“Move just a little bit to the right.” I instruct, panting slightly, then smack Adan lightly on his shoulder when he doesn’t move.
“Don’t hit me.” He is irate, panting more than me. “Let me catch my breath.”
I feel the excitement receding by the second. I groan, “Adan! For the love of God, please stop talking and get moving!”
He pants, trying to balance me on his arms, but in the process slams my head to the wall.
“Ouff!” The breath rushes out of me. My legs slide down his body, the pain diffusing my arousal completely.
“That’s it.” I grimace, gingerly touching the back of my head, the spot which was throbbing slightly. “I get only a thirty minutes break, and you just wasted my time!” I glare at him.
If anything, Adan looks more irritated than me. “It’s your damn fault. Why do we have to try these exotic positions? Why can’t we ever have sex like normal people?”
Putting my hand on the wall for purchase, I slowly get up. “Doing it against the wall isn’t exotic. It’s pretty standard.”
“No, it’s not.” He retorts, covering himself in the fold of dhoti. “You are weird.”
I lean forward to kiss Adan on the lips. “You love my weirdness, don’t you, love?”
“You know I do.” He kisses me back, it’s full of unfulfilled desire. “I’ll see you at night?”
Putting distance between our bodies, I pout, “Possibly not. I have watch duty till midnight.”
“After midnight then?” His voice turned seductive. Pity, it didn’t really work on me.
“I’ll be too tired by then. I need my beauty sleep.” I make my escape by hurrying down the long hallway before Adan could say anything else in the hope of pursuing me.
I trail a gentle finger along the trellis hosting the purple ivy which runs along the long corridor. It was one of the few beautiful things still left in the city of Skazokh. Once the capital of Nyarasar, famous for its architectural marvels, now reduced to smoke filled rubble. Only the King’s Palace and fortress along with a few other government buildings remain unscathed. The other buildings of the wealthy, which were marvels in themselves, have suffered some form of casualty.
Pausing by one of the crenels, I look outside.
My eyes meet the unyielding dark ash colored mountains that extend on either side of the castle. This castle which is more built more like a fortress is named Fort Sarsen, flanked by the mountain range of Onamna, named after our chief God, Onamui of the Green fields. The sky is blue tinged with orange, the color of impending sunset.
Lowering my eyes, I scan the surroundings. In contrast to the sky above the mountain range, the city below lies in a smoky haze.
The city itself is almost empty. The citizens were warned six months ago to evacuate and they did so. In droves. I had seen from room the long line of the caravans as people piled their lives in those vehicles and made for the countryside. Some went to the mountains which were just outside the capital, the others farther to the coasts.
The people who were initially resistant to make move, even they had left a few months ago. The stragglers had lost either property or family or friend to finally concede that lives were more important than being resistant to change.
Six months ago, our port city Easniekh fell. After a bitter and long drawn out battle of over one year, the enemy fleet finally crossed the canal and attacked us on our land. I believe they had been toying with us for that one year. For every demand we didn’t meet, for every new trade deal we made with the country of Drohan and the island countries, Alshirin unleashed a volley of fire on Easniekh.
First, it destroyed the port. Luckily Easniekh wasn’t the main port city. When it fell, the traffic was moved to Purtuh, which was a no brainer anyway. Because Easniekh flourished due to our trade with Alshirin, which naturally got suspended when they attacked us.
The port city of Purtuh handles all our trade now, which was all the way to the other side of our country, away from the country of Alshirin.
It should be good news, right?
I walk over to the small cut-out on the fort wall to look at the horizon. The dusk approached, darker than usual because of the purple smoke that permanently hangs in the lower atmosphere now.
The smoke from the mysterious but deadly fire missiles of the Alshirin.
The sky is hazy with the purple death over the farmlands all the way from the outskirts of the Skazokh to the coast. It’s mysterious because the smoke doesn’t kill the crops, no, it affects the people.
The Alshirin always attacked under the cover of the dark. After a few hour of them unleashing their purple fire, the following morning would see the inhabitants all unconscious. They would be unconscious for hours and hours. The ones who’d wake up, had developed a persistent cough. A cough the cure of which is still beyond the knowledge of our healers even after more than two years of the war.
The country of Alshirin didn’t attack the lands, but the farmers and residents instead.
So, although the port city of Purtuh was unaffected, our main trade items of crops and spices which were sought all over the realm has dwindled. Even the mines in the mountains been shut down due to lack of manpower.
The land on the other side of the mountains were mainly forested and not as fertile as the land near the narrow canal that separated us from Alshirin.
The enemy has been crippling us strategically for over an year.
And even with all the riches and the support of the neighbouring countries, Nyarasar has been a sitting duck.
I exit the corridor which runs along the fortress wall and step on the courtyard. And get stopped by Naas.
Naas has been leaning against the wall, chewing a hunk of cheese, looking for all the world that he had no care. He stands up straight when he sees me, moving to block my path.
“Here’s my little sister, the great disciple of The Divine Sex.”
I narrow my eyes at my big brother, older than me by only three years, but liked to act as if he is my father, the King Nareswar.
“What would you know about The Divine Sex? Have you ever read a book?”
He rolls his eyes. “You aren’t the only one who thinks she is great at sex… what the hell!” Naas bits out, “I am not talking about my sex life with my little sister. Speaking of which, what you did back there…”
I raise a hand to stop him, “Naas, like you said, I’m not going to talk about this with you.”
I start walking down the wide rectangle courtyard surrounded by those long corridors on all sides. To my annoyance, Naas starts following me.
“Adan is not suitable for you.”
“Why not?”
“Because he is…”
“Because he is just a lowly soldier and I’m a princess?”
“Among other things, yes.”
We reach the staircase leading down to the ground floor. “And what are those other things, pray tell?”
Naas catches hold of my arm before I can put my foot on the first step. “Nya.” He calls by his pet name for me. “You are a princess. You are unwed. You cannot go… frolicking around.” A retort is ready on my lips but his serious expression stops me.
“I know this war has changed everything. Changed all of us. But still, you cannot go around making out in open corridors where anyone could see you.”
I shake my head. “There isn’t really any privacy in a fortress, brother.”
“Nya…”
“Naas, please tell me you aren’t going to give me that bullshit about women being a virgin before marriage when I know the number of girls you have deflowered. My friends, a few of them.”
There was no shame on his face as I hoped. Instead he grabbed onto my words with renewed vigour. “Precisely. Even a couple of year ago, you smacked the prince of Balya when he dared to touch your hair, and then gave him a lecture about the importance of a woman’s purity. The prince was almost in tears!”
A smile creeps onto my lips as I think of that prince. He was a mere boy, in his early twenties. He indeed had apologised multiple times after I told him off.
But that was a different time.
“I… I have changed, Naas. You cannot blame me for that.”
My brother’s eyes softened. “I know Nya. I don’t blame you to find a kernel of happiness in this shit show that has been going on. All I ask you is, be discreet.”
I look into his eyes to see the sincerity swirling around in those same hazel eyes as mine. So, I gave a tight nod and started down the steep stairs.
Naas called from behind, “And I didn’t do anything to any of your friends they didn’t want.”
I don’t look back but smile. “Cocky!” I mutter under my breath.
Dusk has settled firmly by the time I make it down the main bailey. Turning right, I enter the Great hall, which was occupied mostly by night shift soldiers finishing their dinners. A few nod at my direction. I nod back at them, then go sit beside my father, King Nareswar of Nyarasar.
He lifts his head as I approach him. A smile curves his bearded lips. A happy smile for me, albeit tinged with sadness for the current situation. Being a wartime King is one of the most thankless jobs ever. It weigh son one’s mind and body. And my father didn’t have either age or experience on his side.
I go and sit opposite my father. One might find a King sitting in the barracks along with the soldiers. But not King Nareswar Tyasiron.
To understand why my father is so hands, one has to understand the circumstance in which he became king.
Before we came to live in Skazokh, the capital of Nyarasar, our small family of my parents and I used to live in on the other side of the mountain. We were a small landowner of a small town surrounded by small villages. Picturesque villages where the main cultivation was that of mustard. During season, the farmlands would look like rippling tides of yellow. My brother and I would spend hours in the fields, often losing track of time. Our mother Queen Apala, who wasn’t a queen back then, would come and fetch us and we would go with her most reluctantly.
We grew up in absolute serenity. Before the war started, before the last King died and we were summoned to the capital.
As the only living relative of the last King, my father Nareswar was the heir to the throne of Nyarasar. That was one and half years ago. I still remember the day like it was yesterday.
My father had been elated. As I watched through the keyhole, the excitement was making him pace in back and forth on the faded carpet of his study, while my mother was sitting in front of the fireplace, with a beseeching look on her face.
“We don’t need this, Nareswar. We do not belong in the capital, in the midst of all the politics. We are happy here. Don’t uproot us!” She had said with a pleading voice.
My father stopped pacing. He gaped at her. “Don’t you want to be a queen?”
My mother had answered almost immediately. “Not like this.”
“Apala!”
“Don’t sound so appalled, Nareswar.” My mother had scoffed, but there was a vein of agitation running through her words. “Why do you think they have called on you? Do you think it’s an honour? To be King at the time of war?”
“Apala!”
“The council wants you on the throne because they expect you to continue this needless war your late uncle started.” She had practically shouted at my father, making him flinch. “I’ll be a queen in name only. And so would you! Can’t you see?”
That beseeching tone was back in her voice, the hope that her husband would heed her words overwhelming the fear.
But my father hadn’t.
He had hunkered down in front of his wife, taking her hands in his.
“Calling the war needless is tantamount to heresy, but I cannot deny the truth.” He had said. “Since it has started, we have lost countless lives, lost out livelihood, lands, morale. When I’m King, I can change all that. Don’t you see, my love?”
My mother had taken one look at his sincere face and buried her face in her hands. The sobs had come quietly, but till audible through the thick wooden door.
“Apala.” My father had called her in a heavy voice laden with uncertainty. “Don’t you have faith in me? I- I can do so much when I’ve the power. Besides, think of our children. Naas is such a bright young man and our daughter. Nyasa is the loveliest girl there ever was. Don’t they deserve the best? Once I end this war…”
My mother had snapped at her husband, so rare an act that I had almost squeaked. Slapping a hand over my mouth, I continued to spy on them.
“This war will never end, Nareswar. You are burying our head in the sand if you think otherwise.”
“I’ve every intention of…”
“Your intentions don’t matter. The Alshirins are brutes, their King unhinged. More than that, they are blood thirsty savages who will never stop.”
A hand had landed on my shoulder making me spin around in alarm. I gave a sigh of relief when I saw who it was.
“Oh, brother.”
“Why are you eavesdropping, little sister?” he had cocked an eyebrow at me. my face had lit up in elation, which it did every time I discovered some secret before he did.
“Father is going to be the next King. And mother would be Queen. We’ll have to go live in Skazokh!”
None of the excitement that was on my face had shone on his. His mouth had turned down and he sucked in a breath. “We’d have to live in the capital?”
I nodded eagerly, wanting him to feel as excited as I.
“But, we are in a war.” He had worried on his lower lip.
“Father said he’d stop the war.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” I had replied airily, uncaring of such trivial matters, “Maybe he will defeat the Alshirin King.”
He had taken my hand sin his and we started walking away from the study. “They say no one can defeat the Alshirin King. People have tried to kill him, but no one had been able to.”
“Why not?”
“They say he is a magic weilder!” Naas had whispered.
And I laughed out loud. “Magic? King Yana? No one has magic, Naas! I’m not falling for your scare tactics. We are not children anymore.”
“I mean it, Nya.” His expression had been sombre. “In Alshirin, magic still exists.”
“Whatever!” I had scoffed and went about my life, not believing a word of Naas.
After one and half year of being in the forefront of the war, I grudgingly admitted that Naas may have been right.
