Thus Ashurran had been living in clover at The Drunken Bear, eating, drinking and training with a sword at her heart's content. There was only one unfinished business bothering her: Zosstra's gang. They could do any sort of a foul trick, like shoot the inn-keeper or her son in the back or set the inn on fire in the dead of the night.
Ashurran didn't wait for the attack. She quietly asked around in what parts Zosstra had been seen most often, saddled her horse in the evening and rode out without a word to anyone. She was right in assuming the brigands wouldn't miss the opportunity to get even with her. They attacked her ten to one without hesitation or remorse, and equally without hesitation Ashurran cut them all down, the leader included, and was back at the inn before the midnight.
As Keanmair saw the blood on her clothes and sword she instantly knew what the girl had accomplished.
She was so awed at Ashurran's prowess she didn't have the heart to chastise her for going alone.
"What a marvelous warrior this girl is, who has barely turned twenty, that she single-handedly goes to fight ten opponents and returns without a scratch on her!" she thought and started to ply Ashurran with questions about her past and future.
Ashurran evaded plain answers, not yet willing to tell the truth about her origin and past exploits, not all of them honorable, and about the strange ways that had brought her to Yunan. As for her plans for the future, she had none and even hadn't thought about it, for she had learnt too little still about this new country and its worth. To tell the truth all she was thinking about at the moment was Keanmair's lush breasts in the low neck of her dress.
Finally the worthy inn-keeper said to Ashurran, "For the longest time I've been wanting to find a wife for my son. Do me an honor by taking him as your lawful husband. It seems you and he like each other quite well."
"Aye, indeed I like him, and he likes me, but no more than a brother and a sister."
"Isn't Elatha the reason you've decided to stay in our inn?"
"No, he is most definitely not. Why do I need a copy when I could have the original?"
After saying that she took Keanmair into her arms. The mistress didn't resist her for long, or rather didn't resist at all. She waited only a few heartbeats before embracing Ashurran back and pressing her lips to hers. It felt strange and unusual for Keanmair to embrace another woman, but this kind of affairs wasn't uncommon in Yunan, and no one had ever frowned upon them. Soon Keanmair overcame her embarrassment, because her heart already had been longing for Ashurran, and her body followed.
Keanmair and Ashurran went to bed together and made passionate love, enjoying themselves beyond words and beyond measure. From henceforth they shared a bed and lived as a happy family. Elatha loved Ashurran as a sister and more often than not confided in her his affairs of the heart to receive advice or sympathy.
Talking to Keanmair and to the inn's patrons Ashurran gained plenty of valuable knowledge about Pandeya. The most important of all was the fact that women had so much more rights here than back in Lankmar, and could do as they liked with themselves and their property. Keanmair was the best example of that.
Of course women were still considered the weaker sex, and after the marriage husbands tended to abridge their freedom. Yet any road was open to a woman, even if that road required more determination and courage of women than of men. There were female rulers in Yunan kingdoms, even a few High Queens. And a great sorceress wielded as much power as a High King of Yunan, having no need of learning the arts of the field to smite down her enemies.
A woman could even join the army.
"Of course, the likes of us would never gain any rank higher than a centurion," Keanmair sighed. She herself had served in the King of Falaris' army, more than twenty years ago, and came back home with a baby at her breast.
"Many a wench join the army only to find themselves a good husband or a strong male to beget a child with," she explained to Ashurran. "A year, and they are back, taking off their armor and sitting near the hearth rocking the cradle. And many of them join the army to earn money and learn weaponry, and after that they are too back home to fight off barbarians and bandits. The country is big, no way there would be a man in each household to defend it. So we, women, fend for ourselves, and not badly. But for you, with your skills, there is no place better than the army. Not in Falaris, though, our King is at war with nobody at the moment. Probably Kiaran will do better, since the mountaineers keep harrying them. They'd be happy to receive any fresh fighter in Kiaran, and twice as happy with such a fine warrior as you."
"You are not bored with me already, aren't you, to try and turn me off like that?" Ashurran joked.
Keanmair sighed, "You will be bored with our little inn long before that. This kind of life makes happy only those who have seen the world."
Indeed, after some time Ashurran became eager for travel again.
"That's my fate, it seems," she said. "I just can't keep still for long."
"Well, it's really not your fate to cling to my skirt forever," Keanmair agreed readily, although not without sadness. "Glorious deeds await you. I was quite the same in my youth, so I understand you as no one else. Once you are tired of the battlefield, return to us. This is your home, our door shall be always open."
Thus Ashurran set off for Kiaran, taking Keanmair's love with her. During cold nights she would remember the merry inn-keeper, her heart of gold, her hot embrace, and get warmer.
YOU ARE READING
Gates to Glory: Epic Fantasy Adventure Tale (Ashurran #1)
Adventure[FINISHED]She was born in a tribe of fierce female warriors. Swords and spears have been her toys from the cradle. She has the only path before her, to become the tribe chief after her mother. Yet Ashurran dreams of strange lands, of bigger battles...
