Princess (18 page)

She fought crazily, screaming and kicking and clawing with her free hand, but it made no difference whatsoever. Up came her gown, revealing her pert bottom, nude, with the cheeks pumping frantically to the motions of her legs, the split fig of her cunt on plain show, and the spanking began.

Daken showed no mercy, his face set in determination as he slapped at Sulden's bouncing bottom cheeks with the full force of his arm. Her response was no more dignified that it had been in the harem, a rude and ludicrous squirming that served only to show off her cunt and anus, mad, pig-like squealing noises punctuated by curses and threats, and screams of pain. In no time her bottom was a rich red, and as Daken lifted his knee to give himself a better angle and so force her to flaunt her bottom more rudely still, she burst into tears.

It didn't stop him. Still he spanked, smack after smack applied to her seat, his hand covering the full width of her little cheeks or brought down under her tuck to slap her bottom meat up and forward. Her shoes kicked off, her hair came loose, her other tit fell free of her gown and still he spanked and still she writhed and wriggled and bucked, showing everything to the delighted girls.

With her entire bottom a glowing red ball Daken began on her thighs, and Sulden's howls and screams redoubled in force. Still he spanked, turning the skin of her legs a blotchy red before going back to her bottom for a last few hard swats and then stopping. She lay still, snivelling across his lap, her legs spread in heedless display of her tuppenny, broken and miserable, her beautiful make-up a mess of coloured streaks, her hair a bird's nest, her skin flushed with sweat.

Iriel gave a thump of her fist on the wall in salute of Daken's action as he finally let go of Sulden. She slid from his lap, to sit heavily on the floor, her mouth wide, breathing hard, the tears still trickling down her cheeks. Daken waited, immobile, his hands folded lightly over his stomach, until she looked up at him, eyes wide and seeming to question. He nodded, quite casually lifted his robe to expose his penis, reached forward to grip her by the hair and pulled her head into his lap. To Iriel's amazement Sulden took his cock in her mouth without protest or hesitation and began to suck.

Her own tuppenny was warm and ready for cock, yet Iriel watched in astonishment as Sulden's head bobbed up and down on her uncle's cock with every evidence of enthusiasm. He was soon hard, his erection growing thick and long, until she was just mouthing on the head and neck, when she broke off, to take him in hand and put his balls in her mouth. He gave a satisfied sigh, tousled her hair and slid forward a little, his legs coming apart. Immediately Sulden went lower, licking at his anus before once again taking his cock head in her mouth, only now masturbating him.

Iriel glanced at Aeisla, who responded with an amused shrug even as Daken groaned and came in Sulden's mouth. She swallowed dutifully, once, then again, taking his jism down and licking up what little had spilt from his cock shaft and balls before sitting back. Her knees went wide, her eyes closed and she began to masturbate herself, quite shamelessly, her red bottom jiggling behind, her cunt deliberately flaunted as she rubbed her bump. She came in moments, with a muted cry of ecstasy, her eyes coming open at the last moment, to stare in adoration at her uncle's face.

‘I was always doubtful of the benefits of spanking you,' he remarked as she settled down to squat on the floor.

‘Well it serves it purpose,' she answered, suddenly sulky, ‘but you should not, not now.'

‘To the contrary,' he answered, ‘I should spank you, and I shall spank you, regularly, and use your mouth afterwards, as it has always been. It will be private, rest assured of that.'

‘Hardly private,' she answered, glancing to the five girls, ‘but no matter, and yes, it is as well that you should spank me.'

She gave a wry smile and Daken reached out to tousle her hair, then covered himself as he addressed the girls.

‘My apologies, but that necessity has been building since the day of her ascension. Now tidy up, Sulden, and I shall tell you what our barbarian friends will be doing.'

Sulden obeyed, initially attempting to rearrange her own hair, but quickly giving up and calling her handmaidens, who had undoubtedly heard her spanked in any case. All six trooped in, the faces impassive masks, and they quickly set to work. Prince Daken went on, ignoring the spanked Queen.

‘Yes, you are to go to Vendjome, and there to kill an individual who has been causing us difficulty.'

‘The Panjandrum?' Aeisla queried. ‘Unless he has been succeeded by another he is a squat toad of a man, barely able to tell girl from boy he is so dissipated.'

‘This I know,' Prince Daken responded. ‘The Panjandrum is unimportant. Indeed, it is to our advantage for him to rule. No, the situation is this. In Vendjome there is a new Vizier, one Aurac…'

‘Aurac?' Aeisla queried. ‘I knew an Aurac, the assistant to the Panjandrum's cousin, a scrawny youth, but learned.'

‘Very likely the same man,' Daken concurred. ‘In any event, he has a fine grasp of tactics, while through virtue of the depredations of our late and unlamented King, we have barely half the senior men we did five years before. Most of our reverses in recent years have been due to Aurac and I would dearly like to see him dead.'

‘You wish us to be taken to Vendjome as slavegirls and there kill him?' Aeisla sighed.

‘Precisely. You are ideal. He would be suspicious of an Oretean girl, where I able to find one capable of the task. In any case there are plenty of Oretean slaves in Vendjome, a glut indeed, since the sack of Reites. Yet you, with your exotic colouring and extravagant figures, are sure to go to the palace. Nor need you worry for your pride…'

‘A moment,' Kaissia began, only to stop as Aeisla raised a hand, then spoke.

‘Do not be concerned for our pride. I have debt to settle in Vendjome.'

As their boat slid out from the channel, the river Phaetes spread before them, broad and placid between the palm fringed banks, islands dotted here and there, each thick with copses of blade tree and straggling wild vine. Iriel attempted to relax into the cushions of the area set aside for their use beneath an awning, but found it impossible to clear the details of Prince Daken's plan from her mind.

The boat was a supply vessel bound for where the Oretean and Vendjomois armies straddled the river Phaetes some two hundred leagues down river. At their destination, two sets of earthworks faced each other, each built around the ruins of forts themselves constructed from earlier ruins. These where the Erijome forts, built on what had once been a city when the Vendjomois Empire had stretched the full breadth of Apraya.

Prince Daken was mindful of spies and keen to keep the girls' continued existence a secret. The boat was crewed by Palades Tavian's own men and by Dwarven mercenaries, while the awning through a gap in which Iriel watched was to shield them from inquisitive eyes as much as the sun.

Once at the forts, they were to move north into the great Eigora Khum desert, escorted by a hand of the Dwarven mercenaries. They would move east, at length meeting the great Ephraxis River as it flowed south through the desert, at Gora-Jome, the northernmost of the Vendjomois cities. There would be nothing to suggest they had come from the east, and all agreed that they were certain to be taken to Vendjome itself. Aeisla was still technically an escaped Imperial slave and as such already the Panjandrum's property. Once in the palace at Vendjome, they were to make their own choices, kill Aurac and escape as best they could. Daken had urged the use of poison, pointing out that they might escape detection entirely, but he had been refused.

As Iriel watched the towers of Oretes recede slowly into the heat haze Aeisla, Kaissia and Cianna began to discuss their task, and in particular Prince Daken's true intentions, Kaissia believing him honourable, Aeisla doubting.

‘He served us well before, why not again?' Kaissia queried.

‘No,' Aeisla stated. ‘As Uilus disposed of the fishcook, so Daken seeks to dispose of us, by sending us on a mission from which he is sure there is no chance of our return. Should we kill Vizier Aurac, all the better, he has disposed of the assassins, the most dangerous of his enemies is dead and he alone knows the truth.'

‘He gave his word,' Kaissia responded, ‘doubtless he simply wishes to give us an opportunity for honour. After all, no Oretean could hope to succeed.'

‘No doubt if we succeed we shall have a fine saga sung for us,' Aeisla said, ‘or a statue raised among those about the palace. Nevertheless, he will be heartily grateful to see us elsewhere or by preference dead. Recall how he treated Sulden when she suggested we would make a good personal guard.'

‘Nonsense,' Kaissia laughed. ‘If he wanted us dead, he need simply have given the order when we stood at bay in the courtyard. Surely he took a risk there in demanding loyalty to the Brat… Great Queen Sulden the Palades that is?'

‘I do not think loyalty extends beyond death for Oreteans,' Aeisla responded. ‘Certainly there was no show of it for Uilus.'

‘Uilus deserved only death,' Kaissia went on. ‘Even the Oreteans have enough honour to realise this.'

‘What of his offer?' Iriel asked. ‘Does this not suggest honesty?'

‘True,' Kaissia agreed. ‘Had he intended to see us dead he would have offered riches, titles and servants, not a mountain hut.'

‘If he wished us dead,' Cianna put in, ‘why spend two days teaching me a cantrip to report our success? He is not a man to waste his time. Not only this, but Sulden wishes us as her bedmates, I am sure of it.'

‘I also,' Aeisla agreed.

‘Yes,' Kaissia laughed, ‘once we are installed in our hut in the Glissades she will come to indulge her lust for licking bottom rings and being spanked.'

‘She will be spanked often enough in Oretes,' Aeisla answered, ‘and yes, she would prefer us alive, yet we know just how little Daken respects her opinion. I for one would prefer to take myself elsewhere should we succeed in slaying Aurac and escaping Vendjome.'

‘Not, I,' Kaissia stated. ‘I am for trusting Daken's honour.'

‘Where else would we go?' Cianna queried. ‘Not Makea for certain, while in the Glass Coast you would be taken on sight.'

‘Cypraea?' Iriel suggested. ‘The city the dark skinned girl came from. She was gentle, and spoke well of her homeland.'

‘Naturally, for it is her homeland,' Cianna answered, ‘but yes, the Aprina States would make a fine home.'

‘From which dangerous barbarians are banned,' Aeisla pointed out. ‘No, we must either attempt to make for Mund or…'

‘Not Mund,' Kaissia objected instantly.

‘…or some city of dwarves or halflings,' Aeisla finished. ‘This is the wise course, yet I would not be separated.'

‘I for one prefer to risk Oretea,' Kaissia answered, ‘but I make no commands.'

‘Aeisla is right,' Cianna put in. ‘We should take ourselves elsewhere.'

‘What of you, Iriel, Yi?' Kaissia demanded.

‘Sulden will assure our lives,' Yi answered. ‘I am for returning.'

Iriel had paused, uncertain, trying to decide between risks known and unknown. The Ereides had betrayed her, yet Prince Daken had kept his word and promised a life of simple security. Finally she answered.

‘I am for returning.'

‘So be it.'

After several days of moving with the slow current of the Phaetes they reached the Erijome Forts, the ruined walls and the great banks of dug earth showing red to the light of the setting sun. The boat's crew dropped anchor, not moving again until long after dark, with two crescent moons high against a field of stars. The boat was unloaded at an ancient jetty of huge stone blokes, some the parts of a statue so that as Iriel stepped ashore she found herself treading on a vast face, half dog, half man, eerie in the moonlight.

A tent had already been put up for them and they were hustled inside, a hand of dwarves remaining on guard as the boat was unloaded. Aeisla advised sleep, but Iriel found it impossible, restless after days of inactivity on the boat and her mind full of thoughts of what was to come. She accepted a cup of wine from one of the dwarves, sipping it as she lay among the cushions, but it made no difference. Yi came to her, to cuddle sleepily onto her side, but the feel of the smaller girls' body against hers provoked more lewd thoughts than comfort.

Both in Daken's palace and on the boat they had taken to sharing the pleasures of each other's bodies, Cianna with Aeisla, Iriel and Yi either together or under Kaissia's instruction. Some of the crew members had come to them too, both full human and dwarf, some successfully. Now, with Yi warm against her as the heat of the day faded rapidly to chill, Iriel found herself keen for a taste of cunt, or of cock. Gently, she shook Yi's shoulder, provoking a sigh and a slight movement, their breasts rubbing together. Again she shook.

‘Suckle me, Yi.'

‘I'm tired, rub yourself.'

‘No, you rub me.'

Yi responded with a sleepy sound but moved lower, to take Iriel's nipple in her mouth, sucking lazily until the bud had stiffened between her lips. Iriel purred and pulled her thighs up, spreading her sex as Yi's hand went down. Long, agile fingers settled into the groove of her tuppenny and Iriel sighed in pleasure.

‘Beautiful… yes, be firm…'

For a moment Yi rubbed harder, right on Iriel's bump, to make her back tighten and her mouth come wide. She took Yi's head, stroking the soft hair and holding her in. Yi moved, pulling free to mount Iriel's body, head to toe, cunt to face. Iriel put her face in Yi's bottom, licking at the fleshy folds, probing the hole until it began to grow soft and open, and higher, her tongue lapping at her friend's tight, musky bottom ring. Yi returned the favour with a spit-wet finger, penetrating Iriel's anus, then her tuppenny, licking all the while.