Tales of Fabulous Namu Pt. 03

The five companions were still sleeping off the previous night's revelry when the girl arrived to cook and clean. Soon after they'd all risen and washed, another knock came at the gate.

It was Hani. Her kohl-lined eyes were puffy and smeared, as if she'd been crying. She wore the same clothing she had when they'd last seen her, almost two days before.

"Can we talk?" she said to Zhura. "I must ask a favor of you and Bayati."

"Of course. We will walk with you."

Before they left the inner yard, Zhura peered upwards, certain that the sanju demon would be perched upon the wall or on the thatched roof, camouflaged as it always was around humans. It would stay there until she gave it a new command.

"Sanju, guard," she called.

Zhura and Bayati accompanied the Ikanjan woman along the winding, sloped roadways of Gigiri District. Gigiri lay downslope from Gold City, looking east towards the bay. Coral rag stone walled compounds like Kaj and Amina's were crowded on every bit of level ground. The homes were shaded by palms, lush-leaved shrubs, and even a few kigeli trees, with their hanging sausage-like fruits that were so familiar. Skilled craftsmen inhabited Gigiri, particularly woodcarvers, who could easily tramp their wares down to the bay to sell to sailors and traders.

The three women shouldered their way through Gigiri Market, a bustling plaza that dwarfed the market Zhura had visited in Mibega, but was only one among many in the city. Tailors and dyers made a brisk trade, crafting clothing from linens and cotton bolts brought in from the sea.

Making their way down towards the beach, they found a palm-shaded bluff that had been recently abandoned by the one of the packs of children who scavenged along the shore. Not far from there, a group of women tended a pot of savory - the popular stew brewed night and day throughout Namu, with spicy chunks of unrecognizable vegetables and unknown meat (probably fish). They sat on the hillock and ate with wooden bowls, ugali dough, and much licking of fingers.

"After what I told you in the marsh, I should have known better than to try to go home," Hani said. "But there was nowhere else."

"Where is home?"

"The Secret Orchid," Hani said. She saw the blank looks on the other women's faces. "I am a whore."

Zhura knew that there were those in the city that traded sex for coin, but the idea still puzzled her. In the village, a woman might live comfortably as the mistress of a powerful man, but she could hardly make a living selling sex to strangers.

"The Orchid is a taboo brothel, because our women practice bush magic. Love potions and charms, aphrodisiacs and such. A few of the women know spells and medicines to prevent pregnancy. We look after each other. In other places, it is very different."

"You're like herb-witches," Zhura said brightly.

"Just so. Even though we are in the Hazard, the rich and powerful often come to us. But a gang of thieves has taken over the Orchid, using us to rob and steal. Lu, one of the whores, was killed in revenge for a theft carried out by the thieves.

"After we lost one of our own, I tried to convince the women to resist. We are whores, not thieves. That's how I ended up on the beach. Yesterday, I went to meet a friend from the Orchid. She told me never to come back, or I would surely be killed."

"Do you have family?" Bayati asked. "Someone you can stay with?"

"Not that I trust."

Behind them, a road ran along the beach, busy with porters, tamed buffalo and even elephants carrying goods between ports and boats on the beach. The obelisks of the Gigiri District ancestral stones towered over the trees, like sentinels looking out to sea.

"You can stay with us," Zhura sighed. "But we have our own problems." She told Hani of House San's demand - leaving out mention of the summoning stone.

"All I intended to ask of you was shelter, but... the Orchid is a perfect place to get the information you seek. Whores collect rumors from all over the city. That's why we're in such trouble," Hani said. "Someone there would surely have heard rumors of demons."

"Hani," Bayati said, "what could you hope to do against these thieves? How could you have ever fought back?"

"Every business in the Hazard pays protection money to one gang or another. For the Orchid, it had always been the Shadow Jackals. In addition to their protection, we hired our own guard, an old Gujari marine. But the new gang killed him and fought off the Jackals. I thought if we bargained with the Jackals, they would help us."

"Bandits and thieves," Bayati grimaced. "Neither better than the other."

"There is a proverb here. If you swim in the ocean, you must deal with the sharks. The Shadow Jackals are the lesser sharks."

Down on the beach, the gang of youths who combed the sand for shells and driftwood had brought down a gull with sling and stone. Fishermen hauled their longboats up onto the surf, heavy with nets full of silvery fish.

"Perhaps," Hani said, slowly, "we can help each other. This gang steals from the wealthy. They would have more than the gold you need."

"How many of them are there?" Zhura asked. "Where can we find them?"

"I don't know. There is one who serves as muscle at the Orchid, Maiko. He is there most of the time. He gets information from the whores, and takes it back to the rest of the gang to plan their robberies. He was the one who tricked me into the hands of the slavers. He told me to deliver a love potion to a ship out on the beach."

"Would the other whores help fight the gang?"

"Some would not," Hani said. "Others, maybe."

Zhura frowned. That didn't seem hopeful. But she wanted to do what was right. She glanced at Bayati. The Kichinka woman knew this sort of bullying well.

Bayati nodded.

"Hani, stay with us for a few days," Zhura said. "I will go have a look at the Orchid tonight."

At the very least, it would be interesting to meet women who traded in sex.

*

"The Secret Orchid," Ngo mused in Sung. "Zhura, you make every night entertaining."

The two made their way through the busy streets of Tanga District. Tanga hugged the southern slopes of the hill that was topped by Gold City. Foreign traders milled in the streets, men with skin the hue of burnished copper, and fine black hair. Sailors stumbled from tearoom to wineshop, seeking to quench exotic tastes. Boarding rooms perched atop the drinking establishments, making the narrow streets feel like tunnels. The district had a distinctly outlandish appearance, as if it had been built by people from across the sea.

"Amina questioned our decision to help Hani," Zhura said. "She asked how I could trust a woman who does illegal trade and admits she works with thieves."

"She has a point."

"Amina is a thief herself. Maybe her habit of taking stuff from other people makes her naturally suspicious," Zhura grinned.

She and Amina agreed that Hani would remain at home under Amina's watchful eye, while Zhura and Ngo went to the Orchid. Rather than both of them asking after Hani's friend, the two would stay separate and see how much of Hani's story they could piece together.

Zhura had also banished the sanju demon before they left. The creature wouldn't be able to pass through the district warding stones. So she would need to summon it once they reached the Hazard, where there was no such protection.

"Do you really believe Hani could be trying to dupe us?" Ngo asked. "We saved her the other night. And she did help us in the fight."

"She also said that none of the people we rescued were virtuous. Desperate people are capable of most anything," Zhura noted. "But no, I don't believe it."

The real question was how any of this was going to help them keep their home. They had nine days to appease House San.

They approached the walled gate that marked the western end of the district, beyond which the Hazard sprawled. The pylons of ancestral stones towered over the bastion, jutting up intermediately in each direction along the walls. A group of Goldshields gathered at the gate, but they seemed to allow everyone to pass through.

Outside the gate, the road quickly deteriorated into a path down a rocky slope. Scaffolds clung to the walls. From the gatehouse torchlight, reinforcement of the coral rag stone ramparts was visible - as was the debris where huts near the walls had recently been torn down. It was as if the city were preparing for an attack.

Hani said that there was typically evening traffic between Tanga and the area in the Hazard that housed most of the brothels and dream-smoke dens. Zhura and Ngo followed that trickle of travelers, many of whom carried candles, picking their way down the path and into the shantytown of the Hazard.

"What are we doing here, Zhura?" Ngo said. "Trying to take down a gang of thieves? Pay our debts with stolen money?"

Zhura scanned the place for what she could see in the dim light. Homes here were made of grass, baked mud, and even what appeared to be dung and straw.

"I don't know. Maybe we just see if Hani's story is true. If we help her, maybe she'll help us find a nasty demon we can deliver to House San. I'm mostly groping in the dark, Ngo. Speaking of which..."

Zhura took his hand and led him into a bush strewn alley between two compound walls. Their sandals crunched on discarded bones and dried fruit rinds as they ducked into the shadows.

"What now?" Ngo said.

"Now I suck your cock," Zhura murmured, her hands already snaking into his loose trousers, "and then you rut me with the summoning stone, so that we can retrieve our sanju."

"You may be irresponsible and demonic, my friend, but you are never dull," Ngo glanced through the bushes as group of men speaking a melodic foreign tongue strolled by.

Zhura fished his length out from under his tunic, and licked the head of his swelling cock.

"Oh, yes," Ngo sighed.

"You taste different." She swirled her tongue around the spongy cap.

"Bayati was... inspired... this morning."

"Mmm..." Zhura moaned, feeling his cock grow nice and fat between her lips.

*

The outer front wall of the Secret Orchid was lit with candles, the smooth surface depicting a meandering stem with white blossoms. A group of bare-chested men who reeked of palm wine chatted outside. They leered at Zhura as she strode towards the open gate.

"Busy inside," one said, grabbing his crotch. "No wait outside."

Zhura ignored him. She still tasted Ngo's semen in her mouth, and her cunt ached sweetly from the orgasm he'd given her.

A narrow yard inside the gate seemed to surround the single thatched roof building. Zhura drew aside the hide covering that hung in the doorway, lingering there so that her camouflaged sanju demon could follow. She smelled its charcoal scent, a fragrance that was soon overpowered by the skunky odor of qat smoke.

Steps led down to the sunken common room, a dim open space laid out with woven mats that were mostly filled with men, single and in groups. A grizzled pair near the back of the room played drums and a lute - what would have been called a kundi in the forest. Zhura found an unoccupied mat and sat. She dismissed the curious looks she got from the men, but spotted Ngo sitting in a corner.

Before long, a curvy woman ventured by, carrying cups. She wore only a wrap skirt, even shorter than Zhura's. Her fat nipples were pierced with brass rings, her hair braided and piled atop her head.

"What are you here for?" she said to Zhura.

"I... want a woman," Zhura said. How was this sort of trade discussed?

"You want to rut another woman?" The server gave Zhura a skeptical glance, her gaze lingering as it roamed her scantily clad body.

"Uh... Well, are there men here?"

The woman smirked. She glanced around the room. "I don't think you have to pay coin for them."

Zhura's ears grew warm. Why was this so hard? "I want to rut another woman."

"Give me a few minutes," the other said.

Zhura admired the sway of her wide hips under the skirt as the server walked away. The back of the room was walled off, but several arched doorways opened along a corridor.

A hulking, painted man ducked through one of them, entering the common room. Zhura had never seen tattoos before coming to Namu, and she'd never seen anyone with so many. Serpentine coils wrapped around his thick arms, crawled up his neck, curled over his ears, and decorated what could be seen of his chest beneath the hide vest he wore.

He surveyed the waiting area, noting Zhura, before he crossed the room and approached two men that had just entered. The painted man said something and held out his hand. The men gave him a pair of sheathed short swords.

Zhura guessed that Ngo's long knife had been taken from him when he had come in. She was glad she had left her staff behind.

The voluptuous server returned. Zhura rose and took the woman's hand. Her fingers were adorned with brass rings. The two women threaded through the increasingly crowded room. Men murmured as they passed. Zhura noted that Ngo was still waiting.

"I am Shana," the woman said as they entered the back corridor. "You are?"

"Zhura."

At one end of the hall was what appeared to be a kitchen. At the other was a closed wooden door, but the corridor turned before the door. Shana led her around the corner. Steps led down into a curtained, candlelit corridor. Zhura hoped the sanju was able to follow.

The squeals, whines, and grunts of men and women taking their pleasure sounded behind the hide-covered doorways that lined the passage. Shana passed several of these up, and then pulled aside the hanging curtain for one of the rooms.

Zhura lingered outside. The odor of smoke was weaker here, and she detected Shana's scent; sweaty and woody, like the sap of a tree.

"This is for us?" Zhura stepped in slowly.

The floor gave some under her sandals, with what seemed like clean furs laid down over a bed of reeds. Cushions, more furs, and baskets were stacked in a corner of the small room.

"What do you want, Zhura?" Shana followed her in, sweeping the door covering closed.

Zhura wondered why this seemed so difficult. By the ancestors, she'd just had a cock in her mouth. She'd had sex every day for as many days as she could remember. And yet, this was a stranger.

This was trade.

Shana held out her palm. Feeling awkward, Zhura gave her the half-shujaa Hani told her was the base price.

"What does that get me?"

Shana gave her a thoughtful look. She went to the additional mats in the corner. While the woman's attention was turned, Zhura quickly unwrapped the sanju-skin kanga she wore slung around her halter, careful to keep the scabbarded knife and the summoning stone secreted inside. The material camouflaged itself and anything sufficiently covered by it, making the bundle invisible. She unwrapped her skirt, to toss upon the cloaked items. She kicked off her sandals as well.

Shana tossed a mound of furs on the floor and then sank down, drawing Zhura atop the pile with her. She planted soft kisses on Zhura's breastbone, her tongue anointing Zhura's skin. Shana's warm hands played along Zhura's sides.

"You are a beautiful woman," Shana murmured between kisses. "I don't believe you had to come to a place like this to get rutted. Even by another woman."

She pressed Zhura down on her back, licking her navel and flat belly. The muffled cries of men and women sang a chorus of lust in the background. Zhura's cunt felt like an oven. She was certain Shana could feel the heat radiating from beneath her loincloth.

Shana's fingers hooked the strings of the flimsy garment and tugged it down over Zhura's thighs. Unlike Amina, Zhura did not shave her mound smooth, but instead left a downy fuzz of short hair.

"You're a shy one," Shana said. She nuzzled Zhura's soft hair, her nose pressing deliciously upon the flesh above Zhura's most tender spot. She teased open Zhura's nether lips and gave her unfolding slit a lick, eliciting a moan from the herb-witch.

"I want to know what it's like," Zhura whispered, "to be a whore."

It was a ploy which had only dawned upon her since her conversation with Amina that afternoon. And it wasn't entirely false. What would it be like to have sex all the time, with every sort of stranger? What power might she feel coursing through her veins?

The questions were lost upon her as Shana spread Zhura's pink petals open and began to expertly swab her cunt. Zhura lay her head back and planted her feet on the plush furs underneath them, melting under the languid attention of Shana's lips and tongue.

Shana alternated between nudging a finger into Zhura's cunt, and drawing her tongue up the sodden trench, tickling the little nub she found there. The woman took her time, gauging Zhura's reactions, sending ripples of building pleasure through her.

Then Shana stopped, pausing as if to think. "You want to be a whore?"

Zhura, still trembling on the road to an orgasm, didn't answer at first. She watched the other woman stand up and walk over to the baskets. Shana unwrapped her tiny skirt and untied the loincloth that covered her plump slit.

"I am newly come to Namu," Zhura explained. "I need coin, and..." her voice trailed off. She swallowed as she saw Shana retrieve a leather halter attached to a thick phallus of polished wood. "What is that?"

"Are you sure you want to know what it's like?" Shana buckled the straps about her waist, and then around her thighs. "To be used for the pleasure of others?"

"Yes," Zhura said quietly, at once afraid and thrilled.

She had taken Mili's cock, and this was not nearly as large. But seeing the stiff, ribbed shaft bobbing as the heavier woman approached, her face unreadable, was unnerving.

Along with the fragrance of her own sex and Shana's earthy, resinous scent, Zhura detected Mili's char. She could even hear the demon's faint panting, hidden by the cries from outside the room. It was there if one listened for it.

The sanju demon wouldn't let Zhura be hurt.

Shana firmly rolled Zhura over on her belly, and hauled her hips upward. Furs piled underneath her raised her ass obscenely, making a perfect, wet target for Shana's fake cock.

"You want to know what it's like to be rutted by strangers for coin?"

"Yes!" Zhura gasped, as the wooden phallus slid inside her.

Shana squatted over Zhura, beginning with slow, deep strokes. The ribs on the shaft rubbed deliciously against Zhura's sheath, like nothing she'd ever felt. With every thrust, her inner muscles seemed to cling to the phallus, clutching it as the woman drew it back, until just the tip remained inside her.

Shana's powerful hips drove Zhura's head into the soft floor. The plunging thrusts hit Zhura in a way she knew would make her come, and fast. She had an itch and Shana scratched her in just the right place. She had already been on the edge of an orgasm, and this would take her flying over the cliff. Zhura's eyes drifted shut. She moaned in pleasure.

With a wet, plopping sound, Shana dragged the cock completely out.

"I'm not convinced this is what you want, Zhura. Why would you seek this life?"

Zhura panted with need. She sagged on the pile of furs and twisted around to look. "Why are you teasing me? I paid you!"

"Tell me the truth. Are you a whore, or are you a fool?"

"I'm a whore."

"By my nameless father. I think you're lying to me!"

"I'm a whore!"

"Do you want to be rutted like a whore?"

"Yes."

"Beg me to rut you like a whore!"

"Rut me like a whore! Ram that cock into my yoni. Pound me with it!"