"Leave us!" Came a sharply spoken command from a darkened corner of the room.
The guards shifted hesitantly as they glanced at each other uncertainly, "Go now!"
The guards hastily exited the room closing the heavy doors behind them as they left. Many a man, who had defied a temple priestess or even just displeased one had found himself dead or wishing that he was. My own family had fallen prey to such a vindictive action by a priestess once.
I stared into the darkened corner of the room where the voice had come from hoping to discern who or what resided there.
As if in answer to my probing gaze a voice softer and more feminine than it had sounded before replied, "You have your father's way about you that is of a certainty."
A shadow separated away from the darkness of the corner of the room and became clearer as it came into the dim light of the candle and was revealed as a beautiful woman. She carried herself with grace, and dignity, which was hard to imagine in a place like this. She was resplendently dressed in a scarlet colored gown that echoed the temple's opulent embellishments. Her choice of clothing, while provocative was not what I had expected of a high temple priestess. She was more covered up rather than less, which puzzled me considering the attire or lack of it by the other women I had seen so far. I was puzzled about it, until I gazed into her eyes and face.
Her face was evenly proportioned, with clean straight lines and skin that showed no signs of wrinkling or the effects of a hard life spent surviving in the elements. Deep blue intelligent eyes gleamed like faceted sapphires from her face. It was her eyes that hinted at what made this woman more formidable than any other woman in the place. I felt the impact of her gaze on me like fire! A man could easily loose himself in a pair of eyes like that. Panicking somewhat, I broke eye contact with her and made to step back but the door was there. I pressed back against it wanting out of the room.
The priestess said even softer than before, "And his self control too."
I looked at her again quickly and saw that her face had changed. Her face was now filled with a look of sorrow and remorse I would never have expected to see in a place like this.
The realization of what her words hinted at flooded me with anger, and in two steps I was across the space between us with my chained hands wrapped around her throat. She made no move to resist as my hands tightened on her throat.