In Service of the Queen Ch. 05

An alternative future of women and their adventures

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Author's Note

Welcome, friend! As we concluded our last chapter, Adelaide has just discovered Eniola's tenure as Mabon Priestess somehow involves her being locked in a chastity belt by the queen. No explanation has been given as of yet, other than Eniola's matter-of-fact statement, "The queen trusts no one." This chapter picks up the story a little later that same night.

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Dedicated to those we have lost along the way.

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Chapter 5: Make Empyrea Emo Again

Beneath Empyrea City, after the Mabon festival

"You don't think it's weird?" shouted Adelaide over the din of the electrified instruments and the screech of the singer's amplified voice echoing around the underground space.

"Huh?" said Tonje, leaning in and cupping her ear.

"Eniola's thing."

"What?"

Adelaide stopped walking forward and lowered her hands to just under the level of her navel. Staring at Tonje, she pinched her index and second fingers to her thumbs and encircled her waist to illustrate.

Tonje grinned and repeated the same motion while gyrating her hips. She tossed her head back and threw an arm over Adelaide's shoulder while bumping her hip against Adelaide's.

"Not dancing..." shouted Adelaide, stepping back to encircle her waist again. "The thing.... Eniola's thing."

Tonje shrugged. She grabbed Adelaide's hands in hers and twirled Adelaide around once before lowering her backward in a dip. The driving beat of the band continued.

"Never mind." Adelaide danced close to Tonje for a moment before tapping her on the shoulder and pointing to a table where a young woman was lining up a row of beer steins. Tonje flashed a quick thumbs up and continued flailing around by herself, sending the folds of her white druidess robe flying, while Adelaide wandered off.

A group of three women, all dressed in black, with straight, jet-black hair and eyes and fingernails painted to match, swooped in to cut in front of Adelaide. One of the three took a quick glance at Adelaide, then turned to the others, smacking the back of her hand against their shoulders while pointing to Adelaide. The woman made an exaggerated gesture to Adelaide's and Tonje's druidess robes and the other two women in black stepped aside.

"Thank you," shouted Adelaide. She picked up two beer steins, raising one to salute the trio of women and handing the other to Tonje, who had slowed but not paused her dance moves. The three women turned to Adelaide, curtsied, and returned to the beer table to await their turn.

"Being a druidess has its perks," said Adelaide.

"What?" shouted Tonje.

"Never mind."

Tonje grabbed Adelaide by the hand and tugged her toward the stage where Tiara and her bandmates were giving their instruments a good thrashing. Groups of women gathered around the stage in knots, raising beer steins and moving their bodies to the rhythm being pumped out into the underground space.

"Friend's sake, they are loud!" shouted Adelaide. Tonje took no notice. She was busy dancing and moving her head to the driving beat.

Adelaide turned to look where Tiara stood, her weight currently on her back leg, as she rocked back and forth while running her fingers over the strings of her bass. "Bump, ba-da-bump," said Adelaide to no one.

Tiara tucked into a crouch and walked, bent kneed, to the front of the stage. She looked to Adelaide and offered a quick wink before standing up straight again, flipping her hair, and walking backward toward her original position in front and to the left of the drummer.

"Empyrea City!" shouted the lead singer in the center of the group. "You know the words! Sing it with us!"

Flanking the lead singer, on the other side, was the band's lead guitarist. She and Tiara simultaneously turned toward the singer, lowered their heads and charged, before spinning one-eighty at the last minute to run the opposite direction. The sound of their instruments swelled.

"Birth!" shouted the lead singer. In the gathering crowd below, Tonje threw one arm around Adelaide, raised her beer stein to the stage and joined in with the lyrics.

"School!" roared the crowd in unison with the singer. Someone bumped into Adelaide, causing her beer to slosh. She recovered, took a swig, and hoisted her stein toward the side of the stage where Tiara stood.

"Work!" The lead singer raised her left hand in a clenched fist while she gripped the microphone stand in her right and pushed the it toward the crowd. Another woman in a white druidess robe threw her arm around Adelaide from the side opposite Tonje.

"Death!" yelled the druidesses, along with the band and the others all around.

On stage, the lead singer of the band jerked the microphone stand backward, stood centimeters from the mic, and let out an ear-splitting growl. Tiara tossed her head forward and then back while thrashing the lowest of her strings. The drummer's hands flew in a blur, and the lead guitarist brandished her instrument like a weapon against the assembled crowd while the scream of her amplifier cut the air.

Everything ended all at once.

The gathered crowd sent up a cheer, the lead singer threw her hands wide, taking a bow and gesturing to her bandmates. And within less than two seconds, the drummer had her sticks over her head, clacking out the tempo for the next song.

Adelaide looked left and then right to the druidesses flanking her, smiled, and then raised her beer stein to drain half of it. "That was really--"

Adelaide never got to finish her thought. The ear-splitting crunch of guitar cut her off. Tiara's bass roared and the drummer punctuated the whole thing double time on the kick drum.

Adelaide turned to Tonje. "When Friend Tiara said you would throw her out of the hostel if she didn't use headphones, I had no idea."

"What?" shouted Tonje.

"Never mind." Adelaide hoisted her beer stein in salute to the band before draining another quarter of it in one go. She then threw her free arm over Tonje's shoulder and began kicking her feet out in time with Tonje's. Their druidess robes flew outward.

While Adelaide and Tonje were dancing, the trio of women in black made their way from the beer table toward the stage. Occasionally, one of them would lower her shoulder and charge into the others. After two or three repeats of this, they opened their mouths in laughter that was drowned out by the amplifiers and took long pulls at their beer steins.

The acrobatic woman from earlier was making her way up to the stage, spinning her way toward the trio of women. They each turned to watch as the acrobat twirled her baton and flipped head over heels in a cartwheel without using her hands for anything but baton twirling. The trio of women in black raised their beer steins to salute her and the acrobat bowed with a flourish.

"This is a trip," said Adelaide.

"Huh?" said Tonje.

"Never mind."

"Addie!" shouted Vivienne as she approached from behind Adelaide with Cosette in tow. In their hands, both Vivienne and Cosette were clutching pretzels the size of their heads.

"Addie!" shouted Vivienne again. This time reaching out to tap Adelaide on the shoulder.

Adelaide spun her head around. "Viv!"

Vivienne threw her arms wide and stepped in to embrace Adelaide. Cosette did the same, and soon Adelaide, Vivienne, Tonje, and Cosette were wrapped up in a circle of arms and legs, bopping to the music.

"Where'd you get that?" shouted Adelaide.

Vivienne cupped her ear and shrugged.

Adelaide gestured to Vivienne's giant pretzel and drew the outline of its bow shape in the air with the tips of her fingers. "Where'd you find the pretzels?"

Vivienne stuck out her thumb and shot it back over her shoulder. And while Adelaide was following with her eyes, Vivienne ripped a chunk of pretzel off and shoved it between Adelaide's lips. The group of women never stopped moving to the beat.

Vivienne pointed to Adelaide's beer stein. Adelaide held it out, offering a drink.

Vivienne shook her head. "Where'd you find the beer?"

"What?"

Vivienne pointed at the beer stein and circled her outstretched finger overhead while she looked around.

"Oh," shouted Adelaide. "I'll show you. Druidesses get first class service."

"Huh?" said Vivienne.

"Never mind." Adelaide reached out to tap Cosette on the shoulder. Adelaide pointed to her beer stein and then to Cosette. Adelaide raised her eyebrows. Cosette nodded.

"Come on, Viv, I'll show you." Adelaide slammed the last of what was in her mug. She let the stein hang loose with only her pinky finger clutching the handle and reached out toward Tonje.

Tonje knocked back the rest of her beer and handed off the empty mug to Adelaide. "Thanks, friend!" she shouted.

Adelaide flashed a quick thumbs up and pulled Vivienne along behind her as she wove her way through the thickening crowd toward the beer table. Several women, catching a glance of the white druidess robe ushered her to the front, while Vivienne traipsed along behind. Everyone involved was bopping their heads to the beat.

A cheer went up as Adelaide and Vivienne approached the beer table. They turned toward the racket.

The acrobat from before was now perched beside the beer table. She had stopped her twirling to bend backward. Tucked into a contortion that ended up with her head behind her knees, her hands grasping her ankles and her stomach serving as a sort of living platter, she held herself still. The woman behind the beer table stepped forward to adorn her with enough steins to line up another round.

Adelaide and Vivienne watched as eight women stepped forward to surround the acrobat. Each of the eight women made a fist with her right hand, and in unison, each brought it down against the flat of her left palm. This motion was repeated three times: the first with one finger extended, the second with two fingers extended, and the third with three fingers. Each time there was shouting, but the words were lost to the din.

On the fourth movement, each woman reached out for the beer stein nearest her, pulling it from the acrobat's stomach and raising it high in the air while cheering. As the last stein was raised, the acrobat let go of her ankles and raised herself back to standing. She brushed a little sloshed beer off her stomach, picked up her baton to act as a cane, and did a little circle dance around it.

One of the women surrounding the acrobat stepped forward with her beer stein raised to offer a sip. The acrobat smiled, nodded and opened her mouth. While the pair coordinated the two-person drinking, another woman ripped a piece of her pretzel off and held it out to the acrobat.

The acrobat swallowed the beer and opened her mouth again, but before she got to the pretzel, another of the group swooped in to stand in front of her with lips puckered. The acrobat shrugged, threw her hands around the woman's shoulder and mashed her lips in hard. Another cheer rose from the group.

The woman with the chunk of pretzel stuck one end of it in between her teeth and grinned as she leaned in toward the acrobat. The acrobat raised her hands in the air and maneuvered her baton behind the woman offering the pretzel. Clutching the baton in both hands, the acrobat locked the woman in and pulled forward until they were face to face.

Each woman was grinning madly as their mouths met with a chunk of pretzel between. Simultaneously, they chewed the bits in their mouths and pressed their lips hard against the other. The women gathered around them were cheering. A couple of women nearby embraced while mimicking their motions, but soon gave up after sloshing beer on each other.

At the end of it all, the acrobat released her grip, stepped back while heaving a deep breath, and smiled. She touched the fingers of her right hand to her chin and then pulled her hand forward, dropping it in an arc. The woman still chewing the other half of the pretzel did the same. Before they parted, the woman behind the beer table had stepped forward with two fresh steins.

The couple who had sloshed beer on each other a moment ago were embracing again for another go. This time they held their steins high and off to the side while they each clamped the end of a pretzel chunk in their teeth.

"This is nuts," said Adelaide.

Vivienne looked at her and shrugged.

Adelaide stepped forward to the beer table. "Four, please," she hollered, holding up four fingers. The woman behind the table nodded and Adelaide used two fingers to point to Vivienne and then to herself. The woman passing out steins nodded again.

Adelaide and Vivienne deposited their empties with the other ones lined up at the end of the table and held their hands out to accept the four fresh, frothy mugs offered to them. "Thank you, friend," hollered Adelaide.

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"Beer!" shouted Vivienne, holding a mug out to Cosette. Cosette threw her arms wide and fell in to kiss Vivienne on the cheek before taking the stein from her hand. After passing it off, Vivienne grinned and turned her head the other direction. Cosette swooped in to plant another kiss.

While this was happening, Adelaide handed her extra beer to Tonje. Standing beside Tonje was Eniola in her priestess robe, empty handed. Tonje passed the beer stein to Eniola and set off toward the beer table from where Adelaide and Vivienne had just come.

"If I'd known, I would have brought you one," shouted Adelaide.

"What?"

"Never mind."

Eniola shrugged and held up her hand. She was clutching a pretzel along with the beer Tonje had handed her.

"Where in friend's name are you people finding those?"

"Huh?" shouted Eniola.

"Never mind."

Eniola ripped a chunk of pretzel off and held it up to Adelaide's mouth.

"Thanks, friend!" Adelaide took the pretzel bit between her teeth and wrapped her lips over the end of it while she chewed what was in her mouth.

"I've got to figure out where everybody's finding the pretzels," mumbled Adelaide. Eniola just smiled.

As the music stopped and a cheer went up in its place, Adelaide turned her head toward the stage. "Empyrea City!" shouted the lead singer, "Thank you!"

Adelaide focused her gaze on Tiara. Starting at Tiara's smiling face, Adelaide soon moved her eyes to Tiara's hands, gripping her bass, and just as quickly to Tiara's ass as Tiara bent to pick up a nearby bottle of water. Adelaide sighed.

"There's a secret cheese cave," said Vivienne. "Addie? Did you hear me?"

"A what?" said Adelaide.

"There's a place down here where they used to store the cheese for aging. Somewhere along the way the map to it got lost. So now it's a secret treasure trove of legendary cheese. And we're going to find it."

"A legendary lost cheese cave?"

"That's right," said Vivienne. "And we're going to find it."

Adelaide grinned. "You're drunk."

Vivienne shrugged. "Doubtful. But it still doesn't mean there's no cheese cave. Come on, Addie. It'll be fun."

"Who's we?"

"What?"

"When you told me there's a legendary cave of cheese, you said we're going to find it. Who's we?"

"All of us," said Vivienne, gesturing to Cosette, Tonje, Eniola, and also the Acrobat, who had appeared at the fringe of the assembled group.

Adelaide chewed her lip for a moment. Her introspective was interrupted by the lead singer up on the stage. "We're going to slow things down a bit with a new song. But first, I'm going to need Friend Adelaide to come to the stage. Adelaide?" The band's singer put her hand flat against her forehead, shielding her eyes and scanned the crowd. "Where are you, friend?"

Adelaide whirled around to look at the singer on stage. Tiara was standing next to the singer and grinning. Adelaide raised her hand to the center of her chest, pointing inward with her fingers.

"That's you," said Vivienne. "They want you up on stage."

"Yeah, I know it's me." Adelaide turned her gaze to her feet while Vivienne raised her hand in the air, waving it. With her other hand, Vivienne pointed to Adelaide. "Here's she is!"

On stage, Tiara stepped forward, dropped into a crouch and extended her arm toward Adelaide. Adelaide shrunk back and shook her head.

Half the people in the crowd were turned toward Adelaide, paused and waiting for her to make a decision.

"Come on, Addie," said Vivienne.

"I'm not going up on stage," hissed Adelaide. "I haven't had enough beer for that. Not in front of all these people."

"Friend Adelaide?" said the lead singer.

On stage, Tiara ducked out from under the strap of her bass and set the instrument on a stand behind her. She ran to the front and jumped off the stage.

The crowd cheered.

Adelaide shook her head as Tiara came dashing toward her.

Back on stage, the singer stepped up to the microphone. She was dragging a stool in one hand and holding an acoustic guitar in the other. "It's okay, folks," she said, "it's a ballad. Guitar and vocal. Leaving Friend Tiara free to mingle with the crowd, which appears to be her plan."

Tiara shot her hand up and waved while the singer perched on her stool and got the acoustic guitar situated on her thigh.

The crowd sent up a cheer while Adelaide tried in vain to hide behind Vivienne.

"Well, maybe one particular fan in the crowd," chuckled the singer, as the band's lead guitarist dragged another stool over to sit beside her.

"While Tiara's fetching Friend Adelaide, what do you say we get started up here?" The band's lead singer strummed a chord on her guitar and fiddled with one of her tuning pegs. She looked to the guitarist on her left and nodded. The singer picked up strumming again, playing a steady rhythm while the guitarist picked out a short line of a melody.

After a few bars of musical introduction, the singer leaned into the microphone.

"And I know if I stand here,

"With my heart on my sleeve,

"You'll hear my confession,

"And you'll run back to me."

The guitarist joined in with the vocals.

"Oh, oh-ohh...

"Oh, oh, ohh."

The crowd parted around Tiara as she made her way toward Adelaide. Beside Adelaide, Vivienne had pushed herself up on tip toes with her arm stretched high, pointing down at Adelaide's head while Adelaide tried to shrink into the shadows.

"There's a space in my closet,

"There's a space in my bed,

"There's a space on my pillow,

"Where you used to lay your head."

"And I know I should accept it,

"And I know I should move on,

"But filling those spaces,

"Means admitting you're gone."

"Oh, oh-ohh...

"Oh, oh, ohh."

This time, a few voices in the crowd piped up to join in with the oh-ohs. Some of them kept their gaze on the singer, but most turned to watch Adelaide's reaction as Tiara held out her hands.

Adelaide was busy turning three shades of pink.

"Am I strong enough to do this?

"To do this on my own?

"Am I strong enough to live this?

"Live this life on my own?"

"Yes, I'm strong enough to do it,

"To do it on my own,

"I'm strong enough to begin again,

"And live this life on my own."

"Oh, oh-ohh...

"Oh, oh, ohh."

Adelaide stepped forward, fighting to control her expression that alternated between quivering lips and a full-on grin. "Friend Tiara..." she said, as her chest shook.

Tiara opened her arms wide. "Friend Adelaide."

Up on stage, the two musicians turned to face each other while the lead guitarist once again plucked out the melody and the singer strummed chords on her acoustic. Those by the stage focused on them, but anyone near Tiara and Adelaide was watching to see what would unfold.