Mi'Raah,8

Mi'Raah

by J. Ingram

Eight: Oh No He Di'int

People should not eat alongside horses.  The noise is terrible.  But, clearly, the Jystians had resolved this for generations by having music at their feast days.  Nothing that might startle the equine creatures, but enough to eliminate the smack and cud-chewing of animals arranged at troughs on all four sides of the banquet hall.

As for the smell, it's been possible to avoid that issue so far in the story, and I'll be damned if it's going to be addressed right now.

The tables for people were much further inside the decorated, open-air livery.  These were sheathed in white table cloths that blew in the wind and flared up at twills of flutes daring to put any excitement into the graceful melodies.  Or, perhaps that would be how the Holy Riders would be fated to sweeten it to penitents later, at temple.

Koriandra startled out of being bored with chin-in-palm for a moment to snatch down a candle that'd been blown out and rolling across the table, during one such crescendo.

"I'll kill Odentalis for you."

She was able to say, because they were seated a whole other table.  High Horse Priest Odentalis and his followers ate at the other end of the livery.  King Baeltheon enjoyed a seat at the north set of columns along the edge of the hall.

"No, that might make him a martyr.  I'm getting very drunk right now, but I still know better than that, I guess."

"It suits, I suppose.  I'm presently terrified of both religions.  Not only was Odentalis right about you, when I fully believed him a dolt and easy to ruse, but your trick with that gold bottle was too good."

"I hate that damned thing!" Mi'Raah flared, ruddy-cheeked. "Do you know, I wanted to convert the entire capital city by now but obnoxious, piratey him and that bottle he stole from the bowels of temple my the Siren says I can't.  I had that indestructible piece of junk stowed away, for a reason.  My sisters wouldn't stop sending me irritating messages at odd hours...  All those great miracles I worked over this last month, enough to inspire flies off of dung forever, but instead I'm stuck relying on you."

"Do you mean myself and the Fahrwandrian cobbler, the Trystian scribe, and several dancing boys from the Sun Islands?  That's aside from the obvious beach-women you've been recruiting.  I'm proud of the Silver Spade--"

"Really?  I hoped you'd pick something nautical."

"You asked me to pick a name for them, didn't you?  All of the ones you had me recruit are here this evening, not in conspicuous silver dresses like you've forced me into, and paying close attention to anyone who might slip anything over the loud smell of music."

"I thought this venue was placed downwind?  Perhaps I've got a cold and my nose is stuffed up."

"Can you fall ill, Mi'Raah?"

"A girl can dream of mortality, can't she?  I'd rather be able to get sick than get heartsick.  I'm starting to sense I'm capable of suffering for a man."

Koriandra should have been whispering in the first place, but now she adjusted the loose straps of her robe, leaned in, and really did, "Is it Arudelle?  But I thought he committed... well, an unspeakable act against you?  It unsettles me, the way you jest about it."

Mi'Raah's eyes wandered.  "I have a cruel sense of humor.  He disgusts me, but I can't ever say it to his face.  I'll write it, I suppose, but I don't dare make that mistake wherever he might hear.  Nor do I wish to get out of practice--one doesn't want to be punished by Arudelle."

"Why don't you just kill him?"

"Oh, I love you, my bald darling, murder's your answer for everything.  You completely misunderstand, however.  I do all this because I am Arudelle's protector.  I am responsible for his life while here and everywhere else.  This island must be safe enough for him to even set greaved-foot upon.  The man is not ignorant, in the least.  He knows exactly how to use his enemies and his allies.  Imagine, that I am his greatest weapon."

A server came by, refreshed Mi'Raah's drink and left the bottle.  It happened to be a very pretty gold one.

"Dammit!" this silver-headed woman got to work blowing at the familiar glass neck and fishing its paper note out fast, fearful of notice.  "I don't know which is worse, that it found me even here at a party, seduced a scullery-simpleton, or that it would dare be wine-stained and punish me when I can't afford to miss anything in it..." she began reading, "Dear Love, your sisters are doing well in their collars--I know because I wrote them."  here, Mi'Raah set it down a moment, and smoothed nervous fingers down either side of her neck while she re-captured steady breathing.   "...Therefore, I hope you still don't harbor any real designs of leaving me."

"Poor thing, he knows about your other mission, to seduce the King of Jyst."

"How can the Queen have turned out to be so much younger than me?  I'm a charming, completely prone, exotic, immortal creature made to ruin the world if I don't like it--and King Baeltheon's not even attracted?  Ugh, it must be the cultural translation, I'm not hippy or leggy enough or... whatever men like on this side of the Vastest Sea."

"It's why I tried for Prince Bonnis, actually."

"Not that I was looking forward to sleeping with Baeltheon, but I'd prefer a man who's due to fall asleep afterward--"

"Possibly during..."

Arudelle breathing plans of world domination into my ears at every hour of the night!  And here's more... 'Now that you have cohorts from all the Known Seas well in hand, through The Wench--that's you, Kori dear--you should engineer a fall of their defenses exactly on my signal.'"

The Feast of Foaling was held one the summer solstice, to christen horses born at the first of the year for having survived so long.  High Priest Odentalis rose now from his seat to call out their many silly horse names in ceremony.  While an incense boy walked alongside him, swinging smoke up from an elaborate golden burner-on-chain, titles such as 'Stop-Man-Stop', 'Peace Admiral', and 'Broadside' were called over pairs of pointed ears.

Koriandra was not drawn into the ceremony for a number of reasons.  "Is that what you are?  Really some kind of god!"

"Shush.  I'm sitting here trying to think of a way to still get away from Arudelle, though he's pegged my actions down to the moment, for all practical purposes, with this new plan.  And no, I was exaggerating."

"You were not!  You said you could destroy the world, then so why don't you?"

Mi'Raah blinked.  "End and destroy are two different things.  The first involves my sisters who are far away, being held hostage.  The second is not something I ever want to see again--I'd take my own life before..." she trailed off,  "Besides, you would die and then my sisters and I would have to start all over.  I need mortals in order to live... it's complicated.  Better for my sisters and I to, heh, place our bets on somebody who won't screw up existence itself so that we can win the race alongside the mortal winner for as long as we can.  Understand?"

"Not a word of it."

"Fine by me.  I make as much sense to you as that ass Arudelle does to me, and so this should all stay safely secret.  What in three worlds is that Odentalis doing?"

"Oh, that's my horse, Kanna.  He's showing off that I won't be able ride her or do anything for her, not until I deliver you.  Inna is there on the other side.  They'll be having foals by the first day of next year.  The new mothers--broodmares--are always blessed last."

The two women watched while Odentalis spoiled both with long strokes down their necks and a real hug for each, with arms around their whithers.

"That man is weird."

"I swear he puts on Odeon's tackle when no one else is watching.  He gives me longing for a justified murder by the Divine Dagger like nothing else."

Mi'Raah snickered.  King Baeltheon, and his tiny-waisted waif of a Queen wife stood to very, very light clapping, for the horses' sake.  "This is also a special day for this kingdom," Baeltheon announced, "because it marks the final hours of an entertaining contest between the High Horse Priest and High Priestess Naah Maah Mi'Raah."

People whistled and cheered for her.  A great many were different stages of tan according to their flesh tones--indicating the volume of important people who coincidentally won free voyages to the Sun Islands at Mi'Raah's last worship service.  Then she and Koriandra looked, and were also able to see a great deal of the impoverished Jystian dancing women now well-accompanied by men of standing at the royal court.  Keeping their surprise make-overs after Mi'Raah's Outer-Reincarnation series really had changed their lives.  Koriandra laughed and budged Mi'Raah with an elbow.

Odentalis noticed as well from across the livery, and he was not pleased.

"But who has won?" Baeltheon gave his grand smile.  "Believe it or not, my scribe says the score is even.  But he's also a Trystian scribe, so I can only trust an obsession with numbers and a bias for beautiful godly women without a head start in the race oh-so-much." they all laughed, "I shall call the contest neck-and-neck then, and it'll feel far more Jystian, won't it?  Odentalis, she's really giving you a run for all you're worth, isn't she?"

"Hrmhmr." Odentalis made this sound.

"He's letting me get ahead, he's fond of me, I'll admit that now." Mi'Raah called out.  So many loved it, but Koriandra was confused and tugged on her shoulder. 

"I thought you wanted to win?"

"No, I need for him to lose.  That is far different.  That is what Arudelle does not understand about this.  Faith is not a manipulation.  I am dealing with people's hearts.  They won't believe in something better unless they are sure it is better.  And what else is more convincing than the truth?"

"Are you suddenly noble?"

"I love the sea and I am a good actress--but I never said that I was a liar.  In fact, it is impossible for me to lie, I wasn't made for that."

Baeltheon said a lot of other ritualistic things, but managed to emphasize with a great amount of personal interest, that he hoped either Mi'Raah or Odentalis would convince him this very night, with more miracles.

That was when Odentalis stood and presented the King with a scroll.  "Within, my King," he told everyone, "Is the name of the latest progeny by Odeon and out of Inna, a purebred Fahrwandrian mare."

The king was delighted.  "It's named after me."

Koriandra dug nails into the tablecloth. 

"It's a yearling now, and promising.  I kept him out of his event precisely to surprise you.  Surely, some trick of extra rouge can't compare to the most stunning example of horse breeding in ages--flaws in conformation have been corrected, he's passed all the rites and won every single race in foreign sees that I could manage without your hearing."

The scribe marked down another point, to heartfelt congratulations when a rare white stallion was brought forth.  Its hide almost shone silver in the faint light.

Mi'Raah dipped a finger into her wine glass, swirled it. 

Baeltheon went on bragging, and Odentalis smiling harder.  Beyond the fields, the sea began to crash harder against the cliffs, truly roar.

Then, the horses were turned out to entertain themselves at the dark, far reaches of the fields and the people were released to walk on the stone floor at the center of the livery.  Drums and hard flutes ignited the real summer solstice celebration.

High Priest Odentalis was doing so well, that he was granted a dance with the Queen though, he hadn't asked for it--and oddly enough he didn't seem to want it either, though he was polite.

Mi'Raah bit her bottom lip, lifted finger and let a lone red drop return to her goblet.  Korianda eyed her.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not speaking to my High Priestess because I don't wish to disturb her and so make it into a miasma... you should do the same."

Just as the sun began to set, the waves climbed higher and louder.  White fray burst over the far rock edges.  Holy Riders were curious and more vigilant, to see the horses tramping back.

Odentalis was a terrible dancer.  He kept his back to the others and this romantic view of the cliffs. As the glittering music raised, and it was necessary to dip the Queen off her toes, every ebb in the changing weather put him off.  People pointed and cried out.

A wave larger than the others had coalesced and spread across the red sky.  Everyone feared they would be crushed.  But then, it formed legs, an arched neck and the sun shone through flared nostrils and two pointed spade ears.  The Queen saw it at its worst from her lowered perspective and screamed.  Odentalis slipped in water--it must have been--and collapsed ontop of her.

"High Horse Priest!  What is the meaning of this?  A stallion made of water rears up above the sea and the towers of this castle, then you crush my wife?"

"But, your majesty, I didn't--  That is not the power of the horse god, nor can I control it!"

"Put that wave down, immediately, this is a sacrilege and disgraceful.  Should I duel you to have it done away!"

Odentalis kept swearing he could not, but then it all splashed into nothing and died down like a fountain.  Here, Mi'Raah showed Koriandra her wine goblet.  Tilted, but the liquid refused to do so.  It stayed flat against the other polished edge of the gold cup, like a cut slice of cake, standing obedient on its own.

Odentalis and Mi'Raah locked a glare across the room, as guards were called.

"I think he believes he can cover this fair kingdom, all by himself.  He doesn't need you, my King Baeltheon."

And Mi'Raah was the only one left laughing.  She slapped the table again and again and lay her head down, guffawing like a maniac.

Koriandra confided, "Was that really your miracle?  Your sense of humor really is cruel.  I'm so sad for you, Mi'Raah..."

...

More Mi'Raah coming up fast...

(Randitty-O-Meter:  6, And so... he really didn't!)

Looking for more fiction?

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Here are some, to start.

• podcastle
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Mi'Raah,7

Mi'Raah
by J. Ingram

Seven:  Horse Huntress, part 2

There was some shuffling in the horse-god's ornate stall.  Koriandra assumed that Odeon and his High Priest might get an earful at feed-time, but when she rounded the corner, sword in hand, there was only a familiar-looking obnoxious, dark-haired man clutching feedbag to his chest.

"You can't have any."

"I'll say--Odentalis?  What in the Seas is wrong with you, eating horse-feed?"

He shrugged, and stuffed another handful of grain into his mouth, spoke around crunching it.  "I haff to taste this... fursh." a swallow, "Or, Odeon won't eat it.  Alright, so, I admit the damned Gymkhana is getting to me.  Mi'Raah's really gotten ahead with ten paternity spells and an audience of worshippers given free carriages, vacation-voyages to the Sun Isles and what else--"

"Odentalis, a contract with my Chief has been breached.  My mares, Ina and Kanna are with foal--I never wished for them to breed.  And the condition they are in, on top of that, is worse.  Foaling mares can be athletic, not so fat they're going to fall over.  And they were thirsty, ragged, dirty... I watered them, for this morning, but how will I ever recover them, afterward?"

"Oh, put that sword down, before I excommunicate you and whistle for the whole herd to run in and have you kicked."

Koriandra cussed hard, then obeyed.

"Now, Rider Kori, what happened to the mares you and your Chief gifted to Jyst isn't really so different from you trying to get yourself under the late Prince Bonnis, for an edge--though now, we can't hope to ask him for an unbiased account, can we?  For the holy record, I'm not in control of whatever you females do."

Koriandra shoved the High Priest, hard.  Odentalis dropped his food a moment, shocked and thinking.  Then, he shoved her back. 

"For someone who sets around all day eating molichaff and lying to his priests, you're surprisingly strong, Odentalis..."

"This isn't girth, it's muscle.  Don't you mock the High Priest's weight when he has an image to keep--"

Koriandra was taller.  She braced low, kicked out his footing, and let the headlock she took guide Odentalis in crashing the rest of the way down.  She then forced fingers into his nostrils and craned his head back, to pin him there.

"You dangled Ina and Kanna in front of my face all this time, telling me that one day, I'd ascend rank and earn the right to ride my own horses again.  I trained them up from phillies, I raced them right alongside the Great Hunter himself, through His sacred fields..."

"And then, per agreement, you gifted them to the Jystian King when you converted."

She panicked, "Why corrupt all that I have left?  After I sacrificed for my Chief and abandoned my tribe..."

Odentalis barely managed to speak the next bit, "So then, you feigned conversion to the horse god all this time?  You were sent here, to Jyst, on some errand on behalf of Fahrwandur?  Filthy spy."

Koriandra finished crying, but she feared to let Odentalis up.  He slapped her hand away, and was able to use his strength to budge her off.

"I am the only one who can... I can kill Mi'Raah and get away with it.  A dead dissident can't charm the King."

Odentalis considered.  "You did an excellent job with Bonnis, didn't you?  I can tell.  Though, if she overpowers you, as I suspect she can, Koriandra, then I won't vouch for you.  You'll be dead and... well, I suppose I win, either way."

Now, hours later, Koriandra slapped Mi'Raah's hands away:

"I thought we'd become friends, Mi'Raah.  I said for you not to deal with me like that."

"You were my captor only yesterday.  If you truly cared for me, Rider Koriandra, you would have never set up on your horse and watched Odentalis beat me.  I'll never forget it."

"Don't be offended.  It's my job.  I'm the lowest rank, slated to ride behind the herd in the place of the weak.  High Priest Odentalis wants me to earn favor.  I think that, if I can prove that you are harmless, I may be able to convince him and the King as well, to let you go.  It's terrible to do this to a lone woman, with no family or protectors..."

"Oh, don't pull that sisterhood filth on me again." Mi'Raah wanted her robe, but Koriandra didn't dare move and get it for her.  "And I realize that now I can finally complain about the smell of this place.  Is that dung, down there by your foot?"

"Heh.  Alright, so you can read me.  My true goal is to be right about this situation.  I showed you mercy back there, on the royal road.  Odentalis found out about it.  If I don't give him some good reason, then he will consult the Council about my banishment from the Holy Herd."

"Wrong again..." Mi'Raah sang.  "All creatures are from the water.  They have pulses.  I thought you were listening back in the throne room.  I can tell when people are lying to me."

"But you can't read minds, or else you wouldn't let me stand so close to you."

"Stop buying yourself more time."

Koriandra scratched beneath her cheekbone, then cracked her neck.  "Do you think I care whether or not you really live or die, Mi'Raah?  I'm about as certain or in control of your fate as I am convinced of horse-power."

"So then, you don't believe in the horse god Odeon either?  I sensed revulsion--that was the very speed of your heart just now."

"I could be revolted by you instead."

"I may not be able to read minds, Koriandra, but I can make a very good guess at why I've not been given my robes yet.  Now your heart races with an eager sort of..."

Koriandra blushed and flew into speech.  "Horses are prey animals.  Which means, no matter what, they are stupid and more concerned with being fat and happy and following their fattest, happiest leader.  And that doesn't count for much.  Perhaps I would have been sold, if this whole thing was a pride of lions--as I am a hunter--but the King and all his forebears are obsessed with horses.  Some centuries ago, it just happens to catch on."

"Testify!  And so sister-girl, why are you here, on this island, on these horses, if you hate the god Odeon so much?  Why keep watch over me when I'm legit now according to contest rules and a guard shouldn't be needed?  Why are you letting Odentalis lead you when it can't be a love for him that you're holding onto?"

Koriandra snapped her mouth shut, looked away.  "I didn't work, for a year, to resort to this.  Throw the contest, Mi'Raah, that is what I stayed on to say.  Then I get the promotion I badly need.  I'll pay you anything."

"Rebuke!  Oh, she's got demons in her, she's still a liar!" Mi'Raah cheered.  "Oh, Sea!  Settle your salt essence on this bald one's shoulders, bless her, sap the moisture pressuring and muddling her thoughts.  Bead it on her skin.  No, erupt it.  Make her shout it out!  Give me the truth!"

"You cover yourself already!  Stop dancing about when I haven't been with someone in a year." Koriandra covered her mouth.  "How did you--?"

Mi'Raah winked.  "It was Prince Bonnis, wasn't it?  But you didn't enjoy it.  That is the source of your anger."

"I'm not..." Koriandra pressed hands flat against her scalp.  "I wasn't afraid to do whatever it took, to get these damned Jystians out of Fahrwandur, forever.  Even deny my true self... Every island in the Known Seas wants to fight its wars on our Sacred Plains and with our weapons, with our mercenaries, according to our ceremonies... I came here, because of the Chief.  I gave away my horses for the chance to... and then Prince Bonnis showed an interest in changing Jyst.  I was asked to attach myself to him, bewitch him, marry him, share his title and make sure that he would overthrow the horse god and whatever else, with Fahrwandur in mind.  If I'd done that, then I would have been able to come and go to Fahrwandur as I pleased, with nothing owed to my Chief except for a wife's useful gossip about her husband.  A settled life with space for Ina and Kanna... I swore that it would be worth it, I could do it.  The Jystians had purchased earth--our land--and I had hope of little else!  Then, just this morning, I found that I gave up my horses, my girls, to what else but abuse and distress?  All the while I've been out there lying about my creed and my passion.  I hated to do it.  It went against myself, Mi'Raah, I crossed terrible lines I set down a long time ago, when I first became a woman..."

Mi'Raah hugged her.  "Shh..."

"And when he learned that I was not a lover of men, Bonnis refused to marry me, to help get free me of this entrapment in this fake religion.  He was going to expose everything.  After all that work... the Divine Dagger came over me.  The Great Hunter was calling me... I stabbed the Prince until he died.  A servant was blamed."

"Divine Dagger?  No, you are too angry, girl.  For how long has Fahrwandur been trying to take over this kingdom?"

"We haven't allies if that is what you are thinking, though everyone in the Known Seas is probably after their own piece of Jyst.  I'm Fahrwandur's last hope."

"Haha!  Well hallo there, fellow vulture.  Would you like to work together?"

Koriandra dropped a hand to her side, feeling the pommel of her sword against the inside of her wrist.  She cursed and took a breath instead.  "You are irritating beyond belief, Mi'Raah.  Just when I thought I might care... who are you, really?"

"The one who is going to dredge the very liquid of your blood up through the pores of your skin by osmosis if you don't help me." sad smile.  "Immortal creatures can die, you know.  Nothing personal, shiny-headed one.  I just take this silly contest very seriously.  Let's join up, as the horses do."

"Even though you know I cannot be trusted?  I have lied to both you and Odentalis this morning when he charged me with spying on you too, surely you realize that now.  Nor can I be converted to something I don't really care for."

"You don't need to care, Koriandra, you just need to have a winning smile, and look good in silver."

"Will the horse god Odeon die, then?  That will be difficult when the stallion is rarely seen.  I did try hunting him once.  I assumed that the horse must come in for his feed each day, but it turns out that not even Odentalis himself is completely sure of where Odeon is all of the time."

"Ugh.  Odeon must be a very pretty pony, for everyone to be so stuck on his wayward, fat ass." then, Mi'Raah pouted.  "Are the beauty standards different on this side of the sea?  Should I be eating more?  High Priests, especially the priestesses, are eternally cursed with an anxiety over their image."

"That is not an answer."

Mi'Raah dressed herself.  "I have a boy-friend, or... a friend.  No, a stalker... Some kind of man in my life, or perhaps a fiance?  A fiance who wants to make me his second wife.  Don't mind me, humoring myself is what keeps me sane when he's a fiend.  Well, this man is something horrifying to me, in case you're getting any ideas, Koriandra.  I can't escape him, he is watching us with real intensity, and you'll be hurt if you think this is going to be anything more than a strategic alliance."

"You aren't my type anyway, Mi'Raah." Koriandra smiled, "Because you're crazier than Odentalis, or all the other High Priests in these Known Seas, put together."

Mi'Raah laughed, "Good.  Though I do admire you, Koriandra.  I'm learning that it's not necessary to sleep with men in order to take their power away."

"I'll let you make that terrible joke at my expense, now that we're on the same side."

"...Thank you.  I might have needed it."

The two women walked out into the courtyard together, a field with statues of pleasant, grazing mares.

"...Did the bottled message tell you anything else about me, Mi'Raah?"

"I explained already, Koriandra, I perceived everything about you on my own."

"With your superior sea-powers?  Come on, be honest about what you're really capable of."

"No, it was your look.  If you couldn't be allowed to protect me while--in--the bath and not along the walls, you were going to be aroused to the point of murder.  And then I also had this strange sense that you'd done it before."

"Aren't you a clever little joker...  You and Odentalis are more alike than you think, Mi'Raah.  I just feel so inspired, by the end of each day, to take the both your heads off with this sword."

...

Mi'Raah will be right back, after these messages:  Um... stay cool? I'm all out of message.

(Randitty-O-Meter:  7, I just noticed that Koriandra is four syllables.  This should be fun to play with.)

Mi'Raah,6

Mi'Raah
by J. Ingram

Six: Horse Huntress, part 1

Mi'Raah, once again somebody's high priestess--though, all over Jyst, they weren't yet clear whose she was--enjoyed this fresh new status the contest gifted, with an elegant morning.

At present, however, Mi'Raah was beginning to question whether it was a bath in milk-and-honey hallowed female politicos were used to?  Or, was it just the milk by itself?  No, the blood of a thousand virgins?

"Don't look at me like that, I can't help you."

Mi'Raah blinked at Koriandra, who'd spoken.  In her silver-headed morning haze, it was suddenly vague which of them had the power to sense mortals by their auras or shifts in heart palpitations.  The bath was in an ancient style, a sunken tiled floor with a platform by edge for servants or... spectators?  How odd.

"What, can't you read minds, Mi'Raah?"

"No, I cast scientific perceptions and then I work miracles based on a womanly instinct.  There's a difference, you'll see."

"I am stuck guarding you through this contest, but I don't believe in you Mi'Raah.  There's yet another difference."

"And such thorough guardianship it is..." Mi'Raah frowned that her bath was starting to stick and curdle.  Worse, a strange, loud bubbling started at the far brink of the sunken base.  Koriandra drew her sword.  Mi'Raah shouted for Koriandra to stop being so aggressive for once, and just leave it be.  And then Mi'Raah begged, cried, for Koriandra not to engage dislodging the cork plug, but the other woman was already arm-deep in caramel muck.

"Gods and Seas, this is awful.  Mi'Raah, why can't you just bathe in water, like a normal person who's fooled the King of Jyst and his man-pet Odentalis into handing power over, on a silver platter... This is stuck tight--"

"Remove your arm, Kori, or you may lose it!"

The clog was on the wrong side of what should have been a simple drain.  Water was only meant to flow down and out, but now it fired up.  Koriandra got blasted in the face.  She tripped and fell in the pool of bathwater, armor and all.  Mi'Raah caught her round the shoulders and made a spectacle of it, as if they were both drowning, and then tried to force her captor onto the aqua tiled floor, so that they could both 'escape', Mi'Raah said.

"Blame you and skin cats!" Koriandra spat out sugary milk and wrestled Mi'Raah back into the brewing water--you haven't bathed in weeks, I can still smell it.  The clog's gone, and so I'm definitely going to see that you finish, Mi'Raah!"

"But it's more that I've been afraid to..."

Upheaval, rage and miasma!  Both women shielded themselves from the far end of the bath when suddenly some object burst free, flew past them and crashed on the opposite wall.  The wild object blasted a classic mural of three dancing woman to crumbs, beheaded them.

"Damned thing..." Mi'Raah waded to that end, grasped the slippery edge, and reached through debris for a gold bottle.

"Was that the clog?  It didn't break?"

"It never does.  It shows up in my soup, or in a puddle b'neath my sandals... which is why I rejected dinner and refused to go out into the rain.  Oh, but now I learn, it isn't opposed to finding me in a damned bath--with no water in it.  And here I believed I was being ridiculous, for preferring to stink."

Within the familiar gold bottle was a letter:

Dear Mi'Raah,

After discussion, the other captains and I have concluded that there must have been treachery where Prince Bonnis was concerned.  If he was murdered, then a true enemy to the Crown and its horse god may still be in the castle and able to help you.  Do you see how we might still use Bonnis--the late Bonnis--to our advantage?  Therefore, the plan has changed.  I order you to find the schemer and exploit his plot to our cause.

(And then there were several more small pages during which Arudelle berated Mi'Raah for trying to leave, then fawned over her, a sentiment which completely withered at the tail end.)

...Does this mean we can get back together?

Mi'Raah angrily ate the paper when Koriandra wanted to read too.

"There's that look again.  You're an odd woman, Mi'Raah."

But Mi'Raah realized that she was not looking at Koriandra, but through her, behind her.  Feeling the anger behind the woman's pleasantness.  Enforced pleasantness.  Koriandra was always so wary because she was exhausted.  She felt she couldn't trust anyone.  So then, why did she stay so nearby?  How could Koriandra stand it when there was a very storm in every artery around her heart, thundering?  Soon, the bile and blood were going to broil and break forth to mark everyone, like the milk and honey still trickling down the walls and dripping from the ceiling.

Mi'Raah, as slick as if she'd been born, grasped Koriandra's jaw and looked into her eyes.  "Don't move.  I think I need a sample of your saliva."

"For what, you crazy witch?  Nobody touches me like that--"

"I am going to work a miracle.  And, I am already beginning to sense... that you may like it."

A week earlier (while you were on paperclip safari)...

Rider Koriandra did her usual whistling hard when she came within view of the Royal Livery.  Odentalis would know she was there in time enough for chores, but Koriandra hoped it might also mean the obnoxious High Priest wouldn't feel a need to actually see or speak to her.

But on this morning, the seventh since the Holy Gymkhana started (it was what those in the Jystian Court had started to call Mi'Raah and Odentalis' religious show-down), the Royal Livery was not just left wide open, but it was desolate.  All the stable hands were off doing something Odentalis must have wanted.  Something grand, wasteful and stupid, like shouting at the farrier's to fit gold horse shoes, probably... Koriandra rubbed her middle finger in idle circles over her scalp, rather than be seen scratching the tattoo all over her shaved head--was everyone, truly the entire priesthood and Odentalis' stooges, really gone?

No one had told her, the foreigner, the omega priestess.  She'd been left behind.



A bird sang.  Korianda stole fistfuls of her shirt.  A pulse of fresh air came too, as she began to walk again, this time, west.  How many years had it been?  Odeon might really be out there, through so many rows of abandoned halls.  No one at all, mucking out stalls, brushing down coats, or glaring at her tattoos, though Koriandra did miss the cowering.  She dared breathe again at a second turn, a wider corridor, then walked faster.  What of the horses?  The whole herd must have been turned out, with god Odeon and his consorts.

Go faster, girl.  Run--or, don't--suppose there are animals left, and they spook.  No, fly, flee!  Inna and Kanna should be just out there.  So good to see something Fahrwandrian and unspoiled.  Her heart could sail on clear, for about another age, if her girls were really out there.

The bright wood architecture began to frame green pasture beyond.  Koriandra never imagined that her eventual trespass would be silent, in daylight and direct.  She spied two of only a few training saddles kept for newer horses or untrained foreign-breeds and managed to heft at least one down from the wall.

Now, out in the air and those sun-kissed fields at the brink of sea-cliffs, the world was big and hurtling out in all directions.  Koriandra felt empowered to run like the horses did, to scream and laugh about how there had only really been a hundred and eighteen steps between an omega priestess' regular chores at the head of the Royal Livery, and the animals she so loved and missed riding.

"Ina?" Koriandra called, then, "Kanna?"  A tangle of mares far out lifted heads, but went back to grazing.  Not a one came to her.  "They can't have forgotten their names?  Unless, Odeon is there with them." Koriandra crouched, for fear.  No monstrous black stallion.  Only round, gently hovering things.  Careless of the stable hands, to have rushed out war-mares to join the broodmares and consorts. 

The horses intent on grazing could not be moved, but Koriandra at last found two bay mares.  Koriandra covered a smile.  Yes, those were the brands.  A stylized black horse, and then its other half, a white skeletal temple drawing.  Together, they made the very tattoo covering her head and slipping down her back.  Her girls. 

But something was wrong.  Koriandra approached the horses from the side, petted who should have been Ina, along the belly.  Kanna, barely within reach of her fingertips, had the same problem.  Both horses looked exhausted, with grossly distended flanks.  Where was their water?  Both mares were sweating hard.  So they had become Odeon's mates?

"Where are you?" Koriandra yelled at the top of her voice.  So many horses startled around her, "You son of a bow-legged dam--come out! I see what you did to them... Oh, how could you do this to them?"

Odentalis was found soon after, whether he was usually wanted at this hour or not.

"You promised me a great many things when I came here, Odentalis, and I pledged so much in return--but I never, ever gave you permission to over-feed and then breed my good Fahrwandrian mares into the ground!"

Where was her sword?  Where were her arrows?  Koriandra was going to find that sniveling Odentalis or his false god and tear them to pieces...

...

More Mi'Raah tomorrow, in Horse Huntress, part 2.  Giddyup!

(Randitty-O-Meter:  6, I have some cool pics of Koriandra coming up!)