Palace Walls

Part Six

Lady Keturah once made a sculpture of Her Majesty. It was a tall, elegant marble figure that captured her image so well, you would have thought it was the Queen with white paint smeared over her skin. But one mysterious day, Lady Keturah's heart sizzled with rage. She added two marble cobras to Her Majesty's sculpture-- one that adorned her wrist and one that coiled around her neck.

--from The Life of Queen Clotilda: Volume Two, by historian Penelope Oltu

A few years earlier

Lady Keturah pressed her back against the rough stone wall. Heart pounding, she glanced over each shoulder and made sure nobody was watching. The courtyard was clear, aside from crumbling gray-stone ruins and the first light-gold leaves of autumn. She exhaled in relief. Will I really be lucky enough to become her dougeggi bride? she thought, All that remains is the ritual! It's quite a lot of work, isn't it, just to be with her? I see, I know she's the Queen, but even in this ritual, we'll be swirling about like a bunch of drunken Cyclopes...why can't it be a little...private? She shook her head. Oh, well. Might as well let the world know; they'll find out, anyway. Almost makes me wish she was no Queen, but a simple castle-dame. Wait! She might actually be happier that way....

"I give you my blessing."

Lady Keturah shuddered. The Queen stood before her, a warm smile filling her face. Even now, she carried a sleek black cat between her arms and massaged it with a manicured, green-jeweled hand. The cat squeezed its eyes shut and purred in a low, rolling rhythm.

"Y-Your blessing?" winced Lady Keturah, shaking her head, "B-But...we haven't yet started the half-wedding ceremony...!"

The Queen lifted one hand, but the cat still purred.

"I need permission from nobody except myself," she declared, dark eyes smiling, "Especially in a matter as personal as this. I expect you feel the same, my pearl."

Lady Keturah nodded, amazed at the warmth in the woman's eyes and voice. The Queen's face was usually stony and lacked all emotion, and she spoke in a flat, hoarse voice, so to observe her eyes crinkle, her mouth turn up at the corners, her voice ripple with joy...that was the closest she felt to the pulsing heart of the universe.

She felt the Queen wrap a thick, fleshy arm around her body before pressing her lips to her cheek. Lady Keturah's heart skipped a beat; Her Majesty's kiss was like a flame blazing into ice.

"As you understand, these relationships are a bit complicated," the Queen said flatly, "But it's nothing we can't handle...having an extra person to contend with. The men do it all the time; look at them, with their Cyclopean concubines!" She shook her head. "You know, my mother had one as well...but the practice wasn't as widespread."

"But I'm not a Cyclops, nor am I a man."

"I'm getting to that." The Queen resumed petting the cat, making sure to jingle its hooped earrings. "For me, it makes more sense that I be with you, as you're my husband's female equivalent. And seeing that you are otherwise single...." Her brows flicked upward. "The relationship is, by all accounts, an acceptable one."

Lady Keturah looked away and strode further into the courtyard, feeling the leaves crunch beneath her feet. She closed her eyes and saw the pain of a future she didn't want to live. How dare I be an Oracle...! Her eyes shot open.

"B-But we're both women!"

"There is nothing said, nor anything written, denying us the pleasure, my pearl."