Untouched Concubine (6 page)

           
Fear shot through
Mandia
. “And my mother…?”

           
“That’s where we’re going. Come, dress. We’ll move fast.” He turned to enter the hut,
then
stopped. “I meant what I said earlier.”

           
“I did, too.”

           
He looked back at her with a genuine, full smile,
then
entered the hut. She followed.

~~~

           
They went down the mountain and by dawn, they were back in the jungle. All day, they walked quickly, quietly, with
Jass
stopping every once in a while to listen.
Mandia
couldn’t imagine what for.

           
She felt nervous asking, but had to know by around midday. “Who were those men?”

           
“
Lenn
assassins.
The best ones.
The one with the sword knew me. We’d met before.” That’s all he said about it.

           
Around dusk,
Jass
gestured for her to stop walking. In a low voice, he said, “We are close to the haven. I’m worried because we hear nothing. Usually, that trail there,” he pointed at what looked like nothing to
Mandia
, “would take us within, but we’re going up and around, just in case.”

           
Fear shot through
Mandia
. What if
Lenn
had already been
here,
killed everyone, including her mother?

           
They silently made their way up a rock cliff covered in red flowering vines until at a vantage point over what
Jass
had called the haven. They looked down and the things
Mandia
saw scared her more than anything she’d experienced yet.

           
The haven was blocked on three sides by somewhat high, gray cliffs. Vines covered everything, and exotic plants filled the ground. There was a shallow pool in the middle, but it was filled with bodies.
The dead of
Farna
.

           
All around the walls,
Lenn
soldiers guarded terrified men, women and children. As they watched, one brave, yet foolhardy man made a rush at a soldier, and the soldier stabbed him through the stomach, then dragged and tossed his body in the pool. The man’s family cried horrible sobs.

           
Mandia
turned away. She could barely breathe. “Why are they keeping them alive?”

           
“They’re waiting for me. They know I’ll come, and I have. They want to assassinate me for killing King Herean.”

           
Mandia
couldn’t look again. “Do you see my…my mother?”

           
A moment later,
Jass
said, “Yes. She is with the butcher’s wife.”

           
“How does she look? Is she hurt?”

           
“She is afraid, but unhurt.”

           
“Oh, what are we going to do?”
           
He looked pensive. “But I’d
need
 
distraction
,” he mumbled, then looked at her.

           
“What are you thinking?” Her heart pounded.

           
“I need you to walk in through the front way. The rest, I’ll take care of.”

           
“But
Jass
, you can’t possibly…I mean, there are a dozen men down there.
Maybe more.”

           
“Do you have the strength to be my distraction? If you are too afraid, I understand.”

           
Mandia
couldn’t see how this would work, but her fear had formed more into
an anger
, a deep hatred for
Lenn
and what they did to every society they came across. How could they treat human beings like this?

           
She gave
Jass
a steely look. “Yes. I can do this.”

           
One side of his lips curved up. “I know we’ll make a good team. Now, take off your clothes.”

~~~

           
Mandia
felt the thick brush against her soft, naked flesh. She took three deep breaths before entering the haven, which was blocked by poorly stacked palm fronds.

           
She pushed them aside and walked in.

           
Everyone stared, and several of the soldiers laughed.

           
“
Mandia
!” she heard her mother cry, but she kept her gaze straight ahead.

           
One of the soldiers approached her and looked her body carefully over. Then he reached for the red ribbon in her hair, fingered it. “You are his concubine. Only an assassin’s concubine wears the red ribbon.” He turned to the rest of the gawking soldiers. “
Assa
Jass
, weak man, is offering her to us in his place.” He turned back to her. “Pitiful.”

           
He continued in a booming voice, “But if this is his offer, we may as well enjoy it, though it will not satisfy.”

           
Mandia
finally spoke the words
Jass
instructed her to say, and to say it loud enough for him to hear. “Why are there so few of you?”

           
The soldier turned back to her. “We are the dedicated. We stayed when King Herean was slaughtered. Our Gray Goddess
Sella
has not abandoned us; in fact, she demands us to continue in her name, and that King Herean now sits at her right hand. We will all be blessed by her once vengeance is ours.”

           
Even more loudly so
Jass
could hear, she said, “This is all of you? Everyone else left?”

           
He got close to her and reached for her naked hip. “Enough talk.”

           
Then the screams.

           
Jass
was everywhere at once, swinging from vines with his daggers out, slashing throats and switching hands, hopping off one vine onto the next, taking down at least five shocked men this way. He landed by the pool and looked at
Mandia
with admiration.

           
She gave him a little smile. She mouthed the words,
good luck
.

           
Now
Jass
had six men coming at him and everything happened so fast, his speed unable to be accounted for, and his blades and arms turning red with blood.

           
Mandia
gasped only once, when the soldier who she’d spoken with jabbed
Jass’s
leg with a thick sword.
Jass
acted and moved the same as though nothing happened and expertly cut the man open.

           
How long did this slaughter go on, and how could any one man do this?

           
Mandia
didn’t know, but she felt a primal pride in her for him. As the last man fell,
Mandia
heard her mother call again.

           
She felt and smelled her before she looked into her eyes. Her mother
sobbed.,
holding
Mandia
in her arms. “I thought you were dead, I’d never see you again. I thought I’d die here, in this place, in that…pool.”

           
Mandia
pulled back so she could look her mother in the eyes. Such sadness mixed with joy. “May I speak?”

           
“Of course, oh, yes, of course!” She continued to weep gently.

           
“The man?
The one who just did this? The one they are all cheering now?”

           
“Yes? Is he the one who you were sold to as concubine?
           
“Well, yes, but…It’s a long story.”

           
Jass
joined them, and wrapped
Mandia
in a colorful blanket. He bowed low to
Mandia’s
mother. “
Your
Majesty,” he said.

           
She looked at him curiously. “I know you. I do. I know that face, but younger.”

           
He smiled at her.

           
“You’re Jasper, my husband’s protégé! Of course, I remember you! You…” She looked at
Mandia
. “And you? Are you?”

           
They grinned at each other and
Jass’s
bloody hand clasped
Mandia’s
.

           
“Oh,” she cried, “My husband knew about you two, said his high goddess
Kila
who spoke to him told him…” She laughed one short laugh,
then
passed out in shock and joy.

~~~

           
Three weeks later,
Jass
and
Mandia
were helping clean up the city. The rampage hadn’t been as bad as it had at first seemed.
Jass’s
killing of King Herean did have the desired effect, but there were a few true followers who didn’t give up, thus what damage had been done to the city and the trap at the haven.

           
Jass
bought her mother and set her free, inviting her to live with them. Her mother was quite pleased with her private room overlooking the city. And
Mandia
was glad it was on the other side of the house at night when she and
Jass
lost themselves in pleasure.

           
Each time she bathed, she carefully re-braided the red ribbon into a thread of her blonde hair. People didn’t marry in
Farna
as they did in
Crona
, but rather wore different colors of ribbons in their hair. The one signifying long-lasting dedication such as
Crona’s
marriages was white, and concubines had different colors, but only the assassins’ concubines wore the red ribbons.

           
Jass
asked her to change hers to white, but she refused. This ribbon was as much a part of her wardrobe as the ruby ring he bought her.

           
And one day he surprised her by asking her to braid a red ribbon into his own hair. He said she was an assassin, too, that she has slayed his heart.