Chapter 1

Don't Wake Me
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The Watchers

The Silent Ones

They Who Sleep

The Twelve had many titles, depending on who was telling the story, but none of them, none of them were their true names, their first names, their blood and bone names.

 

It was known.

 

***

The summer night was black with shadows.  Still and silent, surrounded by a peace shattered by seemingly simple etchings on a clay tablet, you stared--unseeing--out of the window.  

On soundless feet Anki moved to close the shutters.  “Puabi means to see you dead, your Majesty.  It will no longer do to stand in front of open windows like a target.”

“Am I to be a prisoner in my own city?” you asked softly.

Your beloved spy bowed.  “I only advise caution.  You have no heir.  Were you to fall--”

“Understood,” you interrupted crisply, waving him into silence.  

“All the more reason to exercise prudence,” he said evenly, before subsiding at your quelling look.  

“Prudence.”  The word was bitter.  It had been your milk and bread since your queen mother’s untimely death, but it would appear as if Puabi--queen of Eridu, the least of the Five Cities--had finally run out of patience with your mealy mouthed equivocations.  She had coveted Sippar since your mother’s time, coveted its situation and its natural assets, but what her city didn’t have in resources, it more than made up for in human capital.  Regardless of the abundance of your city, should Puabi choose to attack, Sippar would fall under the human tide of Eridu--that you well knew.  A nascent throb began behind your eyes.

A soft rustling, a susurration, a sibilance, as if in answer to the pressure rising in your head, whispered through the room.  From beneath your bed clothes peeked blunt, sand-coloured heads, flickering tongues.  Desiring to put them at ease, you absentmindedly laid your hand on the bed, allowing the horned twins, Gashan and Gishkim, to slowly slither up your arm, nestle themselves inside your mantle.

Turning, you pulled a nearby cord, bells tinkling somewhere in the distance to summon Sagar.  In a matter of moments, your most trusted advisor slipped into the room, the silver of her braided crown belied by the ease of her gate, and the silence of her approach.  She bowed.  “Oh Queen, may you live forever.”

“May you live forever,” you muttered derisively, annoyed by the useless address.  “Not one of us ever does.”  Eyeing the impassive wrinkles of her weathered face, you sighed.  “I trust you know the news?”

“Queen Puabi prepares to dispatch an emissary with an ultimatum.  Marry her son, or prepare for war.”

“Just so,” you agreed.  “And so,” you started, straightening to your full height, and fixing them with a  glare. “You.  Both of you.  What do you advise?”

Sagar’s expression was neutral.  “You could accept Eshkar’s proposal before Puabi’s ultimatum has a chance to arrive.  With his power joined to yours, Eridu would not be able to prevail.”

Clacking your teeth in dismissal, you turned and began to pace.  “Mother entrusted Sippar to me.  This land has been a matriarchy since before the rain fell on the rock; I’ll not allow that to change under my reign.  I am your queen; you are my responsibility--no one else’s.  Not only is Eshkar old enough to be my great grandfather, he would annex Sippar, and that would be the end of us as a sovereign city.  That is not an option.  What else?”

Anki remained silent, though he shared the briefest of looks with Sagar.  She broke the silence with one word.  “Murder.”

The golden beads on the ends of your braids clicked as you abruptly stopped, pressure banding about your temples.  Sensing distress, Gashan and  Gishkim stirred, peeking their heads from your neckline to wind about your nape, perch on your shoulders, their implacable bronze gazes fixing on your advisors.  “No.  Hazi may be…less than he ought, but he doesn’t deserve to die.  There has to be another way.  My mother never would have killed an innocent man.”

Sagar’s voice--sonorous, though roughened with age--was inexorable.  “What are your options?  Marry Puabi’s halfwit son and thus allow her to rule Sippar through him?  War?  Yes, Hazi is gentle.  Yes, he is soft and sweet, but is his life worth more than those of your people?  The child who brings your washing bowl?  The shepherd who even now sleeps peacefully in the pasture?  The mothers in the markets?  The fathers in the fields?  Weighed in the balance, is his life worth more than hundreds of thousands?”  She stepped closer.  “I advised your mother.  And your mother’s mother.  And your mother’s mother’s mother, and I must disillusion you.  There isn’t always an easy answer.  When you’ve exhausted all of your options, thought of every alternative…then you make the hard choice, and do what must be done.  Send Anki.  He will make it…easy.”

Dark eyes were trained on your face.  Hazi’s life balanced on one word.  Anki was your truest, and most reliable weapon, and the burden of his attention weighed heavy.  “My Queen?”  Anki’s voice was, as ever, soft, a contrast to the unbearable tension in the room.

“I am sorry,” Sagar said gently.  “You will come to find that some things, Great Queen, are beyond your control.”  

The tension snapped.  

“Beyond my control?” you said softly, incredulously, barely louder than the sound of a snake’s soft hiss.  “Beyond my control?!”  Lifting your chin, you fixed them both with a look of censure.  “I am Queen of Sippar, First of My Name, Sovereign of the House of Erish, Queen of Queens of the Three Lands and the Empress of Two Seas, Commander of the Faithful and Successor of the First People, Empress of the Five Cities of Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak, Conqueror of the two Armies, Righteous Lady of Sumerians, Helper of the State and the People, Custodian of the Twelve Noble Sanctuaries, Victorious Conqueror, Mother of Conquest, the Deputy of Justice in the East and the West, the Champion of the Water and the Land…” drifting off in the middle of your title as mind caught up to mouth, your gaze focused on some distant point over their heads.  

When you didn’t finish, Sagar and Anki shared a quick look.  “My Queen?” Sagar ventured hesitantly.

“Sagar,” you said sharply, eyes snapping to her face. “For how long can you stall Puabi’s ultimatum?”

“My Queen, you’ve been stalling for five years--I don't think--”

“How…long?”  You softened your voice, made her quiet her protestations in order to hear you, as Gashan reared back at the elderly advisor.  

“I…eh…” she looked helplessly at silent Anki, who kept his gaze on you.  “Two moons.”

“Two moons,” you repeated, relaxing even as your snakes relaxed.  “Fine,” you said thoughtfully, reaching up to gently scratch Gishkim behind the horns as he slithered down your arm to wrap himself around your wrist.  “Let me see what can be done.”

***

You never know how strong you are until you have to do a thing.  Bloody footprints revealed where you had walked, mile after mile, night after night, on a path to somewhere that may not even exist.  When the misty shadow of mountains looming in the dark distance finally broke the desert monotony, you held up a fist to halt your three bodyguards.  “There, in the distance,” you pointed, “what do you see?”

The tallest, Kishar, squinted as he peered into the night, before his expression turned grim.  “Mountains, my Queen.”

“Yes,” you murmured, forcing yourself forward upon his pronouncement, ignoring the screaming of your body.  “Mountains...”

Though you had been walking for days--nights really, as your guards had determined that it was safest to travel in the dark--you hadn’t entirely believed--had hardly dared hope…  And yet, as the mountains resolved themselves from the hazy background of night, you could no longer deny the yawning drop in the pit of your stomach.  The hollow gnawing that said this is it…  

If they are not here…

The opening into the heart of the mountain bore no sign of man’s hand, giving you further pause, but you wouldn’t think about that.  You wouldn’t think about anything until you saw what lay beyond.  The tablets, the wise men, the Chaldeans, and the stargazers had all agreed that this was the place where the ancients slept, and so you took a torch from Kishar before turning to glower meaningfully. “Stay.  If I do not emerge within three days, return to the city, and…”  Silence.  There was no heir to whom they could swear fealty.  Your throat closed.  

“You will return,” gruffly affirmed your second bodyguard, Malah, a stocky, muscular bull of a man old enough to be your grandfather, but stronger than anyone else you knew.  “It is known.”

“It is known,” echoed the others.

Burning gripped your throat and you cleared it brusquely, gave a decisive nod.  “It is known.”  You turned.

“My Queen!”  NIrgal’s high, clear tenor interrupted your departure.  

Impatiently, you stopped.  “Yes?”

At your look of censure, he dropped to a knee, right fist thumping over his heart.  “My Queen,” he started, looking at your feet, before shaking his head, and lifting his face to yours.  “My Queen,” he began again.  “I was given to you upon your birth.  I have been yours since your first breath, and I have sworn to follow you to the end.  I am your own.  I beg you, please do not leave me here, for if you do, then I will surely die.”

“Nigal,” you started firmly.  “I told you when we left the city.  The tablets say that men may not enter together.”

“Yes, my Queen,” Nirgal agreed, nodding earnestly.  “I’ve been thinking about that since this journey began.  And in the thinking I thought, well…you are…not a man.”

You paused.  The truth was that you had no desire to go alone, and what Nirgal proposed was just the sort of loophole in which wise men dealt.  After considering a few moments more, you relented.  “Get up,” you said, tilting your head.  “Follow me.”  

Handing Nirgal the torch, you turned and led him into the dark.  A few quick, shuffling steps and then he was before you, holding the torch high, preceding you down a narrow passageway.   Despite the rough nature of the opening, once inside the mountain, evidence of man’s craft was clear in the smooth, structured floor, ceiling, and walls.  The inside of the mountain was cool, the fresh breeze brushing past your face indicating that there must be another exit, somewhere.  In the oppressive dark--barely chased away by the flickering light of the torch--you could sense more than see the path angling down, down, ever downward.  

Soft hisses preceded the emergence of the twins from where they had been sleeping in the leather pouch resting on your hip.  Acquiescing to their silent wishes, you crouched, allowing them to slither to the ground, where they proceeded to move ahead in the light dusting of sand that blanketed the stone floor.  In the dark, in the deep, you walked for hours, miles, days; time was meaningless, and your already abused feet cried at every step.  

You ignored them.  

Suddenly, there was the softest click, and something slammed into your body with a force that you hadn’t felt since you had been kicked by your horse as a child.  You stared at the ceiling, dazed, winded, hearing, but not understanding the whoosh of displaced air overhead.  After a few moments a dry, rhythmic creaking seeped through your mental fog, and the weight that you had come to realize was Nirgal lifted as he carefully jumped to a crouch, eyes darting everywhere before coming to rest on your face.  “Are you hurt, Your Majesty?”

“Not at all,” you said, swallowing a telling groan before grasping his shoulders as he swept an arm under your knees and back, easily lifting your body and setting you to stand on your own protesting feet.  A blade of shock cut through your belly as you noticed what was causing the noise--a log the size of a large man, and three times as long, sharpened to a deadly point.  Had Nirgal not moved quickly enough…

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vampwrrr
Shoutout to Baekhyunsoul for having my back, and pointing out where I had messed up the formatting! Thank you for telling me! <3 <3 <3 ^.^ I hope that you dream of X-Baek tonight!

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lisbeth110499
#1
Update soon
Baekhyunsoul
#2
Chapter 4: How!?! HOW did you do that???? How did you make me feeeeel so much in so little space? The intensity of Baëkhyun is … I got freakin CHILLLS😩 that was MY neck that nose was against, I FELT every bit of breath and body heat and want from that man. I let my own shaky breath out after this chapter. What statue do I need to discover to get my own? Sweet Baëkyun’s balls this was a good chapter ❤️
Scarlet_Sky
#3
Chapter 4: The way he reacted to the harem 😭😭 I knew he wouldn't like it. And he doesn't want to share her either, huh? 😏 I see how it is hehe
I say it every time, and I have to say it again. This Baëkhyun is irresistible!! 🥵

I love love love this fic and I'll be waiting for the next update.😭💗
Amsohappy
#4
Chapter 4: Wow! Wow!! Wow!!! How do you do it? You have a way with details, from the very chapter i could picture every single scene. You're good, very good. Thank you for the updates.
areumdae
#5
Chapter 3: Omg I really love this chapter! The way you describe how things work here make me feel as if I'm there to experience it

Btw Baekhyun is soooo hotttttt.. Argh can't wait to read more of Queen x Baekhyun interaction
Baekhyunsoul
#6
Chapter 3: Ahhh! How I freaking love thissssss!!!!! This whole freaking chapter! Whew let me catch my breath!
Sweet Hazi, and how sweet she was with him, made me melt. And I laughed at that single line, “and he took the puppies with him.”
The visuals from the description of the dark skin women to the presentation of Baëkhyun offering himself as consort. Oh, before that- on the balcony! I have such a hard on for your writing…. The fight scene!! On gawd! The cockiness of it all, the audacity of a fat king who embodied that man who thinks bigger physically is better, and underestimates a smaller leaner form. Reading Baëkhyun RUN THIS MAN - absksudugrbwaj!!! And then that last line🙌 I just -
I’m …I love you, it was 🤌💋
Scarlet_Sky
#7
Chapter 3: Awww, you updated!! I've been waiting for this 😄💗
Baekhyun is so hot jdskfds the way you described his clothes. 😍 I would faint if I saw him walking around like that.
She must be relieved he won the fight since she seemed a little worried about him. 😭🥺 HE GOT PISSED AT THE END. Angry x-Baekhyun is hot ngl. 😫 I'M SIMPING. jskfjsd

Thanks for the update! 🥰
PuffTedEBear
#8
Chapter 3: She chose her fighter so wisely.
It was a painful lesson to learn King but you never, ever say anything about demasculating the Shield cause that pretty man will go ahead and actually beat you to it. And he did. 😈
Dittefrost #9
Chapter 2: I want more 😍😍😍
Scarlet_Sky
#10
Chapter 2: hjghdjhg whyyy is he so attractive?! I can't resist 😭😭❤️
I think he already has the queen wrapped around his finger. 😏 NOT THAT I BLAME HER FOR THAT HAHA
I love the way you portray their interactions and I want to know how their consort agreement will play out 😆❤️

Thanks for the update!