Jana, Episode 11

The Commander of the Royal Guard, Captain Nicodemus, came to the Palace.  “We’re going to surround the Western Province. We will have warning about an armed group leaving the Duke’s lands.”
“Yes, Captain,” said Jana, having duly saluted.
“We can’t surround the cabin; we were told to avoid a presence there completely.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“The Horse People can get to the cabin in two days, from the border. We’ll try to give you as much warning as possible if we see riders heading to the cabin from the Duke’s holdings, as I said.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“When will you set out?”
“Three … no, five days, Sir!”
“Make it two!”
“But Sir!”
“Look outside, Officer Jana! The City has ground to a standstill! You will destroy the City, and they’ll never let you leave!  They’ll beg the Queen to stay safely in the Palace. There are ten thousand people out there!”
“Can’t we send them to visit the Duke?”
The Captain gave Jana a twisted smile. “Without evidence, that’s slander.”
“There is evidence!”
“Where?” thundered the Captain.
Ianthe explained in a tiny voice, leaving out names.
“Will she come forward?” Ianthe shook her head.  The Captain tore at his hair and groaned.  “If only I had deployed my men earlier!”
“We’re caught in our own trap,” muttered Jana, cursing.
Ianthe was bitter. “I should have kept silent. No one would have known the plan!”
“Tell them you’re not going,” suggested Sophie in a low voice.
It was the only thing to do.

“Dear friends,” said Ianthe, from the front steps, “we have heard you. The Queen will not seek a confrontation. We will endure this Winter, and seek a solution in the Spring! The gods bless you!”
Only those in the courtyard could hear, but the word spread. The roars of “Queen Ione! Queen Ione!” grew quieter, and faded out altogether in an hour or so. The City was back to normal. There were petitions to see the Queen, but she pleaded indisposition. Jana went on a ride, covered in a veil, to allay any doubts that the Queen was in the Palace, and the flag flew proudly from the mast.


The day arrived.  Two hours before dawn, Sophie hugged her mistress and Jana, and The Queen and Ianthe slipped away from the Palace. Through the corner of her eye, Jana thought she saw a shadow fly out into the darkness, and the faint clatter of hooves far away.
“Did you hear that?”
“What is it?”
“They were watching for us,” said Jana. The Queen had a melodious voice which was nevertheless rather clipped, but Jana approximated it beautifully. Jana’s own voice was rather even-toned, and it was her face and hands that provided expression. With Ione it was the opposite!

“Oh, I feel so free! I could fly,” sang Ianthe. “To be out of that death-trap!”
They headed out somewhat in the wrong direction, deliberately, to annoy the spies. Then they headed towards the cabin. As morning broke, consternation followed in the wake of the Queen and her daughter. Ianthe smiled and waved to the children, a thing she had rarely done before. Jana simply rode, veiled, her head bowed. The absence of the Guard itself upset the people, but they only stood and stared.
Soon they entered the woods, and Ianthe rode close to Jana. But nothing at all happened. Just as the sun went down, they were at the cabin.

The caretaker was stunned.
“Is there firewood?”
“Yes, your highness!”
“Will you send some bread in the morning?”
“Yes, yes, your highness!”
“Good. We can manage, thanks!”
“But, to cook! To guard!”
“We will be fine!” said Jana, in the Queen’s voice, and the man bowed low and backed away, and hurried home.
“Let’s tether the horses up on the hill, under the trees,” said Ianthe, her heart beating fast. “I just don’t know; it seems like a good idea!”
Jana nodded agreement. If there were to be a sneak attack, the attackers would kill the horses first. It was a firm habit, now; Ianthe never forgot the welfare of the horses. Jana felt a quick pride in that. It had been a privilege to mold Ianthe into a wonderful woman. To be her lover … it was almost too much. If everything goes wrong, Jana thought, at least I’ll have Ianthe. It was an ugly, despicable thought, but it was foremost in her mind: she had to save the girl somehow. She examined her arrows, the bow, the knives, her sword, a double-edged short-sword.


“I need to …”
“Go on; I’ll keep watch.” The stream was just twenty yards downhill from where they had tethered the horses, between themselves and the cabin. It looked eerie. Was someone inside the cabin? No …
Jana froze. There seemed to be a shadow of someone moving against the window shades.
“Ianthe?” she called.
“What?”
“Something’s strange… Stay hidden ---I’m going down to take a look!”
“All right,” said Ianthe, and Jana could feel her biting back her fear.
A few steps more… they were only chairs. The peculiar chairs looked like people, in the firelight. “It’s just the chairs!” she called, going back up the hill.

Suddenly there was the thunder of hooves, and screaming. A single white horse was galloping flat out, the rider crying out something unintelligible.
“Ianthe!”
“I see it!”
The horseman came like the wind, as if pursued by all the demons. And so it was; a thunderous sound echoed up the valley ---riders--- a score of them, in pursuit!
“The Horse-People?” whispered Ianthe. Jana was struck dumb.
“Get away!  Get away! They’re coming!” yelled the lone rider in front. Jana recognized the rider: it was Andromache. She leaped from her horse and pounded on the cabin door. “Open up! Open up!”
Suddenly her pursuers got to her, and she was down. In the darkness they saw her hacked down, and in no time at all, the cabin was on fire, and the attackers were gone, only making sure that no one escaped the until the cabin was well ablaze.

Ianthe and Jana watched, paralyzed with horror. All they could think was: Andromache’s dead. At last Ianthe’s lips said the words, and she fell in a dead faint.
Miraculously, only the cabin burned.  Jana carried Ianthe into the trees, and watched, shocked stupid. She had expected that, perhaps, the Queen might get killed, or Ianthe, or Jana herself. But poor, innocent Andromache! Jana cursed the gods silently. Only one woman and a small building was destroyed, but the violence of it! How they must hate the Queen!

“Jana?”  It was a tremulous whisper.
“They’re gone, my precious! Oh, how my hear hurts!”
“Is she dead?”
“She didn’t have a chance.”
There was a disturbance. The homesteads in the valley were lit up; lamps and torches were coming up the hill. “The Queen! The Queen!” The caretaker was bawling. “The Queen is dead! Oh, they’ve burned her alive! Oh, they’ve killed them all! All dead! Oh, all dead, dead, dead!”
“There’s just the one man … no, a girl---oh, dear spirits… they’ve cut her head off.”
Jana held Ianthe tight, trembling.

“Jana?”
There was no reply. The big girl was racked with bitter, bitter grief. Ianthe slipped her arms round her, and held her tenderly.

The fire blazed for hours, despite the damp. Ianthe lost track of the time and the events. She just held Jana, blessing her for her size, and the heat she radiated. As the grey of dawn lit the sky, there was only a square of ashes, and a sad, beheaded body of a girl, cast away like a broken doll.

When Jana pulled herself together, the sun was well up.
“You’re safe,” whispered Jana, like a prayer.
“But Andromache…”
“Yes!” sobbed Jana.
“Where are these Horse-People?”
“I don’t know…”
“Where shall we go? What shall we do?”
Jana shook her head and curled into a ball. The thought that it was she who had devised this ill-advised plan occupied her whole mind. There was room for only very little else: Andromache was dead.
But Ianthe was safe.
“Jana, … the Duke thinks mother and I are dead.” Jana rocked back and forth. “He’ll go into the Palace and claim the throne!”  No response. “Jana, if we don’t do something, Mother and Stefan will think you and I are dead!”
Jana’s mind had fled. Ianthe knew that Jana and Andromache had been close, but not so close as to unhinge the big girl.

They had to face facts. It was a complicated plan, and it had gone wrong in a complicated way, and things were a mess. If it was generally believed that the Queen was dead, if Stefan didn’t show up in time, the Duke would claim the throne. The stupid villagers were even now sending word to the City that Queen Ione had been burned alive.

And where was the Captain’s Guards? Only Andromache had arrived to give warning! And where were the Horse-People?