The room was large and spacious, as befitting the royal that Terentia was. The hot sun shone its light into Terentia’s bedchambers as two girls at the cusp of womanhood lounged together. Queen Terentia was a clever and yet unorthodox girl, markedly cool-headed and fond of reading, riding, hunting, sword-fighting and philosophy. She was a tall girl with a rather bony frame and dark brown skin. Her deep black hair today was tied up with a headscarf and she wore, oddly for a woman, a blue tunic reaching her mid-thighs with matching trousers.
Perhaps her aunt, Princess Claudia, preferred Lady Hortensia as a niece. Terentia could never be sure. The daughter of her uncle Marius’ elder sister, Maria, Hortensia was a girl of average height who loved to partake in all of the activities that Terentia did not. She wore long braids and black lipstick. Her figure was not fat and yet full. Only slightly lighter in complexion than her friend, Hortensia was currently sketching a section of the garden from memory.
They were two very different girls who loved each other for two reasons: they had simply been pushed together since infancy, and, two, Hortensia was a genuinely gifted artist and musician whom Terentia held in awe in this regard, although she never liked to show it (Terentia held very few people in awe or high regard at all). At the moment she wore a pink ankle-length abaya dress while sipping tea and sketching before she stopped to look at Terentia.
And, of course, standing silently near the door was Diana, Terentia’s personal guard. Always watching and defending, ever-constant Diana had once been a full-time huntswoman and conservationist who left her beloved bushland to protect the daughter of the family that had freed her own family generations ago. Like Terentia, she was a tall female but her frame was much more slender and athletic and her cheekbones were not as pronounced as Terentia’s. She was ten years older than the seventeen-year old Queen but passed very easily as her peer and was more beautiful than even Terentia’s cousin, Princess Caesonia. Today she wore a knee-length light blue tunic in the Roman style with a beautiful embroidered border, as she did everyday.
The Queen looked up from her book to meet the gaze of her best friend. Terentia preferred to contemplate others while not making it obvious that she was doing so. But Hortensia liked to irritate Her Majesty, possibly because she was one of the few people who could get away with such behaviour.
‘If I didn’t know better,’ smiled Hortensia, ‘I would say that you’ve replaced your best friend.’
A lesser person would have averted her eyes but Terentia met her friend’s gaze steadily. ‘Nonsense,’ she quipped.
‘Indeed,’ agreed Hortensia. ‘I do know better,’ she added, ‘which is why I say that you have a tendre for our Aurelia.’
Terentia glared at her friend but said nothing this time while Hortensia grinned triumphantly. She stood up. ‘Aurelia should be ready by now.’
Princess Aurelia of England had been staying in the Realm of Africa for around six months and had become good friends with the Queen and noblewoman, although her interactions with Terentia were always something to look forward to as she was not in any way reluctant to overlook Terentia’s faults and neither was Terentia reluctant to overlook hers. In many respects, they shared more similarities than differences. For one, they had both lost their parents at an early age, although they each had loving families after.
Aurelia had expressed a desire to sleep in, said her tutor, Alice of Sussex, to the Queen. Because Claudia believed that young minds should have an intimate knowledge of nature, they and Terentia’s cousin, Prince Claudius, would be spending their Saturday morning visiting the gardens for botany with the English scholar and Terentia and Claudius’ own tutor, Minerva of Owere. Terentia suspected that this was why Hortensia was wearing her new bracelets and rings.
The two girls were walking to Aurelia’s bedchamber, Diana at a close distance, when they heard shouts and the general disorder of panic. Rushing toward them were Alice and the rest of the English retinue. Terentia felt her heart skip but with a level voice asked, ‘Whatever is the matter, Professor?’
The white woman’s face was paler than usual. Her normally piercing eyes, so much like Terentia’s, except that they were blue, were cloudy and Terentia’s heart pounded as her lips opened to speak. Her head shook slightly as she fought to remain in control of her breathing. ‘Aurelia is missing.’
And a sword pierced Terentia’s heart.
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