Renaissance
www.renebooks.com

Copyright ©2003 by Renaissance E Books

NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

THE QUEEN'S SLAVE WOMAN

Book Two

THE TRANING OF JENDRI

By

SUSANNA VALENT

A Renaissance E Books publication

ISBN 1-58873-242-8

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2003 Susanna Valent

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.

For information email:

publisher@renebooks.com

A Sizzler/Sappho Edition

CHAPTER ONE

Jendri was about to be humiliated. For the occasion of the naval review, Queen K'Endarra had presented her with a VERY abbreviated version of a sailor's uniform, short dark blue skirt, no underwear, a red-and-white striped tube top and a ridiculous blue and white tam with a stupid red pom-pom on top. There was no footwear at all, of course. “Put it on, slave, and you shall be my cabin-girl for the day.” It was said playfully, but there was no avoiding it. Jendri put it on.

The Queen herself was dressed in the uniform of the Admiral of the Fleet, including the specially altered pants, which hooked under the insteps of her dress boots with elastic straps. Regal in dark blue, she dripped gold braid and decorations. Wearing the traditional cockaded naval bicorn and sword, she looked elegant indeed. Jendri's mouth watered at the sight. She knew that a few months ago, K'Endarra would never have agreed to such an elaborate and confining outfit and she wondered what it would be like to do an Admiral aboard a naval vessel. No doubt she would find out before the day was over.

"We will ride in my coach to the harbor. And today you will address me as ‘Admiral’ in public, according to our tradition. Clear?"

"Yes, my lord Admiral."

"That will do nicely.” She snapped her fingers. “Come along, Jendri."

Once in the coach, the Admiral took off her hat and sword and made her intentions very clear. “It is a long ride, slave. Pleasure me.” Facing forward, she braced her heels on the rear-facing seat and Jendri knelt between them on the floor of the pitching vehicle, opening the Admiral's trousers as she lifted her butt up to allow the zipper to be pulled down.

"Good, Jendri. Take me in your mouth now. Ah ... yes...” The Admiral closed her eyes and relaxed while Jendri began very slowly and deliberately to make her come all the way to the royal sloop. She was delighted that her lord no longer called her “Riki the Slut.” She could live with “Slut” but losing the hated “Riki” was one of her most cherished natal day presents. That, and sharing the Queen's cup on occasion. It made her feel quite intimate with K'Endarra, a step closer to a kiss, maybe, someday.

Jendri felt the Queen's hands, pulling her hat off and twining her fingers in her hair, holding her head down so that the motion of the coach over the rough roads wouldn't cause her to lose contact with the royal Asperian genitalia. Kneeling between the Queen's legs like this was quite convenient but at the same time, maddening. It was hard to keep her balance, but K'Endarra solved that problem by squeezing her slave tightly between her muscular thighs to hold her upright.

"Good, Slut, make me come. Mmmm, we ought to do this more often,” the Admiral sighed as the lurching coach gave her additional stimulation.

It was relatively easy. All Jendri had to do was keep her tongue and lips in place and the coach and horses did everything else. The motion was just unpredictable enough to excite the Admiral to ecstasy as Jendri held onto her ass. “Gad, Slave. I am going to come. Beware that I don't drown you!” K'Endarra laughed as she shuddered with anticipation.

Jendri knew that in such an event, she would surely die happy. Dreamily she sucked the Queen's come right out of her as she bucked and jerked on the velvet upholstered seat cushions. “Mmm ... more,” the Admiral panted, “More ... gods, yes, so much more. Eat me Jendri, receive my ... uh ... uh ... UH! Receive my pleasure, my little boot-humper!” The Admiral threw her head back against the seat and arched into her slave's mouth, treating her to waves of hot come.

Jendri grunted with the effort of consuming the honey her lord gave her along with her deeply satisfying orgasms. She lapped madly and her lapping made K'Endarra come again and again. When Her Majesty was satisfied, she let Jendri lick her clean, and then she patted her lap. “Up, my little pet. I shall amuse myself with your need. There are towels under the seat."

Jendri unfolded a towel over the monarch's thighs, then cautiously lowered herself onto them. K'Endarra allowed Jendri to rest her head on the epaulet-covered royal shoulder, then slid her hand up under the miniscule skirt. “Spread your legs, Slut."

"Yes, my lord Admiral,” Jendri breathed, closing her eyes. She felt the Queen's questing fingers enter her flaming pussy and she shuddered deeply.

K'Endarra thrust in deeply with her fingers, captured Jendri's swollen clit with her thumb and then just held her, still as a statue. “Do not move, Slut, or you will feel the cat o’ nine tails when we get aboard the sloop."

"Oh ... gods,” Jendri swallowed convulsively, trying to keep from pushing back against the controlling hand of her lord. “Yes, Admiral.” But she didn't have to move, because the irregular bouncing of the coach provided all the movement she needed to approach orgasm. “Oh, my lord, my lord,” Jendri gasped. “Am I permitted to come?'

"You most certainly are not, Slut. Control yourself."

Jendri was afraid. “I ... cannot, my lord. The sensations are too strong for me.” She buried her face against K'Endarra's uniform, gritting her teeth with the effort.

"Would you like me to control you, Slut?'

"Oh, yes, my lord. Please.” She knew what she was in for, but it was better than being disobedient, either accidentally or on purpose, and incurring the Queen's wrath.

"Very well, Slave. Be quiet, and still. I will prevent you from coming."

Ever so gently, K'Endarra pressed Jendri's clit with her thumb. Jendri gasped and held on tightly as she felt her pleasure build. She knew better than to try to pull back, because she had relinquished control to the Admiral. And the Queen knew her slave's limits well. As Jendri began to pant in short gasps, and as the muscles of her backside involuntarily clenched around K'Endarra's hand, she lifted her thumb from the bursting clit.

"My goodness, it doesn't take you any time at all to get excited, does it, Slut? You are so hot for me, you're burning a hole in my trousers,” the Queen teased.

Jendri moaned loudly, suspended over the gulf of orgasm into which the Admiral would not permit her to fall.

"Slut! I warned you to be still!"

"My lord, your touch is so powerful, I ... I can't!"

"Then you will feel the whip. Six strokes for every sound."

"Yes ... yes, Admiral. I understand."

Under threat of punishment, Jendri struggled not to make a sound, gasping and panting with the agony of need deep within her. She felt as if the Queen's thumb was still touching her, although she knew it was not.

K'Endarra listened carefully to her slave's breathing. As Jendri quieted, she gently probed the aching clit again. Jendri grunted and drew a tortured breath as her orgasm worked madly within her, seeking escape.

"Mmmm,” the Admiral murmured in Jendri's ear, “Twelve strokes. Isn't that good? Don't you just love feeling my hand, so deep inside you, so gentle in your pussy, so soft and loving? Hmm? Do you like it, Slut?'

"Ah! Oh, yes, my lord. I adore your touch. You know me so well, I cannot resist you.” Jendri's body jerked involuntarily, so that the hand was withdrawn slightly, just enough to prevent orgasm.

"And you don't have to. I have you exactly where I want you."

"You own me, lord Admiral. I know it whenever you touch me,” Jendri confessed, helpless with need.

"Yes. I own you and I own your pleasure, and I do not want it now. You will save it for me, and make me an offering later, when I demand it."

"Yes, my lord Admiral. It ... will be ... an honor,” Jendri groaned. She wished she could writhe, just a little, but it was not permitted. There was no relief for her in the steely grasp of her demanding lord and lover.

"Later, on the sloop, you will ride my boot, and you will lick your juices from it. You will eat me, and I will explode in your mouth. You will grovel at my feet and worship me."

That kind of talk drove Jendri wild. “Yes ... yes ... oh, gods, I love you! I want to please you, my lord,” she moaned, burning.

"I have not decided yet if and when you will come. You may ride my boot all the way back to the palace in this coach without coming. It remains to be seen."

"Yes, lord Queen,” Jendri gasped. The finger slid deeply into her again. The thumb rested on her clit. Jendri shuddered and clutched at her lord.

"You will never, ever come without my permission. You will never come without begging for it like a helpless, needy little slut."

Jendri jerked as she felt pre-orgasmic spasms race through her. “I ... do not ... deserve pleasure, my lord,” Jendri acknowledged.

"And you will not feel it,” the Queen responded. “Now, very slowly, I will withdraw my hand from your sloppy wet pussy. Ache for me, slave. Remember the bliss of my touch."

"Yes, my lord. I burn and ache for you always.” The hand began to slide out. “Oh...” Jendri groaned. “Oh, by the gods, my lord. I need you so."

"I am here to control and discipline you, slave. You are mine. And you have earned eighteen strokes."

"Yes, my lord Admiral.” She clung to her lord, and as K'Endarra removed her hand completely, Jendri began to weep with desperate longing.

"Now, slave, compose yourself. If you are going to cry, you will have to get down on the floor. If you want to stay where you are, behave.” She pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Jendri.

"Yes, my lord, please, let me stay,” Jendri begged, pulling herself together.

"You may stay, Jendri,” K'Endarra assented. She held Jendri close with one arm around her waist, and the fingers of her other hand entwined in Jendri's pussy hair. “That's my sweet little slut.” She ached to kiss her slave, to tease her with her lips, and to taste herself on Jendri's lips, but that was a pleasure the Queen would forever be denied.

Jendri took shuddering breaths as she fought to rein herself in. Being held so lovingly was an immense reward for her. She rested her head on K'Endarra's breast and watched her fingers tease her hair gently. She bit her lip to keep from crying out.

K'Endarra smiled. “You are so completely mine, Slave. I can do anything with you."

"Yes, my lord. Please do."

"Later, Slut. Later today, in my stateroom, I shall take you until you scream for mercy."

"That will not take very long, my lord. I am ready to scream now,” Jendri confessed.

"You have not screamed until you have felt the cat,” the Admiral informed her slave silkily. She looked forward to administering the punishment her slave had earned through her disobedience.

"I deserve my punishment, lord Admiral.” Jendri was far less afraid than she would once have been. K'Endarra never cut or bruised her anymore. She could tolerate the lash, the whip, anything it pleased K'Endarra to deliver, because she knew it pleased her lord.

As they neared the harbor, the Admiral ordered Jendri to the floor of the coach. The coach stopped, the Commodore greeted the Admiral and presented her aides, and the Queen was piped aboard her sloop by a bosun's mate and a full complement of side-girls with all due formality and ceremony. Jendri trailed behind the Admiral to her magnificent stateroom.

They were left alone. K'Endarra removed her hat, coat and sword and handed them to Jendri. She ran a hand through her thick, dark mane. She looked stunning in her white ruffled shirt. “It will take about half an hour for the sloop to reach the head of the line. Just about enough time for me to discipline you, I think.” She rummaged in a drawer. “Now let's see. This is where I left it ... oh, yes.” She pulled out a smaller version of the traditional naval cat o’ nine tails and held it up. “I warned you, slave, did I not?'

"Indeed, Your Majesty,” Jendri said gravely.

K'Endarra stretched out on the bed and undid her pants. “Undress and eat me, slave, while I administer punishment. I'll count for you, since your mouth will be otherwise occupied."

"Yes, my lord.” She had never felt a cat. How could it be worse than the thin, supple lash K'Endarra used in her bedroom, or the crop she carried in her boot when they went riding?

It was like being stung all at once by a whole swarm of bees. Jendri shrieked into her lord's vagina and ate her madly, clinging to her hips. She was vaguely aware that this particular cat was not studded with nails or other bits of metal as many were, but each separate end was knotted. And each one bit into her with a life of its own.

K'Endarra laughed and allowed herself to sink deeply into the pleasure that her slave was providing. “One, slave. Keep screaming."

The heat was intense, far more so than the lash or the crop, but less focused. Each stroke covered her entire backside, or her thighs down to the backs of her knees, depending upon how the Admiral chose to aim her blows. Jendri jerked violently as the Queen counted. “Two. Three."

"Mercyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” Jendri screamed as she tongued her mistress. “Pleeeeease!"

"Four. Five. You have a long way to go, slave,” K'Endarra panted. Jendri's agony was building her excitement rapidly. She was almost ready to come.

Jendri trembled uncontrollably. She was afraid she'd lose control and be unable to complete her task of satisfying the Admiral, but she needn't have worried.

The Admiral's orgasm burst from her that moment like a spring downpour. “Ah! Ah! AAAAHHHHH!” K'Endarra lashed Jendri as she came. She was unable to count aloud, but she didn't lose track.

To Jendri it was like eating an erupting volcano. The only thing in the dominion hotter at that moment than Jendri's ass was K'Endarra's spasming pussy. Jendri buried her face deeply in her lord and tried not to think of the sheet of pain covering her thighs and backside.

"NINE! I am coming again! TEN!” The Queen roared, and she humped Jendri's face frantically as she exploded in pleasure.

"Oh! Oh, GODS! MY LORD!” Jendri screamed. The mixture of receiving the pleasure of her mistress and the torture of the cat defied description. Her ass felt swollen to bursting.

"Thirteen, slave! Eat me, slut! I will fill you again. Fourteen!"

Jendri sucked and licked K'Endarra's flaming, gushing pussy with every ounce of dedication she could produce.

"Fifteen. Sixteen! Oh, yes! NOW! NOW!"

As the Admiral delivered the final two strokes, she came again, grinding down into her slave's face and mouth with blissful abandon. “Ah—ah—ah—AAAAAIIIIEEEEE!” K'Endarra shrieked quite a bit herself. The cat dropped from her hand as she bucked up into Jendri's greedy mouth. “All right all right all right. Enough!” K'Endarra gasped, as she returned to reality from wherever she had been.

Reality for Jendri was a backside engulfed in flame. She moaned and writhed between the Queen's boots. “Mercy ... mercy...” she wept.

"Your punishment is complete. And I must go on deck,” she said, for she had felt the sloop turn and cut speed. “Clean me up, use the facilities and come right back. Hop to it!"

Jendri stumbled into the head and came out with a warm cloth to sponge K'Endarra. When she returned again, she saw that the Admiral was waiting with leather shackles ready at each corner of the high, built-in four-poster. Gently she laid her slave on her belly and restrained her with her legs stretched far apart, hands just above her head, with slack in the ropes for more comfort than was allowed for her legs. Then she showed Jendri a surprise. “Do you know what this is?"

Jendri didn't. Her expertise was military, not naval.

"It's a marlinespike, but shorter than a real one and quite well-blunted. It won't hurt you, but it will provide stimulation while I am on deck. It's no place for a slave, and I'd just hate for you to be bored.” Then, deftly, she slid the narrower end of the tool into Jendri's anus, leaving the wider, rounded end to protrude. “It's only in a few inches, and it had better be right there when I return. If it's anywhere but in your sweet, hot ass, you are in serious trouble, Slut."

Jendri groaned and arched helplessly, “Yes, yes, my lord Admiral. As you wish."

"Good girl. Burn for me, Slave. I want you just as hot when I come back as you were when I gave you the cat."

"I will be, my lord. I promise."

K'Endarra dressed quickly and went out, closing the door on Jendri's whimpering. Jendri tested her bonds and squirmed carefully so as not to disturb the makeshift maritime buttplug. It was hard and unyielding, just like her mistress. Yet, to writhe at all was a relief, to move at all after being whipped and taken so roughly was a luxury. And the last place in the world she wanted to be was on deck, with her swollen, shiny red fanny displayed to the officers and crew beneath the microscopic skirt she was forced to wear. Better to lie here, imprisoned in privacy, to contemplate her lord's recent pleasure and imminent return. If she received the boot-fucking K'Endarra had hinted at, it would be worth every stroke of the cat, and more.

CHAPTER TWO

Jendri lay still and listened to the booming broadsides of the ships of the line as they saluted their Admiral, and the sharper echoing of the sloop's guns in response. The marlinespike implanted in her rear seemed to be standing at attention as well. She sighed contentedly, yet she thrummed with anticipation and need. She knew K'Endarra could be merciless when she returned to the stateroom, teasing, torturing and demanding before she gave her slave release, yet Jendri craved all that, as much as the Queen deigned to give her.

Jendri had never been so in love in her life, nor so out of control. Her life had been carefully orchestrated and controlled, from her birth into the Obdurian aristocracy to its culmination with her appointment as General of the Armies. That, of course, had apparently ended in dismal failure, but, at the same time, it had freed her from a lifetime of holding the reins and given her a chance to wear the harness instead.

She had had lovers and been in relationships before, but these, like her career, had always been carefully controlled. They had been with women of good families, marriage to any one of whom would have enhanced her career and her reputation. The young women were nice, but often frail, boring and incredibly dependent upon Jendri, waiting breathlessly for her to appear or contact them, weeping and wailing at her departure to duty.

Jendri could never relax. All day long she made decisions while people danced attendance on her and vied for her attention. Everything in the entire Army had come to revolve around her, and while exhilarating, it was wearing. There was no escape except retirement, and she was much too young for that.

Now she danced attendance upon a powerful young ruler who treated her like a pet or a plaything. She had no control, made no decision, couldn't even eat without permission, had no privacy and was under constant threat of physical punishment. Her orgasms, once plentiful, were now severely rationed. A measure of humiliation was demanded of her before or after she earned release, or both, if she could earn it.

And Jendri wouldn't have had it any other way. And she knew that K'Endarra loved her, too, and that she would have kissed her if she could have, but there were barriers. Barriers of society and tradition that were difficult, if not impossible, to overcome. Jendri's most immediate problem, in fact, was that she had no way to learn all the convoluted rules, and then to analyze them and discover if one could work within the system to accomplish certain goals, or if necessary, if the rules could be circumvented.

There was no way but to ask K'Endarra herself, of course. That was tricky, as was almost anything, but K'Endarra had been doing things differently of late. One was relatively minimal punishment, especially compared to the beginning of their relationship. The second was in communication. More and more, K'Endarra discussed foreign and national affairs with Jendri, and frequently allowed Jendri to influence her, although she certainly didn't credit her slave with whatever positive results there might have been. How could she? The very idea of an Obdurian slave seriously impacting the Asperian government would have been a joke at best, an outrage at worst.

Even so, it had been Jendri's idea to place women in the few positions of authority left in her homeland, and to send in bilingual diplomats to ease the transition to Asperian rule. Without Jendri, fuel for the coming winter and milk for nursing mothers and babies would have been even more severely rationed. Many times she had reminded K'Endarra about luring the people to her with honey rather than vinegar.

So now, relaxed as well as she could be within her bonds, she constructed her approach to her lord and Queen in this touchy area of interpersonal relations. She would start putting her plan into action immediately upon the Admiral's return.

"So, Slave,” K'Endarra began, lying down on the bed beside Jendri and gently freeing her from her bonds, “Have you made good use of your time in my absence?” She rubbed Jendri's wrists and allowed her slave to curl against her. The marlinespike slid out and K'Endarra slid her fingers in deeply to replace it, making Jendri melt in her arms.

"Yes, my lord. I have been thinking of ways to please you.” She stretched and arched against the Queen. “Oh, gods, please ... please...” The invasion was teasing and gentle.

"You know what pleases me, Jendri."

"Submission, obedience, service."

"Willingly,” the Admiral emphasized, probing more deeply.

"Of course, lord Admiral,” Jendri agreed with a groan of desire.

"I am hungry. Get up and serve me my dinner. I have ordered an extended cruise around the headland to enjoy the fresh sea air. There will be plenty of time for the ... diversions I have planned.” She withdrew her fingers and went to wash up, leaving Jendri dangling over the abyss yet again.

Jendri obeyed without a murmur and waited on the Admiral, kneeling to receive food from her plate. She watched K'Endarra carefully in order to judge her frame of mind. She seemed as relaxed and good-natured as Jendri had ever seen her, so there was no point putting off her plan any longer.

K'Endarra's favorite after-dinner activity was receiving head while seated on her throne with a goblet of wine. In the stateroom was a large wood and leather Captain's chair that was meant to double as a throne, and a footstool was stored beneath the bed.

Jendri cleared away the meal and settled her lord to receive pleasure. Then she knelt before the throne and began to stroke K'Endarra's boots, looking up into the Queen's eyes longingly. What had started out as an act to diminish her pain and win whatever advantages she could for her people was now completely sincere.

K'Endarra regarded her curiously. “What, Slave?"

"Please, my lord, I was hoping for permission to give you pleasure."

"Well, of course,” K'Endarra assented. “But did I not suggest you might be permitted to hump my boot this evening? But if you'd rather not..."

"Oh! My lord! Yes, I would be entirely delighted!” Jendri smiled. “If it would please you."

"Beg me, Slut,” K'Endarra said quietly, enjoying her port, which she was always served at sea.

Jendri looked up at her mistress adoringly. “My lord, I know I am an unworthy slave. I have been disobedient and disrespectful and have not given you the pleasure you deserve. Yet, I have done my best and so I beg you to relieve the needs of your humble slave. Please boot-fuck me, my lord Admiral."

"More,” Her Majesty demanded. “You don't sound like you want it very much.” In fact, she did, but K'Endarra loved to hear Jendri beg.

"My lord, I—I need you. You are a powerful and demanding ruler. I desire your touch all day long, even though I have done nothing to earn it. I beg you with all my heart, boot-fuck me, my lord. Permit me to hump your boot."

"How long since you last rode my boot, Slut?"

Jendri stopped to think. She had been under punishment for two days recently, but that had ended two days before. “I came two days ago, my lord, after completing the first punishment cycle."

"And how great is your need, Jendri?"

"My need is always overwhelming, my lord. I can never get enough of the touch of your boot-leather. I adore you and ... and I worship you. Just being with you is enough to drive anyone to constant madness of need.” Feverishly, she pulled K'Endarra's boot onto her thighs and kneaded it between her sweating palms. “Please boot-fuck me, lord Admiral. Please,” she whimpered. She bowed her head and tongued K'Endarra's boot as she awaited her decision. The taste of the leather stimulated her even more and she shuddered.

"I don't know. It will make a mess on my boots,” K'Endarra remarked idly.

"I will lick them clean, my lord! It would be an honor, as always!” Jendri babbled, desperate now. “Your Majesty is so strong and beautiful, surely you can understand the depth of my desire..."

K'Endarra interrupted. She, too, was eager for Jendri to begin. “Enough, Slave. You may ride my boot. Beg permission for your orgasm when the time arrives. I suspect it will not take very long."

"Oh, gods, yes, my lord! I will gladly beg. Thank you, lord Admiral.” She reached down and released K'Endarra's pant-leg from under her arch and pushed it up to keep it clean and dry. Then she quickly rose and straddled the delectable boot as it rested on the carved stool. She sighed with relief as she sank down on it, warm and snug against her genitals. Her swollen clitoris caressed the smooth, polished leather. “Yes ... oh yes, my lord ... ah! Oh gods, you are so good to me.” She arched sinuously, groaning. “May I...” she convulsed suddenly as K'Endarra bounced her gently. “Please, may I touch you, lord Admiral? I need to hold on. I am too weak to stay upright without assistance."

"You may embrace my leg, Slut, since you are so helpless,” the Admiral laughed.

Jendri clutched her. “Thank you, my lord,” she gasped, rubbing up and down rhythmically, coating the boot with her juices. She writhed and jerked with excitement. “Oh! The pleasure ... so good ... so intense..."

Her face flushed and the pinkness spread down, between her breasts, the curve of which fascinated K'Endarra and made her long to cup them in her hands. K'Endarra could almost feel herself pulling Jendri up by her breasts and kissing her deeply ... No! It was simply impossible. Still, the sight and sensation of Jendri squirming on her boot was irresistible. Soon she would take Jendri and come like a meteor shower, until she was wrung out. It was a moment to be anticipated with great pleasure.

As Jendri approached orgasm, grunting with concentration, she began to beg again. “Please, my lord, give me permission to come. Let me offer you my pleasure."

"No, Slave. Not yet.” K'Endarra's own excitement was building quickly.

"Pleeease!” Jendri pleaded, digging her nails into K'Endarra's thigh. “I ... I cannot hold back. I am ... so ... close,” she gasped.

"No. I am not done with you.” With great deliberation she applied upward pressure into Jendri's soaking, throbbing crotch. Her slave begged with such grace. It was a shame she couldn't continue all night.

"Oh! No! Mercy!” Jendri panted. “Do not force me to disobey. Oh, please!” She grimaced in agony as she suppressed her orgasm.

"Writhe, Slave.” The Admiral wiggled her foot.

"Oh gods. I cannot ... I cannot,” Jendri gasped. “It is too much!” She tried to lift her weight off the Queen's boot to relieve the pressure.

"Then give me your pleasure, Slut,” the Queen ordered, driving her boot up and down.

Jendri let go, unable to resist any longer. She moaned in ecstasy, leaning her weight into her lord's leg. “Ahhhh! AAAAHHHH!” she shrieked, losing control. The orgasm and her juices poured out of her as she bounced and squeezed her thighs together on the Queen's boot, and as the Queen forced spasm after spasm from her helpless, imprisoned clit. K'Endarra imagined she could see steam rising from the place where her boot and her slave's womanhood were joined.

"Fuck ... fuck MEEEEE!” Jendri screamed in a frenzy. “Boot-fuck MEEEE!” She gasped for breath, nearly out of her mind with intense pleasure, the likes of which she had never known before K'Endarra. Finally she rolled off K'Endarra's boot and lay gasping on the floor, but she immediately spread her legs wide for K'Endarra's foot to rest on her genitals while she paid tribute. Suddenly Jendri bucked up against K'Endarra's heel and came again, writhing on her back under the Queen's boot.

"AAAAAAGGGGHHHH! BOOT-fuck me!” she screamed again, her ass slapping the teak deck wetly.

K'Endarra was almost out of her mind herself. Carefully she applied pressure with her boot-heel, not wanting to cause a real injury, and was immediately rewarded with another set of wild spasms as Jendri lay flailing under her feet. “Oh GODS, I adore you!” Jendri screamed. “I live for you, my lord! Fuck me! Fuck me PLEEEEASE!” She took a wrenching breath. “Uh ... Uh ... boot-fuck me...” she whimpered, finally losing steam. “Boot ... fuck ... me,” she gasped, and closed her eyes.

K'Endarra let her rest, drinking her port, trying to calm herself. It would soon be her turn, and she had to pace herself to get the maximum possible enjoyment from it. When she could no longer feel Jendri vibrating with aftershocks through the sole of her boot, she demanded her tribute. “Who am I, Jendri?"

Very carefully, Jendri reached for K'Endarra's boot, which she clasped reverently in her hands, pressing herself against it as she recited, looking up into the eyes of her lord. “You are K'Endarra Golgathex, the Mighty, the Magnificent, Queen of Asperia, Imperatrix Obduria, Defender of the Crown of Sharone, General of the Armies, Admiral of the Navies...” she continued through the rest of the titles, deliberately stroking K'Endarra's boot as she finished, “You are my Queen, my sovereign lord and my one true love."

K'Endarra blushed. That was more than she had bargained for. Her general-turned-slave was always surprising her. Even in her disobedience she was the epitome of perfect pleasure.

"And who are you, Jendri?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

"I am Jendri, your slave, your slut, your property. I am nothing except what you make me, and I cannot live without you, my lord."

K'Endarra nodded, utterly perplexed. No one before Jendri, certainly no slave, had ever said they loved and needed her. And by now, Jendri knew good and well that no one was allowed to declare love for the Queen unless and until she said it first. This level of devotion was totally unexpected and K'Endarra didn't know how to respond, so she said what she always did. “Excellent. Lick my boots."

Jendri realized that K'Endarra needed time to process what had just happened. “With pleasure, my lord,” she responded, rising to her knees. She was in no hurry. The look on her lover's face had told her all she needed to know.

With great love and understanding, she caressed K'Endarra's boots with her tongue. She held each one gently in her hands as if it were a beloved house pet and gave it her undivided attention, stroking and licking at once. She knew that very soon, K'Endarra would be twisting and turning with need in her elevated seat, and she wanted more than anything to build that need to an unprecedented height, and then satisfy it utterly. It was not exactly the same as control. It was more like manipulation. She had given herself to K'Endarra entirely without reservation and made a declaration of her true feelings and intentions. Now she would sincerely give K'Endarra the best lovemaking she had ever had in her life, and she hoped, break down whatever barriers remained between them.

K'Endarra's defenses were already down when Jendri began her ministrations. She was on fire from boot-fucking Jendri to begin with. Then her slut had the nerve to say her mighty lord and mistress was the love of her life, something her greatest nobles would never have dared to do. Now she was frenching the soles of her boots as if they were the finest cuisine in the entire dominion, and she looked like she was having the time of her life. K'Endarra's need grew out of all proportion to the stimulation she was receiving. It was marvelous, to be sure, but it was Jendri's attitude that was sparking her desire tonight. Probably ... probably, the thought entered K'Endarra's fevered brain, Jendri would regard tasting her orgasms as the greatest honor she had ever received in her life as an aristocrat, a scholar and a general. It was unbelievable. She couldn't wait.

"Slave ... Jendri ... eat me,” K'Endarra ordered in a strangled tone.

Jendri ignored her, delicately swirling her tongue around the heel of K'Endarra's left boot.

"Slut, I command you to eat me!” She tried to rise but the fact that Jendri was holding her foot tightly prevented it.

"My lord, we can't let you walk around with come-slick boot-soles. You'll fall and hurt yourself.” Teasingly, she nibbled the edge of the Admiral's boot.

K'Endarra groaned, torn between the exquisite sensations she was experiencing, and the ones she knew she was about to enjoy, if this fractious slave would just quit arguing with her! “I ... I need you! Finish them later!"

"As you wish, my lord,” Jendri agreed. She lowered K'Endarra's boot to the stool so that her lord could stand up. “It is always my greatest pleasure to attend to your desires,” Jendri declared as she opened both sets of altered pants to gain entrance to K'Endarra's womanhood. Deftly she pushed K'Endarra back onto her throne, hooked her knees over the ornamental chair arms and plunged her face into the throbbing furnace of desire that raged between K'Endarra's legs.

"Aaaaggggghhhhh! Yes! By every god! By all the gods! Yes!” K'Endarra bounced up and down in Jendri's mouth, unable to jam enough of herself in to ease her needs. “Get in me! Put your tongue inside me! Now, Slave. Oh, gods, pleeeeease!"

Jendri wondered if K'Endarra was even aware of what she had just done. For the first time in their lengthy association, K'Endarra had uttered an entreaty. It wasn't a demand or a threat, it was an urgent request. Jendri savored this little gem and she drove deeply inside K'Endarra, who was already clenching wildly in preparation for her first orgasm. Her legs swung as she thrust into the mouth of her slave. She clasped Jendri's head to her crotch and pumped until she came with a mighty gush.

Jendri lapped and sucked madly to accommodate the spasming monarch who imprisoned her deep in her sex. It was utter bliss for Jendri, who was already as satiated as she had ever been with K'Endarra. The taste of the Admiral was ambrosia on her tongue. She would have fought anyone to the death in that moment for the privilege of pleasuring the Asperian Queen.

"Ooooohhhhh! Oh, slave! I am dying! I need more! Eat me! Suck ... suck MEEEEEE!"

Jendri obliged by drawing the Queen's swollen, pounding clit deeply into her mouth. It pulsed and writhed as if it were independent of its mistress, this relatively tiny organ holding K'Endarra powerless. It was amusing to Jendri that both of them, really, were at the mercy of this cluster of nerve endings. It was an insatiable beast, and Jendri loved it.

"AAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAH!” K'Endarra shrieked as she was carried away by a second volley of climax. Her ass banged on her throne as she filled Jendri with her come. It was almost enough to make her slave swoon with contentment, except Jendri knew her lord wasn't finished yet. And Jendri, too, had her own agenda to accomplish. She barely allowed K'Endarra to catch her breath before driving into her again, forcing out the next series of orgasms, and the next, until K'Endarra clutched her groin and begged, “Oh, gods, Jendri, I can't anymore. Please, please let me go."

"Are you sure, Lord Admiral? I am not tired. I can service you all night,” Jendri offered sweetly.

"No ... no, let me rest now. Bring me water. Share my cup."

"With pleasure, Majesty. You are indeed a most gracious Queen."

She rose and brought K'Endarra her cup, which they shared until the Queen was content. Then as K'Endarra relaxed on her throne, Jendri bent her head and finished licking her come from her lord's boots.

K'Endarra sighed happily as she looked at Jendri's head, bobbing up and down as she covered every inch of leather with an eager, expert tongue. “You love me in truth, do you not, Jendri?” she asked.

"I do, my lord. I adore you with my whole heart.” She looked up expectantly. “Do you not love me?"

K'Endarra looked down at Jendri's beautiful face as she knelt humbly, licking her boots, having given her the most extraordinary loving she had ever had. Her heart pounded in her chest as she realized, for the first time, what had finally happened to her. She opened her mouth, closed it again, and then she said, “Yes, Jendri. I love you. I do. I ... love you as much as a monarch may be permitted to love a slave.” She sighed. “It has happened before. Slaves and queens have been known to fall in love."

"Then will you kiss me?"

"Oh, gods! How I want to! But I cannot!"

"Why? I am not an Asperian. I would not hold you to any commitment. I understand that we cannot marry."

K'Endarra blinked back tears. “But ... I would be committed, and then I could never marry anyone. And one day ... I must. I must take a wife."

"We will not tell anyone.” Jendri insisted firmly.

K'Endarra groaned. “Oh, Jendri! If only it were that simple.” She looked past her slave through the porthole. “We will dock soon. On the journey back, I will explain. You must wait that long, because now there is no time. But know this: I do love you, and I will see to it that you are always safe and never in want for anything."

Jendri nodded, bowing her head. “Yes, my lord.” She would hear K'Endarra's story and consider what might be done next.

CHAPTER THREE

In the coach, K'Endarra showed Jendri how to fold the seats down to make a bed. Jendri pulled out the blankets and pillows she found beneath, and once K'Endarra was free of her coat, hat and sword, they snuggled together with the shades down. It would be the middle of the night before they got back to the palace, but that suited their needs quite well.

K'Endarra spooned herself in behind Jendri and buried her face in the thick, auburn hair with a sigh. It was good that they had declared their love for one another, but disturbing that there was so little they could do about it. Centuries of custom and tradition couldn't be ignored. “Do you know why I hold you like this so often, Jendri?” the Queen murmured.

"No, Majesty. I thought you just liked it,” Jendri responded, covering her lord's hands with her own as she usually did.

"I do, but there is a practical reason as well. This is what couples do when kissing is inappropriate. It keeps them from temptation.” Indeed, K'Endarra was struggling mightily just trying not to kiss Jendri's hair.

"In all honesty, my lord, I can't think when kissing might be inappropriate. But I understand your culture is different."

"Yes. There would be no problem if neither of us were Asperian,” K'Endarra observed gloomily.

"You were going to tell me the story of your succession, and the prohibition against kissing, and so on,” Jendri reminded her.

"Well, the actual reason for the custom against kissing is lost in antiquity. There's a myth about it, like the creation myth, the flood myth, the opening of the forbidden box and so on. But what's important is what developed from it."

"Tell me, my lord.” Maybe there was a hole in the theory somewhere.

"We don't kiss unless and until there is a formal engagement. The superior kisses the subordinate after receiving permission to do so. But sex can, and does, take place without kissing. If, during the sexual courtship, a problem arises, as long as there has been no kiss, it can be called off. Neither party need be offended."

"I see.” She didn't, really. But she waited to hear more.

"Before any wedding, both parties are questioned by the priests to be sure they aren't committed elsewhere. It is said to be impossible to fool them, so I must remain ... chaste in that regard. I must have an heir and I can't have one until I marry. So not marrying is impossible. We don't believe in sexual chastity because a whole marriage can disintegrate for lack of sexual compatibility. So the formal bond is made with a kiss. Kissing is relatively easy to learn and quite universal. Sex is far more individual and ... touchy, as you know."

"How do you get an heir, then?” Jendri wanted to know. Obviously there were no men in the succession and it was K'Endarra's intention to marry a woman.

"As my aunt's eldest niece and my mother's eldest daughter, I assumed the throne. The Queen is assumed to be too involved with affairs of state to spend time bearing and raising children. My next younger sister marries a man of the Asperian nobility and produces children. Her eldest daughter becomes my heir. My sister may marry before I do, but she can't have children before I marry because if anything happens to her, I have to raise the child with her husband and my spouse. Marriage is an indication of maturity great enough to be involved in the raising and training of an heir. All of us, my sister, her husband, my consort and I have to be ready before they can proceed."

"And if your sister wants to marry a woman, too? Or if you have no sisters?” Jendri persisted.

"Goodness! What an inquisitive little slut you are!” the Queen laughed. “If my sister marries a woman, she is inseminated with a donation from a suitable nobleman and she and her spouse and I raise the child. If I have only brothers, the eldest produces an heir with his wife, or by inseminating a suitable noblewoman. If I were an only child, a cousin would take the place of a sibling. If there were no daughters born to one sister, the next sister or brother's daughter would succeed and so on. It's all been worked out."

"And do you have a sister? And is she married?"

"Yes, and yes, and she is most anxious to begin to raise a family."

That sounded threatening. “My lord, marry if you must, but let me remain your slave. I will stay under any circumstances if you will have me."

K'Endarra squeezed her tightly. “I do not want any other wife. That should be obvious. You know I have many slaves, and several concubines. I have hardly been with them since I captured you. Really, only occasionally. And I use my sex slaves for your pleasure as much as my own. I see what it does to you."

Jendri shuddered at the thought of being impaled by the ass on the Queen's boot as another slave pleasured her. She certainly knew of the Queen's harem. Lately K'Endarra had gone there less and less, although, to be sure, she still went, as it was her right and desire to do so. “I ... I am truly honored, my lord Queen. Then could you not take a consort who doesn't want sex with you, but who would make a good political match? You could both have other lovers."

K'Endarra nodded. “That is one possibility I have not yet explored. There are noblewomen who might consider it. But put that aside for the moment, slave. I have another lesson to teach you."

"Another?"

"Yes, a biology lesson. I think I owe you an explanation, and it is one we will both enjoy.” She released Jendri and commanded, “Open my trousers and underwear. Are you familiar with the concept of genetics?"

"Of course, Majesty,” Jendri replied, tenderly exposing the Queen's groin in the dark. She ran her hands over the silky skin and K'Endarra sighed.

"Do you know what a recessive trait is?"

"Yes, my lord. Am I permitted to pleasure you?” She kissed K'Endarra just above her pubic hair, making her shudder.

"In a moment. That is part of the lesson. You are well aware of my sexual ... appetite?"

"Do you refer to your apparent insatiability, my lord?” Jendri asked innocently.

K'Endarra laughed again. Jendri frequently made her laugh, one of many reasons she was so drawn to her slave. “That, and the intensity of my response."

"In truth, my lord, I have never seen anyone enjoy such lengthy and intense orgasms, let alone such a quantity, as frequently as you are able to perform."

"This lesson will explain all of that, my little tart. I want you to very slowly and gently, lick my clitoris until it is as full and hard as you can get it."

"With pleasure, my lord!"

"Not so fast! Before you begin, I want you to examine some things."

"Yes, Ma'am,” Jendri agreed, as confused as she'd ever been about this enigmatic Queen and lover.

"Slide your finger as deeply inside me as you can, and try to remember how that feels,” the Admiral instructed.

Jendri complied.

"Hurry, or I will be too excited for you to feel the difference,” K'Endarra panted.

"Yes, my lord.” Jendri did as she was told and tried to commit the sensations to memory.

As soon as Jendri had withdrawn her fingers, K'Endarra grasped her hands and placed them on either side of her pubic hair. “Here, as well. What do you feel?"

"Honestly, my lord, nothing. It feels smooth ... just normal."

"Remember that. Now, pleasure me slowly, slave. We have a long ride. Let's make the most of it."

Jendri didn't answer, because she had already settled herself under the Queen's hips, and her lips were already gently caressing the insatiable organ she had come to worship.

Queen K'Endarra spread her legs wide. “Slave, open your legs until you feel my boots."

Jendri obeyed with a groan of frustration. She felt her juices running out and the fire inside began to lick at her, mercilessly, as always.

"Good. Don't close them.” K'Endarra brought her feet back under Jendri's belly, making her writhe. “Yes, good. Show me how much you need me, slut. That pleases me very much."

Jendri moaned against the demanding clitoris as it grew in her mouth. She dug her fingers into K'Endarra's backside and licked slowly in broad, gentle strokes. The fiery organ expanded and the Queen purred with pleasure.

"Oooohhhhh ... ooohhhh,” K'Endarra sighed, rolling her hips slowly from side to side. It was so good to know she would get everything she needed and wanted from this slave who loved her so single-mindedly. “Oh, gods, Slave. Yes ... do me like that. Not too fast."

Jendri trembled with desire as she loved her lord. Her own needs, which she had thought totally satiated aboard the sloop, were making themselves known again. No, she reminded herself. You are here to pleasure her, and to learn. And so she did as she was commanded, ignoring the piteous cries from her heart and her aching genitals.

"Jendri ... stop now for a minute,” K'Endarra gasped. “Slide your finger into me again."

To her surprise, Jendri found some sort of soft obstruction at the far end of K'Endarra's canal, just at the limit of her reach. She had never noticed that before.

"What do you feel?” the Queen asked.

"Some soft swelling, my lord. What is it?"

"Wait. Put your hands here again, where I showed you before.” She repositioned Jendri's fingers. “What do you feel here?"

Jendri felt a slight protuberance on each side, where she had felt nothing earlier. “Again, some sort of swelling?"

"Yes. The one in my vagina is the rest of my clitoris. About 80 percent of it is inside. You could push past underneath given a long enough ... object. It would not prevent female-male intercourse."

"And these others?"

"Secondary clitoria. They are all linked by a network of nerve fibers."

"My gods! Then ... your sensations...” Jendri was simply amazed.

"Are probably geometrically greater than those of other women. It is a recessive trait among Asperian royal women. We all have it, and it appears frequently in the nobility and sometimes in the aristocracy."

"How ... how wonderful that must be for you!"

"It is both blessing and curse. Right now, I would call it a blessing. You may proceed. I cannot wait any longer."

"Oh, yes, Your Majesty! No wonder you come so strongly. How wonderful!"

"Suck, Slave. We'll talk more later."

Jendri slid back under the Queen, embraced her hips and devoured as much of the mighty main clitoris as she could from the outside. As she pleasured her lord, she tried to imagine what it must be like to come in three places at once with more than three times the organ mass of the average woman. When K'Endarra had said it was sometimes a curse, she must have meant she was enslaved to her needs on a certain level, as Jendri was enslaved to her own! It was something that needed a great deal more thought than she could give it while she was devoting herself to the Queen's pleasure.

K'Endarra wanted to lie still and just enjoy Jendri's efforts. But as usual, as she approached orgasm, she began to pump down with her hips. Her orgasms were of such force that both her need and then her satisfaction drove her almost to madness. When she had to have it, there was no way she could function until her needs were relieved, and then she was frequently so drained that she needed time to recover. No slave before Jendri had ever had the physical strength or emotional ability to keep pace with her demands. The thought of losing her, giving her up for a consort, frightened K'Endarra. But she couldn't think about that now. The roaring of her body as she neared climax overpowered all conscious thought. She rode a raging torrent of sensation, and she surrendered and let it carry her to ecstasy.

"Jendri ... Jendri ... oh, my love...” K'Endarra gasped, her need extreme once again. How could she ever give this woman up?

"Mmmmmm,” Jendri responded, happy to give all of herself to her lord. She understood her role more clearly than she ever had, thanks to the revelations the Queen had made about her body. More than ever, she felt a bond with this demanding mistress who had, in essence, freed her from a life of duty and authority. Authority had its moments, but being lost in this woman was beyond any relationship she could ever have imagined. It was intoxicating.

K'Endarra's hips began to buck and drive. She clasped Jendri's head deeply between her legs. “Yes ... lick ... suck ... take me ... take all of me...” K'Endarra, too, was lost. She plunged over the edge, hanging on to Jendri, believing that she was all that remained between her and insanity. Jendri would take her where she needed to go, and bring her back. She always did.

K'Endarra screamed. She didn't care who heard her; not that she ever did. When she was in extreme arousal and need, and then out of her mind with fulfillment, little things like decorum couldn't, wouldn't stand in her way. All of her predecessors had been the same, as far back as anyone could remember. It was the way of Asperian Queens. The people of the dominion knew and accepted this aspect of their rulers as commonplace. Everyone wondered what it must be like, but no one really wanted to know for sure. A blessing and a curse.

She all but blacked out as orgasms wracked her with delicious torture. She gave the appearance of being in control, always, but in reality, she was in Jendri's hands now, and until today, Jendri had not known it. What would she do with this knowledge? It would be the most serious test of their relationship.

K'Endarra's body jumped wildly on the custom-fitted mattresses as Jendri absorbed her ecstasy and still, even so, gave her more. It was an almost perfect symbiosis of need. Jendri writhed and flailed under K'Endarra who was out of control on top of her. In a sizzling moment of wonder, Jendri imagined them kissing and doing this! If only! she thought. K'Endarra deserves the utmost in completion. I must find a way to make it so.

Eventually K'Endarra's thrashing ceased and she lay still, utterly and happily spent. Jendri remained where she was, consuming the honey that K'Endarra had produced in her ecstasy. Jendri could easily have come now, herself, but as always, she awaited her lord's pleasure. She was used to waiting and no longer felt as deprived as before. The few orgasms she had now were well worth waiting for.

K'Endarra moaned and lifted her legs. Jendri crawled out and brought out a travelling carafe, from which she poured water for the Queen. After sharing it with Jendri, K'Endarra ordered, “Lie down with your head at the foot of the mattress. Spread your legs."

Jendri obeyed. K'Endarra planted the sole of her boot firmly against Jendri's engorged genitals. “Now, just lie still and enjoy yourself."

"May I touch you, my lord? I ... I need to hold you,” Jendri whispered.

"Just enough to maintain contact. I want you still. Don't be squirming around down there. Understand?"

"Yes. Thank you, my lord."

"Mmmm. Now be quiet."

The coach bounced along through the night. It was dark as the inside of a mine and Jendri had nothing to do but experience the sensation of the hard leather against her inflamed softness, the heel against her anus, just barely touching it. She clasped her hands around K'Endarra's instep to hold herself in place and concentrated on the irregular movements of the coach, and thus, K'Endarra's foot.

Jendri sighed contentedly. Even if she didn't come, it was a delightful way to pass the time, rocking gently against the Queen's boot. When the coach hit a bump of any kind, the jolt and sway were deliciously tantalizing. Occasionally K'Endarra would put a little extra pressure on her, enough to make Jendri gasp, and then she'd pull back slightly, making her slave wait. Jendri vibrated with anticipation of the next hard contact, incidental or intended.

Soon, the combination of the rough, unpredictable touch of K'Endarra's boot sole and the length of the journey combined to push Jendri ever so gradually toward the brink of release. She began to gasp and pant, and she fought herself not to writhe and press against her lord's boot. “Oh, gods, oh, gods, please!” her tormented whisper burst from her.

"Remember what I told you, Jendri,” K'Endarra warned.

Jendri began to weep. “Please, my lord, I'm sorry—but I'm so close. I need just a little more. Please, I love you so! Won't you let me—"

The Queen's reply was the grinding of her heel into her slave's genitals. Jendri came so hard and so fast she barely had time to register what had happened before shrieks of uncontrollable pleasure were torn from her. K'Endarra had taken her completely by surprise. Orgasm rolled through Jendri, shaking her to her very core. K'Endarra bore down hard to hold her in place and force more pleasure from her. Jendri gladly surrendered.

Several minutes later, she still lay limply under K'Endarra's boot, barely aware of her surroundings. She did not notice the light filtering into the coach as they approached the Royal Palace.

"Jendri, get up. We are home."

Jendri couldn't move. Or perhaps she wouldn't move. K'Endarra didn't bother to try to figure it out. She struggled into her coat and hat, and picked up her sword. When the driver opened her door, she got down and put the sword on herself. “Jendri, Jendri. What am I going to do with you?” she asked rhetorically. She dragged her slave and lover feet first to the open door, bent her knees and flung her over her shoulder. Then she turned and carried her up the steps into the palace, her right hand balancing Jendri on her shoulder, her left holding the hilt of her sword so she wouldn't trip.

As if Jendri weighed no more than a lamb, the Queen carried her up the broad steps to her apartments and dropped her on the bed. Jendri rolled over and buried her face in the quilts.

"Well, that's the last time I boot-fuck YOU twice in one day, my sensuous little slut,” K'Endarra remarked. She turned Jendri back over and with a smile, nuzzled her indulgently. “Tomorrow, you will pay."

CHAPTER FOUR

Jendri hung in the restraints, hungrily watching K'Endarra's recreation. In her anus was a lovely, carved ivory dildo, fat and ribbed, so that Jendri could experience the same sort of invasion as the lucky slaves squirming under K'Endarra's boots. Her backside glowed with the strokes of the lash she had received from the Queen's riding crop that morning.

Jendri arched, squeezing the dildo with the perverse pleasure she always felt when under punishment or discipline. Jendri understood now that K'Endarra punished her this way because she was aware of her slave's deep craving for it. The rack faced the throne head-on now, so that the lovers, mistress and slut, could look into each other's eyes as K'Endarra used her other slaves.

Jendri moaned, luxuriating in her agony, and K'Endarra smiled, grinding her boot heels into the asses of her stool-slaves, leaning back and writhing on her throne. The more Jendri demonstrated her helpless need and adoration for her lord, the more K'Endarra enjoyed the services of her slaves.

"Are you ready for me to come, Obdurian slut?” K'Endarra inquired pleasantly.

Jendri's response was to spurt down her leg, shuddering with need. “Yes ... yes ... please, my Queen,” she gasped. “Enjoy it ... for all of us,” she begged, knowing how much it stimulated K'Endarra to hear it.

"Switch, slaves,” K'Endarra ordered, to the delight of the one who would now receive her climax. The others moaned and obeyed quickly, lest they feel the lash of tongue or whip. Gripping the arms of her throne, K'Endarra began to thrust, loudly proclaiming her imminent pleasure, the triple orgasm of Asperian female royalty.

Jendri thrust toward her mistress, waiting for her cries to fill the room and intensify the burning in the furnace of her womanhood, a need unlikely to be assuaged until she had completed the penance for her disobedience during the coach ride. Her next orgasm was two days away at the earliest. “Come, my powerful lord,” Jendri begged. “Teach me to fear and obey you."

With a great shout, K'Endarra's orgasm erupted from her, causing all the slaves to moan at once, and eliciting a fierce fit of jerking spasms from the one she loved. Honey gushed from all of the women as K'Endarra's ecstasy claimed her.

When the Queen was finished, Jendri and the others observed the release of the lucky slave, who collapsed before her mistress when she was done, wailing with relief and gratitude. Soldiers freed Jendri and she and the rest licked their messes from the floor, kissed K'Endarra's boots and awaited further orders on their knees, heads bowed.

"You are dismissed, except Jendri,” K'Endarra panted, for she had only come once and Jendri's penance was far from over. When they were alone, K'Endarra commanded, “Commence your punitive stimulation, slut."

Jendri brought the footstool, mounted K'Endarra's boot and began to hump. Almost immediately she began to tremble with pleasure.

"You will control yourself for two minutes,” K'Endarra decreed. “On each boot,” she threw in, smiling.

"Oh gods ... oh gods ... “Jendri gasped, rising and falling on the smooth, warm boot. If she did not make a sincere effort to torment herself, a new level of punishment would be awarded. “Your leather ... so good,” she murmured, panting.

"Hold me, and press harder,” K'Endarra invited, sipping her wine.

"Yes, my lord,” Jendri obeyed tentatively, steeling herself against the flood of delight that would bring. “Ohhhhhhhhhhh,” she moaned, head thrown back.

"Change boots,” the Queen said, permitting Jendri a momentary respite.

The other boot felt twice as good, and soon Jendri had covered it with her silky offering of love. “My queen, my lord,” she groaned, but she couldn't beg for mercy. That was forbidden.

"You may speak, slave,” K'Endarra teased. She could actually feel Jendri's hot, throbbing clit against her foot through the supple leather and the fine hose she now wore. It was exhilarating.

"I love you,” Jendri said simply, bobbing and pressing, squeezing and releasing, gritting her teeth and holding back her orgasm.

"And I you, disobedient bootlicker.” Eyeing the water-clock the Queen nodded. “Down and lick, slut."

"Thank you, my lord,” Jendri gasped. Bootlicking was surely stimulating, but not nearly as dangerous for her as boot-humping.

It was all the more stimulating to K'Endarra, who frequently could not hold out until both boots were clean. “Finish later. Eat me now,” she ordered tersely, and Jendri knew better than to delay.

She entered her lord's cleft with delight, thrilled with the pleasure she received from the selfless act of making love to K'Endarra. All she received from it was the taste, the sensation and the knowledge of K'Endarra's ecstasy. It was enough. More than enough.

K'Endarra came, bubbling and frothing into Jendri's mouth. Both of them moaned and squealed, and Jendri felt K'Endarra's hands in her hair. The enormous clit leaped and jumped as if alive, and Jendri pursued it as if possessed. There was no satiating K'Endarra, at least not for more than a couple of hours. Yet Jendri tried, motivated by total dependence on the Queen's love and approval.

By the time K'Endarra was herself again, Jendri was licking the vestiges of her own moisture from K'Endarra's heels. “Mmmmmmm,” K'Endarra sighed, stretching. “How you adore me and love your discipline, Slut. Is it not so?"

"By the gods, I cannot deny it,” Jendri confessed.

"Transgress frequently, so that we may enjoy this again,” K'Endarra laughed, and Jendri joined her lover and friend, leaning against her leg and embracing her around the waist. It was rapidly becoming apparent that K'Endarra neither needed nor cared to cruelly punish her slave very much any more. Jendri's servitude and sexual discipline under K'Endarra served more than adequately to keep her in line.

* * * *

There was less than a week left before the visit of good Queen Julia and the ball in her honor. K'Endarra ordered Jendri a squire's formal uniform so that she could attend the ball and stay near her. Jendri would have preferred to await her lord's return in their quarters, because there was no way they could dance, and she offered to stay out of sight, but Her Majesty refused.

"No. We will suffer together. If I have to be there, you can keep me company."

"Why do you hold such a function, my lord, if you do not like to dance?"

"It is for Julia. I do it because she is my closest and most trusted ally.” K'Endarra smiled down at Jendri. “I will dance only with her. If I dance with any of my nobility they will take it as something of immense significance and snipe at one another all night. We will watch them play their silly games and stay well out of the way."

"Then they may not ask you to dance?” Jendri wanted to know.

"Certainly not. That would be most inappropriate. Thank goodness!"

* * * *

But before that moment could arrive, the Deputy Territorial Governor of Obduria appeared with the quarterly report of conditions in that area, which was now legally a province of Asperia. K'Endarra received him in the small throne room adjacent to her quarters.

As he droned through his report, Jendri was horrified to learn that her people were under strict rationing and still expected to give half of all they produced to Asperia. Despite Jendri's efforts thus far, children were hungry, schools were closed and there was not enough fuel for the upcoming winter. No Obdurian was allowed to buy durable goods in the markets, and heavy winter clothing was now in short supply. Of course, Jendri could say nothing, so she kept her eyes on her work and waited tensely as the Deputy Governor detailed plans they had prepared to turn the screws even tighter.

Finally the Deputy said, “If Your Majesty would just sign these orders, we can put the new restrictions into effect immediately."

K'Endarra glanced down at Jendri and noticed the set of her jaw. “No, just leave it and I'll take it under advisement. Dismissed."

"Really, my lord, it's just a formality—"

The Queen's eyes flashed. “Did you not hear me? Can you not obey orders? Guards!"

Instantly one appeared on either side of the now-terrified bureaucrat. “Take him downstairs and put him in restraints. I will see to him myself."

Impassively the guards dragged him away as he babbled apologies.

"Come, slave. Let us see if I have lost my touch with the whip."

Jendri quaked. The Queen meant to lash this hapless idiot. He had been impertinent, but—on the other hand—he was abusing her people. She followed K'Endarra silently to the formal throne.

The guards had just finished stringing him up, and one reached for his tunic and ripped it open to his waist so that his back was bare. K'Endarra put out her hand and the other guard handed her the whip and backed away.

"Please ... please ... my lord ... I meant no disrespect."

"You take me for an idiot, lowlife fool,” K'Endarra said quietly, and without another word, she drew back the lash and whipped him two strokes quickly, a combined fore- and backhand. He screamed and wet himself, then slumped in the restraints, tears coursing down his fat cheeks.

It was too much for Jendri. She flung herself at K'Endarra's feet. “Please, my lord. He is an administrator! He cannot tolerate this! Don't, I beg you!"

K'Endarra looked down at her and stopped. She sauntered around to the other side where she could see the official's face. “Do you hear that? This slave begs for mercy on your behalf. I wonder: do you know who she is?"

"No, Your Majesty. I ... I never saw her before,” he gasped in terror.

"Pity.” She gave him another stroke.

The man cursed the day he was born with a loud groan. He was close to passing out.

"My lord Queen!” Jendri cried out. “Have mercy on this man, please!"

K'Endarra stopped again and, casually swinging the whip, she remarked, “This slave is the former Obdurian General, Jendrickar Verrian, whose people currently suffer under our laws of penal colonization. What do you say to that?"

"I beg your pardon, Madam General,” he gasped. “I ... did not know."

"On her behalf, I commute the rest of your punishment. Insubordination usually carries a penalty of twelve lashes. Do not ever argue with me again. Tell the Governor I will review the proposal and send it back in due time.” She turned to the guards. “Take him down and help him out.” She tossed the whip to one of them and strode from the room, her slave hot on her heels.

They were back upstairs in an instant. Jendri knelt before the Queen and embraced her legs. “My lord, I thank you with my whole heart for taking the time to consider the proposal, and also for pardoning the Deputy Governor."

K'Endarra could feel the moisture of Jendri's grateful tears through her shirt. “Slave, you amaze me! He, and others like him, want only to wring every last ounce of effort from, and impose every penalty upon your own people, yet you plead for him!"

"My lord, I know what it is to be enslaved and punished. It is impossible to forget that I was once where he was today. I thank you for your mercy, and if I may plead also on behalf of my people, I will do so."

"Very well.” She folded her arms and looked down at her lover. “I'm listening."

"Please, my lord, at least consider the children. They have done nothing wrong. Let them have clothing for the winter, and enough food and medicine. Let them go back to school."

K'Endarra was silent for a moment. “Jendri, I will hear your requests as General Verrian. You have until this time tomorrow to prepare your suit on behalf of Obduria. Read the proposal and develop alternatives. Present them to me as a diplomat would. You will make your presentation in my study at this same hour tomorrow. You may use the dining room to work while I meet with the Privy Council this afternoon. I will table any discussions of Obduria until I hear what you have to say. My decision then will be final. Understood?"

"Yes, my lord.” Jendri looked up at her with eyes bright with tears. She took her lord's hand and kissed it. “You are a merciful and gracious Queen."

K'Endarra's heart twisted inside her. She loved Jendri so! She would hear her requests and try to judge them fairly. “Go,” she said quietly.” You have much work to do."

* * * *

Jendri requested and received the two previous quarterly reports on Obduria, and used them in the preparation of her presentation as well. When K'Endarra returned from the Privy Council meeting, she found Jendri hard at work in the dining room where she had left her.

"Come, slave! I am hungry. Have you eaten?"

Jendri rose and bowed to her mistress, “Certainly not, my lord. I don't eat unless you feed me. And I was busy. I did not notice being hungry."

"Put your things away and serve me. Then I wish to take you to bed. I have thought of you all afternoon, Jendri.” She went to her slave who immediately knelt, bowed her head and stroked her lord's boots. K'Endarra caressed her cheek and growled with desire.

Jendri flushed with pleasure. She could work anytime. Serving K'Endarra always came first. “Yes, my lord. At once.” She took K'Endarra's hand and kissed it, then rose to do her bidding. She found the cart in the hall, wheeled it in and served her lord her dinner, then knelt to await food from her hand.

"What would you like, Jendri? Come, take a plate and serve yourself,” K'Endarra invited. “And sit down with me here."

Jendri stared at her in surprise, then rose and obeyed. Jendri knew the Queen always dined alone. Even at a State Dinner she was always seated by herself. It looked terribly lonely to Jendri, but she supposed there was some rule or other, the origin of which was lost in antiquity. She went to sit at the foot of the table, but K'Endarra stopped her. “No, sit here by me where we can talk. I would ask you some questions about ... the war between our peoples."

"Yes, my lord. As you desire."

"I desire you, but we have all night for that, and once I take you, I will not be in the mood to discuss foreign relations."

"Certainly, lord Queen.” Jendri seated herself and asked. “What may I tell you?"

"Eat before your food gets cold, my slut. Come now, let's dine like civilized people."

Once they had begun to eat, K'Endarra inquired, “Why did Obduria declare war or Asperia?"

Jendri took a deep breath. “My lord, forgive me, but if I answer that I may end up on the frame."

"No, slave. I would do you on the table. Much more effective. Speak freely. That's an order.” K'Endarra cut some meat and chewed, waiting.

"Very well. As you know, Obduria is a republic with elected officials. They are always under the impression that monarchy is an inferior form of government."

"Mmm-hmm."

"They have always had a tendency to involve themselves in the affairs of other nations, especially any nation that isn't a democracy. When they had gathered enough so-called intelligence to the effect that Asperia was an oppressed country in the grasp of a cruel and capricious Queen, they felt they had a mandate to intervene.” After a moment's reflection she added, “I also suspect, although I can't prove it, that our leadership is offended by the concept of a matrilineal monarchy. As you must know, while we are a republic in which every citizen votes, we are still quite patriarchal. We have never had a female Prime Minister, and I am the first woman to have risen to my rank."

"And as General of the Armies, what did you have to say about that?” K'Endarra demanded. Jendri had been right. She was irritated. But she had asked.

"I was not consulted on the ethics of the matter. My only responsibility was to ensure the readiness of the Army.” She sighed. “I personally have problems with starting a war based on ‘principle’ or based on a perception that intervention is desired. I certainly have no problem with female leadership. I am well aware that Asperia has never started a war or invaded another nation without provocation. But the leaders of the Obdurian government don't take that sort of attitude too kindly. They were going to send my army into battle with or without me. I had to go and prevent as much loss of life as I possibly could."

"How would you analyze the cause of your defeat?” the Queen probed.

"Two things: they were much too dependent upon my personal leadership. Once I was captured, no other leader was able to rally the troops. Secondly, I confess that, based upon intelligence, I myself had underestimated the ferocity of your soldiers."

"How would you do things differently if you had a chance to do it over again?"

"I would cross your border under a white flag and lay my sword at your feet, Your Majesty,” Jendri said truthfully.

K'Endarra was stunned. “You can't possibly be serious."

Jendri looked at her steadily. “What I mean is, your people aren't oppressed. You are not a capricious Queen. No one asked us to intervene. I am in love with you now, but had I met you before the war, I would have courted you until I won your heart. Because you will not bear your own heir, you can marry a foreigner. Is that not what you said?"

K'Endarra looked at her. “Yes, it is true. I will not deny it. But I have sometimes been capricious, and you know it. It is only because of your influence that I now give the appearance of being a wise ruler."

"I believe Your Majesty must always have had great potential. You have simply chosen this moment to prove it. I can hardly take credit for your rate of development, my lord."

The Queen put her utensils down. “Jendri, you must know I am truly sorry for the way this turned out, although I am delighted to have you as my slave, and of course, I am very much in love with you, too.” K'Endarra rose and held out her hand. “Let's go to bed. We'll work out our political problems tomorrow."

"Should I clear away here first, Majesty?'

"No, Jendri. I want you now. There are other servants here who can manage that, but they cannot make love to me in the way that you can. Just tell the Chamberlain I want music, and hurry back."

"Yes, my lord.” She raced to obey, her heart pounding with anticipation.

When she arrived in the Queen's bedchamber, her lord was sprawled on the bed. “Undress me, Jendri. I have thought of a way to kiss you! What a shame I didn't think of it sooner!"

"Tell me, I beg you, lord Queen,” Jendri said, sliding the Queen's boots off.

"Better still, I will show you. Hurry!"

When they were both ready and the ensemble was playing outside, K'Endarra said, “It is very simple. Look,” and she laid Jendri on her back. “Spread your legs, my love."

Jendri did, looking up longingly into the Queen's deep, dark eyes. She was sure she knew what the Queen had in mind, and although she welcomed it in one way, she also felt somewhat apprehensive because in the past, K'Endarra had used this position only to stimulate herself, and then to tease and punish Jendri. Every orgasm she had ever had in this position had resulted in immediate, brutal beatings. It was in this very position that she had been forced to learn the art of suppressing her orgasms. As she watched, K'Endarra did indeed turn above her so that they were positioned for mutual oral pleasure. “The one place I can kiss you and call it something else,” K'Endarra explained. “And I well remember how sweet you are, too! Now, eat me, Slut!” she commanded in a mock-serious tone, and she bent to do the same to her slave.

"May I come, my lord Queen?” Jendri asked anxiously. She wanted to know before she got too involved.

"Darling, have you forgotten you are in a discipline cycle?"

Jendri groaned. This wouldn't be easy! “As you command, my lord."

K'Endarra lowered herself into Jendri's mouth and Jendri began to caress those delicious, beloved parts of her lord with all the sincere love she felt for her. At the same time, when K'Endarra's tongue began to lick and probe and even kiss her, Jendri immediately began to writhe with need and pleasure.

As she thrust urgently up into her royal lover's lips, K'Endarra withdrew with a laugh. “Not so fast, Jendri. I intend to relish every moment of this."

"I ... I get so excited when you touch me, my lord."

"Well, then, I won't touch you quite so much,” K'Endarra said, and she kissed and licked the soft, tender skin of Jendri's inner thighs while Jendri remained enslaved to her own raging need. K'Endarra slid herself back and forth over Jendri's face, while slowly torturing her with an occasional lick or brief suck. Every time Jendri began to hump, K'Endarra pulled back so that Jendri contacted only the scented air.

"Ooohhh, my lord,” Jendri begged through a mouthful of hot pussy.

"No begging, sweetheart,” K'Endarra told her. “Concentrate on me for now. I will content myself with soft, gentle kisses that don't push you too far.” And she kept the touches of her lips to Jendri's clit and labia feather-light, so that she could enjoy the pounding and the heat without letting her slave lose her concentration or control.

Jendri moaned deeply but gave her lord all that she demanded. Soon K'Endarra just pressed her face down into Jendri's pussy and groaned with ecstasy as she approached what would surely be the first of many orgasms. She rocked back and forth, lost in the pleasure that Jendri so willingly gave her, the scent of her, the hot, moist honey boiling from her aching cleft. She wanted to lap at its source but she was concerned that it would excite Jendri too much, so she waited until it spilled out around her labia and licked it then, causing Jendri to squeal with frustration. That, too, delighted K'Endarra. Jendri was entirely hers. There was no escape.

Jendri realized she was as much at K'Endarra's mercy as when she rode her boots to orgasm. Without K'Endarra's permission or touch, she could not, would not, come. Most of all, she understood that her own helpless desire was almost as stimulating to K'Endarra as a caress, so she let her lord know that she was wild with need.

"Ah ... I am on fire! Oh, my lord. I am dying for you!” she babbled as she took a deep breath before plunging back in.

"Ahhhh ... ooooohhhhhh ... I'm coming, Slut. Oh, am I coming! Eat me Jendri, take my come ... oh, gods ... yessssss,” K'Endarra groaned as she drew closer and closer to climax. “Mmmmm ... so good, you taste ... so good. Make ... me ... come, Slave! Make me come!” And she humped Jendri's face furiously to relieve her blistering heat.

Jendri sucked K'Endarra's huge clit down into her mouth and assaulted it with her tongue. Since K'Endarra wanted it rough and hard, Jendri would comply.

With a bellow of triumph, K'Endarra came. Her three clits pounded simultaneously and almost knocked her from her seat on Jendri's face, but she bore down into her slave's mouth and emptied herself of her come and her passion for what seemed like ages, until she was totally spent.

"Oh ... oh, gods, Jendri. That was good, so very good,” she gasped as she rolled off to lie on her back. “Lick me, my love. Get every drop."

"Yes, my lord,” Jendri acknowledged. She slid fluidly under K'Endarra's hips and probed with her tongue, feasting on the sweetness that still flowed from the Queen. As she licked, she writhed with heat and envy of K'Endarra's satisfaction, and K'Endarra felt it. After she let Jendri suffer a while, she asked, “You desire my touch, don't you, my slave?"

"I ... always desire you greatly, my lord,” Jendri confessed. It was too obvious to deny.

"Come, lie beside me,” K'Endarra invited. When Jendri was comfortable on her back in the Queen's arms, K'Endarra said, “Too soon, my love. You know the rules.” She spread Jendri's legs and eased her fingers into the folds of Jendri's sex.

Jendri thought she would faint from need. “Yes, lord Queen."

"But beyond the rules, I will tell you why I insist that you wait, and I will stroke you a little, if that is what you wish, love."

"Anything, please,” Jendri whispered.

"Let's see how long you can keep absolutely still. As long as you do that, I will touch you. Move, and I'll take my hand away."

"Yes ... yes ... please."

"Have you noticed any difference between your orgasms since you have been my slave, compared with your sex life before the war?"

"Well, certainly,” Jendri began, stopping to catch her breath as K'Endarra entered her vagina with gentle fingers. “Since I must wait a long time between orgasms, when I have them, they are much more intense ... and much more lengthy, I think."

"Good! I had hoped so, for it was my intention to give you an understanding of my own experience. That is the only way I can approximate my sensations and share them with you. I feel that same helpless desperation every single time I become aroused."

"Mmmmm ... thank you, my lord. I appreciate that.” She was dying to thrust up against the hand of her lover.

K'Endarra smiled and stroked Jendri's clit lightly, her smile broadening at the helpless groan of her slave. “How does this feel?"

"Oh ... so good!” Jendri sighed.

"And this?” K'Endarra growled, pumping her fingers in and out of the aching loins of her slave as if she meant to let her come. Then she withdrew her hand without warning.

"Ah! Oh no! Oh, no, my lord! Mercy! Do not stop! Oh! Oh!” Jendri wailed, holding herself rigid.

"It would be more merciful for me to stop now and let you relax, do you not agree?"

"Please ... please ... touch me ... only a little more,” Jendri begged, throbbing.

"If I touch you, I will make you writhe, Slave. Then I will be aroused again, and you will have to pleasure me, and feel me come all over you. Is that what you want?"

"Oh, gods, yes! Touch me, let me move, my lord, my Queen. Please!"

"You may move, slave. I will touch you until you burn like hellfire, and then I will take you for my own release."

"Yes! Yes!” Jendri pleaded, thrusting.

"Think about the boot-fucking I will give you in two days."

Jendri shrieked with need, humping upward. Her head rolled back and her eyelids fluttered as she gasped. The touch of K'Endarra's silken fingertips was excruciating and exquisite at once.

"I want you, Jendri. A moment more, and then you will give me pleasure."

Jendri snapped her hips up and down, futilely chasing K'Endarra's elusive hand. The Queen made gentle circles, stopping, starting, unpredictable, irresistible.

"I will come on your breasts, and in your mouth while you are hot and aching.” Her fingers hovered over the engorged clit, barely touching.

"Yes! Let me love you! I want you, my lord! I want you in my mouth."

K'Endarra stroked ever so slowly and carefully, intent on Jendri's pulse as it pounded in her throat. When Jendri's pelvis jerked with the initial contraction, K'Endarra stopped. “Now! Now you are ready to give me real ecstasy, slave!” She mounted Jendri's face and lowered herself into her mouth.

With a long, guttural moan of intense desire, Jendri responded instantly. She clutched K'Endarra's hips and buried her face deep in the already-boiling cleft of her lord. They both howled aloud at the contact. Without delay, K'Endarra's hips bucked, once, twice and on the third, she roared like an enraged lion, but it was only from the deepest possible pleasure, nothing less.

"Jendri! Jendriiiiiii!” She had thought herself utterly replete a few short moments ago, but already her slave's desperation had inflamed her to the point of total loss of control. She pulled away from the questing mouth and harshly, almost brutally, thrust herself onto Jendri's breasts, pulling one up inside her. Jendri arched to help her and felt her lord climax again, first on one breast, then she released it and expended her great arousal on the other. Fluids ran over Jendri's chest and belly and she writhed upward to give K'Endarra greater contact and stimulation. Jendri knew she would have bruises to show for it in the morning, but K'Endarra was her love and her pleasure Jendri's universe. She didn't care.

"K'Endarra!” she moaned, “My dear lord K'Endarra,” she almost sobbed as she saw, and felt, her lover relax down on top of her. The Queen buried her face in Jendri's neck with a deep sigh and lay on top of her, spent and unmoving.

Jendri became aware once again of the pounding of her engorged genitals, K'Endarra's dead weight on top of them. She shuddered and sighed, relishing her powerlessness. She could hardly move, let alone touch herself. She belonged entirely to K'Endarra, and her orgasm, also K'Endarra's property, would stay exactly where it was, trapped deep inside her.

CHAPTER FIVE

"Jendri! What are you doing in there?” K'Endarra demanded. She was locked out of her own bedchamber!

"Please, your Majesty, have patience. I am preparing for my presentation. I will be in your study in five minutes,” came the muffled response.

"Hurry! I am most anxious to hear it!” the Queen shouted through the heavy oaken doors.

"Yes, my lord. Immediately!"

K'Endarra stomped back to her study to sulk. This slave of hers was a worthy opponent even in captivity. Subduing her became all the more pleasurable each time she asserted herself. K'Endarra smiled as she anticipated conquering her fallen general again this evening, when their work was done.

A loud rap on the door of her study startled the Queen from her fantasy. She cleared her throat. “Enter!” she barked authoritatively. Then her jaw dropped.

Jendri entered in formal wear, exactly as foreign diplomats dressed to approach the Queen of Asperia. Jendri had selected a dark frock coat with velvet cuffs and collar, crisply creased striped trousers, highly shined low dress boots, a starched white shirt and a colorfully brocaded vest set off by a velvet bow tie. Her hair was neatly swept up on top of her head and back off her face, which shone with its customary inner light.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty. Thank you for agreeing so graciously to receive me,” Jendri said, her speech as formal as her attire. She bowed low from the waist and waited for permission to draw nearer to her lord and Queen.

K'Endarra stared, incredulous and enchanted. Jendri looked every bit as delicious in this costume as she did totally naked, and it made K'Endarra want her more. “You ... may approach, Madam General,” the Queen responded, recovering.

"Thank you, Your Majesty.” As she drew nearer, K'Endarra noticed that her slave was holding a thick stack of papers. Dexterously Jendri divided this pile in two and presented the top portion to K'Endarra with a bow. “Perhaps Your Majesty will follow along as I make my presentation?” General Verrian invited.

"Yes. Thank you,” K'Endarra nodded, mesmerized. Was THIS her boot-fucking, bootlicking slave?

Jendri began by reviewing the martial law and restrictions enacted in Obduria by the military, and then territorial, governors. As they became more repressive, production had dropped while disease and starvation had risen. Continuing on the present course, Obduria would be a wasteland with no infrastructure worth mentioning in six months to a year. To Jendri, this was poor stewardship of resources and represented the loss of Asperia's wartime investment.

Her plan consisted of a gradual easing of restrictions providing the remaining Obdurian leaders would guarantee acknowledgement of K'Endarra as their Queen and obedience to Asperian law. The first step was increased food, fuel, and medicine for the children and elderly. Ultimately Obduria could become a full state of Asperia with a provincial governor, cessation of martial law and withdrawal of troops. The Obdurians would be treated with dignity and given full citizenship once they had proven their trustworthiness. Asperia would take the first step without exacting any tribute or punishment in payment and thereby set a proper example and foundation for future developments.

"You have made no provision for returning full rule to Obduria,” K'Endarra remarked.

"No, Lord Queen. Under our former, and even present government we are much too belligerent. Under Asperian rule, which is primarily feminine, those influences should wither. I would rather serve a peaceful monarchy than an overly-aggressive republic."

"And you believe your countrywomen and men will feel the same?"

"I believe they will be brought around through kindness to their children, their sick and their elderly, especially if no penalty is exacted for the easing of the strictures. If you send female doctors, law officers and administrators to connect with the female leadership already appointed in Obduria, you may well ease the transition. Women seldom see the need for hostilities that men do. Most women put their families above politics. I certainly do."

K'Endarra remained silent a few more minutes, paging through her copy of Jendri's proposal. “I will take this under advisement, General Verrian. You are dismissed."

"Of course, Your Majesty. On behalf of the Obdurian people I thank you for your time and consideration."

K'Endarra nodded and waved Jendri away. As her slave reached the double doors, the Queen stopped her. “General."

"Yes, lord Queen?"

"Tell my slave I require her presence immediately. She is to come to me directly from ... whatever she is doing."

"I will give her your message, Your Majesty. Good day.” The door closed behind her.

Immediately there was a brisk knock.

"Come!"

Jendri entered the room, still dressed in her diplomatic garb, but this time she simply crossed and knelt before her lover. “How may I serve you, my lord?” she asked, caressing the Queen's booted legs.

"Get up,” the Queen growled. Jendri jumped up and the Queen seized her wrist. “Turn around slowly."

Jendri obeyed, and was surprised to feel the Queen rise and place her hands on both her shoulders. “You look lovely. Is it safe to assume you've been raiding my wardrobe?” K'Endarra asked, nuzzling the nape of Jendri's neck.

"Your Majesty did command me to come to you as a diplomat would. As my own resources are somewhat limited, I ... borrowed a few things."

"So I see. I gather you were unaware that I simply meant to make the presentation as a diplomat would.” More than ever, the Queen longed to kiss this woman, conquer and possess her completely. Not even an Asperian noble would have had the nerve to rifle the monarch's very closets!

"Majesty, I treated a serious situation with the respect it, and you, deserve. No, I could not come to you on behalf of Obduria's people attired as a slave, even your slave."

K'Endarra took Jendri's lapels from behind. “Let me help you out of your, er, my coat.” She slid it off and circled Jendri, inspecting her. “Those would be my pants, I suppose?"

"Yes, my lord."

K'Endarra noted how the vest showed off Jendri's generous breasts to full advantage. “So, they would be altered as I have commanded?'

"Of course, my Queen.” Virtually all of the Queen's trousers now incorporated the required extended openings.

"Are you wearing underwear?"

"Your Majesty has forbidden me underwear,” Jendri reminded her mistress.

"True. How good of you to remember.” She pulled the pins from Jendri's hair, releasing it to cascade over her shoulders.

The hair stood up on the back of Jendri's neck. She tensed. Surely the Queen was contemplating some hideous punishment to cure her of her audacity.

With a short laugh of triumph, Queen K'Endarra scooped her startled slave into her arms and trotted through the apartment to the throne room, where she sat down with Jendri on her lap. “So, you think you can do whatever you like with my possessions, do you, slave? Let the punishment fit the crime!"

"Please, Majesty ... I meant you no disrespect. I will return everything..."

"Silence!” the Queen cut her off. “Not a sound, or I will lash you on the table."

Jendri swallowed hard and bit her lip.

"Good. See that you remain quiet, Jendri, my audacious little slut."

Jendri leaned against the Queen's chest and closed her eyes. She felt K'Endarra open the fly of her dress trousers, exposing her helpless womanhood. She trembled, knowing her fate was sealed.

"I know I once described a punitive stimulation as a boot-fucking without an orgasm, but I believe this will serve the same purpose just as well.” K'Endarra slid her hand inside the formal trousers and began to stroke Jendri's already-wet pussy. “My, my. I do believe you anticipated me, Slave."

Jendri squirmed but K'Endarra tightened her grip so that Jendri was unable to move. She pressed her face against the Queen's smooth, silky neck and panted as K'Endarra drove her toward ecstasy that she would never reach. Soon she was shuddering with anticipation, hopeless though it was.

K'Endarra was merciless, exactly as Jendri had expected, even hoped, she would be. Shrewdly judging her slave's arousal, K'Endarra would allow her to rest just short of orgasm, and then, when Jendri thought her torture was over, she would stroke her firmly and expertly to the edge again. Forbidden to make a sound, she couldn't even whimper with need, or beg for mercy. She bore her punishment in silence, except for her irregular breathing and panting, which even she could not control.

"Enough, Slave? Have you learned your lesson?” K'Endarra asked at last, easing her honey-coated hand out of Jendri's slit.

"Yes, thank you, my lord,” Jendri gasped.

"And that lesson would be...?"

"Your wardrobe is off limits, Majesty."

"My wardrobe is off limits with certain exceptions. I rather like you all dressed up, slut. Perhaps we can arrange some suitable occasions for you to borrow a few things. With my permission."

"Yes ... yes, Ma'am,” Jendri promised.

"Please me, Jendri. I cannot resist your hot ass writhing in my lap."

Jendri slid to the floor at K'Endarra's feet, opened her pants and plunged her face into that perfect, special place without another word. K'Endarra settled back to enjoy her orgasms, sharing them with Jendri, roaring with satisfaction, laughing with delight in the treasure that was her slave. Finally, when she had had enough for the moment, she eased Jendri's head back and looked down into her eyes. “Someday,” she whispered, “someday, I shall kiss you, slave. Let us pray for a miracle, for we will need one."

Jendri glowed, and tears came to her eyes. Just to hear K'Endarra say such a thing brought her great joy. “Yes, my lord. May the gods hear us."

CHAPTER SIX

Jendri felt somewhat foolish, but at least not humiliated. The formal squire's uniform wasn't nearly as bad as the “sailor-girl” outfit, but it was still not to her taste. It consisted of a long, bottle-green velvet tailcoat, buff knee breeches and white silk hose with low black pumps. It was traditional, archaic and in Jendri's opinion, ghastly. But at least she didn't feel like a belly dancer in a cafe.

"Very nice, Slave. The fit is excellent. Take it off so you don't get it dirty before the ball tomorrow night."

"Yes, Majesty,” Jendri sighed with relief.

"And put on something ... slinky. I have a surprise for you."

"Yes, my lord. What sort of surprise?"

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it? Make that slinky, but not too revealing. We're taking a little walk."

Jendri changed quickly into loose trousers and a soft blouse. They had belonged to K'Endarra at one time but the Queen was now bored with them. Since she permitted Jendri to appear covered in public, most of her clothing consisted of the Queen's cast-offs. Jendri was not offended. It was a huge improvement over the humiliating public nakedness that no longer aroused or amused her mistress.

When Jendri reappeared, properly attired, the Queen nodded. “Come, Slave."

Jendri followed K'Endarra from her chambers to the other side of the third floor to the area where high-ranking visiting dignitaries were housed. They passed Household Guards in K'Endarra's livery, then K'Endarra's guards paired with guards in Queen Julia's livery, and finally, before the double doors of the grandest apartments save K'Endarra's own, a pair of Julia's guards alone.

K'Endarra stopped and waited for Jendri to stop behind her, as was required by protocol. She turned. “Have you guessed yet?"

Jendri smiled and dropped her eyes. “Queen Julia is already here, isn't she, my lord?"

"Yes. And she has asked for you. Come, let us go in."

Jendri hesitated. “My lord,” she began.

K'Endarra sighed. “What is it?"

"I ... I just want you to know, if you give me to her, if she takes me, it is still you alone whom I love and adore."

"Jendri. We both know that. But I also know that you admire Queen Julia greatly, as do I. Come, let us enjoy ourselves, whatever she requests."

"Yes, my lord. Thank you for understanding,” Jendri said with evident relief.

K'Endarra smiled at her and nodded at the guards, who pulled open the massive double doors to the anteroom.

"K'Endarra! How delightful to see you again! And how good of you to host a dance for me!” Julia said warmly, coming forward to embrace her ally. Jendri bowed her head, waiting for the queens to finish greeting one another.

"Jendri, you may greet our guest,” K'Endarra said, and Jendri stepped forward and knelt before Julia.

"You look very well, Jendri. I am so pleased.” She graciously raised Jendri and kissed her formally on both cheeks, making the slave and former general blush. She wondered if the kiss caused K'Endarra pain.

"I am honored to see you again as well, Majesty,” Jendri said sincerely.

"Come! Let us have wine,” Julia invited, and her servants stepped forward with wine for the two monarchs. “Jendri, please help yourself,” Julia told her.

But K'Endarra said, “She will share my cup, Julia."

Julia smiled. “Excellent! I see things have changed a great deal since my last visit.” She and K'Endarra drank and K'Endarra handed her cup down to Jendri, who now sat at her feet.

Jendri remembered this wine. It was the very one that Julia had shared during her last visit, when everything between her and her lord had begun to evolve into something far better than she had ever hoped, or even desired. She felt herself flush with pleasure.

The two rulers discussed affairs of state for a while, and then Julia suggested, “Jendri, if you would please keep our cups full,” Julia suggested, “we can enjoy our privacy."

"Of course, Majesty."

The conversation gradually changed from politics to military adventures, and then sexual adventures as the wine loosened their tongues. Jendri, too, relaxed, and began absently to stroke K'Endarra's boots with her fingertips. K'Endarra reached down and gently massaged the nape of Jendri's neck until she sighed and leaned against her lord's leg, closing her eyes in contentment.

"Jendri! Are you listening?” K'Endarra suddenly prodded her.

She jumped, startled. “I ... beg pardon, my lord. I was thinking of pleasing you, and my attention wandered. Please forgive me.” She looked up at K'Endarra, beseeching.

"I will do better than forgive you. I have been telling Julia of my discovery of your great weakness and she would like to see how I boot-fuck you. Are you willing?"

Jendri flushed a dark red with embarrassment and desire she could not hide, but she did not shrink from the command, thinly disguised as an offer. “My lord, I would do anything for you. If it pleases you to boot-fuck me now, I will offer my pleasure to you immediately."

"I am sure there is a footstool somewhere in these apartments. Make haste and find us one, slave."

"Yes, my lord K'Endarra,” Jendri responded quickly, for she had begun to use her lord's first name with an appropriate honorific, to which the Queen had not objected because it was always done with the proper degree of reverence.

"Meet us in my bedchamber, Jendri,” Julia amended the order. “We may as well all be comfortable."

"Yes, Majesty,” Jendri answered with a bow as she departed to search for a stool.

In Queen Julia's bedchamber, she found K'Endarra settled in a large, ornate armchair, close to the bed on which Julia now reclined against a pile of pillows. Jendri placed the stool before K'Endarra and made sure both goblets of wine were full to the brim. She knew that she would shortly be unable to serve and wished to ensure that all was in readiness. Then she knelt at K'Endarra's feet.

"Do you come to me clothed for a boot-fucking, slave? Undress!” K'Endarra commanded playfully.

"Wait!” Julia interrupted. “May I?"

K'Endarra nodded with a wicked grin. “Be my guest."

"Come to me, Jendri,” the Queen of the Osterlanders demanded.

Jendri rose and approached the bed. She knew she was being used as a plaything, but being tugged between the two powerful queens was fun all the same. She surrendered gracefully and willingly.

Julia gathered her into the bed on her back and pulled her blouse free of her pants. Looking deeply into Jendri's eyes, she opened the buttons and eased the blouse off her shoulders. “Yes, I remember well how beautiful you are, Jendri. How fortunate your lord is, and how generous to me, as well. Raise your hips."

It was an order Jendri was only too happy to obey. She lifted her bottom off the bed without breaking eye contact with Julia, and felt strong, confident hands disrobe her. Then Julia pushed her down, and without any warning or preliminaries, entered Jendri's hot pussy with her fingers, and her mouth with her own tongue.

"Mmmph!” Jendri's surprised cry was muffled by Julia's lips. Jendri was so unused to being kissed during intimacy that she was totally unprepared for it, and she succumbed immediately. It was like a jolt of some pleasant drug of which she had been deprived for a very long time, and her defenses fell before Julia's onslaught. She reached up for the other woman's face and pulled herself closer, melting. Her hips pumped up and down to Julia's rhythm, totally in her control.

K'Endarra's jaw dropped at the sight of this kiss, far more intimate than actual sex from her point of view. Abstractly, practically, she realized that between these two women, foreigners to Asperian culture, a kiss was not a marital contract, and had much less meaning than the sex with which it was incorporated. But she was under the influence of the excellent wine, and K'Endarra seethed with helpless jealousy. She would reclaim Jendri completely and powerfully the instant Julia relinquished control, and she would make Julia ache with desire for Jendri greater than she had ever felt for any other woman. She well knew that Julia had had plenty of women, that she and her consort had a substantial harem of their own, and could add to it at will. She might be able to have any woman in the known world, but she couldn't have Jendri for her very own. Never.

Abruptly Julia pulled back. “Go to your lord. Offer yourself to her."

Jendri panted, dazed. “Yes ... yes, Your Majesty. Right away."

She stumbled from the bed to the stool at K'Endarra's feet, knelt and begged, “Please, my lord, I love you and I ache for you. Let me give you my pleasure. Please, boot-fuck me, my lord K'Endarra."

K'Endarra beheld the look of helpless longing on Jendri's face, wondering if she was still sincere after being kissed by Julia. Then Jendri reached out and stroked her boots and K'Endarra knew Jendri's need and love for her were real. “Hump my boot, slave,” she breathed, captivated.

"Oh, my dear lord, thank you,” Jendri gasped gratefully. She rose just enough to lower herself to the smooth, supple leather she had polished that morning, and sighed with relief as she settled into place. “Oh, yes, lord Queen, queen of my heart ... so good!” She was already unable to control her breathing. “If only ... if you would let me..."

"Hold onto my leg, slut. I know what you need.” K'Endarra's confidence surged once again.

"Oh, gods, yes,” Jendri moaned, gripping K'Endarra with fingers laced tightly behind her knee. She jerked with pleasure. “Oh, dear gods ... oh ... oh...” Her head rolled from side to side, her thighs opened wide and her eyes closed in utter bliss, shuddering.

Julia was captivated every bit as much as K'Endarra. In all her years she had never seen such an intense display of emotion and submission from a slave, nor had she seen a queen so enraptured with a concubine. They seemed to breathe together as K'Endarra forced her woman to ecstasy on her boot. Julia suspected strongly that, had K'Endarra offered to emancipate Jendri, she would have burst into tears of grief and anguish.

Jendri worked herself against K'Endarra, and K'Endarra gently jogged her on her strong, hard leg, until Jendri was finally forced to beg, “Please, my lord. I ... need to ... give you my pleasure now. Permit me to ... c-c-come,” she gasped, clearly close to losing control.

To Julia's surprise, K'Endarra looked down at Jendri coldly and said, “No, slave. Continue, but do not come yet."

Jendri moaned, a low, desperate sound. “Lord K'Endarra, I beg you ... receive my pleasure ... my devotion..."

"You will not come without my permission,” K'Endarra reminded her sternly.

"No ... I do not want to ... but I cannot ... oh, please! Have mercy!” Jendri was nearly sobbing now, her head bowed against K'Endarra's thigh.

"After you come, you will pay me tribute,” K'Endarra drew out Jendri's agony.

Jendri writhed with urgency, holding back. “You own me ... my lord ... and my love ... you own ... my pleasure,” she chanted, eyes shut tightly in concentration as she moved in helpless torture. The minutes crawled by as K'Endarra remained silent, sipping her wine, watching the exquisite torment of her slave, pumping her boot slowly in the hot, aching cleft. Julia's own genitals twitched with longing. She remembered how K'Endarra was sometimes called “the Merciless.” The title was well deserved.

"Look at me, Jendri,” K'Endarra ordered.

Jendri raised her eyes to her lord's, pleading, trembling with the effort of controlling herself. “My lord,” she whispered. “Please..."

K'Endarra's heart was full to bursting with love for this strong, beautiful, obedient woman. For another long minute she imprisoned Jendri's soul with her deep, piercing gaze, luxuriating in the power of holding her on the edge of release. The clenching of Jendri's muscles massaged her gently through her boot. She shuddered with anticipation of receiving the gift of Jendri's pleasure.

"Show me, slut. Give it to me. All of it,” K'Endarra growled, driving her leg up hard into Jendri's womanhood.

Had Jendri not been clinging so tightly to K'Endarra's leg, the force of her spasms would have thrown her over backwards. She howled with relief, ululating wordlessly as tears streamed down her cheeks. She drove down onto the boot of the woman she so clearly adored, grunting with uninhibited pleasure.

Finally she collapsed, but even so, as she lay on her back, she spread her legs wide, opening her labia with her fingers, “Please,” she panted, “my lord, your heel. Finish me ... please...” She arched up toward her mistress.

K'Endarra lifted her foot and held it above her slave's mound, tantalizing her, making her strain up to reach it, but she couldn't. “Please ... please,” Jendri whimpered.

Then, with infinite tenderness and the gentlest of smiles, K'Endarra lowered her heel into Jendri's swollen sex and Julia could all but feel the suction as Jendri closed herself around her lord's boot and jerked hard until she came again, screaming with gratitude.

"Yes! Yes! My queen! Thank you, Lord K'Endarra, oh, gods! Thank you!” Her ass pounded the marble under K'Endarra's boot.

Julia couldn't remember the last time she had seen anything so raw and passionate. It was all but impossible for her not to yank K'Endarra and Jendri into her bed and use both of them until she was satiated, but she forbore to do so because the gods knew what came next and she didn't want to interrupt their momentum.

"Who am I?” K'Endarra asked Jendri quietly.

Jendri touched K'Endarra's boot, which still rested in her crotch, took a deep breath and with utmost conviction, listed all of the Queen's titles and honorifics as if she were reciting a love-poem. Julia was charmed with Jendri's sincerity and complete loyalty to the woman who had captured her and still kept her, with her complicity, as the lowliest of slaves.

K'Endarra nodded and drank her wine. “Very good."

After a few minutes, Jendri eased up onto her knees and looked into K'Endarra's eyes. At her lord's nod, she touched her lips to the wet, slick boot and began to lick her come from the leather, gently kneading K'Endarra's calf with her fingers. Had Julia been a woman of lesser sophistication, or a person of hidebound beliefs, she might have found the sight shocking, but in truth she was as fascinated with this as she had been with the more obvious love-making that had preceded it. She herself had seldom been the object of such homage and she wondered what K'Endarra had, that Jendri found it so vital to worship her in this way. Because it was obvious that both of them found this a necessary part of the sex act that distilled the essence of their extremely complex relationship. The sweetness of their affection for one another moved Julia more than she would ever permit them to know.

It wasn't long before K'Endarra began to respond to the caresses of her slave's tongue against her boot. Her breathing became short and rapid, and she began to shift and squirm in the elaborate chair. All appearances to the contrary, she was now relinquishing control to Jendri, although neither woman would, or could, have voiced such a sentiment. Jendri gripped K'Endarra's boot tightly and licked it fiercely, upper, sole and heel, as if addicted to the taste and feel of herself and the leather on her tongue. K'Endarra clutched the arms of the chair and groaned with concentration as she tried to maintain her equilibrium and let her anticipation build.

Just as Jendri gauged it was time to plunge her tongue into K'Endarra's womanhood, Queen Julia interrupted. “Wait!!” Suddenly she stood beside the chair. “Help me carry her to the bed. Finish her there."

K'Endarra was in no condition to protest so Jendri and the visiting Queen lifted her and spread her comfortably among the pillows. “Undress her,” Julia commanded.

"No need,” Jendri explained, quickly opening the special hidden fasteners. Thus she was able to quickly crawl between K'Endarra's boots and arrange herself to satisfy her lord's raging need.

Julia nodded. “Good.” She quickly removed her gown and settled herself right on K'Endarra's face, so that even if the younger Queen had wanted to protest, she couldn't. Julia had no idea if K'Endarra could pleasure her while Jendri was giving her head, but it would be pleasant and distracting enough until Jendri was free to service her, which evidently wouldn't take very long. “Mmmm, K'Endarra, your tongue is so good. Do me,” Julia muttered.

K'Endarra moaned with hunger and expectation. She nuzzled and lapped her ally's seething slit but couldn't help concentrating primarily on what Jendri was doing between her legs. She wiggled her ass and pushed hard into her slave's mouth and suddenly burst into orgasmic pleasure.

"Nnnnnnnnnggggg ... nnnnnnnnnghhh ... NNNNNGGGGAAAAHHHH!” K'Endarra shouted and wailed as she came. Jendri clutched at her to keep their contact secure and ate her to one victorious orgasm after another. Julia pulled clear to let K'Endarra breathe, because she understood Asperian biology as well as any knowledgeable royal. She turned and placed her hands gently over K'Endarra's secondary clitorises and pressed down gently. K'Endarra shrieked even louder until she finally burst into helpless tears.

She lay almost as still as death while Jendri lovingly licked her clean. Then Julia touched the slave's shoulder and said, “My turn."

Jendri willingly withdrew from her lord and turned her attentions to Julia, who had been remarkably patient considering the lengthy and stimulating display she had just observed. “How may I serve Your Majesty?” she asked humbly.

In reply, Julia positioned Jendri on her back, spread her legs and lay between them. “This way,” Julia told her. “I'm just going to take you as hard and as long as I possibly can. I presume you have no objection?"

"None whatsoever, Majesty.” She would be eternally grateful to this considerate and intuitive woman for the way her life had turned out.

So Julia took her, and Jendri gave her everything she demanded.

K'Endarra finally regained her senses to the sight of Julia's hips pounding Jendri into the mattress. She watched the two women locked in an embrace that among Asperians would have been reserved for a wedding night. Somewhere between grinding hips and thighs, Jendri's hand was buried deep in Julia, who possessed Jendri with all the certainty of an experienced and highly-aroused lover. If K'Endarra had not been so completely wrung out from her slave's attentions, she would have dragged Jendri out from under Julia and taken her place. She had been there before, of course, and would gladly go there again. Julia began to approach climax, and K'Endarra rose up on her knees and entered the other Queen's anus gently with her finger, just enough to enhance her pleasure without distracting her from it. Almost immediately Julia began to buck and arch at the dual stimulation, screaming her pleasure, “Ah! AH! AH! AH! Jendri! Yes, OH, my GODS!” She drove and drove down into Jendri's trapped and writhing form until Jendri herself suddenly reached orgasm and howled in surprised pleasure. She lay gasping in delight, looking up adoringly at the older woman who rode her.

When Julia's first spasms had subsided, she said, “K'Endarra,” and patted the bed next to Jendri. K'Endarra lay down immediately and opened her legs for the senior Queen, who slid over and took her without missing a beat. Jendri, who wouldn't have believed K'Endarra would allow anyone to make demands of her like that, was slightly stunned at the sight. Out of respect for K'Endarra's customs, Julia didn't kiss her but pressed her face into the side of K'Endarra's neck. K'Endarra slid her hand between Julia's legs and with the great strength in her legs, bounced both of them up and down until Julia again exploded with ecstasy. Jendri tenderly stroked in and out of Julia's puckered anal rosebud and watched in fascination as Julia's fluids gushed again, soaking K'Endarra as she herself had been drenched with the senior Queen's pleasure. Finally Julia sighed and rolled off K'Endarra, smiling.

Eventually Julia whispered, “Cover us, Jendri, love. I think we can all use a nap."

"Yes, Majesty.” Jendri removed K'Endarra's boots, carefully tucked her two Queens in, then loosened the bedclothes and slipped in at their feet. She wanted to give this experience a careful analysis, but suddenly yawned hugely. It would have to wait.

* * * *

Gradually Jendri awakened to the sound of lowered voices. Curious, she didn't stir.

"K'Endarra, really! You simply must!” The bedclothes rustled.

"Julia, I can't! The Privy Council would never accept it!"

"You are Queen here! Naturalize her, you fool, and marry her. You'll never find anyone again in your life who's this attuned to your demands."

"Do you think I don't know that?” K'Endarra sighed. “But her own country would regard her as a traitor. She could never go home. I couldn't do that to her."

"But you can keep her as a slave?” Julia scoffed.

"It's the only way I can keep her at all. Given a choice, she would leave me."

"Oh, K'Endarra, I don't think so. Why don't you ask her?"

"And be rejected by a slave? I couldn't bear it!” She was almost in tears.

"She is your consort in all but name."

"I ... I love her so much, Julia,” K'Endarra whispered with a groan.

"Well, let us both think about it. You can't let this defeat you."

"Thank you, Julia. I would be grateful if you could help.” She was thoughtfully silent for a moment. “Now, about tomorrow night after the ball. Will you come to my apartments?"

"I would be delighted."

Jendri held her breath. K'Endarra truly wanted to marry her! She would have to find a way to tell her the answer couldn't be anything but yes.

CHAPTER SEVEN

But it seemed the moment would never come to pass. Julia was scarcely gone three days when a wounded messenger on an exhausted horse rode into the courtyard.

War.

The primitive eastern tribes, known collectively as the Emicrani, had banded together with the goal of adding territory to their loosely-defined empire. There had been border raids and incursions before, but nothing like this concerted effort. Several agricultural communities had been overrun, burned and wiped out. The foothold allowed the Emicrani to move a large force west and deploy it deep into Asperia.

Queen K'Endarra immediately ordered the bulk of her army and navy to the north, leaving behind only reserves. Lacking an immediate heir, she was reluctant from a political perspective to go into battle, but the soldier in her strained at the restriction, especially because she couldn't get news of the progress of the war quickly enough to make decisions about tactics and the movements of troops. This meant that all major decisions had to be left to the generals in the field and that made K'Endarra nervous. Her experience had taught her that those who had to answer to higher-ups for their decisions were frequently reluctant to make commitments or take risks. If she were there, she could take the risks, and thus she might more quickly bring about an end to the war.

After a day and a night of weighing the alternatives, she decided to go to the rear lines and direct the battle from there.

Jendri immediately said, “Then I will need suitable clothing and armor to accompany you."

"You most certainly will not. You will stay here where I don't have to worry about you,” K'Endarra said shortly. “Now send one of the servants for my squire and my page immediately."

Jendri swallowed hard and did as she was told, but then returned to argue some more. “My lord, I won't do you any good here. I can be part of your personal guard."

"No, Jendri. My guards will not accept a hostile, foreign slave among them. Don't make this any harder than it has to be. It hurts me to have to confine you here, but I have no choice.” She rummaged in her closets for her battle gear since Jendri was too upset to be of any use.

Jendri's eyes widened. “I am not hostile! I love you! What do you mean, confine me?"

"You must go to the palace prison. You are still my prisoner as well as a slave. You will be in a good cell, alone, where no harm can come to you. Now, gather your things. I will have you escorted there immediately."

The color drained from Jendri's face. She knelt before K'Endarra and embraced her hips. “No, my lord! Please, can you not trust me? Confine me to our quarters."

K'Endarra sighed and pulled Jendri into her lap on the bed. “Yes, I can and do trust you, but I cannot trust others. Consider it protective custody. And I will make provision for you to return to Obduria should I fall, providing your country does not try to enter the war."

"No!” Jendri wailed. “I cannot bear such a thing! Let me come to the front with you. I would rather give my life in battle than live without you."

"Jendri, my love, I must go, and you must stay. Please, give me something to live for. Knowing you are safe will inspire me to do all I can to return to you unharmed."

Jendri sank to the floor at K'Endarra's feet and wept. “If you die, I shall have to kill myself,” she sobbed. “For if I don't, your people will kill me or send me to the mines or use me as a prostitute."

K'Endarra's heart broke for her lover, who was obviously terrified not only of losing her lord and love, but of what the quality of her life would be without her. And Jendri felt useless, besides. K'Endarra knew how Jendri, as a soldier herself, must feel at being left behind. She searched her mind for some alternative.

Tenderly K'Endarra lifted her slave back onto the bed and rocked her. “I shall leave you to my sister in my will. She will follow my instructions. And I will have you confined in the harem instead of the prison."

Jendri looked up bleakly. “The harem?"

"Yes, on the roof, almost an entire floor. I will send my concubines home on leave of absence. There is plenty of food storage and other supplies, and no need to guard it, as it is completely sealed and secure. I will have the Chamberlain lock you in. You may even go outside into the gardens there, and watch for my return."

"But what of your other slaves?"

"I will take Lepta. I must be able to take care of my needs. The others will go to the scullery until my return.” She took Jendri's chin in her hand. “It is a necessity I cannot help. I don't love her. I love you."

Jendri knew K'Endarra could not go more than a day without release. If she did not, she could not function to lead troops in battle, nor did royalty resort to self-stimulation. Jendri knew she could not press for more and nodded. “Very well, my lord. I will go to the harem."

K'Endarra squeezed her tightly. “Then I will not worry, and neither should you. Summon the Chamberlain and pack up your things. I must be gone by this time tomorrow."

* * * *

The next day, the Chamberlain called servants to help Jendri with her clothing and other personal items, a great pile of books and a spyglass. Following an extremely convoluted route, up and down stairs and through narrow interior halls, they arrived at the harem's great bronze doors. The Chamberlain showed Jendri the kitchen and pantry so that she could prepare meals for herself. These would be replenished once a week. It would be a lonely, but comfortable existence. As long as K'Endarra was to be gone, Jendri seemed not to care. She had only a nodding acquaintance with most of the staff anyway, and so had no one else to miss.

As soon as the great outer doors of the harem swung shut and sealed with a hiss, Jendri went out to the roof garden. From there, four enormously high stories above the courtyard, she could see K'Endarra and her retinue preparing for departure. She took the glass and trained it on her lord, watching as she mounted her warhorse in light armor. Full armor wouldn't be necessary until they reached the front. K'Endarra was not riding Massinia, which was a relief to Jendri. K'Endarra and the horse were not yet accustomed enough to one another to go together into battle.

The great main gates swung open and K'Endarra looked up at Jendri. She waved and Jendri waved back, somewhat gratified to see, though the glass, the tears that gathered in her lord's eyes and then spilled down her cheeks. K'Endarra wiped them roughly away and turned her horse to lead her column of cavalry out.

Jendri wept openly and watched until she could no longer see the Queen of her heart.

Then she began to evaluate her position, and see what she could do to improve it.

The harem was immense. There was room after empty room with clothing still hanging in closets, books and games lying about and potted plants trailing fronds. Jendri moved among them, watering them while evaluating her situation. The concubines did not leave the harem; the Queen came to them through the only interior entrance, the sealed doors which incorporated a secret locking mechanism. The compound was made to keep others out. The concubines inside were deemed unwilling to or incapable of escape. Therefore, in Jendri's opinion, there WAS a way out. She had only to find it, and decide what to do once she was free.

Her intention, of course, was to join K'Endarra at the front and remain at her side regardless of how anyone else might view her. Once she proved her loyalty by going toward the battle instead of running away to Obduria, many leagues north, no one would question her allegiance. With that intention, she searched the abandoned wardrobes and found plenty of what she needed: clothing to be altered into a courier's uniform. Her skill with a needle, once merely adequate, was now considerable. Taking a sleeve here, a bodice there, parts of skirts and blouses and adding her own riding boots and so on, she could easily fashion the standard camouflage green and yellow garb worn by the fastest riders in the land. At a distance, at least, none would remark on her appearance. And traveling primarily at night, there would be even less opportunity for mishap.

She had to work quickly as she had but seven days until the Chamberlain's next visit. And she needed most of those days for travel as it was a good three day's ride to the front and she expected delays as she avoided capture or pursuit. Stopping only for essential sleep and meals, she spent the next day and a half making the uniform and fashioning a matching provision sack. At night she carefully examined the castle walls below the gardens. Although sheer, there were plenty of handholds in the aged stone, and immediately around the corners from the blank wall below the harem were the terraces of the third floor. The reserve guards remaining were stretched to their limit, and were nothing like the crack troops K'Endarra had led off to the east. Most of them were probably unaware of Jendri's location or even her existence.

Her best chance, Jendri decided, was to create a long loop of earth-toned cloth, to blend with the color of the wall, constructed of still more clothing and draperies from the harem. Her first choice was to use her weight like a pendulum to swing around to a third-floor terrace. If that should prove impossible, she would rappel all the way down, pull the loop free and hide it so that her escape would not be noticed.

On the second night of her confinement Jendri was ready. She waited until moonset, and then, with her pack on her back, she lowered her makeshift rope far enough to try for one of the terraces, all of which were now dark. Like a child swinging on a rope over a pond, she pumped back and forth until her momentum carried her to the edge of the west wall, where she hooked her legs and held on so that she would not swing back across the great sheer north wall again. Like a lizard she inched to the terrace, dropped down and loosened the rope from the parapet of the harem above. Pulling it in quickly, she lay still on the cool slate, panting and listening.

As soon as she could breathe normally again, she crept stealthily along the terrace looking in the windows. K'Endarra's private dining room! Excellent! But the door was locked. Gritting her teeth, she wrapped her hand in some folds of cloth and broke a small pane of glass. Once certain she had not been heard, she slipped in and closed the door behind her. Like a rat, she scurried through the apartments to the bedchamber in search of a weapon or anything else to aid her in her flight, where along with her boots, she discovered an old dagger K'Endarra had left behind, and some gloves for riding.

Not wishing to chance an encounter in the halls, she went back to the terrace, found the darkest spot in the gardens below, and let herself down again. She stashed her cloth rope against the wall and made her way carefully to the stables, which were all but empty. The grooms usually slept above the stalls, but they were almost all gone to war as were most of the horses except a few older mares and geldings. And Massinia, of course. Speaking quietly to her dear friend, she saddled her in the Queen's livery. Securing her hair tightly under her green cloth cap, she led her horse out to the far end of the paddock and then toward the side gate that was the only one in use at night, and so the only one with guards.

Terrified, Jendri mounted and rode at a canter toward the gate. “Make way!” she cried in her best effort at rough Asperian speech. “I bear messages for the Queen at the front!"

Startled out of a doze and having no reason to question a departing courier, the elderly portal-keepers swung the heavy gates aside for Jendri. She grunted her thanks and spurred Massinia down the ramp and away into the night. Free!

CHAPTER EIGHT

It wasn't hard to follow the route to the front. Along the way Jendri encountered streams of refugees and sadly, wounded, dying or dead soldiers who were or had been attempting to reach safety. Thus she was able to collect a mail shirt, a short sword and a small shield, all of which added to the authenticity of her appearance.

There were more and more military units and personnel the closer she got to the fighting, so she sometimes had to hide, double back or talk fast to avoid detection by expert officers or military police who needed a courier for their own purposes. Finally after three days, she was within sight of the Queen's legions, across a gently sloping valley. K'Endarra's tents were undistinguished by banners or colors in order not to call them to the attention of the enemy, but to Jendri's practiced eye, they were obvious by their size and the great number of soldiers who guarded them. She would have to be more careful than ever.

Unfortunately for Jendri, her luck ran out almost within a stone's throw of the encampment. Challenged for the password, she had no ready answer. She was dragged roughly off Massinia and frog-marched to the Colonel of the Guards, K'Endarra's brother Prince K'Enro, who of course did not recognize her.

"You are a spy!” he shouted. “Spies are hanged without a trial. Find a rope!” he ordered. Things were not going well for the Asperian troops. This would perhaps improve their morale.

The ruckus brought other officers, who then began to argue over her fate.

"She may be a black marketeer. She has stolen Asperian arms."

"If she is a spy, let us interrogate her."

"If she is an assassin, let's torture her first."

"How came she by such a great warhorse?” one commander wanted to know.

"And how did you get this dagger with the Queen, my sister's, personal coat of arms?” K'Enro demanded of her, slapping her hard.

Jendri spat blood. “Her Majesty gave it to me. Why don't you take me to the Queen? I will explain it all to her.” She feared to say she was Obdurian, for they might then execute her as a spy without further ado. Her story of being the Queen's sex slave would surely be met with nothing but derision and disbelief.

"Gave it to you? In a pig's eye! The Queen has no time for such vermin as you,” K'Enro began, but a passing colonel stepped in.

"Since she has the dagger, the Queen should at least be told. Why not send a messenger to Her Majesty? If this is of some importance and poorly handled, none of us would survive her wrath. And if it is important, so much the better for us."

"Yes, send a messenger!"

"I will go!” a young subaltern volunteered.

In less than a quarter hour he returned to where Jendri was trussed on the ground outside Prince K'Enro's tent. “She is to brought before the Queen this instant!” was the terse message.

K'Enro quickly detailed two hefty guards to drag Jendri, in her bedraggled phony uniform, before his sister. In a matter of minutes, Jendri was flung at K'Endarra's feet in the tent where all the generals were gathered to determine their next move in the costly war that had ground to a dangerously precarious halt.

"What the hell is this?” K'Endarra demanded. “Who bears my dagger?” Then she saw the color of her prisoner's hair peeking out from the cap, which was half-askew. “By the gods! What the-?” She snatched the cap from Jendri's head and rolled her over with a sharp shove of her foot. Jendri met her gaze steadily. “Greetings, my lord Queen,” she said quietly, eyes filled with relief and love.

K'Endarra was speechless. Then she recovered. “You idiots! She is no spy! She is my slave! Untie her immediately and take her to my tent. I will deal with her personally. Go!"

K'Enro went white. “I ... I did not know, my lord,” he stammered.

"You are not often with me. Those who do know her are in the rear, not here. You're dismissed, K'Enro. I'll see you later."

"Yes, Ma'am,” he mumbled, backing out.

K'Endarra finished her strategy session with her generals, who went out to re-deploy their troops against the Emicrani. She then made her way to her tent, through the outer public portion to the private section in the rear, where she found Jendri eating the leg of a roast fowl she had found. Before Jendri could either rise or kneel to greet her, K'Endarra closed the space between them with a bound and backhanded Jendri right off her stool, so hard that she and the chicken leg bounced off the wall of the tent.

"THAT for your willful, stubborn disobedience!” K'Endarra hissed, coldly furious. As Jendri lay dazed and breathless on the floor, K'Endarra lifted her and carried her to her bed where she sat down and tenderly cradled Jendri in her arms, as tears ran down her own cheeks. “This for your loyalty and love,” she whispered, holding her tightly against her mailed shirt.

Jendri recovered her wind and began to sob against K'Endarra, clutching her.

"Oh, gods, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sweetheart,” K'Endarra whispered through her own tears. “I should not have done that. But when I thought of you, riding alone all this way ... you could have been caught and killed as a spy long before you ever reached me! You would have become food for the scavenging beasts! Did you even think of that?"

"N-no,” Jendri hiccuped, “I ... had to be with you. I knew I could do it. I have to ... care for you ... my lord,” she nuzzled K'Endarra's neck above the leather jerkin that protected her skin from her chain mail. “My love."

"Oh, Jendri, my darling. What am I to do with you?” K'Endarra whispered into her hair.

"Let me be your subject in name as well as fact. Let me take the oath of fealty to you,” Jendri pleaded. “Can I not be your slave and your subject, too? I am no longer your enemy. Given a choice, I never would have been."

K'Endarra crooned wordlessly into Jendri's hair, rocking her and comforting both of them as she considered this. “You would be willing to renounce your Obdurian citizenship? You would lose your family, your property, your position, everything,” she cautioned.

"I would gain everything. I could stay with you and be your slave forever.” Jendri's voice was strong with conviction. She, at least, harbored no doubts.

K'Endarra shook her head. “I have never known such loyalty before, not even from my own nobility. Will you never cease to amaze?"

"I hope not, my lord K'Endarra,” Jendri said, snuggling as close as she could.

"If you are certain, I will call the Provost Marshall and do this properly and legally."

"I have never been more certain,” Jendri promised.

K'Endarra nodded, rose and turned to deposit Jendri on the bed, and went to summon her servants and witnesses. Soon a proper, green private's uniform was brought, as well as the mail and shield that had been taken from Jendri upon her arrest. As she bathed and dressed, Jendri heard people gathering outside.

Then K'Endarra came for her. “Follow me, Slave,” she ordered tersely, letting Jendri know that she was once again Queen and not lover.

In the public front section of the tent, the Provost Marshall, Prince K'Enro, Lepta, the Queen's page and squire and several other officials watched as K'Endarra seated herself on her portable throne and beckoned to Jendri, who knelt before her.

"Jendrickar Verrian of Obduria, you have indicated your desire to become an Asperian subject. Is this indeed your wish?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Do you renounce your Obdurian citizenship and all rights and privileges thereunto belonging?"

"I do."

"Will you swear fealty to me before these persons here assembled, understanding that, even as you become my subject, you remain my slave, and not free?"

"I will, Your Majesty."

"Give me your hands and repeat the oath exactly as the Provost Marshall reads it out."

Following these directions, Jendri promised, “I, Jendrickar Verrian, do of my own free will become your liegewoman. I acknowledge your absolute authority. I will defend you with my life. I give you my obedience and earthly worship as long as I live. By the gods that made us, I do so swear, my liege-lord and Queen.” Then she bowed her head and kissed K'Endarra's hands as they grasped hers.

"I, K'Endarra, your lord and Queen, accept your fealty. From this moment forward you are mine. I promise fair treatment and protection under the law. I accept you into my service forever. Rise, Jendrickar of Asperia. Take your proper place.” And to guide her, because Jendri didn't know the procedure, K'Endarra raised her and then seated her at her feet to the right of her throne. Then she nodded to the assembled company. “I thank you all. You are dismissed."

They looked at each other for a long moment, and then K'Endarra patted her lap. Jendri rose gracefully and sank into the warm embrace of her sovereign. “When this nasty little war is over,” K'Endarra began, “we will deal with the slavery issue. If you were freed now, you would be immediately impoverished. You would have nowhere to go. So, for now you will take my squire's place. She longs to go into battle and that will free her to do so. My page would go as well, but she is still too young. Would that I could protect you all forever, but that is not reality, is it, my love? What do you say?"

"Thank you, my liege.” She scarcely believed her good fortune.

"Yes, I like the sound of that as well. For now we have a positive legal relationship. And you are no longer my prisoner or a hostile foreign national. You may serve me as I see fit."

"That is a relief, my lord."

"Good. Go and see to your horse. Then come back, straighten my bedchamber and polish my armor. I shall take my page and inspect my cannoneers."

"With pleasure, my liege."

* * * *

That night, when all of K'Endarra's duties were ended, she came into the private portion of her tent where Jendri waited, naked, to serve her. With a welcoming smile, Jendri divested her of all but her boots, shirt and pants. They enjoyed a simple meal together and then, giving K'Endarra a full goblet of wine, Jendri knelt and humbly, happily, cleaned K'Endarra's boots with her tongue, and polished them properly, a task for which her servants had not previously had time. K'Endarra sprawled in her chair, smiling as Jendri licked her leather, deliberately dragging her nipples the length of the knee-high boots to arouse and seduce her liege-lord. K'Endarra was very pleased indeed with her slave.

K'Endarra sighed and relaxed completely for the first time in days, accepting this service not only as her due but as Jendri's thanks for taking her as subject and liegewoman. Once relaxed, K'Endarra's sexual energies began to reassert themselves and it was not long before she lifted Jendri in her powerful arms and took her to bed.

She let Jendri pause just long enough to remove her shirt but then she quickly pulled Jendri close to suck her breasts, caressing her hair and writhing with delicious anticipation for as long as she could stand it, but then she could wait no longer. “Darling, I will come in your mouth. Pleasure me, my love,” K'Endarra whispered urgently.

They shifted so that Jendri could lie between K'Endarra's legs. K'Endarra clung to Jendri's head, arching, writhing, thrusting until she came, groaning mightily with release. Jendri gripped her tightly and took her come until she was filled, and still K'Endarra came. During her journey, Jendri had wondered how much pleasure K'Endarra had taken with during their separation, knowing and appreciating her great need. She did not like it, but she understood. However, from K'Endarra's responses, Jendri concluded her lord had taken little, if any, other pleasure and she was glad. When K'Endarra was finally still and silent, Jendri licked her clean as gently and lovingly as she had licked her boots. As soon as she was sure K'Endarra was quite soundly asleep, she finished undressing her and lay curled at her feet. It was a tight fit for the bed was much smaller than the one at the palace. Yet Jendri would not have slept anywhere else for all the gold in the Civilized Dominions.

CHAPTER NINE

Jendri attended her lord every day from then on as her body servant, exactly as she had done at home in the palace. As a slave, she was not permitted arms, which she felt was foolish since she had sworn fealty to K'Endarra. She asked for the dagger back, and K'Endarra gave it to her as she promised to keep it out of sight. Jendri did not know if they would have to go into battle, but she would defend K'Endarra as long as she could.

The Emicrani were a fierce if somewhat disorganized enemy. They had nowhere near the regard for human life that the Asperians did, and thought nothing of staging suicidal attacks that wiped out as many of their own troops as they did their Asperian targets. Moreover, they were guerillas, using unorthodox methods of attack, such as stealing the clothing of Asperians and pretending to shepherd farm animals out of the danger zones. The animals, whether their own or stolen, they gladly sacrificed to victory. They would evidently stop at nothing.

These various tricks and feints and incursions were tried at every hour and at every hand, making the Asperian army feel as if they were being harassed by hordes of rodents or insects, rather than a human enemy. They were used to conventional warfare and had no counter-tactics prepared for such a foe, growing ever more demoralized as they tried to plug a hundred leaks a day.

The troops were exhausted from being deployed and re-deployed around a perimeter that altered in shape, size and direction nearly every day. Generals wracked their brains for methods of discovering or predicting the next attack. Even Jendri, watching silently as the lines shifted back and forth, was at a loss. It seemed that nothing short of a full scale assault, before their own losses became too great, would vanquish this pesky enemy. And there was no way to accomplish this without accepting a great loss of life on their own side. K'Endarra remained unconvinced for the present that their options were limited to this.

As the brigade, regiment and battalion leaders convened yet another strategy meeting, Jendri's ears pricked to an unusual noise at a great distance outside the command tent. Having no other duty at the moment, she went to look.

Jendri gasped. The sight was incredible. The sound was the high-pitched squealing of Emicrani cripples, elderly, women and children who were being driven forward before a horde of invading male soldiers. The women and girls held up babies and toddlers before them as shields because the Emicrani knew the Asperians would hesitate to cut down these innocents who were obviously considered expendable by the army who forced them along. A long, dagger-like wedge of humanity was aimed directly at the command tent, the importance of which must have been deduced from much careful observation.

"The Emicrani!” Jendri cried. “Stop them!” She was almost run over by the senior officers who, cut off from their units, leaped to defend their Queen. Having thought they were far enough behind enemy lines, not one wore a full panoply, but rather only chain mail or stiff leather armor, helmets and the odd leg-guards. They quickly formed a solid phalanx around K'Endarra and tried to push her backwards while moving forward to beat off the attack.

The Emicrani had no armor, either, unless one were to count their wooden shields. They had hoped to strike deeply into the Asperian encampment and slaughter the entire leadership of the army, and the Queen herself, if at all possible. Whatever losses they sustained would be worth it. They could kidnap children and women to replace whomever they lost in the attempt. The elderly and cripples were a drain on their resources anyway.

The sheer numbers of Emicrani were overwhelming. In almost no time Jendri had to drop her dagger and grab a sword from the hand of a fallen guard. The real Emicrani soldiers were in the tent now and the fighting was bloody and fierce. Jendri felt herself slipping on blood and stomach contents as she hacked at any hairy primitive who came within her reach. Then her sword got stuck in someone's ribcage and she abandoned it in favor of a spear. She had no time to look behind her or to either side to even see where K'Endarra was. All she could think was, the more I can kill, the fewer can reach her.

Yanking the spear free of a fallen Emicrani, she looked up to see the most enormous one yet bearing down on her with that peculiar blood-curdling scream she had grown to hate so much in the space of seven minutes. She planted the spear-butt solidly on the ground and drove her boot into his kneecaps. He fell forward as if chopped down by an axe, the victim of Jendri's deadly aim, impaling himself through his chin, and thus his skull and brain. His weight then toppled Jendri under him as well. She was drenched in blood, spattered with brain matter, and immobilized.

Suddenly there was a shout of anguish from the nearby Emicrani, which alerted the struggling Asperians. One of the generals cried out. “Look! It is Hasslich! He has fallen!” Even as she spoke, the Emicrani began to flee the carnage in the tent, slashing at one another in their haste to get out.

K'Endarra turned from eviscerating an enemy soldier and swiftly assessed the situation. She grabbed the head of the corpse by its hair and struck it from the body with her broadsword. Then she grabbed the spear on which it was still impaled and presented it to a lieutenant standing near. “Quickly! Take this and display it to the enemy! Gather what troops you can behind you, and drive them out!"

"Yes, my Queen!” The lieutenant grabbed the gory trophy and bellowed for the others to follow her. Suddenly the tent was empty of all but the dead, dying and wounded who could not join the rout.

Jendri crawled out from under the stinking headless body and quickly made to follow when a strong arm held her back. “Not you! My guard is decimated and the enemy may return. You will defend me, Jendri."

Jendri stopped short, turned and bowed her head. “Yes, my liege. As you command.” And she remained at K'Endarra's side, yet another discarded sword in her hand, until the danger was over. Both of them bore several cuts but none were life threatening. While Jendri could, she would stand with her lord.

It was probably another full hour before the remainder of K'Endarra's command staff began to return to the remains of the tent. The head of Hasslich as a battle standard had done the trick, one Jendri knew all too well from bitter experience. Robbed of its head, the rest of the serpent soon expired. Seeing Jendri with the Queen, the senior officers began turning to one another, whispering and gesturing. The argument grew quite heated and finally one of the most senior begged a private word with K'Endarra. Jendri remained at the door of the tent, alert to any straggling Emicrani who might still be seeking revenge.

"Jendri.” K'Endarra called.

"My liege,” Jendri bowed.

"Go prepare a bath for me. After the physicians have treated the seriously wounded, one of them will attend me there."

Jendri bowed again. There were enough officers present to defend K'Endarra now should the need arise, but it appeared highly unlikely. “At once, my lord."

Some time later, K'Endarra entered the tent with her page. Jendri undressed her and the page took the bloody clothing away to be burned. She would also clean and repair any salvageable armor and weapons. Jendri had heated water for the portable tub and K'Endarra sank into it with a grateful sigh. “Be careful around the wounds, darling,” she cautioned, wincing.

"Of course, my lord."

"My sweet, do you remember the fall of Hasslich at all?” K'Endarra asked. “I know things were quite confusing in the attack."

"Yes, my lord. Of course, I did not know who he was then, but when he rushed at me, I killed him."

K'Endarra looked at her carefully, searchingly. “How so?"

Jendri described her method. “It works quite well. Smaller warriors have to have a means of dealing with opponents much larger."

"So, you had killed people in this way before?"

"On a few occasions, yes, my liege,” Jendri soaped her back. Killing was not at all entertaining or amusing. It was just an ugly fact of life.

"Come, get in here. You are also covered with ... unpleasant remains of the battle."

"Thank you, my lord K'Endarra. I appreciate your kindness."

K'Endarra washed and rinsed her and held her in the cooling water until the doctor arrived. Once they were disinfected and bandaged, Jendri dressed K'Endarra again, this time in comfortable civilian clothing, all black from her silk shirt with billowing sleeves to her high, glistening boots. As K'Endarra spoke, Jendri wrapped a sash of silver and gold around K'Endarra's waist. “I must meet with my officers, and I have received several messages by courier. Clean up here and see to a meal for us. I will be back as soon as I can. If I am delayed, you should rest. Don't go looking for anything else to do. Stay here."

"Yes, my lord. Of course.” But first she went to K'Endarra for a warm embrace. Her Queen looked especially irresistible and dashing.

K'Endarra looked deeply into her eyes. “I wonder if you will ever know how precious you are to me, Jendri."

"In truth, Majesty, I am more grateful than you will ever know."

"I'll be back shortly,” she promised again, took her sword, and quickly left.

When she returned after an hour or so, she found Jendri wrapped in a fur and asleep across the foot of the bed. A cold supper and flagons of wine awaited them on the table. She smiled and poured wine and prepared plates for both of them.

The soft clinking awoke Jendri. “Oh! My liege! I will do that. Why did you not wake me?” She fumbled with the fur, pulling it around herself.

"You have served me well this day, Jendri. May I not serve you once in a while? Come, sit down with me.” She took her own seat and gestured, and somewhat reluctantly, Jendri sat across from her.

As they began to eat, K'Endarra informed her, “I have had some messages from my Chamberlain. Did you know,” she paused for wine, “that my Obdurian sex slave has run away? She is believed to be an route to her homeland in the guise of a Royal Courier."

"I see,” Jendri said warily.

"Yes. The Chamberlain wishes me to charge her with destruction of crown property, theft of crown property and impersonating a crown official. Those are serious charges, are they not?” Secretly, K'Endarra was enjoying this.

Jendri suddenly discovered she was unable to swallow. “Yes, Majesty,” she whispered.

"If you were Queen, how would you deal with this slave?"

Jendri took a deep breath to calm herself. “I would ask her to explain and take her motives into consideration. I am sure that, if she were found innocent of running away, she would return the, er, property, and accept whatever punishment you felt was appropriate."

"I see,” K'Endarra munched thoughtfully. “Well, I'll decide what to do with her if and when I ever catch her. I understand she is crafty and cunning. I doubt she will be easily caught.'

"Perhaps she will throw herself on your mercy and promise never to run away again."

"If she did that I might be inclined to pardon her altogether,” K'Endarra said with a wink.

Jendri slid from her chair and knelt beside K'Endarra, laying her head in the Queen's lap. “Please, my lord, forgive my impetuous behavior. If you will take me back, I'll never leave your side, I give you my word."

"I shall drop all the charges this instant, I think,” K'Endarra said, stroking Jendri's hair, “For we have something of far greater import to discuss."

Jendri looked up at her.

K'Endarra finished her last bite. “Come, sit with me,” she said, offering Jendri her hand. She led her slave to the bed where they sat down together.

"Do you remember this afternoon, just before I sent you to prepare my bath? Everyone who came back to the command tent was involved in a great discussion."

"Yes, I remember, my liege."

"It had to do with the fall of Hasslich. Did you know where I was when you killed him?"

"In all truth, Majesty, I had my hands quite full with him and others. I could see no one but the enemy before me."

"In fact, I was back to back with you, which I did not realize at the time myself. Had you not killed him, he might have killed me."

Jendri blanched. “I had no idea. I thought your officers had pushed you away."

"Well, of course they tried, but in all the fighting, things became confused."

"Then I am all the more glad I killed him. But surely, if I had not, the next available one would have. We all protected and saved one another as we were able."

K'Endarra smiled. “As it happens, the fact that it was you is highly significant. I spent these last hours in interviews and reconstructions of the act, until we could all be certain of the events exactly as they unfolded. That is why I told you to remain here. Asperian law states quite clearly that whoever may save the life of the sovereign will be suitably rewarded. A commoner becomes an aristocrat, a noble gains lands and rank, a merchant receives a suitable office, and so on. It is meant to be a life-changing event, a life for a life, as it were."

Jendri licked her lips nervously. “And, what of a slave?"

"A slave is freed to return to her family or to her homeland, if a foreigner."

Jendri swayed, and K'Endarra caught her. “My lord ... my liege ... I have nowhere to go,” she said weakly.

"I know, love. And so it comes to this. You are a free Asperian. You may do as you wish."

"Please, my lord. I ... I do not wish to be free. Is there no other way?” Jendri felt sick with fear.

"Stand up, Jendri. Let us find out.” K'Endarra rose and pulled Jendri to her feet, facing her. The fur slipped unnoticed to the floor of the tent. Holding her tightly by the upper arms and looking intently into her eyes, K'Endarra said, “Jendrickar Verrian, freewoman of Asperia, I would take you to wife as my consort. Do you accept?"

Jendri gasped. “Oh ... oh, yes, my lord!” Her heart thumped wildly, painfully in her chest as she realized the fulfillment of her fondest dreams.

"Jendrickar Verrian of Asperia, I would seal this marriage contract with the traditional kiss of betrothal. Will you submit to me?"

"Oh, yes! Yes, my lord. I will!"

K'Endarra bent her head to Jendri's, and tenderly, firmly, took Jendri's lips for her own.

Jendri all but collapsed in her Queen's embrace. K'Endarra's possession of her was so complete, so certain, it turned her to jelly. Slowly, at her lord's gentle urging, she began to sink to her knees, her hands sliding over K'Endarra's breasts, her belly, her hips. As her lips opened to K'Endarra, so her loins also opened, and as she yielded herself to K'Endarra's dominance, she wet herself thoroughly. As she knelt at K'Endarra's feet, she wrapped her arms around the monarch's thighs, groaning with happiness and need. When K'Endarra let her breathe, however briefly, she could smell her lord's arousal and realized that she, too, was wet with desire. K'Endarra held her there and kissed her again, so deeply Jendri felt lost in her. Fireworks exploded behind her eyes. Jendri thought she would pass out from the intensity of their joining.

As much as K'Endarra had owned her before, as often as she had been taken and possessed, Jendri had never felt such urgency. She groaned with welcome agony at the discomfort in her genitals. Heat such as she had never known flared, threatening to consume her from within, and desperate cramps nearly overwhelmed her. “Please, my lord, take me, I beg you, take me. I cannot wait. Take me now!"

"Yes, I will take you. You are mine, Jendri. Come to me now, love.” She picked Jendri up and laid her on the bed. Quickly she split Jendri's legs with her own, slid her hand into Jendri's womanhood and at the same time, covered her and took her mouth in another passionate kiss. Jendri's entire being convulsed both with need and anticipation of guaranteed ecstasy. Gushing forth her juices in a joyful fountain, she burst almost instantly into one splendid orgasm after another, K'Endarra's touch like phosphorous, an unquenchable fire.

Jendri's screams resounded throughout the victorious camp. The Queen was betrothed and her nobles, officers and troops rejoiced with her, toasting the joining in the royal pavilion. The long wait for a Queen Consort was over.

* * * *

After some time had passed, and after Jendri, writhing happily under K'Endarra's demanding, insatiable body, had brought her lord, roaring like a lion, to ecstasy surpassing even her own, K'Endarra asked, “Now do you understand why we wait to kiss?"

"I never in my life would have believed it! I would crawl over hot coals every day to be kissed by you, K'Endarra.” She stroked K'Endarra's cherished face, her eyes wide with adoring wonder.

"Not bad for a beginner, am I?” her fiancée preened with a devilish grin.

"Goodness! When you are an expert, you will surely kill me,” Jendri laughed.

K'Endarra trailed her fingers through Jendri's curly, wet pubic hair. Again, she pushed her beloved's legs apart with her booted feet and whispered, “Who am I?"

"My Queen, my sovereign liege and lord, and my very dear wife-to-be, K'Endarra,” Jendri answered breathlessly, knowing what was next.

"Yes, I am,” K'Endarra agreed, enveloping Jendri with the feminine strength that would sustain her for the rest of her life. And she kissed her.

EPILOGUE

The day after their betrothal, while still in the field, K'Endarra had, after a mad scramble to find Jendri some suitable clothing for the event, knighted and ennobled her, creating her duke of nearly one-quarter of all of Asperia. The Duchy of Paxverdi included the border with the dratted Emicrani. K'Endarra knew that Jendri, of all people, could handle it! As a powerful noble in her own right, Jendri had a seat on the Privy Council and command of her own brigade. She was a general once more. It was traditional for a Consort to administer the Duchy, K'Endarra assured her. It was meant to keep consorts occupied as well as providing a needed ally to the Queen. Politics were still a fact of life, even in a monarchy.

* * * *

Jendri remembered how surprised she had been the morning after their betrothal, when K'Endarra had offered her arm as they prepared to go out in public. Jendri had grown so unused to such courtesy and treatment that she had all but forgotten how to respond properly. But then she had bowed to K'Endarra, looked up into her eyes, and then had gladly taken her arm. K'Endarra had gently placed her hand over Jendri's, as if it had always been there, and always would be. It nearly moved Jendri to tears.

K'Endarra habitually took her hand while riding side by side, or stood with an arm around her waist as they stood talking with ministers, nobles, soldiers or anyone else. She frequently turned to Jendri with whispered endearments and inquiries into her state of mind, her opinion, her needs or wants. She was utterly chivalrous and solicitous every moment they were together.

It came so much more naturally to K'Endarra than it did to Jendri, who in her former life was far more used to offering these courtesies to her lovers than she was to receiving them, that she was a little vexed with herself. Jendri would learn her new role and ease gracefully into it. She would have to spend some of her time upon K'Endarra's pedestal.

Suddenly, wherever they went, two chairs awaited them, side by side, a sight to which she had yet to adjust. For almost a year Jendri had not sat in a chair in public, or slept with her head on a pillow at the head of a bed. Now she awoke looking into K'Endarra's eyes, because K'Endarra frequently awakened earlier and lay devouring the sight of Jendri beside her. Sleeping curled around K'Endarra's feet had become so normal to Jendri that she sometimes forgot to stretch out! But K'Endarra reintroduced her to a world of such wealth and high regard for her person that it was almost a rebirth.

* * * *

She had been somewhat saddened, although not at all surprised, that none of her family was willing to come to her wedding. This despite her favorite of all K'Endarra's betrothal presents: the enactment of almost all of Jendri's suggested reforms to the administration of Obduria. K'Endarra had made it quite plain in the official announcements that these changes were the work of Jendri herself, implemented in her honor. There was no response from the Verrians, but K'Endarra told Jendri she was sure that time would eventually heal the breach. Her family would always be welcome to travel into Asperia to visit.

* * * *

The ceremony itself had been spectacular, Jendri in the summer dress white uniform of the Paxverdi Lancers, K'Endarra in a stunning Household Cavalry general's uniform, their attendants in equally regal finery. There had been flags, military escorts, exotic flowers, horse-drawn carriages, and screaming, ecstatic crowds. The vows, the tears, the Coronation and presentation of the Consort's Saber, all those had been wonderful. A magnificent reception where Jendri and K'Endarra had danced in each other's arms for the first time.

And then the honeymoon on the sloop, as they traveled to tiny tropic isles, making love on the deck, on beaches, in a hammock under the stars. Two weeks of ecstasy and freedom, and the knowledge that they could do it again almost anytime.

So why was Jendri so miserable? Deep in her heart, she knew. That morning, as she had almost every morning that K'Endarra went out early, Jendri had gone about her business, the business of running Paxverdi, until the servants finished in their apartments. As soon as the outer doors clicked shut, Jendri raced for K'Endarra's closet, where she used a high, shiny boot to relieve her frustrations. It wasn't the same to be sure, as kneeling before the throne of a loving and demanding Queen, begging to come. There was no muscular leg inside, no fiery eyes to look into, no merciless voice murmuring orders. But there was the feel of the leather, and after, the taste, as Jendri lay crumpled on the floor, cleaning the empty boot with her tongue, weeping and remembering the lost days of her slavery.

The moment they were engaged, K'Endarra had freed her sex slaves and dismissed her harem. Now Jendri was K'Endarra's only partner. There was no one for her to watch pleasuring her spouse, and no audience of slaves on their knees. The frame was gone, whips put away. The table was used only for massages. K'Endarra had a valet to shine her boots and care for her clothing, and so did Jendri.

Their sex life was lovely, K'Endarra was considerate and generous, making up for lost time, she called it, somewhat ashamed that Jendri had ever been her slave. She practically begged Jendri to come as often and as long as she could, exploring positions and practices and devices to improve her wife's sensations. “Look, darling, we're living happily ever after,” K'Endarra would say, no matter how long, hard or boring her workday had been. Being alone with Jendri every night was K'Endarra's idea of paradise.

Jendri wanted to scream. She hated it. In her heart, she was K'Endarra's love-slave, not her equal partner. To be sure, they loved each other dearly, and Jendri enjoyed being royal and using her considerable leadership talents once again. But it wasn't enough. Jendri wanted her slavery back, and she didn't know how to get it.

THE END

(The saga of Jendri continues in The Shaming of Jendri.)

SAPPHIC EBOOKS FROM SIZZLER EDITIONS

Sucking It Up—Tresart Sioux

Sapphic Visions—Michell Houston

Lady Davenport's Slave—J. T. Langdon

The Principal—Susanna Valent

Heather Scrooge—J. T. Langdon

She-Devils—J. T. Langdon

For I Have Sinned—J. T. Langdon

Mistress Margot—Susanna Valent

The Torture of Time—Deven-Kenyon Ward

Visit us at

renebooks.com

Visit www.renebooks.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.