"I bought him from his rightful owner, and he belongs to me now," Kyrio replied.
"He is a Dancer of the Goddess. He is not for sale."
Smeraldo hid behind Kyrio, searching for protection, squeezing Kyrio's wrist with his other hand – holding tighter to his anchor. Kyrio almost winced in pain.
"In that case I want my money back," he said, his heart beating faster at the bluff. He didn't want his money back, he wanted to keep Smeraldo, whose warm, accelerated breath was brushing the nape of his neck.
Amazonia scoffed. "I don't think so." She paced in front of them, pondering. "I am the Queen, I make the rules," she declared stopping in front of them. "Take him to the prison for smuggling." She pointed at Kyrio. "And take him to my Apartment." She waved at Smeraldo.
The throne room had a dozen guards on duty. Even if they were all females, they were enough to subdue two men.
"No!" Smeraldo screamed as they grabbed him. He tried to hold on to Kyrio's hand, but his fingers were pried open. "Kyrio! No! Let me go!"
He was hysterical with fear, so it took six women to subdue him.
"Aldo, don't resist!" Kyrio shouted back. "You'll be all right!"
Then he was dragged away by four women. The sight of Smeraldo's distraught face remained impressed in his mind's eyes as they stripped him and chained him to a wall in a cell.
Smeraldo's fears had come true and Kyrio had no idea how they'd survive the wrath of Amazonia.
***
Smeraldo struggled with all his might but couldn't stop them. He was dragged back to the Queen's bed, sprawled and bound hands and feet to the poles of the canopy. His clothes were ripped off, then the women retreated, leaving him panting and sobbing in despair.
He knew he shouldn't have come back. He knew it would end like this. He knew he wouldn't survive – not this time.
Exhausted by his useless struggle, he slowly calmed down. He hoped the Queen wouldn't hurt Kyrio as well. He wondered if Melania or Alina would be told that he was the Queen's sex toy again.
The door was wide open as usual and he glimpsed Laurisa pass by. "Princess!" he called. At least Alina would know.
The princess came to the door with a puzzled expression. Like the Queen, she was blonde and blue-eyed. But she was in her twenties, with golden curls and a sweet expression.
"Please, Princess, tell Alina that her unfortunate brother is here again," Smeraldo said. He had never spoken to Laurisa before but knew she was friends with Alina.
Laurisa gasped and frowned. She nodded. "Hold tight," she said a little bluntly. She didn't step into the room, as it was forbidden.
Smeraldo nodded in acknowledgment and watched her vanish. Hold tight. How? He couldn't even think about what was to come without shivering in terror.
Maybe Laurisa and Alina together could save him. And Kyrio, who had been unjustly arrested because of him.
The light outside slowly faded out. Servants came into the room to light the lamps. It was almost time. To live, or die as a man. Smeraldo took in a deep breath. He was ready.
Chapter 8
Melania had never been to the palace after sunset, but Alina's summon had some urgency to it. She found herself dining with her friend and Princess Laurisa in the latter's rooms, which weren't too far from the Queen's.
The bad news of Kyrio and Smeraldo's arrest hit her like a hammer. Both Alina and Laurisa were worried – for both men.
"Those guards were a little overzealous," Laurisa commented sourly.
"Can we do anything to free them?" Melania asked.
Laurisa shook her head. "My ancestor is the all-powerful daughter of the Goddess," she grumbled. "She is one hundred and seventy. Any idea of how many of us she buried? I'll never be queen myself!"
"You should be queen," Alina said. "You're just and balanced and would be a perfect ruler."
"Yes, but who's going to get rid of Amazonia?" Laurisa retorted. "I'm starting to think she's immortal!"
"Maybe we should pray to the Goddess that she delivers us of her," Melania whispered, joining her hands and closing her eyes to pray.
***
"Hello, Stud." The Queen straddled Smeraldo's naked body with a smirk.
Smeraldo held her stare, clenching his teeth.
"You will give me a daughter this time," the Queen continued. "But first, I want to know where you've been."
Smeraldo scoffed. "I'm allowed to talk now?"
"Until it pleases me. Speak."
He doubted she'd actually listen. Besides, his love for Kyrio was a secret he'd keep until death, lest she decided to take revenge on his lover.
The Queen slapped him. "Well? What's your relationship with that foreigner?"
"He bought me from Melania," he answered slowly.
"And you spent a year with him."
"Yes."
"Doing what?"
"Dancing for him."
"And that's it?" The Queen smirked again. "I doubt it."
She had kept a hand behind her back until now, but she showed him what she was holding. A big, wooden phallus.
"I think you tasted his dick. And enjoyed it," she said, sarcastic. "I think you wasted your manhood on a man."
"Much better than wasting it on you," he snapped.
The Queen threw her head back and laughed – a cackle, actually.
"So you enjoy men." She leaned over him with a cruel smile. "Show me how they make you hard."
"Leave me alone." He struggled against his restraints in vain.
The Queen gave him a long kiss and at the same time pushed the piece of wood up his ass. Smeraldo moaned as tears filled his eyes and the Queen's tongue gagged him. Kyrio had been much gentler and had used lubricants. But, as usual, the Queen wanted to humiliate him. She took pleasure in his pain.
The Queen pulled herself up and stared at him, satisfied. "Let's see if this gets you hard."
"Leave me alone, bitch!" he screamed, furious. Not scared, but full of hatred. "Free me if you dare! I'll kill you!"
"Not if I kill you first," she replied coldly.
She moved the wood inside him, biting his nipple until she drew blood.
Smeraldo lost his self-control. He started screaming even as she tried again to gag him with her tongue. His voice resonated through the palace, unstoppable, until she bit his jugular, choking the scream. "Kyrio," gurgled out of his lips with blood, then he was silent and still.
***
Laurisa, Alina and Melania heard Smeraldo's long scream of agony. They rushed to the Queen's bedroom and stopped at the door since the guards didn't let them in. Bianca and Sibilla had turned their heads away and were silently crying.
Melania would never forget seeing the Queen licking her lips clean of Smeraldo's blood, his green eyes were wide open and unfocused.
The Queen rose from the bed. "Clean this mess," she ordered, leaving without looking at anyone in particular.
Bianca, Sibilla, Laurisa, Alina and Melania slowly approached the bed and observed Smeraldo's violated body with dismay.
Alina started sobbing on Laurisa's shoulder.
"At least he stopped suffering," Melania whispered, still shocked.
"The Queen has gone crazy," Bianca muttered. "We should have stopped her."
"You were doing your duty," Laurisa said sourly, patting Alina's shoulder, trying to calm her. "But you're right, enough is enough. She becomes more bloodthirsty every year, we must find a way to get rid of her."
"You have your own losses, Princess?" Melania asked.
Laurisa nodded sharply. "I'll talk to my mother. I'll see what we can do."
"Count on us, Princess," Sibilla said, serious.
"See she doesn't kill Kyrio as well," Melania said.
"I'll take care of Kyrio," Bianca promised. "Although, if the Queen decides she wants him, I'll be as impotent as you in protecting him."
"The reign of Amazonia shall end soon," Laurisa declared sternly.
***
Bianca went to the prison and
entered Kyrio's cell. The man leaned on the wall he was chained to but looked up when he heard her. They had taken away his clothes and Bianca admired the naked body. She decided it couldn't hurt to have a child with a foreigner.
She went to him and looked him in the eyes. He looked sad, but it couldn't be simply because of his condition. He'd had to sleep standing – if he had slept at all, which seemed unlikely.
"Smeraldo is dead," she told him.
"I know." He lowered his eyes. "I heard him scream. At least he stopped suffering." He looked up again. "That crazy queen of yours, what did she do to him?"
Bianca hesitated. She didn't like thinking about it. "She bit out his throat."
"She's an animal, not a woman," he commented. "And she called Aldo an animal."
"The Queen never respected men much. They're just means to procreate. I cannot let you go, but I'd like to have your baby before she decides to come after you."
"I'm afraid I can't function at this time," he replied. "I'm mourning my beloved."
"Your sex is so exposed, I'm sure we can work this out."
He shrugged. He couldn't stop her if she decided to touch him.
He stared at the ceiling while she tried in vain to arouse him. Was he really so in love with Smeraldo that he couldn't do it with a woman?
Bianca knew she didn't have much time if she wanted him to impregnate her. So she left him alone and went to the palace pharmacy where even the Queen grabbed the drugs and aphrodisiacs she forced on reluctant men.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, offering a goblet of so-called love potion to Kyrio. "I really want your child."
"Is this the drug Amazonia used on Smeraldo?" Kyrio asked.
"One of the many," she answered, a little puzzled. Obviously the two men had discussed the Queen's methods.
"All right." Kyrio accepted the drink, probably in memory of his lost lover.
Bianca unchained him and he plopped seated on the ground as the drug took away some of his strength to send blood to his manhood. Kyrio closed his eyes with a sigh, probably imagining he was with Smeraldo.
Bianca straddled him and helped his arousal until she was able to ride him. Her orgasm was ruined by the knowledge she was forcing him and by the flash of Smeraldo's still, bloodied face, but she managed to get his seed inside her.
Kyrio's head lolled as he fell asleep. She took the chains and locked his wrists again but left him seated. She caressed his black hair and left with a sigh.
Chapter 9
Kyrio felt empty after Smeraldo's death. Finding the love of his life only to lose him to a cruel, mad queen had hit him hard. Hearing Smeraldo's anguished scream had broken his heart.
He shouldn't have taken the dancer back. Melania was sweet, but Amazonia was ruthless. And being a foreigner, he hadn't been allowed to bring his men to the capital, hence he was outnumbered and unable to protect his lover.
He didn't blame the guards for reporting them. He knew military minds were trained to follow orders blindly. But the guard who had visited him seemed quite shocked by Smeraldo's end, so maybe she'd find the strength to disobey further crazy orders issued by Amazonia.
Kyrio sat in his cell in a sort of limbo, losing his sense of time as he mourned. But not many days had passed, because the guard – who came once a day to feed him – had come back only three times.
In front of his cell there was another, and Kyrio could see a blond man chained there through the gated door. The other tried to start a conversation, but the common tongue for them happened to be Amazonia's dialect, so they didn't talk much, aware the guards were always present inside the prison.
They managed to tell each other their names – the blond man's was Branwen – and where they came from – Kelvia for the other man. That was the capital of the Kelvan Kingdom, and Kyrio thought the Kelvan must be a nobleman since he seemed to speak many languages and had an air of class most merchants didn't have.
Branwen was very good-looking and very clean – on the first day. Now both had stubble and felt uncomfortable in their nakedness. Being chained to the wall didn't help either.
Then the guards came and took all the prisoners out, lining the dozen or so men in the prison's anteroom with their wrists shackled behind their backs. Kyrio noticed they were all naked and disheveled from their stay in the prison.
Amazonia came into the room and started reviewing the prisoners. Kyrio thanked his nonviolent nature, although a part of him wanted to strangle the queen for what she had done to Smeraldo.
He stood still and sustained her eyes when she stopped in front of him. She gave him the once-over and smirked, then moved on.
Kyrio clenched his teeth as Smeraldo's smile flashed in his mind. I shall avenge you, beloved. How was another matter.
Amazonia finished her review, chose three men, including Kyrio and the Kelvan, and left. The guards took the three chosen and returned the others.
Kyrio followed the blue-eyed guard to a big bathroom with a pool of warm water. The guards unshackled them and pointed at the pool. The three men were quite happy to wash themselves, although the Kelvan looked worried. And he had no idea of what Amazonia could do.
Then male servants shaved all three, as the guards didn't trust them enough to put blades in their hands. All three were taken out of the bathroom and guided to three different bedrooms, so Kyrio lost sight of the others.
He wondered if the canopied bed with carved poles was the same where Smeraldo had died. He glanced at the guard who wanted a child from him and she nodded, serious.
Kyrio stared at the bed, almost seeing his lover sprawled there, then they pushed him forward and he found himself spread-eagled, much as Smeraldo had been.
And, like Smeraldo, he could only wait. He closed his eyes, hearing his lover's voice again, then a scream from the third man brought him back to reality. Amazonia had started her deadly game, muffling the other man's moans of pain with who knew what. Listening to the man's pain brought back Smeraldo's agony and the loss left Kyrio breathless for a moment.
He'd survive and punish the wicked queen. Or join Smeraldo in bliss. Whatever the outcome, he wasn't afraid.
***
Bianca and Sibilla usually had the same shifts and were often paired on duty, so they had become good friends. They were about the same age, like Melania and Alina, and had always taken care of each other's brothers, who were palace servants or their attendants. None of them had ever caught the eye of the Queen, thank the Goddess.
After killing Alina's brother, the Queen had chosen three more victims. An Uncatchable captured by a Huntress who had gifted him to the Queen and who was quickly dying of the Queen's brutality, and the two foreigners – one, Kyrio, being Smeraldo's unlucky companion, and the other shipwrecked on the coast and brought to the Capital to be sold, except the Queen had first option on anything.
Bianca liked Kyrio and Sibilla liked the blond man, whose name was Branwen. Both were worried about what the Queen would do to them, and when their shift ended, they went to Alina and Princess Laurisa, who were plotting to rid themselves of the Queen.
"She has Kyrio," Bianca announced. "She hasn't touched him yet, but I doubt she'll spare him. And she obviously knows what was between him and Smeraldo."
Alina frowned and pursed her lips. "We've tried vainly to poison her. Sometimes I think only a revolution would force her to abdicate."
"But outside of the palace and Maadre she is still worshiped," Sibilla objected, worried. "Whoever doesn't deal daily with her is oblivious of her viciousness."
"We're preparing documents with our stories," Princess Laurisa said, determined. "Please give us your experience. Any atrocity witnessed will go in the book of accusations we're preparing."
"And when do you plan to confront her?" Bianca asked.
"My mother thinks the Fall Festival could be the perfect time," Princess Laurisa answered. "High Priestess Olimpia agreed to deny the Queen entry to the Temple until she addresses all the accusations. We might even st
op the sacrifice and spare all those virgin young men she's so fond of killing herself."
"The High Priestess confirmed that the Goddess never asked for virgins, and while she was still with us, she had them for a night and then released them," Alina added. "It was an honor to be chosen back then. But when Goddess Benjasmine left, the Queen started killing them, then decided they must be virgin. Olimpia thinks the Goddess will be very happy if we sacrifice old or useless men instead of wasting our youths."
Bianca nodded, thoughtful. "Let's hope Kyrio and Branwen make it to the Fall Festival."
"If they don't, you'll have two more stories for our book," Princess Laurisa concluded sourly.
***
Amazonia sauntered to the bed where Kyrio was bound, taking off her sleeveless tunic. He stared at her, undaunted in spite of having heard the moans and screams of the other men. They were probably still alive, but not for long.
Before climbing on the bed, she leaned to pick up something – a wooden phallus that looked fairly big. She didn't smile as she showed off her toy.
"Are you expecting me to get that big?" he asked, sarcastic.
"No, I expect you to like this as much as my favorite stud did," she answered coldly.
"Would that be the one who could dance like a god before you laid your claws on him?"
She slapped him. "There are no gods," she said through clenched teeth. "Only my mother, the Goddess Benjasmine."
"Who abandoned you," he retorted. "No wonder you're so sour."
She glared at him, calculating her next move. "Are you really not afraid? You know this killed my favorite stud?" She toyed with the piece of wood.
"Ah, so that's the murder weapon," he said. "Interesting choice."
"He died saying your name."
"Because we loved each other. I doubt you know the meaning of that word."
She huffed impatiently. "Are you sick of living?"
"Yes, if it means I join my beloved in the Afterworld."
"And what makes you think you'll meet him? The children of Amazonia don't mix with other Humans!" Her voice was full of contempt.
Tales of the Queendom of Maadre Page 5