The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

by Ann Rice

  "'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 behind 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 breast 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 breast 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 though 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 the 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 tail 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.'

  "Perhaps the most excruciating part of the day for me was the villages. You have been through the villages. I had not. The only common people I had seen were in the kitchen.

  "But this day of military parade was also the opening of the fairs in the villages. The Queen visited each of several, and after that the fair would open.

  "There was a platform in the center of the square of each, and when the Queen went inside of the house of the Lord of the village to drink a cup of wine with him, I was left on display as she had told me I would be.

  "But I was not to stand gracefully as I might have hoped. And the villagers knew this, though I didn't. When we reached the fir
st village, the Queen went away, and as soon as my feet hit the platform, a great roar went up from the crowd who knew they were to see something amusing.

  "I had my head down, glad of the opportunity to move the rigid muscles of my throat and shoulders. And I was quite astonished when Felix removed the phallus from my anus. Of course the crowd cheered at this. I was then made to kneel up, hands behind my neck on a turntable.

  "Felix operated it with his foot. And telling me to spread my legs wide, he turned the turntable. I was perhaps more afraid in these first few moments than ever before, but never once did the fear rising and trying to escape come to me. I was virtually helpless. Naked, a slave of the Queen, I was in the midst of hundreds of common people who would have overpowered me at once, and cheerfully for all the sport it would have given them. It was then that I realized escape was quite impossible. Any naked Prince or Princess fleeing the castle would have been apprehended by these villagers. They would have given no shelter.

  "Now Felix commanded me to show to the crowd all my private parts that were in the service of the Queen, and that I was her slave, and her animal. I did not understand these words, which were spoken ceremoniously. So he told me politely enough that I must part the cheeks of my buttocks as I bent over and display for them my open anus. Of course this was a symbolic gesture. It meant I was ever to be violated. And nothing more than that which could be violated.

  "But my face was aflame, my hands trembling, I obeyed. A great cheer went up from the crowd. Tears slipped down my face. With a long cane, Felix lifted my balls for them to see, and pushed my penis this way and that to display its defenselessness, and all the while I had to hold my buttocks apart and display my anus. Whenever I relaxed my hands, he commanded me sharply to pull the flesh wider apart and threatened me with chastisement. 'That will infuriate her Highness,' he said, 'and amuse the crowd immensely.' Then to a loud approving cry, the phallus was shoved securely back into my anus. I was made to press my lips to the wood of the turntable. And I was led back to my position beside the Queen's coach, Felix pulling my bridle over his shoulder as I trotted with my head lifted behind him.

  "By the last village I was no more used to it than at the first. But by this time Felix had assured the Queen that I displayed all conceivable humility. My beauty was unrivaled by that of any past Prince. Half the village youth of both sexes was in love with me. The Queen kissed my eyelids when I received those compliments.

  "There was a grand banquet that night at the castle. You've seen such a banquet as there was one held for you at your presentation. I had not seen it before. And I had my first experience of serving wine for the Queen and for the others to whom she sent me ceremoniously as a gift now and then. When my eyes caught those of Princess Lynette I smiled at her without thinking about it.

  "I felt I could do anything I was commanded to do. I had no fear of anything. And so I can say by then I had yielded. But the truest indication of my yielding was that both Leon and Lord Gregory – when they had the chance – told me I was obdurate and rebellious. They said I mocked everything. I said this was not true when I had the opportunity to answer, but I seldom had such an opportunity.

  "Many other things have happened to me since then, but the lessons learned in those early months were the most important.

  "Princess Lynette is still here, of course. You'll come to know who she is in time, and though I can bear anything from my Queen, from Lord Gregory, and from Leon, I still find it difficult to bear Princess Lynette. But I should stake my life on it that no one knows this.

  "Now, it's almost morning. I must return you to the dressing room, and also bathe you, so no one knows we've been together. But I've told you my story so that you can understand what it means to yield, and that each of us must find his or her own path to acceptance.

  "There is more, however, to my story which will only reveal itself to you in time. But let it stand by you in simple ways now. If you must bear a punishment which seems to great for you, think to yourself, 'Ah, but Alexi bore this so therefore it can be borne.'"

  Beauty did not mean to silence him but she could not restrain her embraces. She was as hungry for him now as she had been earlier, but it was too late.

  And as he led her back to the dressing room, she wondered whether or not he could guess at the true effect of his words upon her. Could he know that he had enflamed and fascinated her, and amplified for her and understanding of resignation and yielding which she had already felt?

  As he bathed her, wiping away all evidence of his love, she remained still, caught in her thoughts.

  What had she felt earlier this night when the Queen had said she wanted to send her home on account of the Crown Prince's excessive devotion? Had she wanted to leave?

  A horrid thought obsessed her. She saw herself asleep in that dusty chamber that had been her prison for a hundred years, she heard whispers all about her. The old witch with the spindle that had pricked Beauty's finger was laughing through her toothless gums; and lifting her hand to Beauty's breasts, she exuded some lewd sensuality.

  Beauty shuddered. She winced and struggled as Alexi tightened the shackles.

  "Don't be afraid. We've had the night together undiscovered," he assured her.

  She stared at him as if she did not know him because she was not afraid of anyone in the castle, not of him, the Prince, the Queen. It was her mind that frightened her.

  The sky was paling. Alexi embraced her. She was now bound to the wall, her long hair pressed between her back and the stones behind her. And she could not get out of that dusty chamber in her homeland, and it seemed to her she was traveling up through layers and layers of sleep, and this dressing room about her in this cruel country had lost its substantiality.

  A Prince had come into her sleeping chamber. A Prince had lowered his lips to her. But it was only Alexi kissing her, wasn't it? Alexi kissing her here?

  But when she opened her eyes on that ancient bed and looked at the one who now broke her spell, she saw some bland and innocent countenance! It was not her Crown Prince. It was not Alexi. It was some pristine soul liken to her own who now stood back from her in astonishment. Brave he was, yes, brave, and without complexity!

  She cried out. "No!"

  But Alexi's hand was over her mouth. "Beauty, what is it?"

  "Don't kiss me!" she whispered.

  But when she saw the pain in his face, she opened her mouth and felt his lips sealed over it. His tongue filled her. She pressed her hips against him.

  "Ah, it is you, only you..." she whispered.

  "And what did you think it was? Were you dreaming?"

  "It seemed for a moment all this was a dream," she confessed. But the stone was too real, his touch too real.

  "And why should it be a dream? Is it such a nightmare?"

  She shook her head. "You love it, all of it, you love it," she whispered in his ear. She saw his eyes linger languidly on her and then drift away. "And it seemed a dream because all the past, the real past, has lost its luster!"

  But what was she saying? That in these few days she had not once longed for her homeland, she had not once longed for what her youth had been and the sleep of a hundred years had given her no wisdom?

  "I love it. I loathe it," Alexi said. "I am humiliated by it, and recreated by it. And yielding means to feel all those things at once and yet to be of one mind and one spirit."

  "Yes," she sighed, as though she had falsely accused him. "Wicked pain, wicked pleasure."

  And he gave her his smile of approbation. "We'll be together soon again..."

  "Yes..."

  "... be sure of it. And until then, my darling, my love, belong to everyone."

  THE VILLAGE

  THE NEXT few days passed as quickly for Beauty as those before them. No one discovered that she and Alexi had been together.

  The following night the Prince told her she had gained his mother's approval. She would now be trained by him as his little maid, to sweep his quarters, to keep
his wine cup always filled, and to perform all those duties that Alexi performed for her Highness.

  And from then on Beauty would sleep in the Prince's quarters.

  She found herself envied by everyone, and it was the Prince and the Prince alone who prescribed her daily punishments.

  Each morning she was given to Lady Juliana for the Bridle Path. Then Beauty would serve the wine at the noon meal and woe to her if she spilt a drop of it.

  Then she would sleep in the afternoons so she might be fresh to attend the Prince in the evenings. And next Festival Night she would be entered in a race of Bridle Path slaves which he expected her to win after her daily training.

  All this Beauty heard out with flushes and tears, again and again stooping to kiss the Prince's boots as he gave his orders. He seemed still troubled in his love, and while the castle slept, he frequently awakened her with rough embraces. She could scarcely think of Alexi at these times, the Prince so frightened her and scrutinized her.

  And when each day dawned she was brought out in her leather horseshoe boots for Lady Juliana.

  Beauty was frightened but she was ready. Lady Juliana was a vision of loveliness in her crimson riding dress, and Beauty ran fast on the soft gravel path, the sun often causing her to squint as it flashed in the overhanging trees, and she was weeping when it was finished.

  Then she and Lady Juliana would be alone together in the garden. Lady Juliana carried a leather strap, but seldom did she use it, and the garden was soothing to Beauty. They would sit down on the grass, Lady Juliana's skirts a wreath of embroidered silk about her, and quite suddenly Lady Juliana might give Beauty a deep kiss that startled Beauty and weakened her. Lady Juliana stroked Beauty all over. She lavished her with kisses and compliments, and when she did beat her with the leather strap, Beauty cried softly with deep moaning breaths and languid sense of abandon.