The Tattooed Princess

The Virgin and the Amazon

        At the table where Sharvur sat, Zaria at his side, the men were discussing their chance encounter with the Amazons. They seemed proud of the fact that they had defeated them and still held one as a prisoner. A discussion ensued about their past and how there was a time when no army was confident in a clash with them and how legends about the women warriors traveled far and wide. Each man had a story to tell which had come down to him from his father and his father's father. They were all about these ferocious women who were adroitly attached to their horses and whose skill at full speed with a bow and arrow was so historically lethal.

            "We all have heard how they breed like horses with men every year during a short truce with their enemies in the summer." It was one of the older commanders who was reminiscing the tales he had known.

            "Yes," another said, adding that these women upon bearing their young nine moons later would slay the boys and keep the girls to raise and nurture them in the clan of female warriors.

            "They are like animals," said a third. "Their wild ways have no logic. They are driven by the seasons. Their lust to kill us men is famous. At the Trojan War it was said twelve of them came to fight, knowing they would die in honor. And it was only at the hands of the Greek's heroes . . . Achilles and Ajax that they were soundly defeated."

            "Yes, but today they are still a formidable foe," Sharvur warned his men. "Quicker than cats and stronger than bears. Encountering the nine of them as we did on our return across the plains . . . it was like engaging with a small army of elite soldiers."

        The twenty or so men who were there--all seated in a circle around their king nodded in agreement.

        "And they did not die easily those we had to destroy," he added. "Not once did we hear them scream or retreat from our swords and arrows."

        "Time and their smaller numbers has taken nothing away from these Amazons," the hero Murka added. He had been the first in command of Sharvur's envoy, returning from the west. "Their strength and resolve to kill or be killed can give a man a fear like no other . . . once he realizes it is women who charge him." Several of the men shouted out in agreement.

        "I watched with amazement as this one I have now locked in my palace threw a double-bladed axe which split a tree." Sharvur added. "She leaped from her horse and took two of my best men down. And on the ground she bested them both without weapons before another three of our own managed to capture her."

        "What will you do with this captive, king," One of the younger general's asked.

        "Well . . . I will first have to see if she is as ferocious in my bed as she was on the battlefield, I suppose."

        All the men laughed, clapped and raised both hands up in honor of their leader's good-natured camaraderie and prowess. Zaria looked down in embarrassment and felt disgusted by their words and behavior. Wishing to speak on behalf of the captive, she held her tongue, knowing it would only incite more aggressive comments and bullish antics from the brutal men she was in the midst of. But Zaria knew very well that in private conversation with the king she could have a better chance of interceding on Aella's behalf.

        That evening, Zaria's intuitions were confirmed when Sharvur opted to call the safer and more compliant Branka to his bedchamber for the night.  While taking his request to inform her, Zaria saw the opportunity to have a further word with Sharvur regarding the new prisoner in the palace.

        "I have spoken with the Amazon warrior today," she told him as he was making ready to retire for the night. "And I found that she, like all women, deserves to be treated well, Amazon or otherwise."