The Song of Steel

Book One - Chapter 4

By W.R. Logan

Copyright 2004 W.R. Logan

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Queen Jillian

The pleasure engulfed her.  She spread her legs further and pulled the man’s head deeper to her.  The man did as he was bid showing no resistance to the queen’s wish but too showing no enthusiasm for his work.  The queen convulsed as her body hit the peak of ecstasy.  She held the man’s head firmly in place until the feeling subsided.  And then without a care, she kicked him solidly in the side of his head knocking him off of the silk sheets and into the cold floor.

Times had changed for the queen.  Just a few years before, she was the one required to bring pleasure to others.  To bring them the bliss of release never minding her own desires and needs.  Now, she was a queen and not a whore.  People would please her as she bid it.

Queen Jillian rose from her bed and looked down at the boy who had just serviced her.  He had a handsome face for an easterner.  The boy had been captured by one of her husband’s ships near the Eastern Empire.  King Geiger always gave her first pick of the new slaves the ships brought in.  She liked the young boys most but was known to take a few of the older men and women as well.

King Geiger was far too jealous to allow a full man into his bride’s bedchambers.  Each man was first sent to a healer where his manhood was removed and his wound quickly healed.  This seemed to satisfy the king’s fears.

Her bed maids were quick to start dressing the queen after she rose but she waved them away.  It was a warm summer day and she liked to feel the breeze against her naked skin.  She dried her wet thighs and strolled to the window to look out over her kingdom.

The bells from the Castusaum Church of Karal rang softly through the town calling the small folk to mass.  They had all learned to answer the call since Queen Jillian had taken control of the kingdom.  King Geiger was much too busy with his wars to worry about the troubles of Karal.  The church had become rich with her help and she had shared in their glory.

The Kingdom of Tides, however, had sunk into great financial despair.  The cost of so many wars were taking it’s toll on the kingdom.  All trade had been stopped with the other kingdoms.  Sickness and death had become a normal sight on the city streets.

Queen Jillian had eased the suffering for the small folk as best she knew how.  She had reinstated voluntary slavery for her people.  Hoards of  them sold themselves to the brothels.  Part of the money they made would be given to their spouses to feed their family.  But did these foul small folk sing her praises for the humane act?  No, they called her the “Queen of Whores”.

She had reopened the slave markets to the free cities and sent ships out to acquire men to be sold in them.  Many merchants had become rich from the sale of flesh and the taxes on slaves had filled the king’s treasury to its rim.  King Geiger could fight a thousand wars with the money she had made him.  But did she hear a “thank you” from anyone?

“Well, do you wish me to catch cold?”  Queen Jillian snapped at her bed maids.

They hurried to her and began to dress her. 

Queen Jillian looked over at the floor length mirror that stood by her window.  Her shoulder length hair was a deep red.  Kissed by fire her mother used to say.  It had lost a lot of it’s luster over the years.  Small crowfeet marked her eyes through the thick make-up she used to hide them.  Her girdle fit tighter to tuck in the extra stomach that had filled her middle of late.  Her once ample breast had begun to sag coming to rest on her pale chest.  Stretch marks striped the spreading mass of her thighs.  Age had found her.

When she had first made her home in Tully’s, one of the most expensive brothels in town, she was his best girl.  Old Tully used to keep a book with the nobles names in it and would cross them off one by one as Jillian, or Jilli as he called her, would bed them.  Jilli had crossed out a whole generation of nobles in her first year.  Old Tully would even let her work off her payment to him.  That was something none of the other girls were allowed to do.

Old Tully used her for his most secret clients.  She bedded the king’s younger brother when he had become a man grown and the High Scepter of the Castusaum Church had taken her to bed more than once.  She was the envy of all the hetaeras in Tully’s. Until she became with child.

Old Tully cursed her and beat her.  He swore she had to have forgotten to take to pills the healers had given her.  She was sure she had taken them everyday.  It was a customary thing for her, having been a drab since she was fourteen name days old.

She knew that Old Tully was more mad that no nobles’ names had been crossed off in her book in many years.  Men looked passed her to younger molls with faces untouched by time.  Jilli made most of her money  filling drinks for customers.  She thought he would cast her into the streets but he didn’t.  Maybe it was because of the chance the child was his.

Jilli had her child some months later.  Molly had the red curls kissed by fire that her mother had been blessed with.  Freckles speckled her little body even at birth.  Her large brown eyes seemed to be always open absorbing the world around her.  The little one, from her first name day, captured Old Tully.

He gave her things Jilli had never had.  Molly was taught to read and write.  He even had her taught in other tongues, some Jilli had never heard.  The child learned quickly and enjoyed the lessons.  Everyone seemed to love Molly.

On the day of her fourteenth name day, Molly became a woman.  Jilli was very excited about the day.  It would be Molly’s first night working in the brothel.  Jilli had already picked out the man that would be her first.  The man had given Jilli a large bag of gold coin to seal the deal.

Jilli went to Old Tully with the news.  She showed him the bag of gold and told him the man was willing to pay three times that amount. This was more than Jilli had made in her whole life of whoring.  Old Tully soured at the idea.

“My child will not be a whore,” he fumed.

“She is my child,” Jilli reminded him.  She had taken little interest in her until now but she did give her birth.

“I shall take her as my child, in blood and name she will be my daughter,” Old Tully swore.  “There is greatness in that child.”

“And here in my hand sits that greatness,” Jilli protested holding the bag of gold in front of the old man’s face.

Old Tully slapped Jilli knocking her to the ground.  Anger burned in those old gray eyes of his.  Jilli did not know what she had done to make him so angry.  She remembered how happy her own father had been when she had become a woman grown. He had taken the bag of gold given to him from Old Tully’s own pocket and even bought Jilli a new dress.  Why couldn’t Old Tully be happy for Molly.

“Get out,” Old Tully demanded. “There is no place for used up prostitutes here.”

Queen Jillian heard little of what had happened with Old Tully and her daughter after that.  The Castusaum Church had taken an interest in Molly soon after Jilli had left the brothel.  The Scepter demanded that Molly become the ward of the church.  Old Tully refused the idea and asked the king to sign a declaration declaring Molly as his true heir.

That was when the church had sought out Jilli.

 She was working in a small tavern in Sea Bottom.  She served the sailors in any way that she could.  Men of the sea where less picky than the nobles that visited Old Tully’s brothel.  Jilli made wage enough to keep herself clothed and feed.  There were many drabs that had once worked Old Tully’s practicing the trade in the bottom.  She knew few of their names but remembered their younger faces. Names never meant much to whores anyway.

The church had asked Jilli to renounce Old Tully’s claim to Molly and cite the High Scepter as the child’s true father.  This may not have been a lie.  The High Scepter had bedded Jilli many times in secret.  She wondered if the church knew the truth about her relations with the High Scepter. In the end, only their gold mattered to her.

Jilli went before King Geiger and renounced Old Tully’s claim.  The king was wiser than the church had expected.  King Geiger knew his people.  This church was hated by most of the small folk of the land.  Nobles paid only lip service to the church and their new gods just in case.  Most of them worshiped the old gods of the sea even if they had stopped listening to prayers.

The king ruled that Molly was a woman grown and could choose what she wanted.  Molly chose Old Tully and returned to the life that she had known since her first name day.  The church was furious with the king.  They objected to the daughter of their High Scepter living in a whorehouse.  The king just laughed and said, “You don’t seem to have any objections to her being conceived there.”

Old Tully took Molly and left for Kings Overlook the next day.  He sold what he could and left what he couldn’t to the harlots of his brothel.  He left the city with a band of sellswords he hired to ensure their safe journey.

The church had asked Jillian to stay on in their service.  The Scepters of the church told her she would have to hold the place of her child.  She did not understand what it was that she was to do but  many of the Scepters objected to having her try.

Her only duty was to hold a long crystal staff while the other Scepters feed her words to say.  They had tried to teach her to read them herself but Jillian had little interest in learning.  Each ritual brought with it great riches for the church.  Jilli soon learned to ask for her share, then to demand her power.  She was made a High Priestess after refusing to wield the crystal staff.  Even when she spoke the words incorrectly, the end result was favorable for the church.  Like the spell on King Geiger.

It was to make him fall in love with Jillian and make her his queen.  Jillian stumbled on a few of the harder words, but the spell was still a success.  A message came the next day from the king asking the High Priestess to counsel with him.  At first, the spell seemed perfect.  The king made loving gestures to her trying to woo her.

Then his need for her became frantic.  He had commanded her to marry him soon after their meeting.  She did not object to the wedding for that was the whole purpose of the spell, but the spell had changed the king for the worse.  All he could think of was Jillian.  After he had taken her as his bride, he was too concerned with what kingdom’s mocked his new queen to enjoy her fruit.  In the time of their marriage, King Geiger had not consummated the vows.  He had yet to even lay in the same bed as her.

The church had replaced the king’s council.  They had told him that he needed them to keep “his jewel” as he called her, safe.  Sometimes she wondered if the king could even remember her true name through his madness.  But then, names meant little to whores even the Queen of Whores.

But there was still a danger to her seat.  Jillian was aware she was not truly the one the church wanted in the throne of the queen.  The Scepters had said many times that the spells would work better with the girl born of the staff.  Even now, they searched for her daughter.  And what would they do with Jillian should the little bitch be found?

Cast her on the streets once more.  Maybe the nobles would pay good money to bed an ex queen.  Or maybe she would be back at Sea Bottom pleasing drunken sailors for coppers.  She could not have this.  Queen suited her just fine.   She would have to act in secret. And no one could ever know what she had done.  The small folk would never accept a queen that was a kinslayer.

She would not have to worry about the king prying into her plan.  His mind was too far-gone.  He spent most of his time blabbering about some disease that he thought was infecting the people.  And plotting his next attack on some unsuspecting kingdom.

The church would prove to be her only foe.  Their agents were already looking for the girl.  Jilli knew most of the church’s progress for they openly discussed it in front of her.  The Scepters deemed her a necessary tool for their magic and too dense to plot against them. They had given Jillian many rewards for her help, which she knew they could also take away if Molly were to be found.  She had to make herself indispensable.  There was only one way to insure that.

She was now fully dressed.  Her bed maids dried her glowing face and applied new make-up.  Her blue gown rode down her body and flowed openly cut in a V shape at her knees.  This was the design of dresses made for courtesans but she had continued to wear the style after she became queen.  The V shape made it easy for a woman to service a man without removing her skirt.  It saved dressing time in the brothel.

Four of her male servants stood near her bed.  When first captured, these men looked fierce, now they went about their duties as if they were born into them.  Their eyes had lost the fire of freedom and accepted their fate.  All their heart lay lifeless and black on the floors of the healers.

It was amazing to Jilli how important men thought their manhood.  As if it were some magical rod that projected their strength.   She knew the truth of it.  With his manhood a man was easily lead around by it and without it, he thought himself less than a man.  Jilli looked to the young boy that had pleased her so well just moments ago.  He would never know that he had brought her pleasure that most men’s manhood could never touch.  The eunuch stood with his eyes staring at his feet avoiding his queen’s gaze.

He is afraid of being scolded, she mused.  His only desire is to please me, so he may go on living his useless life.  All is as it should be.

The door clanged open loudly.  A tall lanky girl strode into the bedchamber. Her face was long and thin like a horse.  Brown speckles dotted every uncovered inch of skin to be seen.  The shortness of her stringy blond hair extenuated  the huge forehead that it could not quite cover.  The roundness of that forehead seemed to stray at her eyes, giving them a sunken look.  And her lips protruded  from her face twice as far as they should have.

The girl’s body was as misshapen as her face.  The top part of her body was quite skinny giving away to the mammoth size of her hips.  As for breast, the girl had none to speak of, small little lumps no bigger than insect bites.

“I thought I told you to wait in the kitchen till I sent for you,” Queen Jillian shot at the ugly girl.

Her gaze went to her feet at the shrill sound of her queen’s voice.

“Well, do you have something to say ?”

The girl had been one of the first slaves Jillian had claimed for her own.  As a young child this one was beautiful.  She had lovely blue eyes overlooking supple red lips.  Jillian had thought her to be a good investment.  The girl had serviced many visiting nobles and won  friendships for the Kingdom of Tides.  That was before her cruel growth spurt ruined her beauty.  Now she was for amusement purposes only.

“I have a reply to your letter, m’lady,” the unsightly girl squeaked.

Queen Jillian grabbed the letter from the girl’s hand. She tore it open with great anticipation.  The queen had not expected to hear back from her contact so soon.  In fact, she had wondered if he would write back at all.  Being a moll had given her contacts to people of  different specialties that she would need to stay ahead of the church. The Hemlock being just one of many but essential to her plan.

“What does it say,” she demanded after realizing the fact that she could not read the words.

“The Hemlock agree to your terms my queen and will do as you have instructed,” the girl answered in a soft voice as if anyone could hear.

“Well done Brie,” Jillian praised.  The girl’s name was Brietana.  Jillian called her Brie because the girl’s natural odor reminded her of the cheese.  No matter how much you bathed the girl, the smell seemed to bleed through.  Jillian suspected the girl ate her weight in the stuff each day in the kitchens.

“Let me reward you,” Queen Jillian said as the girls face lit up.  Jilli looked down the row of eunuchs by her bedside.  A few of the older eunuchs attempted to hide themselves from her view.  This was the amusement that Brie brought to the queen.

“You,” the queen commanded as she pointed to one of the newest eunuchs she had acquired.  He was handsome but a little older than the queen usually liked. “Service my kitchen girl.”

The man’s face scrunched up in distaste at the sight of the girl.  Brie did not seem to notice the eunuch’s reluctance to do his duty. She shed her skirt and top bounding onto the bed with her oversized thighs spread wide.

The eunuch advanced on the gangly girl slowly.  Brie grew tired of his stalling and pulled him in place by his long black hair.  She kept hold of the hair to prevent him from any thoughts of retreat.

Queen Jillian laughed at the eunuch as he gasped for air and was quickly pulled back to work by Brie. 

Queen Jillian left her to her fun.  The eunuch would be sent to work in the kitchens when Brie was finished with him.  The queen would not have an eunuch service her that had touched such a offensive girl.

She tossed the letter into the fire in her sitting room and watched it burn.  Soon she would be secure on her throne.

Standing in the darkness of her sitting room, Queen Jillian wondered if she should feel some remorse for Molly, after all, they were of the same blood.  She searched her soul and found none.

Continued