Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 02:43:28 EST
From: Tommyhawk1@aol.com
Subject: PofD4:Secret.of.the.Turtle.Men.18

		   SECRET OF THE TURTLE MEN, CHAPTER 18
			   "Mahmoud's Greeting"
			   By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM

     Pavel's first thought at seeing this many men was that of betrayal.
He and his friends wouldn't be returned to Mahmoud for the ransom agreed
upon, they would squeeze Mahmoud for all he would pay.
     Would Mahmoud even pay?  Pavel had no illusions about his "husband."
Mahmoud's driving ambition was power, and he now sat on the throne only
while Pavel was away.  For Pavel to return was the same as to remove him
from power, and it could not reassure Mahmoud as to his stated intentions
of staying away from Medina Jadeed for the rest of his life.
     Jethro was less reticent; however.  "What the hell were you doing to
us?" He demanded of the bandit leader.
     "Why, whatever's wrong?" Efram's grin belied his ingenuous words and
tone.
     "You took off and left us in that...that hall of doors.  We could have
ended up who-knew-where!"
     "You found your way out well enough." Efram said.  "We would have come
looking for you in a moment, but thought you'd appreciate some privacy
after diving through that mist.  And I needed a more sympathetic sex
partner for myself.  Which one of you would have helped me in my time of
need?"
     "Not me!" Jethro agreed.  "Your nuts could have busted for all I
care!"
     Efram and his comrades laughed.  "Well, you're here now, and there is
Medina Jadeed.  Now if you would care to go with us to the palace so we may
collect our reward for gaining your freedom, we shall be on our separate
ways by nightfall."
     The men didn't wait for Pavel and his friends to catch up with them;
they started on the short walk to Medina Jadeed, trusting Pavel and his
company to follow.  They did look back from time to time, and if Pavel had
tried to get away, they could have caught up to the four of them easily
enough.  They had weapons where Pavel and his friends had none, and
outnumbered them almost three to one; no, they had nothing to fear from
Pavel, Jethro, Jassem and Pelen.
     "Is that your home?" Pelen asked.  "Is that Medina Jadeed?"
     "Yes, it is." Pavel said.  "Except it's not my home.  My home is on
the other side of the mountains."
     "But you rule here?"
     "It turned out that way, yes." Pavel said.  "But I would have been a
member of Mahmoud's harem if things had gone the way he had planned it."
     "Things rarely turn out the way they are planned." Jethro agreed.
"I'm thinking about that hall of doors back there.  You wanted a way
through the mountains, right?  Well, there it is, and right convenient to
Medina Jadeed, too.  Through that cavern, out the other door and right into
Connobar.  The problem is solved."
     "What are these men going to think about us using that cavern?" Jassem
pointed out.  "It must be a closely guarded secret, as it is the source of
their power in many lands.  Nothing was agreed about letting us use
that...that hall of doors."
     "Something else to negotiate." Pavel agreed.
     "Pavel?" Pelen said.
     "Yes, Pelen."
     "Are you going to put me in your harem?"
     Jethro burst out laughing loudly.  "I bet you'd look very cute dressed
in one of those harem outfits!"
     Pelen looked exasperated rather than offended.  "I mean, if you are
the Sultan, where are we to stay while we're here?"
     "There are guest quarters in the palace." Jassem pointed out.  "And
you should have seen how Jethro looked while dressed as a harem guard."
     That wiped the smile off Jethro's face.  Then it returned.  "A fine
thing for you to say to me, after I married you in order to protect your
honor and give your child a name."
     "What was that?" Pelen asked.
     Tale of their first visit to the palace harem was told to Pelen.
     "I don't understand." Pelen said when it was done.  "You were
just...just taken and put into the harem.  To be the slaves of Mahmoud."
     "Just about." Pavel agreed.  "It was his choice entirely."
     "Mahmoud wielded a lot of power as the Sultan of Medina Jadeed."
Jassem explained.  "Pavel now controls this same power, though he gave it
to Mahmoud while he was away."
     "And I planned to stay away, but now we have to rescue those people in
the Djinni's cavern.  With that hall of doors, and the help of the Ifriti,
it's just possible to do it, I think."
     "I keep telling you how many Djinni there are, and you keep ignoring
me." Jethro complained.  "That hallway also limits how many people can get
out at one time.  And the mist is flowing from there, don't forget that.
Everyone comes out fucking instead of swinging those swords.  With the
Djinni there to provide a very rude coitus interruptus."
     "It is not a complete answer." Jassem agreed.  "But it makes it more
likely than it was before."
     "If we can use it." Pavel agreed.  "I have to bargain with Efram
again."
     But they were already at Medina Jadeed, and he had been recognized.
Soon, Pavel was surrounded by a crowd of well-wishers, many strong, brown
men strove to touch him and threw flowers or blessings or words of greeting
his way.  Efram and his men found themselves de facto guards of the Sultan;
they had to clear the way for Pavel and his friends to get to the palace at
the high end of Medina Jadeed's only street.
     And Mahmoud heard the clamor and was on his balcony where he had taken
his farewell of Pavel.  Pavel looked, but neither his father nor Commander
Sachsen were there.  Ah, well, he hadn't really expected them to be.  But
it would have been nice if they had been!
     It was almost a relief to be inside the palace walls, for the crowds
and their clangorous welcome had reminded him uncomfortably of the Djinni's
valley, and the roar of happiness at his return sounded so very much like
the constant buzzing of Djinni wings.
     Mahmoud came downstairs, dressed in elegant white robes, and his face
was wide with a smile of...welcome?
     "Ah, my husband returns!" he pronounced and moved forward.  Pavel was
puzzled by this until Mahmoud, at the requisite distance, stopped and
prostrated himself before Pavel.
     "Ah...arise." Pavel said.
     "I greet my husband with gladness in my heart, for I had feared
greatly for your safety." Mahmoud said effusively.  Pavel frowned; the
words sounded sincere!  Well, he would take the words at face value and see
what happened next.
     "I am alive, though I have only been able to return at a high cost.
These men with me ransomed me from the Djinni, and I must repay their
ransom."
     Mahmoud didn't flinch at that.  "But of course.  And what was the
price they paid?"
     "I promised them the weight of this man's sword in jewels." Pavel
pointed to Efram.
     "And I suggest you deliver, oh husband of the Sultan Al-Fajr." Efram
said with a significant tone in his voice.
     Mahmoud didn't bobble at this threat.  "Of a certainty, but you must
be fatigued from your long journey." Mahmoud said.  "Come, make yourselves
all comfortable.  Eh!  We have guests!"  Mahmoud clapped his hands and
guards appeared, and Efram and his men went into a defensive crouch.
     Mahmoud did frown at this.  "You doubt my intentions?"
     "Let me say instead that I have no reason to believe you." Efram
declared.
     "Mahmoud has declared you to be guests." Jassem gently explained.  "As
such, you are safe here."
     "I have no better reason to believe you."
     "The price you pay for the life you lead." Pelen judged.  "You betray
others, and so expect betrayal."
     "I knew the price I would pay when I chose the life I lead, or rather,
when it chose me." Efram said.  "And I see no reason to put myself and my
men into the hands of the guards."
     "Do you trust me?" Pavel asked Efram.
     Efram turned and looked at him, and something in his face softened
ever so slightly.
     "You have my word that you will be safe here, paid in full and allowed
to depart without danger." Pavel said, looked at Mahmoud.
     "Of course." Mahmoud agreed.  "I never intended anything less.  You
have rescued my husband from a horrible fate, and my heart only holds
gratitude.  Come, let my men lead you to your quarters.  The mid-morning
mist will arrive before long, and we must repair to our beds.  I shall be
able to share with my husband for the first time in a long while."
     Pavel's heart stopped.  Was this Mahmoud's plan?  To get him alone and
slit his throat?
     Efram, however, had decided.  "We are safe here." he declared to his
men, slipped off his sword and buckler, handed it to one of the guards.
"We trust your hospitality.  You may lead us to our quarters."
     "Stay with them and serve them through the mist." Mahmoud ordered.
"Afterwards, fetch them hot water for a bath and food and drink, as much as
they want."  To Pavel.  "Come, my husband, the mist approaches.  Hear the
song of warning from the muezzin of the watchtower?"
     The man was indeed chanting the words Pavel had come to expect twice a
day, one about this time.  Whereas the mist arrived in early morning in the
Djinni Valley, it approached the Arab plains near mid-morning.  He had
perhaps endured this very same mist only a few hours before!
     He went almost numbly with the guards that followed and him with
Mahmoud.  His friends were led in another direction.  When would the blow
from the assassin's blade strike him?  What was Mahmoud planning here?
     They went in fact to the main bedchamber of the palace.  Inside,
Mahmoud clapped his hands and Pavel flinched, but the hands only summoned
three young men who quickly helped both of them disrobe.
     "There is a moment yet." Mahmoud said as his final wrap around his
loins was removed, now he stood as he had in the Temple of Children that
fateful day no long before, a strong, virile, handsome man, regal in
bearing and strong in the arms and legs, the hairs in their complex design
as they always were.  "Servants, give my husband a bath of oil."
     Pavel stepped into the shallow basin preferred, and sweet-scented oils
played over his body, and the young, strong hands of the men-servants
rubbed it into his much-abused skin.  He felt his body soak up this light
oil gratefully, it turned his body into a golden shining tower.
     Mahmoud smiled at Pavel when the men were done, bowed and excused
themselves.  "My husband, you have returned to me once more.  I had thought
you lost to me forever."
     "I don't plan to stay long." Pavel promised.  "I only returned because
of the Djinni...."
     But Mahmoud was upon him.  And so was the mist, which streamed through
the window and bringing with it a quick hush from the streets below.
     Mahmoud's strong arms clutched Pavel in ardor and with a strange
gentleness to them.  Mahmoud's lips found his and offered rather than stole
from him.  His need rising with the mist that was a palpable presence in
the room now, reaching up from the floor with a hundred fat-topped tendrils
and his body came alive with every grasping stroke of the mist, but that
sensation quickly turned to the strokes offered by Mahmoud's massive hands!
     Pavel decided that Mahmoud at least intended to wait before striking
at him, and permitted his body to relax into Mahmoud's embrace.  There was
something about Pavel's father in Mahmoud's touch on this day, or perhaps
it was the strangeness he had lived in for so many days, but the gentleness
of this strong clasp of arms was so very much like coming home!
     Pavel relaxed into Mahmoud, but found instead that Mahmoud relaxed
into him.  It was so very easy for Pavel to kiss those lips, let his mouth
wander across that broad, flat cheek to nibble the strong-muscled neck and
shoulders, and Mahmoud sighed in happiness and lowered them both back onto
the cushions that filled most of the room, for Mahmoud's bed was a mountain
of many cushions, and thus his bed could be conformed as he chose in a
hundred configurations.
     Now it was a nest for them to lie in, Pavel atop Mahmoud.
     "Let us take each other, my husband." Mahmoud crooned as Pavel locked
onto one fat distended nipple.  "Let me enter you while you enter me."
     "I...I cannot." Pavel remembered.  "I have been injured but last night
and must rest my body.  But I will pleasure you as I can."
     "Pleasure me by taking me, then." Mahmoud said.  When Pavel started to
lift Mahmoud's legs, Mahmoud stopped him.  "No, my husband.  Take me as a
husband and not a lover."
     Realizing, Pavel scooted higher and found the opening at Mahmoud's
navel and Mahmoud's hand quickly engulfed his prong and guided it inside.
It was a tight ring of clutching muscles that worked in welcome, and then
into a wider opening that then constricted around his cock, sheathing it in
warm pulsations like the beating of a loving heart.
     "Ah, yes, my husband and Sultan, yes." Mahmoud sighed, throwing back
his head in pleasure.  "Ah, long have I dreamed of the day when you would
take me in this way at last!  Ah!"
     Pavel began to fuck at Mahmoud's navel, slowly at first and then
quicker as he found that he wasn't hurting Mahmoud in the least, but
rather, Mahmoud groaned with each thrust of Pavel's prick into his body,
moaned in despair as Pavel pulled back out again, to thrill again as Pavel
pushed back into his very core.
     This was damned pleasurable, Pavel thought, but he couldn't kiss in
this position, except for the top of Mahmoud's head festooned with black
hair, for Mahmoud was too low down on him.  Mahmoud, however, could and did
grasp one of Pavel's nipples in his lips and he proceeded to roll the nub
around with his tongue, sending a hundred discrete bursts of pleasure
through Pavel's chest, and Pavel moaned, his cock began to fill that extra
degree, to become harder than ever, and he humped at Mahmoud's midriff and
ran his hands over those strong, wide shoulders, that hairy chest fit into
the concave of Pavel's abdomen as if designed for it, and a hundred hairs
tickled his stomach as Pavel pumped into Mahmoud, his need rising within
him faster by the moment.
     "Ah, the mist, the betraying mist." Mahmoud groaned.  "My husband, I
burn, I burn!  Pray, quench my fire with your flowing love, and soon, my
love, soon!"
     There was no danger of that, Pavel thought, he was about to explode
already!  He gave his body free reign to excite itself as it would, and he
felt orgasm as a myriad of spider-web lines all over his body, ripples of
pleasure traveling the lines like drops of morning dew upon the web, but
all the web's line ran to the very core, and the core was his crotch, and
his penis the fat spider that perched there!
     Pavel sobbed his pleasure out with wracking bursts of sound, and
Mahmoud matched him sound for sound, then Pavel felt heat boiling up from
within Mahmoud so that it scorched his passion-alive pud still driving into
Mahmoud's body, and Pavel gripped Mahmoud as tightly as he could, hunched
with the fury of a rutting rabbit, and gave a single, strangled groan as
his body exposed his insides in a burst of climax, turning him inside-out
so that the world was not surrounding him; he was surrounding the world!
     He blasted into Mahmoud and Mahmoud groaned in satisfaction and Pavel
felt the hot, wet splats of Mahmoud's seed spraying his buttocks and thighs
with geysers of high-flying jism that ran in streams down the insides of
both his legs, Pavel noting this as the single two lines of any cohesion in
his entire body, the rest of him was lost in his ejaculation, sprayed
across the universe and the universe was composed not of matter or atoms,
but of orgasm.
     Done, his body wrung dry, Pavel dropped onto Mahmoud's lap, soggy and
slippery with the oil and his sweat and the come that poured out of
Mahmoud's navel and upon Pavel's buttocks where it had been shot, and Pavel
sank into Mahmoud's grip and felt safe, utterly safe, and he fell fast
asleep right where he was, in the bosom of his worst enemy.
     He awoke some time later to the touch of warm water upon his body.  He
looked up and found that the cushions had been mainly removed while he
slept, and now he lay upon a few cushions in the middle of the room, and
around his was warm water, and Mahmoud had begun the process of scooping
the water over him, and it was followed by cleansing, wonderful soap!
     Pavel lay there and enjoyed the feeling of Mahmoud's muscled hands as
they washed his body gently, removing the oil and the poisons of filth and
sweat he had accumulated in the days past, and after a time, Pavel said,
"Mahmoud?"
     "Yes, my husband?"
     "Where are my friends?"
     "They are resting, as should you." Mahmoud said.  "It has been a
strenuous journey for you, and your body needs rest.  There will be a
banquet for you all tonight, you and your rescuers, and we shall all listen
eagerly to your travels."
     "All right." Pavel said.  He watched Mahmoud at his task a bit longer,
and gave an unexpectedly loud sound of realization.
     Mahmoud hadn't plotted against him!  In fact, Mahmoud was actually
happy that Pavel was back in Medina Jadeed!

			     END OF CHAPTER 18