Where Horizons Meet 003 (Patreon)

The Fortified City of Arinna

Sacred City of Ḫašamili, God of the Forge, and Capital of the Hatti

The Home of Tašmišu, Chieftain of the Hatti

1326 B.C.

Three years had passed since my sister and I had first arrived in Arinna, and that time had been well spent learning Hasamili’s teachings and learning the art of smithing from his priests, an art that I seemed to have some small talent for, either naturally or because the forge god had given me just enough skill to see what I could do with it. Of course, Nicky and I couldn’t exactly ignore our training as royals, either, and the need to be in Hattusa for that training would have put a bad crimp in things if Arinna and Hattusa weren’t within a day’s travel of each other.

So, we spent three days a week in each city, seeing to our responsibilities and our educations, and spent the intervening day traveling. Which was, if I was going to be perfectly honest, a pretty grueling schedule, but it worked and we were both growing in leaps and bounds across multiple spheres of knowledge and responsibility.

I was also now a very, very good rider of horses and chariots.

But above and beyond all of that, was the way that my relationship with the people had changed. I’d started as their prince, a semi-divine figure of unnatural beauty and unquestionable authority, but now? Now I was just as much the young man that they’d seen sweating over a forge-fire, the young man being berated by his sister and their chieftain’s daughters for injuring himself with a particularly bold and foolish stunt, my head bowed sheepishly from the onslaught. I was a person to them now, and a person that they had found that they rather liked, on a personal level.

And then there was Tašmišu’s family.

Nuvanza was a good kid who adored his sisters and thought I was the most impressive guy in the world, which was…quite the feeling, if I was going to be honest. He was also smart as a whip, when anyone could get him to focus long enough, and it was easy to see why his older self could be trusted by me to lead an army to crush an incursion by the Hayasa-Azzi while I dealt with other enemies.

Sheki and Shili were imps, there was no other word for it. Pranksters, fond of teasing and playful, they’d quickly decided that I was their big brother and the most ideal target of their creativity. A trait that was, to my eternal mixture of amusement and exasperation, aided and abetted eagerly by my brat of a twin, who was nothing short of delighted to find people willing to be as much of a pain in my ass as she was so fond of being.

Tašmišu himself had become something not unlike an uncle, a figure of respect and an ideal to pursue. A representation of everything that I wanted to be as a leader. Stern, but fair, and kind when he could be. Personable and approachable, while still maintaining the authority he needed to lead, to rule and to dole out punishment.

And then…and then there was Dani.

Dani, my future wife according to history, and as we’d grown up together, it was easy to see why. And I didn’t mean how beautiful she had grown up, at least not exclusively, though that was certainly a factor. How could it not be? Slender, with sun-kissed skin, chocolate-brown hair, honey eyes, and -by the standards of my old life- a high B-cup, with the likelihood that they would grow further still by the time she stopped growing. She was, in short, a great beauty, worth of her semi-royal bloodline.

She was also brilliant, and one of the best ‘people managers’ that I had ever met in my life.

She ran her household -and it was hers, regardless of her father’s existence- with a deft, precise hand that would have made a Roman quartermaster weep with envy. Not that Rome existed yet, or would for another half-millennium and change, but the comparison was still an accurate one.

Every servant knew their duties, every meal arrived on time, every guest was greeted with exactly the right blend of warmth and formality. She managed her sisters’ chaos with a patience that bordered on saintly, kept Nuvanza from accidentally setting himself on fire at least twice a week, and somehow still found time to study her own priestly duties under her father’s tutelage. Even my oft-erstwhile twin was not immune to Dani’s guiding touch.

More than that, she challenged me. Not with the sharp, needling wit that Nicky employed —that was its own art form, and one my sister had spent most of our lives honing supernaturally-sharp— but instead with a quiet, steady intelligence that refused to let me get away with anything, regardless of our differences in rank.

Granted, she’d only started doing that when I’d made it blatantly clear that I was interested in her romantically, and that I was relying on her to help act as my foil. I was aware enough of my own tendencies at losing the forest for the trees, making things more complicated than they ought to be, and waffling between being too hesitant to make decisions and rushing into them headlong on a daily basis. Not a role she had expected, and it had taken her time to get used to it, but once she had, she’d devoted herself to doing what I had asked of her.

As for our romance? Our courtship? Once I’d made it clear to her that I was interested in pursuing something, I’d asked for her father’s permission to court her. Even after living with me several months, he’d -the whole family- had still been surprised by my approach to the entire situation, as well as my firm statement that nothing would happen until Dani was comfortable with it. That simply wasn’t the way that people of power, royalty especially, approached situations such as this. The fact that I’d made quite clear that no one would suffer any consequences if Dani eventually decided I wasn’t what she desired in a husband had helped as well.

That being said, she and her father had both refused point-blank to let Dani be my First Wife, my ‘primary’ wife, the head of my seraglio. Though she was shaping up to be a powerful, blessed priestess and was a good leader, and in spite of the fact that by any unofficial measure she was a princess in her own right, it was only by any unofficial measure. They insisted, probably rightly, that it wasn’t right for her to be my First Wife, when the spot should remain open for a true princess or similarly powerful and advantageous match.

Nicky had, later, pointed out that they were smarter than I was. As indulgent as father was with the two of us, and as much as he and mother had liked Dani and her family when they’d accompanied Nicky and I back to Hattusa on the occasions that such a thing had occurred, he wasn’t likely to take me cutting of potential marriage alliances on a whim well. Especially not if I did it without permission.

Polygamous though this era might be, there were certain positions even in a harem that had to be handled delicately.

Still, I’d been able to convince them not to resign Dani entirely to concubine-hood, at least not yet. I wasn’t sure how things would play out -after all, if things stayed even remotely like they had in real-life history, things would be getting interesting around this region of the world in a few years- thanks to the fact that this world had both magic and a small dearth of male royalty in my generation, but I wasn’t inclined to let any of my eventual family walk all over any of the others. No matter what the political realities were, no matter what labels anyone would have to adopt in public, I wasn’t inclined towards having any true ‘concubines’. Only wives. People that loved me as much as I loved them, and preferably all loved one another.

Seraglio squabbles and harem politics of the Ottoman kind were not something I was interested in dealing with. Not in the slightest, and not to any degree whatsoever. Come what may, I would not tolerate the sort of nonsense that Mal-Nikal had brought to my father’s harem.

Which brought me, quite neatly, to the present moment. To the reason I was standing on the small balcony of my rooms, watching the sun sink below the western horizon as my mind churned, a discarded letter on a small table off to the side. A letter from my mother, informing me that she was ‘going on an extended visit’ to Illion, on the north-western coast. A visit that was required because she was the only member of the royal family -save Nicky and myself, who were too young for such significant and distant tasks- that wasn’t currently too ill to travel, thanks to a bit of a fever-flu that was going through Hattusa. Which left her as the only person of sufficient rank that could handle the admittedly-important trade negotiations with Illion’s king, Priam.

Priam!

That name had been all the confirmation that I needed I order to start worrying, because there was only one famous Priam from the Bronze Age that I knew of, and he was indelibly connected to the fate of the city-state her ruled. A city-state that had been known by a very different name in my own time: Troy.

And if she was going to Troy in the time of Priam, then it was all to possible that she would be getting caught up in one of the most famous cheating scandals in human history. One that would end with a decade of war, countless multitudes dead, and Troy becoming a household name in the worst of ways. A war that, in the history I and I alone remembered, had been one of the most oft-told stories. A war that had been immortalized by Homer, embellished and changed beyond all recognition by centuries of oral tradition, and yet —if the archaeological evidence from my old life was anything to go by— had been rooted in something very real. Something brutal. Something that had contributed, however indirectly, to the collapse of the entire Bronze Age world.

My fingers tightened on the railing, teeth grinding lightly for a moment.

There was no way I could put a stop to this. Sending a member of the royal family to negotiations as significant as these was a necessity, if we wanted to avoid giving insult, and giving insult was the last thing that we wanted to do. Troy’s territory bordered both Arazawa and Masa, nations that my own people had conquered, and while they didn’t rebel nearly as often as the Hayasa-Azzi or the Kaska did, they weren’t exactly fond of us. Insulting Priam might see him lending the sort of aid we really didn’t want them to have. And they couldn’t wait for everyone to finish recovering, because simply getting to Troy would take the better part of a month on horseback.

Worse still, Mother had already left. Three days ago, in fact, because she didn’t want me to cause a commotion with Father or the rest of the family. Which was a loving, entirely-motherly thing to do, but it was also nothing short of infuriating. It also meant that I was going to have to do something very, very stupid. Something that would probably get me into an awful lot of trouble with my father.

Something like…

Soft footsteps from behind me had me turning to see Dani approaching me, worry on her face as her eyes met mine and searched them. The smile I mustered for her only seemed to make that worry worse, and she was quickly to press herself against my chest, giving me what comfort she could. Which wasn’t insignificant, even under these circumstances, and I was happy to press my face into her hair as my arms held her close.

“You’re going after her, aren’t you.” she said quietly after several minutes, the words far from being a question. Her voice was muffled against my chest, the fingers curling into the fabric of my tunic shaking slightly from her own emotions, and I sighed even as I gently stroked her spine to offer her comfort in return for her own.

“I have to. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t. She’s going to be a very long way from home, without any family to support her. And she’s my mother.” The words came out rougher than I would have hoped for, scraped raw by the frustration that had been building since I’d read the letter for the first time this morning. Pulling back just enough to look down at her face, at the tightness around her eyes and the way her jaw was set, I pressed a kiss to her forehead. She wasn’t going to argue with me, I could see that, but she had certainly come to a conclusion and made a decision, and I didn’t doubt that I knew what it was…or that my own attempts to argue otherwise wouldn’t get me very far.

I’d still try, of course.

“You’re not going alone, my prince.” Dani said before I could even open my mouth, her eyes narrowing as she saw something in my own expression that less-than-pleased her. The same eyes that had cowed servants twice her age into compliance, that had stared down her own father when she felt she was in the right. “And before you open your mouth to tell me all the reasons I should stay here, let me remind you that I am a consecrated priestess of Ḫašamili, that you have spent the last three years teaching my sisters and I to fight alongside your own twin, and that you once told me —your exact words, Mursili, and you’ve repeated them often enough since— that you needed someone at your side who wouldn’t let you do something catastrophically stupid. ‘Certainly not without making sure to keep things in the realm of possibility’, you said.”

The corner of my mouth twitched despite myself, because of course she would throw my own words back with that self-same infuriating accuracy that made her so damn effective at both assisting me and keeping me honest and well-balanced. That being said…

“Dani…”

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say.” I protested, and she rolled her eyes at me.

“Yes, yes I do.” she scoffed, slapping my chest harder than was strictly necessary. “You were going to say something about the danger of the road, of travelling so far from home and so distantly from the heart of your father’s kingdom and protection. You were going to say that you couldn’t guarantee my safety, and if that didn’t work you were likely to say something about how your father will be angry enough as it is, and how dragging along the daughters -because if you think my sisters will listen to you any more than I have, you’re sadly mistaken- of perhaps his most important vassal into such danger without permission.” she damn near lectured, prodding my slightly-stinging skin as she grew more intent. “Or perhaps you’d take another tact, and claim that you would fear for my people if we were to help you in this insanity, drawing his wrath onto ourselves for not putting a stop to it. And then, if all else failed, you were going to say that we need to stay here to manage things in your absence.”

“All of which are very, very good reasons that you should do as I say and remain here, Dani. You and your sisters, if only to keep Nicky here and occupied so she can’t do something particularly foolish, like follow me. I can take a handful of guards, catch up with Mother, and be safe with her caravan before there is any real threat to me on the road.”

“That’s not happening. The reasons don’t matter, Mursili.” she refuted simply, eyes softening as she saw my frown, and she leaned up to give me a brief but loving kiss, humming happily against my lips as it deepened. When it broke, she snuggled a bit closer against my chest. “My place is at your side, my prince. The man that I’m going to marry, the one whose children I will love and raise. How could I let you do something like this without me?”

My throat tightened at her words, at the loving conviction in them. At the same steady, calm, unyielding determination that was perhaps the thing that had drawn me to her most. Damn her. Damn her for being right, and for knowing me well enough to be able to simply pick my arguments apart as she pleased and ignore them as she liked. Damn her for being the sort of woman who would insist on walking into danger beside me, rather than watching me walk into it alone, without an ounce of regret or a heartbeat of hesitation.

And damn me for loving her the more for it and being unwilling to force her to stay.

“Your father is going to kill me, and then my father will have the priests bring me back so he can do the same.” I muttered against her hair, the words coming out half-strangled by the welter of exasperation, affection, and resignation that was filling my chest. “Fine, then. Get yourself and your sisters ready to travel quickly. We’ll leave as soon as possible. And not so much as a word to your brother, is that clear? He’s not old enough for this particular adventure, and I’m refusing entirely to take all four of you.”

“Of course, my prince.” she accepted immediately, likely as interested as I was in keeping Nuvanza safely at home for the time being, and I had to fight back a smile at the way that she said it. Despite everything —despite the danger, despite the absurdity of what we were about to do, despite the very real probability that we were both going to be in unfathomable amounts of trouble— she sounded almost cheerful.

The most foolish part of me, the part that still occasionally remembered the comforts and safeties of my old life, wanted nothing more than to drag her back inside and lock her in her rooms until I’d ridden far enough away that she couldn’t reasonably follow. The rest of me, the larger and wiser part, knew that doing so would only delay the inevitable. Dani would follow regardless, and if I left her behind without word, she’d merely set out a day or two later with her sisters in tow and no guards to speak of, which would be infinitely more dangerous than simply bringing them along under my protection from the start.

So instead of pressing the argument, I opted for pressing another kiss to the crown of her head and watched her slip out the door with a swish of her skirts, leaving me alone with the dying light and the weight of what I’d just agreed to.

I scrubbed a hand down my face and turned back to the railing, watching the last sliver of sun bleed into the hills.

Stupid. This was so monumentally stupid.

There was far too much risk in an action like this. I knew what was coming better than quite literally anyone else in the world, for not just my kingdom but everything from Troy to Babylon to the southernmost point of Egypt. I shouldn’t be doing anything that would compromise my ability to stave of The Collapse, and this certainly qualified.

But I couldn’t shake the image of my mother, alone in a foreign court with essentially no support and no one she could trust unequivocally, and in a court that was about to get dragged into a ten-year war because the Greek gods liked to foment conflict amongst humanity for entertainment at that. My mother, the woman who had raised me and loved me and given me everything I could ever need without giving me everything I ever wanted, who had used the foundation my original mother had laid to build me into a fairly decent man -if I did say so myself-, and now needed my protection.

Because I would be damned if I would sit here and let her suffer because of one long tragedy instigated by a golden apple of all things. Because if the gods of the Hittites were real, as they certainly seemed to be, in this place and time, than I had to assume the Olympians were as well. And I didn’t want my family to be anywhere near their nonsense, thank you ever so kindly.

The decision made, the planning came easier, though not by much. I retreated from the balcony and into my rooms proper, lighting a few of the torches with a flint and striker that I’d made myself —a small point of pride that I indulged in despite having servants who could do it for me— before setting about gathering what little I would take with me.

Which was not, in truth, a great deal. Travel light, travel fast. Enough food for the road, a change or two of clothes. The bronze short-sword that Tašmišu himself had helped me forge with my own hands, and though it was ugly and unimpressive compared to the works that I could craft now, it was perfectly functional and held a special place in my heart.

My smaller, more personal preparations complete, I slipped from my rooms, not even bothering to try and disguise my movements. The palace staff and guards were used to me wandering in the later hours, or the very early ones for that matter, and that didn’t even consider the fact that I was a sovereign Prince. Besides, everyone knew that the best way to catch attention when you were trying to avoid it was by trying to avoid it. There was nothing more painfully obvious and unnatural than someone trying to ‘act natural’.

So I, instead, simply started walking in the general direction of the stables. I said hello to those I passed, stop to chat with a few I knew particularly well or who were particularly enthusiastic in their greetings, and generally acted like this walk was no different from anyone of hundreds of others. Even so, my pace was perhaps a touch quicker than usual, and I was really rather relieved to see my betrothed and her sisters waiting for me dressed in plain but well-made travelling clothes. Nothing too fine, nothing that would draw too much attention or scream ‘royalty’ to any unscrupulous sorts that we might encounter or pass by on the roads, but nothing so poor that they’d give out before we caught up to Mother’s caravan either.

A delicate balance to strike, but my girl -girls, really, the twins were as utterly devoted to me as Dani was, the only difference was the form that devotion took- knew what they were doing. Gods knew that they had more than enough experience, thanks in no small part to my sister and I, in sneaking around and breaking the rules without getting caught…and talking their way out of things when they did.

“You realize that Nicky is going to want your head served up on a platter for leaving her out of this, don’t you?” Sheki commented idly by way of greeting, and I huffed in annoyance at her, even as she and Shili grinned.

“I can’t bring my sister along for something this dangerous. I wouldn’t have even brought Dani along, never mind the two of you, if I thought for a moment that I could have left without you taking notice and chasing me down.” I retorted, stepping into the stable proper and heading for the stall holding my favored mount.

“Mmh, it’s so much harder for you to get away with things when Dani is around, isn’t it? I suppose that is what you get for deciding to marry her.” Shili mocked ever-so-sweetly, eyes gleaming wickedly in spite of the seriousness of what we were about to do, and I rolled my eyes even as Dani blushed and frowned at her.

“What I get for deciding to marry Dani is a magnificent wife and friend, an incredible father-in-law, an adorable and smart little brother, and two bratty, problem causing little sisters.”

Shili and Sheki both displayed great maturity in the face of my words and stuck their tongues out at me in perfect, mirrored synchronicity, and I couldn’t quite stop the fond snort that escaped me as I unlatched the stall door.

“Charming as ever, the both of you.” I muttered, though there was no heat in it, any more than there’d been heat to calling them brats. There never was any genuine anger, really, not with them. I loved them far too much and enjoyed their approach to life far too much for that. They knew it, too, judging by the way they giggled and traded a look that promised further mischief the moment the danger passed.

My mount, a sturdy chestnut mare named Piyama —which was, admittedly, an uncreative name, but she’d been gifted to me as a foal when I’d been eight, and was my first mount that was truly mine, so why wouldn’t I name her ‘Gift’?- nuzzled at me, half affection and half a hope that I had some sort of treat for her. Which, of course, I did, and within moments she was happily crunching away on an apple.

I finished saddling her -if you could call it that, little more than linen padding as it was- while the girls worked on their own mounts, and by the time we’d loaded the small amount of gear we were bringing, the eastern sky had gone properly dark, stars scattered thick and bright overhead in a way that reminded me, briefly and uselessly, of stargazing on camping trips in another life entirely. Though I had to admit, my old life had nothing that could measure up to this. Even in the wildest places I ever managed to go -which were that wild, compared to some- there had never been so little light that the stars were all there was. It still awed me, probably always would.

I shook the thoughts off. No time for nostalgia or appreciating the world’s beauty, not right now.

“We’ll ride through the night, girls.” I said, refocusing and swinging up onto Piyama’s back and checking the strap of my sword-belt out of habit more than necessity. “Mother’s caravan will be moving slower than we can, weighed down with wagons and a large escort, not to mention they’ll be stopping to make camp at night and following the main roads. If we cut across the hills and set as hard a pace as we can without hurting the mounts, we should catch up in four days or so.”

“Four or five days, riding through the country-side, in territory the Kaska routinely raid. I’m sure that will be fine.” Sheki groused, double-checking her own blade and bow before swinging up onto her mounts back.

“Think positive, sister. Any Kaska that might have been in the area will have cleared right out at the sight of the Queen’s procession. Even they aren’t stupid enough to make a nuisance of themselves around her. The King would turn their countryside into a desert for it.” Shili pointed out, doing the same.

“I think the biggest worry will be facing the Queen when she realizes what we’ve done. Our fathers scare me, but she leaves the both of them behind.” Dani muttered, and I honestly couldn’t disagree. Fatherly anger and disapproval was one thing, but motherly disappointment?

That drew a snort out of me, and I had to admit she wasn’t wrong. My father, for all his often war-hawkish attitude and imperial dignity, tended to run hot and then cool off quickly, especially where I was concerned. My mother’s disappointment, on the other hand, was a slow, quiet, devastating thing that could make a man feel two inches tall without her ever raising her voice. And it could linger.

“We’ll deal with that when we get there, I suppose.” I said, though the words came out with rather less confidence than I would have hoped. “For now, let’s move. The moon’s bright enough to see by, and I want to put some distance behind us before we need to rest the horses.”

And bright enough to be seen by as well, which is why we moved carefully until we were a good distance from the city, then road hard. The miles went by in a blur, and by the time we finally slowed down to let our horses rest, we’d probably traveled well over a dozen miles from Arinna. Not a bad start, especially given the terrain we’d had to cross and the subterfuge we were trying to maintain, but a problem occurred when we should a small outcropping to shelter in for the rest of the night.

A problem that many men would have been envious and cursing me for, because it involved Dani’s slender, well-curved body pressed against me, as much for companionship and love as it was for warmth. Not that it was the first time we’d slept together, of course. While we hadn’t had sex yet -unusually, given the time period and my rank-, we’d spent plenty of nights, most nights, that we slept together in one of our beds. No, the difference here was, we were now a couple of young adults that were on an adventure, breaking the rules and curled up together beside a campfire.

It was…painfully cliche, and painfully arousing. It felt incredibly romantic, and daring, and frankly it was a hell of a turn on to imagine the two of us quietly making love while trying to avoid waking up her sisters.

I didn’t act on it, of course. Not with two of my future sisters-in-law snoring —or pretending to snore, with those two I could never quite be sure— not ten feet away, and certainly not with the very real possibility of Kaska raiders or worse lurking somewhere out in the dark hills around us. But I let myself enjoy it anyway, the warmth of her against my side, the soft, steady rhythm of her breathing as she nuzzled against me.

“You’re thinking too loudly.” Dani murmured against my chest, her voice thick with the edges of sleep already tugging on her, and I hummed softly as I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. A hum she returned, satisfaction radiating off of her as she rubbed her cheek against me briefly.

“Am I? Sorry.” I kept my voice barely above a whisper, mindful of the twins and their need for sleep, genuine snores or not. “Just thinking about what I’m walking into. What we’re all walking into.”

“Your mother.” Not a question.

“Amongst other things. I have a bad feeling about this, love. I don’t think all will be well in Illion, when we get there.” I agreed, hedging slightly and wishing, not for the first time, that I felt confident enough to tell Dani everything. Not in regards to my confidence in her, of course, she would never dream for even a moment of betraying my trust and I knew that, but…I didn’t want her to change the way she looked at me.

She loved me, she adored me and cherished me and was always there for me, and I was terrified of losing that regard.

Likewise, though, I knew that I couldn’t in good conscience keep my previous life a complete secret going forward from here. Not only did she deserve to know as my future wife, but if she and her sisters were going to risk falling afoul of the events depicted in the Illiad and the Odyssey, then I had a moral obligation to tell them as such.

I would just…have to hope for the best result when I finally told them.

“You’re doing it again. I trust you, my love. Whatever ends up happening, we will handle it together, and we’ll go home together.” she assured me, hugging me firmly and pressing a kiss to the bottom of my jaw. “Now let’s get some sleep. We’ve a long distance to go, yet, and we need to be at our best to cross it.”

I laughed, soft and low, and held her close as I let my head fall back, my eyes on her face as she slipped inexorably to sleep. God, she was beautiful like this. She was beautiful all the time, really, but when she was so utterly relaxed as she was now? Not a princess, not a priestess, not a future wife, but just…a happy and sleeping young woman.

“I love you, Dani.” I murmured, and the last thing I heard before I fell asleep myself was her mumbling something in sweet agreement.