Bathing With Social Piranhas

Danielle Longbow winced as the hot water of the public bathhouse touched the scars on the back of her ankles. Curious eyes watched her with a mix of curiosity, pity, and horror.

            All the women were naked. None of the others had been whipped from their neck to their ankles. Whispering a rainbow of swear words, she took another step down into the steaming water.

            She caught the eye of an older woman watching her disdainfully. Danielle was sure she saw the word ‘traitor’ on the woman’s lips. Her bruised jaw clenched as she swallowed a response to the perceived slight.

            Lupita Smith, already in the depths of the water, turned to look at the old woman and frowned.

            “When did Queen Malin organise this?” She wanted to distract herself from the sharp pain as she went down another step into the bath.

            “I suppose it must have been happening for a while. She thinks of everything.”

            Danielle nodded and inhaled with a hiss as she stepped down deeper.

            Other women were looking.

            Fuck them, she thought. “Fuck this,” she said. She ducked into the water. All the air left her lungs in a gasp. The pain was a whip of the sun’s fire. Lupita grabbed her face and kissed her.

            Other women gasped. People had known they were together. It was just another bit of gossip about them.

            Lupita’s thumb pressed from under Danielle’s eye to her ear. The tear which had escaped was gone before anyone could see it. The woman’s black braids were tied at the ends with beads that had belonged to Lupita Smith’s mother.

            “Thank you,” the scarred woman whispered.

            With the pain and initial shock of the hot water over and done with, the heat felt wonderful for her aching muscles. The Daughter of Disgrace, the Puppet of Fate, waded all the way in until the water was up to her chest.

            Veterans of the recent battles sat on ledges beneath the water. Gossip flew between them. As her presence lost its interest, they resumed the murmur of conversations that echoed off the granite walls.

            “How is this place heated?” Danielle asked. She rolled her wrists beneath the surface. The usual clicking sounds were muffled by the water.

            “There’s a huge furnace underneath connected to the big chimney stack you can see outside. Only the best for Crann’s warriors.”

            “Why are you allowed in then?” asked Catherine Harper, shocking everyone with her booming call in the steamy chamber. “You both betrayed the people to save an imperial.”

            “He’s just a boy, Cat. You saw him kill other imperial soldiers for us. You heard his story.”

            “His story, yes, I heard his story.” The yellow eyes of the bitter woman went with the coin shaped scars on her arms and legs. “We’ll never know if what he said is true. I doubt it is. He’s an imperial. You can’t trust them.”

            “Carl killed an imperial Nephilim knight with a steak knife,” Danielle said with a growl in her voice.

            Everyone was looking again. The lovers bent their knees unconsciously to be lower in the water. They were exposed enough already.

            “Did he?” The woman who usually wore a bird mask walked down into the water as if her scars didn’t trouble her at all.

            “Ask Sir Fabian,” said Lupita. She had taken her lover’s hand beneath the water. They were naked. They were under attack. At least they were together. “Would you question the word of a knight?”

            “Not to his face,” Cat smiled and took a seat offered by a nervous looking woman whose jowls shook as she looked between the two scarred soldiers.

            “If you have nothing nice to say-”

            “Then shut your fucking mouth,” Lupita finished for Danielle, who gave her hand a grateful squeeze.

            “Where is your adopted son?”

            Women uneasy in the company of raised voices decided they had soaked long enough. The couple holding hands sat together on the submerged ledge.

            “In the men’s bathhouse,” said the witch formerly of the Royal Coven. She tucked a braid back behind her ear. If it was the whip scars of the warrior that made her stand out, it was the melanin beneath her skin that drew the eyes of the pale people of Crann. She’d been there all her life and yet they still looked at her as something new. She had come for Danielle, who was incredibly grateful not to be facing the women alone.

            “Hopefully the men are as forgiving as us women,” Catherine spread her arms. Women nearby coughed uncomfortably. “It would be awful for you to take a whipping, be sent on a suicide mission and to survive with my help, only for him to drown.”

            Miss Longbow had not thought about the social combat Carl was going through on his own in the men’s bathhouse. He wasn’t one to defuse a situation if it could be made at all worse.

            “That would be awful. It would be just as awful when I killed everyone responsible. I suppose it’s lucky that won’t happen. I’ve been through enough this year.”

            Before she could list momentous events of the year Cat began for her. “You mutilated me instead of putting me out of my misery. Then you betrayed your entire kingdom for a boy you’d never met.”

            Danielle stood. Waves danced outwards, breaking on the flesh of naked women enraptured by the drama.

            “I killed some loup garous. I fought the empire in the siege. I slaughtered their warriors on Crosston Hills. I helped block Worldworm’s Bridge. I fought harpies.

            I didn’t want to kill you for becoming a harpy if we could stop it.” She looked at Lupita, whose eyes with steely. “I fought when the imperials came back again through Afon.

            I saw a boy too young to fight among the bodies of the imperial soldiers. A child. I knew he would be killed so I hid him. I was whipped for it. I don’t regret that, Catherine. He’s funny. He’s cheeky. His mother was from Eira Mynydd. He never wanted to be an imperial. He didn’t have a choice.

            You heard him. You know he was telling the truth.” Out of words, Danielle looked into Cat’s yellow eyes and saw no response.

            Sitting back down she kissed Lupita.

            “Anyone else with something to say to me can say it from the bottom of the bath.”

            She closed her eyes and pretended she was alone with her lover in the warm water. Her scars were quiet. Her bulging muscles were sighing with relief. She was warm enough for the first time since winter set in.

            Lupita’s thumb stroked the base of hers. She replied by rubbing her thumb over her lover’s forefinger. She imagined what she wanted to do to miss Smith when they got home. Danielle was happy not to be a man, there where it would have been obvious what was on her mind.