Jana, Episode 7

Most of all, Ianthe was a lover of horses. Having watched Jana drill her brother at his riding skills, she was determined to ride seriously. “Certainly,” said her mother; “you were never interested before!”
“Mother!” exclaimed Ianthe, indignantly. “I’ve always asked, and you’ve always said no!”
“Stop imagining things, child,” said the Queen. “Dress properly, and by all means learn to ride.”

Most women rode side-saddle, but Jana said it was useless to ride that way. For riding astraddle, the usual women’s dress was a short chiton worn over short trews. Once the garment was ready, Ianthe’s lessons began.
As with knives, she was a natural. She had a natural affinity for horses, was naturally kind to them, and they seemed to return her love. Unfortunately she decided that she could ride any horse at all, which was close enough to the truth to be dangerous. But Jana managed to persuade her that it was better to learn a variety of gaits and maintain control over a horse that to race at a headlong gallop. “A gallop is most likely to end in a broken leg for the horse.”
“And then what happens?”
“The horse must be put down, of course.”
Ianthe gasped. That very evening evening, word came that a horse had stepped in a hole at full gallop, broken its leg, and been put down. Ianthe refused her supper.

Vinegar
Events in the Palace were few in the Summer, and Jana soon learned that it was hopeless to look for anything unusual, as she had been instructed by her King. But one evening, she happened to notice a furtive movement in the kitchen. Leaving her knife throwing, she crept towards the kitchen, only to see someone speed across the courtyard and disappear.
“What? What is it?” asked Sophie coming in from another entrance.
“Someone was just here … and ran off … look carefully; is anything odd, moved … anything?”
Sophie gasped and pointed to the bottle of vinegar. It was still rocking slightly.
“Oh, good eyes, Sophie,” said Jana.

Ianthe had seen most of what had taken place, and had raced off to find the Queen. Now she dragged her into the kitchen.
“What’s the matter?” demanded the Queen, seeing them standing around a bottle of vinegar.
Sophie, wide-eyed gave a hurried summary of the facts, her words tripping over themselves in her anxiety, and finished with a quick curtsy.
“Hector,” snapped the Queen, as one of the male servants arrived, “bring old Menelaus here, at once.”
When Menelaus arrived half an hour later, he announced after careful tests, that the vinegar contained a hard-to-detect slow poison.

“I deeply regret mistrusting you,” said the Queen to Jana, privately, in her own courtyard. “It angered me that my son …”
“Yes … I understand,” said Jana, her head bowed.
The Queen nodded, her eyes lowered. “But in all other respects, I have wronged you, and you have repaid us with loyalty and kindness. You make me humble.”
Jana covered her face, and wept with happiness. The Queen sat silently for a time, rose, patted Jana on the back, and silently left.

The fact that they were vulnerable through the kitchen worried them. The palace guard was doubled, and Jana walked round and round the Palace, wondering how to make the rambling structure more secure. It was not her specialty; all she knew was combat. She and the two children puzzled over it for hours, but came up with nothing.
The old cook kept asking for leave to visit her family, but the Queen dared not let her go for fear that she would be killed, in order that she might be replaced by an agent of the Queen’s enemies.

Finally, it was time for Prince Stefan to return to school, that is, to the commune of scholars at the border of the Horse Plains, at which he spent the greater part of the year. Word was sent to the Horse People, as they had agreed with their King, asking for an escort for the Prince.
“Take Jana,” said the Queen.
The boy glared at his mother.
“Why?”
“Because I trust her to keep you safe.”
“No!”
“May I ask why?”
“Because … as you well know, if we went together … you know what will happen!”
The Queen took a deep breath.
“Child … only be considerate. That’s all I ask!” He was stunned to see tears in his mother’s eyes, not being privy to how the relationship between the women in his life had evolved over the summer months. “I care for the girl!”
He nodded. With a heavy sigh, he departed.

“Come back safe!” Ianthe said, holding Jana tight.
“I will!” laughed Jana, and sprang on her horse. Accompanied by a company of 40 guards, they raced to the border. The King’s Own waited for them there, and the northerners turned and returned home, leaving the Prince under the protection of the Horse People, and Jana.

The nights were sweet for Stefan. His first night on the road, he came to his bodyguard, who did not turn away from him, as she had done for so many months in Heliopolis. Almost sick with love, he hesitantly touched her, and she tenderly put her arms around him, and he listened to her soft breathing, soothing him. But as the days went on, he felt a sad disappointment, even though she was nothing but sweet towards him.
On Jana’s part, she was discovering that it was his defenselessness that had attracted her to him. As he grew stronger and more manly, as her admiration grew, she was less attracted to him emotionally.
The King’s Own was tactful. Jana had earned their respect, for whatever reason, and though the young pair were embarrassed and defensive about their relationship, they were never made fun of, for which they were both grateful. But Jana watched her body’s ecstasy from outside of it, and felt sorrow for the love she no longer felt.

Back in Heliopolis, all was confusion. The Queen had finally relented and sent the old cook home for a brief vacation, and the first thing they knew, a report came back that the woman had died of ‘old age’. “Jana will curse me,” muttered the Queen to Ianthe, bitterly, having already cursed herself silently.
“What could you do?” responded the girl, silently comforting her mother.
Of course, not least of their worries was that they had no cook. Sophie and Nina tried their best to take up the slack, but the fare was bleak. They resolved to get another cook, after one particularly unsuccessful meal. A woman was hired. Sophie, though always polite, confided to the Princess that she didn’t care for the new cook.
One day she crept into the Princess’s room and warned her, “Don’t you touch your food tonight, Lady Ianthe! I don’t know what’s wrong, but she’s acting very strange tonight! She’s done something bad, I’m sure!”
When dinner was served, the cook was brought in, and invited to eat the meal. She protested strongly, but was made to eat it. In minutes she was dead.
Ianthe, Sophie, Nina and the Queen sat together, the little girl Nina sobbing in fear. She had been shocked to see the cook die before her very eyes. “If only Jana would come back,” moaned Ianthe, in a small, hopeless voice.

As it happened, Jana did arrive later that very night. Going first to the women’s barracks --just a few rooms for the handful of women guards-- Jana found a message asking her to come to the Palace no matter how late she got in. To her consternation, on being admitted to the living quarters of the royal family, she was met with a long story of murder and conspiracy. The Queen and her daughter were distracted.
“If only I had known; I would have brought back the King’s Own with me. At least they are loyal!”
“I don’t even trust the Royal Guard after the vinegar incident. They’ve let someone into the grounds,” said the Queen bitterly.
“No, you majesty! The way the Palace is built, it can be gotten into no matter how carefully the guard covers the gates!” Jana explained the liabilities of the Palace. The Palace had been built for beauty and comfort, not defense.
“The roof!” Ianthe cried. “Mother, put sentries on the roof!”
“What are you talking about?” the Queen exclaimed, in puzzlement. It was a long time before Ianthe’s idea was properly understood. The roof was flat, and provided opportunity for surveillance once the occupants had retired for the night.
“For tonight,” said Jana, firmly, “I will keep watch. Get some sleep, all of you!” Ianthe, however, insisted on watching with Jana, while the Queen was sent to bed, and pallets laid out in the Queen’s room for Sophie and little Nina. Unfortunately, Jana had been riding all day, and was very tired.
“Come with me now,” insisted Ianthe, wild-eyed, collecting all her knives. “Bring your bow! Quickly!”
The two of them made a thorough search of the entire Palace. Jana was doubtful about the project but she had not taken Ianthe’s detailed knowledge of the building into account. Every nook and cranny was examined by Ianthe, while Jana stood watch.
Eventually, Jana found herself being led up a flight of steps that seemed to lead up to the sky. But presently it became clear; the tops of the highest walls of the house were actually broad walkways, from which vantage point every inch of the house and grounds could be observed. “I’ll take first watch,” said Ianthe, with determination, Jana’s return having given her courage. In moments, Jana was asleep on the flat roof, wrapped up snugly in a blanket.

It was two in the morning. Ianthe, on a hunch, lay flat on the walkway, only the tip of her nose visible over the edge. As she watched, a shadow detached itself from the corner of the courtyard wall, and crept towards the house.
“Wake up!” hissed Ianthe, tugging at Jana’s arm.
“What … what …”
“Quiet! Look down in the courtyard!”
Jana was disoriented, rubbing her eyes. She was so exhausted, she simply could not wake herself up. Ianthe dared not let the shadow reach the house. She threw her knife at it, knowing she had no hope of hitting it; she had never learned to throw a knife straight down.
There was a gasp, and the shadow ran to the wall. There was a twang, a strangled cry, and suddenly the Royal Guard was giving chase outside the walls.
“You got him! You got him!” squealed Ianthe in excitement, but Jana could not keep her eyes open long; she lay down on her back again, and was fast asleep once more. Ianthe lay down next to her, and pulled a blanket over them both.
The morning light revealed blood spatters down the road outside the Palace, but the trail disappeared a quarter mile away. Later in the day, a naked body was found in the bushes by the roadside, with a knife-wound in its foot, and an arrow in its arm, and its throat cut. There was no means of identifying the body, but one thing was clear: a sentry on the roof was very effective.

For a day or two, nothing happened. A week went by, and then a month. Ianthe’s birthday was celebrated quietly in the Palace, with only Penelope in attendance.
It irked Ianthe to be in Penelope’s company. In her mind, she was too old for Penelope’s childish games. It annoyed her when Penelope whispered to her how she admired Jana, the beautiful warrior-girl. Penelope’s admiration was a childish fancy, while Ianthe’s regard for Jana was, in her mind, something far deeper, more spiritual. Jana had only the slightest inkling of all this; when she wasn’t teaching Ianthe weapons and martial arts, she was exercising with the troops, or worrying about the Queen’s safety.

Jana came up to the stables one day to give Ianthe a riding lesson, when she saw the girl galloping like the wind on the back of a great black stallion she had been firmly forbidden to ride. The next half hour was pure nightmare.
Some of the men attempted to chase the horse, only to make matters worse; the brute ran faster to evade them. Ianthe’s gleeful cries turned to whimpers, and then the stallion tired of rushing around the meadow, jumped the fence effortlessly, and galloped away with the princess on its back. Jana followed on her own big bay mare, Honey.
The adventure ended not with a bang, but a whimper. Several miles from the city, Jana came upon Ianthe and the stallion. She was off his back, but his leg was trapped in a hole, and he was in a panic, and Ianthe was wailing in fear.
“Oh, he’s going to break his leg, he’s going to die!” she sobbed, seeing her friend and protector with relief.
With some difficulty, Jana calmed the girl down first. “If you calm down, he will, too. Will you be calm, my dearest?”
“Yes!” she whimpered, and her breathing slowed, and she gazed on Jana’s face with a glimmer of hope. Jana could do anything! Jana could perform a miracle, and save the horse.
It took five long minutes to calm the horse, and to angle his leg just right in order to lift it out. Ianthe clung to Jana, covering her face with kisses.
The two of them led the big black stallion back some twelve miles on foot. Filled with gratitude, Ianthe talked to the big horse all the way home, telling it all her faults, and cursing herself. There was plenty of time to re-assess her life. In her own sight, Ianthe had never sunk so low, to have endangered the life of such a beautiful animal.

The Queen gave Ianthe a long, grave look. “I think you have learned your lesson.”
“Yes, mother.”
“It is cruel to hurt a horse, because it trusts you.”
“I know!”
“All right.”
“That’s all? No punishment?”
“How can I, my child, when you’re so hurt?”
“Oh mother!” wept Ianthe.

The painful incident brought Jana and Ianthe far closer together than before. Though Jana was considered Ianthe’s personal guard and companion, in her heart Ianthe resolved that she would be Jana’s faithful friend for life, loving her above all others. There was no one better, on whom to bestow her love.
[Next: Episode 8]
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