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The Great Hall of the Assembly stood stately against the stormy sky. In the upper atmosphere, a massive hurricane more than ten thousand li in diameter raged violently, filling the lower atmosphere with thunder, lightning, and hail that tumbled more than fell from tumultuous turbulence. It was as if the planet itself were at war with different parts of itself, broody and contentious.

  Dodging the irregular-sized hail stones, Lady Abbess Cara tried in vain to prevent her carefully braided black hair from falling out of its pins holding it into a matronly style. Her hair, like the storm, preferred chaos this morning.

  With an entourage of healers and all ten Masters of Ten-Ar at her side, equal delegates to the Great Council, the abbess felt confident her appearance before the Great Council would persuade her peers to choose wisely on behalf of the poor even as her mind drifted to the night before in the king’s bed, nine beinors after the king’s initial invitation. Was she wrong to allow King Gareth to seduce her? Fighting what she knew was the inevitable biological inclination to meditate on her first experience with man, she breathed deeply, hoping the night before would not show to others, but suspecting any royal appearance in council chambers might trigger an instinctive response.

  As two master knights opened the heavy wooden doors separating the offices beyond with the main council chamber, Lady Cara’s resolve and focus returned. Taking their customary places in the massive chamber, the abbess felt a certain pride as she crossed the granite floor mosaics telling the story of the Great Migration to Beinan before turning her attention to Honorable Lord Horatio of house Xing-li, the current chair to the Great Council, “Lords and Ladies of the Great Council, I declare this session convened.”

  Lady Abbess Cara stepped forward, her tablet computer ready, “Your Honor, may I address the Great Council?”

  Lord Horatio bowed respectfully, motioning to the abbess to the podium, “The chair recognizes the abbess of Ten-Ar.”

  Cara stepped forward to address the council from the podium, “Honorable Peers of Beinan I come to you as abbess of Ten-Ar and the duly elected healer in chief of the healers of Ten-Ar, long recognized as the most skilled of all Beinarian healers. A crisis lays before us, one of our own making. In Xi-Nan Fang, hunger ranges, the local food supplies poisoned needlessly. With the loss of great forests to strip mining operations and crude on-line refining, the land can no longer buffer against the radiation emitted by argene. Making this misery worse, the refining process releases the nerve toxin bilast and its nearly insidious isotope dilast, killing and maiming indiscriminately.

  “But there is hope, my friends. Small adjustments in mining and refining operations paired with more ecologically responsible practices across Xi-Nan Fang can clean the air, the soil, the water. Simply planting more nara trees throughout each town and village can provide critically needed nirlar to the air, protection against argene and the argun ore from which it comes, and nara fruit harvestable by all who are hungry. Simple food forests and parks can change our planet in drama ways – if we have the courage to do what is right.”

  Lady Engineer Rachel of house Ana rose, clapping sarcastically, “Bold words, healer! But at what cost? Our jobs? Our wages? From the safety of the Ten-Arian monastery, these offered resolutions must sound like the perfect fix to what you see as a problem. I for one see the economic consequences of these proposals as far worse – coming from the king’s whore, no less!”

  Lady Cara felt trapped. Did the king seduce her just to undermine her position? Before she could answer, the Honorable Lord Horatio stepped forward, “I move we dismiss Her Excellency’s proposals as a Ten-Arian conspiracy to cripple our economy. What say you, shall we dismiss these charges against argene mining? House Ana?”

  “Yeah.”

  “House Cashmarie?”

  “Yeah.”

  “House Xing-li?”

  “Yeah.”

  “House Miyoo?”

  “Nay.”

  “House Gurun?”

  “Nay.”

  “House Slabi?”

  “Yeah.”

  “House Shem?”

  “Yeah.”

  “House Balister?”

  “Yeah.”

  “House Ten-Ar?”

  “Nay.”

  Lord Horatio stood proudly, “The ‘yeahs’ have it. Resolution against argene mining dismissed six votes to three. There will be no further debate on this matter.”

  Shock filled Cara’s heart – shock and foreboding as she quietly left the council chamber unnoticed. The Great Council would not even hear her evidence! How could they care so little for the poor, for the suffering? Knowing she was used by the king to undermine her credibility, a thought crept into her mind: what if the greater power for change lay not in her position as the leading healer for her world – but in the bedroom of the king himself? Though she did not love King Gareth and resented his lustful temperament, her heart quivered. Could it be that her best chance to serve might be in sacrificing herself to his lust in order to attain the power she needed to change her world? Saddened by her vision, a single tear fell – for her people, for her future as the king’s de facto whore – and for all the suffering she knew would come of this vote.

  The Healer Consort

  (Poisoned Ground Part Two)

  Lady Abbess Cara woke in King Gareth’s bed, small bruises all over her body from the king’s aggressive lechery. In pain from what felt like an endless series of sexual encounters, she carefully crawled away from the sleeping monarch, finding her pale blue tunic and skirt rumpled not far from his first hasty and painful conquest. Fearfully she dressed quickly, finding her slippers and only half securing them to her feet as she half ran out of the king’s apartment.

  The king’s personal droid, JDP5 intercepted her, “You were not given leave to go, Lady Cara.”

  “I am abbess of Ten-Ar, representative of house Ten-Ar on the Great Council, and healer in chief of our world. No one – not even the king – vetoes my movements.”

  “Want to stake your life on that?” asked the droid coolly.

  Cara thought about the night before, the way the king viciously battered her. Anger filled her eyes, “Yes! Now get out of my way; I have duties to perform.”

  “Your duty is to the king.”

  “No! My duty is to house Ten-Ar and my patients,” glared Cara, walking briskly to the palace healing center.

  “What happened to you, Your Excellency?” cried Lady Healer Gwyneth of the healers of Gurun.

  “The king,” answered Cara simply, collapsing onto a diagnostic bed.

  Dutifully Lady Healer Gwyneth scanned the abbess, “How did he?”

  “You really need to ask that?”

  “Your Excellency – Cara – how much longer must you tolerate this?”

  “He is the king! He does it because he can. He knows I hate him – but he also knows our laws are not strong enough to protect me against him. Where the king’s bed is concerned he may use, abuse, or hurt whomever he is concerned; no woman may refuse him without risking certain death! If he decides to marry me or make me his official mistress, even in that, I do not have the right to refuse. I must comply.”

  Lady Healer Gwyneth raised a soothing laser regenerator over Cara’s bruised and sore muscles, “Resistance is not futile, Your Excellency. There has to be a way to put an end to this – before he impregnates you, kills you, or both!”

  Cara sighed, “How fares the research at Nan-li Central Healing Center? Please tell me the plague is under control!”

  “You are planetary expert in these cancers and in brown-eye syndrome in particular, Your Excellency. Long before this tyrant Gareth came to the throne, you lead the way in studying this. Without you directing the teams on site, the research suffers.”

  “Idiots! Do not they understand that unless we stop this epidemic our entire government is at risk? The people will not tolerate inaction while they suffer.”

  “Then perhaps we can make it the
king’s problem – but only if you do the last thing I know you want to do…” alluded Gwyneth.

  “… become his princess consort,” finished Cara.

  “Yes,” affirmed Gwyneth.

  “But how?”

  “Remove from his eyes his desire – then most certainly his need to possess and control will override his interests in casual play.”

  “But what if removing myself from court simply shifts his lecherous eyes to another?”

  “Then you gain your freedom!”

  “Aye – I do!” agreed Lady Abbess Cara.