The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

by Anne Rice

  “And when the task was complete and I was again driven into the center of the circle, I heard applause around me.

  “My cruel trainer didn’t pause. She commanded me at once to hop upon another stool, and from that stool to one that was even higher. I squatted on each in turn, and when her spanks caught me my hips moved forward with them without restraint and my moans, my natural moans, were surprisingly loud to me.

  “‘Yes, my Princess,’ I said after each command, and my voice sounded tremulous to me, though deep, and full of suffering. ‘Yes, my Princess,’ I said again as she ordered me finally to stand before her, legs wide apart and slowly squat until I had achieved the height of which she approved. Then I must jump through the first hoop, hands behind my neck and somehow manage to squat again for her. ‘Yes, my Princess,’ I said and obeyed at once, and then through another hoop and another with the same compliance. I was agile and without the slightest shame, though my penis and balls moved ungracefully with my exertions.

  “Her blows grew harder, less regular. My moans were very loud and sudden and provoked much laughter.

  “And when she commanded me now to jump up and grab the bar of the trapeze in both hands, I felt the tears come purely from my stress and exhaustion. I hung from the trapeze as she paddled me, driving me back and forth, and then commanded me to twist and catch the chains above with my feet.

  “This was quite impossible and as I struggled to obey, the hall echoed with laughter. Felix stepped forward and at once lifted my ankles until I was swinging as she had wished and I had to bear her spanks in this position.

  “And as soon as she tired of this, I was ordered to drop to the ground, at which point she came forward with a long thin leather strap, and buckling the end of it around my penis, she now pulled me, on my knees towards her. I had never been so led or pulled before, by the very root of my cock, and my tears flowed copiously. My whole body was hot and trembling, and my hips were being tugged ahead of me so that no thought of grace could possibly exist even had I the presence of mind for it. She pulled me to the Queen’s feet, and then turning, pulled me along, running on her clicking heels so that I struggled and groaned and cried behind my closed lips to keep up with her.

  “I was wretched. The circle seemed endless. The strap around my penis constricted it, and my buttocks were so painfully tender now that they ached even when she was not striking them.

  “But we’d soon completed the circle. I knew she had exhausted her inventiveness. She had relied upon my disobedience and reluctance, and encountering none, her show lacked any real feature save my complete obedience.

  “But she had now a subtle test for me for which I was unprepared.

  “She ordered me to stand up, spread my legs and then place my hands flat on the floor before her. I did so, my buttocks facing the Queen and the Grand Duke, a position which again, even in the midst of this, reminded me of my nakedness.

  “She put aside her paddle, and picked her favorite toy then, the leather strap, and gave my legs a heavy strapping on both thighs and calves, letting the leather curl about me, and ordered me to move forward a few inches so that I might place my chin upon a high stool there. My hands must go behind my back, my back must be arched. I did as I was told and stood, spread-legged, bent at the waist, my face tipped up for all to see my miserable expression.

  “As you can imagine my buttocks hung free in the air, and she commenced to shower them with compliments. ‘Very pretty hips, Prince Alexi, very pretty buttocks, tough and round and muscular, and very pretty indeed when you squirm to escape my strap and my paddle.’ She illustrated all this as I did with her strap, and I was crying softly now between my moans.

  “It was then she gave a command which surprised me. ‘But the Court wants to see you display your buttocks. They want to see you move them,’ she said. ‘Not merely to escape the punishment you so richly deserve and richly need, but to see some real show of humility.’ I didn’t know what she meant. She spanked me hard as if I meant to be stubborn, while I answered through my tears, ‘Yes, my Princess.’ ‘But you do not obey!’ she cried out. She had commenced what she really wanted, and as soon as she said this, I began to sob in spite of myself. What could I say to her? ‘I want to see your buttocks move, Prince,’ she said. ‘I want to see them dance, while your feet remain still.’ I heard the Queen laugh. And suddenly overcome with shame and fear, I knew the seemingly small thing she wanted of me was too much for me. I moved my hips, I moved them from side to side as she spanked me and my chest shook with another sob that I could scarce keep quiet.

  “‘No, Prince, nothing so simple as that, a real dance for the Court,’ she said, ‘your reddened and punished buttocks must do something besides sleep under my blows!’ and she placed her hands on my hips then and slowly moved them not only from side to side, but down and around and up, so that I had to bend my knees. She rotated them. It seems a small thing as I say it. But to me it was unspeakably shameful, to have to swing my hips and rotate them, to put all my strength and spirit into this seemingly vulgar display of my buttocks. And yet she meant for me to do this, she had commanded it, and I could do nothing but obey, and my tears flowed and my sobs caught in my throat, as I rotated my buttocks as she commanded. ‘Bend your knees deeper, I want to see a dance,’ she said with a loud wallop of her strap. ‘Bend your knees and move those hips more to the side, more to the left!’ her voice rose angrily. ‘You resist me, Prince Alexi, you don’t amuse!’ she said, and rained her smacking wallops on me as I strove to obey. ‘Move!’ she cried out. She was triumphing. All my composure was truly lost. She knew it.

  “‘So you dare reserve yourself in the presence of the Queen and her Court,’ she scolded me, and then with both her hands she pulled my hips this way and that, making a greater rotation. I could endure it no longer. There was but one way to best her and that was to twist in this shameful position more wildly even than she guided me. And shaking with choked sobs, I obeyed her. There was immediate applause as I did this dance, my buttocks twisted from side to side and up and down, my knees bending deeply, my back arched, my chin resting painfully on the stool so all could see the tears coursing down my face, and my obvious destruction of spirit.

  “‘Yes, Princess,’ I struggled to articulate in my supplicating voice, and I obeyed with all my strength putting on such a good performance that the applause continued.

  “‘That’s good, Prince Alexi, very good,’ she said. ‘Spread your legs wider apart, wider and move your hips even more!’ I obeyed at once. I was now snapping my hips, and I was overcome with the greatest shame I had known since I had been captured and brought to the castle. Not even the first stripping by the soldiers in the field, not even being thrown over the Captain’s saddle, nor the raping in the kitchen compared to the degradation I knew now, because I performed all this gracelessly and obsequiously.

  “Finally, she was finished with my little display. The Lords and the Ladies were talking among themselves, commenting, talking of all manner of things as they always do at such things, but the murmur was full of a certain restlessness, which meant their passions were aroused, and I did not have to look up to see they were all looking at the central circle no matter how they might have feigned boredom. Princess Lynette now ordered me to turn slowly, keeping my chin in the center of the stool, but moving my legs in a circle, all the while swinging my buttocks, so that all the Court might see this display of obedience equally.

  “My own sobs were deafening to me. I struggled to obey without losing my balance. If I flagged in the slightest with the broad rotation of my buttocks, the Princess had an opportunity again to upbraid me.

  “Finally, she raised her voice and announced to the Court that we had here an obedient Prince capable of even more imaginative amusements in the future. The Queen clapped her hands. The assembly could now rise and disperse, but they did so very slowly, and Princess Lynette, to continue the performance for the very last onlookers, quickly ordered me to grasp the trapeze
over my head, and as she spanked me relentlessly, I was ordered to lift my chin and to march in place on my toes for her.

  “Pain shot through my calves and thighs, but the worst as always was the burning and swelling of my buttocks. Yet I marched with my chin up as the hall emptied. The Queen had gone first. Finally all the Lords and Ladies were gone.

  “Princess Lynette gave over her paddle and her strap to Lord Gregory.

  “I stood holding the trapeze, my chest heaving, my limbs tingling. I had the pleasure of seeing Princess Lynette stripped of her boots and her collar by a Page who threw her over his shoulder, and then she was carried out, but I couldn’t see her face, and did not know what she was feeling. Her buttocks were up in the air over the Page’s shoulder; her pubic lips were long and thin, and her pubic hair reddish.

  “I was alone, damp all over with sweat, and exhausted. Lord Gregory was standing there. And he came and lifted my chin and said, ‘You are unconquerable, aren’t you?’ I was astonished. ‘Miserable, proud, rebellious, Prince Alexi!’ he said furiously. I tried to show my consternation. ‘Tell me how I’ve displeased?’ I begged, having heard Prince Gerald say that enough in the Queen’s chamber.

  “‘You know you take pleasure in all of it. There is nothing that is too ungraceful for you, too undignified, too difficult. You play with all of us!’ he said. Again, I was astonished.

  “‘Well, you will measure my cock for me now,’ he said, and ordered the last Page to leave us. I still held the trapeze as commanded. The room was dark save for the luminous night sky through the windows. I heard him opening his clothes, I felt the nudge of his penis. And then he thrust it into my buttocks.

  “‘Damnable little Prince,’ he said, as he drove into me.

  “When it was finished, Felix slung me over his shoulder as unceremoniously as the other Page had carried Princess Lynette. My cock swelled against him, but I tried to control it.

  “When he set me down in the Queen’s chamber, she sat at her dresser filing her nails. ‘I’ve missed you,’ she said. I hurried to her on my hands and knees and kissed her slippers. She took a white silk handkerchief and wiped my face.

  “‘You please me very well,’ she said. I was puzzled. What did Lord Gregory see in me that she did not see?

  “But I was too relieved to ponder this. Had she greeted me with anger, ordered more punishments and amusements, I would have wept with despair. As it was, she was all beauty and softness. She ordered me to undress her and to turn down her bed. I obeyed as well as I could. But she refused the silk dressing gown.

  “And for the first time, she stood before me naked.

  “I had not been told I could look up. I was crouched at her feet. Then she said that I might look. As you can imagine, she was unspeakably lovely. She has a firm body, powerful somewhat, with shoulders just a little too strong for a woman, and long legs, but her breasts were magnificent, and her sex was a gleaming nest of black hair. I found myself breathless.

  “‘My Queen,’ I whispered, and after I kissed her feet, I kissed her ankles. She did not protest. I kissed her knees. She did not protest. I kissed her thighs, and then impulsively I buried my face in that nest of perfumed hair, finding it hot, so hot, and she lifted me up until I was standing. She lifted my arms and I embraced her, and felt for the first time, her full womanly form, and also that no matter how strong and powerful she appeared, she was small next to me, and yielding. I moved to kiss her breasts, and she bid me silently do it, and I suckled them until she was sighing. They tasted so sweet, and they were so soft, yet plump at the same time and resistant to my respectful fingers.

  “She sank down on the bed, and I on my knees buried my face between her legs again. But she said she wanted my cock now and that I must not ‘come’ until she allowed it.

  “I moaned to show how difficult this would be out of love for her. But she lay back on her pillows, opening her legs, and I saw for the first time the pink lips there.

  “She pulled me down. I could not quite believe it when I felt the sheath of her hot vagina. It had been so long since I had felt such satisfaction with a woman. Not since I had been taken prisoner by her soldiers had I felt it. I struggled not to consummate my passion at once, and when she commenced to move her hips I thought surely I would lose the struggle. She was so wet and hot and tight and my penis ached from punishment. All my body ached and the aching was delicious to me. Her hands caressed my buttocks. She pinched the welts. She spread my buttocks apart, and as this hot sheathing tightened on my penis, as the roughness of her pubic hair stroked me and tantalized me, she put her fingers into my anus.

  “‘My Prince, my Prince, you pass all tests for me,’ she whispered. Her movements grew swifter, wilder. I saw her face and breasts suffused with scarlet. ‘Now.’ She commanded, and I pumped my passion into her.

  “I rocked with the pumping of it, my hips snapping as wildly as they had in the little circus performance. And when I was emptied and quiet, I lay covering her face and her breasts with languid and sleepy kisses.

  “She sat up in bed, and ran her hands all over me. She told me I was her loveliest possession. ‘But there are many cruelties in store for you,’ she said. I felt myself grow hard again. She said I should be subjected to a daily discipline far worse than any she had before invented.

  “‘I love you, my Queen,’ I whispered. And had no thought other than serving her. Yet of course I was afraid. Though I felt powerful in all I had endured and accomplished.

  “‘Tomorrow,’ she said, ‘I go to review my armies. I must ride before them in an open coach, as much so they can see their Queen as I can see them, and after that I must proceed through the villages nearest the castle.

  “‘All the Court rides with me according to rank. And all the slaves, naked, and collared in leather, march on foot with us. You shall march at the side of my carriage for all eyes to see. I shall have the finest collar for you, and your anus shall be opened with a leather phallus. You shall wear a bit in your mouth and I shall hold the bridle. You will hold your head high before soldiers, officers, the common people. And for the pleasure of the people, I shall have you displayed in the villages in the main square long enough for all to admire before we continue the procession.’

  “‘Yes, my Queen,’ I answered silently. I knew it would be a terrible ordeal, and yet I was thinking of it with curiosity, and wondering when and how my feeling of helplessness and yielding would visit me. Would it come before the villagers, or the soldiers, or when I trotted along with my head held high, my anus tortured by this phallus. Each detail she had described excited me.

  “I slept deeply and well. When Leon awakened me, he groomed me as carefully as he had for the little circus.

  “There was a huge commotion outside the castle. It was the first time I had seen the front gates of the courtyard, the drawbridge and moat and all the soldiers assembled. The Queen’s open coach stood in the courtyard, and she was already seated surrounded by her footmen and her Pages who rode on the sides, and her coachmen with their fine caps, their plumes and their gleaming spurs. A great mounted force of soldiers was ready.

  “Before being led out, I was fitted with the bit by Leon, who gave my hair a last thorough combing. He wedged the leather bit well back into my mouth, wiped my lips and then told me the hardest thing would be to keep my chin raised. I must never let it drop to a normal position. The bridle, which the Queen would hold idly in her lap could of course keep my head raised, but I must never lower my head. She would feel it if I did and be in a fury.

  “Then he showed me the leather phallus. It had no straps, no belts attached to it. It was as big as a man’s erect cock, and I was afraid. How should I ever keep it in? From it hung a horse’s tail of thin black leather thongs for a mere decoration. He told me to spread my legs. He forced it up into my anus and told me I must keep it in place, as the Queen would suffer me to be covered with nothing. The thin leather thongs hung down and stroked my thighs. They would swing like a horse’s ta
il when I trotted along but they were short, they would conceal nothing.

  “Then he oiled my pubic hair again, my cock and my balls. He rubbed some oil into my belly. I had my hands clasped behind my back and he gave me a small leather-covered bone to hold with them saying it would make it easier to keep them clasped. But my tasks were these: to keep my chin raised, to keep the phallus in place, and to keep my own penis hard and presentable to the Queen.

  “Then I was led out by the little bridle into the courtyard. The bright noonday sun flashed on the spears of the Knights and the soldiers. The horses’ hooves made a loud clatter on the stones.

  “The Queen who was in fast conversation with the Grand Duke at her side scarcely noticed me. She threw me one quick smile. The bridle was given her. It went up over the door of the coach and kept my head quite turned up.

  “‘Keep your eyes down at all times, respectfully,’ Leon said.

  “And soon the carriage moved out of the gates and over the drawbridge.

  “Well, you can imagine what that day was like. You were brought here naked through the villages of your own Kingdom. You know what it is like to be gazed at by all, soldiers, Knights, commoners.

  “It was small consolation to me that other naked slaves would follow. I was alone by the Queen’s coach, and I thought only of pleasing her, and of appearing as she wanted me to appear to others. I held my head up, I contracted my buttocks to hold in the painful phallus. And soon, as we passed before hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers, I thought again, ‘I am her servant, her slave, and this is my life. I have no other.’