Starlight Gleaming Ch. 20

"Then get your gear. The quicker we get there, the sooner the captain will cool off."

"Yes, Sergeant." Ixma's voice was more wooden this time.

"I am detecting some resistance from you," Zinja said, folding her arms. "You just said you were going to behave. What's the truth here?"

"Does it matter, Sergeant?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Ixma took a deep breath before answering. "It means I'll do whatever you want me to do, Sergeant. I thought I was worth something, but now I know different. I know how to keep quiet, work hard, and not make waves."

Zinja's arms dropped to her sides. "What's gotten into you, girl?"

"I thought you wanted to leave. I'm ready, Sergeant."

"Not until I get some answers! What do you mean, now you know different? Explain yourself!"

"I am positive you don't want to hear this. I'm ready to leave, Sergeant."

"Answer the question, Ixma. What do you mean by what you said?"

"It means I know my place, Sergeant."

"And what is that exactly?"

"I'm a junior NCO in the Imperial Air Service. I'm the gopher and general labor on the ground crew."

Zinja frowned. "That's what you've been for nearly two years now. Help me out here. I don't see what you're aiming at."

"Are you sure, Sergeant?"

"I'm asking you, aren't I? Help me understand what's going on in your head, because right now, I'm drawing a blank!"

"It's not hard to understand, Sergeant. I'm a corporal in the Air Service. And that's all I am."

"What?"

"My value is in the labor I provide. Nothing else matters but that."

"That's utter nonsense, and you know it!"

"Do I, Sergeant? I didn't have a problem with things outside this house, because inside our home here, I was one of Lord Kandikan's women. Like you, Cholan, Calia, and the captain. I understood the captain was in charge, but that otherwise we each had equal say in things. That we're not just his lovers, but if nothing else, we're his common law wives. But I don't have an equal voice here, do I? The captain didn't share him with us because she loves us. No, she shared him because once we put on the neckerchiefs, her sense of honor demanded it. Shall I go on?"

Her mother nodded.

"The captain is in charge, and I know you'll agree that's just the way it is. But we're not co-wives who share a husband. We aren't even five women choosing to share a lover. The captain made it clear that even in our home, I'm not Ixma, mother of Mina. No, I'm Corporal Ixma, and I'm nothing else to her, and that rank will always be between us. Remember, Sergeant, the captain ordered you to become his lover because she wanted you to have Lord Kandikan's protection, too. I encouraged it because I thought you deserved some happiness. The same wonder and happiness I feel when he makes love to me.

"I already loved you dearly for all the sacrifices you made to keep and raise me, Sergeant. As Mina's mama, I'm coming to know how much work it is to raise a child. I've learned a lot of things since enlisting. But I don't think I will stay in the Air Service much longer. Because with her daddy in the military, she might be tempted to join, and I realize I don't want my girl to ever call me anything but mama."

Zinja winced. "Is it my turn now? Good. All right, Ixma. Here it is. When you wear the uniform, you have to respect the grade, especially on duty. It's how the military operates. When the uniform is on, I'm Second Sergeant Zinja, crew chief to Captain Tlacotli, and you are Corporal Ixma, part of her ground crew. If we use family terms at work, there's a risk the captain will be called to task for not maintaining proper military discipline among her ground crew.

"But even when we do our jobs, do you think I can ever forget that you're also my daughter? I love Sisi, too, but you are my first born. For over half my life and nearly all of yours, it was just the two of us. I spent over twelve hours in agony just to see your face, and you know what? It was worth every single second."

Zinja shook her head. "I love you, child. I would die for you. Don't you know that by now? Over the years, sometimes I thought the world so empty of hope and purpose, I was ready to give up and end it all. But then I heard the words, 'I love you, Mama,' and suddenly I had the strength to carry on."

Then she frowned. "I hear what you're saying, Ixma, and I hope that one day it can be the way you want. It's getting better, but right now it's not that way. Not by a long shot. There are truths to this world that you seem to have forgotten during this past year.

"Did you forget all those times that our captain had to let men fuck her so that we would be safe? Every single day, and all too often it was more than once. By the gods, sometimes she had such bruises on her body it made me weep. She did that to protect us from even more abuse than we already had to deal with!

"Lady Tlacotli is an officer, Ixma. A noblewoman! If they do that to her, what chance do we have? We're commoners. We're at the beck and call of the warrior-nobles and priests above us. The commander and the captain, they are our protection! We love them partly because they do protect us. If anything happens to them, may the gods have mercy on us. I get that you love Calia and you wanted to protect her. I don't know what's going on between her and the captain, but in the meantime, I'm going to trust my officer to do her best by me, you, and Cholan.

"And what about you, girl? You and Calia somehow knew men tried to kill Lord Kandikan this morning, yet you chose to keep that from us! What's the matter with you? You want to be co-wives. Don't you think we deserved to know, too? You knew he was in danger, and you didn't come tell us right away. How do you think that makes us feel? You, Calia, and Cholan have been as thick as thieves ever since our return here. But you didn't even tell the captain about the danger to Lord Kandikan. A co-wife means you work together, Ixma. You foster the family's interests over your own. Do you hear me? Stop focusing on your own interests. As for Lord Kandikan, we're his women, but we are not his wives. I know you want that, but it's not so. It's just not. We wear the uniform of the Imperial Air Service, and a woman in the military cannot be married."

During Zinja's dressing down of her daughter, Ixma began to weep silently.

"The gods of chaos must surely love playing with us. Five women who love one man. A slave-woman and four in uniform, none of whom can marry him. Like some great cosmic joke." Zinja continued, her anger fading. "The world is changing. It's good here at High Guard. I never thought I'd ever experience a time when I had the right to tell some man, 'no,' and not suffer for it. Now if I have trouble, I can call Air or Ground Security, and I don't have to be afraid that they will rape me, too. Instead, I expect them to protect me."

Zinja glanced meaningfully at me. "I have to say that feels damn good. But that's beside the point. What you want is still in the future, Ixma. May the gods be kind and grant it for our girls, Sisi and Mina. In the meantime, if the captain thinks she's better than us, it's because she is better. She's Lady Tlacotli, a noblewoman and our officer. She protects us and for that we owe her loyalty. You see her as being selfish. But you can't dismiss the fact that she didn't have to share her man with us. Not just because of honor. Sometimes she has trouble saying or expressing it, but she loves us. We are her ground crew, Ixma, but we're also her family. What does Lord Kandikan tell Cholan after they make love?"

"I... I don't know," she sniffed.

"Remember that black day at Tikún, when you and the captain were hurting from being raped? Captain Tlacoltli could have fought the man that took her, but she let him rape her because his partner had a knife at Cholan's throat. Threatened to murder Cholan if she didn't cooperate. And the man with the knife told Cholan that she could suck his dick, but she was too fat to fuck. Our captain could have focused on her own hurting. Instead, she saw what that bastard's words did to Cholan's heart, so she asked Lord Kandikan to make it right for her. And boy, did he!

"Now it's a year later. Cholan told us what happened to them in Copán. Compare the two places, Ixma. At High Guard, we can say no, and if we call for help, we can expect to get it. At Copán, five officers cornered a woman -- an officer and a noblewoman, mind you! -- and they not only raped her, they broke her elbow. They did it because they thought they could get away with it. By the gods, they expected to get away with it, because they had already done so many times before. The only reason why they didn't was because his lordship intervened.

"High Guard is but one island in all the Empire. I hope what Lord Kandikan is doing will spread and become law for all our people. But we already have the Minister of Imperial Security trying to kill Lord Kandikan. Think about it, girl! That madman tried to kill thousands of children just so he could murder our kids! I have no doubt he will do his best to squash all this bit of freedom we have recently gained. And he is not alone. There will be others in power that will resist this change, and they won't care who they hurt to keep things the way they were, or even put us back a century or two. Back to the days when we women couldn't serve our country and it was illegal for commoner women to read or write. Back to the days when any man who wanted a woman just had to tell her to bend over and she had to lift her dress and take it."

Zinja reached out and gently lifted her daughter's chin. "Have I made some headway here?"

Ixma nodded, tears spilling.

"You aren't wrong to want those things, baby girl. A starving man too long without food will try and gorge when he finally gets food. Your spirit has been repressed so long, that now you have some taste of freedom, you want more and you want it now. Trust me. I know what your heart's going through. The captain is a skilled warrior. Don't you think it grates even harder on her, a noblewoman, every time she had to endure being ordered to submit? How she wanted to fight and bleed the bastard, but couldn't because he outranked her? I beg you to keep things in perspective, and by the gods, please have some patience. And if it's not too much trouble, please have mercy on me, Ixma. The next time you accuse me of loving the rules of the military more than I love you, it might just kill me."

Zinja's arms opened, and Ixma flew into them, bawling. "I'm so sorry, Mama!"

"I know you are, baby girl. I love you so much. Every day I look at you with pride to see the woman you've grown into. And you are still growing in your heart and spirit." She kissed the top of her head and sighed. "You are twenty-one this year. I'm getting to be an old woman of thirty-six. I could have stayed and had a share of the farm, but I had to fight off my uncle and his older sons when you were a child to keep you safe from them. The money from the land paid my hospital and therapy costs, and it carried us until I earned enough as a corporal to support the both of us. As you got older, every time you were hurt just for being a girl, I died a little inside because I couldn't protect my own child."

Then she turned to look at me. "Commander Kandikan and Captain Tlacotli both fight to protect us. They also fight to safeguard the Empire and our way of life. With his Protection Order, our lives have become better. They both deserve our loyalty and support. Our captain needs you, Ixma. I need you."

I grabbed a disposable hand towel and handed it to Zinja. She nodded her thanks, then wiped away the tears before handing it to her daughter. Ixma paused in her sniffling to blow her nose.

"Ready to go to work now?" Zinja asked.

Contrite, Ixma wiped both her eyes again, then blew her nose once more. "Yes, Sergeant."

After clearing my throat, I said, "Now I'm going to have my say. Captain Tlacotli has a claim to you both, but damn it, so do I! I love both of you. You wear my neckerchiefs and you are the mothers of my children. If anyone tries to hurt you or make you afraid, you tell me! Am I clear?"

They both nodded.

I cupped Zinja's face with both my hands. "Don't go away, Ixma, because you're next.

"Zinja, you are part of my family now. If anything happens to me and your captain, you have a home and protection with my parents. My brother, too, will protect you. One more thing before I kiss you, Farm Girl. Your captain recently asked you if you would breed for me. I have no problem getting hard for you, my sexy Farm Girl. I love and feel desire for you because it's you, and not because I feel obligated in any way other than a man's desire to protect a wonderful woman. I love you, Zinja Ba'lanchicotl. The notion of putting a baby inside you arouses me. You are not too old for me. When I look at you, I see a wise and strong woman who would raise our children with the same devotion she already gives to her other two children. When you are ready, I promise I will do my best to make you helpless in my arms as we make a child that is part of both of us. Farm Girl, I will plow your field and make you shake with pleasure while I plant my seed over and over until you catch. And I will keep on plowing just because we both like it so much."

She inhaled at that, her eyes dilating, and her tongue wet lips suddenly gone dry.

Then I kissed her, and her mouth opened for me, and while she held me close, our tongues played together. She whimpered as my arms moved down her sides, until they cupped her butt cheeks and pulled her tight against my growing erection.

By the time we broke apart, she was panting heavily and her eyes were heavy-lidded. "What you do to me, Commander, should be against the law."

"I'm thinking a growing belly will only increase your beauty. Why, a fine woman such as you should have five or six children to love her and call her mama."

Blushing furiously, Zinja took a step back. "We need to go, sir. The captain's waiting for us."

When I turned to Ixma, she had watched the exchange between her mother and me with a smirk that was both amused and pleased. But when she looked at me, love and hope filled her face. "What about me?"

Leaning my forehead against hers, I said, "Little Mama, when the time comes, I will let you decide how many sisters and brothers Mina needs to have. I see you, Ixma Ba'lanchicotl, and I love you. Whatever happens, you are mine and I am yours."

"Oh, Ranji!" She flung her arms around me, and we kissed passionately. And she eagerly rubbed her belly against my fully-hard erection.

"Things will be chaotic today," I said at last. She sighed and laid her head against my chest. "But I will make time for you."

Zinja snorted at that, shaking her head. "Aren't you the smooth-talking scoundrel! You just promised to seed me until my belly swells, and you got me wet anticipating you doing me when I get home tonight. And here you are, promising to do the same to my daughter, and no doubt making her drench her panties in the process. Instead of scandal or jealousy filling my heart, I see the happiness you give her and that fills me with a joy all its own. As much as I want to stay and have you make good on your promises, we need to get to work."

Another kiss to each, and then they left.

Sowitwee tried to be discreet about his amusement. Daydo wouldn't meet my eyes, but it was clear he was amused as well. Nariya looked flushed as she looked at me. With one hand she held her husband's, while her other slowly rubbed his forearm.

"I'm going upstairs to change, Wit," I said. "I'll be down after a bit."

Seeing the coast was clear, Terra and Salvia returned to the kitchen. Their days in servitude had taught them to vanish whenever there were loud voices or arguing of any sort. Stay and risk getting accused of spying and punished -- or worse. With their former master, that lesson was even more important.

Salvia shyly asked, "Shall we make you breakfast, Lord?"

"Yes, please," I answered. Collecting my gym bag, I walked around the corner.

Lower voiced, Salvia asked, "Lady Bancorri? Will you supervise us? We want to make him a meal he will appreciate."

"All right," she agreed, amused.

I headed upstairs. Concerned for Calia, I quietly opened the door. She was sitting in the room's large overstuffed chair, her gaze on my sleeping daughters.

Without a word, I stood before her and taking her hand, pulled her up and into my arms.

"I'm afraid of what's going to happen," she whispered.

"I love you, Calia."

Nestling into the crook of my neck as her arms went around me, she sighed. "Every woman that you repudiate, they will know in their mind you do it to protect them. Yet you will also break their heart. Please, I beg you. Even if you must repudiate the others, do not send me away, Master! I couldn't bear it."

"Just know that I would do almost anything to keep all of you safe, even if it broke my own heart. It was a passing suggestion, and ill-considered I think. I'm not going anywhere. Wherever I go, Calia, you will come with me."

"Oh, my lord! I love you so."

I nuzzled her, squeezing her in my arms. Then I leaned back to caress her face. "Your telepathic contact, Calia, however brief it was -- that was almost three rads from here. And all the information you sent, in the span of a second or two. Your abilities are growing remarkably!"

"It was all I could manage. I just tried to send you as much information as I could. I passed out almost immediately afterward, and was compelled to sleep for over an hour."

"Remarkable nonetheless. No pain or discomfort afterward? No headache? Huh. That's good. Well, it saved my life. It also saved my friend Jay and the lives of two troopers. We were also able to save two of their victims. The assassins had broken into their home and forced them out at gunpoint, and once they arrived at the location they picked for the ambush, they crashed the vehicle and shot the family. Unfortunately, we weren't able to save the mother. You were critical to avoiding a massacre on the streets this morning. I thank the gods for these abilities of yours. You and your growing powers may be what we need to survive against the Minister."

"Your Janetta thinks I'm a freak." She lifted her head to gaze at me, her face filled with sadness.

"I'm sure that will pass soon enough. I love you and trust you utterly, Calia. It will be stealing the credit from you, but when asked, I will imply that these visions were mine. Father's warning about keeping this secret demands some subterfuge. I don't want to do anything that will make you more of a target. If the visions are mine and they test me, they'll find nothing unusual."

"As you wish, my lord. If I'm with you, I'm content." She laid her head back against my chest.

The small pair of arms that glommed onto my leg startled me.

Sisi looked up at me hopefully. "Can I have a morning hug, Tenant?"

My heart melted. Calia took a step back as I dropped my gym bag. Reaching down, I picked up my oldest daughter. Her arms went around my neck and she tried to wrap herself around me. I hugged her, savoring her precious sigh of contentment.

Calia nodded in approval, her previous sadness banished by watching us together.

Then I spied Mina getting onto her knees, her own arms raised. "Daddy, up. Up!"

By the gods! Mina just called me Daddy! Woo-hoo!

Nearly overwhelmed, with one arm holding Sisi, I went to the bed and scooped up my other girl.

"I love you, Mina-beena. You, too, Sisi."

"Love you, Daddy." Mina laid her head against my chest; her little hands hugging me tightly.

"I love you, Tenant."