Queen Yavara Ch. 21

"Are you implying that the crown seeks to enrich itself, Lord Ternias?" I asked with a wry smile, and gestured to my husband seated beside me, "My husband's uncle is a general, yes, but his salary is fixed, and the military expenditures are open for all here to see. Have I not been transparent?"

"You have, my queen, and I don't mean to implicate you," Ternias said with an amicable smile, "but it's not embezzlement that has some of us worried."

"Ah, 'some of us.'" I chuckled, "The notorious silent majority for which you always seem to speak. What a champion for the downtrodden aristocracy you are, Lord Ternias."

Ternias inclined his head in a teasing bow. "I am but a humble mouthpiece, my queen, here to speak for those of us too intimidated by your beauty to give voice in this noblest of courts."

I chuckled at that. Lord Lucas Ternias was always a valued enemy. If I could string him up by his guts, I would in an instant, but I would lament the passing of his wit. Few could match me in the art of politics, and Ternias matched me blow for blow. He was the most powerful noble by far, but he expertly underplayed his hand, never sticking his neck out far enough for me to chop it off. I wished I could've married him instead of Eric, for we would've made an unstoppable pair. Unfortunately, we were just too much alike, and would've assassinated each other on our own wedding night.

"No," Ternias continued, "the grievance of those concerned is that the military has grown too large, and so has given a disproportionate level of influence to military families. Will these families vote to disband such a force after the war is over? Why would they? It would go against their interest. When the Great Forest is divided, how will a mercantile family be able to hold their claim against a family with five fully-armed regiments?"

"The military is a national entity, and not beholden to noble families."

"Of course, of course!" Ternias said with a wide smile, "But you see, the army is divided into houses -a necessary structure of a feudal system, of which I will not protest-, but this leads to a sense of... oh, I don't want to say 'tribalism,' but 'fierce loyalty' might work. My queen, it is easy for a soldier to claim he is a 'knight of the Highlands' when the enemy is amassing in the Great Forest, but when the war is done, and we relax into the pleasant divisions of peace, that same knight might call himself a 'knight of Shordian House.' And thus, lies the crux of the problem."

It wasn't lost on anyone that Ternias had decided to use my husband's surname as an example. I eased back in my throne, contemplating the self-satisfied nobleman. The Noble Court was smaller than the palace, but not by much. The hall in which politics took place was a cavernous atrium ornamented in baroque splendor. The noble men and women of the ten major houses sat in the very back, and directed the lesser houses to the forefront like pawns. I could tell just by the posture of those in the front few rows that Ternias had the votes he needed. The tally I'd ascertained the night before was folly; I'd been fed a lie to be made to look the fool. I suspected as much; Lady Catherine Jonias was a poor player of the game. I connected eyes with her across the room, seeing her in the shadows from which she directed her side of the chess board. I watched the realization dawn on her face, and I saw her shrink into her chair. I smirked at her, then at Ternias.

"I agree whole-heartedly." I proclaimed, watching Ternias's jaw twitch in its fixed smile, "And effective immediately, I am issuing a decree to nationalize our forces. The Highland army is the Highland army, and must remain as such lest we let avarice drag us into civil war." My smile broadened, "Will that satisfy 'some of us,' Lord Ternias?"

Ternias grimaced. "Should we convene tomorrow when you have a candidate to head the oversight committee?"

"No need to wait." I said, then gestured across the room, "I nominate Lady Catherine Jonias to head the committee." I watched her go pale, then turned back to Ternias, "I am sure she will do a wonderful job."

Ternias bowed, and tipped his metaphorical cap. Well played, my queen. The gesture seemed to say.

The court adjourned soon after, and I beckoned Eric to go frolic with the nobles and smooth the edges of the day's battle. Lady Jonias couldn't leave fast enough, and Ternias made a point of lingering. I turned to leave out the door behind the throne, when a familiar face stopped me.

"My queen?" Lady Lydia Straltaira said, standing before the twin thrones. She was the last person I wanted to see, but she was a force in the Noble Court I couldn't ignore.

"Yes?" I inquired.

"I would like to speak privately with you, if I could." She said. I inclined my head to the door only royalty could use, and she walked up the steps, and followed me through the exit. The next room was a modest parlor, one that I would use to prepare myself in the mirror before going to battle. I gestured for Lady Straltaira to sit, but I remained standing.

"What is it you wish to speak of, my lady?" I asked, folding my arms before my chest.

She studied me, noting without fail the position I'd put her in. She was no fool. She eased into the chair, accepting her role. "Are the rumors about my daughter true?"

"What rumors are these?"

"I'd prefer not to play your games outside of the court, Your Highness." She replied with just the right amount of respect and contempt.

My lip curled. "There are many rumors regarding Elena. Which one do you speak of?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Is it true that she's a traitor, or is it true that she is dead?"

I pondered her for a moment, my hand resting on my chin. I could still smell her daughter on my fingers, and savored immensely the scent lingering in my nostrils. Elena was my secret, something precious, something to be kept hidden in the darkest corner of my life. Secrets spilled like water from a sieve in the Noble Court. Lydia Straltaira was an old-guard conservative, a staunch ally of the throne, and a well-versed player in the court. Admitting Elena was a traitor to her would be like announcing it on the floor of the court, for she would not trust me to keep the secret, nor would she dare continue to operate as a stateswoman when such a volatile truth could blow up in her face at any time. She would resign, and with no heirs to claim the Straltaira seat, I would have to fight Lord Ternias to replace it with a sycophant. Still, news of Elena's death might break the stone woman, and that would ultimately lead to the same outcome. I bit my lip, and made my decision.

"You know that my father sent Elena on a mission to find my sister before we learned of Yavara's treachery." I said, "Well, Elena found her."

"I surmised that much. Is she a traitor, or a corpse?"

"Your daughter is a staunch patriot." I said with hushed gravity, splaying my hands, "After my coronation, I received an encrypted letter from her. She'd contacted Yavara, and had infiltrated her inner-circle."

Her jaw clicked open. "Elena is a spy?!"

I glanced nervously at the door, then put my finger over my lips. "She is operating in the deepest cover. You must understand, my lady, this is all I can tell you."

"Is it true that she's changed?" Lady Straltaira pressed with urgency, "Is she like... like her?!"

I sighed, and gave her a pitiable expression. "Your daughter has made great sacrifices for her country, and we will honor them when it is time for her to come home. What has been done to her is horrible, but she is, and will ever be, the best of us."

"You're saying that my daughter is a dark-elf?" Lady Straltaira said quietly.

I nodded solemnly, watching her expression turn to stone. It was what I expected. The lie would keep her from resigning her family's seat, but the truth would all but kill Elena in her eyes. I could've said Elena was the Holy Mother reborn, but as long as Elena was dark, she was as good as dead to Lydia Straltaira. It was just as well; the steadfast traditionalist had all but disavowed her only daughter when she joined the rangers and effectively ended the line of Straltaira. This just allowed her to put the final nail in the coffin, and to add the word 'hero' on the gravestone. I stood up, and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Lady Straltaira said. I turned around to see her proffering a necklace. "Give this to her, if you can. Tell her... tell her I'm proud."

I took the pearl necklace, trying to hide my surprise. There were tears brimming in Lydia's eyes. I clasped the necklace, and offered her a promising smile. "If I can, I will, Lady Straltaira."

"Thank you, Your Highness." She said quietly, "You are an honorable woman." Then she wiped her eyes, and left with her head held high.

I was standing before the mirror again, naked in my wardrobe. The leather one-piece was discarded on the ground. It didn't feel right today. I needed something... sluttier. But it still had to be domineering, just not overbearing. Did I have a more revealing one-piece? No, and I didn't feel like cutting up this one. God, why was it so hard? Yesterday was so easy!

"Leveria?" A deep voice called, "Sweetie, are you in there?"

It was Dad. I smiled, and strode to the closet door. I stopped.

"Leveria?" He called again. It was that time of the week. Eric was on the other side of town, the guards were between shifts, and the servants were busy with the lower levels. So why didn't I go to him?

"Leveria?" He called a third time. His voice sounded old. It wasn't that he was aged, which he was, but that he sounded... old. That sound of frailty when one surrenders to the ravages of time. The sound of defeat, of powerlessness. I stood before my closet door, my fingertips lightly touching the panel before me, but I didn't open the door. I heard him shuffle away, and I felt relief. Next week. I'm just too busy today. He'll understand. I frowned, Why does it feel like cheating?

I turned back to my clothes, and struggled once again to find the right outfit. None of them were 'me' today. Why was I so indecisive? Why couldn't I just be me? But I knew the answer, though I'd been skirting it. I looked in the mirror, stared at my naked perfection, my alabaster flesh canvased over statuesque grace, and I said it. "It's because you're not dressing for you, Leveria. Why the fuck are you dressing for her?!"

I growled and spun away, frustrated nearly to the point of tears. This was all wrong! I should've been in complete control of myself, but my mind was ravaged with thoughts of her. She was nothing! She was a plaything, just the outlet to practice my darkest desires. Those desires had been but dreams until yesterday, when she made them a reality for me. It had awoken something in me. To hear the shrill mania in her voice, to see the twisting of her face, to feel her body reacting to every millimeter of blade moving through her flesh. I had never known a thrill so great. But then I knew a greater thrill. It was the sight of her staring back at me as I held her toe in my hand. The defiance, the will, the inexorable challenge in her blue eyes. I had supreme power over her, I'd inflicted horrific pain upon her, I'd mutilated her, but she hadn't yielded an inch for me. Then... then I couldn't stop myself. I felt an arousal like I'd never known before, and seeing her pain, her suffering... I wanted her to feel... good. No, that wasn't it. I wanted her to feel me. And so I gave her everything I could when I tasted her, sucking with infinite compassion, adoring her, yielding to every request of her body. And I came. I came without touching myself, and the orgasm turned by body to jelly and my mind to mush, and I was nothing but the singular focus of her. And what kept me up all of last night wasn't the aftershocks of adrenaline, or the excitement for tomorrow's torture, or even a twisted sense of guilt. No, what kept me up all last night, was the idea that if Elena could make me come like that without even touching me, then what could she do if she was inside me? It terrified me. It thrilled me.

"Why?" I hissed, marching through my closet, "Why?!" Then I stopped, and turned around. Parting the rows of hanging dresses, I found it. It was perfect.

ELENA

The guard had kept me strapped to the board before he unceremoniously dumped me in the tub of cold soapy water. I wondered if I would be lucky enough for the idiot to drown me, as he certainly seemed to be trying to, but he flipped me over before I passed out. Then he propped me against the wall like a leaning ladder.

"Piss and shit." He said, and they were the first words he'd said to me.

"Those the name of your kids?" I sneered.

He pointed at the bucket. "Piss and shit."

"I'm strapped to a fucking board, you moron."

The guard puzzled over that one, then picked me up, and placed me into the bucket. "Piss and shit."

I stared at him. "Like this? With my cheeks squeezed tight enough to press steel?"

He just stared back. Well, I'd already pissed on myself twice during the night, so this wouldn't be anything new. As for shitting, it was either do it now and let it roll, or sit in it until I got sepsis. So, I looked Sir Piss and Shit in the eye, unloaded two days' worth of backlog onto the board, and let it slide into the bucket. Needless to say, I was dunked into the cold water again.

Two hours later, Leveria was back with her velvet box, and not a whole lot else. The leather one-piece she'd worn yesterday was gone, replaced with an outfit that could only be described as 'slutty nurse.' Her white fishnet stockings clung to her thick thighs, ending in garters that ran the length of her tantalizing glutes, the bottoms of which were exposed beneath a white skirt. She wore a white 'apron' that acted more as a top, ending just above her midriff to show off the silken flat of her belly.

"Do you like it?" She tittered, twirling on high heels, "I couldn't find a doctor's outfit, but it's in the same ballpark."

I wished I could've told Leveria I hated it, but my cock betrayed me. "Well Doctor," I gritted, "it appears I have a blood pressure problem."

"I see that." Leveria smiled, staring at my meat, "I happen to have just the remedy." She popped open her box, and ran her fingers through her tools. I watched her finger traverse a cleaver, a saw, a pair of rippers, a reamer, and a scalpel. She finally rested her hand on the scalpel, and smiled companionably to me. "Seems apropos, doesn't it?"

"When you say you 'had the remedy,' I thought we were dealing in euphemisms."

"No, just double-entendre." Leveria inspected the edge of the scalpel, "Every good doctor knows that the best way to deal with blood pressure, is bloodletting." She turned to me with that excited sparkle in her sapphire eyes, "Have you thought about what body part you like the second least?"

"My heart's been giving me some problems lately."

Leveria pouted her lips. "Have I broken it already? Come now, Elena. If you don't pick, then I will." She tapped the scalpel on my left nipple, and smiled patiently.

I took a deep breath, then another. "Alright. Cut off my penis."

Leveria's smile froze. "What?"

"Cut it off." I gestured with my eyes.

Leveria's smile faded. She showed me the scalpel, how thin it was, how short the blade was. "You want me to cut that off, with this?"

Terror boiled in my chest, turning my belly over, but I didn't falter. "That's my choice. Are you backing out of our deal?"

Leveria narrowed her eyes. "I'll make you eat it, Elena."

"You sure seemed to think it was delicious."

Leveria barked a laugh. "Perhaps I should fuck you with it, would you think that was funny?"

"Morbidly, maybe." I muttered, "It would be a poetic end to my life."

"You're life's not over!" Leveria snarled, "Haven't I made that clear? You're going to be here for a long, long time!"

"This isn't life." I smiled at her, "I died on that hill with Prestira."

Leveria stared at me for a moment, then broke into a wide grin. "You're very good at this, Elena. Fine, you've made your choice. You want to be circumcised."

"That wasn't the-"

"You got to choose what part came off. You did not get to choose how it came off." Leveria leveled the scalpel against my foreskin, "Since I'm the medical professional here, I'll be choosing the best method. We will peel this banana until I can't slice it thin enough, then we'll cut it off." She smirked over her shoulder at me, "Of course, I always let my patients consider a second opinion."

I closed my eyes, and took one breath, then another. "Do it." I whispered.

LEVERIA

I held the blade against Elena's tip, the edge pressing gently into her flesh. My hand was shaking again, but it wasn't from excitement like yesterday. Why couldn't I do it?! Why did it make a bit of fucking difference?! She'd challenged me when she had everything to lose, and I couldn't call her bluff. But she'd called mine. She had her eyes closed, her lips parted to yield anticipatory breaths in pairs of two. One shallow, then one deep, the exhalation of air through her nostrils seeming to decompress the tension within her. I looked at my palsying hand, and took one shallow breath, then one deep. Letting both breaths out in succession, I felt the anxiety ebb from me. I was in control.

"I think I'm going to make a new rule to our little game." I said, withdrawing the knife, "If I'm letting you choose which parts to remove, then I get to choose which parts to keep. It only seems fair."

Elena opened her eyes, their azure orbs sparkling teasingly. "If it's a game we're playing, I believe I just scored a point."

"Yes, I suppose you did." I twirled the scalpel in my fingers, "Now pick a part to replace it, and do it quick! Ten, night, eight, seven-"

"Since when is there a time limit?!"

"Since I decided there should be one just now." I giggled, "Six, five, four, three, two-"

"My toe!" Elena yelled, her voice cracking.

"Not very specific, Elena." I smiled, walking around her, "I guess you're leaving it to me to choose which one, hmm?"

I grabbed her unmarred foot and watched the terror rise in her eyes. Yes, that was it. That was what I needed to see. That was honest. "This little piggy went to the market," I tickled her big toe with the blade, "this little piggy stayed home," I passed over the second toe, "this little piggy had roast beef," Elena flexed her toes reflectively as I grazed the knuckles, "this little piggy had none," I placed the scalpel between her pinky toe and the one beside it, and angled the blade against the smaller of the two, "and this little piggy went wee-wee-wee all the way home." I whispered, my heart rising in my throat, my nerves electrified with the thrill. Elena gritted her teeth, taking pairs of frantic breaths, her body writhing in its constraints. I pulled the pinky toe apart from its neighbor, and stopped.

"That wasn't very sporting of me, was it?" I sighed, "How can I expect you to play along if I keep changing the rules?" I withdrew the knife, and placed it carefully back in the box. "Tomorrow, you will decide which toe is your second least-favorite, but today, we'll call it a draw." My eyes ran the length of her, settling upon her member. It was rigid with arousal, curved back and leaking from its apex. Did fear compel it to stand, or was it the same exhilaration I felt? My blood was still hot in my veins, the adrenaline coursing through me like a river. I needed a release. I climbed atop her without thinking, centering myself above her masculine sex, feeling its delicious heat radiating upon my tight, soft lips. I grabbed her cock, aimed it to impale myself, then stopped. I slowly connected my gaze with hers. Such power I had over her to cause such pain, but so powerless was I to that azure hatred in her eyes; that implacable, unyielding stare. I slowly unwound my fingers.