The Sighs of the Priestess Ch. 04

Timna looked at her and then stared at the warrior lying close against her on her other side.

He nodded, "It is truth, Timna. To me, you are comely. If you wish it from me, only say it."

Timna felt his hardness against her already and wondered how it was that it had gotten hard and she'd only just felt it now. "You -- you both want me?"

"Yes," he said, "we love each other very much, but both of us have found ourselves falling over you. You know nothing of it, but we have spoken of this between us."

Timna sighed, feeling her heart swell a little at being accepted. It had taken this -- her being trapped between their bodies under a few blankets on a damp night like this for her to see how they felt since there was nowhere to run while she kept herself busy with the household.

She felt little stings at the corners of her eyes when she realized that someone was actually asking her to be involved in something sexual as opposed to her making her way furtively in the darkness to the temple, hoping that someone might not mind pretending that she might be good enough in the darkness. Before her foolish tears betrayed her, she came to a decision.

"I wish to say something here," Timna whispered. "I have been with you only four days. I have more friendship and closeness and happiness in my new work than I have ever had, and it feels to me as though I am almost not a slave anymore. In a quiet moment between us, Ba'al, your woman asked me for help if, when her time is upon her, I might give thought to pleasing you in her place. I wanted to speak of it with you yesterday morning when we were alone, but I found that I had no courage to say it. Here like this, it does not matter anymore, so I want to say that I would help you then, though I have not thought of the way yet. I know that I could refuse," she smiled, "but now I want to accept it, and I want this very much with you both."

He nodded and leaned down to kiss her softly, "Thank you, Timna. I would have said that it matters not, that you should not feel obliged to do any of this, but Nisi-ini-su has told me that if you offered this, that I should accept and be glad of it, for it would help you to see that you are wanted here among us very much."

"Especially by us two," the priestess said softly as she kissed Timna's throat and licked up under her jaw. Timna sighed as she felt him move his head down to her breast. In another moment, he'd found her nipple and began to suckle as his hand moved Nisi-ini-su's hand away from her other one and she felt the priestess' fingers begin to trace their soft and gentle way to her loins.

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Timna woke up from the cold air that brushed her as the priestess got up. She saw her look around herself at the others there still sleeping. Timna got up carefully as well and wandered over. In the light of a new day, she wondered if things would be different and if they were, just what that would mean.

She sidled up to her friend and said good morning quietly. The priestess smiled and put her arm around Timna to lean in and kiss her softly. "How do you feel this morning?"

Timna shrugged, "A little dazed, I think."

"That is not how you should feel," her friend said as she squatted in the grass, grimacing at the coldness there against her. Timna joined her. "You should be feeling well-loved," her friend said a little sternly as she stood up, "I will have to make my complaint to the Ba'al when he wakes, or is it about me?"

"Neither," Timna smiled, "I have never spent a night like that. I am very happy. Thank you," she said as she waded into the now-cold pool to wash. Her hand ran down between her legs for a moment and then she looked over.

"Yes," the priestess smiled, "it really did happen, Timna. We both carry our Ba'al's seed today. You took him in all of the places that I did. I was surprised the last time. I could not take him there at first and even now it is a struggle to begin it there, yet you did it easily the first time. He is happy that you like it there too. You are full of surprises to me."

"What do you mean, Nisi-ini-su?"

"Well," her friend smiled, "I love how you look, and you are better at loving him than I am in one important way. Not to me, but to him, Timna. I am a thin thing and though I want it for him, I sometimes cannot stand the way that man ruts hard and pounds for very long. It all feels wonderful to me, but I do not seem to be built for it because he is so big and strong. It hurts me a little. He is always very nice about it, but I know that he must always hold back a little so that he doesn't kill me."

"I watched you together and it was so good to see it. You are bigger than me and so beautiful. He was happy to be able to really plow you well, as hard and as fast as he wanted, and you only wanted more. You should have seen your lovely face then," she chuckled at the memory, "I fell over the edge just from my hand watching you both." It made the other woman smile shyly. "It was so hard to see much because of the night, but I was happy to watch you with him as well." She grinned, "And I know what you mean. I had my moments when he loved you with me beside you. My fingers were already busy, but when you begged me to kiss you then, a few moments of it and only the lightest touches from my fingers, ... I didn't know that I could finish so hard in no time."

The priestess glanced around, "Do you know what I really liked?" She whispered across the few feet between them, "When we both went at him and tried to lick everything from the tip to under his sack, everywhere, Timna, and we did it, we two. He is not small from what little I know and have seen. There is so much of him, but still we met each other often. I loved those moments and when our hands touched as we worked him. When his gush came, we were both there for him as fast as we could go, his two women. It felt good to me to share him with you."

She'd said it that way because she liked the thought, and also, she was a little hopeful. Timna heard it and they smiled at each other.

Nisi-isi-su giggled, "He was in heaven, and I have never been so stirred up."

Timna smiled softly, "I was too, but the next thing I knew, you threw me down and were rubbing on me so fast. And your kisses then, ..."

The priestess smiled, "Thank you for allowing it and for loving with us. It was special to me."

She walked into the pool and leaned against her friend to share a kiss, "Please, Timna, it makes me so happy to love with you. Please come to bed again with us tonight."

Timna thought for a moment that she just might cry. She held her friend and kissed her cheek. "I want nothing more than this."

Nisi-ini-su pulled her head back and looked at Timna with a bright and hopeful expression, "Promise me that you will."

Timna smiled a little, "I promise."

"That is so good to hear," her friend said, "then the only questions before you -- "

"I will begin the meal in a few minutes," Timna smiled, but her friend shook her head.

"That was not what I wanted to say. The only questions before you this morning are, does the priestess now have another lover, and does the priest now have another woman? These things lie before me today as well, and for my part, I am happy with my decisions." She ran her hand over Timna's flank for a moment. "Come. We need to wash and I need to pray quickly so that I might help you make the meal."

Timna put her arms around the other woman's neck and kissed her for a moment, "My answers are yes," she smiled, "I have never felt like this before."

They walked toward the reeds of the shore with their arms around each other. "There is one more question before me, Timna, beside all of the other ones."

"What is it?" Timna asked, "I will help if I can."

"How far?" the priestess asked.

Timna was puzzled, "How far? What does this mean?"

Her friend grinned, "How far away must I be from you to be safe when I tell you that I took your blanket from the cart by accident in my haste last night? I only found it early this morning as a lump under my back. We were lying on it all night."

The two friends laughed about it together, but only Timna was laughing after she threw Nisi-ini-su back into the pool. She waded back in to her smiling friend and washed the mud from her face before she kissed her quickly. "You need to be farther away that that. Come, beauty. I have woken everyone with the splash here. Stand up so that I can help clean you and then we must go, or we will only begin again right here."

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The next two days were repetitions of the first, though without the pools. Timna guided the cart and found herself with company on the bench now and then for a time. The only thing different was that now, everyone showed somehow in their speech that it was known among them what had happened and they were all happy for it. It felt a little strange to Timna. She'd have thought that things such as these were quiet, shameful things to be kept hidden. From the way that the others spoke, she supposed that she ought to feel happy that there hadn't been a proclamation issued.

At one point, Lugalbanda came to visit her. They talked for a time and then she turned to ask him if there was now a new role for her.

He looked a little shy and embarrassed about it, but he put his arm around her and said that he couldn't tell her just yet because Nisi-ini-su had sworn him to secrecy. It was all that he would say other than what they both felt for her. "You know that we both love you -- at the least you ought to know it by now."

He shrugged, "Such a thing is a wonder to me, Timna, but I welcome it and I know that Nisi-ini-su thinks of it as unlooked-for, but she is very happy for it all the same."

That night, there was not even a discussion of where Timna would sleep. The priestess had a very pronounced mound and Lugalbanda loved to watch her grind it against Timna. He thought that it was one of the most beautiful things that he'd ever seen in his life. From the way that they both loved her, Timna felt almost like a woman with two husbands. She'd never been so happy.

During the third night, the women spoke of a competition between themselves. "We must bring two cups the same size to bed one night," the priestess said with a grin, "and we will take turns and it must go on all night or as close to it as our man can last. We will do nothing that night but suck and then put the seed into our cups. Whoever has gathered the most by the time that he sleeps is the winner."

Timna complained a little, "I cannot do that as well as you can. I have watched this. I must be allowed to use my hands too. I know that I could get a lot from him in this way too." Timna said, "We kept a cow for a time and I was the one who had to milk her twice a day."

The priestess had to agree, but said that she was a little worried then, because her hands were smaller than Timna's. They began to plan it out and Timna agreed to help with her hands while Nisi-ini-su used her mouth and that each would help the other in the spirit of the contest, but when the talk turned to milkstools, they laughed until they cried, seeing how large Lugalbanda's eyes had grown from listening to them.

"I don't know why you look at us like that, warrior," the priestess said, "I think that you should feel as proud as we do about how much we can get from you. I only wonder how many women try so hard to get everything from their men as Timna and I. I hear some women complain that they only get one gush from their men, and maybe two, yet you mount us both again and again until we run with it. We are very proud of you."

"He is a fine bull," Timna said with only a little mock gravity.

"Yes," her friend replied with a serious nod, "a very fine and strong bull."

He rolled his eyes and chuckled at them. "There will be more rumors about me and I might become a legend - the fine and strong bull who is loved and milked by two crazy hens."

They laughed until they couldn't any more.

When they'd gotten over it, Timna asked about something that she'd wondered about. "The times that I was loved by men in the temple gardens, I never got so much from them as you give, Ba'al, and we two girls here can get it often from you between us. I do not understand how this is possible."

The other woman smiled, "We share the lock of the faith between us. We both bear pieces of the lock within us. It helps him give so much and it helps me to be so wet. He and I can join and not even move, and we will finish each other, though it takes long then to do it like that, but perhaps best of all, it lets us give to the one that we love between us, and that is you, Timna."

"We are so happy with what we have here with you. Please say that you want to go on like this with us, Timna."

Timna wept as she agreed, but her tears didn't last long after they began to make love to her together.

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Late on the third day, they came near to the city and pulled off the road behind some hills. "We wait here for the night, "Lugalbanda said, "This place has no king. It is ruled by a council, so anything that must be done is debated and argued over until the need to do the thing has passed and they can go back to sleep. Anat, we need to know what is around the other side, where the gates are, how many of the army here make themselves known, things such as this." The captain nodded and went to talk to her people.

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As the evening dimmed around them, the warrior and the priestess were busy with their plans and preparations, but they found the time to come to Timna. "I know how you are now, Timna," he said, "and I know that you now feel unneeded here, but in this you would be wrong. This here is not something that you need to know. Indeed, if you were as good at this as you are at everything else, I would be feeling useless all of the time."

They told her to stay safe there in the little glen and if she wanted to watch, she should come no closer than only near to the top of the little rise, but not stand on the top of it, only look over if she felt that she had to. She nodded and kissed them both, watching with a smile as they walked off together holding hands.

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"Can you reach the city from here?" he asked Anat as they stood together holding their bows in the darkness of the plain.

She nodded, "Maybe I cannot reach the little toilet buildings near to the back as you can, Ba'al," she laughed, "but I can reach the temple roof, surely."

Dagon smiled as he brought up the bucket of pitch and they each placed a few arrows in it point-downward. "The fire sits ready to light behind you," he said with a grin.

With a few prayers and a gentle call into the night, the priestess stood with the ghosts arrayed around her in a half-circle. "Wait until they respond," she said, "for they must send someone out. If you see one who wears a city seal around his neck, leave that one untouched. You are to harm no unarmed people if it is at all possible, but any archers or fighters which may come out, they are yours. Only wait for my signals. Go now."

The priestess stood holding the reins of her horse with the two archers a minute later and lit the fire for them with a thought. "Begin when you will," she smiled.

He nodded to Anat, "Try only for the temple roof."

She nodded and lit one of her arrows. There was no wind and her first shot landed almost in the middle of the roof. The warrior followed suit and before long, the temple was in flames. It was a few minutes before there was any visible sign that it had been noticed, but soon they could just make out the people running to set up a bucket line from the fountain. A minute or so after that, several archers ran out. They shot a few arrows toward the place where the two stood, but their arrows fell far short. After this, they did nothing until a man came out at the head of a ragged --looking group of about a hundred or so soldiers. They slowly formed themselves into some sort of line on the grass.

Five score of their riders waited, the rest sat on their dead steeds as sentries far out. The priestess sat at the head of the living fighters.

"Try for the grass now between the men and the gateway," Lugalbanda said.

Their arrows fell and the grass began to burn.

The young councilman coughed and choked, cursing his low position that made him the one who was sent to find out what was going on. He could see the small fire plainly in the distance, and perhaps just the shadows of one or two people near to it. He thought about sending some soldiers out to arrest the troublemakers, but realized that if these two could reach the temple roof with their arrows while his archers could not even reach them, it would be pointless. After a moment, he heard the hooves.

"Archers," the old bowman in charge bellowed, "ready!" The archers fumbled there in the dark, trying to nock their arrows by feel. They had no idea what it was that they faced, but they did their best.

A group of riders appeared out of the thin mist of the plain. All that anyone could make out was that they were dressed in black and they appeared to be well-used to riding together in groups from the way that they held their spacing.

The old leader of the archers called for one man to send an arrow. When it had landed, he turned to the others around him. "There is your mark. Loose no arrows before they reach that. On this side of that arrow, fire at will."

But they shot their arrows anyway far too soon.

The group of riders reined up and stopped, watching the rain of wasted arrows land before them. The priestess cried out in a high ululating tone and the stationary riders were passed on both sides by a gust of wind.

"By Ianna's sweet nether lips," the old archer said, cursing in the colorful manner that old soldiers everywhere have always managed to raise to a fine art form, "what is that?"

They watched a cloud of dust approach nearer in the darkness, seemingly of its own volition, but after a few seconds, they saw the sixty riders at the head of the cloud. Arrows were loosed and sailed across the distance to no effect. The soldiers braced themselves for the fight and what pikemen there were among them stepped forward, standing ready to slash at the legs of the horses to bring them down.

There was a moment of near-silence on the line, the only sound being the thunder of the hooves growing louder.

Then the wind roared through the line and no one heard hooves for the crash of weapons and the screams of the dying.

In less than two minutes, the councilman was the only one standing. He was looking at horses with dried flesh and wearing holes that he could see through for a second or so, and then the holes would close again and others would open. The faces of the riders around him varied from the beautiful faces of comely women to dry and dusty skulls. They said nothing to him.

He shook in his fear and thought to run through the gateway, but three of them sat there now on their dead mounts. His sandals grew wet from the contents of his bladder.

"Ask them what they want!" the councilman heard. He looked up and saw three of the elder council members standing on a rooftop. He saw many frightened faces lining every vantage point.

He wanted to invite the old bastards down to ask themselves, but found that he didn't trust his voice not to quaver now. He turned as he heard more hooves slowing down to a canter.

There was a woman riding up to him like an apparition at the head of more riders.

She sat on her steed covered in black leather like the rest, her long black hair hanging around her as she slowed to a stop before him. He couldn't believe it. He was going to parley with a woman now?

"Good evening to you," she smiled.