Gateway To Xanadu (33 page)

“I would aid you in whatever manner you required to effect your escape,” I returned in a similar whisper, warmed beyond words that he had asked rather than command. “Your freedom is as precious to me as it surely is to you.”

“I expected no other reply from you,” he whispered again with a gentle smile, briefly touching my face.

“My freedom, however, will also mean the freedom of others as well. Take yourself through the door quickly now.”

I stepped to the door as rapidly as the urgency in his tone commanded, opened it, and slipped through, even more thrilled than I had earlier been. Freedom for others, he had said, when I had thought the priceless state forever beyond me. It was also my own freedom I strove for, and although I would have done the thing for him alone, the action now had other, fuller meaning.

Beyond the door, in a dim, narrow back hall, indeed stood only a single guardsman, the sole living thing to be seen even to the many cross-corridors visible. He turned quickly with hand to hilt when I emerged from the chamber, yet relaxed the pose and looked closely upon me when he saw I was no other thing than a slave.

“Master, I beg to serve you,” I breathed, moving near to him so that I might look up into his eyes. “I have served no more than four masters this day, and the prisoner will not have me. I am in very great need, and abjectly beg to serve you. ”

“That fool in the cage refused to have you?” the guardsman asked with brows raised in question, his light eyes scornful. “Clearly he has lost either his sight or his manhood, and yer I must also refuse you. I am on duty, and may not now use a slave. ”

“Master, just a brief use, I beg you,” I wheedled, touching his breastplate with my bare nipples. My flesh showed him clearly that I was indeed in need of use, a state the prisoner’s use had intensified. “There are none about to see us, and none need know. I will give you pleasure the likes of which you have not often had. Please, master!”

“You beg with great attractiveness, young slave,” he replied, his interest and amusement quite evident.

“Perhaps a brief use, with none the wiser . . . ”

“Oh, yes, master, thank you, master,” I babbled, truly relieved that he would see to me. My need to serve had grown so great that it was well-nigh crippling, nearly overriding my true purpose in approaching him. I moved to the right of the door, to the nearest, darkened cross-corridor, half drawing hire with me, half being eagerly followed.

Within the darkened corridor I was pulled roughly against the chestplate of the guardsman, a fist tightened in my hair, and then my lips were his, to be taken brutally and with much lust.’ I moaned at the delay forced upon me, causing him to laugh softly, and then I was turned with my back to him and thrown to my hands and knees. The prisoner had also used me in such a position, yet his use had brought pleasure to me as well as to himself. This guardsman began forcing himself into me in a manner which would bring release to him alone, and although I begged and pleaded in whispers, I was made to accept him and give him the pleasure he demanded. I sobbed soundlessly with the increase in need he brought me the while he laughed well at the jest he perpetrated, and when he was done I was made to reawaken him so that I, too, might be seen to. His use was jarring and brutal, completely selfish, and yet I wept in his arms and gave him unending thanks for the gift of his manhood.

When he was at last done with me, the guardsman returned to his post the while I lay briefly upon the stone of the floor, drinking in the sensation of satiety. Not long would the sensation remain with me, most especially after all the use I had had, and yet for the moment I felt replete. It came to me then that I had heard no sound of departure from the chamber in which the prisoner had stood, nor had the guardsman raised a hue and cry. The prisoner had made good his escape then, and would soon be returned to those who were not enemy to him. The thought warmed me, and enabled me to rise to my feet and accept the thought of my soon-to-return need without tears.

The guardsman who had taken so great an amount of use from me failed even to look upon me as I slunk past him, seeking the cross corridor which would take me to the guardsmen’s barracks. In no more than half a dozen steps I was again beset by need, one which would require a great deal of seeing to till unconsciousness freed me from it. In the barracks I would be allowed to give the service my preparation forced me to want desperately to give, and although the pain would also come to me there, I could not refuse.

The third cross corridor led me to the main corridor, and from there I hurried toward the guardsmen’s barracks, the eyes of those whose posts I passed following me with amusement. They knew well enough that I hurried to beg to serve those who were off duty, and perhaps were remembering the times I had served them as well. The thought upset me as greatly as it ever did, and I hurried along with head down-until the sounds of battle startled me out of miserable self-contemplation.

The change from normal peace and silence to raging battle occurred so quickly that I was not alone in startled disbelief. Many of the guardsmen began shouting shocked demands, yet the fighting had burned forward to include them before any might speak answers to their demands. I trembled against one wall of the corridor, separated from the melee by the pillar I stood behind, shocked to see that the guardsmen battled other guardsmen like themselves, only ones in the colors of the King. Blue and silver fought red and gold, and although the shouting and clash of swords and screams of mortal fear were enough to deafen and daze, it soon became clear that the silver and blue was prevailing.

Nearly all of those in red and gold were either down or ‘attempting to flee when a strong contingent of fresh red and gold guardsmen appeared, and these were led by the Duke himself. Their shouts of defiance and challenge drew back many of their fellows who had thought to flee in despair, and again the two forces came together in savage intent to wipe each other out. Through vision dampened by fear and tears I saw the prisoner, silver accoutrements glowing brightly, sword rising and falling without hesitation, forcing his way through the knots of battle toward the Duke. The leader of fifty appeared before him, engaged him with a sneer, then quickly fell before his superior skill. All about them other red and gold defenders were falling, unable to stand against the ravening silver and blue tide, and then the prisoner stood before the Duke. Less than a dozen strokes were exchanged before the Duke was disarmed, and then, with the prisoner’s point at his enemy’s throat, all those remaining of the red and gold were made to throw down their arms in surrender. The Duke himself was forced to his knees by those in blue and silver, and the prisoner looked down upon him with deep, cold anger.

“And so shall all traitors be dealt with,” he said, with grim satisfaction. “I will know immediately the place of my brother’s confinement, and you have only to pray that he has not been harmed. You were a fool to take him captive, for your machinations against our father the king were mere suspicion till then.

Had you not acted the fool, you would undoubtedly still be free to plot your plots of futility: Where is he?”

“In my dungeons!” snarled the Duke, fury and fear doing battle in his weak-featured face. “Would that he were in the halls of hell, and you beside him!”

“You will soon have your own place there,” said the prisoner in answer, and then he looked to one in blue and silver who stood beside him. “Have the Duke lead you to the place where my brother is, and give him that place once my brother is freed. His journey to my father’s justice may then be arranged at our leisure.”

“At once, my Prince,” acknowledged the one in blue and silver, and then the Duke was dragged erect and forced up the corridor. His guardsmen were also forced in the same direction, and in a matter of moments only those in blue and silver remained to inhabit the corridor. The prisoner cleaned and resheathed his sword, ordered his guardsmen to posts along the corridor, then turned and came toward me. I had not thought he had seen me where I hid behind the pillar, yet he had done just that thing.

“Pretty slave, you remain unharmed,” he said, delight in his tone and eyes as he looked down at me. “I give thanks that this is so, for I have not been able to free my thoughts of you. ”

“And I give thanks that your freedom has been restored to you,” I replied, trembling as I looked up into the strong brown of his eyes. My body burned and screamed for easing, yet the guardsmen who would have seen to me were no longer able to take the use of a slave, and there was in truth only one who I then desired to serve.

“The need again burns within you,” he said of a sudden, raising one palm to my breast. “Undoubtedly due to the use you were given by the one who was to have guarded my avenue of escape. We will see to you at once, and then we must speak of the thing foremost in my mind.”

He took my arm and conducted me within one of the small, dimly lit easing rooms to be found behind the line of pillars, those rooms that were often used by guardsmen and slaves before the former stood to their posts. He put me gently to the furs before removing his sword and armor, and then he was upon and within me, giving me the vigor I had so great a need of. He used me and used me, seeing to a great need of his own, and when he finally withdrew I was once again sated and filled with deep happiness.

“And now we may talk,” he said, lying beside me and ,looking down fondly at the foolish glow he must surely have been able to see upon me. “I am free, my brother is free, and soon the Duke will be freed from the burden of his life. For the aid you gave me, the laws of my father prescribe freedom for you as well.”

Freedom! The thought filled me with such unbelieving joy that tears swam in my eyes, and I took the broad hand that touched my cheek and covered it with kisses.

“The thought of freedom pleases you,” he said, and oddly enough a small portion of the warmth was gone from his tone. “Should you ask for freedom you may have it, yet I would have you ask for another thing.”

I looked again to his face in confusion so vast my head whirled, unable to understand what words he spoke. Had he not said he would not allow me to leave his side? How might such a thing be if I were a slave?

“You must know that I have recently been married,” he said, sending the pain of a sword through my heart. “The nuptials were arranged between my father and hers, a king who has no sons of his own. At his death I will become king over his people, and my sons after me. His daughter the princess is exceedingly fair, yet I have already used her enough to know that she cannot satisfy me. She has refused to come to my bed more often than two or three times in each day, and calls my appetites unnatural. My appetites, I know, are greater than those of other men, yet I see nothing unnatural in them, merely I find difficulty in having them satisfied. You, pretty slave, are the first to satisfy those appetites with yourself alone.”

I attempted to speak then, to remind him that the root of my great need lay in the preparation I was put through each morning, yet he halted my words with his palm to my mouth.

“Hush, child, I know what you would say,” he scolded very gently, with just a hint of sternness. “You believe I desire you for the slave needs put upon you, and this is not so. The very sight of you sends flames all through me, so high that I have never known their like with any other woman. To see you is to want you, and I see you even when others stand before me in your place.”

His hand left my mouth to caress my hair, and the smile he gave me healed the wound in my heart.

“I find I cannot countenance the thought of losing you,” he said, bringing his other hand to my hair as well. “If you ask for freedom it will be given you, and yet you must know that I cannot keep a free woman beside me. If you remain a slave, my slave, your place will be in my apartments in the palace I share with my lady wife, and none will even consider commenting upon the matter. The preparation given you each morning will be less harsh than that given you now, only enough to see that you are able to serve me without difficulty, and freedom will be yours in all other things. You will need to serve only myself-and perhaps a friend or two with whom I share all things-and my brothers, of course, when they visit-and in such a way we may share our lives and the love we feel. I wish only to have you as my own, yet the decision must come from you. I love you; will you pledge yourself as slave to me?”

I stared at him in speechlessness, achingly torn, horribly uncertain. His hands caressed my hair and face, his lips touched me lightly and lovingly, and I was painfully indecisive. He felt the same love for me that I felt for him; never had I expected to find such a man, and he would be my love and my life-if I were to pledge myself slave to him. My desire for him was so great that I trembled between his hands, burning from the already-returning needs of my body, the tears flowing from my eyes in a stream of pain. I had to have him, I would die if I could not have him, and yet-

“I cannot,” I whispered, the words torn from my flesh as though by the teeth of a predator. “My freedom was taken-never would I have given it up of myself. I love you-yet freedom is as precious as life itself. I would give my life for you-but to face forever as a slave-!”

“As my slave, beloved,” he murmured, lowering one hand to caress me where he had already proven himself my master. “Freedom is such a foolish, little thing to stand between us, so pitifully useless a thing to choose over our love. Already I feel as though I could taste you again, and the need rises within you as well. Make the proper choice and we may love again, dearest slave child, tell me you will be mine.”

“No,” I wept, closing my eyes against the command in his gaze, the demand in his fingers, the weakness of my flesh. I wanted so much to make us one, and yet- “No,” I sobbed, and the words grew louder and louder. “No, no, no, no, no, no... !”

“No!” I screamed, fighting against the straps holding my wrists down, so sick to my stomach I thought I would mess all over myself. “No, stop it, no!”