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The Remuneration IV
Copyright Ó2000 by Day
At first, I didn´t know why I had woken up. I remained in bed, lying absolutely still with my eyes closed, trying to find out whether I had been woken from a dream I just didn´t remember, or if the reason for my sudden return to consciousness was something else. Something much more substantial and real.
For a few minutes I breathed quietly and controlled, all my senses alert, listening for any unusual sound, straining to pick up any unusual sensation in the air around me. For some reason I was unwilling to open my eyes and find out for certain whether I had been woken up by something or not. I felt that as long as I kept my eyes closed that whatever might be in my chamber would remain as unreal as the dream I hoped it to be. Just as I´d come to the conclusion that it had only been my imagination, that it must have been a dream, I felt something.
It wasn´t a physical touch, but it might as well have been and as I finally opened my eyes, I stared directly into the icy blue gaze of the Conqueror. She was standing a few feet away from my bed, dressed in black as usual and a blank expression on her face. The single candle in my room threw small flickering shadows across the sharp planes of her face, making it appear like her facial muscles were moving and shifting. Only the tight line of her mouth told me that it wasn´t the case.
We regarded each other in silence for a moment then she straightened up a little, tilting her head, "You were dreaming."
It was a statement and I didn´t know how to respond so instead I focused on her eyes, attempting to gauge her state of mind and what she might want.
"What were you dreaming about?"
The voice was low, almost conversational, but there was an edge to it I didn´t like. An edge that felt accusatory and I bit the inside of my cheek while I desperately tried to think of an answer that would please her. However, no matter how much I searched my mind for an appropriate response, all my ideas seemed to wither and die under the scorching gaze of the Conqueror and I could sense her becoming restless and impatient.
"Well?" Her face showed no emotion. "Tell me."
"I don´t remember, My Lord," I answered carefully. "I almost never remember my dreams."
She stared at me, a small sneer forming on her lips, "I always remember my dreams, girl." Her eyes searched my face intensely and for a second I thought she would continue, but instead she gestured at the robe hanging over the chair, "Get up and get dressed." I obeyed the command without hesitation, draping the woollen robe over my naked body. I always slept in the nude, the Conqueror had demanded it that way, not wanting to waste time undressing me if the need for me should come upon her one late night.
When I´d finished dressing she strode out of the door, obviously expecting me to follow her and I did, my bare feet tentatively stepping over the ice cold stone floor. Outside my chamber she paused, contemplating blue eyes studying me closely, then she turned around and walked down the corridor. I had to practically run to keep up with her.
The cool night air helped to clear my head and chase the last traces of sleep from my mind, but as I followed the Conqueror through corridors and colonnades, passing closed doors and deserted halls, I still had no idea of what was going through her mind and some part of me was afraid what might happen when I found out.
Abruptly, almost like it wasn´t planned, she stopped in front of an enormous tapestry covering the entire wall of the room we´d just entered. The few torches on the walls did little to illuminate the woven images, but I could faintly make out a battle scene taking place at the gates of a large city.
"Rome," she pointed carelessly at the image. "That´s how she looked the day she fell." She looked at the scene briefly then returned her gaze to me. "I forced them to open the gates, I made them cover the streets with flowers as I rode through." She paused then continued evenly, "Then I killed every senator in the senate." Her eyes strayed to the tapestry again. "The marble stairs turned dark red... it reminded me of a crimson waterfall I saw in Babylon."
Without a second look she walked on and as I quickly followed, my eye caught the sight of a small dark figure standing in a lake of blood outside the city gates, one arm raised towards the sky in triumph.
We continued into another room and she walked over to small table on which stood a beautiful ebony box inlaid with tiny shining gems.
"Persian," she took the box into her hands, regarding it dispassionately. "Belonged to the King of Persia, he used to keep sweets in it." She lifted the lid and peered into the box, "I keep the rings and seals of the kings and princes I´ve defeated in here." She threw me a glance, "Nothing´s sweeter than that."
She beckoned me closer and I stepped over to look inside the box. Several rings and seals were in it, some of them covered in rusty stains. "Not all of them wanted to give it to me freely," she spoke into my ear and I felt the hair at the back of my neck rise. "So I took their fingers, too."
I suddenly felt sick and the sweet, metallic smell from the jewellery didn´t make it better. The Conqueror noticed the look on my face and a look of contempt showed in her eyes. She dumped the box unceremoniously on the table, grabbed my arm roughly and pulled me after her out of the room and down a long narrow corridor. I stumbled several times from the fast pace, but the Conqueror´s tight and painful grip on my arm prevented me from falling.
We entered another room, this time much smaller and much darker than any of the other chambers she´d dragged me through. She abruptly let go of my arm and continued further inside, and soon I´d lost her in the darkness, unable to hear even her footsteps. Then one torch at the far end of the room was lit and then another and another. Soon everything was bathed in a brilliant light and I squinted uneasily at the light, willing the dark spots appearing before my eyes to disappear so I would be able to see her.
"Look down," a very close voice whispered into my ear and I just barely stopped myself from shrinking away from the warm presence which had suddenly appeared behind me. "Look down," it repeated, this time more forcefully and I did.
At first I wasn´t able to see anything unusual about the floor, but then I noticed several small depressions and as I looked closer I saw how the uneven surface wasn´t the result of a random pattern, but was made up of hundreds of facial imprints. Each face pressed into the clay while it was still soft, forever preserving the impression of silent terror and gaping mouths unable to scream.
"They´re all real." I felt hot breath on my neck. "I´ve put each of them there myself. Everyone I´ve captured, everyone who was important enough is here in my own personal gallery."
She moved away and walked to the centre of the room. "That one´s Darius, the Persian King," she pointed. "And that one´s Philip, the Macedonian and his son Alexander´s next." She had started to pace the floor, her eyes never leaving the faces below her. "The woman at your right is Cleopatra, she thought she could save her precious Egypt by forming an alliance with Caesar."
The contempt and disdain in her voice was clear as she stopped, her gaze focusing on a single contorted face. She kneeled down on the floor, her fingers lovingly tracing the contours of a man´s face. "He cried when I held him down." She continued to touch the uneven lines, "He wept for the future he wouldn´t have and the destiny I denied him." A beautiful, but cruel smile showed on her face and she lifted her head to look at me, "His is the only one where the eyes are open."
She rose again and for a moment it looked as if she was lost in thought, staring down blankly at the uneven floor, then she raised her head and looked at me. I held her gaze, wondering why she was showing me this, and what kind of response or reaction she wanted from me - if any. Suddenly she broke eye contact, her gaze straying back to the floor and to me it felt like an almost physical connection had been broken, and I wished I could sit down since I didn´t feel like I had any strength left in my body to keep me upright.
"Did you like them?"
The Conqueror´s low voice surprised me so much that I fully missed her question, but instead of getting angry she just repeated her question casually and evenly, "So, did you?"
My gaze dropped to the floor as I tried to mask my confusion and come up with an answer that would please her.
"No, not them!" I could detect a hint of annoyance in her voice this time. "The rings, the ones I showed you. Did you like them?"
As I looked back into her eyes, I recalled the shining jewellery. Diamonds carved to perfection and beautifully crafted and engraved golden rings glittering in the torchlight, and then I remembered the rusty stains testifying that the rings and seals had once belonged to someone else.
"They were very beautiful, My Lord."
She straightened up a little, appearing to be contemplating my answer, "Really? Did you really think they were beautiful?"
"Yes, My Lord. One would have to be blind not to see their beauty, but…" The objection had left my tongue before I could stop it and I closed my mouth in horror, steeling myself for the explosion. But it didn´t come.
Instead she gestured for me to continue, her face not giving away anything, "But what? What did you want to say?"
"I just wondered," I ventured carefully, studying the Conqueror closely for any reaction, "why you didn´t have them polished. Why you would keep them in a shrine like that, still with all the blood stains on. They would be so much more beautiful without the blood."
"Maybe it won´t come off," she spoke slowly after a moment of considering what I´d said. "Maybe it´s been there for so long that it has become a part of the jewellery itself, and even if you tried you couldn´t remove it."
"All blood can be removed," I replied quietly. "You just have to know the way to do it."
"Some blood can´t be washed away," the Conqueror said harshly and I could tell she was becoming irritated with our little debate. "And that´s the way it should be. It´s a reminder of what it took to-." She stopped abruptly, her eyes narrowing as she stared at me for a seemingly endless moment, then she shrugged imperceptibly and I let out a low breath, feeling faint with relief that I hadn´t angered her further.
Talking like this, to her of all people, went against everything I had so efficiently been taught during my first year in her household. I had been a quick study, too much being at stake for me not to, and knowing what to say and when to say it had saved me from following the fate of so many before me, but lately, with the Conqueror´s increasing erratic behaviour and mood swings, I was starting to feel off balance, not knowing what she wanted from me anymore. What she expected me to do or say
"Come here."
The Conqueror´s voice cut through my thoughts and as I walked over to her, she grabbed my arm and once again pulled me after her out of the room. She was hurrying and in no time we were back in the room with the jewellery, and she opened the box and presented it to me, "Pick one."
I stared uncomprehendingly at her, but the expression on her face didn´t change and neither did the detached tone of her voice as she repeated the words, "Pick one. Pick one you like and it´s yours."
I took a deep breath and didn´t even look at the jewellery, but gazed directly into her eyes instead, "I can´t."
An eyebrow rose slightly, "Why not? Each one of them is worth more than fifty Arabian stallions combined and all are made by the finest craftsmen in the world. It´s more than you could ever dream of owning, so just take one."
When I didn´t respond the Conqueror exhaled slowly, her jaw tightening, "I want you to take one." She put the box back on the table then picked up a ring and wiped it a few times on her tunic before offering it to me. "See, you were right, they can be cleaned. Now you can have this one. It´s yours."
"Until you decide to take it away from me. Like everything else…"
I don´t know why I said it. How I dared. But I had and although I had spoken quietly, almost under my breath, I instantly knew it had been too loud and a wave of cold fear hit me as I saw a myriad of emotions cross her face, going from confusion to disbelief and finally anger.
Her arm went back and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the blow and the following pain, but after a few seconds I realized it wasn´t coming. Hesitantly, I opened up my eyes again and stared directly at the Conqueror´s knuckles.
She had managed to stop herself only inches before her fist would have connected with my jaw.
Heart hammering in my chest I met her gaze and noticed a brief expression of something I thought might be uncertainty or maybe confusion before it was replaced with a familiar cold determination.
Without a word she grabbed onto my arm and rushed out of the room, her grip so tight that she was cutting of the blood circulation and I knew I would find a large black bruise there the next morning.
This time she hurried down a different corridor then stopped in front of a door and without knocking barged inside.
The room we had entered was a dimly lit sleeping chamber and a startled woman sat up on the bed, her brown hair tousled from sleep. Her eyes widened dramatically as she saw the Conqueror who, without sparing me a second glance, strode over to the bed and drew the cowers aside, exposing the naked woman to both our gazes.
"M- My Lord," the brunette began, but she was silenced by a simple look from the dark woman hovering above her.
"Where is it?" The Conqueror asked emotionlessly. "In your closet?"
The woman blinked a few times then nodded, "Yes, My Lord, it´s at the bottom."
The Conqueror barely acknowledged her words as she walked over to a closet standing on the other side of the bed. She opened it up, looked inside then reached down and withdraw her arm holding a large box in her hand. The woman on the bed was sitting completely still, her gaze never leaving the Conqueror who opened the box and pulled out a phallus complete with harness. Our eyes met and for a moment she didn´t move and I found myself holding my breath, then she began to put on the harness, not bothering to remove her clothes in the process.
I heard a gasp from the brunette, but my gaze stayed on the Conqueror as she stepped over to the bed, nimbly climbing up to kneel beside the woman. She reached out behind the brunette´s neck and pulled her close, immediately beginning to kiss her hard and demandingly. The woman was more than willing and moaned deep in her throat as she pressed herself against the Conqueror´s body. I swallowed, but realized I had no saliva to moisten my dry mouth and the thought quickly left my mind the moment I watched the Conqueror push the brunette back down on the bed.
As she positioned herself on top of the woman, she turned her head slightly and looked at me and the expression in her eyes was hard, callous, then she turned her attention back to the naked woman writhing beneath her.
Strangely fascinated I watched as the Conqueror roughly kept the brunette´s hands away from her, not allowing them to touch her as she shifted above the woman, obviously not caring whether her weight was agreeable to the brunette or not. I remembered well how it felt to be pinned to the bed or the floor with the Conqueror on top, but I had never minded that part and clearly this woman didn´t either and she moaned loudly when calloused hands finally reached for her breasts, squeezing them mercilessly.
The phallus was trapped between their bodies and the brunette was trying to move her hips to come in contact with the object, but every time the Conqueror moved up and away or bit down hard on the woman´s nipples, effectively distracting her from the ache between her legs.
Their bodies were sliding over each other, hands reaching in between them, touching all available flesh, but whereas the brunette´s movements and sighs became more and more frantic, the Conqueror was the epitome of control and I wondered briefly if I had ever experienced her like that when a low growl suddenly erupted from her, and as I blinked my thoughts away and refocused on the people on the bed, I was caught up in a burning blue gaze penetrating me into my very core.
Still with our eyes locked, she moved her hand down and quickly entered the woman with her fingers, which instantly tore a cry from the brunette´s lips as she arched up, welcoming the invasion. However, she was barely inside before she withdrew her hand and instead brought the fingers to her lips, slipping one then two then three into her mouth, licking them slowly and running her tongue up and down the glistening digits all the while her gaze never left my face.
I suddenly realized my breathing had increased and for a second I had to look away, but as I did I was still able to feel the Conqueror´s eyes upon me and I was helpless to stop myself from looking back. Something resembling a victorious sneer crossed the bronze face, but for a reason unknown to myself I refused to feel intimidated and returned her gaze without wavering, and for the briefest of moments I felt like I was participating in a contest of wills, much like the ones I´d had with my sister when we were children, always trying to get the other one to look away first. However, this time I didn´t know if the prize for winning would be my life.
Her eyes narrowed and I swallowed involuntarily, but then she abruptly turned her head, separated the brunette´s legs with her knee and plunged into her, immediately starting to thrust with an abandon that soon soaked her clothes with sweat and made her dark hair cling to her already flushed face. Their grunts and moans increased in volume and in spite of feeling a desperate need to turn my head and look away I didn´t, my eyes riveted to the scene and I found myself continuously moistening my lips, hardly taking time to be surprised by the answering sensations running through my body.
They had found a mutual rhythm now and short sharp pants replaced the woman´s loud moans and the Conqueror took this as a signal to pick up the pace, and with a few final thrusts the brunette´s back arched and she cried out something unintelligible, vaguely sounding like a blessing of something or someone, then she became silent, their mutual heavy breathing the only thing heard in the room.
The Conqueror rested on her arms, keeping a bit of distance between them and she only remained on top on the woman until her breathing had slowed down, then she moved away, causing the spent woman to whimper when she withdrew. Without a word she discarded the harness and her eyes stared directly into mine as she slipped a hand into a pocket and pulled out the ring she had intended for me, and without even looking tossed it to the brunette on the bed. Then she walked over to me and grabbed my arm, pulling me out of the door.
Not once did she look back at the woman on the bed.
She brought me directly to my chamber, practically flinging me away from her. I studied the fast but steady rise and fall of her chest for a moment, then I slowly raised my head, my eyes straying to her face. Clouded blue eyes regarded me closely, searchingly, and her lips parted slightly as if she wanted to speak, but nothing came forward and instead she took a step towards me, halted, then took one more. I looked into her eyes, having no problems reading her intent and with the scene I had just witnessed playing in my head, I heard myself say, "I don´t want to taste another woman on your lips."
She froze, I froze, and we stared at each other. My heart was pounding so frantically and loudly that I was certain she could hear it, too. Her lips parted soundlessly again as her gaze locked onto my face then she turned around and walked over to the table where I had a bowl and a pitcher with water. She drank deeply, directly from the pitcher, her eyes looking at me over the brim, the expression on her face hidden behind it.
I realized I had to remember to breathe and quickly took a few deep breaths while she took the pitcher away from her mouth, holding it carelessly in her right hand like she had forgotten all about its existence. I licked my lips as she took a step forward.
She was about to move closer again when she seemed to stop in mid-stride, coming to an abrupt halt. For a second or two she kept perfectly still, staring at me like she first now realized who it was she was looking at, then she blinked a few times, her eyes narrowing angrily. The pitcher fell from her fingers, crashing into a thousand pieces, water splashing out on the floor and she practically hissed, "Talk to me like that again, slave, and I swear I´ll kill you!"
She looked into my eyes to see if I´d understood then turned on
her heels and walked out of my room. My entire body shook as I sank to
my knees, all strength having left my body. For a long time I stared blankly
at the floor, my eyes burning, but instead of the grey stone tiles, I saw
the bloodied rings in the box and the contorted faces from Conqueror´s
gallery forever trapped in her floor and maybe, just maybe, in her dreams
as well.
The End