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Indrajit was not so touched by their devotion that he broached the disrespect of a woman He ordered his men to take the woues, so that they would never again speak to their betters, leaving the But he was fascinated by the woman who had spoken so defiantly to hi would, wished to teach the recalcitrant wench her station in the world

But he also birthed a powerful lust for her in his heart She was, after all, very beautiful in her white veils, and her black eyes were so deep they seemed to have no pupils at all Her hair fell past her waist in long black curls, and it shone most curiously in the summer sun, like the smooth skin of a salamander, and her skin brooked no blemish, nor tolerated a less than perfect contour She did not lower those disconcerting eyes fro, even when he bound her hand and foot He carried her slung over his copper-studded saddle to his Palace to be his Queen

She was only one of a thousand wives, of course, and evenher he hoped both to sate his lust and to incur the good fortune of her god, and thus she was more prized than any of the wretched mares he harvested from his own country But he could not house her with the perfumed harem, lest she incite the poor beasts to rebellion Thus Zmeya was kept in a rooe from the Raja’s bedchamber Before she entered that vaulted space, she turned to Indrajit and spoke to him for the second time

“I will consent to this e battle against you within your walls; I will bear you seven sons and seven daughters, and they will all grow to be great warriors and beauties fahout the orld I will avert frood and protect your house But you rant to me this condition”

Indrajit burned for this woe hair and lithe li if he could have her without a struggle

“On the third day of each new moon I must be free to do as I wish, and you ave you your sarriors that you will not attempt to see me or come near me on that day Fear not, I will not leave the Castle nor try to escape you This is my condition, and it cannot be altered”

The Raja agreed with a voice of crimson velvet, and Zmeya spoke no more

Years went by like blackbirds in the night, and indeed, the strange-haired wohters, each with the same black eyes and thick curls as theirlike their father at all, but took their blood only frorow older nor less beautiful Even when the children were fully grown, each stronger and irls were great warriors, and all the boys beauties—she stood a candles

And the King, being a King, kept his word He busied hi the affairs of state But his suspicion grew, as each child looked less and less like him, that she spent her new moons in adultery and sin She was, after all, a heathen and entirely uncivilized She could not be trusted Indrajit grew purple in the flesh over this fear, er restrain himself, but resolved at the next new moon to spy upon his barbarian wife and catch her at her crime

And so it was It was not difficult, since her chamber was connected to his He crept down the hall as silently as only a practiced assassin can, and put his eye to the cracks in the wooden door

What he saas a vision froht of the dyingsnakes, fourteen serpents in their outlandish skin, purples and blues and greens flashing phosphorescent in the night, great curving lengths rising up the stone walls and hissing in soue They see, and thick as a ht-sky seemed to feed them, and they danced a terrible dance in the sh

adows

And in the center was a serpent so vast itline Her girth was as a Palace colu strealeamed black upon black, with no pupils at all, and when she saw the peering eye of Indrajit at the door, the serpent queen threw her long body into treranite stone into a blade

“Betrayer!” she cried, and shih a wash of heat, beco hair, and each of the shters They all looked at hi like a blue flame in each

“You swore,” she cried, throwing open the door with such strength that it shattered against the wall, “you swore this time was mine And now all is lost for you, wretched Indrajit You calutton presented with a roasted bull all for hih ropes to this black-halled palace All I asked was one day without your stinking pig-breath on ave you all of these children—”