Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 14:06:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: B Chapel <merdement@yahoo.com>
Subject: Empire 4

Dear reader,

This story, and those that may follow, involve a
place, time and people that never were. There will be
a healthy dose of lesbian erotica; plus some BD/SM,
non-consensual, adult-youth and possibly some (gasp)
hetero as the plot progresses. Any comments -- good and
especially bad -- are very welcome and encouraged via
the e-mail address at the bottom. One cannot progress
without feedback.

THE LEGAL THING: This is a work of fiction. Any
similarities to real persons, living or dead, is
purely coincidental. Any similarities to characters in
other fictional works, other than those pulled from
classical mythology (and therefore within the public
domain), are also coincidental. If individuals feel
that this story impinges on their person or work
should take no offense, as none is meant or was
intended. They should also relax and obsess less.

Remember, if we stopped writing when we ran out of
original themes, literature would have died with the
Greeks.

Enjoy,

The Author


********

Chapter 3

Yassine drifted up through the veils of sleep quickly,
leaving behind a dream she neither understood or
enjoyed. She had been a slave girl, wrapped in garish
colors, waiting for a client in the front room of a
seedy brothel. She was sure she was well into a night
of whoring (with who and doing what she did not know)
when a tall stranger came to her side of the couch
with a silken cord. The stranger attached the cord to
the collar around her neck, signifying her purchase
for the hour and led her towards the stairs.
She started to ask the form, neither observably male
nor female, what was in store for her. The answer,
unheard though the breath that brought it was stale
and rank, wondered if it mattered at all.
She sat up in bed and rubbed her temples. The hangover
she expected from the strange, gold wine she drank the
night before was not as harsh as she had expected --
due no doubt to the three times she awoke during the
night to drink from the cool flagons of water set at
the side of the dining table in the far corner of the
room. Each time she arose from the bed to drink, Pari
gave the same querying mumble and reached halfway to
bring the Amazon back to bed. Each time she returned,
the girl worked her round bottom into the crook of her
thighs and sighed with contentment. The third time she
got into the bed, the girl said something half in her
own tongue, half in the language Yassine knew as her
own. The message was too garbled to bother trying to
remember.
She heard the hiss of morning rain on the stones of
the palace when she caught sight of Pari in front of
the large mirror on the side of the room. The girl was
wearing her breastplate and struck poses for her own
gratification. Being nearly two feet shorter than the
design of the armor, she was a ridiculous sight. The
broad shoulders of the breastplate stuck out garishly,
giving Pari an apish form. Similarly, the breasts and
the arms were too large for the head and short legs
sticking out from the top and bottom.
At her neck, the high shoulder guards stuck out above
the girl's ears like a semi helmet. The bottom of the
armor, missing its mailed skirt, showed the very
bottom of her brown rump.
Most entertaining were the fierce attitudes that crept
back and forward across the desert girl's face; At
once foreboding, then noble and haughty, then
wrathful. Each different expression was coupled with
an equally preposterous stance. Foot on the night
stand, fist outstretched. Legs apart with fists on the
hips. Eyes cast heavenward with hands outstretched to
the sky. Yassine could take no more without laughing.
"Are you beseeching a god or cursing one?" she asked.
Pari leapt as if struck by a whip. She let loose a
stream of apologies and excuses as she tried to draw
the armor off over her head. The wrestling movement
did nothing but force her off her balance and she fell
to the floor in a clatter of metal. Yassine let her
self-control falter and she laughed as she helped the
girl out of the armor and onto her feet.
"Forgive me, Princess. I meant no disrespect," her
voice was feverish. "I just wanted to see if the armor
would fit me."
Yassine pulled the heavy plates off the girl's
shoulders and wondered how she had lifted the thing in
the first place. "You're far to short to be considered
for the mounted service, you'll have to aspire to the
infantry. Though I'd say your skills lie elsewhere."
Changing the subject, Pari lay back on the bed and
scissored her legs, "You seemed restless last night,
did you sleep well?"
Setting the armor aside, "I was up a couple of times,"
she said as she stretched out -- becoming the immediate
recipient of Pari's draping form. "You sleep like the
dead."
"I was tired," the girl said as she began running her
hands along the Amazon's tawny frame. She laid a few
nuzzling kisses against her neck and ran her tongue
into the hollow of her ear. "It was a long night for
me."
Yassine arched her back, luxuriating in the girl's
touches as she gathered the curvaceous package into
her arms. Pari immediately quickened to the touch,
putting her fingers to work on the Amazon's nipples as
she ground her tongue into her ear canal. Another few
seconds' wrestling later and the small girl was
straddling Yassine's hips above her.
Yassine stroked the girl's ribs, tracing lines from
the tops of her breasts to the point where her hips
flared away, "On second thought, I don't think you'd
be best used in the infantry at all."
Pari reached up and gathered her profusion of black
curls and held them over her head, "What then? An
archer? A general?"
The Amazon gently pinched the girl's dark nipples,
winning a stifled cry, "You'd be assigned to the
cavalry. Serving it, that is."
The girl's eyebrows arched as she ground her hips
against Yassine's, "I'm not sure what that means,
Princess. After all, I'm no good with horses and I'm
too small for a saddle."
Yassine pulled Pari down to her, hungrily kissing her.
She let her tongue roam through the girl's mouth for a
while before flipping her over to take the higher
ground.
"I haven't yet seen how you take to the bit and crop,"
she said as she reached down and pulled the girl's leg
upward so that her own fell underneath her. "Before we
get to that, let's see how you ride."
Yassine rearranged herself so that her nether lips
contacted Pari's smooth sex. Firmly grasping the
raised leg, she began to rub herself against the girl.
Although they had only been engaged in the most
cursory foreplay, both women were wet and their bodies
slid against each other easily.
Yassine, in control, started making long, slow passes
against Pari. She dragged the length of her wet sex
against the girl's bare folds before starting back
along her length. She made a special circle at the top
and bottom of each pass, making sure to rub against
Pari's clitoris as well as her own.
Pari giggled as she caressed Yassine's breasts. She
had started by trying to suckle the taller woman's
nipples but couldn't reach that high with her leg
propped up toward the ceiling. Whenever the Amazon
came to the bottom of her stroke, the pubic hair left
at the top of her sex scratched against the girl's
clit. Pari was immediately thankful that Yassine had
opted to keep that small triangle of hair and thrust
her hips upward to make the most of the contact.
As the familiar waves of orgasm started their course
through her body, Yassine let go of the girl's leg so
that she could get closer and kiss her. Pari
immediately changed her posture to accommodate the new
movements and maximize the sensation.
What started with soft moans and keening sighs rose
constantly. Yassine's sense of what sounds she herself
was making became less and less acute as the noise
level in the room got higher and higher. Pari was a
vocal lover and she seemed to overcome the magical
translation spell that enveloped the room. Her voice
came through in half words, joyful and unintelligible.
Muffled through kisses and stuttered with pleasure,
she was no more understandable than she had been
before the spell took effect.
Yassine started working harder, occasionally her
pelvis would rear back only to slam home against Pari.
She pushed two fingers of one hand into the girl's
mouth and let her suck on them. With the other hand,
she pressed the same digits between the girl's ample
buttocks and pushed toward the center. Pari shifted
again to give the Amazon easier access. Her eyes
signaled need.
Yassine changed postures again, shifting the weight of
both of them to the opposite side. She changed hands,
taking the two fingers out of Pari's mouth and pushing
them, inward and upward, into the girl's anus as she
refilled her mouth with the fingers of the other hand.
Made somewhat slick from her saliva, the fingers
pushed roughly into her most private place.
Pari let out a strangled yelp, once again hard to hear
with her mouth full. She quickly became accustomed to
the feeling and started bucking strongly against both
ends of the Amazon's stroke. At the top her clit was
ground against the rough hairs, at the bottom she was
met by the fingers digging deeper and deeper into her
each time.
The din in the room became chaotic. The two women
moaning and crying in and out of time echoed against
the walls and came back as a riot of sound. As orgasm
approached, Yassine was convinced that there were
others in the room with them, screaming along with the
two of them. Beneath her, Pari jerked back and forth
spasmodically as streams of stuttering pleasure poured
from her mouth.
Yassine came, finally slapping her sex against the
girl as she twisted her fingers back and forth within
Pari's ass as she screamed. The girl under her had
already gone through one orgasm and was quickly
working toward her second. Pari howled and went limp
as it arrived. The sound in the room was deafening.
The two collapsed together in a heaving, sweating mass
as they made a twitching attempt at their previous
lovemaking.
They shared a long, passionate kiss. Their tongues
intertwined as their chests heaved to regain their
breath. They held each other a while until they felt
the cool breeze from the open windows start to cool
their sweaty flesh.
The Amazon started to say something endearing to the
girl nipping at her neck and shoulders when she
noticed that the general noise level in the room
hadn't dropped very much. She cast her iron gray eyes
around the room, "What the hell is that?"
Pari looked up, furrowed her brow for a second and
then her eyes lit up. "It is the city heralds. The
Emperor and his army must be returning."
Pari leapt up from the bed and ran to the window. On
her tiptoes she leaned out over the ledge to get a
better look at the street below. She looked back
excitedly, "It is the Emperor, he's returned from the
northlands!"
Yassine stretched her long body for a moment and
turned toward the window. She would have been content
to lay back and gaze lazily at the girl's wonderful
ass, accentuated both by Pari standing on her toes and
bending over slightly. She rose and walked over to the
window. Being much taller, she only had to crane her
neck out lightly to see the street below. She slid her
hand over the girl's bottom until she felt she had a
firm grasp.
The trumpeters on the walls of the inner city, the
palace proper, were sounding their horns to the sky in
the ages old tribute to the returning heroes. The
notes were different, the melodies unfamiliar, but
Yassine recognized the high, triumphant pairings and
trills that noted celebration. She guessed that a
hundred other horns across the city's breadth picked
up the call.
Teams of oxen lashed on by teamsters drew the mighty
iron gates of the main city open with a screeching
creak. As soon as the opening was wide enough, a rider
garbed in shining sliver armor rode through on a
dazzling white mare. He bore in his left hand a
mirrored shield, in his right, the red and blue
wyvvern standard of the Empire of Donai. The rider
directed the horse to circle once, then the two of
them bowed simultaneously to the throngs of citizens
that lined the street.
The crowd cheered, clapping and whooping as the rider
brought himself and horse back to a regal bearing and
continued into the city. He was followed immediately
by a column of 300 armored shock troops. Broken into
five companies of 60, each bore a different standard
than the last. Their matte black armor was sorely
beaten, glinting only where chips and crushing blunt
force assaults had scraped the metal clean. Some of
them bore wounds. The bandages were minimal, to be
sure, but they were not hidden. Some of the soldiers
were visibly, badly wounded. Every face beamed pride.
Behind them marched 200 archers in a loose formation.
They wore lighter, metal-latticed leather armor with
quivers at the ankle, thigh and shoulder. Their odd,
swept-brim caps were adorned with feathers of a
hundred different birds that trailed down their backs.
A boy at the back of the column carried several bows
across his shoulders.
The crack and clop of hooves heralded the main
cavalry. Yassine looked on with appreciation at the
fine ranks of horseflesh coming through the palace
gates. Fully 700 armored warriors astride similarly
barded horses entered the city. Some carried long
poleaxes, others were armed with sword and shield. A
fifth of their number carried hook-topped javelins and
lengths of hempen rope. Another fifth wielded vicious,
wide-faced mattocks.
Yassine shook her head at the military might strolling
through the palace gates. Amazon military forces were
largely naval, attack ships supplemented with courses
of archers. There were ships developed to deliver land
forces, but they carried only the most elite troops. A
landing party never carried more than 300 mounted
combatants.
Yassine heard something above her. She looked up.
Amazons never attacked from the air.
Fifty hippogriffs, animals with the bodies of lions
and the heads and wings of eagles, screeched above.
Their riders were decked out in the heaviest armor and
bore fiery staves that could only be magical weapons.
A couple of the animals in flight were without riders,
pairs of boots were set backward in their stirrups.
The cries of those were the most plaintive.
Below again came the spoils of war -- paraded for the
entire city to see. Many fine treasures, of all types,
had been dragged back to the city.
War wagons were filled to the tops of their walls with
the pelts of scores of different animals. Rich browns
and lustrous blacks were interspersed with dappled
furs featuring every color nature gave animals.
Lashed to the wagons were beasts Yassine had never
seen before. Cattle the size of hippos with long
ribbed horns stretching straight forward lowed
nervously as they passed the cheering crowds on either
side of the thoroughfare. Great woolly pigs snorted
and rooted at the ground, content to search whatever
soil they found for something to eat.
Behind them, great white bears taller than mounted
riders were being herded along by infantrymen bearing
glowing blue staves. The bears made a terrible racket,
roaring and snarling at the onlookers. For all their
obvious brute power, they were somewhat intelligent;
the sight of one of the staves culled them into
sullen, learned passivity.
The crowd's cheering got louder as the next wagons
came into view. Within them were the hard currency of
the Northlands. Gold and silver, in coins of a hundred
different mintings, flashed in the morning sunlight.
Tureens of pearls, chests of jewels and rows of
polished and carved ivory shone like earthbound stars.
A page sitting in the middle of the horde triumphantly
raised a gold-veined lump of stone -- proof positive
that there were more riches to be had.
The din raised higher as the next course of the
procession entered the gates. Fifty young people, men
and women, were led into the city in chains. All were
naked save for the heaps of jewelry they wore about
their necks, on their heads and on their fingers. Some
were terrified, weeping and cowering with nowhere to
hide themselves. Others held their heads high and met
the throngs with haughty disdain for their captors and
their situation.
"Who are they?" Yassine asked.
"Spoils of war," Pari said matter-of-factly. "They're
usually chosen for their looks or their talents, but
some of them are the royalty of the countries the
Emperor has conquered."
"They look too young to be rulers," Yassine said.
"They're probably princes and princesses, or petty
nobility," Pari said.
"What about the kings and queens?"
Pari shrugged, "Dead."
The logic of it was crystalline to the Amazon: Kill
the rulers, remove the heirs, implant your own
authority. It was the mathematics of the conqueror
since the beginning of time. "What will happen to
them?"
Pari looked at the Amazon with a mild skepticism, "How
do you think I got here?"
Yassine looked down at the naked servant girl and
realized what she was: A slave. As if in response, the
girl leaned into her and laid her head on Yassine's
breast. "I was picked up for my looks."
The Amazon wanted to say something, was preparing to
say anything other than `sorry' when the crowd below
went into absolute histrionics. She looked down to see
the main bulk of the infantry came into the city.
Marching in perfect rows, 8,000 armored soldiers in
full armor swept down the concourse. The clanking of
their armor nearly drowned out the cheers of the
crowds. They were broken up into companies of 500,
each company bearing its own standard with the
standard of the empire above it. They bore nearly
every manner of weapon imaginable. Swords and hammers,
axes and scythes, spears and poleaxes; a visual
compendium of the myriad tools of death marched toward
the palace steps.
As the column neared its end, Yassine craned her neck
to see the back. The last man in the column was a boy
guiding a dappled gray stallion covered in armor. The
horse had no rider.
"Who's horse is that?" she asked.
"That's Lullagor, the Emperor's mount."
Yassine's eyes went wide, "The Emperor is dead?"
"Gods no," Pari said. "If the Emperor had fallen,
Roquan would have known about it the instant it
happened. The Emperor is in the columns with the
infantry."
"I didn't see him."
"Most people don't," Pari said. "He doesn't want to
attract attention away from his troops. He rides at
the front during battle, he says that's all the
attention he needs."
"That's strange," Yassine said.
"I choose the word `uncommon,'" she said and left it
at that. She peered down over the side of the window
and waved enthusiastically. "Look!"
The Amazon looked down to where Pari was pointing and
she saw the boy leading Lullagor staring back up at
them. The boy's eyes were wide with amazement and a
slow-growing appreciation for the wonders of chance.
It was then that Yassine realized she had been baring
her breasts for the entire city to see. She also
noticed that the awestruck boy was not the only
audience to her display.
She pulled away from the window, leaving Pari to wave
happily to the throngs below. A small bell at the door
of the room chimed twice, followed by a male voice.
"Princess Yassine?" It was a young voice.
The Amazon donned her tunic and responded, "Who is
it?"
"A page. Her majesty requests your and your
lieutenant's presence in the Great Hall. The Emperor
has returned."
"I'm coming," she left the conversation at that and
began to put her armor back on. She had brought other
clothes, garments of the royal court of Amazonia. She
thought it would be better to address the male ruler
of Donai with battle armor to match his.
As the Amazon was connecting the clasps that held her
greaves to her thighs, Pari collected the grinning
demon helmet and held it until Yassine was finished
with her task. When she reached for it, the girl's
eyes were downcast.
"I hope that I have been of some service to you,
Princess," the girl said, eyes on the floor. "It was
the Empress' wish that your needs be taken care of."
Yassine detected something in her voice, "You have
been of great service, Pari. Is there something
wrong?"
"No," she said. "Another will be in my place tonight
to attend to your needs again. Unless..."
Yassine tapped her foot on the floor. The girl got the
hint and continued with a slight flush on her face.
"Unless you would require my particular company
again."
The Amazon took Pari's chin in her hand and drew her
face upward. She kissed the girl tenderly, slowly
collecting her lush body in her arms. They swayed
there, buffeted by an internal wind, for a whole
minute.
"I command that you be here when I return."

*******
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