Ganne


22 - Not Fit Company.


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A ripple of Ganne washed against Guara's sleeping mind.

The old woman awoke with a start.  In confusion, she peered around at the
darkened room, having no idea where she was.  This was not her bed chamber
in the Shennon Palace.  Neither could she call to mind how she had come
here.  As she peered around, her mind floundered through a sea of over
lapping images and impressions.

A pale, grey light was filtering in through a grimy window to the right of
the bed.  It served to emphasise the shadows, rather than illuminate the
spacious room.

Something moved in those shadows.

Guara cautiously extended the Ganne, touched something vile, and recoiled.
"Angela?" she called.

The ghostly apparition of the girl ceased its restless drifting about the
room, and glided over to stand at the side of the bed.  The Viper made a
dark, graceful silhouette against the pale grey light from outside.  Guara
reached out and took hold of a hand.  The shock of the contact jogged
Guara's memory back into place.  She sighed with relief.  Of course...

The Ganne moved again.

Guara stiffened.  Now what were those treacherous cows up to?  They
couldn't be left alone for a moment.  Quickly, she threw off the rough
blanket, which stank of horse piss.  The room was chilly.  She pulled on
her boots and drew the cloak tighter about her shoulders.  She ignited a
Ganne Lantern.  Its pale blue radiance filled the room.  Guara set off
across the rotting carpet towards the doors.  The light bobbed along in
her wake, staying close, as though it feared the touch of the Curse, which
pressed in close beyond the influence of the personal shield.

"Come on, Angela," Guara urged the girl, who still stood passively by the
bedside.  At Guara's command, the Viper glided after the old woman.
Angela ignited her own Ganne Lantern.  The golden sphere soared and
swooped under the high ceiling, careless of the Curse.  It pranced and
darted through the chill air, lighting up the dust laden cobwebs in the
corners and angles.  The golden glow showered down on Angela like a
brilliant rain.  In only seconds, the butterfly mind of the Viper forgot
the shining globe; and it dimmed and winked out as she followed Guara from
the room.

The pair padded along carpeted corridors, thick with dust.  The shivering
in the Ganne drew Guara on through the silent house, down stone steps into
a passage below ground level.  The air became dank.  Patches of mildew
stained the wall hangings.  Guara pressed on through the gloom, Angela at
her heels, until something crackled underfoot.  Bending, Guara picked up a
piece of grease-proofed paper.  She sniffed it.

"So,"she muttered, "they have been at the Trail Rations." She started off
again, and stopped as her booted foot struck something else lying on the
floor.  The thing rang with a brittle noise as it spun around.  Guara bent
once more.  This time when she straightened, it was with a long necked
wine bottle.  She shook it; the bottle was empty.  Evidently, they had
also looted the wine cellar.

The faint noise of splashing water echoed along the passage.  Guara
stopped so suddenly to listen that Angela walked into her.  Women's voices
drifted on the air.  The splashing came again.  A voice was raised in good
humoured protest.  An echoing laughter filled the narrow passage.

The noises were coming from a door at the end of the passage.

Guara moved cautiously to the door and laid a hand on it, unwilling to
extend the Ganne.  Whatever they were at, it would be best if she gave
them as little warning as possible of her presence.  She laid an ear to
the panel.  To judge by the echoes, there was a large room beyond.  The
air seeping around the door seal carried a faint whiff of Karrellanne's
astringent perfume.

Guara shoved open the door, and stepped inside.  A great waft of warm air
engulfed her.  The room was clouded with steam.  It billowed and swirled
under the barrel vaulted ceiling, glowing a sickly orange.  Delicately
carved water nymphs stood at each corner of a vast sunken bath.  Each held
up a bronze lamp which cast a wavering light upon the nine naked female
forms splashing happily around in the steaming water.  They were all there
except Sehko.  The women were playfully splashing each other.  Beruth was
kneeling behind Karrellanne, washing the taller woman's hair.

So, they had decided to enjoy a bath.  That explained the disturbance in
the Ganne.  The women had filled the bath, then focused their Ganne to
heat the water.

All around the pool was a jumble of cast of clothes.  A dozen or more wine
bottles stood or lay amid the clothes, mostly empty.  They had certainly
done themselves proud there, Ballan Tah rose...  the very best vintage
wine to be had anywhere on the continent.  The wrappers of trail rations
were strewn about; a few scraps and crumbs were bobbing in the water.

Slovenly cows, Guara thought, and waited to be noticed; but the women were
so preoccupied with their horse-play, no one noticed her standing in the
doorway, hands on hips.  A couple of them were clutching bottles, drinking
from the long necked vessels.  They were, all of them, a little drunk.

At last, Guara tired of waiting.  She demanded in a loud voice, "what is
going on here?"

The women froze.  A heavy silence descended in the densely shadowed room.
Zamaleen tittered nervously.  Marleena huddled up in a far corner, trying
not to be noticed.

"Well?" Guara demanded, her stern gaze flicking from woman to woman.  None
would meet her eye.  There was a nervous shuffling and looking from one to
another.  Marleena squeezed further into her corner.  The steam pulsed in
the wavering orange light.

Suddenly, Karrellanne rose.  Rivulets of water streamed from her naked
form.  An amused smile crept across her mouth as she looked up at Guara,
who stood, framed by the doorway.  With long fingers, she scraped back the
soapy strands of hair sticking to her damp skin, pushing them back over
her shoulder.  The studied insolence in the gesture was not lost on Guara.

"Why...  My Lady Ganne....  We are just taking a bath." Karrellanne's
voice was sweetly innocent.  "Surely, you will not begrudge us a chance to
wash ourselves clean of the grime of that journey in that hideous little
boat?  Surely we do not have to ask permission to be at our toilet?"

Guara squirmed inwardly with embarrassment.  It galled her that the woman
could get under her guard so easily.  From the sunken marble bath, nine
women smirked at her discomfiture.  Marleena's head hung in shame.

"No, of course not," Guara conceded the point in as pleasant a voice as
she could manage; but everyone in the room knew that Karrellanne had
scored a hit.  Even Angela, loitering aimlessly in the doorway, looked
suddenly alert for an instant.  Beruth sniggered, unable to contain her
amusement.

Karrellanne reached down.  With a graceful motion, she swept up one of the
half empty wine bottles, and waved it in a very suggestive and provocative
manner at Guara.  "Perhaps...  Perhaps, My Lady Ganne would like to join
us?  if not...  Perhaps then at least you might close the door...  There
is a terrible draft."

Biting down on her anger, Guara stalked around the bath to where Marleena
was cringing in a corner.  Guara held a hand down to the girl.  "Come
along, child," she urged gently.  "This is not fit company for one such as
you."

Marleena took the proffered hand, and clambered out.  She stood, head
bowed, cheeks reddening as Guara picked up a shirt and draped it over her
shoulders.  Taking the stricken girl by the hand, the older woman urged
her from the room.  Closing the door behind them, Guara led the girl up
the passage.  The Ganne light Guara ignited pulsed and shimmered, shot
through with an angry orange sheen.  Angela drifted in their wake.  There
was a curious, half formed expression on her face.  The emotions behind
that expression were so alien the human face simply could not do them
justice.

Karrellanne's voice, raised in some observation, reached Guara.  The
distance was too great for the words to be clear; but the tone conveyed
all the meaning necessary.  A gale of laughter blew up the passage.

Marleena winced.  The girl stumbled to a halt.  She dropped suddenly to
her knees, and covered her face with her hands.  The shirt slid from her
back to settle over her calves.  The girl's body began to shake with her
quiet sobbing.

"What is it?  Whatever is the matter, child?" Guara asked.  She bent,
picked up the shirt, and draped it back over the shuddering girl.
Marleena, Guara realised, was repeating some words over and over in a tiny
voice.  Guara bent closer to catch the words.

"Goddess forgive me.  Oh sweet Goddess forgive me," Marleena was crying.

Touched by the girl's intense emotional state, Guara laid a hand on the
girl's head.  "What is it, child?  What has that woman done to you?" Guara
was afraid that Karrellanne had forced herself upon the girl.

"I have betrayed you," Marleena said in a suddenly strong voice.  "My Lady
Queen, I have betrayed you.  I have betrayed you.  I have pledged my Ganne
to the, the Clovis faction.  I have betrayed you."

Guara stroked her fingers gently through the girl's fine, dark hair.  "Is
that all?" she said, her tone clearly dismissing the girl's treason as of
no consequence whatsoever.  She reached down and took the girl by the
shoulders, and gently eased her back to her feet.  Marleena refused to
meet her eyes.  Guara put a finger under her chin, and forced upwards
until their eyes met.  The depth of fear and shame Guara saw in the girl's
brimming eyes appalled her.  It was just another thing for which she knew
Karrellanne Bah Clovis would never be brought to book.

"You have done right, Marleena," Guara assured firmly.

The girl was so surprised at these words that she jerked back and stared
unbelieving at her Queen.  Guara nodded.  "That's right, child.  You have
done the right thing."

"But..." Marleena began to protest.

Guara placed a finger over the girl's lips to quiet her.  "Karrellanne
will be the next Chair of the Ganne Council," she explained.  "That will
make her your Queen.  You are young.  You will have to live under her
regime.  Better by far for you that she is not your enemy.  Far better,
than you pander to some silly notion of honour that will get you killed...
Or worse.  Far better." Guara stood back from the stunned girl.  Smiling
reassuringly, she readjusted the shirt over the girl's shoulders.

Another burst of merriment came up the passage.  Guara scowled at the
closed door.  "Let them have their fun," she said.  "Let them indulge
themselves in their sordid little pleasures.  Tonight may well be their
last chance for that brood to wallow in decadent luxury for a while." She
smiled at Marleena.  "Come along My dear.  Let's get you some more
clothes."

As it turned out, for some of them, it was the last time ever.


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