Tales from Hyboria - Tara's Tale Pt. 03

"Truly?" Thanocles laughed. "Were I to bid you strip your gown before the whole hall, would you do so?"

Tara smiled and squeezed his hand, whereat he again groaned headily. " I have not partaken. Yet you, Prince, have. I wonder. What trial of the lotus's power shall I put to you?"

He grinned and scoffed. "You cannot command me."

"Are you so sure? Let me ask, Prince: have you ever worshiped your concubine's womanliness with the same loving care they lavish on your manhood? Have you ever given your lover lip-service to her own pleasure?"

He shook his head. "Nay."

"So I thought." Under the smoke's influence her gray eyes glowed. "Let me ask, Prince: what would happen if I bid you kneel before me right now, draw aside my skirt, and lay bare my womanhood before your eyes?"

Thanocles' grin grew as his hand reached for her girdle. Yet she blocked it. "Nay, Prince. I said you must kneel."

He scowled at her, but then glanced downward and halted when he realized he had half-risen from the bench. He gaped, scowled, and swiftly stood to unsteady straightness. "What devilry is this?!"

Tara leaned forward to keep his hand and stroked it. "As I said, the lotus make's the smoker biddable to others' will."

At her touch he moaned, but then shook his head, which under the smoke's influence made him stagger. "I obey none, man or woman!"

"And yet, Prince, if you wish to behold my most intimate midst, then you shall kneel," she whispered, "and do it now!"

Heavily the prince panted, as if running a race. Then while gritting his teeth, he lowered first one knee to floor, and then the other. There he knelt before Tara sitting abench. He looked at her befuddledly, a plea as if for help in his eyes.

"Well done, Prince." Tara smiled. "For such a deed, doubtlessly you deserve a reward. Tell me: would you agree if I bid you lift my skirt, part my thighs, and spread me wide to your eye?"

Thanocles shivered. He set hand on her knee and shoved it aside. The he grabbed the silken scarf whelming her loins and shoved it askew. There lay bare Tara's waiting folds, naked but for a trimmed patch of hair upon her pubis. He breathed deep again, set hand on her inner thigh, and spread her cleft, revealing her rosy depth.

"Very good, Prince," she sighed. "Now a last thing: I earlier spoke of lip-service."

Thanocles's pounding head lowered, but then halted as again he shivered. "I- I have erenever done this," he stammered.

"Truly?" asked Tara. "Of all the many scores of women you've enjoyed, have you never given pleasure for her sake alone?"

He shook his head, breathing as if fighting a battle. "But- but the taste... I fear it will be piss."

"I assure you, Prince, I am well bathed and rinsed. Now bow between my legs and set your tongue to use."

A great sigh left Thanocles. He crouched and lowered head to her open sex, wherein he licked tongue through her moistening slit. Softly Tara leaned against the pillar. Her hand reached forth and played with his curls.

She looked upward and across the hall spotted Lady Mira the head concubine. She was watching Tara and the prince kneeling between her legs. Shock froze the spare woman's face. Tara matched her gaze while her teeth gnawed lip.

Then she turned mind back to Prince Thanocles working tongue between her legs. "That's it, my Prince," she encouraged. "Now shallow, now deep," she groaned. She clutched his head, twisting her fingers in his curly locks.

Nestled within her slick loins, Thanocles halted. "My tongue tires," he complained.

"Worry not, Prince," she read. "Suckle on my bud there as you would your mother's nipple," she urged. "Oh," she moaned when his lips obeyed and found her sex's crown. "Just like so."

Her body curled forward so she could press her face against his dark, perfumed curls, and legs lifted from floor and squeezed his shoulders. Her hands pushed his head further and harder into her weeping, churning womb. Then a mewl strangled from her lips.

At last he broke suck and gasped breath. "Give mercy!" he begged. "My lips are numb, and I can lick no more!"

Tara shuddered breath, ran fingers through his hair a last time, and let him free. "Very good, my Prince!" She stirred to sit up, but he held her thighs and kept them spread. "Ishtar and Derketo be kind!" he groaned, and fumbled with his tunic's hem. "I must take you!"

"Nay!" she hissed. Her hand found his while it freed his upright manhood from clothes. She shoved his aside and took his shaft within her grasp. She squeezed, forcing another moan from his lips, but held him fast, not letting him come nearer. "Stay," she bade in strong whisper.

Again Thanocles shuddered. He groaned as if dying, but stilled.

"Good boy," she crooned. "You now understand the lotus's power?" He nodded, and she said: "Perhaps you deserve some reward for your service. You can use the lotus for your own welfare."

Thanocles rose and surveyed the smoky hall, where under the lotus's influence, the mass of dream-ridden eyes and naked, twisting bodies had grown. Hand caressed buttock, and tongue stroked breast. His blurring eyes settled on an older woman who stood at the brazier, smoking through a reed. Her eyes wandered the hall, dwelling on each man in turn.

Tara rose, resetting her girdle, and followed his gaze. "Who is she?" she asked.

"Lady Eudoxia," he told. "In my youth newly come to manhood, I lusted for her, though later learned she is a great slattern, unworthy of a prince's taste."

Tara studied him. "And yet I wonder whether some part of you still wants her." She leaned near, stood on tiptoe, and whispered in his ear: "Let me ask: if you could do something that she has never done before, and may even shock her, what would you?"

Thanocles gaped, and then a grin split his face. "I would swive her rear like a catamite." He laughed boyishly.

"So have her do," urged Tara. "Go unto her, speak in her ear what you would have of her, and she shall."

Prince Thanocles strode forward, staggered as the lotus continued to blear his mind, and crossed the hall. He set hand on Lady Eudoxia's shoulder right as she set down her smoking-reed. When she turned and smiled, he leaned forth and whispered in her ear. From where Tara watched, her face blushed scarlet. Then she shivered and bowed to the prince. Taking his hand, she led him toward an empty couch.

At the couch Tara met them, where she handed the prince a clay vial. "You will need this," she advised.

Thanocles took the vial and rested his wobbly legs against the couch's edge, whereonto Lady Eudoxia had climbed. There she crouched, presenting her wide round rear to the prince. He fumbled besottedly at her gown's hem, and so failing, ripped it open. The lady's apple-like haunches rose bare to the whole hall's sight. He stared a breathtide, contemplating her exposed dimpled sex, the deep crease rising, and his tight target winking within. He lifted the vial, unstopped it, and poured oil onto her rear, where it trickled down the crease and over her holes.

Tara came behind the prince and set hand on his shoulder. "Go gently," she bade. "You are about to enter somewhere unnatural for so great a size as yours."

Prince Thanocles raised his jupon. Hand oily from the vial, he slickened his manhood's shaft. Then he pressed its bulblike head against her tight waiting hole.

Lady Eudoxia squealed against the prince's thick invasion, surrounded by lotus-smokers watching, though did not shirk. She gritted teeth while his hands found grasp on her hips, and his shaft slowly sank within her. At last he halted within her netherness while they both gasped.

Tara walked around the couch while the prince's and lady's bodies adjusted to each other. She paused when she spotted Lady Mira, who was again watching her. The spare woman witted her gaze and shifted to the couch, whereon the prince had sunk his full girth into Eudoxia's rear, to the crowd's cheers. Tara strolled to her and bowed. "My lady," she greeted.

Lady Mira's eyes flickered at her. "What will you?" she demanded.

Tara shook her head. "Nothing but my compliments."

Mira focused on the couch, whereon Thanocles and stripped Lady Eudoxia's breasts and squeezed them while his loins' stride gradually quickened. "I know what you're trying to do," she spoke. "Let me tell you that others have tried samely. You, like them, shall fail."

"Fail at what?" asked Tara.

"At winning his highest favor."

"Such is not my aim." Tara stood beside the spare woman, where together they watched the prince thrust within the lady's buttocks. "I full wit I can at best divert him for a short while. I have no wish to displace you." Her gray eyes looked sidewise at her neighbor: "From the Prince's own word, you have known him first and longest."

"We were in love," said Mira.

Tara nodded. "I see. Yet then started coming the other concubines, as gifts from the king and other princes seeking to buy his favor, to say nothing of the household slave-girls, nor stray noblewoman who would draw his eye. The Prince got a taste for female fresh and found it easy." Her gray eyes narrowed. "So after his ardor for you waned, you chose to become his bawd, manage his stable, and clean up his mess."

"Someone must," growled the spare woman.

"Even so," Tara agreed. "So let me reap what I can for the short while I hold his interest. When you give me a potion, I shall drink it, and I will support you."

"How support me?"

"Even if I hold his favor among women but shortly, I will still remain at court. I am the sorcerer's daughter and apprentice. I shall be no concubine to be set aside or pawned off when he grows bored."

"Lofty words," observed Mira, who kept eye on her prince rutting against Lady Eudoxia's riven rump, a fierce grin twisting his face. "It bethinks me that your father's standing here is not so certain as you might forethink. We shall see whether you stay at court long enough to support me."

Tara nodded. "Your words hold truth. I reckon the only thing to do is prove my standing."

She left the spare woman's side and sauntered through the guests still able to keep their feet, reached the couch where Prince Thanocles sundered Eudoxia's rear, and stood at its head. Here she faced the the lady who crouched and shuddered on hands and knees, mouth open and grunting from the force shoving into her, and also faced the prince, who looked up from her round buttocks jiggling from his every fevered thrust, and found Tara's bright gray eyes meeting his wide, drug-hazed stare. A moment his rhythm slowed, as if he almost stopped.

Tara set a knee upon the couch without breaking his gaze and stroked Eudoxia's hair. "Think on me, Prince," she bade grinningly. Then she bent low, caught Eudoxia's head, and drew her mouth to hers in a full, open kiss that tasted lips, tongue, and everything.

Thanocles roared and jerked Eudoxia's nethers hard to his hips. His muscled belly bulged, his arms clenched, and his lips curled back while his manhood spilled into her bowels. He panted gruntingly as he at last relaxed. Then his eyes rolled back in his head, his lids shut, and lotus-dreams claimed him.

Tara rose to see him droop sleepily over Eudoxia's wide haunches, whose eyes the lotus-smoke were also already dimming. She strode away to the brazier, where Theophobus still sifted dust upon the coals and oversaw the revelers smoking. She came beside him, stood on tiptoe, and whispered: "Is it time?"

"Yes." His beard wagged. "This is the last lotus burning. I must stay until the smoke clears and all fall asleep, but go you to the laboratory and prepare," he bade. "I will join you ere the first bell after midnight."

"Until then, old man," she agreed. "I may have bought us some time tonight, but we must not fail." Then she left the hall.

* * *

A lone lamp lit a room in the Librarium's unused wing, floor swept clean and clear of all waste; shelves and stools shoved outside or against the walls. Upon the floor a broad ring of chalk and charcoal was drawn, twisting glyphs written between the light and dark lines. At its edge sat Tara cross-legged; the lamp aglow between her knees. The room's darkness swallowed all light after but a few yards, leaving shadows to rule the corners. With her black gown, only her face glowed palely.

Theophus hustled in, muttering through his beard. He glanced backward once, as if fearing follow, and then looked around the room. "Is all ready?"

Tara stood, raising the lamp with her. She nodded.

Together they lit candles, four on each side, on the circle's rim, and a ninth on the southernmost edge, where they stood, and then snuffed the lamp. Thick tallowy smoke filled the air, which smelled samely as the candles they had used in Kirut's depths.

"You know this spell," said Theophobus, face lost in shadow. "So you shall lead, and I will assist. But one thing remains." He went to the wall and opened a box, whence he withdrew a small parchmentlike flap. When he brought it back, it glowed translucently over candlelight: "Caul from a babe stillborn," he explained, and handed her it: "As offering, and to give it shape within our world."

Tara took the focus and ran finger over its oily dryness. Then she stood over the southernmost candle, shut eyes, and breathed deep. Then she opened eyes and spoke: "I call to the night-haunts who steal in upon the wind," she intoned, loud and low: "Lillitim and Soulless Ones, breath-stealers and seed-thieves, I pray you come now!"

She began a low, throaty chant full of names that had died millennia ago. Theophobus took it up roundlike. When she reached the end, she threw the caul within the ring, where it skittered over the floor. Then she repeated the litany echolike with the old man, wherever one croaked aloud while the other breathed.

Almost imperceptibly the candles dimmed, or rather the shadows in the corners grew. Within the sorcerous ring the tallow-smoke thickened, a dusky cloud that did not grow outside. Then windlessly the cloud stirred, as if a stirring within troubled the smoky loft. Where the cloud clumped, a shape almost showed visible.

Tara witted the half-shape and raised a hand. "Mazzrag I name thee!" she cried. "Mazzrag I bind thee! Mazzrag I bid thee to my will!"

Within the circle the cloud stilled. The shape darkened almost solid: a skull-like head, but whose body was lost to smoke. Seemingly it looked downward at the floor.

"Tell it your bidding," read Theophobus quietly. "Wait too long, and it will try to shake your will."

"Mazzrag, seek the nightwinds to Korshemish, which lies westward, but go not near the Scarlet Citadel where Tsotha-lanti dwells," she outlaid. "Seek the whisper of Prince Thanocles' name in King Strabonus' ear. Bring me the whisperer's name, of him who brought it from Yaralet, and of him who first whispered it here, and thou shalt be free."

The shadowy skull within the ring did not stir. Still it stared at the floor, almost as if ignoring her.

"It tests you," warned Theophobus. "Careful, and do not waver!"

"Mazzrag!" Tara shouted. She clenched a fist. "By word, flesh, and will I bind you! Hear me, and obey!"

For the first time the shadow-thing within the ring stirred. The skull-like shape rose, as if lifting its gaze. Where its eyes should be, emptiness danced, the blackness beyond the stars where gibbering abominations crept, and glowered forth like peepholes into madness.

Despite herself, Tara gasped.

Soon as she did, the skull-shade's flew forward. It struck the ring's edge and halted, as if against a wall, and then struggled forward. Suddenly it lunged at her. It fanged jaw snapped while she leapt aside. When it missed, it wheeled at Theophobus. Yet the old man scrambled backward, cursing.

The shadow-fiend turned, questing as if on a scent, toward Tara. Yet instead of cowering, she met it, head high, and holding her silver girdle unclasped in hand. When the demon brunted at her, she whirled the girdle and struck. At the silver's touch the fiend recoiled.

"Ahiiya sayethravsh iao vshtashish!" shouted Tara as the shadow-fiend reeled back into the ring. "Iigh hyariiv thragira! Vshtashigh yavar yaveo!" She brandished the silver girdle like a weapon. "Do as I bid thee, night-child! On your name and my will, Mazzrag, or I shall hold thee thrall forever! So mote it be!"

The skull-shade gathered itself into the ring's midst. It hissed hoarsely and seemed to grow. Then it spoke a lone word like metal twisting. With a gusty blow it vanished and doused all the candles.

Slowly the room turned to a natural level of darkness. Theophobus ran from the room, but soon returned with a new lamp. He found Tara knelt beside the ring and panting, covered in cold sweat. "You did it!"

"It's done," said Tara. She tried to stand but staggered and fell back to her knees. "Now all we must do is wait."

"I have never seen a demon so bent to will after it breaks spell-bond," he mentioned. "We are lucky we be not dead or driven mad." Grimly he smiled. "You did well, girl."

"Help me up," she groaned, and rose on strengthless legs while she hauled on his arm. "We should bar the room to keep anyone from entering and disturbing the ring. We should take shifts at watch until the night-child- Oh!"

Suddenly she twisted and doubled over. Her already shaky legs buckled. She clutched her belly while something writhed inside.