The Hated (Sleeping With Monsters Book 3) (2 page)

And then Beza’s hands were there, reaching out to hold my breasts, stroking my nipples through my dress’s thin gauze. I looked up at my serving girl’s face, and kissed her for knowing what I needed more than I did myself, as each deep push made my breasts sway.

“More, Joshan,” I ordered, and my servant redoubled his efforts until I was falling forward, now held up by Beza as my girl reached back to rub the spot between my legs. These new feelings, being trapped and held and pinned and stroked, my breath hot on Beza’s neck as I clung to the girl who rubbed me right where Joshan’s cock was entering me so hard --

I cried out helplessly, suffused with power, roiling between the two. Beza held onto me but didn’t stop, and neither did Joshan, until I sagged to the ground between them.

Beza rocked back roughly as Joshan rocked forward, and the vase – already jostled from Beza’s time -- tilted precipitously, until it fell off of its stand away from us, shattering loudly into a million precious bits.

Both the servants startled at this and looked to me. I gasped in surprise, and then laughed. At that, both of them laughed too, all three of us in a tangle of wild fabrics and shards of irreplaceable ancient pottery.

This was life in the court of the Feather Palace, in the time of the Unfurling Lotus, year twenty-three thousand four-hundred and one.

Chapter One

Eventually I stood, pushing layers of gauzy blue back down. Beza was disheveled, orange skirts still high, and Joshan, ever patient, was hard and ready just in case his services were still required.

“Beza, finish him, will you?”

My serving girl nodded, and set to working at Joshan’s cock with her mouth.

I breathed in and out deeply, watching her enthusiastic work. Joshan’s eyes were on me should I need him but I shook my head and watched the man dissolve in bliss. I knew just how good her tongue could feel, and didn’t want to interrupt his pleasure.

They would have to be quick, though. A squad of zoomers would be here shortly to fix the mess we’d made. I knelt down to pick up a pottery shard. I couldn’t say how old the vase was, there was too much history to choose from, I only knew I’d never noticed it before. I turned the blood red piece over in my palm. Funny how the vase was more interesting after it’d been broken, then when it’d been one among the many of its kind.

I heard Joshan’s grunting mount and watched him. Beza was crouched over his hips, mouth open, jaw dropped, taking his cock as he thrust it. His hands clutched out, found her hair, then he shouted, bucking in spasms, until he was through and gently pushed Beza back.

“Satisfied?” I asked, smiling down.

“Of course, my Queen,” he answered.

Watching them made me think of asking for more, no matter that I had been so recently sated. We had spent days like this before, taking turns, two making the other one scream.

But I could hear zoomers coming down the hall -- and overhead announcement chimes rang, the tones picked up and echoed by real and mechanical lilans throughout the palace. A council visit -- and we only had the time it took for the council to mount the thousand-step stair to prepare.

I looked around at our disarray. If I had had more warning, I would bathe and be anointed with oils, put on fresh clothing, and choose one of the necklaces of my office to wear. Now, though – I knelt, and Beza began rebraiding my tangled hair. It would be easier with a brush, but it would take too long to fetch one now. Joshan tucked his cock away and set to straightening out my robes just as the first of the zoomers entered, and anything we might have said to one another was impossible to hear over the sound of their sharp teeth grinding pottery.

Yzin was the only councilmember I liked. They were all old and stodgy, and each had their own way of taking up all the air in the room – I’d had to listen to each of them during the countless ceremonies we attended in assorted chambers, me sitting perfectly still as my image was projected to a thousand-thousand screens outside. Yzin was the only one who seemed to care about me – he’d taught me history, up until he said there wasn’t anymore, that we were making it ourselves – and he’d taught me how to read, then brought me screens to read for pleasure. Out of all the gifts the councilmen brought me, his were the only ones I enjoyed.

One of the nearby zoomers ground to a stop, finishing the piece it held, reaching a paw out for more. Lifting a bigger shard revealed an unfamiliar object – I lunged for it and snatched it out of the zoomer’s path.

“What is it, my Queen?” Beza asked, looking over my shoulder at the thing. It folded open in all sorts of places and had strange and rough designs.

“I don’t know.” I hid it inside my dress, along with the shard of pottery I held. Maybe I could ask Yzin about them.

“The council waits, my Queen,” Joshan said, offering me his hand. I took it, stepped around the zoomers that now outnumbered the pottery shards, and made my way outside.

When I reached my council chamber, I could hear my counselors talking outside the chamber door. They weren’t speaking my tongue, but I understood it all the same. I assumed they had their own language, just as the lilans spoke to one another in their cages, like calling like. I had wondered how come I could understand them, though, and not the lilans. As a child, I’d have found understanding lilani far more interesting.

“Must we?” I heard Yzin ask.

“You know we must,” Railan answered. “You should want this more than anyone.” And then one of them rapped on the door three times, the doors opened, and the entering ceremony began.

It was always the same. Servants paced in, singing that I embodied all that was magic and holy in the world, how my beauty shone through the ages, and how being in my presence was like being in the light of the sun.

As I had never seen the sun, I had to take their word for it.

I waited my turn, then walked to my throne on a dais in the center of the room. The council members fanned out around us, each flanked by two servants, walking at a stately pace. Overhead, the glass stalactites glowed in warm shades, and the screens lining the walls showed pictures from Aranda’s countryside, gentle scenes of mountains, oceans, and distant towns, the countryside and cityscapes I ruled.

I had begged to visit them as a child, and been told I was too precious to leave the palace, even for a moment. In time I’d come to accept that the pictures of Aranda were all I’d ever see.

Railan finished his walk last to come and kneel at my feet, his red robes dragging behind him and long sleeves spooling out. I noticed, not for the first time, that his robes were embroidered with gold lilans in flight, and wished there were a way for me to see such a thing. The ones in my cages all had clipped wings.

I waited a long moment, looking around at my councilmen, their golds and purples, sashes and headwraps set with jewels, kneeling one by one. Last of these was my Yzin, who was having problems performing the task.

“Please, stand,” I implored him, at seeing him struggle to bend down.

He looked at me with a face tracked with so many lines it could have been on the wall of the Map Room, and pressed a hand to his chest. “My Queen, I am humbled by your consideration.”

“As I am by your presence,” I said in return, pressing a hand to my own.

Railan cleared his throat, looking over at his fellow councilmember dourly, before looking up at me. “Queen Ilylle,” he announced.

“High Councilman,” I acknowledged him.

“You are well, yes?” he asked, eyebrows high. He sounded sincere, but I thought I detected the hint of a smirk in his tone.

Could they tell what I’d done with Beza and Joshan? Did they know? I bit the inside of my lip, and then set my shoulders. It didn’t matter if they did. I was royal, and inside the palace I could do as I liked.

“I am very well, as always. How could I be otherwise, with you at my feet?”

Railan blinked at this response, and I stifled a smile as he pressed on. “We are here to inform that the celestitians have decreed the date of your King’s arrival – you are to be married eleven days from now, on Tide’s Day.”

It was my turn to blink. “I…am?”

Railan nodded gravely. “We wanted to give you time to ready yourself. You already know the traditions you have to uphold.”

I’d read about the ceremony a thousand times – the day of ceremonial bathing, incense, prayers, and then my wedding to the statue in the chamber. A choir would sing, I would join their song, and he would come back to life. Together, we would go on to rule Aranda side-by-side.

It was only at the back of one of Yzin’s most recently gifted screens that I’d found a different tale, one that insinuated that what woke their Zaibanns wasn’t a Queen’s singing, but her taking his hard stone cock into her soft dark place. The thought both horrified and thrilled me.

“Does this please you, my Queen?” Railan asked, with a look of concern.

I roused from my thoughts and quickly smiled down. “Of course it does. It is how it has always been, is it not?”

“Indeed.” Railan nodded again and stood. “We have a new screen for you to read, Queen of Dreams.”

“You do?” I forgot to hide my excitement. It had been a long time since their last request.

“We do,” Yzin said, kindly. He handed it over and it lit up at my touch. My eyes skimmed the words – these screens were the only communications I had with my people. The people of Mazaria – a southernly region – were rioting, and needed to be calmed.

“But – why?”

Railan stepped nearer, and pressed both his hands to his chest. “A terrible drought has caused crops to fail. Certain officials tried to hide the extent of the disaster, and our response has been correspondingly slow.”

“But now? We’re doing all we can?”

“Of course, my Queen. Supplies are being sent. We just need them to be patient.”

Yzin smiled at me. “Not even the Queen of Dreams can control the weather.”

I swallowed and nodded, standing up so that my voice would ring clear, as the lights on the glass stalactites brightened. I held up the screen and read what it said. “To the people in Mazaria, please calm yourselves. Your officials are doing what they can to remedy your situation. Be prepared to present identification to officials when asked, and stay indoors after dark.” The official message ended there, but I continued. “I promise you that supplies are being sent. Be patient, and know that I think of you.”

I sat down as the lights faded -- and could see that Railan’s jaw was clenched. “Dearest Queen, you’re supposed to say what it says on the screen, no more, no less.” His voice was high, speaking to me as he had when I was a child.

“No harm was done,” Yzin said. The other councilmembers looked to one another and muttered expressions of shock and dismay.

They were…upset with me? But – they were in my palace. And I was Queen. I handed Railan his screen back primly. “Was there anything else, High Councilman?”

“No, of course not, Great Queen.” He took the screen and folded it into a pocket. “We shall see you again at Tide’s Day.”

“I’m already looking forward to it,” I said with a gracious nod.

He left the first gift in the basket near my feet. It was a scepter, a simple gold tube with an emerald the size of an eye at the end. The others dropped off their gifts one by one, wishing me health and prosperity as I wished it back on them. A pile grew, a wreath of what were no doubt exotic lilies, two silver tskiss trapped in an appropriately silver cage, a rug of gold embroidered with silver and hung with nightdark beads, and more gemstones, each carved more elaborately than the last. I pretended to be pleased to accept them, all the while knowing that once the zoomers had cleaned and organized the chamber I might never see them again, that they would be lost in the other piles of rugs and gemstones and flowers the Feather Palace held.

Finally, only Yzin was left. He, as always, held out a screen.

“What is it today?” I asked, while reaching into my pocket for the pottery. My fingers brushed the other object that I’d stolen from the zoomers. I would have brought it out, but other council members still stood nearby and I only wanted to show it to Yzin.

He pressed his wrinkled hand to the back of the screen. “A new story, written just for you.”

I could not tell him what his gifts meant to me while the others were near, but I hoped he could read it in my eyes. His stories occupied my mind in a way that none of the baubles the other Council members gave me could.

“Thank you,” I said, with feeling.

“You’re very welcome, my beautiful dear,” he said.

I brought the pottery shard out before he could step back. “We broke this. Was it important?”

He took the piece and eyed it carefully. “I don’t know, child. I can research it for you and come back, however.”

“Please do.”

He nodded and smiled and tucked it into one of the pockets of his own robe, and then followed the rest of the council members on their way out. I sat still on my throne until the doors closed behind him and I was left inside the Feather Palace alone with just my servants again.

I’d tried to follow the Council out more than once as a child. I’d been prone to impertinent questions then, always asking
why?
, and
how come?
It wasn’t until Yzin had started teaching me that I began to understand the way that things were done, and learned that even a Queen could not change certain things, no matter how much she might long to.

I stirred the gifts they’d given me with a toe. Zoomers would be here soon – I stood and took the scepter after a second thought.

Tide’s Day – just eleven days. Would things change then? Yzin’s books never said what happened after the ceremony, and he’d never satisfactorily answered when I’d asked him. Everything he’d given me to read recently had been fiction, not history. He always said it was because my King and I would set our own course and rule as we desired.

What if we desired to leave the palace? Would it be allowed then? Surely I would be safe outside the palace’s doors with my King at my side. He was a warrior, after all.

I walked down the halls wondering on this, and when I would next get a chance to privately ask Yzin, slowly heading back to my great chamber, past my King’s open door. I paused again to look in at him, taking in his form, remembering that first night with Joshan. I felt a low pull, the beginnings of my magic stirring deep inside of me, and stepped inside.