Zuleika and the Barbarian

she cried out.

''Tis your custom to share!' she replied.

'You enjoyed it,' he accused her.

'It had a certain piquancy about it,' she admitted. 'Are you jealous, my lord? Then do not offer to share my favors with your friends again. I was trained that the sharing of one's body with another is to be enjoyed. If you make me your wife, and ask it of me, I shall never allow another to have me. But you must ask!'

He drove deeper and deeper into her soft flesh as if he were trying to punish her. 'I will kill you!' he threatened.

'Then you will not have Dariyabar!' she taunted him, and the muscles of her love sheath tightened about him hard as she leaned forward and sank her teeth into his shoulder.

'Ohh, bitch!' he cried, and his hot juices once more flooded her interior.

'You will love me, Amir Khan, and I will love you,' she told him, her tongue now soothing the shoulder she had bitten.

'The lion of Khanistan has found his lioness,' Sabola said. 'Marry her quickly, Amir. She is perfect for you, and her belly must be filled with your sons as soon as possible if you are to hold Dariyabar,' the general chuckled. 'Now, I would take my beautiful Bahira and seek my own tent, my brother. With your permission, we withdraw.'

'Go! Go!' the khan said impatiently, and he turned back to Zuleika when they were gone, and said, 'You are mine, and mine alone, my princess. Do you understand what that means?'

She laughed. 'I understand, my lord, but I will admit the evening was a stimulating one. Will you not agree?'

'The Gods! How well Sabola knows me. I have not been able to erase you from my mind since we met last night, Zuleika. Had he filled your love sheath with his manhood, I do not think I could have ever forced that picture from my mind. My length is the only one that shall ever fill you, my princess.'

'I am content with that, my lord,' she told him. 'I hope that Sabola will be as generous to Bahira.'

'I suspect that your Bahira will have my general fully compliant to her will by the dawn, my darling,' the khan laughed.

Zuleika nodded with a smile. 'My cousin, Haroun, thought her a meek little ewe sheep to be managed and directed. Now, my lord, tell me how we are to take the city?'

'Wait until tomorrow when Rafa arrives with genie and his bowl,' he said. 'I think your Kansbar will want a say in our plans.'

'You must treat him with respect,' Zuleika advised. 'He is a very old genie, and sometimes apt to be impatient. When you want to dump his bowl of water into the sea you must recall his power.'

'I have never met a genie before,' the khan said with a smile.

But when Rafa arrived the following day from the city she brought bad news. The sultan had taken ill in the night. It was not likely that he would recover. 'What will become of us among the barbarians!' she wailed piteously. 'The gods curse the evil Haroun!'

'Get the bowl!' Zuleika said. 'We must consult with Kansbar.'

A look of horror suffused Rafa's face. 'Oh, the gods! I have forgotten the bowl! Ohh, my princess, you must forgive me!' She threw herself at the princess's feet. 'I was about to fetch the bowl and pack it among your possessions when the vizier and his wife arrived with the lady Bahira's things. Both of them were weeping, and it took me forever to get rid of them. I was distracted. I forgot.'

Zuleika's first instinct was to order her faithful servant beheaded by the khan's guards, but instead she swallowed back her anger. 'I will have to go back into the city,' she said. 'If my father is ill, and thought to be dying, even Haroun will not refuse me entry. Rafa and Bahira will come with me. No! Bahira must remain here,' she decided in an afterthought.

'When will you return?' the khan asked her quietly.

'When my father is dead, and I have overthrown Haroun,' she told him.

'You will need my help to overthrow the prince,' Amir Khan said. 'What if he attempts to retain you as a guarantee of his inheritance?'

'He has no power over me as long as I possess the genie,' Zuleika assured him.

'Then you must fetch the bowl, but I would prefer you return to me as quickly as possible. If your father is dying you can be of no further aid to him. Is it possible your cousin poisoned him?' the khan wondered.

'Anything is possible,' Zuleika agreed, 'but I do not believe Haroun would have acted so swiftly, or before he has found a suitable bride to be his sultana. His favorite, Golnar, knows she will not have that position however she importunes him. But she will want to help him choose the girl. No, this is simply fate at work. But I must remain in the city as long as I can be a comfort to my father, my lord Amir.'

'Then I must come with you,' he responded. 'It is too dangerous otherwise.'

'Nonsense!' she told him. 'You must remain with your men. I could not trust Haroun if he had you in his grasp. No, my lord. It is too dangerous for the khan. Rafa, however, can be our go-between, for I have now decided I shall go into the city dressed as I am, and with nothing else. I will tell my cousin that Rafa must go back and forth with changes of garments for me, for the Khan will not allow me to take my possessions from his tents. That will sound most barbaric to him, for he would not permit his women to travel without everything they own. Give me a good horse to ride, and have one of your men accompany me. Haroun will see you already value me by this.'

'I will send two men with you,' the khan replied, 'for I do value you very much, my princess.' He pulled her into his strong arms, and bending his head, found her ripe lips with his own.

She soared with the touch of his mouth on hers. For a brief moment she closed her eyes and let him become her world. It was a good feeling, and she would have wished it could go on forever, but it could not. With a reluctant sigh she drew away, reaching up to caress his cheek with her hand, a little smile on her lips. 'Can I really trust you, Amir Khan? Or will you betray me once you have Dariyabar?' she asked.

'Those are questions that you must answer for yourself, Zuleika,' he responded with the utmost seriousness. 'There is nothing I can say that will allay your suspicions. Your heart must decide.' He loosed her from his embrace. 'Go now, my princess, but be careful, and be on your guard.'

They brought her a beautiful golden gelding with a full black mane and an equally luxuriant black tail. The black leather saddle was decorated with bright brass studs, and turquoise. Zuleika introduced herself to the beast, murmuring softly in his ear and rubbing his soft muzzle before she gave it a kiss. Then to his surprise she mounted without any aid, springing lightly into the saddle and fitting her feet into the stirrups. She gathered the reins into her hand, smiling with her approval. 'You barbarians have the finest horseflesh,' she told him. 'What a magnificent beast you have given me to ride, and how unfortunate he is gelded. He would breed up wonderful colts.'

'His sire has,' the khan told her. 'And he is his sire's image. He is called Sunrise, and he is yours now. He has never before accepted a new rider. It is obvious he has been waiting for you.'

Zuleika patted the gelding's slim, arched neck. 'One stallion is more than enough for me, my lord,' she said with a chuckle. Then she urged her horse forward, and flanked by two of the khan's men she headed back into the city.

'Can she trust you?' Rafa asked him when he had returned to the tent.

'Yes,' Amir Khan said quietly. 'Now go to the tent of my general, Sabola, and help the lady Bahira while the princess is gone.'

Hiding her smile, Rafa departed the khan's pavilion. He was a proud man, just as the princess was a proud girl. No. Zuleika was now a woman, and obviously none the worse for her initiation into her adulthood. 'Where is the tent of General Sabola?' she asked the guard at the entry to the pavilion.

'It is the one flying the blue and silver pendant, lady,' the guard said politely.

'Thank you,' Rafa said, and hurried toward her destination.

'Ohh, you have come at last!' Bahira said with a smile when Rafa entered. 'My possessions have already been delivered. Come and help me sort through them. Who brought them? My parents? Did they weep with my loss? The general is an incredible lover. A bull! But I finally wore him out. Where is Zuleika?' The words tumbled forth excitedly from her mouth.

'I can see that you have survived your first foray into womanhood well,' Rafa noted dryly. 'The princess has gone back into the city. Her father took ill in the night, and is not expected to live.'

'Haroun?' Bahira's big blue eyes were wide with her curiosity.