When I reached the dais, Beauty had a dish of cool wine and honey ready for Brenn and she watched with a smile as he lapped it up.
“That was all done very well, Alexi,” said the Queen to me, “and my little Brenn was perfect, but I do long to see him smacked along the Bridle Path soon too. Perhaps tomorrow night.”
“As you wish, madam,” I said. “I’ll drive him writhing and crying along the path with pleasure.”
Brenn was hearing every word but gave no sign of it. I felt I knew Brenn’s soul, knew the erotic delirium in which he was existing.
Lexius and the King were taking their leave.
“Where is Eva?” I asked. “I don’t see her.”
“I don’t know,” said Beauty. “Sit here beside me, Alexi. Thank you. I think the King will be busy with Eva and Lexius tonight.”
I smiled. “That ought to be a splendid encounter,” I said.
“Yes, and Dmitri’s gone to be with them too.” She put down bits and pieces of meat for Brenn to gobble.
“And what did you think of Stefan?” I asked under my breath.
“Oh, he was remarkable!” she said. “And he looked splendid. Dmitri drove him mercilessly but he never broke pace or form. I think perhaps the mask might come off soon. But then maybe again, he’ll always wear it. Seems masks are most interesting to the Court and in the village. I’m giving much thought to the uses of masks.”
I was not surprised.
“Come,” she said. “Let’s take a little walk through the garden.” She tugged Brenn’s leash as she rose and I took her hand. “I want to see some of the games. I haven’t paid enough attention to the games.”
That’s our precious queen, I thought. I wished I could kiss her, take her in my arms and cover her in kisses, but I could not do such a thing here. But maybe later on tonight, I would be alone with her, if the King and Dmitri and Lexius and Lady Eva were busy as the hours passed.
If I hated anything in the kingdom, it was the King yanking me out of bed after Beauty and I had fallen asleep in each other’s arms. He thought nothing of gently hurling me to the floor. Of course he was always in good humor when he did it, but there was a certain mockery in his voice when he said, “Out of my chambers, little monkey, and now.”
Beauty roused me from my reverie. We were making progress slowly, surrounded by bowing courtiers on all sides.
“What do you think, Alexi?” she asked. “Is it splendid or not?” She gestured to the great teeming gardens around us.
“It’s splendid, my queen, more splendid than I ever imagined it could be, and that is the truth.”
“And you, my dear Brenn, what do you think?” She pulled him so that she might kiss him. “Is it all as splendid as you imagined?”
“Magnificent, my queen,” he said. “I never in my wildest longing dreamed of such a paradise.”
Finally, the King’s summons had come. It was very late, and I was being escorted not to his private chambers but to those of “a guest.”
My heart was tripping. All subjects in the kingdom served at the pleasure of the King, and I did not know what this meant.
When the doors opened, and I saw Prince Dmitri and the King standing there with Lexius, I was intrigued, but resolved. I was a subject but not a slave. When had the monarchs of the realm ever demanded that a lord or lady strip and submit to them?
I walked into the room and made my bow to the King.
“Eva, kiss me,” he said. His arms went out to me.
I embraced him warmly and looked up into his earnest and gentle face. We kissed on the lips, and I stepped back, quickly taking the measure of Dmitri who stood with his hands clasped behind his back merely eyeing me as if he were mightily intrigued with what was happening.
But what was happening?
As for Lexius, he was obviously deeply shaken. He regarded me with timid near-worshipful eyes. He wore the same rich garments he’d worn earlier, having changed only his boots for the golden slippers usually worn inside the castle.
He was indeed almost as tall as the King, and in the many blazing candelabra of this chamber he appeared more comely and seductive than ever. This I could see with detachment. To deny him his godlike gifts in my heart would have been dishonest.
As for the room, it held the usual impressive coffered bed, but with space to spare for an extravagant scattering of stately chairs, and the fire was as always burning on the giant hearth.
Exotic scarlet hangings gave the room an Oriental feel, and I realized that the air was filled with the heavy fragrance of incense.
Dmitri was dressed as he always was when he came to Court, as a Russian prince in his heavy tunic and trousers. His expression was now grave, but then in his lusty dominance of the Place of Public Punishment, he’d become known for gravity or gravitas as the old Romans might have called it.
“My beautiful lady,” said the King. “Prince Lexius has told me what he did, how he’s twice offended you.”
“Well, I’m most relieved to hear it, sire,” I said. “Because offend me he has indeed done, and twice as you said, in ways I have never endured in this kingdom.”
So far so good, I thought.
Lexius had begun to tremble. What is it about the vulnerability of such a tall and regal man that so stirs my blood?
I felt a great desire to treat him as he had treated me, but I had no intention of taking such liberties with any guest of the kingdom, or any lord or lady, or anyone whom I considered my equal.
“I’ve given Lexius my judgment on his behavior,” said the King.
He was still dressed as he had been for the festivities in the gardens, in impeccable crimson velvet with lavish trimmings of gold, and he was as always a magnificent vision. It seemed that crimson or scarlet most flattered his dark face and his warm brown eyes and hair.
He went on:
“I have told him he must leave the kingdom at once,” he said. “But he begs me to allow him to explain himself, to lay his apologies before you, and to confess to you why he has come here. I have summoned you to ask whether you wish to allow this.”
“If Your Majesty wants me to allow it, I shall,” I said. “In truth, I should like to know what prompted him—a man with much knowledge of Bellavalten in its old days—to behave as he has done with me.”
“Speak then, Lexius. The lady’s being gracious.” The King shrugged and threw up his hands. “Perhaps you wish Dmitri to leave?”
“No, sire, please, let him remain,” said Lexius. He had such an appealing way of holding himself, of inclining his head and extending his graceful hand in a feline gesture, that I found myself all the more intrigued. Why should a person of such manners have behaved so crudely?
“And you, Dmitri?” asked the King.
“I ask to stay, my lord,” said Dmitri. “We have been friends, Lexius and I. As you know we know each other well. He has asked me to be here, and I am prepared for what is to follow.”
The King nodded.
What is to follow? I pondered.
Lexius came forward and went down on one knee before me.
“My gracious lady, I beg your pardon for what I did,” said Lexius. “And it is time for you and our gracious king to know why I came here. I did not come to return to life at Bellavalten. And if I have in any way misled anyone to believe so by my letters, I am sorry.”
“Stand up, please, sir,” I said. “I would look into your eyes.”
He rose and stood before me, but everything in his demeanor suggested that he was still down on one knee.
“I accepted your invitations—yours, Dmitri’s, and His Majesty’s invitations to visit the kingdom, yes, but I came with a secret purpose.”
“Which is what?” asked the King. He folded his arms, and gave a bit of a mock frown, but he was smiling. Only a person of immense self-confidence and inner strength, I thought, could offer such a facial expression to all this rather than cold suspicion.
“My lord, I come from the city of Arikamandu in India. This is a port city on the southeastern coast.”
“I know of it,” said the King. “So?”
“And I was born to a powerful family there. I say so that you may understand my position and my life. The members of my family have for generations been the protectors of a great secret, and that secret is a small realm that exists behind high walls in the jungles of my land two days’ journey north of my home. This realm is known in legend and to those who people it and protect it as the Secret City of Khaharanka. It is a city-state of some two thousand souls who are dedicated to a way of life as unusual and sublime as that of Bellavalten.”
“I see,” said the King. “I suspected as much.”
I was fascinated.
“Dmitri has visited Khaharanka,” said Lexius. “And he can vouch for the truth of what I say of this city-state and its people. All my life I have been especially dedicated to the protection and nurturing of Khaharanka. Not all members of my family are chosen for this, only some. And having been chosen early I was sent to the sultanate to learn all that I could about its ways of pleasure slavery, its women and its men, so that I might better use this knowledge for the benefit of Khaharanka. The Sultan knew this. He knew that I was his guest. Yet at some time during my visit there he chose to treat me as a kind of hostage, demanding jewels and peacock feathers and gold and other riches from my family in exchange for my ‘imminent’ freedom. I was being held by force as surely as any slave when you came there, my lord, as a slave, and you brought me back here. Of course I permitted you to overwhelm me and make me your naked prisoner. And I allowed your Queen Eleanor to become my new teacher in the erotic arts, learning from her in ways I had never learned in the sultanate.”