The Good Kingdom

"They do. I have seen them."

"Well I need to see them—now."

We hurriedly returned to the storage room and I opened one of the heavy wooden chests that were lying on the floor near an open window. There were several old leather-bound volumes that dated as far back as the first decade of the 18th century. I had read most of them at one time or another. I handed him the earliest volume and he began to read and take notes. As he perused the books it soon became evident to us that he had discovered something of great importance.

"What is it?" I asked him. "What did you find?"

He put the book down and made a notation on the paper. "There is a causal factor at work here," he began. "But let me start at the beginning. The Mandukya plant is indeed an opioid as I suspected. It shares the same complex molecular structure as diamorphine, or as it is more commonly known—heroin, which in case you don't know, is an extremely addictive and dangerous drug. It is also a highly potent aphrodisiac, more potent than anything I have ever encountered in the natural world. If taken regularly over a long period of time, even in small amounts, it can lead to degenerative diseases such as dementia, loss of motor skills, and other neurological disorders. So, in effect, the reason why the male population of Swarga Loka died off early is because your women were slowly poisoning them to death, without knowing it of course. The men became addicted to the drug because it greatly enhanced their sexual powers and put them in a state of euphoria, but at the same time it wreaked havoc with their autoimmune systems, making them susceptible to disease. Insidious to say the least, and a very high price to pay for the survival of your people."

Much of what he said I did not understand. But I did understand enough to know that it was the women of our village who had been responsible for killing our males. For centuries we had no idea what was causing them to die so young, and now thanks to the doctor, the sad and awful truth had finally been revealed. As I looked at Chari I saw tears in her eyes.

"All this time," she began as she took my hand, "and we never knew."

"You're not to blame for what happened," Jonathan said consolingly. "But you must stop putting the drug in my food. Otherwise I will suffer the same fate as those other men."

"Including my father," I said, feeling the weight of my people's collective guilt upon my shoulders.

"You thought you were acting in the best interests of your people," Jonathan said. "Don't punish yourself. Just do the right thing and forbid anyone from ever using it again."

"I must tell Tara," I said, letting go of Chari's hand.

"Tell me what?"

I turned to see the old woman standing in the doorway surrounded by several of her aides.

"Oh, Tara, it's you!" I said, happy to see her. "I have something important to tell you."

"You and Chari are needed for the ritual of the blessing of the waters. Why do you waste your time here?"

"We are not wasting our time, mataji," Chari said. "We have discovered the reason why our men have been dying so young."

The announcement did not seem to interest the old woman in the least, which I found greatly disturbing.

"And what would that be?" she asked perfunctorily.

"The doctor studied a sample of the Mandukya plant under the microscope and found that it is responsible for killing our men. We must stop using it right now."

Tara laughed, as did the other women with her.

"That is utter nonsense!" she exclaimed. "He is fooling you into thinking that the poor little Mandukya plant is dangerous. Fools! He does not want to obey the will of the goddess and so he has invented this ridiculous story!"

"It's not a story," I replied. "It's the truth."

"The truth!" she scoffed. "The only truth I know is that which the goddess reveals to us. Men die young because it is the will of the goddess that they do so. We use them for their sperm and when they have served their purpose Tara disposes of them. That is the way it has always been."

"Your goddess sounds like a bloodthirsty wretch," Jonathan said to the old woman. "There is no need for a man's reproductive system to be artificially enhanced. You could have simply avoided using the drug and let nature take its course."

"But that is exactly what we are doing," Tara replied. "The extract of the Mandukya plant is needed because one man cannot sire many children if we were to rely on his own meager supply of sperm. The plant keeps him producing lots of sperm for a much longer time, and he therefore can impregnate many more women."

"But it also burns out his reproductive system in the process! Don't you care about that?"

"It is unfortunate but necessary."

"Necessary?" Jonathan cried. "You find it necessary to kill?"

"I find it necessary to obey the will of Tara and to make certain that my people survive!" she said angrily.

"But look at the cost! In both ethical and practical terms you lose. Not only are you taking life unnecessarily, you're depriving yourselves of the many benefits that come from living and working with men. Did you ever stop to think why it is that only females are born into your society?"

"Because it is the will of Tara."

"No! It's because the drug—the poor little Mandukya plant—performs a handy little genetic alteration in the chromosome sequence of your DNA! If your men didn't take the drug your women would give birth to males as well as females and you wouldn't have to rely on your precious goddess to send you someone like me every so many years to be used and abused by your people so that you could maintain this artificial existence you regard so highly!"

Instead of answering, Tara drew back and ordered her aides, a dozen or so of the more physically imposing members of our community, to come forward. They approached the doctor and quickly overpowered him, tying his hands together with a piece of rope. He struggled but, being a doctor sworn to do no harm, he could not bring himself to cause them injury.

"There is no need for this!" he exclaimed as the women held him fast. "I'm telling you the truth. The drug is dangerous. It kills people."

"It kills men," Tara replied with disdain. "So what? What good is your race beyond supplying us with the seed of life?"

"Tara!" I cried. "Have you lost your mind? Tell your aides to release him at once! I command you!"

"No, Francesca," she said coldly, "I commandyou! You have lost your way in believing this man's word over that of the goddess. And in all religious matters it is I, not you, whose word is supreme."

"I won't let you hurt him!" I threatened her. "Let him go!"

The old woman, the woman I had so dearly loved and trusted all my life, did not even offer me the courtesy of a reply. She simply turned her back on me and walked out. Her aides followed, pushing the frustrated and angry doctor ahead of them and out the door.

"Where are you taking him?" I shouted at her departing form. "He has done nothing wrong! Tara! Listen to me!"

Chari followed the entourage to the top of the stairwell and watched them descend.

"I can't believe our goddess would condone such a thing," Chari said, shaking her head in dismay.

"It is not the goddess we're dealing with here, Chari—it's a frail old woman whose mind has been compromised."

"By what?"

I shook my head.

"By the goddess I've never seen her act so hostile. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know yet. I need time to think. But I'm not going to let her destroy him."

************

Jonathan had been placed in a low-roofed, thatch hut whose walls were composed of wire mesh, allowing no privacy or much freedom of movement. The wire had come from a very old bundle of supplies that had been carried by an exploratory team to our village over sixty years ago. The roof was so low that Jonathan could not stand up and was forced to either sit or crouch down to avoid hitting his head on the low-hanging partition.

When Tara was chosen as the spiritual leader of the village, it had been her wish to punish and humiliate any of the sisters who disobeyed our sacred laws. As a result, she ordered the building of this tiny hut, which was no more than six feet square, in order to publicly chastise those who chose to flagrantly disregard the divine will of Tara. This form of corporeal punishment was not used very often; the shame associated with such a crime against the deity was considered the ultimate dishonor and carried with it the stigma of divine reprobation. But to see a man inside the hut, and one who was from the outside and had no knowledge of our laws, was more than unprecedented—it was immoral.

As Chari and I pushed our way to the front of the crowd, I saw Jonathan sitting with his legs crossed upon the dirt floor. He looked at me with a forlorn expression.

"Francesca!" he exclaimed, pulling on the wire mesh of his cage. "Get me out of here!"

"I'll do what I can," I replied. "Just hold on."

Meanwhile, Tara's aides stood guard, making certain that no one had any direct contact with the prisoner. A group of women stood around the hut talking to the aides, questioning them as to why the doctor had been imprisoned, but the aides refused to offer any information to their curious friends. I approached the woman in charge, whose name was Helgi, and ordered her to release him.

"I can't do that and you know it," she said adamantly. "Tara gave me strict orders to keep him in there."

"I am your leader and you will obey me!" I said defiantly, staring her right in the eyes.

"I know, Francesca, and I am sorry. But this is a religious matter and Tara's orders supersede yours."

"But he did nothing wrong," I protested. "You must release him!"

"There is nothing I can do. Now please step aside."

At that moment Chari interposed herself between me and Helgi, her expression warning me to back down.

Helgi was right of course. As much as I didn't like it, she had no choice but to obey Tara's orders. These same aides, who would have obeyed my directives without question under different circumstances, were obligated by oath and by the ancient traditions of our land, to be subservient in matters where the earthly representative of the divine goddess was concerned. Realizing I would get nowhere by arguing with her, I deferred to Chari's advice and did my best to regain my composure.

"I would like to speak to him," I said finally, trying to act diplomatic.

"All right, but make it quick. Tara will punish me if she sees you doing so."

I told Chari to wait for me as I entered the hut. Jonathan was very happy to see me and let me know that he had not been mistreated.

"I should hope not," I said. "They've already done enough to you. Are you hungry?"

"I just had a nice big supper," he replied. "And I'm sure that it was laced with a generous portion of Mandukya extract."

"I'm sorry, Jonathan. It is not our way to treat men like this. It's Tara. I think she has lost her mind."

"You think?" he said sardonically. "I know she has. The question is: how the hell do I get out of here?"

"I don't know. There's really not much I can do. But I promise I'll think of something."

"I thought you were the leader of these people."

"It doesn't work that way," I tried to explain. "My word is paramount in secular matters. But this is a religious matter, and I have to submit to the will of our mataji."

"Great!" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"If it's any consolation to you, I believe what you told me about the drug and how dangerous it is. Chari believes you too."

"I'm glad to hear it. Now if you can convince that old crone to believe it then we'll be making some progress."

"Don't despair. If I can get more of the sisters on our side then we stand a good chance of..."

"Francesca, get out of there!" Helgi shouted. "Tara is coming!"

I quickly ran out of the hut and stood next to Chari who was standing several yards from the entrance. By this time there were more than fifty girls hovering about the area, all of them talking at once, anxious to know the fate of the prisoner. When they saw Tara coming they fell silent, waiting for her to speak.

As the old woman approached the hut the girls stepped gingerly out of her way, allowing her easy passage to the entrance. She nodded to Chari and me but said nothing to either of us. She asked Helgi a few questions and then spoke to Jonathan, who was less than pleased to see her.

"For your punishment you are going to be made to ejaculate until every drop of sperm has been removed from your body," she said to him with barely a hint of emotion. "All of your vital fluids will be collected in a great basin and then you will be forced to bathe in it for our amusement."

"What a delightfully perverse woman you are, oh holy one!" Jonathan replied scathingly. "Well, you can go the devil! I won't do it!"

"You will be masturbated without pause," she continued, completely ignoring him. "You will experience many ejaculations. It may become painful after a time, but that is the will of Tara."

"You mean it'syourwill!" he snapped. "Don't go dragging your goddess into this you crazy old woman!"

Tara turned her back on him and said something to Helgi who nodded approvingly and then gave directions to the girls around her.

"Prepare him!" the old woman commanded.

I watched as the aides brought the bound man to his feet and then, much to my surprise, one of them began masturbating Jonathan in full view of the crowd while the other girls held him fast. He struggled with his tormentors but to no avail. His prick soon responded and grew to its full ten inches in less than a minute.

"What are you doing to him?" I demanded.

"We are going to place a leash around his penis and lead him through the streets of the village," Helgi chuckled. "He will then be led to the square where the will of the goddess will be carried out."

I turned to Tara who stood by looking immensely satisfied.

"Please mataji," I implored her. "Don't do this."

The old woman made no response, and Chari's exhortations were similarly dismissed. A huge procession of onlookers formed as the aides, with Tara at the head of the column, led the naked man through the streets of Swarga Loka. Word must have spread fast about his supposed treachery because everywhere we went he was greeted with insults and curses. As the procession winded its way through the village the crowd grew bigger until it seemed the entire population was in tow, all of whom were eager to see the perpetrator—the enemy of Tara—pay for his blasphemy. They laughed when they saw him paraded around with a leash on his cock, while one of the aides worked diligently to keep him erect. Yet even in this awful state of humiliation his spirit seemed indomitable: such was the bearing of this godlike man.

It seemed incredible that, only a day earlier, my people had treated Jonathan like a celebrity. But now he was looked down upon as a piece of rubbish, an abomination. As the procession made its way to the square, and the huge wooden basin that sat prominently in the middle of it, I thought of how degrading a spectacle awaited him. The attitude of our people toward the uses of sperm was reserved exclusively for sex, and to waste it was considered a great sin. By having Jonathan expend his seed into a tub was terribly humiliating, and for him to then bathe in it was the ultimate degradation. I once again begged Tara to reconsider, but my pleas fell on deaf ears.

"He needs time to rest," I told her as we entered the center of the square. "If you must punish him, at least wait a few days until he has regained his stamina."

"I do not accommodate blasphemers," she said without looking at me. "And you are very close to being similarly punished."

"Are you going to lock me up in a cage too, mataji?"

"If that's what it takes to bring you back to your senses. I will do everything I can to protect our people—even from a misguided little girl like you. Now get out of my way!"

I was startled by the sudden and unexpected change in her behavior. Gone was the sense of equanimity and tranquility of spirit that I had come to expect in a person of her high and uncompromising moral standards. Even Chari had to admit that the change that had come over the old woman was totally inexplicable. Maybe she had indeed lost her mind as the doctor believed.

The town square was now filled with spectators anxious to witness Jonathan's fate. I saw Ide and Juliette standing near the tub looking down into it as if imagining just how much sperm it would take to fill it.

"Almost everyone is here," Juliette said to me. "They all want to see him pay for his disrespect to Tara."

"He did not disrespect the goddess," I said. "Tara is out of her mind."

"You think she has suddenly become senile?" Ide asked, finding the idea incomprehensible.

"I think it's a distinct possibility. What she's doing is completely unnecessary and cruel."

"Look at them," Chari said, observing the anxious, vacillating crowd. "Bad news travels fast doesn't it?"

"They're out for blood," I said. "And an innocent man is going to pay for the stupidity of that foolish old woman."

The mood of the crowd was distinctly different from the day before. Yesterday, Jonathan was a god, and could do no wrong. Today he was held in vilification, a blaspheming interloper who was going to be humiliated in public for his transgressions. Yet all he was guilty of was telling the truth, and for this he was to be chastised.

As I watched Tara's aides tie both his hands and feet to a pole in preparation for his punishment, I thought of my own father. He had always treated Tara with the utmost respect but was looked down upon by her because of his scientific temper and his refusal to bow down to any god or religious authority. My father was a gentle and kind man, not the type to stir up trouble, especially when he owed Tara and all the women of Swarga Loka a debt of gratitude for saving his life. Yet he could not be dissuaded from following his own path, and it was this, more than anything else, that angered the old woman and caused her to treat him with only a begrudging deference. His many acts of intercourse with the women of the village produced only one child—me—and although many theories were postulated to try and rationalize this phenomenon, not one of them was ever accepted as plausible; at least not to me. Tara told me once that it was because my father was a non-believer that the goddess would not give him more children. But even then I didn't buy her argument. The truth was that my father most likely became sterile from overdosing on the Mandukya plant, just as Jonathan had said. Tara could never accept that explanation because it took the causal factor out of the realm of spirituality and into the realm of science—a direct threat to her power. Thinking about how she treated my father made me suddenly realize that maybe she was not losing her mind after all; that maybe she was just a frightened old woman who was facing a far more imposing adversary in the form of the doctor than she had in my father. And now she was running scared.

When all the preparations had been made, Tara stood before the crowd and addressed them. She explained why Jonathan was to undergo punishment and what that punishment would entail. When the women learned of this, they cheered and applauded with great enthusiasm, much as they would have reacted toward anyone who dared defy their goddess. But not everyone responded with such enthusiasm. As I looked around I noticed that most of my friends—Chari, Ide, Juliette, and even Astrid, were not smiling. And the triplets, who had made love to Jonathan so passionately the night before, and who showed him far more consideration than Tara, objected outright to his punishment, telling Tara to display some "Christian" charity and release him at once. And there were many others as well who refused to give credence, by way of approbation, to the humiliating spectacle about to take place. But the old woman would not be deterred from what she no doubt believed was a just and righteous retribution.