The Secret Invitation

You have been wondering how to bring up the subject with your lover. Now is the time for all truth and a few answers.

"I cannot help but be curious," you say. "You have had many women before me."

Arion laughs softly, awkwardly. "Dordei, have we not just been married? I do not wish to discuss such things right now. It does not matter who I have had before you."

"If you do not want to talk about it, I understand. But I do wonder. I want to know everything about you."

"Then know that I am embarrassed that you were not my first and only lover. You are the only woman I have ever really wanted and I should have had no other."

You feel a frisson of sympathy. "Do not be embarrassed! I know well that chastity is no Iphisiad virtue."

"That does not change my feelings, however."

Contemplating what to say next, you let out a long sigh. "There was a young Iphisiad woman who came to my court last year for awhile. She was from Damaris, on her way to Egypt--you know, that pharaoh, Ramses I think is his name. Apparently his court held some intrigue for her. I believe that was where she was headed." The memory provides a distraction and you chuckle. "Does it mean anything to you if I told you she wore a certain style gold ring on the middle finger or her right hand--a dove in flight banded by ivy?"

Arion's arms around you tighten. "It does. It means I was her first lover. It wasn't for my own pleasure, and I swear this by the gods. Aphrodite has seen it fit to give me the ability to take a virgin without pain or discomfort for her."

You know this for yourself.

"Would you have me give you a gold ring as well? I gave myself to you! I would think pledging myself to you would suffice."

You laugh deeply, looking up into Arion's face as you throw your head back. "I am captivated by these things, my precious. I mean no mischief."

He raises his eyebrow at you. "How much would you have me tell you? It is past, Dordei. It is all past now. When we are married in Iphisiaia, you will see where my heart lies. I have been unmarried all these years because I never lost hope that I could devote myself to you."

"Truly?" You spin around, and he strengthens his embrace.

"I could not commit myself so wholly to any other woman."

"So will there be ranks of weeping ladies wearing gold rings at our wedding?"

He hears the good humor in your voice. "And tell me no men will weep that they can no longer hope to be your consort!  I would think their numbers to be many times greater.  No doubt the sound of their wailing will fill the streets of Themiscyra!"

"Ah, yes, I cannot wait to flush our court of those horrendous suitors," you mutter, rolling your eyes.  "None of them held a conversation better than my horse.  And so very many of them, from everywhere I could imagine!  I never did understand why they thought I sought a husband."  You shrug.  "Why would the heir to Amazonia want to be wife to some Mesopotamian dung heap lord?"

Arion's eyes widen with what seems to you to be shock. "I think there is something you should know."

"What might that be?"

 His blue eyes gleam in the moonlight as he ponders his words.  "I know why those men thought you sought a husband.  It is because Hippolyta told them so."

Your mother, the queen? "What do you mean?"

He sighs, his anger at the Amazon queen surfacing.  "Dordei, your mother sent invitations to every king, ruler and nobleman in all of these lands to come to Themiscyra and court you."

"She never told me this!"

"So I have come to understand."     

"Were you so invited, Arion?"

"I was. I would not take advantage of it."

Nodding, you examine Arion curiously.  "Because you know what a tremendous break with our tradition she had committed. Do you mean she put me up for sale?"

"If I denied it, would you know better than to believe me?  I think you would."

Apparently Arion anticipated that you would explode in your rage.  Instead, you take some moments of calm thought.  "Well, then, I have one more interesting thing to bring up when I get home. My mother has not only tried to have me killed, but she has tried to marry me off.  I wonder how long she will hold her throne then?"        

"Should I not have told you?"

"No, you did right, my beloved. I wish you had told me when you came to Themiscyra, however."

"I did not think it important," he says quickly.

"So why did you not come for me when you got this invitation?"  

"Dordei! Was I to claim you as some kind of prize?  I wanted you as my wife only if you wanted me for your husband just as fervently. But I did not know how you felt about me. I thought you may have forgotten about me."

You stare into his serious blue eyes as you considered your words.  "Arion, you and I have shared a love all of our lives.  I remember how we held each other as children, how we passed the night in the same bed, refusing to part.  I remember our explorations of that new feeling called passion.  Always I thought those few days we had together before I went to Ephesus had established how much you meant to me, and what you would always mean to me.  My vows to Artemis would never change what was in my heart."

"I am only a man, Dordei.  Sometimes it is difficult to see continuity when occupied by individual events."

"Surely you knew I would wed you."

"How so?"   

You raise your hands and softly caress his cheeks. "Who else would I have wed?"

Emilie J. Conroy

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