seat and positioned herself into a more comfortable lotus position. She felt hot, flushed, and off balance from what had just happened.  Corina sat down near to her and tucked her legs again. Briar noticed pink rising on her pale skin and a small, very happy smile.  The Preceptor looked like an amused mother watching her kids do something silly.

"Isn't that position uncomfortable?" the older woman asked after a moment.

"Not at all," Briar answered in surprise. "This is the most comfortable of the meditation positions. I find it to be calming."

"Hmm, interesting," the woman said in a thinking tone.

"Can I ask how long it will take to get to this city?" Briar asked.  Corina was yet again running a hand through her hair and along her ponytail.  She didn't understand why the woman seemed to like doing that so much, but it wasn't unpleasant so she left it alone. Corina sighed in a very pleased way at her acquiescence. "Is it very far?"

"We have six more days of travel after this," the Preceptor answered. Her mouth thinned for a moment and then she continued. "Those brutes went far off the normal trade road to raid your village and I was forced to follow them.  I'm exceptionally pleased that they did no damage at all while almost getting slaughtered to a man.  The current Queen and those before her have always forbidden any interference in the affairs of the people living in the mountain valleys and they deserved their fate."

"Six more days!" Briar had never traveled more then the length of her home valley which only took half a day of you were slow.  Six days sounded interminable.  "Will I have to spend all of them inside this wagon?"

"Unfortunately, that seems likely," the Preceptor sighed. "Jorick's goons would jump at the slightest chance to take you and I'm under orders to maintain as much civility as possible with them for the moment. Their path will match ours for a while yet."

"They seem like unpleasant allies," Briar said, extremely displeased.

"You mean they foul the very air they breathe," the Preceptor said with a snort of angry amusement. "But I will still follow my Queen's standing orders. She doesn't like it any more than you or I do, but the world of politics can be an illogical kind of place. If it will make you feel any better, our peace with them will undoubtedly be short, one way or another."

"Then I suppose I will have to learn more patience," Briar said with a small, wry smile. "It will give me time to become less...unhappy, with my new circumstances. Is there no way to let my village know that I am alive?"

"I will ask, but that is up to Queen Arianne, it was her decision to continue the ban on contact."

"I see, well..."

******

Over the next several days, Briar spent all of her time inside the wagon. At first she found it to be exceedingly tedious, but she then found she could pass the time quickly with the calming meditation trances she had been trained in.  They kept her sane and provided a calm venue in which she could think over what fate had delivered her unto.  In the end she decided that it would be wiser for her to wait until they got to this city for an opportunity to change her disposition.  For all she knew, she might be willing to do what they wanted of her. If it was not, then she would fight from there as hard as she could.

Nighttime was a strange thing.  From talking with Corina, who had made herself Briar's constant companion, the wagon was normally occupied solely by the Preceptor.  There was a second wagon in which her four personal guards slept. Now, since Briar was sharing the space, Corina also had to stay to protect her mistress and to watch over Briar.  This wasn't a hard job because they gave her the drug fairly early and she was asleep long before the others turned in and awoke after them as well. 

After getting bored in the silence of Briar's meditation, flexibility and chi exercises, Corina asked Briar to show her how to do them.  The Preceptor was quite amused when she walked in for dinner on the second day to find Briar and Corina in identical poses across from each other in complete quiet.  Briar was strangely pleased that her guard enjoyed learning them and she got a flash of pride from the act of teaching another person.

They gave her less of the drug that night and she awoke in time to see Corina helping the Preceptor into her clothes.  Briar still had no idea what her real name was, but that didn't seem to matter to anyone else. She was captivated by the woman's appearance and seeing her unclothed had made her feel a bit hot inside.  Her gaze had been noticed, but neither of the women said anything.

That third day she finally met the other guards.  She understood just from body language and a few exchanged words that Corina was the youngest and lowest in rank.  It seemed that they had regarded watching and caring for Briar to be an onerous task and had pushed it onto Corina.  After a whispered conversation Briar hadn't been able to follow, it seemed the reverse was now true and they were actively envious of Corina's position.  Briar got a lot of strange looks after that. This was also the day she realized some of the noises she heard outside were other travelers on the road.

Briar enjoyed Corina's company for the most part.  Despite the obvious age gap of almost ten years, the young woman treated her with respect at all times and even joked with her.  Briar often found Corina touching her in various small ways, like the frequent hair stroking, but she said nothing at all about it, even though it sent pleasant sensations through her. Though, she also felt strangely excited when any of the guards or the Preceptor was close by.

When she went to go to bed the third night, she realized she hadn't been given the drug.  At first she thought that maybe they had forgotten, but her confused expression only earned her small smiles from the other two women.  They were testing her willingness to behave without coercion.  So she held out a hand and she willingly drank the drug on her own. Then she lay down onto the floor matt next to Corina and went to sleep.

The following day she awoke to a body that felt a little more normal for the first time since the journey had begun.  Now that she was able to move and stand on her own without falling on her face, she wished she could bathe and change into clean clothes. She was told that would have to wait until they arrived at their destination.  When she tried to use the privy urn on her own, Corina quickly snatched it and insisted on helping her anyways.  She spent most of that day stretching and standing on her legs to work the stiffness out of them as much as the small space would allow.

The Preceptor and Corina, the two people she saw and talked to with any frequency, treated her like an adult.  When she asked questions, they either answered honestly or told her straight out why they could not. On the last evening of travel, the Preceptor even took a detailed map out of one of her drawers and showed her the lands they currently traveled over.

It had been a marvel to see the vastness of the Realm ruled by the Queen.  Her homeland, a relatively small cluster of mountains with valleys inside, was entirely surrounded by it.  The mountains were marked on the map as being a protected sanctuary where no one was supposed to enter or leave. The Preceptor also claimed that it was followers of a past Queens that had actually erected the magic barriers on the passes.

She learned that night that her people had once populated all the land on the map.  It was why she and these people spoke the same language.  The long ago predecessors of the current Queen had come here across a large body of water the Preceptor called an ocean and conquered it in order to settle here. It had been easy because these people brought magic with them, while her people hadn't had the Gift at the time.  After a century or so the remnants her people had retreated into the cluster of mountains and were subsequently forgotten by the rest of the world. Her people had forgotten the world in return. That had been a very interesting, if slightly disturbing, conversation.

She ended up staying awake, late into the night, looking over the map and its many interesting notations and wasn't forced to take the drug.  There were whole networks of paved trade roads, vast forests, open farmland and the snaky lines of rivers.  The southern edge, where a small diamond symbol marked their destination, the capital of Mathras, also had a thick line denoting that everything below it was the ocean.  When she asked what an ocean was, she found it disconcerting at first to know that there could be a body of water thousands of miles across and none of it was drinkable.

On the final day of travel, there was a sudden commotion outside the wagon.  Corina seemed unconcerned by the noise and asked for her to get the map.

"We are here now," Corina said, pointing her finger where another road split off from the main road and terminated a distance off at a place she named Fort Naron. "Jarick has his disgusting bastion up there on a hilltop.  No one with any humanity goes there.  All that noise is his men, splitting off from us.  You haven't been able to see, but they have a few dozen horses with them and they can be noisy at times.  From here on to the city, where we'll be at about the dinner hour or a little later, it's just our two wagons."

Briar perked up at this. "After they are out of sight, can I ride outside? I really miss being able to see the rest of the world."

"I don't see why not," Corina smiled. "I'll ask."

A short wait later, Corina popped back in and said the men were hours gone and out of sight.  Eager to finally be out in fresh air, Briar followed her out onto the small platform attached to the back of the large wagon, which looked even larger on the outside than it did inside.  Metal rimmed wheels crunched over a graded road paved with stone just below her.

Briar climbed onto the top of the wooden box via a set of wooden handholds. Sitting on top already was the Preceptor, a skinny man holding the rains to the massive draft horses, and Corina.  A short distance in front of them was another identical wagon on which she could see the other three guards and another driver. There were other wagons and travelers visible on the road, but her companions were more important at the moment.

It was just past noon and the bright sun was nearly blinding at first, after all her time in the wagon.  Her eyes slowly adjusted back to normal and she took in their surrounding.  They were descending down a slowly winding road that cut back and forth down the grassy slope of a highland.  It was a clear day so she could see for enormous distances to east, west and south over a vast coastal plain.

Paralleling the road, about as far east as she could see, was a wide river that was roaring loud enough to be heard at this distance down a rocky descent.  From the volume of the sound, an enormous amount of water had to be passing through those rapids. 

"We are coming down off the plateau that covers most of the southern portion of the continent," the Preceptor volunteered as Briar seated herself and got used to the increased angular motion of the rocking wagon. "Look!"

Briar did so and really looked out over the land spread out before her.  The road they were on descended quite a long ways, probably close to a thousand feet. Past that was something she'd never seen before and had only just recently been given the name for. It was a sight that struck her brain silent.

The river they were traveling beside was joined by two more coming in from both the east and west over the plain. The joining region was an enormous delta of splitting streams, lakes and smaller rivers that fanned out towards an endless, shimmering blanket of blue that continued over the horizon.  The delta formed an uncountable number of islands, both small and large and what looked like rich farmland to the far east and west. The entire area directly in front of them where the road was headed and covering all those many islands was the city.  Briar had never seen a larger concentration of people in one place.

The road led down to what looked like a walled guard post at the first bridge that gave access to the city.  Other roads coming into the place had similar fortifications and a steady flow of people were coming and going from them.  From a defensive viewpoint, she admired the set-up.  It created a few finite places for an enemy to attack if they wanted easy access to the city. Across those first, stupendous stone bridges, was an array of other bridges and roads that linked all the other islands together.  They were still too high up to pick out small details, but she could see some logical patterns in their layout.

Buildings were mostly indistinct at this vantage, with a few notable exceptions. Every island of the city, and spread out in an even pattern over the rest, were large distinctive structures that often towered over their surrounding neighbors like ivory sentinels.  Most buildings appeared to be built of either brick or stone with red roofing tiles and they varied greatly in height. Some were surrounded by wide green spaces. The special buildings though, were noticeably different.

First of all, they looked to be built almost entirely of a white stone and even from this far could see that their exteriors were intricately carved works of art.  Ornate columns, crenulations, gilded finishing, wide windows and large scale fresco carvings were all included.  Another feature that appeared on each and every one of those structures was a small substructure behind them with a big glass dome that gleamed in the afternoon sun.

"Are you surprised?" Corina asked with laughter in her voice.

"I don't know," Briar answered, not taking her eyes off the city that was coming closer with every passing minute. "I had no concept of what a city was.  How can so many people live in one place without starving?"

"There are vast areas of farmland up and down the coast," the Preceptor answered. "The largest percentage of it is rice grown in the coastal marshlands.  There are also large amounts of various fruits and produce.  The sea also provides a substantial amount of our diet. The rest we trade for with other cities."

"The sea?"

"Yes, see those things moving out on the water," Briar did and nodded. There were a large number of huge boats with what looked like vertical wings or something attached to them. "Most of those sailing vessels are fishing boats.  They catch large numbers of fish and sell them.  The bigger ones are trade ships."

Briar nodded again. She didn't entirely understand since she wasn't close enough for a good look at one, but she got the general idea. "So where in all of that," she made an encompassing gesture at the city, "are we going."

"We are going to the Grand Temple," the Preceptor answered, with pride in her voice.  She pointed out over the city and Briar's eyes tried in vain to open wider in shock. "There."

"There," was something her eyes must have slid over at first, thinking it was another collection of city buildings. That impression was completely wrong. It was one, massive, complex of buildings that were part of one whole. It covered the entire surface of one of the larger islands and appeared to be elevated up slightly.  Like the special buildings she'd noted, it was all built of white stone with resplendent ornamentation.  There were also eight stone spires that speared towards the sky around the perimeter of a thick, high wall that matched the island's contours. 

There were expansive open grounds, but the rest was filled with a number of smaller buildings connected together by breezeways, bridges over ornamental streams, garden walks, corridors, roads, and other architectural marvels. It also had a truly massive, irregularly shaped structure with glass roofing over a monstrous circular section.  The whole Palace had to be extremely important because she could see enough throngs of people around it for them to be easily visible at this distance and there was a large open square in front of the bridge that led to it.

It took most of the rest of the afternoon finish their descent of the plateau and travel the relatively short distance to the fortified bridge.  The walls of the fort were solidly built, but the large gate hung wide open and the contingent of red-uniformed guards with long spears stood calmly to either side of the portal as if nothing exciting ever happened.  There was also a pair of young blonde women dressed in the same white outfits that Corina and the others wore, except that these had blood-red cloaks. The two strode around confidently with alert eyes that scanned the incoming and outgoing travelers. When they got close, Briar could feel their magical strength and it practically sizzled from them.  They gave their wagons sharp looks, but nodded politely and left them unmolested.

The inside of the small fort was comprised only of an empty marshaling yard and a very small guard house.  No travelers deviated from the obvious path to the open and unguarded gate on the other side and they were no exception.  There were other wagons, carts and people on horseback around them, but no one paid them any particular attention.  Incoming traffic to the city stayed on the right side of the road and the outgoing was on the left.

Briar kept trying to look at everything, but that was impossible. Certain exceptional things caught her attention though, like a long train of six empty wagons pulled by a huge breed of oxen that exited the city in a loud rumble.  She marveled at that until Corina told her in an amused tone, that such wagon trains were very common and were what delivered all the agricultural goods to the city. A lot of the travelers were apparently farmers come to trade or rice merchants or things like that. 

The first island of the city was abuzz with people moving about and performing unknown tasks.  Due to the proximity to the road out of town, it was filled with what looked like trade businesses and places for transients to stay.  Once Corina pointed out a few characteristics of these, like sign designs and words, she counted at least ten places the offered lodging. From the good smells on the evening air, they also served food. 

The women of the city were tall compared to Briar's people and most had hair that ranged from a light brown to a rusty red and was generally kept long and tied back.  The only blondes she saw were another pair of women dressed like Corina that were walking towards one of the white structures, while those around them gave them respectful, if distant, nods. 

It was as they were already traveling over a third island, that she noticed there was a larger population of women than men in visible evidence.  It probably meant little, but Briar thought it was a bit odd.  She also thought it was odd that the only pale skinned blondes she ever saw were glad in white with different colored cloaks and were looked upon as being important; important, but also disliked. It was mostly from the men, but there was an air of hostile disgruntlement wherever the women passed by.

The wagons traveled through a number of different districts as they went, where similar businesses were grouped together. Briar's nose and stomach let her know every time they passed by a particularly good smelling eatery and she wished they could stop and get something, but Corina only smiled knowingly and shook her head.  She also stayed silent on the topic of those white buildings that seemed to be of some great importance.  They also seemed almost like fortifications within the city, because there were more of the red-cloaked guard women and it seemed as if the general population was doing all they could to avoid even looking at them.

"It's seems to haven gotten much worse during our absence," the Preceptor said grimly, frowning when a young boy ran by and tried to throw a rock up at the top of the wagon."

"Yes it has," Corina agreed sadly. "It's been building to this for a while, but I can't believe how bad it's gotten."

"It's not normally like this?" Briar asked.

"Not originally," the Preceptor sighed. "But the antagonism between us and the normal citizenry has been growing steadily. It's why I bothered to leave the city at all. I had to see how far this cancer has spread with my own eyes."

"Did it?" Briar prompted, when the silence went on too long.

"In the four other cities of the Realm, as well as the scattered towns and villages, our presence is small.  We live within smaller temples.  So it seems that they haven't seen any reason to feel as threatened as the people here do."

"Why do they feel threatened?"

"That is something you will learn later, Briar," the Preceptor said with grim certainty. "It will be better for you to see things with your own eyes first."

Then they turned left down another busy street that was divided on a new city-island into two separate lanes by ovular center islands of colorful flowers, shrubbery and small trees. It also rose slowly in elevation. They must have crossed some dividing line, because the area around them grew rapidly more elaborate and with enough design changes that it was as if they were entering into a completely different city. 

She also saw the first private homes that were not built above shops and other businesses. They had low walls that separated them from the road. While some were single sprawling structures with multiple floors and tiered designs, more were actually compounds with several interconnected buildings.  Between the street and the buildings was a wide, raised walk. Spaced in even intervals down this path were tall, mysterious metal things with glass enclosures at the tip

There was a significant and highly noticeable increase in the number of women wearing the white outfits.  They walked or rode in singles or groups.  A good many entered the housing compounds. Everyone in this district had the dignity Briar associated with those who were in charge or had much authority. None of them ever had a man with them and a significant number had varying shades of blonde hair. There were some with other colors, but the blondes still had a slight majority. The hostile and unwelcoming stares were also gone now.

After they had traveled through this new, upper-class region for a distance, Briar twigged onto something else. Like the women that had been guarding the city gates, the white-clothed women here had cloaks in different colors. There were at least six that she could see: red, blue, dark-green, yellow, purple, and white like Corina and the Preceptor.

"Who are they?" she finally asked, pointing towards a woman on the raised walkway up ahead.

"They are the Daughters of the Lady," the Preceptor answered in a lecturing tone. "Like Corina and me, we are all blessed by Her, which means we must also serve Her. We are referred to more simply as the Sisters, which is also the correct way to address one of us. Carina should be properly addressed as Sister Corina."

"What about you?" Briar asked curiously. The spires of the Grand Temple were quickly approaching ahead of them now.

"I am the Preceptor," the woman answered with an amused smile. "For as long as I hold the title, it is how I should be respectfully addressed."

"I don't even know what the title means," Briar pointed out.

"Oh, well," the woman blinked as if that hadn't occurred to her. "The office I hold is filled by a direct appointment by the Queen. My job is to insure that the laws and customs of the Temple and Lady are taught correctly.  In practice, it means I am in charge of the Temple's schooling and training.  Not just in this city and its Ward temples, but in the entire Realm. Every city, town, or village temple uses the guidelines and mandates I state as the way they should teach their new acolytes to the Sisterhood."

"Sounds fairly important, and difficult," Briar said, thinking it over and comparing it to how things were done back home.

"Politically, she ranks third below the Queen," Corina added with an amused smirk. "The only person between them is the Heiress Apparent."

"Hmmm," Briar's trail of thought deviated as she caught sight of a large group walking down the walkway towards their direction. "Who are they?"

"That would be a class of acolytes," the Preceptor answered with a wide, pleased smile. "The woman is one of their instructors."

The group was led by the indicated woman and Briar noted that she wore a green cloak.  Behind her walked two files of five young girls that were around the age of eleven or so. The girls' uniforms differed slightly in that they were wearing green, sleeveless tops instead of white and they wore no cloaks.   When they drew closer, she could hear and see them singing a cheerful song with smiles on their faces.  It seemed to be some kind of game, because after every chorus a single girl would sing a verse to laughing smiles from the others.

As the group came alongside one of the strange metal posts that lined the road, the woman called out something in tune with the song.  With a laughing cheer, each girl raised her right arm and said something as one.  Above each palm there was a rippling flash of magic and a glowing, florescent fish appeared.  The fish-things wriggled like a living one might, and then they all zipped away, seemingly in all directions. But it wasn't random. Each magic fish struck and then entered the glass enclosure on every post in sight.  The fish began swimming in a tight circle and their glowing increased several fold, shoving back the evening gloom with warm light.

"I always liked being on streetlight duty," Corina sighed wistfully, breaking the sense of amazement Briar felt at the demonstration of magic use she'd just seen. In her village, practical, outward uses of magic weren't taught until you were already selected to be a Mai-han, so she had no idea if they knew how to do something like this.

"It's one of the few chores classes actively volunteer to perform," the Preceptor chuckled. "This class is particularly good. The fish are a nice touch."

"My class always did butterflies," Corina said, grinning back. "I earned a discipline session for making them blue once."

"Do they light up all the streets," Briar asked, not remembering the light posts being anywhere else on the way.

"Not yet," Corina answered. "Some are set around a few of the Ward temples, but they've only been around a short time.  Naturally the area closest to the Grand Temple saw them installed first.  The plan is to do the roads out to the gates next and then spread out from there. There are more efficient ways of getting them lit, but its good practice for the girls and it's a chance for them to get out and walk around outside for a change."

Now that her attention had been brought to it, Briar also noticed that all the home compounds around them were well lit from within and the lights didn't flicker from a flame.  The glowing fish illuminating the streets however, matched well with the colors of the sunset and they laid out the road before them. To Briar's mind it was almost like an invitation by the magic creatures to continue onwards. Not that they slowed in their progress by even a little.

The closer they got to the Grand Temple, which now had it spires illuminated in a way that lent it an otherworldly air, the more Briar just wanted to get there and get things over with. She wanted to see what it was the Preceptor wanted her for and whether or not she should fight against it.  She still had that sense that it was not yet time for her to reveal her own Gift, but she would ignore that in a last resort situation.

When they finally reached the large open square at the foot of the arching stone bridge to the Grand Temple complex, the sun was below the roof level of the nearby buildings.  The streetlights were the only lights available in the growing murk, except for a fanciful fountain in the middle of the wide, open space that was lit from beneath the water. It also appeared that at this hour of the day, the crowds were a lot thinner.  The mass of people Briar had seen before were gone and only a few stragglers leaving the square were in sight. Briar theorized silently that perhaps the people of this city liked to retire indoors when it grew dark.

While the crowds were indeed gone, there was a very respectable contingent of red-cloaked Sisters standing guard at the closed gate to the bridge itself.  All eight, four to a side were scanning the area with alert eyes and just from their postures; Briar could tell they were lethally competent. When the wagons drew near and slowed to a halt, one of the guards separated in a way that said they had been expected. Briar wondered if they had some method of sending signals by magic here.

"Preceptor," the youngish woman said, kneeling with her right hand pressed to her left breast and her left hand holding her staff planted upright. "Welcome home at last. We have all missed your guidance."

"It is good to be home," the Preceptor replied cordially, as if this display was perfectly normal. "I see someone finally had the good sense to promote you to Captain, Letia. I know its past normal curfew but could you pass me through?"

"Of course, it will be done at once" Captain Letia answered promptly, rising fully. She turned to face her subordinates. "She has permission to enter after sundown. Open the gate and suppress the wards, but seal it back up tightly once the wagons are through."

The two guards closest to the gates turned inward while the others moved out in an angled, protective line. Briar didn't know why they were being so protective, but she admired how smoothly they carried the action out. The gate, an intricately woven panel of metal that looked like a tangled wall of vines complete with leaves and thorns, shimmered and a thin crack appeared down its center.  Then in complete silence, the two halves swung open as the two guards stepped back and took up positions on the lines. At a gesture from the Captain, both wagons resumed motion and rolled onto the bridge.

This bridge had two high arches of smooth, white stone that was as seamless as all the other structures of this type.  The arches went way up into the air and the roadbed seemed to hang between them somehow. It was a design that Briar had never seen before, but it was perfectly sturdy with no hint of movement when the two conveyances crossed over it.

The bridge exited inside the walls of the complex and was flanked by two of the spires that stood like sentinels.  The roadway dumped out to a circular drive surrounded by green lawns with low hedges along the paths leading away to right and left. The left side had a sign with a picture of a freight wagon train on it.  It must mean that supplies go that way. The middle of the circle was taken up by a large marble statue of two women wearing flowing robes, with staves locked together in combat. On the far side from them were the rising steps to a large stone building with lots of decorative columns, but an otherwise austere exterior. Two more of the guards stood at the base of those steps.

"What is that place for?" Briar asked, even as the wagons began to make the right turn.

"City administration and other official offices of that nature," the Preceptor answered. "It was placed in the most prominent position over the bridge because it is the place most frequented by the general citizenry."

"How many buildings are there?"

"The campus holds fifteen buildings that are part of the main Temple, plus two large storehouses. So seventeen, as long as we aren't counting garden sheds and things like that."

"Why do you need so many huge buildings?" she asked, marveling at the scale.

"Oh, they have all sorts of different purposes," Corina said, joining the conversation. "The largest number though, belongs to the Temple Academy which trains and educates all the new Sisters in this city. I think four of them are just dormitories."

"Five now," the Preceptor, corrected. "We finished the new one last summer, but it's mainly for faculty apartments and rooms for the advanced training students."

The paths of the Grand Temple complex were lit by the same streetlamps Briar had seen in the city, but now they were much more appreciated.  Otherwise Briar would have been unable to see the newest wonders this place offered to her eyes. 

After they went around that first big building that seemed to act as a bureaucratic guardian, the wide grounds of the campus lay before them.  The lights of paths wove eldritch traceries through the night, leading through the dark oceans of grass and greenery to buildings that appeared like glowing celestial islands of artistically carved stone.  Sometimes the lights were inside covered colonnades, or came together at circles lined with tasteful wooden benches.

They passed by a particularly resplendent structure that was lit like a lustrous beacon. While still built of stone, it had plenty of large, graceful windows.  The roof had three high peaks to it that were surmounted by short spires. Behind the building, on the wall, was one of the massive versions. Wide, multi-tiered steps were graced with the forms of ten warrior Sisters, along with ten more women wearing padded armor and a quiver of short javelins with wickedly sharp looking tips. Then they veered away.

The path now led them directly towards the one, massive structure Briar had seen from afar. From that distance, it seemed to go almost from the north wall to the south one. From where they were now, the distance covered looked like it had to be at least a mile.  She also saw an explanation for its oddly irregular shape.  There was a smaller, but still big, sub-building sticking out from the larger one.

At first Briar thought it was made of a large crystal bigger than a house and was lit dimly from within. Then she realized the entire thing was made of glass that turned slightly opaque when viewed from different angles.  Its walls weren't flat on the outside, but in seemingly random angles that gave it that crystalline appearance. It also seemed to be filled with a busy crowd of people with more going in and out. Their wagons turned down the curving path that swung directly in front of its doors. 

Again they slowed and came to a halt in front of a pair of doors made of frosted glass with stylized lilies engraved in them.  A pair of happy, young Sisters exited from them, dressed more casually in soft, white dresses, and they each gave a quick, deep bow to the Preceptor before moving on while chatting happily. On the first wagon, Isanda and the other two guards were descending from the roof of their conveyance and stretching their legs a little. Then they came towards them,

"Time to finally climb off Briar," Corina said, crawling towards the back ladder on her knees. She swung her legs over and began moving downward.  Once she saw she had clearance enough to do so, Briar swung out her stiff legs and did the same.  She alighted onto the back platform of the wagon and easily hopped down to the ground from there.  The Preceptor was a little slower getting down, but she was quick enough.

Imitating Corina and the others, Briar stretched and arched to mitigate the effects of sitting up on that wagon all day since noon. Even the Preceptor did so.  Once they had loosened up enough, the older woman led them confidently towards the doors and then through them into a very tiny space with another set of doors identical to the first, except now she could hear lively music bleeding through. She surmised that the small space was used to keep the sound inside from escaping whenever people entered or left. 

"Hey!" A grin bloomed on Corina's face and the other women looked to be equally pleased with their heads cocked as they listened to the music. "It sounds like Anouska is playing tonight. Our timing is perfect."

"She's always been a favorite," the Preceptor commented with a fond smile of her own. "But we're blocking the door, ladies. Let's finish going inside so we can finally relax and eat something."

"No argument from me," Isanda laughed. "I've missed the Lily's cooking ever since we left."  Briar had no idea what the conversation was about, or where exactly they were, but she didn't have time to contemplate on it.  The Preceptor pulled the inner door open, took Briar gently by the hand, and led her inside.