The woman removed the gown that she was wearing to reveal her complete nakedness beneath, then handed the garment to one of the five armoured men who had accompanied her. Next to her, another woman pulled off her own gown and handed it to the man nearest her. She too was naked. This was Arlis and she was a head taller and more muscular than any of the men present, and fifteen years younger than the woman she was to protect.

“I don’t like it my Queen.” Said the man to whom the Queen had handed the gown. “This could well be a trap.”

The Queen was a woman in her early forties, but she did not have a soft and flabby body. She had the hard muscular figure of a woman who took regular exercise. Hers had not been an easy life. For the last twelve months she had been waging a war against one who wished to take the throne for himself. She had personally fought in five battles and had the scars to prove it. The scar above her left breast was the most recent. The result of an arrow piercing her armour. The wound had not been deep, for  the armour had absorbed most of the energy of the weapon. But it still bothered her and she would absently rub at it when deep in thought.

Queen Jeshalka fingered the scar with her left hand and looked across the valley to the hill on the opposite side where seven figures were standing. She watched as two of the male figures removed their gowns. They too were unclothed beneath. One of the men was tall and muscular. Clearly the body guard. The other was frail and leaned heavily on a staff. This was Lord  Daron. Though he had sided with her adversary, she respected his honesty. He was an old warrior who was renowned for keeping his word.

“Of all the lords who have opposed me, Lord Daron is the only one I trust. I do not think he will betray the rules of truce.” Said the Queen shielding her eyes from the bright summer sunshine with her right hand as she looked across the valley.

When she had first received the news that her enemy had wanted a meeting at which to discuss peace, her advisors had told her that it was a trap. But she had over-ruled them. She had said that any opportunity for peace must be pursued and so had agreed to meet with her enemy. But there were conditions which she herself set. She had said that she would meet with her enemy with just one body guard and at a location that she would choose.

All four would meet alone and unarmed and their soldiers, who could number no more than five, would be no nearer than of a league to the meeting place. There was one final condition, which on the face of it had seemed bizarre, but because of her enemy’s reputation for treachery was necessary. The four would come together completely naked. That way they could all be sure that no-one carried concealed weapons.

The hunting lodge in the middle of the valley of Kalin on the island of Karn Inglis had been her choice. She knew it well for it had been here that she had spent many happy days when she was a child with her parents, more than thirty years previously.

She had received a reply swiftly and her enemy had agreed to all of her terms.

Queen Jeshalka turned to her bodyguard Arlis and smiled. “Come then, Arlis. It is a fine day for a stroll in this beautiful countryside.”

With that, the two naked women began to slowly walk down the hill to the hunting lodge a short way distant at the foot of the valley below, leaving behind the five armour-clad soldiers.

“Your hair suits you like that.” Said Queen Jeshalka to Arlis without taking her eyes off the two male figures making their way down to the hunting lodge from the hill opposite.

Arlis put a hand up to her long blonde hair, which had been plaited and wound around in a bun at the back of her head and held in place by a long bone pin. She smiled absently. “Thank you Madam.” She glanced sideways at Jeshalka’s hair which had been similarly prepared. “Yours looks good too.”

“Walk slower.”  Commanded the Queen. “Old Lord Daron over there is taking longer to walk down to the hunting lodge because of his lame leg.”

Arlis nodded and took shorter steps as the two made their way over the short grass down towards the lodge.

Jeshalka looked around her at the lush meadowland on which the hunting lodge stood. There were no trees or bushes for anyone to hide behind and the topography of the land made it possible to see for a league up and down the gentle valley. There was nowhere for assassins to lurk.

Jeshalka had been enjoying the walk down to the hunting lodge, feeling the warm embrace of the sun on her bare skin, and was almost sorry when the pair of them arrived at the western entrance to the lodge. Arlis opened the door and walked ahead of her Queen scanning all around for signs of perfidy. The lodge was empty and bare, because all furniture, all trophies, all weapons had been removed.

They walked up a short passageway from the western door before opening another door and stepping into the large empty hall of the lodge.

Lord Daron had yet to arrive. They had lost sight of the two men as they had reached the bottom of the valley, but they could hear the old Lord’s cane striking the stone floor as he limped his way along the eastern passageway.

Arlis stood to Jeshalka’s right and was tensing and relaxing her arm muscles rhythmically as she stood alert for any possible attack.

The striking of the cane on the floor and the shuffling gait got louder and louder until finally the door to the eastern passageway opened and the two men entered. Lord Daron was stooped forward as he leaned heavily on his bodyguard’s arm.

“Greetings Lord Daron.” Said Jeshalka with a broad smile. “It has been too l…..”

The man straightened up and Jeshalka found herself looking at a young, though bony young man.
The man who had pretended to be Lord Daron held out his long and thick walking cane to the other man, who was on his right. They each twisted the cane to the left and then pulled. The cane separated and both men held half of the length of the cane each. Protruding from each of the half-canes were razor sharp blades the length of a man’s arm.

Even as the swords were being drawn from the cane, Arlis was reacting. She called out a warning; “Assassins.” Which in this world of half speed sounded as though it came from the throat of a slow, old man. Arlis’s right hand reached for the bone pin that held her hair in place on the back of her head and pulled it free. Now it became clear that this was no bone pin, but a throwing knife with a bone handle.

As the two men levelled their swords at the women, Arlis’s throwing knife was already spinning through the air towards the bony man who had pretended to be Lord Daron. By the time it had embedded itself in the man’s neck, Jeshalka’s own throwing knife had been pulled free from her hair and was on its way towards the second more muscular attacker.

Jeshalka’s knife was aimed at the man’s chest, but his reactions were a lot faster than the bony man’s. He swung his short sword at the tumbling knife and hit it in mid flight, sending it spinning towards Arlis as she moved forward to wrest the sword from the collapsing bony man. The deflected throwing knife sank into Arlis’s flesh just beneath her left breast and she let out a cry of shock and pain.

Arlis fell onto the bony man’s body as she started to vomit blood, but before she hit the ground she managed to scoop up the bony man’s short sword and send it skidding across the wooden floor to her Queen.

Jeshalka bent to pick up the sword and as she straightened, the muscular man was beginning his attack. The assassin’s sword swept through the air in a deadly upper cut aimed at Jeshalka’s head. The Queen rolled to her left and fell to the floor, avoiding the blade. She got quickly to her feet, and with her own sword in her left hand she made some practise swings in the air to get the feel of the balance of the weapon.

The assassin made his own rotating sweeps in the air with his sword, while edging towards Jeshalka.  Then he sprang forward and rained a volley of cuts towards the Queen’s naked and vulnerable body. But Jeshalka was a warrior queen and was as comfortable with a sword as she was with a sceptre. She parried each of the cuts skilfully before ducking and diving to the right. She dodged under the last of the assassin’s cuts and found flesh with her own weapon. She rolled over and came nimbly to her feet, turning to view her handiwork.

A great gash had been opened up in the assassin’s left side. Though not deep, the man was bleeding heavily from the wound. He glanced down at his side before charging at Jeshalka with a battle cry on his lips. Once more he made rapid cutting moves forcing the Queen back as she parried the blows. She ducked under the last cut and swung her own sword in an arc. Again the blade found her assailant’s flesh.

The assassin sank to his knees, dropping his sword. He now had two wounds that ran parallel to each other that ran from his midriff to his shoulder blade.

The Queen walked up to him her sword held out at arms length. She placed the flat of the blade under his chin and used it to lift his head.

“Was Lord Daron a party to this treachery?” Asked Jeshalka looking down at the man. “Tell me. I shall make your end swi…”

Jeshalka had under estimated the man. He was not as badly injured as she had thought. He moved like lightning. He picked up his sword and deftly flicked up his blade at the Queen’s sword arm in a savage flowing movement  while throwing himself backwards away from the razor-sharp sword that had been under his chin.

The assassin’s sword cut clean through Jeshalka’s wrist, separating hand from arm and sending it, with the sword still clenched in the hand, flying towards the eastern door. Jeshalka let out a scream of surprise and pain and staggered back clutching at her stump which now spurted blood, before falling backwards onto the floor. The assassin was getting to his feet, intent on finishing the job of dispatching Jeshalka when two things happened.

The first was that Arlis, though dying, had managed to pull the dagger from her own body and had hurled it at the assassin. It span threw the air and embedded itself in the assassin’s sword arm causing him to drop his weapon.

The second was that the Queen’s armoured bodyguard’s who had been waiting nearby, were alerted by the sounds of conflict and had charged down the hillside and were entering the hunting lodge through the western door, even as the assassin was hit by the throwing knife.

The assassin bent down, picked up the severed hand and quickly escaped through the eastern passageway, where his five armoured colleagues awaited him.

The captain of the guard entered followed by one other guard. The other three were engaging the enemy soldiers outside the lodge. Years of experience had not prepared him for the sight that greeted him. The floor was covered in blood, Arlis was breathing her last and his Queen was lying in a pool of her own blood with her left hand severed and taken as a trophy.

The Captain knew he had to act fast. He had to get Jeshalka help as swiftly as possible. As he knelt at Jeshalka’s side, tying a cord tightly around the stump to stop the bleeding. He spoke to the other soldier.

“Run as fast as you can back to the camp. Bring the Royal Surgeon back with you as well as the rest of the troops. Make haste!”

As the soldier ran from the hunting lodge and the other three guards battled with the enemy outside the lodge, he only hoped that help would come before his Queen bled to death.

( c ) 2009. All Rights Reserved James Lee Mace.