The Palace Pt. 02

I thought of Minika, wishing that I could be in her arms, in my own bed. I wondered if Father was alright. Yes, I cursed the fate that placed me in Yasina's path that day. But there is no point bemoaning what is done.

Fortunately for us, the morning revealed cloudy skies. A blistering hot day would have cooked us alive, as the roof tiles we lay on were designed to absorb or reflect the heat. Instead, the worst we faced was some light rain.

- "Now what do we do?" I asked Sartag.

- "Damned if I know." he replied. "If we go down, they'll kill us. As soon as they see you, you're done. Every other Prince wants you dead."

A curious thought struck me. "But you could." I said.

- "What?"

- "You could go down. You could tell them that I escaped. Or ... you could even reveal where I am. Change sides."

Sartag turned his head to look at me. "Why would you say something like that? We're in the shit - up to our necks - and you're thinking of ways for me to get out of it? By betraying you?"

- "It was just a thought."

- "It was a stupid thought. Besides, I'd be dead the moment I went down there, anyway. I'm too well known as the Empress' errand-boy. They'd never trust me. If I tried to rat you out to save my own skin - no, that's not going to happen."

"Face it," continued Sartag, "we're finished, no matter which Prince comes out on top. Even if they found the real Prince Bishkur, wherever he's hidden - they'd still kill us. I'm sorry to be so pessimistic, but we're dead - it's just a matter of when."

- "Unless Yasina wins." I said.

- "Huh - unlikely."

- "Think about it." I suggested. "She has a plan. Why else am I here? She's been planning for ... I don't know - months? Why did she go to Sumad's shop in the first place?"

- "The apothecary?"

- "Right. If she wanted medicine, who was it for? And why go herself? Couldn't she simply send for whatever she wanted? Unless it was something she couldn't ask for."

- "Poison?" asked Sartag. "You think she poisoned the Emperor?"

- "I don't know. I hadn't thought about that. But if she did, that means she's quite confident. There's no way she would trigger the Night of the Knives unless she had confidence that the outcome would be in her favor."

- "So you think she can win."

- "I think so. She does have a plan. You're quite right. You and I were expendable. But if she wins, we can survive."

Sartag snorted. "No - she'll have us killed because we know too much."

- "Maybe not." I said. "She could find a use for us again."

Sartag considered that for a time.

- "So we wait." he said. "Convenient, that - there's nothing else we can do."

We waited.

*******

We spent the entire day, and another night atop the roof. The sun rose strong the next morning, and it soon began to grow even more uncomfortable.

Then we heard movement in the room below. It was tentative - completely unlike the group of soldiers from the first night.

- "What do we do?" said a voice.

- "I don't know." said a second man. "Go tell him, I suppose."

They left. It sounded, to me at least, that they were wearing slippers, rather than boots. If I was correct, that mean that they were Palace servants - not soldiers.

It seemed like hours later that we heard the tramp of many feet - some of them booted. Then a voice we had heard before.

- "What is this? Where are they?"

- "Master - this is exactly how we found the room."

- "There was no one here?" There was no mistaking that high-pitched voice.

Opkor.

I didn't hesitate. There was no way we could spend another day on the roof, exposed to the merciless rays of the sun. This was the best opportunity we were going to get. I leaned over the edge, and spoke in a normal tone.

- "Master Opkor." I called. "If you send the servants away, I can tell you exactly what happened."

A few moments later, the eunuch peeked out onto the balcony.

- "It's quite safe." I said, calmly.

He looked up. "How did you get up there?"

- "I had help. If you clear the room, we can come down."

- "Why would I clear the room?" asked Opkor.

- "The fewer people who know a secret, the better that secret can be kept." I said.

He saw the sense of that. Once the soldiers and servants were outside, Sartag and I came down off the roof. Opkor insisted that we tell him what we had done. We had to request that he send for food and drink.

- "The Empress won, did she?" I asked. But Opkor would not tell us anything. Eventually, he decided to leave us in this room, under guard.

Sartag was nervous. He found the eunuch's behavior ominous. But we were both too exhausted to worry. Sleep took us.

It wasn't until late afternoon that Opkor returned.

- "You need a bath. Both of you. The clerk first."

I was given another hood, and three soldiers to escort me downstairs. To my very great surprise, Nanka, Yasina's maid, was waiting for me.

- Well, I am very glad to see you." I said. "I take it that the Empress won?"

- "Sturrip." said Nanka.

- "You know what I enjoy about you, Nanka? It's all the fine conversations we have. That's why I'm so very happy to be back here with you."

Nanka said nothing, and remained expressionless. But she shaved me, and I felt a thousand times better after the bath. You don't give a man a bath and a shave if you plan to dispose of him. That meant they weren't going to kill me - at least, not today.

Afterwards, Nanka and my guards took me back to the room with the lattices.

- "Sreep." said Nanka.

********

I awoke, disoriented. There were two candles lit. And someone was in the room, sitting at the end of the bed.

It was Yasina.

- "Hello." she said.

- "Hello, Highness. Your Majesty. I'm sorry - how does one address you now?"

- "For tonight, whatever you wish. We won't stand on ceremony." she said.

Hardly, I thought. The man who should be dead, and the victorious Dowager Empress, sitting on his bed. I was a bit light-headed, from lack of sleep. But I could see that she wore a simple red silk robe, trimmed with black. It might be simple, but it was probably still worth a fortune. Her hair was loose. I had never seen her so ... natural. Or unpainted.

- May I sit up?" I asked.

- Please." she invited. "But then you must tell me: how did you do it? How did you escape?"

I told her. I left out some of the things Sartag had said, which might have gotten him into trouble.

- "Sartag told me that it was all your idea." she said. So the guardsman had already had his interview - and this was to be mine. Yasina's expression was hard to read. She was looking at me with a mixture of kindness and wariness - as if she didn't quite know what to make of me, either. Perhaps it was also curiosity that had brought her here.

- "He is being generous."

She smiled. "I don't think so. Clever, clever boy. I knew that you were intelligent - but who could have predicted that you would be so ... resourceful?"

- "Lucky." I suggested.

Yasina bit her lip. "You know why I put you there, then." I almost wanted to applaud; her performance was excellent. She came to me when I was exhausted, grateful to still be alive. Without all of the gaudy jewelry, and the cosmetics, portraying the vulnerable mother, the mere female in a world of dangerous, violent men.

She was a consummate actress, and she was playing me. And it was working. Even when she toned down her awesome sexuality, Yasina was still a ravishingly beautiful woman.

I nodded. "I know exactly why you did it. It was to protect your son, and decoy your enemies, at least temporarily. He's safe, I take it?"

- "You don't sound ... angry. Or bitter." she observed.

- "I'm still alive."

She smiled. "Yes, you are."

Though our words may have sounded terribly inane, the conversation was fraught with meaning. Yasina was studying me carefully. She had to be wondering what to do with me, when I was supposed to have died - violently - in the Night of the Knives. I knew too much. Would I prove to be an inconvenience, or even dangerous?

For my part, I had little experience with beautiful women sitting on my bed late at night. Minika was lovely, in her way, but she was neither an Empress, nor a practiced seductress - in fact, the most lusted-after woman in Zamarka. Was Yasina here to seduce me? Or to have me killed?

I suppose I was trying to find the answer to all of those questions - hers and mine. It was probably a better idea to start with her concerns.

- "May I congratulate you on your victory? I take it that you won."

Yasina tilted her head slightly to one side, and grinned. "Yes, I did. And thank you."

- "You had to have been planning for months." I suggested.

- "Years." she admitted. "But your part in it was unforeseen, until a little over a month ago."

- "They all underestimated you, didn't they?"

- "Most of them." she said. "But you didn't - or don't. Why is that, Carrach? What makes you different?"

- "I'm not." I replied. "It's just that ... I've had a lot of time to think, since I realized that you wanted me to impersonate Bishkur. And then again, while we were up on the roof. I understood what you were doing. To a point, that is - obviously, I don't know everything, but ... sorry - I'm beginning to ramble."

- "That's alright." she said. Yasina began idly stroking the side of my lower leg, through the thin sheet. Then she looked up, straight into my eyes. "You know that I expected you to be killed?"

I nodded.

"Most violently. Those soldiers would have stabbed you, hacked your body to bits ... they probably would have cut off your head to take back as proof that they had done the deed. And then they would have claimed their reward."

- "I know."

- "Yet you bear me no ill will? My plan was to have you killed." she said.

- "You did what you thought you had to do to protect your son."

- "At the cost of your life." she insisted.

This was decidedly odd. It seemed like we were advocates, debating her culpability in the matter of my anticipated death. Yet she was arguing her own guilt, while I strove to defend her. And all the while, the prosecuting advocate was now idly stroking my knee.

- "A student." I said. "A tutor. One of many, easily replaced."

- "I'm beginning to think that you're one of a kind." said Yasina. That took me aback. Not the words - remember, she was the most legendary seductress of our time, and she was definitely playing me. But her tone struck me as oddly genuine.

- "Expendable, I mean." I continued. "I had a purpose. It was part of your plan that I be exposed in order to protect someone more valuable. But ..."

- "But?"

- "Just because I served that purpose - without dying - doesn't mean that I couldn't be useful in another way."

- "Go on." she said.

- "While I was lying on the rooftop, I was thinking in terms of the game of chess. Obviously, I was a pawn, about to be sacrificed, as bait for a trap, or to distract your opponents. The fact that they didn't take the pawn doesn't mean that your plan failed. You succeeded - only you still have that pawn."

- "Do I?" she said. "I've never played chess."

Oh, but you are a consummate chess player, I thought. Instead, I said: "Look at this way - I could still be useful. Should Prince Bishkur ever need to be in two places at one time ... I suppose I should call him Emperor now."

- "Hmm. So you could still be valuable, Carrach." she said. Her fingers had moved to just above my knee. "But how could I ever trust you? After all, I tried to have you killed."

- "You left me exposed. That's not the same as ordering me killed." I argued.

- "A minor distinction."

- "Not to me. Besides ... I asked myself, while I was lying on the roof: in your place, would I not have done the same?"

- "And? What was your answer?" she asked.

- "I would have done the same."

- "Really?" She looked me in the eye again. Her fingers, now on my upper thigh, stopped moving. "So, in your opinion, I should continue to find a use for you."

- "My resemblance to your son is too striking. There are many possible advantages. And no real drawbacks." I suggested.

- "Is that so?" she said, with a little smile. "So I can trust you?"

I was on dangerous ground here. The real reason Yasina could rely on me to do as she asked was simple: she knew where I lived. My father, and Minika , were hostages. As long as I was compliant, and did as I was bid, they would be safe. The Empress could have no idea how important Min was to me, but that didn't change the basic equation.

- "I am at your service." I said.

Yasina nodded. Her hand moved again, a little further north, where she found I was already hard, and fully erect. She gave my penis a gentle squeeze, and then withdrew her hand.

The Empress stood, and looked down at me. Her lips were slightly parted, and her eyes ... I cannot even describe what was in those brilliant brown eyes. They were the source of her power, and of her appeal.

She pulled back the thin sheet, revealing my nakedness, and my proud erection, standing straight up, in tribute to her. Then she undid her own robe, and dropped it to the floor. Underneath, she wore a sheer gown, which she swiftly doffed.

Yasina stood naked before me. All she had on was a silver necklace, with a jet stone in its setting. Strings of delicate silver chain descended from it, into her cleavage. She stood, proudly, letting me absorb the sight of her in the candlelight.

Her face, framed by her long, loose dark-brown hair, was stunning. Her breasts were full, and heavy, if perhaps not quite as firm as they would have been in her youth. But they sat high and proud on her chest, too large for a man's hand to encompass, but as if begging to be touched. Her areolae were almost perfectly circular, their diameter greater than that of any coin I had ever seen. Her nipples were erect, round little nubs at the very center.

He belly swelled gently, and the flare of her hips was as enticing as her breasts. If Yasina's age showed at all, it might have been in the thickening of her thighs. But between them ... the hair on her mound was neatly trimmed, and her prominent lower lips were completely shaved.

Obviously, she felt that my inspection had gone on long enough. She leaned forward, taking hold of my erection. She slid her fingers around it, and pumped her hand up its length a few times. Then Yasina surprised me by leaning farther, and taking the head of my cock between her lips.

She slurped noisily, and ran her tongue around the crown of my penis. Her mouth descended further as she bobbed her head up and down, taking more than half of my shaft. She coated my cock with her saliva.

Then Yasina climbed onto the bed, straddling my hips. She took my shaft, placing it between her own legs, and then sank down upon it. She lifted her own hips, and then sat down again, taking my full length.

- "Aaah." she moaned. "That's nice."

It was better than nice. The feeling was exquisite. Yasina began to rock her hips, thrusting forward and then back. The Empress was fucking me as much or more than I was fucking her. But I was more than content to let her ride me.

She raised her hand, and threw back her luxurious hair. She had a quizzical half-smile on her face, and those eyes! I still couldn't read her expression. Was she excited by the idea of seducing her son's look-alike? Her nipples were certainly hard enough.

Then Yasina leaned back, resting on the palm of one hand. This put additional pressure on the spot where our crotches were joined. She continued to slide back and forth. And with her other hand, she reached towards the base of my shaft - only it wasn't to touch me. She began to play with herself.

I had nothing, in my so very limited experience, to compare this with. Min was an enthusiastic and considerate partner, who almost always looked to my needs before her own. But here was a woman who was taking her pleasure of me - whether I liked it or not.

She wasn't finished. Yasina leaned forward again, and seized my hand. She lifted it to her breast. I squeezed, gently, and rubbed her nipple with my thumb. She smiled at me, and resumed rocking, while still playing with her clitoris.

I squeezed harder, and she sighed. Thus encouraged, I began to pinch her nipple, running my fingers across her areola. I leaned forwards myself, and took her nipple between my lips. I tongued it, licked it, and even bit her gently.

- "Mmm ..." was her reaction.

She squirmed, and ground, and rubbed herself on me, harder, and more roughly. I bit her nipple, and that seemed to send her over the top. She groaned, and her hand flew up to clutch me, clasping my head to her breast.

I spent a moment later, firing jets of semen into her. She knew it, and rocked her hips all the more, as if to milk every last drop from me.

Yasina tilted my head back, and looked into my eyes.

- "Ver-ry nice." she said.

She climbed off of me, and wrapped herself in her robe. Then the Empress of Zamarka kissed me on the forehead, and said: "Sleep well."

******