Dear reader,
This story, and those that may follow, involve a place, time and people that never were. There will be a healthy dose of lesbian erotica; plus some BD/SM, non-consensual, adult-youth and possibly some (gasp) hetero as the plot progresses. Any comments -- good and especially bad -- are very welcome and encouraged via the e-mail address at the bottom. One cannot progress without feedback.
THE LEGAL THING: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Any similarities to characters in other fictional works, other than those pulled from classical mythology (and therefore within the public domain), are also coincidental. If individuals feel that this story impinges on their person or work should take no offense, as none is meant or was intended. They should also relax and obsess less.
Remember, if we stopped writing when we ran out of original themes, literature would have died with the Greeks.
Enjoy,
The Author
Chapter 3
Yassine drifted up through the veils of sleep quickly, leaving behind a dream she neither understood or enjoyed. She had been a slave girl, wrapped in garish colors, waiting for a client in the front room of a seedy brothel. She was sure she was well into a night of whoring (with who and doing what she did not know) when a tall stranger came to her side of the couch with a silken cord. The stranger attached the cord to the collar around her neck, signifying her purchase for the hour and led her towards the stairs. She started to ask the form, neither observably male nor female, what was in store for her. The answer, unheard though the breath that brought it was stale and rank, wondered if it mattered at all. She sat up in bed and rubbed her temples. The hangover she expected from the strange, gold wine she drank the night before was not as harsh as she had expected -- due no doubt to the three times she awoke during the night to drink from the cool flagons of water set at the side of the dining table in the far corner of the room. Each time she arose from the bed to drink, Pari gave the same querying mumble and reached halfway to bring the Amazon back to bed. Each time she returned, the girl worked her round bottom into the crook of her thighs and sighed with contentment. The third time she got into the bed, the girl said something half in her own tongue, half in the language Yassine knew as her own. The message was too garbled to bother trying to remember. She heard the hiss of morning rain on the stones of the palace when she caught sight of Pari in front of the large mirror on the side of the room. The girl was wearing her breastplate and struck poses for her own gratification. Being nearly two feet shorter than the design of the armor, she was a ridiculous sight. The broad shoulders of the breastplate stuck out garishly, giving Pari an apish form. Similarly, the breasts and the arms were too large for the head and short legs sticking out from the top and bottom. At her neck, the high shoulder guards stuck out above the girl's ears like a semi helmet. The bottom of the armor, missing its mailed skirt, showed the very bottom of her brown rump. Most entertaining were the fierce attitudes that crept back and forward across the desert girl's face; At once foreboding, then noble and haughty, then wrathful. Each different expression was coupled with an equally preposterous stance. Foot on the night stand, fist outstretched. Legs apart with fists on the hips. Eyes cast heavenward with hands outstretched to the sky. Yassine could take no more without laughing. "Are you beseeching a god or cursing one?" she asked. Pari leapt as if struck by a whip. She let loose a stream of apologies and excuses as she tried to draw the armor off over her head. The wrestling movement did nothing but force her off her balance and she fell to the floor in a clatter of metal. Yassine let her self-control falter and she laughed as she helped the girl out of the armor and onto her feet. "Forgive me, Princess. I meant no disrespect," her voice was feverish. "I just wanted to see if the armor would fit me." Yassine pulled the heavy plates off the girl's shoulders and wondered how she had lifted the thing in the first place. "You're far to short to be considered for the mounted service, you'll have to aspire to the infantry. Though I'd say your skills lie elsewhere." Changing the subject, Pari lay back on the bed and scissored her legs, "You seemed restless last night, did you sleep well?" Setting the armor aside, "I was up a couple of times," she said as she stretched out -- becoming the immediate recipient of Pari's draping form. "You sleep like the dead." "I was tired," the girl said as she began running her hands along the Amazon's tawny frame. She laid a few nuzzling kisses against her neck and ran her tongue into the hollow of her ear. "It was a long night for me." Yassine arched her back, luxuriating in the girl's touches as she gathered the curvaceous package into her arms. Pari immediately quickened to the touch, putting her fingers to work on the Amazon's nipples as she ground her tongue into her ear canal. Another few seconds' wrestling later and the small girl was straddling Yassine's hips above her. Yassine stroked the girl's ribs, tracing lines from the tops of her breasts to the point where her hips flared away, "On second thought, I don't think you'd be best used in the infantry at all." Pari reached up and gathered her profusion of black curls and held them over her head, "What then? An archer? A general?" The Amazon gently pinched the girl's dark nipples, winning a stifled cry, "You'd be assigned to the cavalry. Serving it, that is." The girl's eyebrows arched as she ground her hips against Yassine's, "I'm not sure what that means, Princess. After all, I'm no good with horses and I'm too small for a saddle." Yassine pulled Pari down to her, hungrily kissing her. She let her tongue roam through the girl's mouth for a while before flipping her over to take the higher ground. "I haven't yet seen how you take to the bit and crop," she said as she reached down and pulled the girl's leg upward so that her own fell underneath her. "Before we get to that, let's see how you ride." Yassine rearranged herself so that her nether lips contacted Pari's smooth sex. Firmly grasping the raised leg, she began to rub herself against the girl. Although they had only been engaged in the most cursory foreplay, both women were wet and their bodies slid against each other easily. Yassine, in control, started making long, slow passes against Pari. She dragged the length of her wet sex against the girl's bare folds before starting back along her length. She made a special circle at the top and bottom of each pass, making sure to rub against Pari's clitoris as well as her own. Pari giggled as she caressed Yassine's breasts. She had started by trying to suckle the taller woman's nipples but couldn't reach that high with her leg propped up toward the ceiling. Whenever the Amazon came to the bottom of her stroke, the pubic hair left at the top of her sex scratched against the girl's clit. Pari was immediately thankful that Yassine had opted to keep that small triangle of hair and thrust her hips upward to make the most of the contact. As the familiar waves of orgasm started their course through her body, Yassine let go of the girl's leg so that she could get closer and kiss her. Pari immediately changed her posture to accommodate the new movements and maximize the sensation. What started with soft moans and keening sighs rose constantly. Yassine's sense of what sounds she herself was making became less and less acute as the noise level in the room got higher and higher. Pari was a vocal lover and she seemed to overcome the magical translation spell that enveloped the room. Her voice came through in half words, joyful and unintelligible. Muffled through kisses and stuttered with pleasure, she was no more understandable than she had been before the spell took effect. Yassine started working harder, occasionally her pelvis would rear back only to slam home against Pari. She pushed two fingers of one hand into the girl's mouth and let her suck on them. With the other hand, she pressed the same digits between the girl's ample buttocks and pushed toward the center. Pari shifted again to give the Amazon easier access. Her eyes signaled need. Yassine changed postures again, shifting the weight of both of them to the opposite side. She changed hands, taking the two fingers out of Pari's mouth and pushing them, inward and upward, into the girl's anus as she refilled her mouth with the fingers of the other hand. Made somewhat slick from her saliva, the fingers pushed roughly into her most private place. Pari let out a strangled yelp, once again hard to hear with her mouth full. She quickly became accustomed to the feeling and started bucking strongly against both ends of the Amazon's stroke. At the top her clit was ground against the rough hairs, at the bottom she was met by the fingers digging deeper and deeper into her each time. The din in the room became chaotic. The two women moaning and crying in and out of time echoed against the walls and came back as a riot of sound. As orgasm approached, Yassine was convinced that there were others in the room with them, screaming along with the two of them. Beneath her, Pari jerked back and forth spasmodically as streams of stuttering pleasure poured from her mouth. Yassine came, finally slapping her sex against the girl as she twisted her fingers back and forth within Pari's ass as she screamed. The girl under her had already gone through one orgasm and was quickly working toward her second. Pari howled and went limp as it arrived. The sound in the room was deafening. The two collapsed together in a heaving, sweating mass as they made a twitching attempt at their previous lovemaking. They shared a long, passionate kiss. Their tongues intertwined as their chests heaved to regain their breath. They held each other a while until they felt the cool breeze from the open windows start to cool their sweaty flesh. The Amazon started to say something endearing to the girl nipping at her neck and shoulders when she noticed that the general noise level in the room hadn't dropped very much. She cast her iron gray eyes around the room, "What the hell is that?" Pari looked up, furrowed her brow for a second and then her eyes lit up. "It is the city heralds. The Emperor and his army must be returning." Pari leapt up from the bed and ran to the window. On her tiptoes she leaned out over the ledge to get a better look at the street below. She looked back excitedly, "It is the Emperor, he's returned from the northlands!" Yassine stretched her long body for a moment and turned toward the window. She would have been content to lay back and gaze lazily at the girl's wonderful ass, accentuated both by Pari standing on her toes and bending over slightly. She rose and walked over to the window. Being much taller, she only had to crane her neck out lightly to see the street below. She slid her hand over the girl's bottom until she felt she had a firm grasp. The trumpeters on the walls of the inner city, the palace proper, were sounding their horns to the sky in the ages old tribute to the returning heroes. The notes were different, the melodies unfamiliar, but Yassine recognized the high, triumphant pairings and trills that noted celebration. She guessed that a hundred other horns across the city's breadth picked up the call. Teams of oxen lashed on by teamsters drew the mighty iron gates of the main city open with a screeching creak. As soon as the opening was wide enough, a rider garbed in shining sliver armor rode through on a dazzling white mare. He bore in his left hand a mirrored shield, in his right, the red and blue wyvvern standard of the Empire of Donai. The rider directed the horse to circle once, then the two of them bowed simultaneously to the throngs of citizens that lined the street. The crowd cheered, clapping and whooping as the rider brought himself and horse back to a regal bearing and continued into the city. He was followed immediately by a column of 300 armored shock troops. Broken into five companies of 60, each bore a different standard than the last. Their matte black armor was sorely beaten, glinting only where chips and crushing blunt force assaults had scraped the metal clean. Some of them bore wounds. The bandages were minimal, to be sure, but they were not hidden. Some of the soldiers were visibly, badly wounded. Every face beamed pride. Behind them marched 200 archers in a loose formation. They wore lighter, metal-latticed leather armor with quivers at the ankle, thigh and shoulder. Their odd, swept-brim caps were adorned with feathers of a hundred different birds that trailed down their backs. A boy at the back of the column carried several bows across his shoulders. The crack and clop of hooves heralded the main cavalry. Yassine looked on with appreciation at the fine ranks of horseflesh coming through the palace gates. Fully 700 armored warriors astride similarly barded horses entered the city. Some carried long poleaxes, others were armed with sword and shield. A fifth of their number carried hook-topped javelins and lengths of hempen rope. Another fifth wielded vicious, wide-faced mattocks. Yassine shook her head at the military might strolling through the palace gates. Amazon military forces were largely naval, attack ships supplemented with courses of archers. There were ships developed to deliver land forces, but they carried only the most elite troops. A landing party never carried more than 300 mounted combatants. Yassine heard something above her. She looked up. Amazons never attacked from the air. Fifty hippogriffs, animals with the bodies of lions and the heads and wings of eagles, screeched above. Their riders were decked out in the heaviest armor and bore fiery staves that could only be magical weapons. A couple of the animals in flight were without riders, pairs of boots were set backward in their stirrups. The cries of those were the most plaintive. Below again came the spoils of war -- paraded for the entire city to see. Many fine treasures, of all types, had been dragged back to the city. War wagons were filled to the tops of their walls with the pelts of scores of different animals. Rich browns and lustrous blacks were interspersed with dappled furs featuring every color nature gave animals. Lashed to the wagons were beasts Yassine had never seen before. Cattle the size of hippos with long ribbed horns stretching straight forward lowed nervously as they passed the cheering crowds on either side of the thoroughfare. Great woolly pigs snorted and rooted at the ground, content to search whatever soil they found for something to eat. Behind them, great white bears taller than mounted riders were being herded along by infantrymen bearing glowing blue staves. The bears made a terrible racket, roaring and snarling at the onlookers. For all their obvious brute power, they were somewhat intelligent; the sight of one of the staves culled them into sullen, learned passivity. The crowd's cheering got louder as the next wagons came into view. Within them were the hard currency of the Northlands. Gold and silver, in coins of a hundred different mintings, flashed in the morning sunlight. Tureens of pearls, chests of jewels and rows of polished and carved ivory shone like earthbound stars. A page sitting in the middle of the horde triumphantly raised a gold-veined lump of stone -- proof positive that there were more riches to be had. The din raised higher as the next course of the procession entered the gates. Fifty young people, men and women, were led into the city in chains. All were naked save for the heaps of jewelry they wore about their necks, on their heads and on their fingers. Some were terrified, weeping and cowering with nowhere to hide themselves. Others held their heads high and met the throngs with haughty disdain for their captors and their situation. "Who are they?" Yassine asked. "Spoils of war," Pari said matter-of-factly. "They're usually chosen for their looks or their talents, but some of them are the royalty of the countries the Emperor has conquered." "They look too young to be rulers," Yassine said. "They're probably princes and princesses, or petty nobility," Pari said. "What about the kings and queens?" Pari shrugged, "Dead." The logic of it was crystalline to the Amazon: Kill the rulers, remove the heirs, implant your own authority. It was the mathematics of the conqueror since the beginning of time. "What will happen to them?" Pari looked at the Amazon with a mild skepticism, "How do you think I got here?" Yassine looked down at the naked servant girl and realized what she was: A slave. As if in response, the girl leaned into her and laid her head on Yassine's breast. "I was picked up for my looks." The Amazon wanted to say something, was preparing to say anything other than sorry' when the crowd below went into absolute histrionics. She looked down to see the main bulk of the infantry came into the city. Marching in perfect rows, 8,000 armored soldiers in full armor swept down the concourse. The clanking of their armor nearly drowned out the cheers of the crowds. They were broken up into companies of 500, each company bearing its own standard with the standard of the empire above it. They bore nearly every manner of weapon imaginable. Swords and hammers, axes and scythes, spears and poleaxes; a visual compendium of the myriad tools of death marched toward the palace steps. As the column neared its end, Yassine craned her neck to see the back. The last man in the column was a boy guiding a dappled gray stallion covered in armor. The horse had no rider. "Who's horse is that?" she asked. "That's Lullagor, the Emperor's mount." Yassine's eyes went wide, "The Emperor is dead?" "Gods no," Pari said. "If the Emperor had fallen, Roquan would have known about it the instant it happened. The Emperor is in the columns with the infantry." "I didn't see him." "Most people don't," Pari said. "He doesn't want to attract attention away from his troops. He rides at the front during battle, he says that's all the attention he needs." "That's strange," Yassine said. "I choose the word uncommon,'" she said and left it at that. She peered down over the side of the window and waved enthusiastically. "Look!" The Amazon looked down to where Pari was pointing and she saw the boy leading Lullagor staring back up at them. The boy's eyes were wide with amazement and a slow-growing appreciation for the wonders of chance. It was then that Yassine realized she had been baring her breasts for the entire city to see. She also noticed that the awestruck boy was not the only audience to her display. She pulled away from the window, leaving Pari to wave happily to the throngs below. A small bell at the door of the room chimed twice, followed by a male voice. "Princess Yassine?" It was a young voice. The Amazon donned her tunic and responded, "Who is it?" "A page. Her majesty requests your and your lieutenant's presence in the Great Hall. The Emperor has returned." "I'm coming," she left the conversation at that and began to put her armor back on. She had brought other clothes, garments of the royal court of Amazonia. She thought it would be better to address the male ruler of Donai with battle armor to match his. As the Amazon was connecting the clasps that held her greaves to her thighs, Pari collected the grinning demon helmet and held it until Yassine was finished with her task. When she reached for it, the girl's eyes were downcast. "I hope that I have been of some service to you, Princess," the girl said, eyes on the floor. "It was the Empress' wish that your needs be taken care of." Yassine detected something in her voice, "You have been of great service, Pari. Is there something wrong?" "No," she said. "Another will be in my place tonight to attend to your needs again. Unless..." Yassine tapped her foot on the floor. The girl got the hint and continued with a slight flush on her face. "Unless you would require my particular company again." The Amazon took Pari's chin in her hand and drew her face upward. She kissed the girl tenderly, slowly collecting her lush body in her arms. They swayed there, buffeted by an internal wind, for a whole minute. "I command that you be here when I return."
******* Please send your comments, good and especially bad, to merdement@yahoo.com