Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 08

"Good God!"

Through Devon's anger, Ezra could hear a catch in her voice.

"All right, Devon," Calliope said, holding her friend. "Why don't you tell Ezra the whole story. Tell him what Belena is like, so he can understand."

Devon sat on the edge of the bed but the moment of weakness had passed and she sat up straight. She spoke clearly and boldly.

"Four years ago, when I was just eighteen, my mother, Beatrice, was the leader of the divers. That's our faction because we dive for sponges and oysters. It's the worst job because it ages you quickly and old people get pains in their joints. The other faction are the salters, which is easy work that anyone can do. We both fish."

"My mother wanted the good and bad jobs shared out equally but there was a big row and our faction threatened to leave. It was an empty threat. Where would we go? What would we do? There are only seven of us, including two children (at that time, Thalassa was only fourteen), which is not enough people to sustain ourselves."

"Anyway, Belena called our bluff, threatening us by saying she would hire the Herders to fetch us back. She's friends with the Herder chief and they're good at tracking people. We can't out-run horses. So we gave up and stayed; but Belena still wanted to punish my mother, so she had me taken to her boat. I was tied down on the bed and she abused me."

"Belena has a whip the Herders gave her and some wooden paddles and a leather thing, like your penis, but bigger. She straps it onto herself and then she fucks you with it."

Ezra could hear the pain, not in her voice but in the effort she made to keep her voice neutral.

"I'm so sorry," he said. She shrugged off his concern.

"She hurt me then and again a few times since. She has fucked almost all of us but she hurts only those who disobey or whom she wants to teach a lesson. Now she likes virgins. ... I won't let her have Thalassa."

"Nor will I," Ezra vowed.

"What can you do?" Devon demanded. She was scornful again.

"I don't know yet. I have to think; but I will definitely end this tyranny, even if I have to beat the woman to a pulp."

"No!" Calliope exclaimed.

"Why not?" It was Devon who asked.

"Because there will never be an end to it. When Ezra goes away, Belena will still be in charge and will take it out on us who stay. We need to unite the tribe against Belena. That's the only way."

Ezra had a question:

"I don't understand why you can't join another tribe. Can't you join the Woodlanders?"

"They would send us back. They wouldn't risk starting a fight with the Mariners and the Herders together. None of the tribes can survive without trade, the Woodlanders least of all."

Ezra was not convinced yet he understood why they didn't want to leave their home.

"Do you actually need to unite the whole tribe against Belena? Could you succeed if you simply became the stronger faction?" he asked.

"We need not become the stronger faction, just strong enough to stand up to Belena. It's what our meetings have been about. We're trying to recruit more women. I guess Belena has heard or suspects us and will use the threat against Thalassa to keep us in line. Or she just wants Thalassa for her own sick pleasure."

So much now made sense to Ezra. Now he knew the monstrous thing that Mirselene suspected about Belena. Mirselene had seen Calliope thrust her daughter forward as a hostage when Urulla was injured. It was to get her out of Belena's clutches, now she was nearly eighteen. It was why, at their meeting in the forest, Belena had demanded Thalassa back. Perhaps it was why Calliope had seemed disappointed in him when he hadn't chosen Thalassa as his bedmate, though he thought he had done so for her sake.

Belena's sexual tyranny explained why Devon was not a virgin. It doubtless explained why Devon wanted sex in her own way, presumably not in any of the ways Belena had abused her. Ezra thought of Kalyndra. She hadn't been a virgin either; and her repertoire of sexual teases (beyond anything the Woodlanders practised) were designed to excite a man, not another woman. Clearly, Belena was a sadistic and predatory dominatrix with masculine sexual characteristics and a preference for the younger Mariners.

In thinking this, Ezra had been silent some minutes. He thought he knew what he could do to help.

"What if I got Kalyndra to join your faction?"

Devon scoffed but Calliope answered patiently:

"Her mother, Ferne, wouldn't allow it, even if Kalyndra herself could be persuaded. But why would she leave the stronger faction for the weaker?"

"I am pretty sure Kalyndra can be persuaded and maybe she will persuade her mother. At least let me try. If I understand, I have until tomorrow night. If I cannot get Kalyndra on your side, then I will prevent Belena taking Thalassa. I think I know how and, don't worry, I won't use force. Do you trust me?"

"I do," Calliope said.

"I don't," Devon said.

"You will after I get Kalyndra on your side."

"How will you do that?" Devon demanded.

"Like I said, Kalyndra is with me."

In fact, this would be a good test to see if Kalyndra was honest in her submission to him, in the vow she made at his trial always to follow him.

When the rain stopped, Calliope left by the secret entrance and Ezra and Devon went back to bed. He assumed she was angry with him and, though he felt the urge to comfort her after having to reveal such painful secrets, he tried to keep his distance; but she was clearly of a different mind. Once in bed, Devon lay on him, put her hands in his unruly beard and kissed him deeply, using her tongue. He held her off.

"What is this? You were arguing with me just five minutes ago!"

"So what? Argument is argument; but sex is sex."

"I like your attitude."

"You like my pussy."

"True enough. Come here then."

They kissed again and, after a while, he grabbed her firmly by her thin waist and pulled her up so he could taste her tits. They were small and firm, jutting out of her sleek muscular body like little sand dunes; less than a mouthful each, but succulent and responsive. She gasped as he sucked but her hard little nipples were sensitive and, after a few minutes, she asked him to stop. He let her wriggle back down his body.

She was pleased to feel his hard cock against her thigh and knew she was wet enough already but she wanted to try something else first. She kept wriggling down his body until her face was by his cock. She began with her hands, stroking his pubic hair down to his stiff rod and wrinkly ball-sack. He clearly liked this and she heeded his warning to treat his balls with care.

Whatever Belena did to her that put her off some sexual positions, there was something that was possible only with a man and she meant to do it. She put her head between his legs and began to lick his balls. It was like paradise for him. He lay back, his eyes shut, breathing heavily, groaning in appreciation. First she flicked her tongue across his balls and then she basted each one with long loving strokes. Finally, she sucked a ball gently into her mouth and rubbed it with her tongue.

"Oh, God! That's beautiful, Darling. It's perfect. You're perfect."

"Mmm!" she replied, the hum in her throat adding to the lovely sensation in his balls.

She sucked the other ball and then licked her way gently up to his cock, flicking her tongue side-to-side as she ascended the shaft. She grazed his cock with her teeth when she took him in her mouth and he groaned a warning. She understood and was more careful. She sucked well, loving the taste and feel of his pole. He caressed her hair while she bobbed her head. Then it was time.

"I'm nearly there," he said in a grating voice, breathing heavily.

He helped her climb up him and guide herself onto his rigid cock. She sank down, enveloping him, and began thrusting, her wet pussy squelching, her strong thighs effortlessly maintaining the rhythm. She lent back, putting her hand on his upraised knees while he rubbed his thumb on her clitoris. Her moans reverberated off the wooden walls. Their hot breaths were in unison, condensing into mist in the cold night air.

She felt the orgasm start in her clitoris and shut her eyes, savouring the joy. Her breath caught and she hunched as she came. She lent forward on him, her arms outstretched, supporting herself on his shoulders, thrusting even faster. The heat spread out from her pussy and she came again, her legs shaking. She collapsed and lay flat, warm and fulfilled. He gave her a few seconds, then he pushed her knees back to lift her pelvis and, supporting her by the waist, thrust up into her until he also had the hot joy of climax, groaning and gripping her waist even tighter in involuntary spasms.

With the last sweet surge of cum planted in her hard body, he held her tightly to him and she slept on him for an hour, until they moved in their sleep, like a co-ordinated couple, to lie side-by-side, his arm over her naked belly, keeping each other warm.

***

It was an hour or so trek early next morning to the forest, across the plain at its narrowest point. All the women of the tribe went, except the very oldest and youngest, so Ezra had no immediate chance to get Kalyndra alone to talk. When they arrived at the forest edge, and he saw the devastation the Mariners had wrought on the trees, he was shocked. He had been a Woodlander only seven months but all his tribal sensibilities were outraged.

They'd hacked randomly at the nearest trees, clearing a swathe like a barbarian horde, leaving some trees like wounded soldiers, legless or armless. One tree, a lone survivor too old and hard to be properly felled, stood in the middle of the clearing, an ugly chunk gouged out of its trunk, crudely dismembered of its lower branches.

"This isn't right, Kali. Come on, ladies, Kalyndra and I will show you how to do it properly."

They led the women into the forest to collect fire-wood the Woodlander way. Kalyndra and he singled out thin fast-growing soft-wood trees, about one in every ten, and chopped deep marks in each, telling the Mariners:

"These are the ones to cut down, then chop the branches and trunks into logs."

The tribe set to work and pretty soon their axe-blows were shocking the pigeons from their rest in the tree-tops and sending the smaller birds fluttering away.

Meanwhile, Ezra said to Kalyndra "Come with me" and led her deeper into the forest.

They found a good-sized hard-wood tree with low-hanging branches to trim for building material. They took turns with the good axe and pretty soon had lopped off two good-sized branches. When he stopped for a breather, he checked there was no one around to hear him and said:

"Kali, I have something to ask you."

"Go on."

"I want you to join the diver faction so they can stand up against Belena."

She stopped trimming the branch and stared at him to check she'd heard properly.

"Do you know what you're asking?"

"I think so. You'll be going up against your mother as well, unless you can persuade Ferne to join us."

"Us?"

"I am on Calliope's side."

"What did Devon tell you?"

"She told me Belena's a tyrant. I know she favours your faction at the expense of the divers."

"Belena can be aggressive and unfair sometimes but she's good to all the tribe. She represents us well to the Cloners and has made a very good treaty with the Herders. Now she has been generous to the Woodlanders. The Mariners have managed pretty well since things became difficult between the tribes."

"Kali, she's a rapist."

"So are you."

"Yes, but at your invitation. ... Kali, Belena's a monster. She preys on virgins."

"It's not that bad. I mean, it would hurt the first time with anyone, even you. For me, it was like an initiation ceremony."

"She's demanded Thalassa."

Kalyndra was silent.

"You were friends in the forest," he continued. "I think you like her."

"I do. ... Has Thalassa refused?"

"No, she thinks it will cause more trouble to refuse, but she's scared stiff."

Again Kalyndra was silent.

"I'm not letting Belena touch her," he said, "whether you're with me or not."

She thought for five full minutes, then:

"When has Belena demanded Thalassa?"

"Tonight."

"Then there's nothing we can do. There's not enough time to organise an opposition. Belena is very wily and will be harsh on anyone who confronts her."

"Not if you and Ferne are with us, then we will be too strong for her."

"But how can I persuade my mother? What if she refuses? There's no time..."

"I will delay Belena tonight so you can make a plan with Calliope; and if nothing comes of that plan, then I will prevent her ever hurting anyone again. Are you with us?"

Against she paused to think.

"I'm with you, Ezra. I vowed to follow you. I meant it."

"Good, but I don't want you to join the divers just because I tell you to. I want you to do it because it's right."

"That means my mother's wrong. I don't believe that."

"Your mother does what's best for her faction, as does Calliope. It's the system of factions that's wrong. Help Calliope break it, Kali. Get Ferne to unite with Calliope against Belena."

"I'll try ... But I can do nothing here in the forest, with Belena and her loyal faction watching everyone. I'll go to Calliope's hut tonight."

"No, go to my hut when the rain stops. There are loose boards at the back. Devon will let you in."

"Devon? Where will you be?"

"Pacifying Belena." He didn't explain any more. "Kali, I'm glad you're doing this. ... Wherever I go, I am taking you with me. I will never let you go."

"You don't understand. If I do this, I can never leave the Mariners! If I stand up to Belena and my mother on behalf of Calliope, then I have to stay here, just in case the other faction becomes stronger again and punishes the divers. I won't be able to follow you."

"I will make it good, Kali, and you will follow me, as you promised. This is my promise now. Trust me?"

"Yes, I trust you."

"Good."

They worked in silence and were almost done when they heard a shout to say lunch was ready and returned to the clearing, carrying a heavy load of logs.

The journey back to the settlement was slow, with many rest-stops, but there was a good stack of wood to dry for the camp-fire or for repairs. On the way, Ezra had the chance to whisper to Calliope that she must prevent Thalassa from going to Belena's that night but they should both go to his hut when the rain stops. Kalyndra would also go.

There was just time to bathe in the stream when the wood-cutters got back before a quick dinner and off to bed. Devon and Ezra sat silently on the bed, waiting until it was about ten minutes after dark, then he got up and strode across the camp, past the gutting fire, to Belena's boat. He tapped loudly at the door.

"Who is it?"

"Ezra."

"It's not convenient, Ezra. I'm expecting someone."

"I know. I've come instead."

"What do you mean?"

"Can I come in?"

"Not until you've explained yourself."

However, she opened the curtain and faced him in the doorway.

"I know you're expecting Thalassa. I've come to make a bargain."

"What bargain?"

"Me for Thalassa."

"Explain."

"I want Thalassa for myself. I mean, I want to be her first. It's a male thing. Women don't usually care about that kind of thing but men do."

"I see. So what's the bargain?"

"I sleep with you tonight in place of Thalassa and I get Thalassa tomorrow night."

"Just so you can have her first? Does Thalassa want this?"

"I haven't asked her but I know she wants me. She's said so."

"So why didn't you choose her when you won that swimming race?"

"I nearly did; but then I saw her, sitting on the sand, playing with the children, and I thought she doesn't look mature, not by Earth standards. She barely looks sixteen. True, where I come from on Earth, sixteen is the legal age, but I know it's eighteen here and I couldn't convince myself she was mature."

"So what changed your mind?"

"That fact that she's willing to be your bedmate. She wouldn't do that if she wasn't mature."

"And where is she now?"

"Waiting to see if I return or not."

"You seem to have it all figured out. So why should I accept you?"

"Don't you want to know what it's like to be with a man? To feel like a woman should feel, when she's taken by a man?"

Belena was thoughtful. As a girl, she'd dreamed about men: all the women of Samothea had. She'd learned to live without that dream, to suppress it or to deflect it into less savoury practises. Now she could fulfil it. She was very much tempted.

"I'm past child-bearing age," she said, hedging. "My daughter is at the Cloner City conceiving my grand-daughter. Why would I want sex with a man?"

"For joy! Because it's what you were made to do, what we all were made for. All your living instincts tell you that we are sexual beings, products of half-a-billion years of sexual evolution. That's some legacy. None of us can stand against it; nor should we want to. Sex is the celebration of being alive. It can make you feel more alive than you've ever felt."

It was not the world's best seduction technique. It might have worked at a philosophical seminary on Earth; but, frankly, any speech by the only man on the planet to a sex-charged dominant woman whose strongest desire was to submit to a man would have worked. He might as well have recited nursery rhymes.

She invited him in and brought him into the bedroom, lighted with oil lamps, a closed leather bag ominous in the middle of the bed. Here (Ezra thought) were her contraptions for fucking young women. She invited him to sit down next to her and nonchalantly pushed the bag off the edge of the bed.

"All right, Ezra," she said, "I'm flattered that you're willing to have sex with me in order to have sex with someone else, so show me what's so special about sex with a man."

He laughed.

"Oh, I'm more than 'willing', as you put it. I've always admired power and confidence. On Earth, we say power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Usually for women but for men as well."

"You mean you're attracted to me?"

"Why not?"

"Why not, indeed?"

She didn't believe it, not completely, but she thought: Why not indulge the fantasy for one night? It ought to have made her suspicious, but after ten years in power, she couldn't conceive of treachery. Instead, she thought: Why not see what it's like? When would she get another chance? And what if he really finds me desirable? Maybe he'd stay with the Mariners. What a coup that would be!

As for Thalassa, it was true she fancied the skinny nubile girl more than any of the other young Mariners she'd fucked. Her lust for the beautiful teenager had driven her to try to change her agreement with Mirselene, chief of the Woodlanders, and now to demand the girl from her mother. But her main pleasure in being the first was making the girl scream, and she had other ways of doing that. She could forego that particular pleasure for one night, for the sake of a different pleasure.

Because here was a man who wanted to fuck her in preference to any of her women. It was a heady thought and she meant to enjoy it. She did something she had been wanting to do since she first saw him in the forest a month ago: she put her hand in his beard, now rather long and unruly. The hair was soft. In return, he put his hand under her shirt and cupped a sagging tit. He felt her response, her intake of breath, and saw her close her eyes and puff out her chest. There was a definite rise in temperature, an erotic charge passed between them.

Ezra lent over for a kiss. She responded strongly. She was a confident woman, used to having power, and indulging her lust. She kissed him back hard and began to enjoy herself.

An oil-lamp guttered and went out, leaving one side of the bedroom in shadow. They were lying down now, on the large firm bed, still springy after a century or more. Ezra was naked and was slowly undressing Belena, putting his lips to her bare shoulders as he gently pushed back her dress. Her tits were mid-sized, the down-turned nipples rubbery and big. He put his mouth to a tit and caressed the nipple with his tongue. His hand was under her skirt on her thigh, stroking, working toward her pussy.