Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 20:49:08 EST
From: Tommyhawk1@aol.com
Subject: Sheik of Desire, Chapter 8

			     SHEIK, CHAPTER 8
		      "The Time of the Morning Mist"
			   By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM

     A loud call in Arabic came from the front of the line while Pavel was
still gasping from shooting his third load and was still clinging, gasping,
to Aram's sturdy back.  Aram himself had squirted four loads into the
sukhusan's uncomplaining fur, so Aram sighed and gently disengaged Pavel's
hand from his still-hard cock.  "Now we pause for a space, O Sheik." he
said.  "This is so that all may heed the call to prayer and tend to our
souls.  Then we will pause a bit longer while we tend to our bodies, for it
is nearly the time of the morning mist."
     Pavel knew that devout Muslims prayed five times a day, so he wasn't
surprised at this stop.  "What do I do after the prayers?  Do I get to take
off the belt?  Or do I join Mahmoud?"
     "No, my Sheik." Aram smiled.  "Not unless Mahmoud calls for you.  But
he has the concubines from Rashid to pleasure him, you and his other
husband will not be called upon again until he has finished claiming all of
them by taking them to his bed.  The belt will care for you in all ways,
until it is removed, which shall be tonight when you are placed into the
Sultan's harem."
     "Good." Pavel said and slipped off.  "I could stand to stretch my legs
a while."
     "Do not stray far, O Sheik Al-Fajr."  Aram took off the blanket on
which they had ridden, laid it out on the grass.  "Sit here and relax while
we pray."
     Pavel snorted.  "Where would I go?"
     Jethro and Jassem joined him.  "I must go to prayers with the others."
Jassem said as Pavel approached.  "But first, is there anything I can fetch
you, a drink of water perhaps, or a bit of food?"
     "I am fine." Pavel smiled.  "Just go enjoy yourself."
     "We already have." Jethro said.  "I could get addicted to this life."
     "If we don't think of something, you may get to stick around and enjoy
it." Pavel said.  "I think we should try to escape tonight."
     "But you cannot, not tonight." Jassem said, who had started to leave
but turned back quickly.  "Tonight you will be given into the care of the
harem-keeper, the Sultan's elder brother, atop the Mountain of the Stars.
There, away from the mists, your body may rest and make itself the more
ready to receive the new life on the morrow."
     "Just where is this Mountain of the Stars?" Jethro wanted to know.
     Jassem pointed towards where they were headed.  "Can you see that
white glow?  That is the Sultan's palace at Medina Jadeed.  To the left and
above, that large outcropping, with the small building atop it?  That is
the harem, the large building.  That smaller one is the observatory of
Hassan bin-Hadid, which we call the Mountain of the Stars."
     "As the elder, shouldn't he be Sultan?" Pavel asked.
     Jassem shrugged.  "As I am told, he willingly gave his birthright over
to Mahmoud in exchange for a promise from Mahmoud to build him his
observatory and fund it for the rest of his life.  Nothing I have seen
causes me to doubt that this is what he actually did.  All who have met
Hassan describe him as a kind, quiet, intelligent man whose only love is
that of looking at the stars."
     "Sounds like a dull night for me." Pavel grinned.  "And a chance to
get some sleep."
     "Sounds like an impossible escape to me." Jethro chimed in.  "That
rock looks isolated."
     "I do not know.  I have never seen it any closer than I am now."
Jassem shrugged.  "I am your servant, and I will obey you and help you
escape and go with you, but I do suggest that you choose instead to embrace
your new life here, with me."
     "Go and clean yourself up and say your prayers." Jethro said suddenly.
"We'll be all right over here."
     Pavel wondered at this, and then saw the reason; Jezreel was walking
his way, flanked by two guards.  He thought about running, but decided it
was best to face Jezreel, no matter how unpleasant this was about to be.
Jethro turned and suddenly Pavel was glad that Jethro was with them, for
even unarmed he looked formidable, and the two guards flinched at his glare
and clenched fists.
     Jezreel stopped a short distance away.  "If we may speak in private,
Pavel?" he said.
     "Fine." Pavel said coldly.
     Jethro gave him a dubious glance, and then stepped away a distance,
and the two guards of Jezreel left them to join the others who appeared to
be washing their feet.  Jezreel drew close and Pavel saw the same green fur
band around his groin, smirked and said.  "How is married life treating
you, fourth husband of the Sultan?" he asked.
     "Pavel, this is not how I had planned things to work." Jezreel said
desperately fast.  "God, where do I start?"
     "How about at the beginning, and the truth this time.  Like how you
planned with Mahmoud to turn me over to him."
     "That's not how it was meant to work at all!"
     "That's how it turned out." Pavel pointed out.
     "Look, Pavel, you don't know the ways of my people." Jezreel said.
     "I'm learning fast." Pavel said.  "And I don't like what I've learned
so far."
     "Could you stop beating up on me long enough to let me explain?
Please?"
     "Go ahead." Pavel said.  "We're going to be waiting until they finish
praying anyway."
     "Look, I did go with the Angels as I told you.  They told me about
these people, and I asked to take a look.  I met with Mahmoud and found out
about the waters at Medina Jadeed.  Mahmoud told me that it's like a small
pool that you and your husband get into and make love in.  Then one of you
turns out pregnant.  Mahmoud says publicly that it's the Will of Allah
which one gets pregnant with the child, but admitted to me privately that
the younger of the men always turns up to be the one with child."
     "Pregnant." Pavel tasted the odd word.  "What's that?"
     "I mean that the child actually grows out of your body.  The waters
seem to somehow put a child into your stomach cavity inside a sort of womb
it creates.  Your navel becomes an opening for this womb.  After that, you
can have children that way whenever you like.  You sort of become part
female for the rest of your life.  Mahmoud had one of his concubines show
me the opening.  It's almost invisible unless you know where to look.  It
opens up just enough to...to make love with.  There's even some pleasure
for the one being made love to, they tell me."
     Pavel grimaced.  "So this is the fate you planned for me?"  Pavel had
never seen women, and his view of them was not favorable.  His father
claimed his view was distorted by the combination of myths which had
cropped up on this planet, and the rough memories of former soldiers'
reminisces.  Pavel had replied what difference did it make what he thought
about women, who were creatures he had never seen and never would, and
wouldn't be interested in even if he did happen to meet one?  His father
didn't have a good answer to that and had let him be, saying they'd discuss
it again some other day.  That other day had never come.
     "I didn't know Mahmoud planned to marry you all along!  The deal was
that I was to become his agent in our valley, negotiating the use of the
waters for our own people and getting trade goods for Mahmoud.  It was only
fair."
     "So where did I fit in?"
     "You and I were to be married." Jezreel said.  "I was saving that as a
surprise for you.  I was going to ask you after we met with Mahmoud and had
some time alone together."
     "Well, we both got married, all right." Pavel pointed out.  "And I was
damned surprised, I promise you."
     "When we ended up with Rashid instead of Mahmoud, I had to think fast.
Fortunately, Aziz mentioned Mahmoud's name and I was able to find out how
to get in touch with Mahmoud through Aziz.  Rashid really was out to steal
you away from Mahmoud.  He put his eldest unmarried son onto you, you may
have noticed."
     "I like Jassem." Pavel retorted.  "He's nice."
     "That's because he promised Jassem that you would marry him.  I tried
to get you rescued by Mahmoud before anything happened.  Instead, you and
Jethro ran away."
     "We fled a raid on the village where we were guests!"
     "You fled a rescue party out to save you."
     "Save me for what?"
     "I was awake most of the night, wondering what had happened to you."
Jezreel said.  "The next morning, I was told by a servant that came to me
that you were now married to Mahmoud.  Then he told me of the marriage
proposal from Mahmoud for me.  It was a way for us to be together.  So...I
accepted."
     "Now Mahmoud has our valley, or thinks he has, without any need for
you."
     "He warned me by the servant that if I still wanted to be his agent, I
could not have his children.  It's a common enough thing among these
tribes, an agent allied to the leader by marriage, but left childless and
to be divorced at the end of the agency.  So he will keep me childless, and
after he has set things up, you and I will return to the valley and we can
pretend that Mahmoud never married either one of us.  As long as we are
discreet about it, we can fuck as much as we want."
     "Me with a...a womb inside my navel." Pavel said.  "You planning on
using that to have children with me, maybe?"
     "No." Jezreel admitted.  "If you became pregnant by me, we would both
be executed.  You'll have the child by Mahmoud, more if you want them with
him.  As many as you want.  Me...I can never have children as long as we
are together."
     Jezreel looked so sad at this that Pavel almost felt sorry for him.
"Why didn't you just tell my father that you had spoken with Mahmoud, and
were going to use him to get the water we needed?"
     "Your father wouldn't have chosen me for his agent.  I could have made
us both rich by being Mahmoud's agent.  And it's not just Facilitata
Valley, Connobar will also need the waters too, if only to help keep up the
number of Facilitators.  And Connobar will want Arab men to be Facilitators
for them, and we could have supplied them with the men, through Mahmoud's
help.  Before long, the only source of children will be from Arab men.  And
from the waters, and you can bet that Mahmoud will keep a very close eye on
the waters.  He'll squeeze every advantage out of it he can get.  Before
long...your children or grandchildren will own this entire world."
     "So this is what you sold us both out for?  The chance to become rich?
To be part of a...a new royal family of some sort?  To set up an Empire
here?"
     "I did it for us." Jezreel said.  "Or what we could have had.  Mahmoud
lied to me.  Now I have to fix things up as well as I can.  I'll still be
his agent, we'll still be together, you'll have children, as many as you
want and they won't lack for anything.  Isn't that worth something?"
     "You talk just like Jassem." Pavel said.  "Mahmoud has stolen
everything you ever wanted, even your chance to have children, and you just
plan to let him get away with it?"
     "Jassem and I are of the same people." Jezreel said.  "He understands,
even if you don't. Sometimes you have to trust that things will work out
all right.."  Jezreel hesitated.  "There's mist approaching.  The hot
daytime sun causes the cooler winds to surge out of the mountains, and it
brings the mist with it.  It happens every day about this time.  They call
it the time of the morning mist."
     Pavel turned and looked to see the pink mist as a solid band on the
horizon.  The men were at their prayers, and Pavel noticed that they prayed
rapidly, trying to finish their religious duty before the mist made prayer
impossible.  "We'd better choose sex partners." Pavel touched his waist.
"Well, no, I don't guess we have to, do we?"
     Jezreel wet his lips nervously.  "Could I lie with you while we wait?
These bands won't let us make love, but we can hold each other and...and
stuff.  The mates of a leader like Mahmoud usually are not friendly to each
other, but there's nothing that prevents us from being friends.  We can
even make love if we can find some privacy.  Sometimes.  But with these
bands on us, here and now, we can lie together and hold each other, and
talk, and kiss all you want.  It'll be almost like sex, and nobody will
care.  Please, let me be with you for a while.  Once we get to Medina, they
won't even let us be together for a long time."
     "I don't know." Pavel hesitated.  The pain in Jezreel's eyes was
obvious and sincere.
     "Just hold me for a while." Jezreel promised.  "Please."
     Pavel gave in and held out his arms, and Jezreel went into them like a
small child.
     "I messed up so bad." Jezreel mumbled into Pavel's shoulder.
     "You were greedy." Pavel admitted sympathetically.  "You tried to get
everything, and you got outfoxed, that's all."
     "Will you ever forgive me?" Jezreel asked despondently.
     Pavel sighed.  "I will when I can understand it.  For now, let's just
forget about it for a time, okay?  Let's pretend that we're back in our
valley and never even heard of this place at all."
     "I'd like that." Jezreel said.
     Pavel sat down on the blanket Aram had laid out, saw one edge of it
heavily stained by Aram's seed, a dried, white, crusty patch.  He lazily
picked at it, watched it turn to dust as he freed it from the fibers, and
blow away on the wind.  He looked toward the wind's source, the mountains,
and noticed the patch of pink mist coming very close now.  The Muslims had
finished their prayers and were coupling up in anticipation of its arrival.
     Well, Jezreel was with him, even if both of them now had these weird
green belts on their cocks.  It was better than nothing, and when the pink
mist touched you, you settled for what you could get.  Enemies forgot their
quarrels and odd combinations combined when the mist took hold.  While the
mist held sway, enemies forgot their quarrels and nobody was fussy about
who they were with.  When the mist was in dominance, the handsomest stud
would reach lustfully for the ugliest troll, and kiss him with lips hungry
and with passion unfeigned.  The mist forgave all.
     Jezreel seemed to sense Pavel's chain of thought, and he smiled, knelt
down and gently lowered Pavel back onto the rug, lay himself over Pavel.
     Pavel felt Jezreel's cock inside the band, through the layers of fur.
Felt how it pulsed on Jezreel.  The band around his own cock was speeding
up, too.
     And the mist was upon them.  No matter how long a person lived on
Desire, a massive influx of mist such as this was enough to strip the mind
of reason, and with its arrival, Pavel totally forgot the conditions of his
existence for a time.
     Not that he didn't want Jezreel, want that warm body atop his, want
those lips that pressed against his own.  He reached down and palped the
slim buttocks encased in the fur, fumbled for a time trying to remove the
clinging garment, to be balked by it and he turned instead to stroking the
unencumbered back.
     Jezreel sighed and he hunched against Pavel, clinging to him tightly.
Pavel felt Jezreel's hands like small animals wandering over his chest,
pinching his nipples both at once, cupping his breasts and pressing them
upwards until they were elongated ellipses on Pavel's body, topped with an
overhanging brown tip pointing down at the brown hands.  Pavel stroked
Jezreel's back and brought his right hand up to fondle the black hair,
stroke the elegant ears that were slick with sweat of the journey and of
arousal.
     Jezreel groaned and now he was fucking at Pavel's body, the bands
pressed tightly together.  The bands jerked and flowed, melded; and Pavel
was startled to find that now his and Jezreel's cocks were pressed against
each other, wrapped inside a common band that pulsated and stroked them in
harmony.
     "Oh, jeez, what have we done?" Jezreel groaned.  "Mahmoud will be
furious, we aren't to take off the bands outside the harem until we bear
his children!"
     "Gah!" Pavel gasped out.  Jezreel's cock was a hot rod of
velvet-encased fire on his own prong, and the band they now shared jerked
him rapidly.
     Pavel brought his legs up and around Jezreel, mimicking their old way
of making love, though this time his legs would not go up as far around.
Whereas he would normally wrap them around Jezreel's waist, now he was
forced to rest them angle-wise across the back of Jezreel's thighs, but
even that purchase was enough to let him rut against Jezreel.
     It was almost like making love.  He was in Jezreel's arms, Jezreel and
he were both moving in harmony to the age-old rhythm and Jezreel's eyes
burned into his with their old fire.
     Pavel groaned, and felt his jism coat both their puds, and Jezreel
gasped, added his own burning seed to the fire that engulfed them.  They
thrashed together in their mutual ecstasy, lying at last, wrung dry and
sweaty in each other's arms, meshed together once more.  Pavel felt serene
and at peace for the first time in days.
     "Do not move or call out!" they heard a warning voice.  Jassem was
with them, holding up a blanket to screen them from the others.  With him
was another Arab man.  "Go, quickly and bring back two more bands!" he
hissed.  The other looked dubious and moved to obey.  "Oh, master, Sheik
Al-Fajr, what have you done here?"
     "I don't know." Pavel said.  "The bands grew together!"
     "Assuredly they did." Jassem agreed.  "You did not know of this?"
     "No." Jezreel said.  "Uh, it's starting in again."  The band was once
again stroking their cocks, flaccid but growing again under the influence
of the pink mist and the ministrations of the green band.  "What do we do?"
"We will have to cut them from you and place new ones on you at once."
Jassem said.  "No one must know that you have lain together.  It is
strictly forbidden."
     "Why?" Pavel wanted to know.  "I can make love to you, but not to
Jezreel?"
     "I am but your servant, and you may do what you will to me.  But
Jezreel is the Sultan's husband, as are you, and so both of you are guilty
of adultery.  I will keep your secret, for I know your innocence; you did
not expect the bands to meld as they have.  But we will have to make
accommodations to Saqr.  He will want much to keep your secret."
     "Whatever you say, we'll do." Pavel said.
     Saqr was back, with the bands, and the gleam in his eyes told Pavel
that he would indeed be asking things of them soon.
     "Saqr, the Sheik is grateful for your help.  For now, hold this
blanket to conceal the Sheik from the Sultan's men."  Jassem knelt behind
its confines. He brought out a smaller knife he had, barely a pen-knife,
only a few inches long.  "This will be painful." he warned.  "You must not
call out."
     "Do it, fast!" Saqr warned.  "The Sultan is done and about to call for
us to remount."
     Jassem slashed at the green bands and Pavel winced, hissed between his
clenched teeth; for the green band clutched their cocks together painfully
tight as it spasmed.  But Jassem cut deep and long, sliding the blade
between his and Jezreel's bodies, the band writhed, released them, and fell
limp.  It contracted until what Jassem removed was a round roll of green
fur, shaped much like the number "3", dividing at the split and rigid as a
pole.  Jassem dropped it into the all-pervasive grass where it blended in
almost exactly.
     "Stand up, fourth husband of the Sultan." Jassem said.  Jezreel did
and Jassem slipped the new band around Jezreel's waist.  "Now you, O
Master."  Pavel obeyed and felt the band slide in between his legs, an odd
feeling for his body was coated with sweat and it floated over the sweat
with ease.
     "If any ask you, I was with my Master, and Saqr was with you during
the time of the morning mists." Jassem said.  "But let us hope that nobody
asks any questions at all."
     "I am pleased to assist the Sheik Al-Fajr, and I trust in his
generosity." Saqr said.
     "Lower the blanket before suspicion arises.  Shake it as if you were
shaking out the dust, and then fold it." Jassem said.  "Now you and this
man, go." Jassem indicated Jezreel.  "Behave as if you were the best of
friends now, but only friends and no more."
     Pavel watched as Jezreel left with Saqr.  "Thanks, Jassem." He said.
"We just wanted to hold each other a while.  We didn't know that would
happen."
     "The lesser husband of the Sultan cannot be your friend." Jassem
warned him.  "He will do whatever it takes to put you out of favor with the
Sultan, for when you are out of favor, so will your children be.  You can
expect danger as well from the other husbands of the Sultan, who will see
you as a formidable rival, as well as their children who may lose their
birthright if the Sultan moves your children ahead of theirs."
     "Then I am surrounded by enemies." Pavel had pulled out this much from
Jassem's lecture.  "Some now, and more later."
     "Yes, and will be for the rest of your life.  Trust nobody but your
own bond-servants, such as myself and Jethro.  The rest of the time, guard
your words and your actions at all times."  Jassem motioned and then
followed Pavel back to the sukhusan where Aram waited.  As they got near,
Jassem stopped him with a hand on his back.  Pavel leaned back to hear,
"Why were you with your former wazir?  Why didn't you call for Jethro or
myself during the time of the morning mist if you wished company?"
     "Jezreel and I are in love.  We were lovers before we came here."
     Jassem seemed astonished by this.  "Well...you must not touch him
again." Jassem said.  "He is your enemy now."
     "I can't believe that!" Pavel said.  "He made a mistake."  He
hesitated, then decided to trust Jassem, who already had proven himself an
ally.  He told Jassem briefly what Jezreel had told him.  "So you see, it
was all a misunderstanding."
     "He is one of our people." Jassem countered.
     "Yes." Pavel was caught by surprise.
     "Our people always put the best possible face on their actions.  You
must learn to always look beyond the words.  Your wazir led you here,
without telling you the truth behind what was to happen.  While things may
be as he says, the fact is that now you are married to the Sultan, as is
he.  And if we believe him in this, then he is soon to become the first
agent of the Sultan in your valley, trusted because of the bonds of
marriage.  Nothing in any of this requires him to be loyal to you any
longer, and much of this asks that he betray you."
     "But I'm to go with him when he leaves." Pavel protested.  "He said
so."  And he realized then the weakness of that promise, in Jassem's eyes
at least.
     "But we already know that, upon the morrow, you are to conceive the
Sultan's child." Jassem pointed out.  "After you have lain in the Waters of
Life and the child takes hold inside of you, you will be taken back to the
harem and not be permitted to leave the harem or inner palace except in the
Sultan's presence, not until after the child is grown. Your wazir knows
that."
     "Maybe." Pavel admitted.
     "So let us not trust his words too far, my Master.  Things may well
turn out as he said.  But we will need more proof before we can trust him
once again.  For now, remember that, whatever he may have thought as he
brought you here, he now has much more to gain by lying to you than by
telling you the truth."
     "Maybe."
     "So let us stay on our guard."  Jassem darted his eyes at Aram, who
was approaching.
     "It's all right." Pavel said.  "He's my friend."  But the seeds of
doubt had been planted, and he watched Aram with new eyes.  Aram wanted the
power he could get by leaving the Sultan and joining Pavel.  He could be
trusted this much, then, not out of friendship, but out of mutual benefit.
     And Jassem.  Was he telling the truth now, or just making sure that
Pavel continued to depend upon him?  Jassem benefitted by his association
with Pavel, as well.
     Then who here could he trust?  Jethro, who had not had a chance to
conspire against him and was as baffled as he was by what was going on.
Jassem and Aram, as long as Pavel's plans coincided with their own plans.
But who else?
     Pavel looked again at Medina Jadeed, and caught a glint of light.  Too
faint to register unless you were looking right at it, it flickered in
regular pulses and could not be an accident.  A signal?  He watched, trying
to catch the pattern, but before he could attempt to decipher it, it had
stopped, and so he knew nothing but one fact.
     Someone else was conspiring among the Sultan's men.

			     END OF CHAPTER 8