Late June, 1617

Despite the outsiders' view of the royal harem of Valentia as a place filled with nothing but leisure and sensual delights, there were still chores to do. In the eyes of the new Queen-Mother - and every other Queen-Mother before her - basic chores kept the ladies of the harem grounded and their expectations realistic. Case in point - on this day, a week after the accession of the new king, following the departure of the last of the supposedly superfluous ladies of the harem, the remaining twenty girls were set to dusting, sweeping, polishing, and recovering the furnishings. Of these twenty, only one was staying in the concubines' quarters and, at the Lady Shahista's order, one of the other girls had been assigned to assist Safiya in putting her new suite to rights. To Safiya's delight, her helper was Teres, the girl she had grown up with and considered almost as a sister. Under the watchful eye of the Harem Mistress on her rounds, the harem proper and the single concubine suite now in use were cleaned thoroughly by the ladies using them, to the tune of warm chatter and the occasional song.

Safiya coughed as a good thump on one of the cushions she was handling loosed a cloud of dust. "Oh, goodness ..." she sighed, shaking her head. "No wonder we were sneezing all night. These rooms have not been used for too long."

She pushed open the window to batter the cushion against the outside wall. Unlike the harem proper, the concubines' quarters had windows that faced onto the king's private courtyard and garden; a rare touch of life beyond the harem walls for the women who were favored.

Today, though, that courtyard was quiet with no sign of the newly-ascended king in sight. He was doubtless locked away with Felipe and his advisers debating how best to go forward with their plans to re-establish their alliance with Pomerania. As for Teres, she'd been waiting a week to get Safiya alone so she could pump her friend for details about the handsome, young king.

"You are so lucky, Safi," she declared with a sigh, a little disappointed there was no sign of the king in the courtyard today.

Safiya hesitated. She knew she was lucky to have the lion's share of their king's attention - well, all his attention in his free time. She couldn't help feeling a little guilty about it, all the same. Bringing the cushion back inside, she turned to her closest friend with a fond smile. "He is a good man, Teres," she told her affectionately. "He will do what is right by you, I am sure of it."

"Oh! I did not mean about the king," Teres said with a wistful sigh. "You are lucky to be moving to the concubine's quarters. All this space, just for you. It is almost indecent," she said, spreading her arms wide and turning in place to indicate the space. "Though he is very handsome, isn't he?" she added with an almost girlish giggle. "Do you remember when he was just a scrawny thing?"

"But lonely, after twenty years sharing a bed with you," Safiya pointed out in amusement. She gave a cursory glance to the rooms, and gave up on cleaning for now, thumping down onto the couch and inviting her friend to join her. "He was not at all promising, was he?" she admitted with a giggle of her own. "All elbows and knees. But those eyes have always been beautiful." Her smile faded a little. "There is so much pain and sadness in his eyes now."

"I do not mind sharing again, if you want company," Teres said, though now that Safiya was the king's concubine, it was unlikely the Queen-Mother would allow it. She dropped down onto the couch beside her friend, frowning at the look on her face. "What has he to be sad about' He is the king! He is the most powerful man in the nation! He can do whatever he wishes," she said, though that was not entirely true.

"But at what cost, Teres?" Safiya pointed out sadly. "To lose his father, his brothers, so many of the people he trusted. He never expected to be king. I think we are all lucky that he was so close, and that the son of his mother's sister was at hand when the time came." She flashed a teasing smile at her friend. "And no, that one will not be having any private entertainments."

Teres pouted. She had noticed the king's cousin among his advisers, though it had been a brief glimpse. She had also heard he was already married and expecting a child in the months ahead. "Pooh, tell Nasir he must invite more handsome young men to court. If I cannot catch the king's eye, then perhaps I can catch the eye of one of his adviser's," she said, snagging a pillow and hugging it close, the only comfort she was likely to find these days.

Safiya laughed at her friend's playful petulance. "I do not think he is quite so ready to have me telling him what he should do yet," she said in amusement. "But perhaps if I asked him, he would ask his mother to move you in here as my companion' I, uh ..." She glanced at the open door, lowering her voice in case of eavesdroppers. "I do not think anyone else will be moved to these quarters."

"Would you? Oh, Safi! That would be splendid!" Teres exclaimed, face lighting up. If she couldn't share the king's quarters, perhaps she could at least have more comfortable quarters of her own. She followed her friend's gaze to the door, her smile softening. "That is because the king only has eyes for you," she teased in a quiet voice, tossing the pillow playfully at her friend. Any other woman might be jealous, but Teres only seemed happy for her friend. At least one of them might still have a happy life outside the harem.

Safiya snorted with laughter, batting the pillow away with a quiet giggle of her own. "And if you had been the one sent to dance for him instead of me, you would be sitting here, wondering how you could get me into these rooms," she said, fully aware that a certain amount of luck had been involved in bringing her to the king's attention. Her fingers touched the little scratch on her cheek, healing quickly as time went on.

But Teres was having none of that. "I think not, sister. Do you not recall how smitten he was with you when we were still children in the harem' It was you he always asked about, you he always followed around. To me, he was like an older brother. Who wants to sleep with their brother?" she pointed out, sticking her tongue out and making a face to prove her point, even if she was a little envious.

"We were ten years old when he left, Teres," Saifya protested, but she couldn't hide the pleased blush on her cheeks at this confirmation of something she had suspected. She glanced toward the door once again. "Do you remember when I burned my hand" When I told you I was going to marry him someday?"

"How could I forget?" Teres said in a soft voice, reaching for her friend's hand and rubbing a finger against the scar Safiya still bore from the incident. "How could anyone know this would happen, but you seemed to know. Read my palm, Safi," she urged with a grin, turning her hand palm upward and extending it toward her friend. "Tell me my fortune!"

"He has not yet given me permission to tell even the Queen-Mother, so keep it close," Safiya told her friend warmly, only to burst out laughing as Teres proferred her hand hopefully. "Ah, now, let me see," she said playfully, taking her friend's hand into her own and drawing her fingertip over the lines there. "I see ....many good nights of sleep in a wide bed that is all your own, with a window onto the world." Her eyes flickered to Teres' teasingly - this wasn't so much a fortune as a very educated guess. "And a man of your own - handsome, devout, faithful to you and only you."

"You need not fear, Safi. You know your secrets are safe with me," she assured her friend, eyes bright to hear what good fortune might come her way. "Ah, now you tease me," she said, with a smile that was a little bit sad, as she pulled her hand away. It was only a game, after all.

Safiya smiled, reaching over to embrace her friend. "I wish with all my heart that you will have exactly what I have predicted," she said fervently. "I want the sister of my heart to be as happy as I am."

"I am happy for you, sister," Teres said, returning Safiya's embrace, but there was a worried expression on her face. All was not well, just yet. "But I worry for you, too. The king is making so many changes. There are those who do not like change."

The raven-haired girl beside her shared her worried frown. "I must confess, I worry too," she admitted softly. "I do not like to believe that anyone would move against him, but I think I will always fear that. The only person I might be in danger from is Raya, and she is gone to the old palace."

"Outrank the Queen-Mother?" Teres echoed, with a gasp, looking around quickly to make sure no one was listening. "Oh, Safi! If he makes you his Queen, then you can find husbands for all of us!"

"Shhh!" Again, Safiya's eyes flickered to the open doorway. The last thing she needed was for a servant to overhear this and go running to Lady Shahista before Nasir was ready for his mother to know his plans. "You know I will look after you," she assured her friend. "But the Queen-Mother will move to prevent it if she knows before the king is ready for her to know. She will not approve, at least not until I bear a healthy son."

"Then you must become pregnant soon!" Teres said, lowering her voice so that no one overheard, despite her excitement. "Oh, Safi! Such exciting times we live in!" she said, hugging her friend close with another giggle.

"I might already be with child," Safiya admitted with a shy cast to her giggle as she laughed with her friend. "We can certainly say that our times are exciting ones," she agreed merrily. "So many things are changing."

"It is good to have a young king who is not afraid of change," Teres said, keeping her voice low, in case anyone was listening. Even here, one could not be too careful.

"He was telling me about Carib," Safiya told her, her eyes bright once again. "About the king and queen there. She is from Edessa, Teres - the queen of Carib is a warrior. He saw her execute three men with her own sword!"

Teres' eyes widened again. "I cannot imagine such a thing. A woman warrior?" she said, though she had heard talk of such things. Rumors and news reached the harem slowly and sometimes it was hard to know which stories were true.

"And she is her husband's only lover, too," Safiya went on. "It is not the custom in other countries for a man to have legal mistresses, companions, like it is here. But Nasir says that not only are they married, but that they love each other, too. He says it is obvious when you look at them. Isn't that strange?"

"It is not so strange, if what you say is true ....if you really do love him and he loves you," Teres said. She had no idea what it felt like to be in love or to be loved in return, but she had a feeling Safiya might already know. Teres only hoped she didn't die before finding out what it was like for herself, though she would have gladly sacrificed any happiness of her own, so that Safiya could be happy.

"But it is all true, the stories we were told about Edessa," Safiya urged her to believe. "It is not simply a tale told to frighten boys - it is a real place, and the women are as fierce in fighting as the men. They are equal, Teres. Even their law of succession insists on the eldest child, not the eldest son."

"The eldest child?" Teres echoed. "Do you hear yourself, Safi" A place where women can rule as kings" It cannot be true, can it?" she asked doubtfully. A place where a woman could rule as equally or better than a man' It seemed too good to be true.

"That is what he told me," the raven-haired girl said, shrugging. "She ruled alone for a few months, between the death of the old king and her marriage to the new, and lead her people into battle against the barons who wanted her gone. I ....I should very much like to see her, I think."

"If they are the king's friends, as you say, perhaps he will visit them again someday, and then you could go with him. Or perhaps he will invite them here, and we could both see the warrior queen for ourselves," Teres suggested with a grin. Perhaps Safiya could even use her influence to incite such an invitation.

"Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful?" Safiya grinned happily at that thought. As accustomed as they were to the segregated way of life here in Valentia, she couldn't help wondering how Nasir's male court would react to a female monarch who clearly did things her own way. A murmur of male voices from below the window caught her attention. "Perhaps the king has invited some other men from his inner circle to the garden," she suggested, giving Teres a tug. "Come and see, and tell me if you like the look of any of them."

Teres gasped openly again at her friend's suggestion. "Safiya, it would be scandalous to spy on the king and his advisers," she whispered, a sly grin curling her lips. "Where are they?"

"I think we can risk a little scandal," Safiya whispered back to her friend, drawing her over to the seat beside the open window. There were no screens over these windows - the assumption, of course, being that only the king and his most trusted advisors and friends would ever see the faces that looked out of them. She peered down into the garden, seeking out Nasir and his companions.

Teres abandoned her cup of wine for the far more tempting view at the window. She came up behind Safiya, almost as if she was a little afraid to be seen at the window. It wasn't so much the king she was afraid of, as it was the Queen-Mother. What would she say if she knew the two of them were at the window gawking at the men" She dared a peek outside to find Nasir with his cousin Felipe and a few other men she didn't recognize. "His cousin is very handsome, but he is too ..." She trailed off. What was the word she was looking for" Blond" Or was it married"

"Attached," Safiya supplied with an impish quirk to her smile, taking a seat by the window with the air of someone who didn't seem to realize it was open. She glanced down into the garden, her eyes lingering for a long moment on Nasir before she raised her eyes to her friend again. "The others are Aaron Shanin, the new chamberlain, and Banu Fehr, the new commander of the armies."

Teres shrugged with a small huff of breath. Neither man seemed to impress her much and Nasir was obviously spoken for. "He is too young and too blond anyway," she complained, though she probably wasn't much older. She thumped down into a chair, resting her cheek against her palm while they watched the men in the courtyard. "Perhaps he has a friend," she mused aloud.

"I believe he has several," Safiya told her friend in amusement over the rim of her cup. "And an older brother not yet wed." Her eyes sparkled as she watched her friend considering the two options in the courtyard, both of whom had already been given a wife from the superfluous harem girls anyway.

Teres arched her brows at her friend, confused for a moment before sorting out who that "he" she was referring to was. "Not him! Nasir! Perhaps Nasir has a friend," she said, giggling a little at her friend's misunderstanding. "Do you want me to marry someone who will take me far away from Valentia?"

"No!" Safiya shook her head, laughing at her moment of dense incomprehension. "And Nasir does have friends. At least one of them is on his way home to Valentia as we speak. He will be here in a couple of weeks, Nasir believes, and he is very excited to see him again."

"Good! He needs some friends who are not only interested in politics and power," Teres said, hoping Nasir had some friends who didn't care whether he was king or not.

"I am trying to remember this one," Safiya admitted, tilting her head curiously toward her friend. She completely missed the glance up toward their window that came from Prince Felipe, or the grin he directed to his cousin, their king, afterward. "Nasir says he was raised in the harem alongside him. Tur-something. Ezra Tur-something."

Below them, Nasir was smiling as his attention was cast upwards to the spies watching them from above, but instead of calling to them, he waited to see how long it would take for them to realize they'd been seen.

"Ezra?" Teres echoed, furrowing her brows in thought as she tried to recall a face to go with the name.

"Apparently they were very good friends," Safiya began, but a wayward glance back into the garden made her realize they'd been spotted. Instinctively, she reared away from the window, only to remember that she, at least, didn't have to hide. Keeping a firm hold on Teres to prevent her friend from attempting to hide under the bed, she smiled back at the king, inclining her head to him and his companions.

"It is the king who makes these decisions, Safi, and the king who will have to explain them to his mother, but perhaps it will help you feel better if we know what the future holds," Teres pointed out.

Safiya held her gaze for a long moment, immeasurably comforted by the fact that Teres seemed to be in this with her, no matter what came. She reached out to embrace her friend tightly. "I do not know what I did to deserve you as my friend, but I will try to do better by you."

"Nonsense," Teres scolded, even as she returned her friends's hug. "We are sisters. There is nothing we wouldn't do for each other," she told her - at least, as far as she was concerned. She did not like to see Safiya upset, and if she had to choose between her own needs and desires and those of her friend, she would always choose Safi.

Safiya kissed her cheek affectionately. "I am sure I and my personal servants are being watched by the Queen-Mother's people, and probably others, too," she said quietly. "Could you find a soothsayer and arrange a meeting, do you think?"

"Yes, of course! Anything to help!" Teres was quick to agree. It would be tricky to arrange. She was not exactly free of the harem or of the Queen-Mother, but they had learned ways around that.

"It would ease my mind," Safiya admitted. The Church frowned on the use of astrologers and soothsayers, on anyone who purported to use magic to divine the future, but like all lands, Valentia had a few hardy souls who were not afraid to imperil their lives to give a helping hand to others in such ways. "I need to have a son, Teres. As soon as possible."

"Then, you need to make sure you and the king spend plenty of time together," Teres said, but there might be something else they could do. "I will discreetly inquire whether there are any elixirs that might make you more fertile, but no matter what we do, you will not know for at least a few weeks yet."

Safiya bit her lip thoughtfully. "I heard Tulin saying that a Teliran can-can request to see the king at any hour of the day," she mused thoughtfully. "Do you think I should do that' I do not wish to interrupt him when his mind is on important things."

"Oh, I do not think you will have to go that far," Teres said with a smile. "If the king is as enamored as he seems, he will find plenty of time to see you." She considered a moment, contemplating something that was just a little deceptive. "If you are worried about the Queen-Mother, ask the king to request my presence. She need not know that nothing will happen between us."

Safiya snorted with laughter. "She will suspect something when no one brings her your bloodied sheets," she pointed out, but she was grateful to her friend for coming up with so many ways to work around the problem.

"You are right," Teres admitted with a frown. "But the Queen-Mother could not fault him for not trying!" she said, nibbling at a nail. There had to be something they could do.

Safiya considered the problem for a long moment. "How many of the other girls do you think we can trust?" she asked her friend curiously.

"Mm, half of them, perhaps?" Teres replied, uncertainly. She'd have to inquire as to their loyalties, but most of those who were left were close friends and had been together in the harem since childhood.

"We only really need to make it clear to the Queen-Mother that the king's decision is final," Safiya said softly. "I believe I may be able to talk him into asking for others instead of myself, with the understanding that he isn't expected to sleep with them, just to make it plain to his mother that she can't force him to sleep with anyone he does not wish to."

"If you are the king's chosen, there is nothing she can do to you, Safi. Perhaps you should try to assure her that you are no threat," Teres suggested further. "You know how the saying goes" You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

"Have you seen her face recently?" Safiya muttered. "She looks as though she has sucked a pickle." This was said as quietly as possible, though.

Teres couldn't help giggling at the comparison, but she was careful to keep her voice down. "She should be happy. This is what she has been wanting and waiting for all her life!"

Safiya smiled with her. "You are right, but so is she," she admitted. "Still, this is not cleaning this room, is it?" She rose to her feet, setting her cup aside. "Help me make the bed, then we can say all is done."

"As you wish, Lady Teliran," Teres teased, moving to her feet and offering a curtsy, a grin on her face. Maybe it was too soon to call her friend "Queen", but if things kept going as they were, she thought Nasir was sure to bestow that title on Safiya soon enough.

Laughing, Safiya shook out a sheet toward her friend, her worries lightened simply for having shared them. And in the garden, all the men might hear was the laughter of the two women as they set the room to rights, filled with hopes for their future, both together and apart. It was a time of transition, after all - who knew where that transition would take them?