The Exchange Ch. 05

Inka had already gained a reputation among her servants. Inka the Kind, the Patient, the "Easy to Serve," she didn't have any issues in her apartment with having enough help.

For example, there were some masters and mistresses who preferred not to hear their servants chatting when nearby. And sadly, whenever the master or mistress would be close by, most of the servants had to refrain from speaking unless directly addressed by someone important.

Inka wasn't this way. She didn't care how much the maids talked as long as they knew to be quiet when someone was taking a nap. In fact, Inka preferred to know what they were talking about. She'd purposely walk around as if she was terribly bored and was looking for some art to admire, and she'd listen to the maids as if their words were made of gold.

Dey, the newest one, the one with the thin frame that had nearly been punished by Princess Lataa, she was dusting a long sideboard in a dining room when Inka happened to wander in. "That girl's a mess of a person," Dey said. "You can trust my words."

The maid Dey had been talking to was sweeping the tiled floor. "Oh? She does sound nasty."

Her bare feet quiet on that hard floor, her toes feeling the grout between each colorful square, Inka slipped over to a cupboard to take a cup.

"She's lazy, and she's even said the rudest things about foreigners," continued Dey. "If she were to serve our gentle mistress, she might cause trouble."

That was when Inka announced her presence with a light statement. "Pardon me?"

The maids turned to look at her as they worked. "Yes, Mistress?" they both said at the same time.

Inka poured herself a cup of water. She didn't need to do that. Someone else would've done it for her, but she honestly thought it would've been faster to pour it herself. "This troublesome maid you've mentioned, Dey, would you please tell me her name?"

***

Zahid.

She was tall and trim with black, fine hair that was usually up in a topknot. Like Dey, she'd worked in the Communal Serving Department. That was the section of servants who tended to parts of the palace that weren't part of private apartments, including the separate guest rooms.

Inka made up an excuse in her application to the Staff Management Office. "My latest prize from the Communal Serving Department, young Miss Dey, she's often pined for the company of her lost friend. If they are willing to transfer Miss Zahid to my apartment, then I'd be eternally grateful." Apparently, the Communal Serving Department had a bit more workers than they needed, because they sent Inka a maid again. The new position would come with a lighter amount of work and a pay raise, but Inka imagined Zahid wouldn't be happy.

And very quickly, Inka's assumption was proven correct. It only took three days for the other servants to tire of her.

"Oh, Miss Jorun," one maid said whispered to Inka's attendant one morning, "why did Her Highness take that balding brat into this apartment? She's so disrespectful and lazy! Hardly works and complains about everything, even about the both of you! The housekeeper's already beaten her twice!"

Certainly, Jorun gave this information to Inka some time after that, but in the meantime Jorun told that particular maid, "I believe Her Highness is trying to show her kindness to Zahid, which would disprove all the unpleasant things she dares to say. The fact that she's still talking is a miracle. Any other mistress would have her tongue cut out by now."

Whenever Inka was personally served something, it was usually by Jorun or Dey, or one of the other servants that seemed happy with Inka. This was fine and lovely, especially when Inka had a guest. It would be so frightening to have a servant embarrass her in front of a guest, not that even Zahid would dare to do that.

So, one morning, she gently said to Jorun, "Have Zahid serve my breakfast to me."

Not long after the command was given, Zahid appeared with a tray of food and tea in her tight hands. She looked like she was ready to explode, her face red and her blinking uneven. She set the tray on the table with slightly more force than required, making some of the tea jump out of its cup and splatter around.

But Inka only smiled as the other maids gasped. "It's only a small accident, Zahid. Fret not."

The air that blew out of Zahid's nose sounded like steam.

"Wipe the tray clean." Inka looked to another maid. "Have a second cup prepared for me."

Jorun refused to start her meal until Inka had her new cup of tea, but she did watch Zahid fetch a towel with a painful expression.

Prince Nitishila visited the apartment later in the afternoon. Inka wasn't afraid of admitting she was glad to see him. He had a habit of petting her ... in more than one way, depending on the situation. He looked at her with warmth in his face and rubbed his beard on her cheek. He even let her run her fingertips in that beard as they sat down in her gazebo, watching a light rain fall and smelling the refreshing moist air.

They sat on a bench with a long, cushioned seat and some pillows. Cuddling was easy.

When someone arrived to hand Inka and Jorun servings of iced fruits, Inka offered a bite or two to the prince, but he refused very gently. "You might not be used to the weather yet," he told her. "Enjoy your fruit, and when it's gone, wet your nape with the ice." As a possible afterthought, he said with a nod of his head, "The same for your attendant. She's just as vulnerable as you."

Relying on this man was a very, very gratifying action.

Inka sighed and put more food in her mouth, but then she picked up a chunk of ice and quickly tapped his nose with it. The prince's eyebrows rose and he smiled. Then he put an arm around her waist and kissed her ear. His newly cooled nose tickled her and made her shiver.

Fate was being so kind!

Sometime later, Inka escorted her husband around as if she was giving him a tour. "Isn't this painting well made? What of this plant? Doesn't it add something special to this room? Do you know who carved this table? It's so strong and elegant." Inka was more talkative than normal. She was quite pleased to notice her husband was playing close attention to her.

They paused at a window to admire its frame.

Inka hushed and initiated an embrace, letting her hair be petted.

That was when Inka heard some maids talking in the next room.

"I won't apologize!! That so-called princess is a stupid Eiraglan! Her accent's slow, her face is ugly, and she doesn't know how to dance! She has less of a brain than a inn server!"

Inka gasped, putting her fingers at her lips, and said in almost a whisper, "Zahid?" Then she looked up at her husband's suddenly wrinkled and furious face. "Oh, no." Inka's teal eyes widened. She reached up to gently take one of his necklaces in her fingers. "Please don't be cross."

He didn't listen. He yanked her fingers away and marched right into the next room.

Inka hurried to catch up.

She heard a fleshy smack.

Then she stopped to see Zahid kneeling on the floor, clutching her own cheek, while the other servants were prostrating and begging him to cool his anger. Inka heard Mamun walk past her and saw him kneel at the prince's feet. "Oh please, Master! Please don't endanger your health by worrying over a lowly maid!"

Jorun was soon behind Inka. "I hope he hasn't damaged his hand."

The enraged prince didn't listen to any of that. He was pointing at Zahid, yelling, his voice echoing almost like he was in a cave. "How dare you disrespect my wife?! How dare you insult me and the empire?! What sort of parents could raise such a filthy little wretch?!"

But Inka took his pointing hand, and she stopped his loud denunciation by kneeling, and then doing something completely unexpected.

"Dear Husband," she said in a subdued voice, gazing up at his face, "Please show leniency. I don't feel disrespected."

"How can you not?!" the prince said in a voice that was still loud, but held much less acidity.

Inka let go of his hand.

And she prostrated.

She wasn't normally expected to do that before him.

Most people gasped and whispered.

The prince quietly said her name. Her given name.

"Inka? What are you doing? Rise, rise immediately."

Inka's state of mind was far too inflexible right then. With her cheek on the unforgiving, harsh floor, Inka said, "I believe a person should be free to criticize anyone, as long as they aren't committing libel nor slander. Please, please don't have this maid's tongue cut away. Please have mercy."

Nobody said anything, not even breathed particularly loudly, for half a minute.

Then the prince cleared his throat.

"Inka ... if ... if you have forgiveness in your heart, then ... then I'll let the maid have it. However," his voice rose a little here, "I refuse to let this idiocy go unpunished. I want her demoted, sent off to the Communal Serving Department. Specifically, I want her sent to the pot scrubbers."

Whenever a chamber pot was too full, the lid was tied in place, and it was replaced by a new pot. All the full pots were sent to the pot scrubbing sub-section of the Communal Serving Department. Zahid's demotion was very, very unpleasant.

After Zahid had been taken away, and after Inka had finally gotten back to her feet, the prince held her close and repeated her name in her ear. It was then that Inka found the courage to call him by his first name. Nitishila. Like sugar on her tongue.

Nitishila.

A very nice husband, more than she'd assumed was possible.

She was particularly ravenous when night came and Nitishila took her in his arms in her bed. Her kisses were every bit as intense as his. Her tongue gave just as many licks. She thought she'd have the taste and texture of his teeth imprinted in her brain for the rest of her life. Her fingers caressed around and around his nipples. Her thighs clasped on one of his, and her groin learned how interesting manly leg hair could be. It seemed to be coaxing her blood. She ground her hips to keep the feeling for a bit longer. Then Nitishila put her on her back and licked in her ear, making her jolt and muffle a squeal.

The next thing he said made her squeal louder.

"Let me have a sip of your wine."

His palms dragged on her skin as he pushed himself to his knees, and he pulled her legs and thighs up. Strange, it almost felt like she was floating. That was how gentle he was.

Then it turned less gentle. Fantastic but still less gentle.

His beard was so rough on her delicate, most fragile, blushing parts.

He licked her labia open, and that alone made her toes jiggle. But he stretched his tongue inside, humming, a waterfall of sound and delight. Inka's head was moving back and forth and her fingers tore at the bed-sheets as if she was objecting to an assault. His palms were plying and searing her buttocks. His fingertips even brushed over her anus a few times.

When the tongue moved on to the clitoris, lapping up and down and then around, seeming to practice writing an alphabet, Inka screamed once. Then she slapped and nearly flattened her own lips. Her belly and chest moved with the panicked breath rushing in and out of her nostrils. She thought the pleasure was a contradictory thing. Shouldn't she feel as if her flesh was torn away by sandpaper?

"Hm! Hm! Hmmmmmmm!!" She couldn't make a legitimate word. Even if she wasn't muffling herself, she knew she'd only give the most ridiculous noises.

Death.

Sudden death.

That's what it had to be. She was dying.

Except for touch, every sense she had was gone. Everything was dark. Her nerves were smoldering and sparking. She was almost certain that she was kicking and flailing about. If she wasn't so wild, she'd have been concerned about hurting her husband. But then again, if she wasn't so wild, she might not have been kicking him in the first place.

It was as if she was standing near the edge of a cliff, leaning a bit, about to fall.

Then she fell.

"Niti!!"

When did she release her lips? When did she decide she could call him Niti?

Since when ...

Rolling about.

They were both on the mattress, holding each other again, tumbling, kissing. She learned her own musk's flavor, but that was a tiny note in a margin of a long, long scroll.

Then her hips were held.

He hit the target with fine accuracy.

Her body was moist and open for him, but also constricting where it needed to. It was perfection.

"In ... kah ... hah ... hah ... Inka!" Nitishila was panting into her neck again. That was one of his favorite spots. "You ... you ... I can't ...!"

She hushed him by pulling his mouth to her and kissing him, his hair feeling like warm water gliding over her hands.

They reached their climaxes close to the same time, as they usually did.

***

On the next morning, as Inka watched the rain from a window, Jorun mentioned the now gone Zahid in Eiraglan. "That girl was too foolish," she said as she put a tray of snacks on a table near her mistress. "You never beat her. You never scolded her. Her only punishments were from the housekeeper, and even then you often requested a few less strikes, as if you pitied her."

Jorun sat down near Inka and sighed. She even reached up to twirl some of her hair around her fingers. "Almost every word of hers was ornery. It was a matter of time for one of your guests to hear her say something disrespectful." Jorun perked a little, her shoulders and small chest rising. She smiled. "But you handled the situation beautifully. Now word of your compassion will spread like a cooling rain."

As Jorun looked at Inka, and as she noticed Inka's ankles smoothly crossing, the redhead weaved her own fingers together and her eyebrows rose.

"Mistress?"

Inka put one of the snacks in her mouth. Quietly chewing, she gestured towards Jorun, offering her one. Jorun leaned in to take it. She popped it in and chewed too.

Some moments later, Jorun quietly said, still in Eiraglan, "So that's why you hired her."

***

Nitishila's apartment had a bit less flowery imagery in the decorations, but it was still an elegant and comfortable place. Inka had been invited to visit him there. In her mind, she silently admitted that she was very excited to go. It was an unusually cool day, and so she was wearing a bit more fabric than normal, but it wasn't frigid by any stretch of the imagination.

For a time, the couple sat together, listened to a musician play a xylophone, and nibbled on treats. Nitishila even personally put rosewater cubes in her mouth, using a fingertip to caress her lips and cheeks. He'd even lick his own lips as he did that.

And ... well ... he'd also whisper in her ear ...

Filthy words, words he'd said he learned over time.

Words she was never supposed to hear.

With all his civil, noble tones pushed aside.

So a cunt was a woman's special part, and a cock was a man's special part. And there were more special little parts. Like a clit or a slit, or some balls or a taint. Inka knew those words would haunt her brain forever, like stains. Whenever she had to think of her ... parts ... or her husband's parts ... she'd use those words.

At first, Inka thought he was trying to be seductive in a raw, vulgar way. But soon, as Nitishila fed her and looked at her eyes with a smirk, she understood that he was trying to get a reaction from her. He was playing a game.

Should she let him win?

He put another candy in her mouth, and he stroked her arm as he buzzed to her, "Damn, I want your pretty cunt in my mouth again."

Inka took a slow but loud breath.

Quickly chewed. Swallowed.

And she let an eyelid tremble.

"Ha!" Nitishila slapped his leg and shook Inka a bit as he laughed out, "I've done it! Haha!! I've cracked the ice mask!" Then he returned to his low whisper as he leaned back in. "I could reach into your pussy. I could. And you'd lose control, but this is fun too."

Inka held a handkerchief close to her mouth and looked at Jorun, who was kneeling on a pillow a foot or so away. Unaware of the crude words her mistress had been hearing, Jorun gave her a mild expression. Inka merely offered a little smile and looked back to her smug husband. Her smile faded away. "Dear Nitishila, I do hope you're not craving a more outlandish reaction."

"Hm?" He picked up the end of her long braid and held it to his mouth. "Are you worried I might force you to lose your composure before your loyal attendant?" He slipped the curled tuft of hair at the end between his lips and seemed to make a vain try at smoothing it. "Never fret over that, Dear Inka. I'm no sadist. I understand the limits."

Inka actually had to force herself not to roll her eyes. This man actually made her want to roll her eyes!!

They had their sweets for a few more moments, and then Nitishila asked her if she wanted to meet his pets. Curious about what sort of pets this man would have, Inka agreed. She followed her husband outside and to a huge cage that was clearly a shelter for some sort of animal.

There was a wiry fence. Inside, there were two wooden buildings with steps, a few pools of water, a few thick trees, a few stray balls of rubber that seemed to big for a child to play with, and thick ropes with knots strewed around.

The couple didn't stay outside at first. They went inside a small, separate building with plenty of food and drink, where Mamun and some other servants helped Nitishila remove all his jewelry and change into a practical, athletic outfit. For the sake of keeping Jorun's virginal, unmarried eyes from seeing a married man's crotch, a paper screen had been folded out to hide the prince. When Nitishila emerged, his hair was in a high knot. He had a simple white shirt and a pair of slightly less baggy pants. His feet were in leather boots.

"Oh my," Inka said, "you're so distinguished."

With visible humor, Nitishila's nose wrinkled and he put his hands on his hips. "Your mouth is a well maintained fountain's spout, always pouring out the best water." Then he clapped his hands once. "Well, come and greet Abhay and Lalita, but keep outside the fence. You have no business inside."

Assuming there would be some large, strong dogs inside the shelter, Inka again followed her husband, Jorun and Mamun also tagging along.

A servant opened a gate to let Nitishila inside, and the prince stood a moment with a hand near his mouth. He called out, "Hey! Heeeeeey!! Are you napping?!"

Confident, elegant, and intimidating, two adult tigers came from the wooden buildings. Their fur was gold and orange with spots of white and long black stripes. Jorun gasped and took some steps away from the fence. Inka's eyes only widened a small bit and one foot slightly moved back.

Chuffing, the tigers approached, and Inka's heart jumped and quivered as she watched her husband wrestle with them. Her instincts demanded that she cry out, but she knew this was something her husband was used to doing. He'd apparently dealt with these animals for a long time. Eventually Nitishila was able to lure the tigers close to the fence, and those cats curiously chuffed at Inka. Unable to imitate the breathy noises, Inka simply watched them.

Half an hour later, during which Nitishila played chasing games with the tigers, it was time to go. Nitishila told the cats goodbye and he left the shelter. He was a dirty, panting mess of a person, and he had a few superficial scratches, but he was grinning.

"What a bold man I've married," Inka remarked with a sigh.

"Yes, yes." He waved her words off. "That's fine. Now go rest and take some water while I wash and change clothes. I want to introduce you to my other pet."

Inka vaguely wondered if the next pet would be a whale in a water tank.