Isabella Awakening Ch. 08

Kahlia took a seat and poured herself a lemonade and Isabella ate the soup and cakes, enjoying the exotic flavors. Jax turned the black woman and said, "You've been in that library all day, my dear. Something good, I hope."

"As wonderful as anything Beatrice has ever produced before. New Indian texts, some manuscripts from the Himalayan kingdoms and she has returned annotated copies of my translations of the Arabian tales we worked on. A truly prodigious output. The script is so clear, and the illustrations! The Indian illustrations are wonders of color and line. I have never seen anything so beautiful. I don't know how she makes the copies or what paper she is using, but I would dearly love to work with her one day." Kahlia's mention of Beatrice triggered Isabella's memory and she realized why she found Jax so familiar. There was a striking similarity to their faces, the broad jaw and the well-defined opulent lips. She waited for an appropriate time to ask if there was a relationship.

"But what of the content, my lovely ebony bookworm? I am sure you are wet over the production values, but tell us what is actually in the books," said Jax.

"Oh, you will be thrilled, Jax. More sutras of course. Some innovative positions, fully described and illustrated. I must say, that I did get wet when I read them and looked around for a man to help me understand the anatomical geometry. Poor Ahmed!" she laughed. "I know he goes with the older men, as is to be expected at his age, but he is so shy of pussy it worries me. I suspect someone has scared him badly." Both Kahlia and Gabrielle looked sideways at Jax, who just shrugged.

"I think the milksop needs a mother figure, or maybe a little coy virgin from the village," Jax said distractedly. "Why don't one of you talk with Amalia or Marlesa about it. They both play the naive virgin so well, when it suits them."

Gabrielle nodded and caught Kahlia's eye. She also gave Isabella a sly grin.

Isabella used the opportunity of this break in Kahlia's description of the books to broach the subject of Beatrice with Jax. "Tell me Jax, are you and Beatrice sisters? I cannot help wonder at the likeness."

"Half-sisters, my lovely," she replied. "Same mother, different fathers, different cities, different decades. And thank you, I certainly welcome the comparison as a compliment."

Kahlia drained her glass and turned to Gabrielle, "How is Natalia? She seemed quite withdrawn when I visited her this morning."

"Her recovery will be slow, I'm afraid. The bruising and burns and lesions are healing quickly but there is a deep hurt we will all have to work on with her. The Mandragora and Hellebore can achieve only so much. Companionship and the contact of skin to skin with others will do much more."

The women briefly discussed a schedule of visits to Natalia over the coming days and Jax suggested that the young Ahmed might be suitable visitor once the physical wounds had fully healed. "We may be able to cure them both," she smiled. Isabella was also included in their plans for regular visits. "You will enjoy Natalia," said Jax, "when she recovers her humor."

Isabella turned her next question to Gabrielle. "Darling, there is one thing I have been meaning to ask you since you and Thomas told me about the Exodus this morning."

Gabrielle raised her eyes, inviting Isabella to continue. "Thomas said that your mother escaped to Paris with you as an infant."

"Yes?" said Gabrielle, "I was not a year old at the time. Please dear, don't ask me to recount the journey!"

"No, no. That wasn't my question. But Thomas said the Exodus occurred forty years ago. You can't be more than thirty. How is that so?"

Gabrielle displayed a broad smile. "You are far too kind, Isabella."

"Far, far too kind," interjected Jax, rolling her eyes.

"No," said Gabrielle, "I am forty-one, nearly forty-two. You do give me too much credit."

Isabella was stunned by this revelation. "But... your skin, you have no lines! Your body is...so young! I cannot believe you are forty. How do you... do it?"

Gabrielle and the other two women all smiled. "It is not just me, my lovely. How old do you think Jax is?" Jax gave her the evil eye. " Or Kahlia here?, or, say, Beatrice?"

Isabella did not know what to say. She took the safe path by concentrating her answer on the only one not present. "Well, I did think that Beatrice was, perhaps, forty-two, forty-three - a well tendered forty-three?"

"Then brace yourself, my dear. Beatrice was born in 1675. She is nearly sixty."

Isabella was truly shocked. She clearly remembered Beatrice's face, and her body; firm, toned and supple. She was certainly older than Isabella, but surely only by ten years, not twenty-five! "Now I truly don't understand!" she exclaimed to the laughter of the three women.

"My lovely one; dear Isabella, the answer is ridiculously simple and one we all share with great joy - it is the Elixir or Ecstasy that delays our aging - or I should say, more correctly, that it is its absence in other women that causes them to fade so quickly."

"An elixir? A potion? Do you make it here?" queried Isabella.

The women continued to laugh, but Gabrielle spoke quietly, "We all make it, my love, quite naturally. Every time a woman orgasms, she releases from her womb, or perhaps from her heart or her brain, we don't really know yet, a tiny drop of this powerful substance we call the Elixir of Ecstasy. It is our life force, a rebirth for our bodies. We, the Daughters of Keira, make it our sacred duty to produce at least one drop a day, not only for its physical effects - that would be too self-serving a purpose - but also because it enriches our natural gifts and makes us strong. Surely you, who must produce the finest Elixir in her moments of high passion, have recognized the effect on your own strength and happiness?"

"I...I suppose I do!" replied Isabella. "So each of you must reach satisfaction every day?"

"At least once," said Kahlia, "but who can stop at just one?" Even Isabella joined in the laughter this time.

"There are exceptions, of course," continued Gabrielle. "Days of high fever and during initial recovery from injuries are not to be included," Gabrielle paused and the other women looked serious for a moment, clearly out of respect for their friend Natalia who lay even now in the Bey's infirmary, but she continued, "... and the five days after a woman gives birth. By the age of seventy, the regime should be relaxed a little to allow for nature's course. But one a day is a target we all accept as our duty."

"Is this true for men as well?" asked Isabella.

"Sadly for them, the answer appears to be no. In fact, a man can really only delay the onset of old age by retaining his fluids. He must strike a difficult balance between arousal, which strengthens his constitution, and spending his seed. Some of the Indian texts that Kahlia was talking about, the sutras, contain much on this subject that we are only now coming to understand."

"Of course," said Jax, "we can't have them hold on forever. Sperm is so good for the complexion. And a necessary accompaniment to good dessert wine."

Gabrielle and Kahlia laughed at this and shook their heads.

"Don't listen to her," said Gabrielle. "It's actually fattening. Jax is simply trying to justify her own appetites."

Isabella laughed and turned to Jax, "You said earlier that the French were conspiring to destroy the order. But was it not the Spanish church that caused the Exodus?"

"Yes, the Inquisition did seek to destroy us. And they would have succeeded had it not been for Marisa's intelligence work. The Order is stronger and more widely distributed now, and we stay well away from the remnants of the Inquisition. Unfortunately the mantle of chief persecutor has passed to the French clergy. To one man in particular, in fact. Politically, we approach a turning point that will determine whether we survive and prosper or find ourselves at a dead end. The next few years are critical.

"How is that so, Jax? Is it something you can talk about? To me, I mean."

Jax took a deep breath and sat back in her chair, "I suppose this is as good a time as any to tell you where we stand. Some of this may be news to Gabrielle and Kahlia too. You see, my dears, the future of the order, at least in Europe, hinges very much on the position of Maria Theresa in Austria. As our Sisters know, the order has been scrupulous not to align itself with either the Bourbons or the Hapsburgs, even though the actions of one or the other have, at times, nearly forced our hand. The tension between the two families has determined European politics for centuries and provides the order with opportunities to protect its interests and, indeed, to prosper."

Isabella did not quite see the connection between the Daughters of Keira and the position of the Austrian princess and was about to interject a question when Jax went on.

"Maria Theresa is not only the nominal heir to the Hapsburg throne, but is secretly a supporter of the order, having herself visited the school in Vienna and pledged her support. If you like, she is our mostly highly placed Patron."

It was Kahlia who asked "So the order will have protection at the highest level of the countries ruled by Hapsburgs!"

Jax responded, "Only, my dear, if the succession proceeds. There are many forces acting against her. Not only is she a 'mere woman', but there are genuine rivals, not to mention the aspirations of the Bourbons for Austrian possessions. King Louis XV himself is married to the daughter of the deposed King of Poland, who would dearly love to supplant Marie Theresa and thus regain his throne. Louis will be hard pressed to resist the opportunity to intervene to support his father-in-law. Even if Cardinal Fleury conforms to his so-called principles and counsels against war, his influence is waning with age."

Jax turned to Isabella, "Fleury is Louis' chief advisor and is the one persecuting our order as part of a crusade against heretics. He is over 80 now and we pray for his retirement. Apart from his religiously motivated crusades, undertaken mainly to shore up his reputation with Pope Clement, Fleury is generally a rational man and counsels the King against military adventurism."

Returning to her central theme, Jax went on, "Our support for Marie Theresa's ascension must be subtle. We know that the English will support her but that the Poles and the Prussians will probably renounce the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 once her father, Charles, dies. He is not a healthy specimen and we must be prepared for that eventuality."

"Our Sisters in Quillan have made some preparations, focusing on influencing Louis directly. He is 26 and his wife is 33 and she has already borne him numerous children, including a male heir. He has always had a wandering eye, and his cock follows. We have made sure that he has met both of the de Mailly-Nesle sisters. The elder girl, Louise-Julie, is a recent graduate from Quillan and has already bedded him. She will no doubt become his mistress in time. Her sister, Marie-Anne will join her in Paris after graduation and will provide a second point of influence. They are a talented family; three even younger sisters are already showing signs of acute intelligence."

"Our intention is to gradually supplant the influence of both Fleury and the Queen's family on the throne of Louis XV. With luck, one or both of the Mailly-Nesle sisters will be whispering in his ear in time to counter his likely intervention against Marie-Therese."

Isabella tried to take all this in. The daughters of Keira were manipulating the future of Europe to ensure their own safety and continuation. They had the power and motivation to work directly on the most powerful Heads of State and were planning years, perhaps decades, ahead.

"Is this Cardinal Fleury really so very powerful? And why does he persecute the order so vehemently?" asked Isabella.

"He is one of the most powerful, and intelligent, men in Europe. A dangerous combination to be sure. His hatred of the Order stems from his own involvement in the events surrounding the Exodus of Quillan. As a young French priest, he had been entrusted by the Inquisition with spying on the Monastery in the weeks leading up to the attack. The Spanish sought to blame him for the Order's foreknowledge of their plans. It was not true; your mother had other, more highly placed, sources and Fleury himself is virtually incorruptible. But he did carry some of the blame when the Inquisition reported its failure to the Pope. He vowed to prove his trustworthiness by destroying us and has waged a private, but officially sanctioned, war against the order ever since. His position as advisor, first to Louis XIV and now to his grandson, the current King, gives him unprecedented reach and access to the French military networks. The ships patrolling around Corsica and Sardinia are undoubtedly there on Fleury's orders and he has spies throughout North Africa and Sicily. As I said, we approach a turning point."

Isabella was somewhat stunned by Jax's summary of the order's political situation.

Kahlia put a hand to Isabella's cheek. "You are perspiring, Isabella. We have been rude, sitting you out in the heat like this. We, who have acclimatized to the desert air, often forget that our new guests take some time to enjoy it as we do. Let us take you to the Sanctuary and cool you down."

"Indeed," said Jax, rising from her seat, "we should also see whether Amalia and Marlesa need help with the concert preparations. You are in for treat tonight, dear Isabella." With this, Gabrielle, Kahlia and Isabella all rose from the table.

"Now, let us make the toast!" said Jax, emptying the last of the lemonade into each of their glasses. "To Orgasta and Clitoria! May their reign ever strengthen!" The women raised their glasses and said a whispered "may their reign ever strengthen."

Kahlia took Isabella's hand as the four made their way along the shaded portico to the main doors of The Sanctuary. Two enormous guards stood silently on either side of the entrance. Isabella saw that they had the same soft, supple, childish features of the man who had earlier let Gabrielle and her into The Sanctuary through the side door.

"Gabrielle greeted them with a wide smile. "Aron, Gemil, this is our friend and guest, Signora Isabella. She will be with us for some months, so please show her the courtesy and protection of a member of the household." The men smiled and bowed to Isabella and incanted a greeting in Arabic. "Gabrielle stood on her toes and planted a friendly kiss on the chin of the man she had called Gemil." He blushed before pulling open the heavy door for the women to enter. Aron giggled like a girl as he did the same with the other door.

Isabella smiled to each man as she entered and as the doors closed behind the group, she turned to Kahlia, still holding her hand, and asked, "are Gemil and Aron ..."

"Eunuchs?" said Kahlia, "Yes, all the guards of The Sanctuary are neutered men rescued by the Bey from enemies or who have come here from other places of their own accord."

Isabella recalled the Castrati she had seen and heard at the opera in Naples. Beautiful men, emasculated since before puberty, who sang with the clearest most perfect alto voices. She remembered how sad and disgusted she had felt when mama had told her of their history and fate.

"How awful," said Isabella, almost to herself, "So none of them have testicles at all?"

"Well, not quite. Aron has his, in a little jar in his room. But you are right to grieve for them," remarked Kahlia, "The Bey gives them a home and a generous allowance in exchange for their services, and we try to make their lives as rewarding as is possible."

Isabella was distracted by a call from the far side of the room. It was Amalia calling a greeting to the women. Isabella could see only her head, draped with wet hair, and one arm raised high, above the stage-like raised section of The Sanctuary's floor in front of the long line of glass inlaid doors at the very back of the enormous room. The other women returned her greeting and made their way to her. Isabella followed them across the open area and up the wide stairs leading to the room-sized platform.

She immediately saw that Amalia, and Marlesa, whose head was on her shoulder, were neck-deep in a large oval shaped bath sunk into the floor. An identical bath, gentle steam arising from its still water, was just a few feet to their right. The fragrance of orange and jasmine filled her nostrils as she beheld yet another magical scene. Through the long line of glazed doors, Isabella could see a cloudless sky, miles and miles of pure blue turning pink and orange before her eyes as the unseen sun set off stage to their left. In the far distance the horizon sat like a darker line, separating the heavens from the deeper blue-green of the sea. The two dusky, dark haired women turned to her and smiled.

"You have had a good day, Isabella?" said Marlesa.

"Wonderful!" sighed Isabella. "I have been overwhelmed by the generosity and love of your sisters and feel that I am floating through a wonderful dream."

Amalia smiled and turned her dark eyes to Jax, who was standing, looking at the sunset, "And Jax, you have tempered yourself with Isabella? You have behaved as a true Daughter Keira in the presence of a new friend?"

Jax turned to her and smiled sweetly, "Of course I have, Amalia, my darling! Once the pox doctor here pushed her way between Isabella's legs this morning, I stood back and played the perfect martyr. And have you had your fingers in Marlesa all day, or have you actually done some work?" Amalia smiled, but blushed slightly and brought both her arms out of the water and folded them under her chin on the edge of the bath. Marlesa glided silently from her side to take up a position half lying on Amalia's back, her head resting between Amalia's shoulder blades. Isabella could not see Marlesa's hands, but by the look on Amalia's face, she guessed where they were and what they were doing.

Jax began unlocking and folding back the glass doors like a huge concertina, revealing a narrow balcony edged with a balustrade like that fronting the porch in her own room. Her actions allowed the warm evening air to enter the cool Sanctuary. "It is cooling off now," she said, "and some fresh air will fortify us all for the night ahead."

Isabella walked across to her and looked over the balcony. Below her a rock-strewn mountainside fell sharply away, perhaps half a mile of ragged boulders and sparse shrubs, ending with a stony beach and the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean. Birds of prey circled above and below the balcony and Isabella saw vultures on the rocks far below. Isabella took in the scene and said to Jax, "Are you entertaining tonight?"

"Just ourselves, dear one, just ourselves. Whenever the Bey and the men leave for a day or more, we throw a little soiree. Its partly to commiserate ourselves for the absence of hard cock, and partly so that we five, six including you, can get together as women. Maria is preparing a banquet and Marlesa and Amalia will entertain us with a new concerto. I am sure you will enjoy it."

"I am looking forward to it already," she replied, turning back to the room. She was unphased to see Kahlia, naked, slipping into the bath with Amalia and Marlesa. Gabrielle waved and smiled to her as she exited through the side door, calling "I'll be back in an hour! My patient calls!"

Isabella felt Jax's hands on her shoulders and turned back to her. Her face was close and Isabella felt her own arousal grow and watched Jax's parted lips move towards her own. But she halted before they touched.

"Isabella, you are truly delectable, and I will have you before the night is old," she whispered. "But right now, I must prepare a letter for your parents. A sloop will make a dash for Sicily tomorrow if the Southerly returns and I would like you to read the letter before I send it. Stay wet for me, darling." Jax brushed her tongue over Isabella's lower lip and left her there, retreating quickly to a stairway behind a curtain at the far end of the raised section of the Sanctuary. Isabella shuddered and took a deep breath. So many beautiful women, so much time!