Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2018 18:10:58 -0500 From: Bruce Turner Subject: 2088 chapter 26 2088 Chapter 26 I hope you are of legal age in a locale that allows you the freedom to read about men having sex with other men. If not leave. This story contains more than vanilla sex, if you have a problem with slavery, piss, etc go away. If you are looking for a sweet love story, I doubt you will find it in this chapter, bye bye Seeing Alexandra waiting in front of the back door, Tito screamed 'kill the witch' and ran towards the hut where he had stayed for the last two months. I was glad to hear that I wasn't the only person that thought Alexandra was a witch. Yasir and I spent three hours scrubbing the shit and slime off the frightened boy and weren't about to let him run back into the hiding place that was no more than a shit hole when he was about to be the next King if they could prove that he was the nephew of Juan Diego y Ortega. It was a time when my long distance speed served me other than racing. I was three steps in front of Tito before the boy had disappeared behind a stable that had been converted to a garage. "Don't make me go back. That witch wants to castrate me." "I don't think so, Tito but why would you say that, she wants you to be king." "No, she's going to make Juan Diego, King." "Juan Diego died in a plane crash. Tito you are the only one that can be king. If you want her out of the castle once your are crowned you can order it." "You aren't just saying that to help her get me back in the castle to kill me?" "Tito, listen to me. I loved Juan Diego. We were going to get married in the next month," Yasir had caught up to us. "I will not let her hurt you. You are the only person that can get me out of here." I was sincerely afraid that I would once more be enslaved and held in the Spanish Castle. "No! You stay! She go!" I knew I was going to have problems with the boy and the old woman. There was no way to get her out of the castle until after the funeral and no way to get Tito in while she was there. I was trying hard to think what I could do with the boy until able to present him in court. I had yet to make any allies that might help, but there was the possibility that a greedy hotel owner might have an answer. "Come, we will get you a room at the Hotel Isabella." We had made a down payment on a rehearsal dinner that was much more than I thought it should have been. "They have chased me from there for not paying the bill." "This time I will be paying. I hope that will be good enough." "Sir, I didn't leave their room very nice." Tito wasn't ashamed of what he had done but he was reluctant to tell Ali in front of Yasir and the other men that had been arriving. "You left the room like we found you a few hours ago?" I hoped that the boy hadn't, but knew deep down that he most likely had. I gagged at the thought of the boy spreading his feces around on the antiques and Persian rugs that adorned the rooms I had seen on the different floors of the hotel. "Yes, sir." He really wondered why Tito acted like a riotous monkey. Most children would have been socialized beyond that point by the time they were three years old. I had seen while trying to get the boy into clothes that he had suffered damage to his genitals, had his parent done that to him? A nanny? Someone on the streets? I hadn't asked, thinking the boy needed to have some sense of privacy even while he had been stripped naked and washed over every inch of his body. He was much like his uncle, long-limbed, skinny, big dicked and beautiful, the difference was the scars on cock and balls. Had a parent thought he should be their daughter? Was that the reason to run away? Or had it happened to him on the streets? And that was why he had hidden away nearly buried in feces? But those in the hotel? I stopped trying to understand the boy and find him a place to stay for the night. "No, Prince you must stay with me. I cannot stay here alone." It was the first thing Tito had said that I had some sympathy with. I would have to be present at the funeral of my lover and king the following day at day break, could the boy be shuttled in and out of the public eye while keeping him away from Alexandra? I didn't know if Alexandra was a threat to Tito but the boy felt it and would make a scene if confronted. "Yasir, you need to be doing some of what Ahmed has always done for me. I need you to take a message to the King's secretary. "Then I need you to fetch Jamaal from the castle. "After that I need you to go to the Duke of Seville and give him this letter concerning Tito. If he has any questions answer him as completely as you can if you can't, call the Hotel Isabella. I hate to send you to him, he may demand some type of sex. I heard from the king that he likes pretty boys like you, however the King did not tell me what he wanted to do with them. I hate to tell you this, but as my slave I expect you to give into whatever he asks unless you think it is life-threatening. "Avoid Alexandra, if she is with any of those you are delivering letters to wait until she has departed. I am not sure of the fact but our lives may depend on her not seeing you, we do not want her to know that Tito is here. "You have been with Tito. What other than shit and piss does he want from a partner? "Master, that has been all he ever asked of me." Could the boy not really want anything that would be more traditionally called sex? Once Yasir left I was going to drop all of my clothing and find out if Tito was interested in the least, I am a good deal older but may look only three or four years the boy's senior. "Tito, we need to talk about tomorrow." I had as planned dropped all of my clothing, only a robe and socks but it did show a different man to Tito. "We could talk about going to bed." As he thought, the boy was interested in sex or was he tired?. "First thing in the morning, I've put in a room call for 6AM, we will dress in the clothing that Yasir or Jamaal brings us tonight. Downstairs we will eat breakfast and be picked up by one of the castle's drivers, whomever Jamaal trusts not to take us to Alexandra. We should not have any chance meetings with her, she will need to fill in at the castle and then the rotunda where I am leaving gaps in the scheduled greetings for the nobles that will be attending the funeral. "We will be at the rotunda by 8AM to pay our respects. We will not have much time there, Alexandra is scheduled to be there at 9:30 so we will leave by 5 minutes after 9 to totally avoid her. We will go to the castle when Jamaal let's us know that she has arrived. We will introduce you to the King's cabinet so they get to know you a little before they are asked to support your claim to the title of King. "They will then be off to the rotunda. Until the funeral begins they will keep Alexandra occupied with meeting and greeting and knowing them asking questions about you.. We will be in the King's office calling the heads of state the cabinet has advised us to be in touch with until the last minute. Some of the politicians will be here but not many as they don't want to be seen as promoting a return to a monarchy. "At 11:45 we will make the most dangerous part of our morning trek. I was to sit with Alexandra on the right side of the hall where the funeral service will be held. I have had the secretary who also does not like her save you and I the front row on the left side. I will sit to her side between you, in an attempt to block her view of who I think is important enough to have the entire front row saved. It is mostly that she will see you but you must remain quiet, do not engage her and do not scream. You and I will not follow the procession after the casket down the aisle way, The security men will take us out the side door, as people stand, to a blacked out limousine that will move into the procession once it has started moving. "The mausoleum will be off limits to everyone other than you and I, that was supposed to only be me but I am swearing to your identity.. She will be in the front row of attendees but there is nothing we can do about that. Once the casket is placed on the Royal granite stand in the center of the Mausoleum, you will be expected to pick up the red flowers sitting to one side of the door and place them on the casket, I will do the same after that on the other side with the yellow flowers, you should try to get yours closest to his heart and I will place mine over his feet. (I couldn't tell him about the King's foot fetish but the flowers would be enough to mark it for the King and I.) "The Mausoleum only has the one entrance/exit. If you wish to pay respects to your parents we can take a minute or two before I motion the security force to line up at the door and move the other attendees back; we then will be enclosed in a phalanx of twenty troops that will safely return us to the castle where I will have to do battle with Alexandra." From the boy that had at first not seemed to understand a word I said, he had now followed every word and asked a few security questions that I needed to call the night desk to find out about. He was once again stringing full sentences together. It must have been months since he had really talked to anyone. "What did Alexandra do to you?" I wasn't sure what I thought he might tell me. She was Machiavellian at the worst but he wouldn't have seen her since the King was exiled from Spain fourteen years earlier. That is unless she reentered the country for her own evil reasons. "She is a witch. When I was still very young she tried to have my parents send me to the King and his mother, pretending that I would be safer in America than I was with them in Spain. When the King's mother lost her mind and his supporters moved him to the Palace in Morocco she was back attempting the same thing, two days after I was attacked walking home from an etiquette lesson (I always suspected that she was involved in that). My mother always believed we would return to a court of some type but not a true monarchy. I was in the hospital when Alexandra came to visit me, I think I was between ten and eleven years old, at least that is when I remember attending the etiquette classes. You have seen what the attackers did; she tore off the bandage, not believing the doctor that I was still intact or hoping otherwise. Royal children are given a lot of freedoms other children aren't allowed so while she was there to persuade my parents that I should go to the King she spent as much time with me doing the same if she wasn't ripping at the bandage painfully to be sure nothing had changed. She would say she was checking for an infection, but wasn't that why there were nurses? "The doctors finally barred her from seeing me when I started to throw anything in reach upon seeing her. What damage hadn't occurred during the attack was from her ripping away the newly healing skin. I remember them removing my foreskin the following day and using it as a skin graft for my cock and balls after barring her from seeing me. "I didn't see her again until the day before I finally ran away from home. She had come back to Spain once more, this time not requesting or suggesting that my parents send my to Uncle Juan Diego but threatening us all with government intervention in our lives if they didn't. My mother was convinced that meant the Juan Diego and she were preparing to return. I didn't know what that meant but my father patiently explained that if the government interfered in our lives that we would be torn apart and my parents would lose their jobs. "My mother arranged for me to stay with a second cousin of my father's. It was a man and woman that live here in the city but had refused to associate with any family members for more than twenty years. They were not happy to have me and often hit me, within a year I tried to return to my parents only to arrive on their doorstep the day following their deaths bruised and battered beyond the neighbors recognizing me. I felt alone and stayed on the streets. I could have accessed a personal bank account and moved into a room but what was the point? Unless a King returned to power I would be killed if I surfaced, just like my parents." "Did you write a letter to Juan Diego asking to join him?" "Never. If joined him in Morocco I knew my future would be that of a virtual slave. I had heard Alexandra plotting with two of the guards that had come with her the last time, she wanted me to be kept quiet and if I was free she worried that my claim to the throne might throw Juan Diego out of the line of ascension, it was the first time I had heard I was in the line of ascension, if I was why not my father? He would have been a much better king than I will. "I thought maybe I should contact Juan Diego once he was King but I had the impression that Alexandra was controlling him. A month ago I saw a photo of the two of you and tried to decide what it meant, had she turned him to men so there would never be a rival for his affection among the women of the nation or was he finally becoming his own man? That's why I moved into the hut at the castle, I wanted to learn more. "I saw you with your slaves sometimes and then with Juan Diego other times. I started to think you were the enemy not her. The week you found me I heard Alexandra telling the Chinese guard on her staff that you had too much sway over the King and should not ever be allowed to wed him. I heard them plotting the next day to have you seized from her car while supposedly checking the route for the royal procession you would take after the wedding." "Okay, I follow her manipulations, but why would she want us to find you now?" "With Juan Diego dead there is a ground swell of support for the legislature to appoint you King. She wants to keep it in the family which she thinks she can rule. She knows you would not need to accept her regency, but I might have to for the next 2 years." "I will leave Spain as soon as the funeral is over. Without Juan Diego I have no desire to live here. I was to be at his side, but now that dream is dead with him. "Have you heard about the problems I have been having due to having been bought and traded and sold?" "I've eavesdropping enough to catch some of the problems as you and Juan Diego decided what to do. The people on the street think you have been wronged in so many ways that only you can understand their plight, that is why the common man wants you elevated to the position of King." "With Juan Diego dead my problems have become more complicated. His will, leaves me to you, but you are still a minor and can not own a slave even if slaves can be passed through inheritance which is currently unsettled law. "I have no intention to stay here where Alexandra may cause me more harm. Or try selling me in your name." If there wasn't to be a funeral the following day I would have taken my slaves other than the twins and gone, I didn't have a destination in mind but I did own a home in Kuwait that might be a safe destination temporarily now that Kuwait had said they wanted nothing to do with my ownership.. I have bought into the culture of slavery, I'm hoping that I am a free man but Ahmed, Jamaal and Yasir are happy to be mine and I will honor their feelings (it was almost as if the three of them held me as their slave not master). "Come to bed and hold me." It wasn't a request from the young man, it wasn't an order, I heard it as a plaint from a lonely boy that would be in over his head the following morning. As he stripped off his pants and shirt I thought about how much he looked like Juan Diego had in disguise and my heart sung out to him. My cock has that perverse brain that reacted as soon as Tito put his back to my chest. "If you want to fuck, we can. I've never tried taking that much cock but if you fucked Juan Diego maybe you can fuck me, too. We are built the same after all (not quite, his cock was not nearly as long) and I have been fucked a few times since I ran away from home." It wasn't really an enthusiastic request to be fucked, I think he was falling back to the street and offering up his body as all he had to trade for a place to sleep and my support. He looked so much my lover that had died that I wanted to ravage his body, sinking into his asshole so far that we were no longer strangers but one soul. I knew the loss of Juan Diego was going to hit me hard soon, but I needed to get past the funeral before I could allow the grief to overwhelm me. "Tito, I think we must sleep, tomorrow will be more trying than you imagine." I held him securely to my chest wide awake until our hearts seemed to be in synchronicity, my breathing had slowed and despite our many thoughts and fears I too fell asleep. We both had a restless night of sleep, Tito would jab me with an elbow and I would roll over with most of my weight on top of him, he would push me off and grind a leg into my crotch, I would have the need to piss, get out of bed only not to find Jamaal, Yasir or Ahmed and stumble to the hotel bathroom that was little different than the last I remembered using in the house where I had lived while in college. The relief of sex may have allowed me to sleep, though if Tito had any of Juan Diego's personal attributes other than physical I may have been fucking and sucking all night like the first night he and I had spent together. Jamaal had entered the hotel room during the night bringing the clothes that had been chosen for me to wear to the funeral and one of the finest suits Juan Diego had brought from Morocco. I recognized the suit as the one he had told me he would wear the day our engagement would be officially announced. How had Jamaal snuck it out of the royal bedroom and castle? "Master, do you need my mouth?" "Jamaal, for the first time since you and Ahmed became my slaves I used a regular bathroom. Unless the three of you show me a desire to be drinking my urine I might just return to what I always thought was normal." "No, please Master. I have always wanted to consume your piss. Since the first day I saw you pissing in the snow. You can't start denying me now." "Then you shall have it, Ahmed and Yasir? "They too believe it is their right as your slaves to drink from your cock." Once again I thought that my purpose in life must be to provide urine for my slaves." Again am I the slave or the Master? "If you become my regent, I too may expect you to share piss with me." When Yasir and I had pissed on the future king I hadn't noticed him opening his mouth. What is it? My taste? No, he couldn't know that could he? The funeral service was much longer than I thought it would be. Juan Diego had just returned to Spain, how could the minister stretch out his time as king to a two hour eulogy. I was glad to get into the breeze, outside the church. Tito and I stood beside the limousine for the time it took the driver to smoke. I had never appreciated the smell of a cigarette until I had been with the King. He didn't smoke but asked any of his courtiers that did to please smoke in his presence so that he could enjoy the smell. It had taken me a few weeks or a month to get used to that coming from America where smoking had been nearly abolished in public. We were in the mausoleum when it finally became too much for me. I had lain the yellow bouquet at his feet, set my hand on the casket and the grief hit me so hard that I collapsed to my knees. Landing on the granite floor hurt even though I had spent so much time on them since I left America. Out of Tito's sight he panicked for a moment, running around the casket to find me with my head pressed hard against the lowest gold leaves on the casket. He returned some of the reassurance I had tried giving him the previous two days. I whispered to him that he should honor his parents and then return to me. I could hear the crowd outside murmuring as they watched Tito lay one hand on the front plate marking the space where his parents lay interred.. When he came back to me he helped me stand with the other hand, holding the one that had touched the plate out to the side as though he would never wash it again. He clasped me to his chest when I stood. In a whisper he promised me that should he be crowned king he would grant me the future I wished. I looked at him and saw a boy that would need all the support he could get to navigate the perils that awaited him. For a month the idea of who should ascend to be King was debated through the country and parliament. Tito had bravely appeared before the federal police to speak out against Alexandra as a traitor for plotting to kill me. She and the Chinese man in her guard had been arrested that evening, searching her suite in the Palace the police found more papers of interest that suggested that not only was she attempting to have me once more enslaved but could possibly be involved in the death of Juan Diego. After all she had done to return him to power I had a difficult time believing that without seeing the evidence but the police would not release it. The Papists in the Parliament wanted to return to a social democracy without a monarch. There were riots in the streets demanding the parliament sentence Alexandra to public execution by firing squad which had not been used for more than a hundred years. The Parliament had approved a change in the constitution that once more allowed for capital punishment during the first week Juan Diego was King. I kept Tito out of the raging debates wanting to elevate him above the common dialogue, it had worked until Parliament requested his presence two months to the day after Juan Diego died. I had stayed at his side but for the most part an invisible figure in the castle, not wanting to draw the ire of the Papists or the anti-slavery contingent of the government. We had secretly had a DNA and RNA test done so that when the time came their could be no more questions to his right to the throne. "While there are many that believe you are by blood a prince and others that stridently speak to your right to follow Juan Diego as King for this preceding we will familiarly call you Ferdinand. There has been a month of debate here as to whether you should be anointed king of our glorious nation but the decision has not been made. There are members of Parliament that stridently believe that our nation has progressed to a point that a monarchy is no longer needed and others that believe you are not properly in the line of ascension and still others that say if we anoint you king you would need a regent which would leave us open to repeating the reign of Francisco Franco. "Ferdinand, we have called you here to speak to the issue as there has been no one of the royal family that has been willing to speak." "Speaker, you honor me by asking me to speak yet denigrate me by saying my decisions if I am crowned will need the approval of a regent I know that at no time in our history has the idea of a monarchy been 100% popular. Even my ancestors Ferdinand and Isabel were not completely revered as rulers of the nation. Since the fifteen century my family has been involved in this debate. Most of that period the Papists were in support of a monarchy citing divine rule. When that idiotic idea was fully disputed the Papists turned against the kings. "With the revolutions that promised democracy at the end of the eighteenth century there was a desire for Spain to join in this grand experiment. The last century has shown that if graded we would have failed. Our government worked hand in hand with the Nazi dictators of the early to mid twentieth century then proved too weak to maintain a democracy in the face of a coup led by Franco. Now, a hundred years later we come once more to a time to make a decision about what we want. Only if there had been a strong monarch for those years would we have avoided the turmoil and mixed damnations of changing government., "To me, it is obvious that the only way for Spain to become a stable progressive nation is to understand that a monarchy is not necessarily regressive. The world has changed. Many ideas that were once cause for war are now civilly debated and enacted into law. Looking for an example? Take slavery. Take central economic planning. "Our nation needs a strong central government that only a king can provide. If you feel that a royal family is not the proper way to provide the nation with a king it should be obvious to every member sitting here as they read their requests from home that the people can not be trusted to select their ruler. Only you have that wisdom. But once using it you must turn over control of all but select activities from your king. "What would I hold back from his authority? Declaring war, unless attacked. Immigration and emigration, he should bot be allowed to choose on his own to remove people from the nation as Juan Diego wanted to remove the Papists. Any other activities of the government you choose to withhold should be negotiated with the next King. "Would I be that King? I would accept the position should you choose me. If I am required a regent due to age I would ask you to appoint Prince Ali." There was some anger at that idea but for the most part the joint meeting of Congress of Deputies and the Parliament stayed quiet until Tito turned to leave the podium. Slowly there built a wave of applause that was coming from almost every corner." The Prime Minister rose without stepping forward. The applause was becoming a roar that would have made it impossible for his voice even amplified to have been heard. "Ferdinand, it looks as if you have excited the legislature as none have before you. Were you being honest when you said you would request Prince Ali as your regent?" "Yes, Mr. Prime Minister I know of no one I can work with more closely." When the sun set there were parades and fireworks announcing that once more Spain had a king. Every where you went you could here long live King Ferdinand! Further away from the castle they were shouting Tito and Ali. We had driven through a few main streets only to have security ask us to return to the castle, the streets were too full for them to be able to guarantee our safety. Yasir and Ahmed returned to the castle hours after dark to inform us that while the people were pleased to have a king they were ecstatic to have me serve as Tito's regent. I didn't feel up to the job but hoped that we would be able to serve the people of Spain as well as I ever served my Masters. I thought since all the Arabs and Moslems had been forcible removed from Spain before Juan Diego had become King that Ferdinand and I would have no more problem from that part of the world. Most Arab nations had cut off relations with Spain so we didn't expect to hear from them. For a few months we were correct. There were many other nations that were not speaking with us because of the monarchy, in public. Behind closed doors there were very few nations that didn't want relations, I counseled Tito to accept even those too cowardly to speak publicly. We weren't the tourist draw that the British monarchy had become over the last two hundred years but as we negotiated the reunification of the peninsula, there began an increased flow of Europeans to our capital, museums and beaches. Ferdinand and I agreed on putting money into attractions that we felt could do nothing but return money to the economy. In six months we were seeing a return on the investment. Without the threat of the King irrationally declaring war the Heads of state of our bordering nations became friendly and we developed trade agreements that had been impossible earlier in the century, yes there was one barrier but the fact that Spain permitted slavery became a tertiary if even that much of a concern. Ferdinand had a low sexual drive but rather than search the many social events he could have attended he had taken to spending his nights among my slaves. I never knew if he would be the mouth beside my bed when I woke. Or if he would crawl into my bed and ask to be fucked. Even though he was King he never crawled into my bed and demanded that I allow him to fuck me. As the first year progressed I expected it more every night. I think if I am being honest I was missing a man fucking me. There were days when I would take Ahmed to check on something in the kingdom and spend a night with him pounding my ass but never at the castle. He never thought fucking me permitted him any other privileges, I would wake in the morning with his mouth waiting for the piss that still seemed to be his beverage of choice. "Master, why does the King never fuck us?" ""I don't know, I have expected him to want to fuck one of you or me but he has surprised me every night he has crawled in my bed by not taking me., I know his cock gets hard and spurts cum because he has many night when I have fucked him. "Hasn't he ever said anything to you or Yasir?" "No, Master. He very seldom talks about sex. A few weeks ago he did admit to Yasir that he does like to crawl in your bed and lick your ass. Is he any good, Master?" "Do you really think I should say something about the King's ability to lick assholes to my slave boys? Even you, Ahmed? You don't go around saying how good anyone is licking your asshole do you?" I was hoping not. Ever since the first night I had let Ahmed fuck me after Juan Diego died I had eaten his ass like an ice cream come. His was the best ass I'd had since the Royal Prince. I still missed that man. If I could have had my King send me to Saudi Arabia as an ambassador anytime I would have been in one of his favorite robes displaying other gifts he had given me. Why was that a love that would not die? He had sold me! There were always rumors that the King of Saudi Arabia was on his death bed, then a few weeks later we would hear that he was once more in charge of the country. The Royal Prince had been intermediately in charge so many times that it was difficult to know who should be the first to address when sending diplomats. I think Ahmed and Jamaal knew when I was missing him, I tended to wear one or more of the many jewels he had sent me on those days or nights. "Regent, will the King be joining us this morning?" This was a duke that was part of the court that we had learned had been related to Alexandra and resented the fact that the King signed the papers necessary to return her to Morocco. Neither of us cared much to be alone with him. "He sent word that he should be here within the next quarter of an hour." Why the Spanish wouldn't measure time more precisely I can't tell you. I had tried to get the King to say fifteen minutes but I continually failed to convert him. Ahmed said it was so I couldn't hold him to what he said, he had known his father to do the same thing. "We have visitors that should not be kept waiting, the Head of Kuwait's Agency ad Saudi Arabia's Internal Police." "I'm sure they will be happy to have waited, Duke. They are used to waiting on the Kings in their own countries. Do you have the names, it is a custom to address them by their full name and position, if the King does less they will be insulted." "The Kuwaiti introduced himself to the secretary as Prince Mehmet. The other man only said he should be called Prince." The second Prince was strange, but why was Prince Mehmet here? I had banished him from my thoughts. There were nights I wished I could do the same with Prince Al Sari but he would steal into my dreams leaving me needing sex. "King Ferdinand, is all well, your highness?" "No, Duke. What is it that you have done to us now? The former owners of my regent being given permission to address me as equals? You have gone too far, I hope you want to live with your great-aunt Alexandra." "Your Highness, I have done nothing that deserves me being banished from the kingdom." "Regent. I would not have you here to see these Princes. If you think you need to hear what they wish to propose stand behind the curtain." We had moved the throne forward and added a wall to wall curtain of his favorite color velvet to give my slaves room to come and go as we needed items from his office. I had used it once before when the King and Duke were arguing about Alexandra returning to Spain. Her Spanish passport had been seized so that she could not cross the border back into Spain upon the King's order.. "King Ferdinand, your highness, I would prefer to stay. If the Duke has once more tried to hatch a plot to have me re-enslaved it is best I know of it now." I didn't tell him that I wanted to see who Saudi Arabia had sent on this mission or that seeing Mehmet might reignite a fire. That the Duke had the Princes in Spain was enough to have him banished but his support was strong and we knew better than to cause another fight. We heard an announcement from the entry to the throne room. "King Ferdinand and Prince Ali. May the slaves Salman and Angelo approach the throne to present you with gifts from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia?" It is a long distance across that room but I could see that the two slaves named in the request were the two that I knew. What was happening here? At least I knew that the gifts would have been checked for explosives. Had it been less formal I would have hugged them both. "King Ferdinand, from the kingdom of Kuwait." He handed the king a box that was no larger than a standard Bible. Then turning to me handed over a box that was many times larger. I whispered in the King's ear that the accepted practice in their countries was to accept the present without saying anything and then opening the present after they had left. In this instance it was very difficult for me to do as the custom demanded. Salman approached the throne. He had a difficult time maintaining the non-expressive face required of a messenger in this situation. Each time he glanced at me he smiled. He handed the King another box of the same size and then with palms up perfectly handed me a box that not large enough to even hold a braclet before bowing to the floor and retreating. "That was a rather extravagant bow, did the slave know you?" "When I knew him he was a free man, the son of a Saudi Prince that not only fucked all his sons but wished the Royal Prince's favor. I would never have expected him to go as far to sell him a son, but their palace politics are convoluted and not to be understood by a casual outsider." "Your Highness, King Ferdinand of Spain and Iberia. The Royal Prince of Saudi Arabia and Prince Mehmet of Kuwait."