"I heard why you are doing this," Marlene said, looking her in the eye.
"Just my duty to help my lord and master," Megan replied, smiling.
"Mirta says more with a glance than you do with a sentence," Marlene grinned. "Paul might like a couple of those cakes as well; make sure the girls don't stuff themselves silly."
"I will," Megan said. "Later."
Megan walked back to where Paul was listening to Ashly tell about her latest triumph in backgammon. It was apparent that he was trying to be interested and failing miserably.
"More food?" he asked, as Megan sat down and opened up the cover.
Marlene had outdone herself. There was some sort of meat covered in a red wine sauce and beautifully sculpted portions of potatoes, lightly grilled tomatoes and a green mash that had been shaped into the form of a flower. Shanea had opened up the other tray and was distributing small, glazed cakes to the girls, one apiece, and whispering that they were supposed to make them last.
"More food," Megan replied, picking up a fork as he reached for it. "Ah, ah, you don't do anything for yourself."
"I can feed myself," Paul said, but he let her section small bites of the food and shovel them in his mouth. When a few crumbs fell off the fork, Ashly helpfully leaned forward and licked them off of him. By then Christel had turned up with another carafe of chilled wine and fed him sips between bites.
"What are you doing to me?" Paul asked, looking at Megan.
"Pampering you," Megan said. "We'll stop when you learn to take care of yourself."
"Okay, I promise not to learn to take care of myself," Paul said, laughing as the last of the food was served.
"Good," Megan said, honestly. Having him here a lot worked perfectly. She unbelted his robe and kissed his chest, licking at it lightly.
"Megan, not here," he groaned.
"Here," she said, reaching over and pushing Ashly's head towards his crotch. She would have grabbed Shanea, not knowing how Ashly would feel about it, but Shanea was just out of reach.
Suddenly she found a breast in her face as Karie sidled up on one side and she backed away as the rest of the girls closed in on him.
She stood up and looked at Christel who winked back at her. So there was more than one plan afoot; good.
Megan backed away from the pile and gestured with her head at Christel.
"How do we get him back to sleep?" Megan whispered.
"Oh, I think when they're done with him he'll sleep," Christel chuckled quietly.
"I think they'll all sleep," Megan said, turning her head to the side. Paul wasn't the only one who was having fun in the pile. Ashly, who was still stroking for all her neck would bear, was sitting on Shanea's face. And there was no way that Shanea had been forced to the position; she'd been on the other side of the pile to start. But Shanea wasn't lacking as somebody's hand was down in her crotch and that led to... maybe Velva...
"It looks like an erotic M.C. Escher painting," Megan muttered, shaking her head.
"Good work." Christel chuckled again.
"Sure, laugh," Megan replied. "I've got distillation to attend to."
"Go for it," Christel said, stripping off her clothes. "I've got better things to do. All this needs is a half a ton of whipped cream and five more males."
Megan shook her head as Christel writhed into the group. She fully intended to just go back to her, lonely, workroom and keep distilling the various substances she had concocted. But the more she thought about it, the more she watched, just standing there as the pile writhed in a tangle of limbs like some giant fleshy amoeba.
But far more attractive.
"Oh the hell with perfume." She sighed, aware that she had reached a point where she wasn't about to go to her workroom. Although the bath had some interest. Finally, she took a deep, shuddering breath, stripped off her clothes and dove into the pile.
Christel was right; it needed whipped cream.
CHAPTER NINE
Paul looked slightly shamefaced when he woke up in a pile of female limbs. But the first thing he saw was Megan, leaning on one arm, watching him.
"Was it just my imagination, or did I see your face in the middle of... this," he asked, gesturing at the girls, most of whom were still sleeping.
"It wasn't your imagination," Megan replied, shrugging.
He watched the way that moved her breasts and shook his head.
"I... didn't figure you for this sort of thing," he said, carefully.
"Neither did I," Megan admitted. "But it was pretty fun once I got over the idea."
"I have to get up," Paul said, trying to figure out how to crawl out and disturb the least number of people.
"You are staying here at least one more day," Megan said, sternly. "You looked like death-on-a-cracker when you came in and you still don't look good."
"I've got things I have to do," Paul said. "Besides go to the bathroom."
"It's over there." Megan gestured with her chin. "But you'd better come back out, too."
"I will," Paul said.
When he came back out he was wearing one of the standard robes and he sat down on a pillow, turning his head to the side as he contemplated Megan.
"What are you doing awake at..." he paused and obviously consulted the Net, "three a.m.?"
"I get enough sleep in the harem." Megan shrugged. "I wasn't tired. I was watching you."
"Watching me sleep?" Paul asked. "Or watching over me?"
"A little of both. Watching and thinking."
"How easy it would be to kill me?" Paul asked.
"Damage you, yes," Megan said. "Kill would be for all practical purposes impossible. And if I even tried, well, the best that might happen is that I'd wind up like Amber. And, hell, I don't want to kill you. I did at first, but I don't want to anymore."
"Do you know why?" he asked quietly.
"No," Megan replied, sitting up. "Tell me, O Wise One."
Paul smiled and said something softly.
"Have you ever heard of the Sabine women?" Paul asked.
Megan thought about it for a long time and then shook her head.
"I think my mother mentioned the term," she said. "But I don't recall anything about it."
"Very old legend," Paul said, taking a sip of wine. "The Romans were short on women so they invited a neighboring tribe, the Sabines, to a festival in honor of the gods. Under a binding truce of course. At the height of the party, the Roman young men took off with the Sabine's wives and daughters while the older men held off the Sabines. Then they raped them and took them as their wives. Quite a few years later the Sabines had built up enough force to fight the Romans and, hopefully, destroy them. But the Sabine women convinced them not to kill their new husbands. After a while the Sabine tribe was absorbed by the Romans."
Megan frowned. "It's a legend."
"A legend that has had a ring of truth to this day." Paul sighed. "Because the psychological basis of it started to be understood in the twentieth century, starting with something called the Stockholm Effect. People tend to bond to their captors in personalized imprisonments. Most of the real-life examples have faded over the last few millennia but there are tens of thousands of them that have been studied. And the psycho-physiological effects, even the evolutionary bases, are easily traceable. Women who have been kidnapped and imprisoned tend to bond to their captors even more readily and to fall in love with them. Tend. Not always, humans are individuals. But it's the majority."
"I've fallen in love with my kidnapper," she said, hanging her head.
"You've fallen in love with your kidnapper," Paul confirmed. "It's not nice, it's not the way that things are 'supposed' to be. But it's very real and it's very human and it's something that I counted upon when I set up this... group. It probably goes back to prehuman conditions. Young female chimpanzees that are thrown out of their packs are often found by males from other packs. When they are, they are forced back to the area that the females stay in and are brutalized until they stay there o
f their own free will. To the point of preventing new females from attempting to escape. I have not brutalized you girls, but do you think Christel, for example, would support any plans to escape?"
"No," Megan said.
"I could postulate a race which is different," he paused and chuckled grimly. "Actually, I don't have to. The elves are different. Attempt to rape or imprison an elf and you'd better have lots of chains. And a gag."
"You haven't..." Megan said, her eyes wide.
"Never," Paul replied, definitely. "But some have tried from time to time, especially in the years when they lived among humans; elves were always beautiful. But the elves have no submit in them. They do not change their... emotions under stress. Put them in an imprisonment situation and they will always try to escape. They will tend, very hard, to try to kill their guards, even if it means their own deaths. Humans, though, tend to make the best of a bad situation. Even to the point of falling in love." He looked at her tenderly and smiled. "I take it you're human?"
"Very," she admitted.
"Amber, though, seemed to be part elf," Paul sighed. "She never would submit to this necessity and when she plotted to kill Christel and escape I was forced to make her... more compliant."
Megan shuddered and shook her head. "Paul, do me a favor. If I ever go insane and do something that makes you have to do that, just kill me, okay?"
"I truly hope it never comes to that. You can't kill me, you know," he added, looking at her. "And if you even managed it through some miracle, it would be worse than it is now. That is part of this effect; faced with unpalatable choices humans choose the lesser of the evils and live through them as best they can. But you don't want to anymore, do you?"
She thought of all the nights that she had cried for her loss and the pain. And of all the times they had talked. She probably knew more about the inner workings of the New Destiny faction than anyone not a part of it. And she knew that she no longer wanted to kill him. It didn't mean she wouldn't, but she didn't want to.
"No," she answered honestly, dipping her head again and fighting not to cry.
"If it helps you at all, I love you, too," Paul said. "You're... very precious to me. Sometimes when I come here it is only to see you. I can't talk to other people as I can with you. I certainly can't to anyone outside this group and of all the ones in it, the only other one that had your clarity of mind and ability to listen and make useful comments was Amber. And in the end, I had to make her safe."
"I won't force you to do the same to me," Megan said. "At least, I hope I never do."
"Do you know why the caged nightingale won't sing?" Paul asked.
"You said that before," she said, looking up with unshed tears in her eyes.
"It is because it knows that it is supposed to fly free," Paul said. "When you can't sing anymore, I'll know that it is time to release you... or know that you will never sing again." He looked at her sadly for a moment then stood up. "I have to go."
"Paul, you are not going anywhere," Megan said. "You're still not strong enough."
"I have things I have to do, Megan," Paul said. But when he stood he swayed on his feet.
"There," Megan said, triumphantly.
"Blood flow, that's all," Paul said. "I stood up too fast."
"I'll wake everybody up again and we'll start all over," Megan warned. "Where do you have to be? What can't you do from right here?"
"I need... I don't have to be anywhere. But I need to recall my avatars and find out what they have been doing while I've been... busy."
"You've got projections running and not monitoring them?" Megan asked.
"They're sentient avatars," Paul corrected. "For all practical purposes they are me. It was proscribed pre-Fall, but it's the only way to keep track of what is going on. I need to recall them, soon. They're not... fully stable. I need to recall them and then send out new ones."
"Well, you can do that here," Megan said. "Right?"
"I need to be undisturbed," Paul pointed out.
"There's an empty room right there," Megan said, pointing at his chamber. "And I'll make sure you're not disturbed. And when you're done, I'll make sure that you're fed and comforted and cosseted and..."
"Okay, okay." Paul laughed, hushing himself as one of the other girls stirred and snaked a hand across the body next to her. "I'll go in there."
"And I'll watch. Is there anything I should be aware of?"
"No, it's a harmless procedure," Paul said, walking to the room. "Mostly."
Paul reclined on one of the pillows and closed his eyes, appearing to go back to sleep or into a trance. But almost immediately he began to twitch as if hit by some invisible force. And he muttered.
"Bloody hell..." Pause. "No, no, no how stupid can one vacuous bitch be? Released?" Pause. "Ekmantan." Pause. "Ships? Dragon-carriers?" Pause. "Damn them."
"Talbot." A hiss of anger.
It went on for what seemed like hours and he became drenched with sweat, the increasing anger boiling off of him like a vapor.
She rose after a while and left quietly. All of the other girls were still in sodden slumber so she picked through the detritus of the orgy until she found the remains of the carafe of wine and a jug of water. She carried both in and resumed her vigil.
Paul finally settled down, stopped twitching, mostly, and appeared to dream. He muttered from time to time unintelligibly. She listened as closely as she could but there was nothing that was understandable. Finally, he opened his eyes, looking wan and pale.
"Harmless, huh?" she asked, sitting him up and propping pillows behind him. She held a glass of wine to his lips and then followed it with water.
"This one was harder than normal," he admitted. "I'd been away too long."
"And you do this regularly?" she asked.
"Usually every day," Paul admitted. "It's how I keep track."
"What are dragon-carriers?" she asked.
He looked at her sharply, then shrugged.
"The UFS has rigged out one of the warships to land and launch wyverns and greater dragons," Paul said. "I'd heard about it, but didn't really expect it to work. Well, it did. They destroyed the force that we sent down to the Isles to disrupt their negotiations with the mer. Now Chansa wants to build some of his own, so he can protect the invasion fleet."
"What do you think?" Megan asked.
"I think we're playing to their game and that's what I told Chansa," Paul replied. "We're just about evenly matched for power at this point, so we can't use that against them. But just making our own carriers isn't going to win us control of the sea. We need something to deal with the dragons. I told him to consult with Celine about modifying our dragons and get a group together to consider how to counter theirs."
"Do you think it will work?" Megan asked, handing him the water.
"We have to take Norau," Paul shrugged. "There are five power plants in Norau. We've tried everything from sedition to infiltrating attack teams, but most of them are well away from the coast and we can't use teleport. If we take the plants, or capture that bitch Sheida Ghorbani, the war will be over. But taking it will be... difficult. They've armed every peasant in the field and they make them train with the arms. There are areas that haven't done that, though, because Sheida's too stupid to make them. We're going to concentrate our attack on those areas. But we have to get there first, which means controlling the ocean. And we can't do that if one carrier can destroy six of our ships, five of them without ever coming in sight of the ships. And the carrier had less than a full complement of dragons."
"What are dragons afraid of?" Megan said. She'd wished for a month now that she had some way to get word to the other side. This was operational intelligence, stuff that could be acted on. Especially if she found out the counter plans. She had to figure some way to smuggle out information. There had to be a way.
"Nothing that I'm aware of," he said, getting a far away look as he accessed the Net. "Their wings are monomolecule fibers, so no hurting them there. Th
eir underbellies aren't, though. I'd say that a well-placed ballista bolt would take one down."
"Lots of dragons?" Megan prompted.
"Lots of bolts," Paul smiled in response. "Chansa's problem, I'll let him come up with the solution."
"Who is Talbot?" Megan asked. "You've mentioned him before."
"Duke the Honorable Charles or Edmund, take your pick, fucking Talbot," Paul said with a frown. "He was one of Sheida's little fuck boys before she became a council member. He apparently threw her over for her sister. He's now the commander of the eastern defenses in Norau and he was on the mission to the mer-folk. Apparently he put some spine in those Changed abominations, because they killed everything that Chansa sent at them. Chansa is simply furious. He not only lost the orcas and a kraken but a reasonably competent field agent and a very good source. All thanks to Duke Fucking Talbot."
John Ringo - Council Wars 02 - Emerald Sea Page 51