A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 42

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"Home again, Najmah," Yasmin said as they found themselves in Meroe once more.

"I would ask," Maahes said, "if it would be alright to visit now and then, ... to see ..."

"To see how the training goes?" Yasmin smiled.

"Yes," he began, - "

"Or to see the gazelles leaping?" Dakhete asked.

"You keep gazelles?" he asked, "I love to watch them as they run! How many have you?"

"Only two, "she grinned, "but they are lovely to see. Good night, Lord Maahes, and we thank you for bringing us home safely. She stretched up on her toes to kiss his cheek. He looked a little shocked, but he recovered and smiled.

That was when Yasmin kissed his cheek and he blushed. "If you like gazelles, "Yasmin whispered as her new breasts grazed the side of his chest while Khyan stood staring at the god, "You should come to see the one truly fine oryx here." They walked away from him smiling.

"I think they make sport," Maahes said, "or is there an oryx here as well? I saw no gazelles and no oryx when I was here before."

Dakhete looked down, wondering what to say.

"You meant that they are the gazelles," he said smiling a little.

Yes," she nodded as she turned to go, "and I am the oryx. You may come here whenever it is your wish to."

He watched her go and wondered about it all until he saw her look back once to smile and place her hands on her head pointing her index fingers as though they were horns while she moved her hips a little in imitation of the back end of an oryx.

He smiled then, and Dakhete almost turned to come right back to him, liking his smile so much. But she didn't. She only winked at him with her fingers still pointing up and gave her backside a little shake as she went into her home.

Maahes smiled to himself as he raised his arms and disappeared.

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"Thank you for allowing us to come along," Yasmin smiled from where she stood in Khyan's arms, "I am here wondering if I might have my birthday wish."

Dakhete looked down, "Birthday wish?"

"Yes," Yasmin said, "Other than her gift to me of Najmah, my mother could almost never give me anything for my birthday. So what we did is that after she was finished her working the night before, she would come upstairs to me, and when I was old enough, I would try to make her some small meal of things which I'd stolen that day from the food stalls in the souq. Sometimes it was little more than a handful of dates, but I always tried my best.

We would get into her bed together and eat, and she would ask me what my wish was for my birthday the next day. Really, it was always my birthday anyway by that time, but that was the way that we did it. I would have thought carefully all the day about what my wish should be for. What I really wanted was for my mother and I to be away from there and free, but I was not allowed to wish for that then.

No, my wish had to be for something that I would really like and I would tell her after we ate. She would hold me in the dark and all that we had between us in the world was Najmah and a few clothes for her, but on my birthday night, the two of us held each other and I would tell her of my wish, and we would wish for that together as hard as we could and fall asleep afterwards."

She lifted her head, "I feel a little like that now, that's all."

"What would you wish for now?" Dakhete asked gently.

"It is nothing," Yasmin whispered, "and even so, it is likely just as impossible as my wishes were then."

"Ask, Yasmin," Dakhete whispered as she stepped over and hugged her, "maybe it is something that I can manage for you."

"Well," Yasmin sighed as she raised her head, "Can we go back to Marrakesh soon? I long to see my uncle one more time."

"I am only sad that I cannot agree while your sweet mother was still alive for you, Yasmin," Dakhete smiled as she kissed her, "That would be a birthday wish for me as well."

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The man walked down the street cursing the heat of the day a little. He knew that he should have timed it better. If he had, he'd be off the street and out of this sweltering heat. It had been his intent, but the meeting had gone long and with something as important as these negotiations underway, he couldn't have just made his excuses and been gone earlier. He was there to bargain on his own behalf after all.

It had taken years, but he was now in a position to open another of his businesses. He had many, but only a few of the real moneymakers. The cash brought in by those ones provided him with the liquid capital for everything else and every time that he opened one of those, he had to carefully look into which gang controlled what so that he could arrange for the protection of his interests. The Khalid had to be paid as well as the chief of whatever sector of guardsmen controlled the area of the new location.

He walked past a shop which was doing so poorly that it had to remain open during these hottest hours of the day, the shopkeeper refusing to return his polite nod as he passed. He knew why, of course. There were always some who looked down on the way that he did business. Well let him keep the cucumber which was up his ass, the fat man smiled to himself. He was the one who had to sweat and pray that someone was crazy enough to need a few vegetables badly enough to come outdoors now.

As he neared the next bend in the crazy pattern of streets and alleyways in this part of the souq, he could hear screams and shouts from around the corner. That was certainly odd, he thought, but there couldn't be much amiss, this was likely the most patrolled sector of the whole city.

He rounded the corner a little carefully and saw the goods and wares of several shops strewn across the street. He could see some people looking out from under the awnings of many shops or hiding behind a few of the many overturned carts. Other than a lot of crushed produce and new clothing lying around in the gutters, he saw only bodies, several of them. He stood and blinked for several seconds before it came to him that the bodies were all guardsmen.

Standing alone in the middle of it all was a huge black leopard. The cat turned it head to regard him and then sat down.

The man backed up a step, but heard a snarl behind him. He spun around to see a hooded figure, obviously a female, standing quite near to him in the company of second cat. She held a sword in her hand and it was wet with blood. He could see a little of her breasts under the open and slightly blood-spattered cloak, but it was her face which almost caused him to lose his bladder. From her neck up, he saw the face of a cat.

"Walk," she said.

Before he could do anything, an older man appeared in the bright orange robes of the mage order in the city. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

The fat man stared as the mage was hurled against a wall and held there, more than a dozen feet off the dirty pavement. He hung there and struggled, his mouth working silently to form the words of the enchantment to free himself. The hooded figure had not moved.

"You," she said, turning her head to look at him, "I give you a choice. You may say your trifling words to me if you think that you have the ability to do anything to me at all, or you may do the sensible thing here and return to whatever hole you came from to bring more of your kind."

She smiled a little, "Tell them all to come. I am in the mood."

The mage drifted away from the wall to be set down in the street twenty feet from them. The businessman looked at the cat, who was cleaning her face with a paw, as he considered his chances of just running past them both. As soon as his mind had finished the thought, she stopped preening herself and growled in his direction.

The mage considered his position for a moment as he straightened his robe in a bit of pain from his rough treatment. "Who are you?" he asked.

"All that I hear from you are questions," the figure said, "What is the meaning of this and who are you. How did you ever manage to learn anything at all of your craft?"

As the mage tried to see under the hood a little better, he saw the dark breasts and above them, he saw a necklace in the ancient Egyptian style, and it was plainly heavy with gold. His observation was cut short as he saw the drawn back lips and the teeth. The figure's eye glowed for a second as she spoke quietly.

"Choose."

The mage lifted his hand to point and he began to chant.

It lasted for perhaps two seconds, and then his face contorted in the hot wind which blew at him out of nowhere. He screamed as his robe and flesh burned, the flames blown out as soon as they left him, but he still burned, glowing now in places as the heat increased.

He fell to his knees for a moment, still screaming, and then he collapsed into a heap as the wind continued. His robe and most of his body was gone in seconds. His bones turned to ash and blew away, though no spark carried on toward the flammable buildings or the goods of the merchants.

She turned to the man in front of her, her face as beautifully cat-like as it was impassive and calm.

"Walk," she said.

He walked.

"What is this about?" he asked in a quavering voice, at least an octave above his normal tone.

She made no answer, but the leopard looked to the rooftops and saw the archers as they ran carefully to get into a position for a clear shot. He looked at them fixedly for an instant, and they disappeared in bright red splashes of liquid. He looked to the other side and a moment later, it was the same thing repeated. Blood ran down the building fronts in thin rivulets to drip from the edges of the awnings.

They walked on a little and the cat went on ahead of them. He saw a second hooded figure a little down the block who stood and waited in front of his place of business with three of his women. The three shrank back a bit, but the second figure told them that there was nothing for them to fear.

The businessman knew that voice. When she turned to face him, drawing back her hood, he stared in disbelief.

"Hello, Uncle," she smiled coldly.

She looked around the street for a moment and then at the sky before she turned to him, "A fine day to begin your new job."

She smiled at him sweetly, "You work for me now."

"Is everyone out?" the cat-like one asked.

"Yes," Yasmin nodded, "there is no one inside anymore, though I had to indulge in the killing of the two hired guards. The back door is blocked and no one can get back inside."

The three young whores stared in fear at the other figure, but she sensed it and her face became human and very lovely, "There is nothing to be afraid of," she said, "I admire your courage to wish to begin a new life, but are you the only ones who will come?"

Yasmin nodded a little sadly, "I could not convince any of the others. These three are very new here and were sold into it, my uncle bought them only last week. I told them that we offer a chance to be free."

Dakhete smiled, "We offer the certainty to be free. Let us get moving," She said, "I wish to stay and clean out this whole street, but there is no time to find all of the ones who are here against their will. Khyan is busy with the guardsmen and I wish to be gone before the rest of the mages come. Dealing with them would be sport to me, but your new friends here have no wish to see the manner in which I would do it."

She tuned to the three again, "Whatever Yasmin has told you is true. I can provide homes for you and a new life. You may even wish to continue in this trade, but you will not need to live in fear, though it is my wish that once you see for yourselves, you will find other ways to make a living."

Khyan trotted toward them from down the block and the three women and the cats disappeared in a curling gust of wind, taking the whimpering businessman with them. Dakhete stepped back and looked around.

"Do it, Yasmin. I will prevent damage to the other houses."

The old brothel burst into flames an instant later. Three minutes after that, it was out, a charred ruin which would smoulder for days, but not reignite. Yasmin walked closer to Dakhete, turning into the same cat-like creature that Dakhete now returned to.

"Thank you," she smiled, "I have never had a finer birthday."

A breeze whistled down the street and the pair were gone.

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"Oh, this is so nice," Yasmin smiled as she sat by the fire later that evening, "I think now that I have always had some princess in me. I could grow to like this," she laughed.

They listened to the musicians as they played and they watched the dancers. Yasmin held up her empty cup once more, and insisted that both of her friends pour for her. It made the game a lot more challenging, after all.

Yasmin had longed for them both and though there had been little in the way of anything beyond perhaps a quick caress on one's backside in passing between them all, it had become a quiet tension. It seemed to be what they all wanted, and it had been a lot like a game before now. What had changed was that they'd all gotten their gift from Sekhmet earlier and one of the results was the warm throbbing which they all felt in their loins. And as Yasmin kept pointing out, it was her birthday.

The drink just made it a lot easier to joke and tease each other, that was all. They were all a little drunk, but they'd sat facing each other a little earlier and made their declarations as each of them held the hands of the others. Saddiq and Sha-sha were called and told of what had happened. Dakhete asked if they wished to be a part of this and they nodded. Even with the beer and the wine, it had still been difficult to do, but one after another, they'd all formalized their agreement for whatever the gods needed from them.

For the most part, Sha-sha sat with Saddiq and they enjoyed the slightly drunken show before them.

As Dakhete and Khyan reached out to pour Yasmin's drink each time, Yasmin pulled the cup away a little so that they had to lean a bit farther. That was when she reached out with her free hand to caress a thigh or a breast gently every time. "I am so lucky," she said, "to have the love of such a pair of friends," she said.

"We are all lucky," Dakhete smiled, but Yasmin pulled her cup away a little farther and Khyan almost fell on top of Yasmin. The motion caused him to have to lean so far that he held himself up only by placing his hand on Yasmin's shoulder.

The girl had once been a thief and had learned long ago that one must make use of what opportunities might present themselves, and so she leaned her head forward a little and opened her mouth to try to nibble on Khyan's stomach. She was mostly successful, and Yasmin chuckled as she heard her friend's soft groan.

Dakhete enjoyed what she was watching. She felt a lot better now about them all. True, she admitted to herself, she was somewhat in love with a nineeen year-old and an almost twenty year-old at the same time, while she was stuck at a more or less permanent twenty-five, it seemed.

She knew that she needed Saddiq and Sha-sha now for what it would become, but she also felt so much for this pair - her gazelles as they often referred to themselves. She no longer cared. She just loved them and the way that all of them, the cats included, just seemed to form the nucleus of something. She'd never known something like this before in her life.

The hand between her thighs was a pleasant surprise and she had to think for a second to know that this had to be Yasmin's and she must have switched hands holding her cup. But then she also felt Khyan's hand on her flank as it slid to slip between her haunches and she sighed for a moment before she leaned in to lick Yasmin's ear.

"I love you," she admitted to the girl, "I love you and Khyan both."

"We share this," Yasmin whispered back, "but would you do me a great kindness, Dakhete? Would you please dance for me? I love to see your body move."

Dakhete nodded and leaned back to free herself. She stepped back and began to move slowly. As she felt her hips grinding down, she wondered at why she'd felt such quiet doubts. As she turned slowly, raising her arms above her head to make her breasts a little more prominent, she smiled through her half-lidded eyes at her friends. Khyan had been pulled down to sit on the bench as Yasmin's hands busied themselves on his young body.

"Khyan," she breathed into his ear, "Khyan, I wish to tell you something."

Khyan looked at her, and guessed that it was important, so he nodded.

"When I came here, I was less than nothing, only the daughter of a whore. I know more now and I will want to know my father much better, but it changes nothing for me. Weeks ago, I fell for a boy that I saw and it is such wonder to me that he loves me as he does. You knew nothing of me, yet you gave your heart to me. I want you to know that I know that something flows through us now that seems to raise lust a little, but ... well, I love you so, Khyan."

The prince smiled and hugged her as they watched the Kandake dance. "My heart was gone from me at the instant that I saw you clearly, Yasmin. I know what you mean to say about what we both drank. But all that it does to me is to help with my courage a little. I have wanted only you for so long. I know that we both love Dakhete, but it is not the same for me, Yasmin. What you were or are is the same -- I do not care, as long as I may hear words from you like you have said now, I am happy. I love you, Yasmin."

She sighed as she kissed his face, "Good then," she smiled, "I wanted nothing to get in the way between us. Now I can watch with a full heart."

"I have always wished to know how to dance," Khyan sighed, "I had no chance to learn any of this. I don't even know if there is a way for a male to dance anything like this. By the time that I was old enough to have an interest and a wish for it, I was all alone here. See how our mistress moves, Yasmin. Oh, it makes me want her so much."

"I think it is our night, my love," Yasmin groaned as she pulled him down a little to kiss Khyan's cheek and pressed her head alongside his as they watched Dakhete dance for them.

"I am sad for you," Yasmin said a moment later. "A girl should know how to dance like this, boys too, only in a different way. There were many nights that I was alone in my little room, but I could please myself a lot if I only danced and touched myself." She paused to sip from her cup for a moment. "Of course, it always ended with me on my little bed to finish, but ..."

"You can dance like that?" Khyan asked.

"Yes," she heard Yasmin breathe her reply into his ear while her fingers toyed with Khyan's already straining erection so softly. "I had nothing," she said, "not even clothes to wear, but I did have many chances to learn to dance. I taught myself mostly from what I saw around me."

"What did you see around you? How do you mean?" Khyan asked as he reached out to caress Dakhete's mound with his fingers for a moment, since it was there in front of him. He drew his fingertips back when Dakhete turned and he licked them a little before offering them to Yasmin who sucked them for a moment. Dakhete danced slowly away.

"Well," Yasmin smiled a moment later, "I was raised in a brothel, you know."

Khyan looked at Yasmin, "I do not know what that means. I grew up here. What is that?"

Yasmin smiled and stretched up to whisper into Khyan's ear.

Khyan gasped, "This is so? But you always wear such a look of one who has never been touched. I even hear it in the way that you joke with us, as though to keep it hidden."

Yasmin frowned for a moment as she cupped Khyan's balls gently, "I imagine that I wear the look of one who has never been touched and longs so much to be. The truth of it is, that I never have been touched very much at all. I have come close many times, but this," she smiled as she kissed Khyan's shoulder, "this is as much as I have ever done, really. I only know what feels good to me. Beyond that, I know nothing but my want of you and our mistress."