The Secret Pastimes of the Queen

by Cobalt Jade

" After Tanjoura was sent from the palace the Queen called me to her chambers to attend her. She already had a man with her, a young prince from a neighboring city-state her beauty had ensnared. He was besotted with her. Eyes shining, he did whatever she said. And she did not even have to use her magic! My job was to aid them in their lovemaking, not necessarily to participate, but to handle and clean the instruments of their passion, dress and undress them, fetch wine or other things to drink for them. She thought no more of me being there than she would of an animal. That's how she sees her slaves. You heard it the other night.

"The prince was very young, no more than eighteen I think. The Queen toyed with him the same she would with a slave, and he gasped and cried like a slave. They did things his young mind could not even dream about, much less imagine. I brought them chilled wine and trays of exotic foodstuffs when their passion had cooled. They ate and rested, waiting til the hunger grew strong again, talking of inconsequential things.

"Massage me" Shezrine purred. That was the signal for me to open the hamper and present him with a selection of oils and ungeants to excite and enhance lovemaking. In all things I kept my head down, my knees on the floor, my posture abject. I was garnished such as you saw in the Queen's receiving room, but the prince did not notice me, as Shezrine outshone me like a great blaze outshines the flicker of a candle.

"He massaged her. The Queen rolled over on her breasts and belly, presenting her backside. 'What is this?' he said in alarm. He was staring at her basilisk brand.

"What an innocent he was. Pale, dewy skin, strong shoulders, yet a delicate, vulnerable face under his golden prince's beard. The Queen made an amused noise. 'A slave's brand, same as with all the other slaves of Obn Dhregni, the City of Carnality. For I, too, am a slave--a slave to my state, a slave to the throne and the ultimate power it represents. For how can I enslave others if I know nothing of slavery and the price it exacts?' "

The young prince was fascinated. He stroked her strong, lean buttock. Her skin shone like silk under the oil he rubbed there. It smelled of spice and rain. The Queen half-closed her eyes like a contented cat. She liked him doing that to her. She enjoyed his wonder, the faint undertone of revulsion, and the fact he would not dare mention either to her.

"She gave forth a dusky laugh. 'Slaves are the lucky ones, not I,' she said.

"The prince was alarmed. 'Why is that?' he said. He of course had already spent some time in the palace and city, seen the way they were treated.

"Because their lives are so simple. They wish only to please the one in command of them. That is all. Look at this one.' She pulled me closer. 'See how she diligently attends us. That is all she thinks of. No thoughts of tomorrow, or of the day before. It is a beautiful thing.' She gently pinched my cheek. 'What is your name, little pet?' "

" 'I have none, my Queen,' I said. It was the conditioned response we are all taught to make. 'I do not not need one to serve you.'

"Shezrine laughed. 'You see? No thoughts even of the self.'

"Now I will tell you we do have names among ourselves to which our keepers refer, otherwise they could not keep track of us, but to the Queen we are all interchangeable. I wonder if she knew how much I hated her that night, how wrong she was about us. I would like to rip the flesh from her face, the witch!

"But I had to keep up my act of abjectness, and only bowed my head meekly. And as she always does, she must stroke me then, bringing to flower the passions that brew in us always to prove her mastery over our flesh. My nipple chains fairly danced with it, and of course I was aroused. But I felt no devotion or desire to serve her, make sure of that!

"I was sent then to a corner of the room where I would wait as they conversed. Shezrine was in a talkative mood. She was not half so talkative with the other bed partners I had seen her have. The wine had loosened her. And too, I suppose she wanted to shock and scandalize and titillate this young princeling. 'Every so often,' she said, 'three or four times a year, I disguise my appearance and have my courtiers bind me as a common slave, and they take me down to the Market Square and sell me on the auction block. No one knows who I am; they see but an anonymous piece of flesh. For the next few days, I am then subject to the same cruelties, humiliations, and debasements that the common slaves are. From this, I learn how things fare in my city. I learn, too, of plots that are being hatched against me, for who would stay their tongue in the precense of a slave? I have picked dates in the hills north of the city; been whipped for insolence in a tavern south of the palace mount; moaned under the weight of a common trash-hauler in a public concupiscerium. Naked, hairless, and gleaming with oil, I marched with hundreds of others, all property of the Merchant House of Zantongo, to an unknown fate far in the west. On a small farm in Chuven I was shackled to a turn-wheel to churn milk into butter. Gilded with gold paint, hung with jewels, I took my place as a slave statue, amidst hundreds of other slave statues, to ornament the halls of my own palace. There are many paths for a slave, love, some of them quite delicious in their subjugation, their utter loss of selfhood. I find it a refreshing change from the throne.'

"I was shocked at her escapades and by the fact she actually found pleasure in them. But I was a slave, and who cared what I thought? 'But what if there is a mistake?' the young prince said. 'Suppose no one believes you are the Witch-Queen of Odn Dhregni, and you stay a slave forever?'

"Don't be foolish, when I wish to return to the throne I simply throw off my shackles and disappear. Who can hold the Witch-Queen against her will? And as for remaining a slave forever--is that so bad?' A deceptively innocent smile, full of feral knowledge, appeared on Shezrine's face. 'And how would you like being a slave, my young prince?'

"The prince looked at once insulted and very confused. I could clearly see her confession had aroused him again. He did not keep slaves in his city. He didn't understand. 'I would rather remain free, your majesty,' he said carefully.

"The Queen roared with laughter, throwing back her head. 'I could very easily make you give a different answer. But I will not.'

" He kissed her passionately, crushing her pendulous breasts against his strong, well-muscled chest. He already was her slave, in a way. With his other hand he spread her legs, stroking the silky hair between them. "

'No,' the Queen said urgently. 'This time we shall do things differently.'

"He looked puzzled, but she had already given me orders to open the casket that lay at the foot of the bed and bring her what was in there. I did. A wooden pole about three feet long, a whip, a long length of rope, a leather case which I knew held a selection of phalluses. I immediately thought I was to be the victim of the tools, but the Queen had other ideas. In a low, coaxing voice she told the prince of her plans. His confusion returned. She continued, tempting him, turning round his mind. She lulled him with her voice alone. She did not need her witch's magic to do this. It was her native power, her long years of experience.

"If I was not to be the victim, neither was the prince. The Queen lay face down on the bed as the prince bound her as she had instructed him to. Needless to say I was very surprised. I had never heard of Shezrine behaving so. She had always taken pain to act the opposite. Now her pose was revealed as a lie. This was what she really hungered for. Hungered for so badly she did not dare enact it with a citizen of her own city but with a foreigner.

"Shezrine looked like a fowl fit for roasting when he had done. Her legs were stretched wide apart and bound tightly to the ends of the pole, which was then brought up over her back. Then her wrists were tied behind her and secured to the middle of the pole. I could not imagine a more helpless position. Her sex couldn't have been any more exposed. It looked like a pink silk purse stretched wide, its edges trimmed with mink. I saw the lips of it move. 'Look at it, prince,' the Queen said, already becoming very aroused in this ignomious position. I could tell from the strain in her voice. And he hadn't even done anything to her yet! 'This wet and hungry mouth, see how it is starving. Don't you want? Wouldn't you like to take it, possess it?'

"Of course he did, he was so erect it must have been painful, the cock colored almost magenta. But the Queen's knees and the wooden pole were in the way. The Queen squirmed on her belly, making the satin bedcover bunch up around her. She raised her head as much as she could and looked behind her. 'Don't you want to take it? You can do it, with your mouth.' Her words were a lewd hiss. 'You can pleasure yourself with your hands as you do so.'

"And the prince did, quite vigorously, moaning as he did so. And the Queen moaned too, pressing her face against the satin, making sounds that sounded like she was suffering the worst of tortures. "

'Enough,' she hissed. 'Leave off! Enough!' The prince withdrew, obeying the tone in her voice, even though he had not come to orgasm, was as unsatisfied as he had been in the beginning. 'You see that leather case? Open it.'

"With eager, trembling hands he did so, and stared in apprehension at the phalluses. The Queen hurriedly gave him instructions in their use. "

'Oh, I cannot,' the prince begged. 'Your majesty, wouldn't you rather--'

" 'I know the magnitude of what I want,' Shezrine said in that urgent, pained voice. If she had the organ of a man concealed deep within her body, which sometimes I believe she does, it would now be colored so red as to be almost black! 'Take them, put them in. Do it now, love.'

"The prince flushed scarlet, but he took the largest of the phalluses and pushed it deep into her minj. One phallus was not enough for her. Another was chosen and inserted, with lubrication, into her anus. Both were fixed to her with leather straps. The Queen panted at the prince's touch, mouthing the bedcovers, her contortions wilder than any slaves' I had ever seen. It was obvious she was highly excited.

" 'The whip,' she panted.

"'The prince commenced to lash her. Her eyes shut and she gasped at each stroke. It was not a large instrument; it was short and of the type that has many tails that covered a large area of flesh in one stroke. I knew it stung, having been hit with it myself, but no mark appeared on her skin. A magical safeguard, no doubt. The prince was reluctant with it at first, but eventually even he became excited.

His strokes grew harder, more powerful. With his other hand he pleasured himself. He had adapted swiftly to this game. The Queen moaned, sweat breaking out on her silky, muscular body. She flexed her back up and down.

" 'The gag, the gag,' she moaned.

"The prince did not know what this was so I had to dig it out for him and show him how it was used. He shoved the leather in the Queen's mouth and she bit down on it lovingly, her expression one of ecstasy as he buckled it behind her head. Now that she was gagged she became freer with her cries. Her body writhed and bounced, marvelously elastic. Her cries became hoarser, at once triumphant and abandoned. The long soles of her feet drew up as the prince swung his arm, then curled as the blow hit. Her sex was red and shining. The phalluses and the straps that held them looked marvelously degrading, black plugs that protruded from the creamy mounds of her buttocks. I would have been happy she was so tortured, but she got so much pleasure from it! And it was clear to me that even in this she was in command, as she forced the young prince to be the instrument of this forbidden passion.

"Again and again the blows hit. She ground her face in the covers, moaning. Her buttocks tightened, loosened, then tightened again around the rim of the phallus she was helpless to expel. Her body quivered under the whip. It even licked her sex and the inner skin of her thighs, and this brought louder cries from her.

"Finally her passion reached its climax. Babbling incoherently behind her gag, her flesh convulsed. Her back arched, her head lifted. Her whole body went rigid as if she had been turned to stone. I have no doubts that she would have liked to preserve herself at the pinnacle of this debilitating, deliciously shameful orgasm and take her place, petrified, on a marble pedestal for all to see.

"But she sank down again, damp, satiated. She flicked her hair away from her face. She breathed deeply.

"The prince took off her gag. 'Well done, prince,' she said gently. She kissed him on the mouth. He had reached orgasm too and from his limp pliability I knew it had been just as powerful and draining for him. 'A lesson well learned, I think, and one that will give you much pleasure in your native city. Now, take the rest of the rope, and secure me to that hook on the ceiling above the bed. From there I would watch you take your pleasure with the slave. Replace my gag, and secure it to the pole so my head is raised.'

"It was just as shocking an order as the one to first bind her had been, but he obeyed her without question. I helped him hoist her up. The white bitch! She had done that to us so many times, teased us to pleasure, then bound us and set us to watch as she took another. I never dreamed she was envious of the torment she inflicted.

"So the prince had me in the most conventional of ways as the bound Queen swung above us on the hook, her wide eyes staring down on us, her hair a pale scarf that moved gently with her movements. And we slept that way, with the hook creaking above us with its burden.

"In the morning I was quickly whisked back to the pleasure-halls. The Queen, of course, had freed herself during the night and was now in her audience chamber with her ministers. There was never any doubt she could not have freed herself, given her powers. None at all.

"So that is my tale of the Queen. Someway, somehow, this knowledge can be used against her. How I do not know."

I was deeply interested in the slave's story. It told me a lot, explained to me about Shezrine's behavior. Perhaps there was some way...

The little slave put a hand on my arm. "I must instruct you now. We haven't much time before the palanquins go out. Listen to me carefully. Your life may depend on it."