Writer : Avery Brighton

"She is a flower growing on the surface of moon . unique and mysterious, her beauty is precious lovely gift on canvas of moon .."

Imran Shaikh

Princess Velana and younger sister of the Queen Sermona.

The Last Queens of the dessert.

Chapter 1

The fallen Queen

Many stories are known about the Elsar the great city of western Abhazia.
Her dry plains conquered from the Hermadians almost fifteen years before was the last kingdom before the vast Ahama Desert.

Placed on the top of six hills and separated in two levels by an old and half destroyed now stone wall gained her name from the beautiful colour of her exterior purple walls.

This high exterior walls changed colour from white to light purple during the sunset due to the stones which embody it.

This fortified city full with bastions and small turret's was one of the few water sources in the area.

Large towers in each side of the heavy wooden gate at least thirteen-foot tall was towered above the entrance.

Inside the city was also a interesting place for the distant travellers which arrived in many caravans at time from the main road which crossed the Dry Lands.

The white houses and public buildings constructed usually from the same material as the exterior walls was tall and impressive spread in the hill sides without some specific plan.

But still they gave a unique appearance in this so important for the trade roads city.

Buzzing markets sheltered with arcades and wooden warehouses were all around the city's .

In the western side a large dark fortress with many turrets projectile from his main bulk spread a large threatened shade in the houses above.

It was the notorious governor prison which few dared to approach.

Black armoured soldiers were guarding the near by streets and watched with cold eyes every one who approched.

In the left side of the main square which the was the largest market located a two floor white building.

A small artificial garden in rooftop could been seen from the main street.

The garden was full with red and white flowers that their were extremely rare and grown only in some isolated areas of the dessert.

It was the home of Alsia the most successful and rich woman in the city.

Together with her sister Atmila she expanded her family merchant business in almost all the northern east part of the empire.

She was also the head of merchant conference a small elite of rich citizens who even the high ranking officials respected.

The sisters were originated from one nomadic tribe who settled in the city many years before.

Alsia was dark skinned with long raven hair and as most of her tribe people tall and lean in body.

She was an attractive voluptuous woman .

But her grey eye's was shinning with cunningess and it was well known that her incomes was not only from conventional trading.

A huge demand for a kind of a local mineral named  "fire blood" and slaves started to appear in Abhazia.

And her business didn't delayed to expand in this field to.
But not without problems.

Chapter 2

"She is like moon who fell in love with the blue night and shared all her light ..."

Imran Sheikh

Sermona the last Queen

The Queen

In the southern edge and in a more quite part of the city was a palace relatively small in comparison with others palaces of the empire.

A small forest of large magnificent palm trees was next to it.

Connected with it with a long colonnade corridor was a large three floor library with rare papyrus and books.

There the knowledge of centuries priestess destructive intentions almost two centuries before.

The religion saw this knowledge as a long term threat to the realm stability.

And then began a campaign of destruction of whatever promoted knowledge to the people.

The palace and its surroundings was the last sanctuary of the young Queen Sermona the VIll.

Despite the various threats that she faced the young Queen had managed to protect  herself from total enslavement.

Until now ...
As long as the emperor consider her useful to kept her alive.

He could easily gave her in his commanders as common slave girl like many others previously noble women's in her city.

She was a graceful and cunning woman. Very beautiful indeed .

With long brown hair which shimmered like a lake in the moonlight as her people said often in the chronicles about her.

Her almond shaped green eyes was like pools of bejewelled water ,as the scholar's described her and her smooth complexion was like the ruthless sun of the dessert hadn't touched her in her life.

A slight cinnamon scent was always following her presence in her private or official meetings with the peoples of the city.

Sermona despite her royal long purple dress which enveloped her body was an obviously well shaped woman.

Her sharp tongue, education and charming but noble behaviour wasn't something that could be passed unnoticed from the governor Sard himself.

He was a tall man with stern face and dark grey eyes that seems as it could look inside your thoughts when he stared at you.

Wearing usually his leather armour and accompanied by his broad shielding mercenaries bodyguards was imposed his authority with only brutal force.

He had the real and main power in the city after the Queen's capital captured by the imperial army.

He was known not for his wisdom but for the beautiful  women's who married from every corner of the empire.

Many of them were noble in blood but became his consorts after their cities captured from the barbaric armies.

Other slave girls were given to him as a gift from Sermonas mother and were usually daughters of her political rivals who were in exile for their anti- monarchy beliefs.

Sermona was still managed to survive and remain free in a more and more difficult political scene.

She wasn't tall like her mother but she always kept her royal demeanour which preserve the respect from her remaining servants and slaves.

The slavery during Sermonas reigh was only permitted for male slaves, usually peasants that failled to pay heavy taxes to their Queen and her theocratic regime.

The only religion during the previous matriarchy era of the Goddess -Queens was the worship of female gooddess Astar and all other religions were prohibited with the penalty of death.

Based in this religion beliefs  the male population couldnt gain any positions of authority and all public officials or high ranked priests were women.

Even in the army were the majority of the soldiers were men ,eunuchs or priestess with no actual combat experience were in the top of the hierarchy and when failures in the battlefield occurred they blammed the disfavour of the goddess.

 And then because only male slaves were allowed in the realm ,sometimes human sacrifises were offered ,especially young boys.

But now all these has changed after the conquest of her realm by her brutal enemies.

These days every time that she was outside of her palace the Sand Queen wasnt safe.

She couldn't even protect her own younger sister and princes Velana.

Velana was also graceful and pretty as picture girl with dark hair and emotional light brown eyes from her father side as they said.

She was known as one of the most educated woman in the city despite her young age.

In her eighteen years she had more knowledge than most of the priestess of the city and she was wittier from every noble woman of the palace.

But two years before she lost her in a sudden ambush after a visit of them to one of the city's public officials.

She was kidnapped by the governor brother Estar and his masked horsemen's just outside the palace.

The kidnappers target was her but the last moment she managed to sleep away with her horse Safir.

But her sister was not so lucky.

She still remembered the masked man taking her in his horse with her hands tied behind her.

She desperately called her name but it was nothing that she could do then ...

Eventually the emperor learn the incident but her sister was taken as a hostage from him in his palace in Zahara.

She was devastated by the lost of her beloved sister and the fact that she couldn't do anything to take her back made her fell even more helpless and unsafe.

Her fury and sadness was unbearable and for days she didn't came out from her chambers.

From this day she didn't went outside as a Queen, disguised herself as a common woman in order to avoid another attempt.

Her palace was the only safe place that she could find.

It was built with almost clear cyan marble and with tall thin turrets in each of his four corners.

A double line of cyan tall and thin colonnades surrounded it all around.

Four bronze statue's of griffons was seated as ancient guards in the wooden entrance doors.

Many human sized black statues of past Queens and priestess of the previous generations decorated the arcades in front of the main entrance.

The palace was still famous for it beautiful woman's dancer's that still lived in the palace hall's protected from the outside word.

But now the old matriarch system has been replaced by the emperor strict governor rule who cruelly explode every wealth from her and her supporters

His rule started fifteen years before after the siege and the following defeat of her few outnumbered soldiers that consists the city's garrison.

The treason of her own mercenary guard's in one of her gates followed next.

The last few loyal female warriors of the Queen was the royal archers of the palace, the Asalinas.

This women were from noble families of the east and trained to become archer's and mounted messengers in the service of the Queen, for life.

But even this brave women's was killed except few who retreated with her Queen in the second level of the city until the total surrender of the capital.

The emperor Garhelm has allowed only the symbolic existence of the Queen from ever since.

Now she was restricted in her own palace but with her own people inside at least.

She was not even allowed to go outside the city without the governor decision.

Mercenaries patrolled the outside streets ensured that no escape attempt will be possible.

The history of her family and the events that followed after the siege was known to all the citizens.

The famous for her beauty mother Sermina Vll decided defeated to deliver the city keys to the victorious emperor to prevent more bloodshed and suffering of her people.

Sermina was then young and with no real experience in state s affairs.

The people that still remembered her said that she was just her daughter ...same dark hair ,and crystal green eyes.

The negotiations was seemingly ended with the promise from the side of the emperor that no violence  will took place in her people.

Also he gave her his word that the Queen's royal family and herself will be not be harmed  if they surrendered peacefully .

But the Queen refuse and gave orders to behead the emperor emisaries.

Few days after  Queen was sleeping peacefully in her quarters ,still in her fortified palace which was considered impregnable from outside.

She was still in her night dress when suddenly she was arrested by her own soldiers and taken with the rest of her royal family to the enemy camp.

The emperor men chained the helpless queen with shackles in her hands and ankles in front of her sister's and her last supporters.

There the white dressed Queen forced to take an oath that she will excepted any conditions and even slavery from the Hermadians in order to protect the lives of her people's from immediately execution.

The Queen's cousins and other nobles was almost all enslaved and transferred  in distant place's.

Her last remaining Asalinas tried to escape with the queen's daughter and some servants from secret underground tunnels.

But somehow their enemies anticipate this attempt and they all captured just outside the city's walls.

The governor imprisoned all the captured Asalinas in the city castle.

Nine of them were very beautiful ,as he observed, and among them their leader the tall ,blonde Hermina from thewestern realm of Everlands.

Hermina was notorious for her reputation as "tought" and "iron willed "in the palace aristocrasy.

Few years before she used to whip or imprison herself every man or woman  refused to kneel in front of her  or opposed her rule in the countryside villages around the city walls.

But now she was the one who was expected to be punished from an other more powerful ruler in the town.

Hermina was sackled as the other girls in line next to her and stripped from all her clothes.

With golden chains hanging from her ankles and wrists , she stood trembling from anger and humiliation in front of the barbaric invaders.

- I will spare the life  ...and in return i want you to kneel in front of me now ! ...,he told her smiling when she saw clearly the fear in her eyes.

She remaned still for a moment and then answered 

- I demand to see the emperor first ...and decent clothers for me and my warriors ! she screamed in an effort to intimidate him.

- "Well ..."he answered ..."first i want to remind you that i can deliver you tied up as you are to your people and watch as they do whatever they want to you...  "he said with solemn voive and looked her directly in the eyes.

The woman paused and lower her head trembling with the thought of what the peasants may do to her.

- "I am pleading for my life my lord "she whispered defeated.

In the end in order to save her herself the woman excepted with tears of desperation in her light blue eyes and kneel in front of him kissing his sandals as a sigh of submission.

And after that she was taken in one of her captor luxury mansions outside the city and became his personal bed slave untill he sold her in a passing caravan.

Chapter 3

The Ritual

And from this day it was decided that every new Queen when she was ready to took the place of her mother she should be forced to show her submission to the empire.

This year the ritual performed in the spring as Sermonas mother still passed away from a sudden mysterious illness.

The empire himself visited her and he sat in the forbidden for her ancient silver throne of the palace.

She was wearing only her light night dress as the previous queen and took off her sandals which symbolise her old agreement scene.

Sermona stood in front of the main royal hall doors with her bare knees in the smooth wooden floor.

Two soldiers chained her hands and then her bare feet with silver ankle shackles.

The same chain's which used in the previous queen fifteen years ago ...

After the king summon her and she walked towards his throne.

She kneels in front of him.

If the emperor is satisfied from her she requested his permission to rule her palace as before as a vassal queen.

After her dismissal from the emperor she returned in her quartets and prepared the funeral of her beloved mother.

She was alone now.

"She is a ray of sunshine . a rain of warm summer . a bright fire of a cold winter's day ."

Imran Shaikh

Chapter 4

The gift of the city

The strange ritual was not the only change which came with the conquest.

Strange new deities demanded human sacrifices became the main religions in the city.

One small forest , oval in shape that located near the eastern gate was the spiritual center of this religion.

It was artificially created and surrounded with a tall brick wall all around its perimeter.

Thick willows was almost the only tree in this mysterious forest .

In the deepest part of the forest there was a cave.

Around her entrance were black sculptures with animals or mythical creatures in different sizes carved in the hard stone hundreds of years before.

This was the holy temple of the city's new deities.

And in front of it another dark opening like a giant well.
It was the Ice spring.

The waters of the spring was shinning this night.
It was a full moon again.

This springs were the life source of the city and her surroundings villages.

There every full moon thirteen white young girls where gathered in silence.

But this time was different.

Something very important was about to take place there.

The girls with purple dresses down until their knees and white ribbons in their heads were waiting in a circle.

They were all barefooted and in their
ankles silver anklets decorated their elegant skin.

They stood in a tight circle next to the main path waiting in absolutely silence.

Then three of them who had thick black iron bracelet's in their wrists stepped back and sat leg crossed in the grass.

Some men hooded with grey robes appeared from the trees and sat behind them like watchful guard's.

Then as if someone gave an invisible sign to them the rest of he girls started walked with light steps towards the heart of the forest in a single line.

They sang softly their melodic choir's which was the only sound echoed in this mysterious and forbidden place during the twilight.

They were the priestess of their dark dainties.

The dainties temple was inside a deep cave which entrance was next to the Icy Spring.

There each night they gathered in circles waiting for the white full moon to reappear bleaching in the night sky.

The priestess was divided in two strictly separate classes.

Nine of them are always from noble the families of the city and there were the high priestess.

But dispute their status they usually didn't were more than twenty five years old and never less than nineteenth.

They had to be mature women's to became priestess.

They all chose for their beauty and indeed before most of them were wanted bribes for many rich and powerful persons of the city's Council.

And many of this girls avoided an unpleasant marriage and devoted to their religious duties.

Until at least they reached twenty five years of age.
Then the period of their religious service ended and weren't safe from their admirers any more.

By the rules of the temple they had to leave there place's because other girls was also waiting their turn.

But the second rank of them was four which was always slave girls.

This girls were often kidnapped from the northern borders by the Slave Hunter's or they were from enslaved families who were quite a lot of them in the city now.

But also free young women who travelled with the caravan's and entered the city often disappeared under mysterious sircumstances.

Slave Hunter's this days has started to became more and more bold as the authorities allowed their profitable activities.

The second ranked priestess was also very beautiful and dressed similar with the others but they didn't serve a lot of time like their "sisters" as they call each other.

And that because at times one of them has to scarified to the deities and a new slave girl took her place soon after that.

And that's was something that no foreigner visited the marvellous city knew about ...

Two weeks before a slave girl named Selena was chosen.

She was unknown to the most of the other young women there.

And she was from the North.

Selena was graceful with all the elegant characteristics of the girls from her distant nation.

She wasn't tall but slender in body and with long brown hair falling to her white shoulders.
Her large emerald eyes was a rare characteristic in this eastern lands.

Her only garment was a light blue dress which reached down until her lower knees .

Her eyes was shadowed darkly like the eastern women of the dessert tribes.

But looking carefully in her white complexion bruises from rough hand's marked her limb's.

At times she opened her eyes looking emotionally with a perplexed way around her.

She was clearly half drugged possible from some kind of strong herbs.

One tall but wan man carried her in his arms.
He was white dressed like a priest but he had the hard stern features of a soldier.

He was taken her towards the temple entrance and around them the rest of the priestess with their sad choirs filled the silence of the night.

The brunette girl mouth was gagged with a black cloth .
She souldn't disturb the ritual.

Her bare feet was also restrained .
They tied up tightly her ankles together with black leather straps.

This straps kept her feet only few inches close to one another.

A thin metal chain wrapped around her waist kept also her hands close to her body.

They had tied her up and kept her drugged in her bed almost two days.
Now her time came at last.

The man approached now the entrance of the cave.

There an oval shaped casket was placed down in front of him.

Blue silk covered the inside of it like a soft blanket.

The casket was opened awaiting quietly the helpless woman to fill the gap inside it like a hungry dark mouth.

The man placed the girl softly inside and tied her again with leather straps across her white shoulders and lower calf's inside the casket.

Then the dark mouth closed slowly and entrapped it's victim.

The girl closed her eyes.
Perhaps she could understand that this was her fate now.

It was the end.
The hideous deities has gained another servant for them.

The casket was taken by two dark dressed slaves who silently pushed it in the dark waters of the spring.
The water hungrily devoured the cascet and the pale girl gone with it.

Epilogue

Many centuries passed until the realms became free again from the tyranny of the empire.

But position of the poor men and women , children and slaves weren't improved a lot after the period of the conquest.

New difficulties appeared for them in every step and her glorious line of Queen Protectors had extinct by then.

But they continued to hope that one day according to the prophecies the period of the peace and happiness will be return.

And perhaps under a new ruler with a totally different idea for the people right for happiness in life.