Jana

On Patrol

Jana had ridden with Rider Patrols of the Horse People for more than a year, now, and seen no action whatsoever. She was around 16 years old, and not the only girl Rider either; she had been one of three in her group, but one had got married, one had got hurt, and only she was left. She was one of the smallest in the group, but for half the year her adopted father, Ole, had been patrol leader, and the girls had been left alone. She was a dead shot with the long bow, an unusual weapon for a girl, and a fair fighter —at least on the practice field— with the short sword, given her height five-foot-six and weight of 160 pounds.
They were on their way home, rounding the eastern edge of the Horse Plains, the vast lands of the Horse People, through the dense forests in the east-Central part of their territory, when they heard the shouts and screams. They were human shouts, and inhuman screams. . . they rode at a gallop into a clearing, and found a small group of four people —two fighters, an old man and a boy— beset by huge cats, things that hadn’t been seen in the plains in decades! Seeing the newcomers, the cats turned to snarl at them. One fighter was dead, his throat ripped out by one of the three cats, and the other was badly hurt, his hand bitten or clawed, and bleeding profusely. Two of the horses lay dead; the cats had done well for themselves, if not for the humans! It was impossible to get a bead on the animals, since the old man and the boy were always in line as they kept circling, pacing back and forth.
Jana, at the back, climbed a huge tree. Claw-marks indicated that it was this very three in which the cats had lain in wait. The cats saw her, and the men soon afterwards. “Careful,” murmured the leader, “get it right the first time, Jana.” She drew carefully, her steady hands a contrast to the furious excitement she felt. She had her choice of three cats. . . One leaped at the tree. She shot another one in the eye; and the cat in the air had ten arrows in its throat and chest before it fell back. The remaining animal was killed easily. The boy fainted.
The prisoners would not talk. All they would reveal is that the boy was returning home from school in the East. It was well known that a community of sages lived on the eastern edge of the Horse Plains, unmolested by their neighbors. It was this community that they referred to “school”. They could be from anywhere.
The boy, about fifteen years old, was naturally put in Jana’s charge. Much smaller than her, he rode with her, on his own horse or on hers, and she was responsible for seeing that he got his food, and most importantly, that he saw to his calls of nature at convenient times.
As the only girl in the group, Jana had to make sure that her own toilette was carried out without inconveniencing the rest of the troop, and accordingly she got up very early. The men slept in their loincloths, but Jana was dressed in her spare tunic in which she slept; she hated to expose her breasts, though there was absolutely nothing there.
On her way out to the stream, she passed the boy, still asleep. She studied him curiously; he was frail-looking, downy-cheeked, and his eyes were covered with the sweetest long, long lashes. His short brown hair curled softly around his ears, and Jana felt a sudden urge to touch him. Just then he opened his eyes, and they were a startling blue that invariably put her off-balance; right now, his glance went right to her heart.
Jana hurried, looking away. Her ablutions didn’t take long; she was accustomed to doing it fast. She washed herself thoroughly —her foster-mother Eva was very particular about that — rinsed out the tunic, and put on her regular clothes: a breech-clout, a knee-length tunic, and a leather belt. She headed back to camp, nodding to the Rider on watch.
The boy prisoner struggled to sit, and pleaded with his eyes. He needed to relieve himself. Jana sighed. She untied the rope by which he was nominally tied to the tent-pole, and he got to his feet. Oh, he was such a girl! In his pretty blue tunic and sandals, his skin had hardly seen the sun, it seemed! “Untie me please,” he begged in his own language, which Jana understood well. It was the common language on the continent; in fact Jana’s tribe, from which she had been abducted as a child of nine, had been close neighbors of the folk whose language this was. Jana considered; she could get him if he tried to run; anyway, where would he go?
“No,” said Jana, firmly.
“Please!”
Jana shook her head.
“You speak my language!” he exclaimed.
“Certainly!” she replied.
The rope was simply tied to his ankle. He could wash easily, as well as do all his other business. Taking off his tunic, he went behind a bush, and Jana heard the expected sound of him making water. Then there was a silence, and Jana realized that he was untying his rope. Laying her end of the tether silently down, she crept around to watch. Off the rope came, and he ran down to the stream in his breech-clout and sandals. The idiot was making a break for it!
Jana caught him in a dozen yards or so, and held him tight, facing him with a half smile.
“Kill me now! Kill me!” he cried.
“Where will you go in this forest?” she asked him. “Come along and wash up, and don’t be a baby!”
He was stubborn, and Jana had to wash him by force, making him blush all over in embarrassment.
One day, the boy discovered, much to his chagrin, that his guard was a girl. He had asked her name, once he was reasonably confident that he would not be punished for being forward, and she had innocently told him.
“But that is a girl’s name!” he had exclaimed.
“So am I a girl,” she had replied, amused, “didn’t you know?”
“But. . . but you touched me!”
Jana snorted. “You are my prisoner, and I can touch you any time I please, boy!”
In spite of his indignation, he was getting very attached to Jana. He shared the horse with the old man, which meant that half the time he rode behind her on her own horse, holding her around the waist. He seemed to take every opportunity, she thought, to touch her.
Then one morning, it happened. For whatever reason, far out of sight of the others, the boy had stripped naked, and Jana surprised him in the act of caressing an enormous erection. When they saw each other, they had frozen for a long minute. Jana was drawn to him, like a magnet. She had gently laid him on the soft moss on the river bank, and tenderly kissed him on his lips, and they had given in to passion. Innocent as they both were, it was a miracle that it was accomplished at all.
“Jana,” he whispered, his heart beating like a trip-hammer.
“Yes,” she had breathed back.
“What just happened?”
“Don’t you know?” Jana gasped.
“No . . . Tell me!”
“Why . . . We have lain together, like a man and a woman!”
“Oh heavens . . . have we committed a sin?” he asked, his eyes wide in fear.
“No, boy, . . . anyway, it was my fault . . . Forgive me!”
Then he put his arms round her and closed his eyes, and she knew he was her prisoner indeed!

The Capital
They presently arrived at the City of the Horse People. The Horse People had only one permanent city, since most of them lived in tents, as they followed the great herds of horses as they moved about the plains. Once they reached the City, Jana was off duty, and hurried home to her foster-parents, Ole and Eva, and told Eva everything, privately.
“What a foolish thing you have done! What if you get a child?” asked her foster-mother.
“I won’t!” insisted Jana. Eva had been shocked, but at the expected time, Jana’s courses had arrived punctually. So Jana had lost her virginity to a young prisoner.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Jana, the boy had been asking for Jana. Ole came back home one night, and called them together. “What do you think that boy is? He is the Son of the Hellene Queen, Ione! He is their Royal Prince, and he seems to be completely captivated by our Jana! He wants to visit with her!”
The Hellene Queen! And she, Jana, had seduced him! She didn’t know the meaning of the word, but after all, she had technically forced herself on him. She wondered what her own King would say. So far as she knew, only she, the boy, and Eva knew all the facts.
“Dress carefully, I’ll take you to the palace,” said Ole. Jana and Eva exchanged worried glances. Jana quickly dressed in a pretty girl’s tunic and girdle, in the style of her adopted people. The tunic fell to mid-calf length, and older women wore stolas and veils, and so forth, but a girl of Jana’s age was fully and properly dressed in the tunic.
[It should be said here that what we describe here as a “tunic” was really a chiton, which was a simple garment of linen, usually, made by sewing two rectangles of cloth down the sides and across the top, leaving holes for the head and the arms. One slipped it on over the head, and fitted it with a belt or girdle. For formal occasions, the chitons were of finer fabric, and more carefully sewn, with embroidery along the borders, the neck and the sleeves, or contrasting panels of fabric inserted into it. This costume was almost universally worn in that region.]
At the palace, Jana was left in a small room filled with books. Presently the boy was brought in, and they were alone.
“Hello,” Jana said awkwardly.
“Hello,” said the boy, his face red with confusion.
“So,” said Jana, “I’m told you’re the son of the Queen.”
“What does it matter,” he blurted out, “I’m a prisoner!”
“Do not be anxious; you will be sent home.”
He was shocked. “I will?”
“Of course! Otherwise it will be war!” Her eyes looked about the room, and came back to rest on him. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I was told never to say who I was, or there would be ransom demands.”
“Don’t you know the difference between bandits and a patrol?”
He shrugged. He was a scholar, and scholars were not concerned with such things.
They were seated a few feet apart. He stood, and came closer. Jana looked up at him, feeling again the warmth she had felt when they had traveled together. In a sense, the sex they had shared had spoiled things; made it awkward to recapture their easy friendship.
“I’m sorry once again,.. . for forcing myself on you,” whispered Jana.
“Why? It was the most.. . wonderful thing I have ever felt; it was like flying.. . it was as if I was a bird; I cannot describe it!” he whispered back earnestly, coloring deeply. “Jana,” he continued, with almost frightening earnestness, “I want to be with you for ever!”
At one time —even a few days previously, Jana would not have thought twice. He had touched her tender heart, and as far as she knew, what she felt was what everyone called “love” ; she had never felt anything more intense for anyone. But things were different now: he was a prince to begin with, and her feeling for him had crystallized into a gentle concern spiced with a little impatience. But his intense emotions upset her deeply.
Jana hung her head. She realized that though the experience had been wonderful for her, it had meant far more to the young prince. She braced herself.
“Don’t be foolish,” Jana said severely, standing up, putting on her “warrior face”. The boy took a step back, and straightened up. “You have your duty! Be a man!”
He had gasped. The challenge had got him at several levels. Jana left him wearing a thoughtful scowl.
“The wretched boy is obsessed with her,” said Ole to Eva a few days later.
“What?” exclaimed Eva, furiously. “Ole, she doesn’t care for him! She... she was kind to him, that’s all!”
Ole shrugged. “For whatever reason, he’s crazy about her!” Ole slumped onto a stool.
Jana had gone shopping with a couple of older girls. Jana had few friends among girls her own age, and that worried Eva. Thus far, it had been the lack of similar interests. Now that Jana was interested in clothes and jewelry, she was hoping things would improve. She had only a few days to enjoy her foster-daughter before she had to return to duty, on the endless patrols, or the endless drilling.
She arrived back, radiant. She had bought fabric for a new dress. It would be an extra-wide chiton, which was very elegant, and she had bought a pair of new brooches which could gather the extra material gracefully at the shoulders. The two women sewed all afternoon since that evening there was to be an entertainment in the public theater, and dancing afterwards.