The Gypsy Queen (27 page)

  “Oh
Yana
,” she asked, “do you love him too?”

  “Are you in love with King Bastion?” Mille said.

 
Yana
blushed and looked down. She looked up, unable to speak, her eyes betraying an obvious truth.
Yana
certainly did love that darling boy, once upon a time... and she certainly did love King Bastion, now. The galley girls’ mouths all dropped open, and they began cheering and teasing, as
Yana
’s lack of an answer was answer enough.

  “Join the crew!” the servant girl shouted.

  They all loved him.

  Mille led
Yana
back to Bastion’s chambers, at her request. The door was closed, and neither of them wa
nted to part ways
. They walked
instead
to a
nearby
balcony that overlooked the streets west of the palace.

  “Look,”
Yana
pointed down. “There are gypsies in the city!” Mille looked down. Sure enough, there were. That was not entirely remarkable, as it was not unheard of.

  “There’s lots of gypsies!”
Yana
added. The fact t
hat there were so many
made it notable. It was dark, but the music she could hear was everywhere, telling their tale.

  “There have been many more in the city, since the news of your quest. Many more people have welcomed them in, after hearing that you saved King Bastion, and his men.”

  “He saved me too,”
Yana
replied.

  “
Kushti baxt
,” Mille said.
Yana
was going to agree, but stopped cold.

  “Good luck,”
Yana
translated. “You are a gypsy!” Mille smiled as big as s
he could. She was indeed
.
Yana
looked closer, looking into her eyes.

  “And we have met before,” she said. “Haven’t we?”

  “Yes, you have,” Bastion said, walking up to them both.

  “Where have we met before?”
Yana
asked, trying hard to think. Mille gave a demure smile, held one finger over her lips, and departed without a word.

  “You scared her away!” she teased Bastion.
Yana
had been having such a fun time with Mille that that she had nearly forgotten the difficult day. Bastion’s face reminded her.

  “May I sleep in your chamber tonight?” she asked.

  “You may,” he said, leading her to it. They entered and closed the huge door.
Yana
was drawn to the small firepit on the balcony, which held a fire already roaring hot. His servants must have started it for him, she figured. Bastion poured some wine, and they had wine and cheeses together.
Yana
found them both to be divine.

  “The city seems to be alive with gypsies, Bastion,”
Yana
said as they ate. “They were everywhere out there.”

  “Yes,” said Bastion. “They are celebrating our victory. Some of the captives were villagers here in the
kingdom
, and all of them are happy to be home. Writing songs of
Yana
, the gypsy warrior.”

  “Why do they think I am a hero?” she asked.

  “I told them that you were. I gave permission for
the
citizens and
captives to discuss your efforts freely.”

  “You did not ask me,” she said. “Why would you give that permission?”

  “Look down below,” he answered. “See the gypsies in the streets, dancing with the villagers and citizens?”
Yana
had her answer.

  “You did it to help relations with your people and mine. So that the city would welcome us,” she said. That was a nice move.

  “Yes. But I confess, I did it for selfish reasons
, too
.”

  “Selfish?”

  “I did it so that they would welcome
you
,” he said.

  “How is that selfish?” she asked, the answer dawning on her even as she said it. “Ohhhh....” she trailed off. He wanted her to be welcome with the people of
Jedikai
...

  j
ust in case she might want to stay.

Bastion pulled out a
package, and handed it to
Yana
. She recognized it with joy. She took it from him, and pulled her harp out. She had played it for him at the fire, before the dance. She was so happy to have it here. She took to it and began playing softly. She hoped it would lend Bastion comfort, just as it comforted her. Bastion pulled over a large drum, and set it between his legs, as they sat by the fire.

   “Tonight,” he said, taking a sip of wine, “we celebrate like gypsies too.” He began to thump the drum, deep loud bass in the center, sharper snaps around the edges.
Yana
played assuredly, and matched her speed on the harpstrings with the beat of Bastion’s djembe drum.

 
Yana
thought it must have been the best music she had ever heard.

  They slept soundly that night,
Yana
pressing in to the curve of his body, just as she had the night she found him, and since then.

She was no longer certain who was protecting who...

_____________________

The Gypsy Queen- CHAPTER 16- “Stone”

  Degonyat presided over the slave auction in Kaffa. It was going slow, since he had less stock. Too many older people, too. His buyers liked them young. The auctioneer was shouting and hollering numbers, as the traders poked and pushed the woebegone slaves. They were always at their worst during the sale. Some of them panicked or cried, and that was always a nuisance. It didn’t affect their prices too much, since the traders knew it was normal, but if any of them became too rebellious, they were less desirable and would not fetch as high a price. It was an art, Degonyat believed, beating them just enough to make them viable at auction, and not rebel- but not so much as to make them appear worthless or overly-wounded. He prided himself in getting just the right combination. 

  Today, however, the auction was not foremost in his mind. It only served to anger him, reminding him of the invasion perpetrated by the black riders of
Jedikai
, as
Volga
and his fresh stock of slaves were absent. Degonyat could not let such an invasion go unpunished, and he had to find a way to shut down the black riders for good. They could put him, and even most of Kaffa, out of business. They were ruthless, no doubt. He saw what short work they made of eleven men.

  “
Bari
,” he called out to his right-hand man. “How are you coming along?”

  “We have over two hundred men assembled, and we have begun what training we can.”

  “Only two hundred?”

  “I know you asked for four hundred, but it is no small task to find that many,”
Bari
said.
“Some left for Nikomedia.”
Degonyat frowned, his huge eyebrows furrowed together like one thick shrub.

  “How many more can we get?” Degonyat asked.

  “I will get some more when the next ship comes in from Trebizond,”
Bari
said. “But it will still leave us short of the four hundred.”

  “I thought so. I want you to see how many you can recruit from the ships, and then I want you to use slaves.”

  “Slaves?”

  “Yes, slaves!” he said, exasperated. “I want you to go to all the slaves we have after this auction
, and see who wants to fight.

 
“Tell them that I will release them. I will guarantee their freedom, if they help us fight in
Jedikai
.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 
Yana
walked out of the city
alone, waving to the gatekeepers as she went. She saw the main gate, set off to the right
of the entrance
. She had barely noticed it before, but she had always been on horseback. The gate was massive, as high as the city walls, and looked heavy. Dark wood planks tightly set together, on metal wheels with a wide, flat surface.
Yana
had never seen the gate actually close before. Maybe they only did that when there was a threat, she thought. Her curiosity made her want to watch it open and close, and see how it worked.

  The gate was imposing, and
Yana
felt like it had tales to tell. Those old gatekeepers she had enchanted probably had a few stories too. She walked past, realizing that the gate had more than one function. It would keep an enemy at bay, and protect the citizens well enough... but it would also imprison them, unable to leave.
Yana
liked the gate open.

  She exited the city and headed to her right, to the west meadows. She had wanted to come see her friends sooner, but the death of the King prompted her to tend to Bastion first. She did not want to leave him alone, on a day like that. She had mixed feelings about it- she loved him dearly... but she felt like the more time they spent, and the more tender moments, the more difficult it might make things when she had to go. It was too late anyway, she realized- to say goodbye to Bastion would be excruciating, no matter how or when.

  Her thoughts
swirled into a new set of questions. Could she, perhaps, stay with Bastion? Could she abandon her travels, to be with him?  It was cruel luck, that he would become King, chaining him to the city. She would rather take him with
her
, to destinations yet unknown. It was unlikely before, and now it was impossible. Even more unlikely, was the thought of her as some sort of queen. Queen of
Jedikai
? Her? The only appeal was a chance to be with the man she loved, a man like no other... and man whose equal she knew she would never meet. How could she just walk away from him? She was drawn to him like a magnet, and could not picture telling him goodbye. What she wanted was quite the opposite. In fact, what frustrated her the most, she realized, is that she simply did not know what she wanted more. She had no desire to choose.

  She wanted the impossible.

  She wanted both.

 
Yana
walked into the caravans camped
in the west meadows. She saw men fixing their wagons and shoeing horses with blacksmiths that were clearly city folk that had come out. She saw gypsy women eagerly weaving baskets that they would surely sell or trade in the city. Music was everywhere, some faint and some close. Smells of fires cooking and incense burning faded in and out with the breeze.

  City folk were among the camps, just as well as the gypsies had been aplenty on the streets of
Jedikai
as she made her way out. It was a sight she would have never expected to see, and it warmed her heart to see it. She owed Bastion her gratitude. He really was a brilliant man, she thought. He will make a good King. With that, her thoughts wandered back to the ridiculous idea of her being his queen.
Yana
pulled back her scarf, exposing her face to the sun.

  “
Yana
!” a man shouted over the chatter of noise and voices. Everyone stopped and looked at him, and then around. Everyone turned their attention to her.
Yana
! Her name
was shouted countless times in ragged unison. People dropped their activities and congregated around her, asking questions and speaking to her so that she could not even begin to respond. She smiled and engaged them.

  “Oi!” she shouted. “Oi!!” the people shouted back. They reached out for her to touch her, and she reached out with her hands to try to acknowledge everyone. These were her beloved people, the gypsies, and she was overjoyed to be with them. She had never felt as welcomed and loved as she did walking into the meadows, at that moment.
Yana
loved her solitude, too... but not today.

  New music burst forth
as news that Yana was among them spread. Children bounded around her, cheering her, squealing her name and dancing. She certainly had not intended all this. She wished Bastion had been able to come celebrate with her. He could only promise he would try to come later. The
kingdom
needed him.