The Mutant World (6 page)

“I believe in letting people finish their own fights,” she said quite simply. “Especially the ones
they
start.”

“So do I!” said the enraged empress, now standing along with her husband.

“You DARE insult me, foul my meat and give orders to me like a slave…and in front of a
woman?!?”
roared a now fully enraged Tabba in a voice barely human. “Now I’m going to leave your entrails all over this hall!” Tabba had now grown beyond the height of Stanley, who now looking up into his face could see clearly his own death when…

“Stop! Please, Prince Tabba…spare him!” cried Queen Tana jumping to her feet along with her husband and people. In horror, the Akkadians and Earthlings saw Tabba crush Stanley’s huge forearm as though it was cardboard. The sound of grinding and grating bones was nauseating. Blood was now running from Stanley’s nose and mouth as the semi-transformed prince lifted him completely off the floor. The forest queen looked desperately to her warriors, now moving forward, warning them back, then to the empress. In terror, the president saw Lord Talos’s body transform from ebony flesh to the color and seeming consistency of polished black stone. He then exposed his fangs. The empress’s eyes burned as she stood legs spread apart glaring at Queen Tana’s warriors and she cracked her knuckles. If Tabba didn’t release the young forest lord soon a bloody melee was sure to ensue.

“Please…Please, Your Highness!” begged the terrified Akkadian President. “The Earthlings…”

“The Akkadian is right, Daughter
,” said a familiar voice in her head.
“I
know the boy has behaved intolerably, but now is not the time and Queen Tana will not allow it. The boy is a nobleman. She can’t let your son kill him. She has to protect her subjects…whether she wants to or not. I am telepathically holding your son back, unknown to him, but I can’t hold him for long.”

Slowly Beral’s eyes looked at the terrified Akkadians and then to the Earthlings. “Release him my son!” cried Beral, but the boy seemed not to hear. “I said…
release him!!”
That seemed to reach him and there was a loud sigh of relief from the guest as the released, but gasping, Stanley crumpled to the floor. Quickly, healers rushed to attend to the boy and none too soon, his trachea was crushed. If he didn’t have regeneration and super human strength he’d been a goner already. He was almost a goner then.

“I…I apologize for him, my empress,” said Queen Tana. “I promise that he WILL be punished!”

Beral III’s temper was quickly dissipating. “No, I…I think the boy’s injuries and public defeat is punishment enough. Send him back to his quarters and let him rest.” There was grateful applauds at this and the sore, but
breathing
Stanley was helped away.

Timidly, Princess Abe touched the still transformed and growling Tabba’s arm. “Hey, calm down,” she said soothingly, “it’s alright now…okay?” The prince reverted back to his human form. Abe motioned to a frightened servant that it was alright to clean up the mess and to bring more refreshments.

“Is there more of that meat?” growled Tabba. The servant nodded and hurried away.

In the far corner of the feasting hall, the three veiled elders looked on with approval.
“Hmmm, I wasn’t too impressed with that girl or her son…until now,”
said Bellasaris mentally to the other two.
“She seemed too conscientious and gentle to rule much less deal with the humans, but NOW I’ve seen another side of her and I like it.”

Cato grunted in agreement.
“Yes, and I believe the Earthlings have now had a change of opinion of Beral III as well.

Gorgo said nothing, but nodded in agreement. What had her attention was the way many of the young women and their parents were now looking at Prince Tabba. She smiled to herself. The empress had a situation on her hands and if she hadn’t figured it out yet she soon would. But the wild girl had already laid her claim.
Bellasaris should be thanking that young fool who caused the commotion. In his jealousy he made the prince reveal his true nature and caused the very thing to happen that he feared most,
thought Gorgo.
She looked at her older descendant with pride. Talos had shift back into human form, but like his son, he was still heated and had a surly expression on his face. Beral tried to return the veil to his face, but he snarled and she quickly backed off. On the other side of the couple, President Chambers was glad she wasn’t sitting next to that man. Beral III had apologized for her behavior and that of her family and subjects, but reminded her that this was an informal gathering and that even on Earth, fights do happen in such gatherings, especially when alcohol and young people of different genders are in the mix. Furthermore, she had assured her that
nothing
like that would happen at the
formal
dinner tomorrow. But the president could tell that the mood was now…different. To be perfectly honest, even she was impressed by these Bellasarian men, but what she had just seen was, in a word, ‘Awesome’! She could also see why the empress was so paranoid about anyone seeing her husband’s face, especially in Bellasarian society and at a gathering like this. Several high ranking women were already eyeing the goods with great approval and even hunger, but then again…so was the empress.

“My empress,” said a vassal queen sweetly. “I ask your favor. May I have your mate for a little fun tonight?”

Beral could see already that several of the visiting queens and chieftesses had the same idea. Technically, it would be bad manners to refuse, but Beral III had another way out of this situation, one just as culturally correct.

“Certainly, Sister…and naturally you’ll let me try out
your
man.” The other woman turned white at this. If the empress got a hold of her mate (who was not nearly as strong or durable as Lord Talos) the man could be killed or crippled for life. But Beral was fully in her rights to demand this. Indeed, it was common courtesy. The other woman chuckled nervously, and then claiming to have been only joking, withdrew her request. The other queens quickly erased this thought from their minds as well. Beral chuckled and gently, but possessively, placed her hand on top of her husband’s.

******

It was about thirty minutes after the fight and several bottles of booze later and still almost no one was dancing. Normally by now the floor would be full of people. Either couples or women and girls dancing for their men or those they’d
like
to be their man…at least for the night. But it was clear that for certain reasons that part of the party had been skipped by most of the guest and had jumped straight to what usually came later, often in private
after
the party, but not always. Not among Bellasarians of the old houses and bloodlines.

Gorgo chuckled as she looked at Beral cozying up to Talos. True she had been trying to calm him down, but it was painfully obvious that all that testosterone had turned her on…and she wasn’t the only one.

Prince Tabba had been in a very good mood until that asshole had spoiled it. He would have been in a good mood again if his mother hadn’t stopped him from ripping that guy’s face off. Now he sat fuming and indulging in raw meat, something that he had always been told was for animals, thinking about how much a fool that guy had made him look like in front of the forest princess, never realizing it was just the opposite. As he was eating he became aware of Princess Abe biting at his wrist. She then worked her way up to his shoulder and neck, and then bit him on the cheek. Her mother grinned and nudged her husband as the sound of purring was now coming from the prince without him even being aware of it. Abe then grabbed his head and began licking the blood from the meat off his mouth and soon the two were making out hard and heavy.

The Akkadian President cleared his throat, trying to get the empress’s attention, who was pressing herself against her husband. He was now becoming receptive to her and her hand was beginning to wander below the rippling muscles of midsection.

“What IS it?”
she growled mentally.

“Empress, your son…”
stammered the distressed Kaminski.
“Well he and Queen Tana’s daughter…Oh my! Empress Beral! You can’t do…”

“I can do whatever I want here, Akkadian!”
snapped the empress.
“Now, what about my son and Princess Abe? Are they fighting over there again or something?”
Beral looked over and her eyebrows rose and a grin appeared on her face. “Well done Tabba!” she said under her breath. Before the Akkadian could say anything more another voice entered the empress’s mind, this time by a Melmorian Princess.

“Empress, the behavior of that barbarian girl is most unforgivable! First she brazenly face-strips the young prince in front of everyone! Now she monopolizes him! I…That is…The other princesses of the realm…What I mean is…”

“Empress Beral,”
came yet another voice,
“I, Queen Sel of the Bass, wish to cement our families’ friendship. There has never been a union between our houses by blood, even though we’ve now been at peace with one another for five hundred years. Now my daughter is of age and your son…”

Beral was beginning to lose her patience. For one, all of these people were flooding her mind at once. Also, her need had been steadily growing and her husband was finally coming around. Couldn’t these people see that their timing was bad? They were quite annoying. Mentally she sent out a reply to the Akkadian President and the Bass Queen.
“I fear my son might be spoken for now…but we’ll see later. As for you other princesses, Princess Abe got to him first. That’s all there is to it. You may ask her to share or wait your turn, but I will not interfere in their fun. Besides…what do you expect me to do now? For all I know they could have bonded.”

“But Empress,”
pressed the Akkadian President
, “this is improper! They’re…”

“Having fun!” snapped Beral, cutting the man off. “Like I’m trying to do! This is a party, complain or talk politics tomorrow! Now leave me alone!”

The
American
President was oblivious to what was going on next to her because she was so focused on what was going on across from her at Queen Tana’s people’s place.

Princess Abe was all over Prince Tabba and much to the shock of the Earthlings, soon shoved him onto his back and began pulling at his robes.

“Why do you Illyrians wear so much clothes?!” panted the princess. “Where ARE you?!?” In moments however the young man’s powerful upper body was exposed and soon everything else…but not for long.

“Did you see that?” gasped one of the Americans. “She just tore off that boy’s clothes and jumped right onto his…”

“I
guess
that’s the advantage of wearing just a skimpy animal skin around your waist and no underwear,” said the president dryly, before the woman could finish the sentence. “Dr. Kline’s journal was right on the mark about these people. That girl’s parents don’t even give a damn about what their daughter is doing right next to them!”

The First Man looked over and couldn’t help thinking that his wife should be worried about what was going on right next to
her
. “Beverly, I think perhaps the empress has had a little too much to drink.”

The president looked over, gasped, and literally jumped almost onto her husband’s lap. Empress Beral III was pulling at her husband’s garments and her top was off. The President’s husband was now getting an eyeful of what he had been imagining about all night. He looked on in shameless envy as the
empress’s
husband was getting
more
than an eye full. The First Man then looked down and saw what had startled his wife and suddenly felt the same feelings of inferiority his wife must have after seeing the empress’s equipment
.
“Stephanie!” hissed the president to one of her aides who was mesmerized by the High Lord’s…er…
anatomy
. “Stephanie, get over to that Akkadian President who promised us a way out of this mess if it happened and tell him we want to
leave!
”

“What?”

“Dammit woman, will you tear your eyes off of that man’s tool and tell that Akkadian shit to
do
something!” hissed the president.

“Oh! Oh…uh… right away, Lady President!” Quickly the aide hurried around to the miserable President Kaminski’s table and excused herself. “President Kaminski, do…do you think NOW would be the right time to excuse ourselves?” asked the hastily sent over aide to the Akkadian President, but before he could answer, a powerful mind spoke to the Earthlings and Akkadians alike.

“You cannot leave unless you excuse yourself properly to the empress,”
said the female voice in amusement,
“and she’s busy now. If you should leave without doing so, it would be seen as VERY bad manners and that could jeopardize your mission. You would be advised to wait until…Well, until their first round of love-play is over, whenever that is, and then excuse yourselves.”
Beverly looked at the Akkadian President, who glumly nodded that this was true. “
Or
”, continued the voice, “
you could have a little fun yourselves. After all, your husbands and wives are here. And there are plenty of high ranking human Bellasarian men and women here as well. Many of them have had their eyes on certain attractive people among you for some time now. Well, WELL! Now that fellow has the right idea!”