Jeet

Jeet, Chapter 14

I wish to retain all rights to this story. However, I am delighted to grant permission to any person to publish this story as long as there is no charge to the reader and as long as no changes are made to the story.

Copyright 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Jeet

Chapter 14 – Nuptials

Greek temples differed from their Roman counterparts in that the colonnade formed a peristyle around the whole structure, rather than merely a porch at the front; and also in that the Greek temple was not raised above ground level on a high podium, but rather stairs on either end. Pillars were important because they held up the heavy stone roof. - Wikipedia

Jeet woke to the tolling of temple gongs... again. He lifted his head and looked down his body. Rem was asleep with his head on Jeet’s belly. Jeet could feel the boy’s breath on his abdomen. The back of Rem’s head was to him, but Jeet guessed the boy’s mouth was slack in sleep; he could feel a little drool on his belly.

Jeet laid his head back and closed his eyes, hoping to sleep more, but the next gong woke Rem and the boy stirred. He sat up and looked at Jeet, rubbing his eyes. His hair was wildly disheveled.

Jeet grinned. “You look like I slept on your head.”

Rem smiled, and moving up, laid his head down on Jeet’s chest, hugging the older boy’s sides. They dozed.

…

Rem dressed him. He made Jeet stand still, feet apart, while he lifted Jeet’s breechcloth into place and tied the Abij-hah’s silk belt in the back. He adjusted it, and then gave in to an impulse to slap a rapid beat on Jeet’s high, tight butt.

Jeet yelped and turned around. “Enough of that!” he said with feigned solemnity. “I am The Abij-hah. You do not slap the butt of The Abij-hah.”

Rem laughed and quickly slapped the side of Jeet’s butt.

With a growl, Jeet took him down onto the bed, and they rolled, Rem laughing as Jeet tickled him.

…

Jeet kissed the Oracle as they stood at the shrine doors, waiting for the ram’s horn. She clung to him. “I missed you,” she whispered.

He nodded, the side of his cheek against hers. “I missed you.”

“Really?” she asked in a whisper. “Rem seems very happy.”

“So does Aruli,” he countered.

She hugged his neck. “I still missed you.”

He pulled her lightly clad body close in his arms.

Over his shoulder, the Oracle saw Aruli glance at them sadly. “Jeet-hah,” she whispered. “It should still be Aruli’s day.”

Jeet held her tightly a moment longer, and then nodded. He stepped back and the Oracle held out her hand to Aruli. He came to her and she hugged him. “Aruli-hah,” she murmured. “You must rest with me after our midday meal; it is still your day.”

Aruli smiled.

“Oracle,” Jin asked, “who will you choose for tonight?”

Leaning back in Aruli’s arms, she glanced at Jin. “Tonight, Jin-hah,” she said, “it will be you.”

Smiling, the albino boy came up behind Aruli and patted Aruli’s ass. “You will see, Oracle.” he whispered, as if Aruli couldn’t hear, “that I’m much better than Aruli, I taught him all that he knows.”

The ram’s horn sounded as Aruli elbowed Jin in the stomach.

…

The supplicant, a young, very thin man whose equally thin wife stood behind him, bowed after laying several finely woven straw mats before the Oracle.

“What do you wish of the Oracle?” Jeet asked.

“That the Oracle bless my field of grain,” he said. “It has begun poorly this spring.”

Jeet nodded, looking around for Jarus. None of the high priests were there that morning. What was he to say? Did he still need to tell the man to come back the next day if all that he was asking was for the Oracle’s blessing?

The Oracle, behind her impassive mask, turned toward Jeet, and motioned him to her. “They look hungry, Jeet-hah,” she whispered. “Tell him and his wife to come into the shrine at the midday sacrifice. We will feed them.”

Jeet smiled and nodded. “Excellent, Anda,” he said. Straightening up, he turned to the thin man. “The Oracle says that you and your wife must come into the shrine at the midday sacrifice. You will eat at her table.”

The man looked up, his jaw dropping in amazement. His wife’s eyes went wide.

…

“Bantu,” Jeet asked as they returned inside, “were those straw mats truly the finest gift among the supplicants today?” He turned to face Bantu as the doors were closed behind them.

The redhead blushed and bowed his head slightly. “Many people are staying away, Abij-hah,” he said. “I heard people talking about it. After the gift of the pearl and the gifts of gold, everyone is assuming that only very valuable gifts will be accepted.”

“You did not answer me directly, Bantu,” Jeet said with an amused smile.

Bantu cast his eyes down. “I liked them; the man and his wife,” he said with a shrug. “I felt sorry for them. They looked like they needed to see the Oracle.”

“I fear that the high priests would not be happy with your choice, Bantu,” Jeet said, shaking his head somberly. But then he smiled and hugged the shorter eunuch. “You have a kind heart, Bantu.”

Bantu hugged Jeet in return, laying his head against the side of Jeet’s. “Should we not be merciful, Jeet-hah, when the gods have been so good to us?”

Jeet patted Bantu’s bare bottom. “Yes, Bantu-hah. But from time to time pick more expensive gifts.” He kissed the side of Bantu’s red hair. “It will keep the priests happy.”

Bantu patted Jeet’s bare butt and smiled. “There really was not much to choose from today.”

…

“Wedding feasts?” Stycus repeated incredulously. “They’re eunuchs! And the Oracle is a… an it; a hermaphrodite!”

They were eating. Jarus frowned at Stycus from across the table. “They are people, Stycus. They’re young and idealistic, and I admire them.”

Stycus snorted. “Idealistic, bah! They’re as conniving as a gang of street urchins. They’re manipulating you, Jarus. Quit giving in to them.”

“They’re smart,” Jarus agreed, nodding. “We picked them because they were exceptional in every respect. And I’m not…”

“We picked them because they were pretty,” Stycus interrupted. “Pretty is all they are. And you’ve let them get things past you because they’re pretty and you fucked them and now you hang around them like they were bitches in heat. They aren’t anything special, so don’t encourage them to think they are.”

“You’re overreacting, Stycus,” Eustace, the third high priest said, speaking up from his end of the table. “This whole thing with wedding feasts is harmless. Let them pretend. They’ve been fucking each other; maybe they’ve fallen in love. Even if they’re eunuchs, they are at that age, and if they’re beautiful to us, I’m sure that they’re beautiful to one another.” He pointed a bone he’d been gnawing on at Jarus. “But Stycus is right; they’re crafty like little foxes. Especially, Jeet.”

“He’s not half as smart as he thinks he is,” Stycus said, taking a sip of wine. “That one needs to be strapped down and the shit fucked out of him; that’s what he needs! Teach him his place.”

Jarus frowned. “Quit thinking with your cock, Stycus. I know your solutions with slaves.” He leaned forward over the table. “You haven’t liked the boy from the beginning, but the gods favor Jeet. It’s obvious to everyone.”

Stycus eyed Jarus narrowly. “You credit the gods too easily Jarus. The boy thinks he’s a little god and he acts like it. Because he acts like it and because we let him be chosen as Abij-hah, he’s got people convinced he’s something special when he’s just a nice piece of ass.”

“You are stupid, Stycus,” Jarus snapped angrily. “I’ve watched him. He is not a normal boy.” He pointed a finger at Stycus. “If you cut the balls off a lion cub, he still grows into a lion. And that’s what you’ve done, Stycus. You’ve cut the balls off a lion cub, and now you’re angry because he’s still acting like a lion.”

Stycus smirked as he imagined a castrated lion. “He’s a slave boy, Jarus, we bought him to be a whore.”

Jarus shook his head, and looked off in the direction of the shrine. “Sure, I thought we could make money off him and the others.” He turned, frowning, back at Stycus. “But we bought them to attend the Oracle. Jeet wasn’t born a slave, and we haven’t made him one. That’s what bothers you, Stycus; you haven’t dominated him.”

Jarus pushed away the last of his food and stood. He looked down at Stycus and then at Eustace. He thought about telling them that the Oracle’s visions really came from Jeet, but decided that was something to keep between him, Jeet, and the Oracle for now. “Just watch the boy sometime,” Jarus told Stycus. “Set aside your dislike for him for a few minutes and watch him with the children when they come to him in the afternoons.”

Stycus snorted. “I heard about that. More conniving. He knows how to ingratiate himself with the people.”

“Perhaps he does,” Jarus agreed. “Reconcile yourself to it, Stycus. He’s the Abij-hah.”

Jarus left. Stycus glanced at Eustace. “All the more reason to put the boy in his place now, before things get really out of hand.”

Eustace shook his head. “I’d be careful Stycus. Jarus is right. The gods favor that boy.”

Stycus slammed his fist down on the table. “What gods? What favor, Eustace? If the gods favored him, he’d still have his balls, and he wouldn’t be a slave.” He leaned toward Eustace and pointed a finger at the other priest. “You’ll see. One way or another, I’m going to knock the wind out of that pretentious little bastard.” His jaw clenched. “Give him to me, and I’ll chase the lion out of him. I’ll break his spirit.”

+ + + + +

When Rem saw that it was Aruli who rested with the Oracle after her midday meal, he went looking for Jeet. He found him in his booth, but Jin had gotten there first. The two were naked, sleeping together; smoky skin and white.

“Jeet-hah,” Jin whispered, waking Jeet a short time later. He thrust a bare leg between Jeet’s and pulled their bellies together. “Aruli and I have been thinking about asking you if we could be in charge of the shrine tables and all the feasts; like these wedding feasts. We have a lot of ideas and we’d do a good job. You put Bantu in charge of going among the supplicants. Let Aruli and me be in charge of the shrine table?”

Jeet smiled and kissed Jin lightly. “Just don’t fatten us all up,” he said.

+ + + + +

There were close to a hundred parents and children in front of the shrine that afternoon when Jeet went out. Most of the children bore gifts; gifts they had made or some, small personal treasure.

Aruli and Jin followed Jeet out and sat on the steps to watch as Rem escorted parents and children forward and collected the children’s gifts when Jeet passed them back. They sat down on the top step, not far from Jeet.

After a moment, a mother brought her two daughters forward and the girls climbed into Jin’s and Aruli’s laps. They were cute girls; three and five years old. Jin grinned at Aruli and then at the mom. “They remind me of my little sisters.”

“Will you bless my daughters?” the mother asked hopefully.

Jin and Aruli exchanged glances. “We don’t know how to do that like the Abij-hah does,” Jin told her.

Aruli nodded. “You want him to bless them. He’s much better at it.”

The mom looked over at Jeet doubtfully. “There are many people waiting.”

“Jeet’s in no hurry,” Aruli said confidently. “He’ll get to everybody. Come on,” he said, lifting the girl from his lap and standing up. He took her by the hand over to Jeet. Jin followed with the other little girl.

Once Jeet had blessed the little girls, Aruli and Jin took over leading children forward to Jeet, and Rem concentrated on collecting the gifts.

Rufus, watching from the portico as he always did when Jeet was out like this, spotted Stycus and Menditis, the temple guard. Their heads were together talking while they watched the young Abij-hah. With a frown, Rufus reminded himself to procure daggers and swords for the boys. Boy eunuchs couldn’t be expected to wield swords against full-grown men like Menditis, but they were athletic boys, and wiry. He could teach them quick moves with daggers, and give them some protection.

+ + + + +

Aruli helped Jeet dress the Oracle that night while the others dressed Jin. Earlier, Aruli had made Jin a crown of red anemone flowers and they fastened it in Jin’s hair. Bantu found him a robe of black silk, and they adorned him in necklaces and jewelry like Aruli had been adorned the night before

Aruli and Jin, with Rem’s help, had decorated the wedding tables that night with the gifts the children brought. They scented the cushions at the table with myrrh, and set extra lamps at the corners.

Along with two other servants, Rem brought food and set it out; then he disappeared unnoticed into Jeet’s white booth as the Oracle and her eunuchs sat down to eat.

A few moments later, Rem came out wearing the soft leather patch that Jeet had worn as a breechcloth to dance for the athletes. He had oiled his body and wore some of Jeet’s armbands and jewelry. He came forward into the center of the U of tables, virtually naked, and bowed solemnly to the Oracle and Jin.

The Oracle laughed. “Are you going to dance for us, Rem?”

He nodded and motioned to the musicians, who played a little louder for him.

At first his movements were jerky and awkward, but the eunuchs cheered him, and Rem grinned. The jerky movements became enthusiastic, and, though his movements lacked the sensuality of the young eunuchs’, he more than made up for it with the bold pelvis-thrusting, hip wiggling moves of a ten-year-old boy being nasty.

They laughed and applauded. Jeet and Aruli rose to their feet and came out to dance with him. The other eunuchs followed, and then even Jin and the Oracle joined them. They danced happily, sensually, bawdily against each other. Tazaar and Bantu held a back springing contest. They taught Rem to stand on his hands, and then to do a hand spring and each rubbed his butt when he fell on it hard.

Afterward, they lay around the table on cushions talking while Rem and the other servants cleared away the food. Then Rem returned. Jeet was reclined on his side and Rem sat at his middle, leaning back on Jeet’s hip as if onto a cushion.

The Oracle glanced at Jeet with a slight frown.

The boy saw the frown, and realized with alarm that he may have overstepped the bounds for a shrine servant, sitting uninvited at the Oracle’s table. His face grew hot and he started to get back up, but Jeet caught him and pulled him back down.

“He has worked hard tonight, Oracle,” Jeet said with a smile. “Let him rest.”

“And he danced well for us,” Bantu pointed out.

The Oracle gave Rem a mock frown. “Just remember that using the Abij-hah as a seat cushion is my prerogative.”

Rem nodded, abashed.

Jeet mussed the boy’s hair.

It was time.

Jin rose and helped the Oracle to her feet. Then he led her by the hand to his booth while the others followed, singing and throwing flower petals. Rem, still embarrassed from earlier, drew back. The Oracle’s implied rebuke had brought him up short, reminding him that, as much as the Oracle and eunuchs seemed to like him, he was still only a shrine slave.

No sooner had the fabric fallen back over the doorway of Jin’s booth than Tazaar took Jeet by the hand, tugging him toward the black booth.

“Hold on, Tazaar-hah,” Aruli said with a frown, tugging Jeet back. “I haven’t slept with Jeet in a long time.”

“Nor have I,” Tazaar said, not letting go.

“We haven’t either,” Ptolemy said, slipping an arm behind Bantu’s waist, “but we can wait until we each take turns with the Oracle.” He kissed Bantu and the two vanished into Bantu’s booth.

“We will share him, brother,” Tazaar said, looking at Aruli across Jeet. “Which end do you want?”

“Ha!” Jeet said. “I may take both of your ends for myself.”

Laughing, Tazaar took one of Jeet’s hands, and Aruli took the other, and they pulled him into Tazaar’s black booth. The three of them fell onto Tazaar’s pallet laughing.

The other servants left. In the now-empty center of the shrine hall, Rem stood for a moment, listening to the laughter and sounds of love coming from the three occupied booths. Sadly, he entered Jeet’s booth and removed the Abij-hah’s arm bands and breechcloth. He considered sleeping on Jeet’s pallet. But then he would hear the sounds of lovemaking from the other booths. Rem pulled on his loincloth.

With slow steps, he left the booth, went to the stairs up from the shrine hall, down the hallway, into the Oracle’s chamber, and to the rags which he used as a pallet behind the stair screening wall.

Aruli pulled Jeet into a sides-facing embrace. They entwined their legs and kissed, opening their mouths to one another. Tazaar pressed Jeet from behind, kissing the back of the younger boy’s neck while running his cupped hand down Jeet’s lean side, feeling Jeet’s long latissimus, his ribs, his warm skin, his narrow waist, his hipbone.

Tazaar unfastened Jeet’s breechcloth and pulled it away. He knelt up, removing his own breechcloth. Then bending over the other two boys, he removed Aruli’s. Throwing a knee over, he knelt astride the legs of both of them while Aruli and Jeet kissed, and he reached down between their bodies to grab an erection in each hand.

He liked that they had long cocks. He liked the heft of them. He liked the feel of their rigid hardness under warm, soft skin. He rubbed the two cocks against each other and gazed down at his two friends. He felt a stab of affection mix with his desire, and that pleasure a boy feels when he belongs to other boys. He let go of their erections to lay down on their sides. Sliding hands up their backs, he kissed Jeet’s cheek, then Aruli’s. The two boys turned their faces to him, and the three kissed over lips and faces.

Tazaar’s cock, lying between their hipbones, began to ache with want. He slipped off their sides, moving behind Jeet to press his erection onto the crevice of Jeet’s compact bottom.

Jeet, however, began backing and kissing down Aruli’s body. Tazaar let go of him, and Jeet went up onto his knees, butt high as he bent over to lick the underside of Aruli’s cock and loose scrotum.

Jeet rubbed his face on Aruli’s cock and balls, smelling them, feeling them on his cheeks and face. He remembered that Aruli’s cock had been inside the Oracle the night before, and he thought it sad that Aruli had bathed that day. He would have liked to taste the Oracle on Aruli’s cock. Jeet took it into his mouth, and Aruli caressed the sides of Jeet’s head.

Tazaar looked for and found oil. He rubbed in gently into Jeet’s crack and then gently inserted a finger to feel inside Jeet’s tightness and warmth while he bent under to lick Jeet’s perineum and the root of Jeet’s cock.

When Jeet murmured appreciation, Tazaar knelt up behind the younger eunuch, pointing his cockhead between the firm globes of Jeet’s butt. He moved his crown up and down in the smooth crack, found the opening, positioned himself, and eased in.

Taking hold of Jeet’s hipbones, Tazaar leaned back, pulling Jeet onto his cock. Jeet lifted his head with a quiet gasp, and the two froze for a moment as Jeet, impaled, felt Tazaar’s loins press, warm against his bottom.

The Oracle had come to like Jin’s albino skin, but his lack of skin color didn’t matter at the moment. In the subdued light, with her eyes closed, what mattered was the weight of the boy’s body on hers, his firm belly on hers, his hips between her legs, the leanness of his body, the uniqueness of his feel. His skin was as warm as Jeet’s, though not as soft. Down-like white hair up and down Jin’s forearms and calves brushed against her skin. The hair on his head was fine and brushed across her face like a breeze. And his scent was warm, like a boy in summer.

He sucked on her neck as his hips rose and fell. His angle was different and his cock was thicker than Jeet’s or Aruli’s. The length of it dragged forward and back inside her in a way that made the Oracle’s legs thrash and her breath shallow. She ran her hands over his back. Jin’s muscles weren’t as hard as Jeet’s, but they were thicker.

Would she always compare each of them to Jeet? She wondered about that in some detached part of her mind. Each of her eunuchs were different; each wonderful in his own way. She stroked Jin’s fine hair, and he lifted his head. He covered her mouth with his; warm breath from his nostrils washed down over her cheeks. His mouth was hot; hotter than Jeet’s. She thrust her tongue up into his mouth and lifted her hips, grinding upward against his thrusts. He pressed his belly against her upturned phallus – they all knew how to do that; all of them had fucked each other face to face and knew how to firm their lower abdomen and rub on upturned cocks.

She reached down with both hands to grab his bottom and squeeze. His ass was fleshier than Jeet’s. She kneaded it. She liked it on Jin, just like she liked Jeet’s on him.

Jeet told her when they first met that he was the eunuch who would love her – romantically love her. But affection was building between them all. They would all be her husbands and lovers. And she would love them all, her poor eunuchs… boys who were supposed to have become men. She would treat them like men. She would make them feel like men.

What Jeet hadn’t said back then, but what she had suspected from the beginning, was that he would be the one eunuch she would love romantically. She thought of him now, her mate. In her heart, she did wish that it was Jeet with her, between her legs. But it was Jin, and she was his Oracle. She would give herself to him.

“Jin,” she whispered against his cheek as she pulled on his butt to bring him deeper. “Oh, Jin.”

He pounded harder.

“Oh! Oh! Oh!” she whispered louder, and she let him drive her pleasure.

…

Jeet rested the side of his face against the underside of Aruli’s cock. It had become difficult to not to gag with Tazaar pounding him from behind.

Tazaar folded his body over Jeet’s, laying his belly and chest back down onto Jeet’s long back, and drove from his hips for several thrusts. He wrapped his arms under the younger boy, running the flats of his hands over the seams of Jeet’s stomach. Then he straightened up, pulling Jeet upright with him so that they were on their knees with Jeet in front. Tazaar, knees outside of Jeet’s, felt his cock curve up inside the Abij-hah and moaned in pleasure behind Jeet’s ear.

Jeet laid his head back on Tazaar’s shoulder, his cock jutting up from between his legs. Aruli eyed it, and scooted over to take it into his mouth. He bobbed, getting Jeet’s cock thoroughly wet with saliva, and then he quickly maneuvered his body so that he was on his back in front of Jeet, legs on either side of Tazaar’s and Jeet’s knees. He pulled up his own knees and extended his arms to Jeet.

Jeet leaned forward, coming off Tazaar’s cock. He aimed his cock into Aruli’s hole, entered him, and settled into Aruli’s arms. Tazaar followed him down, re-entering Jeet and the three boys flattened together.

“I want to do you, too,” Aruli murmured against Jeet’s cheek. “Face-to-face like you’re doing me.”

“I want to do Tazaar-hah this way, too,” Jeet whispered. “It’s been a long time for me with either of you.” He covered Aruli’s mouth with his own.

Tazaar, whose legs had fallen outside Jeet’s, ground down pleasantly into Jeet’s firm bottom. “Let’s make slow, eunuch love,” he murmured. “We’ll take our time and do each other lots of ways.” He closed his mouth over the side of Jeet’s neck and sucked.

For a moment – one brief moment while his loins were pinioned between Tazaar’s driving cock and Aruli’s bottom bones – Jeet thought of Rem. He wondered if the boy would be disappointed if he came looking for Jeet later and found that Jeet was still making love. Deciding that Rem would probably just go on to Bantu’s booth, hoping to be sucked off, Jeet plunged his tongue farther into Aruli’s mouth. Tazaar drove both their hips downward, Jeet tightened his insides around Tazaar’s shaft.

Just before dawn, Jeet awoke. He was spooned between Aruli and Tazaar. He rolled back against Aruli, who rolled over to his other side. Jeet moved up behind him to spoon Aruli’s bottom with his lap just as Aruli had been spooning his moments before. As he snuggled into Aruli’s back, he realized that he still had no dream for the farmer. He dozed off once again.

+ + + + +

Jin smiled a lot that morning. Aruli and Tazaar looked tired, so Jeet assumed that he did as well. As they waited to go out onto the portico for the Oracle to bless the farmer and his wife, Aruli came up behind him and rested his forehead against the back of Jeet’s neck with a moan. “I’m going to take a huge nap today.”

Jeet’s eyes were on Rem. The boy, standing to one side, seemed uncharacteristically quiet and wouldn’t meet Jeet’s gaze.

“Before any of you ask,” the Oracle said, “I’ll just tell you. I’m visiting Tazaar’s bed tonight.”

Aruli giggled behind Jeet’s back, and Jeet glanced at Tazaar. “You better take a nap, too,” he told him with a grin.

The rams’ horns sounded and the shrine doors opened.

+ + + + +

That afternoon, Rem wasn’t surprised to see that it was Jin who napped with the Oracle. Nor was he surprised when he saw Aruli take Jeet by the hand to his booth.

Jeet woke when a hand caressed his bottom. He rolled to his back and looked up to see both Tazaar and Ptolemy had entered his booth and were kneeling beside him.

“Jeet, we’ve been talking,” Tazaar said. “You’ve put Bantu in charge of the supplicants to the Oracle, and you’ve put Jin and Aruli in charge of the shrine table. We each have something we would like to do.” He glanced at Ptolemy.

“I would like to be in charge of the shrine treasury, garments, and stores of supplies,” Ptolemy said. “I can be a good steward. I know numbers and I know how to keep track of things.”

Jeet glanced from him to Tazaar.

“I would like to be in charge of acrobatics and dance,” Tazaar said. “I would like to be our dance master. I would like to organize our workouts, choreograph our dances, and plan our performances. Cyndur can help me keep us in condition. I’ll keep it fun for us, and make sure we don’t get fat.”

Jeet smiled. “What will be left for me to do?” he asked.

Aruli had been listening, and now rolled up beside him. “You will still be in charge of the servants,” he said.

“And you’ll still speak for the Oracle,” Ptolemy said.

“And bless children,” Aruli added.

“And be chief steward of all of us,” Tazaar said. “We will all report to you.”

“And,” Aruli added, “you take care of the Oracle. You are her Abij-hah.”

Jeet thought about it, and nodded. “Sure,” he said. “We can try, and we can make changes if we need to.”

+ + + + +

There were fewer parents with children out that afternoon. Rem stood for a moment, watching as Aruli and Jin helped organize the families. Then he went inside.

Jeet saw the younger boy disappear into the shrine, and he frowned.

+ + + + +

Rem said little that night. Along with two other shrine servants, he served Tazaar’s wedding feast. He watched from behind the Oracle as Jeet and the other four eunuchs danced for the Oracle and Tazaar. Jeet could see the younger boy’s face, and thought that he looked a little sad.

But then, Tazaar wasn’t smiling as much as Jeet expected either, though he looked beautiful. Aruli had spied white water lilies growing just upstream and across the river from the temple, and he hailed a boat to bring him some. They had arrayed the lilies in Tazaar’s hair and dressed him in a short tunic with a loose, gold belt.

“You look like a young god of spring,” Jeet told him before they sat down to eat, but Tazaar had not smiled. Jeet was concerned that his friend might still be tired from the night before.

Rem and the other servants left before it was time for Tazaar’s and the Oracle’s wedding song. The others sang the couple to Tazaar’s black booth. Immediately after Tazaar and the Oracle disappeared inside, Jeet held up his hand. “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”

Bantu frowned. “We’ve left you alone for two nights now, Jeet-hah. When will we get a turn?”

Jeet pointed at Aruli. “Blame him and Tazaar for wearing me out.”

“Alright,” Bantu said, “then Aruli’s butt is mine tonight. Ptolemy can take Jin, and you’ll owe us, Jeet. We will collect.”

“What’s wrong?” the Oracle asked Tazaar inside his booth.

He shrugged.

“Are you tired from last night? I heard about you and Jeet and Aruli.”

Tazaar shook his head. “It’s not that. I slept this afternoon when everyone else did.”

They were in a loose embrace, and the Oracle laid her hand against Tazaar’s cheek. “What is it then Tazaar-hah?”

Tazaar cast his eyes down. “I’ve never been with a woman,” he said. “I’m not sure I can do it.”

The Oracle smiled. “It’s not like it’s something you already have to know how to do. I can help you.”

“It’s just that, well, now that I’m sleeping with Cyndur, girls don’t excite me any more.”

The Oracle frowned. “But boys do, right?”

Tazaar nodded.

“Well then part of me ought to excite you,” the Oracle teased.

Tazaar forced a smile.

“Tazaar,” she whispered, laying her forehead against the side of his. “I am a boy, too. You’ve seen me naked many times now. You’ve even seen me with erections.” She kissed his neck. “I’ve looked forward to tonight; to being with you.”

She lifted off his necklaces and jewelry. She undressed him, and laid him back onto his bed naked. His cock lay mostly flaccid between his legs. Her eyes on his, she undressed herself, standing over him. The last of her garments fell to reveal that her phallus was erect.

She dropped to her knees, one knee outside each of his thighs, and lowered herself down onto him, her erection pressing his stomach. She kissed him. “I am a boy,” she whispered.

Tazaar smiled sadly. “A boy with breasts.”

She nodded. “With breasts and a secret place you can put your cock.” She brushed his lips with hers. “Beautiful Tazaar-hah, I will suck you until you’re hard.”

Tazaar stroked the soft skin of her back. “You’re laying naked on me,” he said. “I’m starting to get hard already.”

“What were you going to do,” the Oracle asked, rubbing her cheek on his, “if I had chosen you as Abij-hah?”

“I liked you from the beginning, Oracle,” Tazaar answered, running his hands down over her bare bottom, “but I didn’t know that the Abij-hah would be required to sleep with you.”

She smiled. “I didn’t either.” They kissed and she probed in with her tongue. He probed back.

She pressed her cheek to his. “Sometimes I feel like I’m mostly a boy,” she whispered. “I’ll tell you something I’ve only told Jeet, Tazaar-hah. I have another name, my boy’s name. Only Jeet and I know it. But I will tell it to you.” She pressed her mouth to his ear. “My name is Alexander.”

Tazaar felt his cock grow harder. It surprised him; the effect that the Oracle having a boy’s name might have. “Alexander?” he whispered.

The Oracle nodded. “I am a boy, Tazaar. I am Alexander for you.”

They shifted, and Tazaar pulled his stiffening cock up alongside the Oracle’s. They kissed again, and Tazaar rolled the Oracle under him. “Alexander,” he whispered. “If I suck your cock, it will excite me, and mine will become hard.”

Anda-Alexander brushed her lips on his. “I like to suck, too. I’ll suck yours at the same time as you suck mine, and we’ll both become very hard.”

Tazaar reversed body position, and they rolled up onto their sides. He took the Oracle’s phallus into his hand. It really was just like any other boy’s cock. It wasn’t as long as her eunuchs’ cocks, but as long as others he had seen. It was as long as Nester’s. He squeezed it. It felt like just like a cock; actually, a thick cock. He licked her crown, and pressing the tip of his tongue in her slit, he tasted, faintly, precum.

He took Anda-Alexander’s phallus into his mouth at the same time he felt Anda-Alexander’s mouth close over his. His nostrils filled with the scent from between the Oracle’s legs. He had never smelled a woman down there, or he would have known her scent was different. All he knew was that her scent had a rich tang, not unlike Jin’s.

He sucked her, and tentatively touched her labia. They were warm and firm, but the skin was as soft as the skin of a cock. He had washed and dressed the Oracle. But he had never touched her… or him… like this. As he thought for the first time of the Oracle as a boy, Tazaar grew profoundly aroused.

…

Jeet searched the rafters. He thought Rem might be watching from there. He was tired, but Rem seemed so quiet during the day that Jeet felt vaguely worried. Finally, Jeet got up from his bed and went to make sure Rem was alright. He would search for him in the booths of the other eunuchs first.

He peeked into Aruli’s booth. Aruli was stretched out on his stomach. Redheaded Bantu was stretched out on top of him, his white legs outside of Aruli’s darker ones. Bantu was holding the backs of Aruli’s shoulders and kissing the back of Aruli’s neck while his hips pumped and his creamy-white butt flexed. Jeet could see his pink shaft moving in and out of the smooth crevice of their beloved Aruli’s firm bottom. He was tempted to join them, but moved on.

He peeked into Ptolemy’s booth and found him reversed over Jin, the darkest of the eunuchs over the whitest. His knees were apart over Jin’s head and Jeet could see Ptolemy’s shaft angling down into Jin’s mouth between the tall eunuch’s slender, dark legs. Ptolemy’s empty scrotum was a darker patch between his legs, and Jin was rubbing it. Leaning in farther, Jeet could see that Ptolemy was returning the favors at the other end of their coupling; his head bobbing up and down.

Jeet didn’t look in on the Oracle. Rem wouldn’t go in there on Tazaar’s wedding night. He checked the other booths. Rem wasn’t in any of them. He went up to the Oracle’s chamber. Rem wasn’t there. Then he thought to look behind the screening wall to the stairs. Rem was laying on the rags he used as a pallet, gazing up at the ceiling. The boy glanced at Jeet and then back up at the ceiling again.

Jeet lay down beside him, and slipped his arm under the back of Rem’s head. “What’s wrong, Rem-hah?”

Rem shrugged.

Jeet, watching his face, saw Rem’s eyes suddenly brim with tears. He moved closer to the boy, pressing his side to Rem’s while laying an arm over his waist. “What is it?”

Rem shook his head and rolled away, up onto his side.

Jeet moved up behind him, still cradling Rem’s head with one arm, and he wrapped the other around the boy, hugging him back against himself. “Rem-hah, tell me.”

Rem took the wrist of Jeet’s encircling arm and pulled it up to his chest.

Rem’s hair wasn’t washed or scented like Jeet’s and the other eunuchs, but carried Rem’s scent; a boy’s scent. Jeet nuzzled into his hair, fondly. “Are you going to tell me?” Jeet asked.

Rem said nothing.

“Your bed isn’t very comfortable,” Jeet said. “Will you come to my bed with me?”

Rem said nothing.

“Can we at least move to the Oracle’s bed?”

Rem nodded. They got up and moved together to the Oracle’s bed where they resumed the same position. Jeet waited, but Rem said nothing. Jeet kissed the back of Rem’s head, and cradled the boy’s body within his own. He stroked Rem’s stomach to soothe him until they were both asleep.

…

Tazaar sucked on her neck while at the same time, moving his hips between her legs so their cocks rubbed between them. The Oracle pulled her knees up, rubbing the inside of her thighs against his hips. “Remember, Tazaar, I am a special boy,” she whispered, caressing the back of his neck. “I have a special place for you to put your cock… inside me.” Her breath was hot on his ear. “Put it inside me now, Tazaar.”

He lifted his hips, and she reached down for his cock. She quickly positioned it and tugged his hips down. Tazaar eased in and they wrapped each other up in a tight ball. Tazaar pumped slowly, noting the differences between a vagina and a rectum, feeling her warm sheath slide up and down his entire length. “This feels good,” he whispered. “Alexander, this feels really good!”

Somehow, the fact that Alexander was Jeet’s lover made it all the more exciting for him. Tazaar kissed the Oracle, open mouthed, while circling his hips. She grasped at his butt and rubbed her erection up against his belly; and Tazaar had no trouble believing Alexander was a boy. He would think of the Oracle as a boy from now on.

+ + + + +

Word that one of the supplicants that morning at the shrine had brought a bag of gold drew many from the temple, including Jarus, who stood and watched from the portico. A stout man, who appeared to be in his late forties, ascended the steps and laid his bag of gold at the feet of the Oracle.

“What do you wish of the Oracle?” Jeet asked.

The man bowed. “I wish the Oracle to curse my enemy.”

Jeet frowned. “The Oracle blesses, the Oracle doesn’t curse.”

Jarus, only a few feet away, cleared his throat. Jeet glanced at him, and the priest shook his head.

With a frown, Jeet turned back to the supplicant. “Why do you wish the Oracle to curse your enemy?” Jeet asked. “Who is your enemy?”

“My enemy is another merchant,” the man explained. “We both trade in wheat and grains. A year ago, I discovered that he had been bribing my steward, a man who had worked for me and eaten at my family’s table since he was a boy. He gave my enemy important knowledge about my trades and when I found out, I had him beaten and thrown from my house. And then, this week, my enemy hired away the man I had made my steward in place of the first one, and made him steward of his household instead. My enemy deserves to be cursed, Abij-hah.”

Jeet glanced once more at Jarus. The priest motioned toward the man with his eyes and nodded to Jeet.

Unhappily, Jeet turned back to the man. “The Oracle will consider your request,” he told the man.

+ + + + +

“Why do Aruli, Tazaar, and Jin now wear necklaces with gold medallions and the others do not?” Sydal asked his younger brother, Rem, when the two met at the river, each drawing water.

There were other servants there, including two young servant girls about Rem’s age, under the supervision of an older girl. They all paused to listen to Rem’s answer.

“The Oracle and her eunuchs are having a wedding week,” Rem told them. Though he wasn’t sure why, it annoyed him slightly that they were all interested in the Oracle and the eunuchs. At the same time, he was pleased to have inside information. “As she sleeps with a different eunuch each night, she gives him a necklace.”

“So she’s bedded Tazaar, Aruli, and Jin?” Sydal asked. “What about Jeet? Shouldn’t he have a necklace already?”

Rem shrugged. “Maybe she will give him one when she has finished with the others.”

“By the goddess,” the older servant girl murmured. “I would give anything to be the Oracle this week!”

Rem met the glance of one of the younger girls who had curly brown hair and friendly eyes. She smiled at him. Rem wondered if she had known a boy yet. Interested, he moved closer. “My name is Rem,” he offered.

“I am Maracee,” she said. “I know about you. You serve the Abij-hah.”

Rem frowned. “Not as much lately,” he murmured. He glanced at the water pot she was preparing to pick up. “I will help you carry that,” he said.

She smiled and took only one handle of the two-handled pot. Rem took the other. Saying good bye to Sydal, “I’ll come back for my pot,” he told them. Rem helped the girl carry her pot to the quarters of the priestesses, and then helped her make two more trips.

“Follow me,” Maracee said when they finished.

Rem followed her down a side hall to a doorless storeroom in the back. She motioned him into the shadows, and in the darkness, she reached under his loincloth.

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