The Lady of the Lions

Set about one hundred and fifty years before the full-length novel In a Milk and Honeyed Land, this short story is based on two historical letters written by a Canaanite woman to the great king in Egypt. The people of the four towns are being threatened by a band of rebels disdainful of the provincial ruler. Kephrath and her sister towns are outmatched by the raiders - can they secure help before their deadline runs out? 

"Belita-Labiy found it difficult to concentrate, though, with the news rippling around the hill country. So far the raids had not been too close, but from all that she had heard, these groups of men were swift to move, and swift to strike, wherever they pleased. Who could say which town they might visit next? So when the festival came she knew that her dancing, while apparently as fluent and potent as ever, lacked the whole-hearted commitment that she preferred. It could not be helped, but the distraction nagged at her. All the while that she danced like Taliy in the earliest garden, and later as her body thrilled and her voice cried out in lovemaking, part of her soul was anxiously flitting around the uplands, trying to guess what would happen next."