Bertrice Small - A Distant Tomorrow

The Women’s Quarters of the castle were more luxurious than anything Lara had ever seen. The rooms were spacious, yet not overlarge. The walls were painted a warm golden yellow, and hung with exquisite tapestries woven in clear reds, blues, greens, purples and creams. The tapestries told stories, probably of Terah’s history, Lara thought as she admired them. The furnishings were feminine – low couches upholstered in soft fabrics of various hues, plump silk and velvet pillows decorated with gold and silver threads, with tasseled edges. There were delicate tables of inlaid woods and mother-of-pearl. Little velvet stools. Hanging lamps of amethyst glass. There were heavy soft rugs covering parts of the floors.

As they entered, a lovely girl with golden-brown hair came forward, smiling. She bowed to Magnus Hauk, taking his two hands in hers and pressing them to her heart in a pretty gesture of welcome. Then her curious turquoise glance went to Lara.

“This is Lara, my Hetarian guest,” Magnus Hauk said to his sister. “Will you see she is well cared for, Sister?”

The young woman nodded, and turned her smile on Lara.

“My youngest sister, Sirvat,” the Dominus said to Lara. “Like all our women she hears, but is unable to speak.” He turned to his sibling. “Sirvat, do not be afraid, but the women of Hetar have voices with which they speak and both Corrado and I have heard.”

Sirvat raised a curious eyebrow, but nodded to her brother.

“I will leave you now,” the Dominus said to Lara. “You will be safe here.”

“When will I see you again?” Lara asked him.

“When you do,” he replied with a grin.

Lara smiled back mischievously. “You will lust for me soon enough, my lord Dominus. And if it pleases me I will come to you.”

Magnus Hauk laughed aloud. Then turning, he left her.

Lara felt a tug on her sleeve.

“Come along, woman of Hetar,” a soft voice said to her.

Lara spun about. Were her ears deceiving her? “You speak!” she exclaimed. “Why does the Dominus think you do not?” Were her ears deceiving her.

“Come,” Sirvat said, “and I will tell you.” She led her guest into a lovely large room with arched windows opening out into a walled green garden, and a tiled marble fountain in its center. Taking Lara’s hand Sirvat brought her to a pillowed bench. “It’s that wretched curse that was placed upon us several hundred years ago,” she began. “A powerful sorcerer who called himself Usi had come from the North, seeking to control Terah. And he did for several years. But he was cruel, taking women for his pleasure, which more times than not was for the purposes of torture and not passion. He hoarded wealth, impoverishing the people. No one knew what to do to stop him. He was, it was said, a ruthless being.

“Finally a woman called Geltruda decided that something must be done if our people were to be saved. She went out of her way to catch the eye of Usi. They say she was the most beautiful woman in all of Terah. The sorcerer lusted after her, but she kept him at arm’s length until he could no longer bear his desire, and she agreed to come to his bed willingly. Before she did she covered her body with poison so that no matter where Usi might kiss her, his lips would absorb it. By the time he realized what she had done it was too late, and Geltruda herself already lay dead of the poison.

“She had told her brothers of her plans, and now they burst into the chamber where their dead sister and the dying sorcerer lay. They sat watching his agony. He cursed them with his last breath; because they had accepted her counsel and allowed her to kill him, the men of the Dominion would no longer hear the voices of their women. And so it happened as Usi said. But as the men of the Terahn Dominion could still hear everything else, they decided that it was the women who could no longer speak, and so they believe to this day. No one has ever been able to lift the curse.”

“Has anyone tried?” Lara asked Sirvat.

“Oh yes. But the magic of Terah is not strong enough. I wish it were. There are so many things we would say to our men if they could hear us,” the young woman said with a chuckle. “Will you tell my brother?”

“I don’t know. Would you mind if I did? I am curious to learn more about this sorcerer. Perhaps I could lift the curse.”

“Have you magic, then?” Sirvat inquired politely.

“I am half-faerie,” Lara explained, “and aye, I do have magic.”

“Who is this?” a voice demanded.

Lara looked up to see a woman with dark red hair. Behind her were two others, both dark-haired.

“Lara, these are my brother’s women, Uma, Alcippe and Felda. This is Lara, a woman of Hetar. She is Magnus’s guest.”

“His new lover, you mean, Sirvat,” the red-haired woman said sharply. She glared at Lara. “You are, aren’t you?”

“And are you?” Lara said haughtily.

“I am Uma, the Dominus’s favorite of his favored women,” came the reply.

“No longer, I think,” Lara said softly.

Uma looked outraged. She tried to speak but no words came out.

The two brunettes, one tall and slender, the other petite with a sweet face, giggled. They seemed pleased that Uma was upset. Interesting, Lara thought.

“You are being rude, Uma,” Sirvat said. “Who my brother takes pleasures with is not your affair. Consider yourself fortunate to have attracted him, and to be living in the castle of the Dominus. You could find yourself back on the auction block.”

“Ohhhh,” the two brunettes gasped in unison.

“You are not my mistress!” Uma snapped.

“No, I am not,” Sirvat said. “I am the sister of the Dominus, and run his household. If you persist in your rudeness I will speak with Magnus.”

“Hah!” Uma said. “He cannot hear us. How will you communicate such a complex request to him?”

“He hears Lara,” Sirvat said with a wicked smile. “She is not Terahn, but Hetarian. We have never known a woman from Hetar before, but she is now here, and he can indeed hear her voice.” She laughed at the look of surprise on Uma’s face.

“I hate you!” Uma said, and she ran from the chamber.

“Can the lord Dominus really hear your voice? I am Alcippe,” the taller girl said.

“Yes, he can,” Lara told her. “Both he and Captain Corrado were very surprised.”

“Uma is very haughty,” the smaller girl noted. “I am Felda. She thinks she has such favor with the lord Dominus that she can do what she wants.”

“But she cannot,” Sirvat said with emphasis. “Felda, dear, will you see a servant prepares a comfortable chamber for Lara? The empty one next to mine is suitable.”

“Of course, Sirvat,” Felda replied, and hurried off.

“Felda is very sweet-natured,” Sirvat said. “And Alcippe is very intelligent, are you not? Poor Uma has nothing but her lush body with which to attract my brother.”

“She has been successful so far,” Alcippe said with a chuckle.

“Beauty is both a blessing and a curse,” Lara said.

“Yes, I can see you would know that,” Alcippe said with a wry smile. “I do not think I have ever seen anyone as fair as you are.”

Lara sighed. “It has been said of me many times,” she admitted.

“Are you a slave?” Alcippe wanted to know.

“No,” Lara told her, and then she explained her history to her two companions concluding with, “The Dominus has agreed that I am a free woman, which is fortunate since there is much I wish to learn of Terah. I hope some of you will be able to accompany me when I travel outside of the castle precincts.”

“We do not go outside of the castle or its grounds,” Sirvat said. “No woman leaves the environs of her village in Terah. And we do not leave the castle.”

“Have you no capital city?” Lara asked Sirvat.

“What is a city?” the younger woman wanted to know.

“It is a place of many buildings, and districts. There are merchants and lords, common folk, and markets selling all manner of goods. A capital city is from where the government rules,” Lara explained.

“We have no such place,” Sirvat replied. “It is here from the castle that the Dominus rules. And it is here that many in my brother’s service dwell. In the castle depths there are shops where the villagers may purchase any goods we need. We have but to request an item, and one of our women servants will fetch it. All the shops that a woman might patronize have women to serve. There is no need for us to leave the castle.”

“But how did Alcippe and the others get here? They are slaves, are they not?”

“Yes, they are,” Sirvat said. “Now and again my brother goes to the villages. Sometimes women are offered to him for his pleasure. And sometimes, if they please him, they are given to him.”

“Your men are afraid for their women because they think they cannot speak,” Lara said. “This curse has made it very difficult for your society. Before the sorcerer did you interact, one village with another?”

“There are tales of festivals, and fairs, and holidays celebrated as a whole,” Sirvat replied. “But such things were done long ago, and even we are not certain in the truth of these tales. If not for the books we should not know at all.”

Lara nodded. “But the Dominus in his castle remained your ruler.”

“Yes,” Sirvat responded.

Lara wondered how large the Terahn Dominion was. Was it possible for Magnus Hauk to control an enormous territory where only the men fraternized with one another? How far did his lands extend? None of it, to her knowledge touched Hetar. Were there other seas? Other lands? There was so much to learn, so much she needed to know. Did Magnus Hauk have the answers she sought? Why was she here?

Felda returned and said to Sirvat, “The chamber next to yours is being aired, but it is ready to receive an occupant. Have I missed anything?”

“Shall I repeat myself?” Lara asked them with a smile.

Sirvat nodded eagerly. “It is such a fascinating story, Lara. Tell us again, and let Felda hear. And then we will show you our gardens. Have you ever had a garden of your own? We grow the most beautiful flowers.”

“Aye, I have had a garden,” Lara told them. And then she again commenced a recitation of her history for them. “I am the daughter of the Crusader Knight, John Swiftsword, formerly a Mercenary, and Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries…”

LARA SOON LEARNED that Sirvat and the others had not exaggerated. The women who lived in the castle did not venture away from its precincts. But looking from a tower window Lara was stunned by the beauty she saw, and she wanted to see more. She longed to ride out into Terah although she did understand why Terah thought their women too helpless to travel.

Helpless? Lara almost laughed aloud at her own thoughts. Sirvat and the other women were far from helpless. They managed the Dominus’s household and all that went with it very capably. And Lara assumed it was much the same in the rest of the castle, and in the villages beyond. But there seemed to be two separate societies in Terah. The men did what they had to do, and the women the same. They interacted very little except in the bedroom. And as long as the two factions could not act as one, Terah would remain as it was, and it would be vulnerable to Hetar sooner or later. She had considered when to tell the Dominus what she had learned. She needed to understand Terah more before she spoke with him.

Finally Lara approached the Dominus one late afternoon as they sat together in his own private garden. They were, after several weeks, on a first name basis. “Magnus, are you aware that your long-ago sorcerer placed his curse not upon your women, but upon the men of Terah?”

“What?” He looked very surprised, as well he might. “I do not understand, Lara.”

“Your women speak,” she told him. “It is you men who cannot hear them. That is exactly what the sorcerer wanted. That you no longer hear the voices of women, for it was a woman who had overcome him.”

“The women speak,” he repeated in a slightly bemused tone. “You actually hear the sound of their voices? It is not something in your head?”

“It is not an imagining, Magnus. The women have voices, and they speak,” Lara told him. “Uma, who is unfriendly and unpleasant of temperament, has a particularly sweet voice. She sings sometimes in the evening when she is not needed by you. I am sorry you cannot hear her voice, for it is lovely.”

“Can your magic undo this curse?” he asked her.

“I don’t know,” Lara told him. “I will ask Ethne.”

“Who is Ethne?” He had never heard her mention that name.

Lara lifted up the crystal from the narrow gold chain about her neck. “Ethne,” she said aloud, “please show yourself to the Dominus.”

A flame within the crystal flickered brightly.