Sunday, December 5, 2010

More Chapter 6

     So it was Thera and her party were welcomed into Scythia and as in all the cities the Women of Themiscyra bestowed gifts upon the King and Queen of each country on behalf of Queen Ethera. Each kingdom received a finely crafted oaken supply cart pulled by a well bred work horse and the following: 12 amphoras of sweet red wine, 20 pots of lavender honey, 1 bolt of fine woven cotton and 1 brightly colored bolt of silk, 10 goats, and from the fertile orchards of Themiscyra 12 saplings. Scythia: cherry and apricot trees, Dardinia: olive and lime trees, Macedon: orange and lemon trees, Illyria: cherry and lime trees, and in Greece: olive and orange trees, however the Spartans were to receive, also, 4 war horses from the Royal Stable as a show of respect and honor to the Spartan King Vyakles; whom Thera was greatly apprehensive about meeting for the first time.
     In Scythia Thera bade farewell to Captain Lucia Vega who would try for another daughter here in the land of the green eyed Sythian men. Thera wished the other 22 ladies who remained well, and thanked the King and his Queen for the great hospitality shown to her and her good ladies. General Nadinos escorted Thera and the remaining 189 women through the Iron Gate Gorge, between the southern tip of the Carpathian mountains and the northern tip of the Balkan mountains, to a narrow point of the Danube where an ancient stone bridge spanned the water. Thera mounted on her massive black steed led her party across to the other side where a Dardinean escort, sent by the King of Dardina, awaited. So it was as they came and went from each city the women were met by a security escort, as the king of Thrace to the south had made it clear to all the surrounding countries that he despised the women of Themiscyra, and of course this was all Thera's fault after what she had done last year in Thrace. Now were it not for many letters of apology and wagon load after wagon load of gold the king of Thrace would have, if his Queen had allowed him to, he would have amassed his troops and destroyed the walled cities of Themiscyra and burned the entire island peninsula down. But here diplomacy, and mountains of gold along with the words of his wife, quelled the kings anger against the nation of women.
     So it was the party of women traveled on and at each palace they were treated with great kindness and respect. Thera had by now traveled from Dardina to Macedon, to Illyria and when she and the other 39 women remaining left for Greece one fine, warm, Spring morning a large group of men approached on the road from the south. This was the women's security escort sent by King Vyakles of Sparta. Now as they moved closer Thera and Captain Amarra were shocked, as were all the ladies, to see that King Vyakles had not only sent the troops, but had come himself, in person, riding with his Spartan warrior men to greet the women of Themiscyra. Thera felt a strange wave of nervous tension fill her heart and mind and as the great king neared she felt a chilling sense of fear and excitement.

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