Pearls Before Wine

Marius looked up at Fanura through sated eyes, almost pleading. "Do not speak My Sweet Lord. I know thy eyes grow heavy when thou givest of thyself to a woman. Thou willst sleep with her and I will go. And when I return, the woman will shew forth the fullness of thy handiwork. Thou willst breed her well, My Lord. But now thou must sleep, My Sweet Lord. Sleep deeply. Take her soft breasts to thy mouth and suckle like a babe. Thine eyes close softly. Thou art at peace. Thy thoughts are scattered and drift away from thee. Sleep, My Lord. Sleep."

Fanura smiled again as the woman gathered Marius's head to her breasts and he began to suck softly. The woman looked up at Fanura who winked. This clever foreign prostitute Fanura had procured would keep the Emperor happily occupied for the next several weeks, she thought. Several more weeks of drinking her drugged wine and eating her potion-laced food would keep her imperial "guest" too drowsy and horny to think about anything but this and other nubile women in the harem Fanura had carefully assembled for him.

Each was an enchantress in her own right, skilled in enflaming the lust of any man and using that lust to keep his will soft and pliable. Fanura herself had taught Marius to allow a woman to mount him, pacify him with her breasts, and draw forth his sperm with her pussy, sating him with sleepy pleasure. As Marius lay abed letting one woman after another drain and enervate him with pleasure, Fanura would gather the reins of power to herself. Soon the Empire would be hers alone! Just one more thing was needed.

*****

Several weeks later it was a self-satisfied Fanura who presided over the Great Council. One after another the reports had all been favorable. The Zarians had been chased back over the border feeling lucky the Nuri-Crothon troops had not pursued them to recover the abducted women. She imagined what kind of joyous homecoming the Nurian "captives" would have prepared. Nothing more would be heard from Zaria raiders; that was sure until their women brought them to kneel before Fanura, begging to be incorporated into her Empire.

Messages had arrived telling of the success of the Nurian maidens sent to Cortho. Each had quickly become a cherished favorite of her new husband without raising the ire of the first wife. As the Zuma increased the stamina as well as the malleability of the Corthon men, the first wives found their husbands made love better and more often than before the Nurian girl arrived. And many Corthon matrons discovered the joys of love with a woman for the first time as they made common cause with the younger woman who taught them how to bring their husband to heel. The Senate hardly met any more; with two horny women at home, Senators had better things to do. The "girls" dispatched to the high Corthon officials were well trained in administration and soon took control of their new husbands' affairs as their Corthon wives learned how to keep their men home making love. In most households both the Nurian and the Corthon wife were soon pregnant.

The Corthon foot soldiers were being rapidly absorbed as second husbands for the women in the environs of the capital, although some of the city women sent their former mates back to their elder sisters, preferring the imported to the domestic product. Most of the Corthons had been farmers before being forced into the army and would probably have been quite happy to stay even without having a woman who wanted him in her two or three times a day. Fortunately, the Corthons were able to introduce several new crops and farming techniques that meant greater agricultural output. The extra food would be quite welcome as most of the Nurian women with new Corthon husbands were soon found with child.

As Marius, Aldos and the other Corthon officials lost interest in matters of state -- for months their sleeping ears had been filled by whisperers, urging them forget such trivial things -- their lovely captors encouraged them to become more physically active. Fanura and the other women enjoyed going to the stadium and watch their men wrestle, sprint, broad jump, throw javelins and shoot bows, each cheering excitedly for her bedmate. Fanura was pleased that her Marius was seldom bested except by Aldos, and that only in wrestling, where the Strategeon's greater bulk made him invincible.

"In sum, Nuria had never been more prosperous or more secure. Nuria is, to all intents and purposes, the new capital of an Empire that is Corthon in name only," the young queen reported. "The minnow has swallowed the sturgeon. There is but one thing more that we can do to seal our place at the head of the Empire. I, myself, have already taken this final step," the Queen stated proudly. "The choice is thine, but for several weeks *I* no longer partake the daily draught of Mea."

A little titter went around the table. "I may have softened and blunted the Emperor's will, but I can report that his sword remains rigid and sharp," the Queen announced with a little smirk. "About the time of next Thirteenth Moon Festive, I will bear the Emperor's first child!"

Fanura paused and looked around; then frowned. She was expecting a reaction: surprise, jubilation, outrage; instead Council appeared merely pleased. Dolphia saw the Queen's consternation and smiled. "They share thy joy, My Queen, but not thy hesitation."

"My hesitation? Why I have allowed the Emperor..."

"We well know what thou hast allowed the Emperor," the High Priestess smirked. "But thou art not the first."

"What?"

"Lucas and I are expecting our first before the rains resume. Behold!" Munira stood, lifted her short tunic and displayed to everyone the first signs of her delightful bulge. "I knew I must bear his child from the first night I made him lie with me. He tells me that he will gladly remain in the temple and care for as many as I will give him."

One by one the other Council members, from the youngest to the oldest, nodded and rubbed their bellies. "I though my days of childbearing were over, but Gaius's fresh seed proved my field was but fallow, not infertile," Laufi, the serving girl of Fanura's mother, announced, her eyes glowing like a bride. "And my young centurion promises to sow me again next year and the next."

"Thou didst beguile Marius, My Queen, but not deceive him when you promised him a baby by me," Rotha-Na smirked. "What other chance had I to bear an Imperial scion. I consigned the Mea potion to the imps of the underworld and allowed the Emperor to fill my belly with his child."

"I, too, am filled, My Queen," Gassara smiled. "Although in truth I cannot say which of the Praetorian Guards is the father. As a precaution, I have taken the whole lot for my household!"

"Well said, Gassara," Dolphia said. "You must know unless you have forgotten that the seed of a Zuma-drugged man often yields a double or triple harvest!"

This announcement at last brought the gasps and giggles of amazement Fanura had expected at her own. Although irked at being upstaged by her followers, surrounded by so many happy women, she could not remain angry. "Well, Dolphia" the Queen laughed, "It seems we need to arrange quickly for a joint marriage ceremony, lest we cause scandal."

"There will be talk enough as it is, My Queen, when thou and thy entire Council present their swollen bellies before the alter of the Goddess. Especially where thy equally pregnant High Priestess will meet ye." Fanura started. "Yes, my Queen, I carry Aldos's child since the night of the treaty ceremony, although he does not yet know it," chuckled Dolphia.

"Scandal enough? Oh, perhaps not," the Queen replied with a mischievous grin. "I can think of something else to set the gossips' tongues wagging." No one dared ask, although the Queen's broad smile harbored no threat. "I see Laufi is too smitten with her young Gaius to partake, but now that we have proven the abilities of our future mates to beget children, we can begin to share the fathers-to-be." A nervous titter ran among the women.

"Methinks Munira is not the only one to have admired fair Lucas. Perhaps the boy could be trained to please his gravid mistress by a heftier rider," she grinned, glancing at Dolphia who looked embarrassed. "And, would not Gassara prove well the mettle of Aldos's sword," the queen smiled as the virago's nostrils flared in anticipation. "Nor do I suppose the Emperor would ever wish to escape the sweet slavery of our dear Munira once he has slept a night with his sword between her slim legs." A wild delight flickered in the girl's face. "For my part, I would do battle with the Praetorians. Perchance for a few nights my cries will disturb the sleep of Gassara, as for months hers have mine."

The End

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