The Hidden Island

I noticed that she was growing more comfortable with English. "Have your masters not cared for you?"

"Some have," she said softly. "More have been cruel. When they discover I can feel pain, and can heal without scarring - "

She looked at her lap, and a tear fell onto her restless hands. "They tortured me," she breathed, "sometimes for years..."

"Forget all that," I said, and she looked up quickly. There was a look of wild hope on her beautiful face.

"Master - is that a command?"

I looked at her, and I understood.

"Yes," I said.

She came close to me so quickly I hardly saw her move, and she hugged me in gratitude, trembling; it was like being embraced by God.

Then she closed her eyes, gave a deep sigh - and when she opened them again, her smile seemed somehow more open, less fearful.

She blinked. "What were we talking about?"

I smiled. "We were talking about your powers, and how they differ from those of other djinn," I said.

She shook her head as if to clear it. "Oh, yes," she said.

My stomach rumbled. "Are you hungry?" asked Helen. "I can provide whatever food you wish."

I blinked at her. "Uh - okay. How about a Pizza Hut thin-crust meat lover's pizza with extra cheese?"

She picked up the flat red box beside her on the steps and opened it. There it was, just as I ordered it - and steaming-hot.

There were no pyrotechnics, no flashes of light or puffs of smoke; it was just there, where it hadn't been an instant before. "Does it please you?" she asked.

I was already stuffing my face. I had had nothing to eat but fruit and fish for months. "Mmglmph," I said, nodding, and she giggled. It was a silvery sound. "Two Cokes," I said around the pizza, "with crushed ice."

She held them out to me. "No, one of them is for you," I said. "Here, have some pizza too."

She looked at me oddly. "Master, djinn need no food or drink."

I grinned at her. "Can you eat it, and enjoy it, if I tell you to?"

Her amazing eyes widened. "Oh, Master - do you mean it? I have not tasted food in so long - when I was awake, I mean. Even Odussos never thought of it. And he was a good Master."

I pointed at the box and the cup. "Eat, Helen," I said. "Drink. And savor it. Enjoy it. Love it. I want you to be happy."

Watching me, she took a bite and began to chew - and then her eyes opened wide, and she took another.

"Mmglmph," she said, then giggled with her mouth full. She swallowed. "It's good. Oh, it's so good - " She took another bite.

"Don't forget the Coke," I said.

"Mm." She took a sip and smiled - then spit it out, shocked. "It's alive!" she gasped.

I laughed. "No, it's just fizzy. It has bubbles. Like some spring water. It won't hurt you - it just makes you burp."

"Oh." She took another sip. "It's sweet."

I took another slice of pizza. Helen had a smear of tomato sauce on her perfect cheek. It was somehow endearing. She took another sip of Coke - and then, sure enough, she burped.

The look of innocent surprise on her beautiful face was priceless.

It was strange; I had not yet grasped the idea that this stunningly lovely, perfect creature was my slave. I was too busy falling in love.

---

After the pizza, I ordered hot-fudge sundaes, which she adored, and then some coffee, which she didn't so much. Helen was sipping at her second Coke and looking at me. Her expression was unreadable. "What?" I asked.

"You are not like my other masters," she said. "You treat me like I am a real woman."

"Like you have feelings?" She nodded, her eyes on my face. "Don't you?"

She blinked, confused. "Yes - but - but they do not matter. My only function is to please you."

"What if it pleases me to see you happy?"

She looked at me as if I had turned green. Her incredible face wore a charming, heartbreaking look of puzzlement as she struggled with the concept.

"But my other masters - they just wanted to - " I saw her mouth working as it wound itself around the word. "They just wanted to fuck me. And watch other men fuck me. And have me suck them. And - and other things. With animals. And things that hurt - " She looked even more puzzled. "I can't remember - "

I said nothing. I didn't want her to remember that she ever could.

"I guess twelve thousand years is a long time not to matter," I said.

Helen gazed at me. Her face - that astonishing face - was as blank as a child's.

After a moment, she shook her head again, clearing it, and said, "This is not what I am for. This is not why I exist." She set her jaw prettily and asked sternly, "Master, what do you want me to do for YOU?"

There were a million things I wanted, but as I gazed at her face - that perfect, hauntingly beautiful face - they all came down to only one.

"Love me, Helen," I said.

Her sweet mouth fell open.

"Please me because you want me to be happy," I said, "not because you have to obey me. Care about me, like me, need me, be glad that I care about you. Let me love you and make you happy - and love me in return."

She sat there with her mouth still open, the smear of tomato sauce still on her cheek. I wiped it off with my finger. "Can you do all that?"

She blinked, still uncomprehending. "Do you not want to - make love to me? To have me dance for you and sing to you and give you pleasure?"

I noted the change of verb. "Of course," I said. "But because you love me and you want to.." She blinked again, her face blank.

"Listen to me, Helen," I said. "I will never hurt you. I will never command you to do anything you don't want to do. I will love you and cherish you as the precious gift that you are. And I will never, ever, seal you back inside that jar."

I went on: "I love you, Helen. How can I not? You're the most beautiful woman who ever was - but it's more than that. Even after all you've been through, for so very long, your heart is gentle and pure. You are sweet and kind as well as beautiful. You deserve to be happy. I want to make you happy."

I swallowed. "Let me set you free, Helen. If there are words I must say or something I have to do to give you your freedom, I'll do it. You've been a slave long enough. I love you. I want you to be free, whether I'm with you or not. You can send me back to my world, and go wherever you like and do whatever you wish, and never see me again."

Tears were flowing down her cheeks. She spoke softly. "I have known many, many men, Master. Some have been kind to me. Most have been cruel. A few I have even cared for." She wiped her eyes, and her lovely face crumpled.

"But none have ever cared for me. Not like this. Not like you."

She sat up straight. "Command me to love you, Master. That is my desire. I want this." She held out her perfect hand, and I took it. My own eyes were blurred with tears. "Command me," she said again, ever so softly.

"Love me, Helen," I said. "Love me with all your heart. I command it."

She melted into my arms, and I held her. "I do," she whispered. "Master."

"My name is John," I murmured. "Don't call me 'Master' again, Helen. Not ever."

"John," she whispered. "I love you, John."

We just held each other for a while. I had been looking for this my whole life, and had long since given up; but she had been without it far, far longer than I.

I looked down at her perfect face, inches away, and she was smiling as if she had never smiled before. Perhaps she hadn't.

And then I kissed her.

I am good with words; but that kiss was beyond any words I will ever, ever have.

---

I wouldn't rush her.

"Make love to me," she said, right after that first kiss.

"Not yet, Helen. I'm still a stranger. Let's get to know each other first."

She looked at me, puzzled yet again. "Do you not want me?"

I laughed. "Oh, Helen - oh, yes. You have NO idea. But not yet. Let's get to be friends, and then lovers." She blinked at that.

"Friends?"

I smiled. "Yes. It will mean more, much more, when we know each other better."

Her face took on an odd, thoughtful, and somehow wistful expression. "Mas - er, John - "

She smiled, and so did I. "John, there is a way that I can know you, and that you can know me. Completely."

I lifted an eyebrow. "Magic?" I asked.

"Yes. I can know everything about you - everything that has ever happened to you and everything that you think and are." She smiled slyly. "And I can know everything you like - and I can please you with that knowledge, beyond anything you have ever imagined."

I felt a little dizzy at that one.

She hesitated. "And you can know me, John. You can know all of my life - that I remember. I have forgotten the bad things - " A small line of puzzlement appeared between her perfect brows again - "I don't know why - but I remember much, and you can have it all. What I am, what I have been, what I know and can do."

She looked at me, her heart on her face, open and trusting. "No one has ever known me like that," she said. "No one has ever wanted to. But I can give you that." She looked at me hopefully. "If you want it."

"We can be - one," I said. She nodded, her chin quivering.

"What do I have to do, Helen?"

A tear fell from one beautiful violet eye. "Lie down."

I did; and as she moved near me, she asked, "John, do you trust me?"

"Of course," I said.

"Hold that in your heart. This will be very strange to you." She kissed me; and then she turned and lay down on top of me, facing up, as I was -

It took me a moment to grasp it. Helen lay down INSIDE me; her body and mine occupied the same space. Her face and body was my own, and mine hers.

Just as I realized that, it began.

How to find words? I was inside Helen; I WAS Helen. I knew her heart, from the inside - and it was as gentle and loving and pure as I had sensed - and so, so much more deeply wounded.

All her memories flooded into me at once, so many, so many -

I was the sweet and innocent shepherd girl, tending my father's goats on that windswept Mesopotamian plain, so long ago.

I was nodding, agreeing to the ancient wizard's bargain - and he WAS ugly, and doubtfully human.

I was in his tent, for months, being changed into something both more and less than I was; pain, and ecstasy, and terror, and power unspeakable, all flowing through me and I through them.

I was weeping furious tears, learning of his betrayal and seeing my jar for the first time - new then, smooth and polished, carved with signs and symbols that no one now can read.

I was crying bitterly when he prepared to send me into the jar, his aged, misshapen face drawn and weak. There was darkness for a moment then, and I couldn't see what was happening; and then I was looking at the wizard again, my heart oddly lighter. And then I went inside the jar, and slept.

I was waking, for the first time, learning that the old wizard was dead - and meeting my first Master.

He was a warchief of a tribe not my own. I was his plaything, till he was killed - and then I became the plaything of another, and another, and another, down through long ages of fear, and pain, and servitude.

I saw cities now forgotten and palaces now dust; the rise and fall of kings and nations unknown today. I was passed from hand to hand, always through violence and death, theft and betrayal. No one gave me up willingly.

I danced naked before armies to spur them to fight, and - served them - all of them - as their reward for victory. I was the price of peace-treaty, and the spoils of war; and more than one war was fought over who would possess me.

I learned all there was to learn of war and death and duplicity and raw lust and blinding pain and perversion unimaginable - but nothing, nothing, nothing of love.

I saw the Pyramids gleaming white and new, and the walls of Ur and Babylon and Mycenae and Jericho and Thebes, freshly built. I saw a thousand black ships that had come to bring me home - and I saw Troy burning.

And, finally, I knew ten years of peace, here on this island with Odussos. He was my last and best Master. I mourned him.

And then I met - me.

I saw myself through Helen's eyes, and I knew what she felt then, and still felt. Confusion, and a hope obscure to me - and finally, love.

She knew me, too. From my earliest memories to the moment we lay down together, she knew my every thought and emotion, all the hidden things and private thoughts and doubts and fears and passions and lost hopes and bleak despair. She knew me like I knew myself - or better.

And I knew - with trembling wonder - that she loved me all the more.

I knew that Helen loved me, yes. She had to - that had been my command - but she had wanted to love me and be loved by me, more than anything she had ever wanted or known.

After twelve thousand years, Helen had found her last Master, her only love, and her soul-mate.

And that was me.

---

We lay together, one being, within and around each other, for a long time after it was done. We spoke without speaking, and I cannot tell which of us said what: .

Now you know.

Yes.

And you love me.

No other.

Never, not ever.

You are mine. I am yours.

We are one.

We are one....

We must separate now. But we can be one again whenever you choose.

That last was Helen; when she felt my assent, she sat up and moved beside me, then turned and touched my face.

"You alone could see the island," she said. "Now you know why." I looked at her blankly. "It was meant to be," she said softly. "I am your destiny, John. And you - you are mine. Perhaps more than you know."

---

Even then, we did not make love. Not right away.

We looked at each other, just looked, for a long time. I knew Helen - and Helen knew me - like I had never known, or been known by, anyone. Or, I realized, ever could be.

How could I - just me, just ordinary John - ever be so lucky? So blessed?

Her face, her incredible face, was my heart. Our hands clasped, and my hand - my aging, slightly arthritic hand - held her small and perfect one as if she were made of glass. I looked ruefully at the contrast.

Helen smiled. I learned later that my thoughts were open to her for hours after we melded. "Would you like to be young again, John?"

I gaped at her. "Can you do that?"

"Of course," she said.

I thought. I had learned what she could do, as she had said I would. And I knew that she had done it before, but rarely - few of her masters had ever owned her long enough to need it.

I grinned at her, and though she said nothing and did not move, I felt - different. It took less than an instant, from one tick to time to another, as I was to learn all her magic worked.

I looked in wonder at my hand; it was smooth and young, my own, but the hand I had had as a teenager. An old scar on my thumb - the record of a mishap with a butcher knife - was gone.

I stood, without a trace of the middle-aged awkwardness and stiffness that I had come to accept - and I looked down.

I was lean, and tanned, and strong from my time on the island - and I was young.

I looked down at her, and she giggled with delight. We laughed, and as we laughed I picked her up and swung her around like a child.

I put her down, and she smiled. "You're so strong, John," she said.

That was the first time Helen had ever used a contraction. "Your English is growing more natural," I said.

"I learned from you," she said. "I like this language. It's so much more expressive than Greek."

I grinned. "I suspect you spoke a very archaic kind of Greek," I said. "And Heaven knows what before that."

She frowned.

"What did I say?"

"Later," she said. "There are things you still do not - don't know. But now isn't the time."

She waved it away. "Come with me, John." She gave me that sly smile again. "There is so much I want to show you..."

Goosebumps. The fine hairs rose on my arms, and I looked down at her body. She giggled.

"I have a surprise for you, down by the lagoon. Come on!" she laughed. She kissed me and darted away, and I ran to follow.

Her perfect ass quivered so fetchingly as she ran -

Suddenly I was aching for her. She looked back and giggled. She knew.

---

It was an Arabian-style tent, silk, in muted earth colors, with a shaded entry. Helen had placed it right on the beach, above high tide. Inside, the sand was covered with luxurious carpets. There were enormous silken cushions scattered about, and the walls were draped with more silk.

There were several sleeping options; besides the cushions, there was an enormous leather sofa, perfect for snuggling, and to one side, incongruous but welcome, was an enormous, king-sized, four-poster bed. I looked around and smiled. "Very nice," I said.

Helen's eyes twinkled. "Our home, if you like it."

"I do." I moved to take her in my arms - but to my surprise, she lifted a pretty hand and stopped me.

"There's more," she said with an impish smile. She gestured invitingly at a curtain at the rear of the tent.

I lifted the curtain - and burst into laughter.

Behind the curtain was a western-style bathroom, done in white tile, with a perfectly ordinary toilet. Wonderful. I had had enough of going in the bushes.

I looked at her wryly. "You don't need one of those, do you?"

She giggled. "No. The food I eat vanishes."

"Handy," I observed. I looked back at the bathroom.

It also contained an enormous garden tub, and a gigantic shower stall. I knew the hot water would never run out - and I shivered at the thought of sharing both with Helen.

Something seemed wrong. I looked around the bathroom. "There's no mirror," I finally said.

Helen shrugged. "I don't like mirrors."

There was something wrong with that, with the way she said it and the way she wouldn't meet my eyes. I turned her face toward mine. When she was looking at me, I asked, "Helen. Tell me. What is it?'

She looked at me sadly. "I didn't want you to know," she whispered. Then she nodded toward the sink.

There was a mirror above it now. I stood behind her and looked -

In the mirror, I was alone.

I looked at Helen beside me, then back at the mirror. She wasn't there.

"What - "

"John..." She looked up at me solemnly. "John - the djinn have no souls." She pointed at the mirror. "This is the sign of it."

I blinked at her stupidly. "You mean - "

"We live long, but not forever. And after this life, however long it is - for us, there is nothing." She smiled, and shrugged. "This life is all we have. So let's make the most of it."

I felt punched in the stomach. "But isn't - "

"There is hope. But I cannot speak of it." She looked into my eyes and asked me a second time: "John, do you trust me?"

I nodded dumbly.

The mirror vanished. "Then, please - trust me. Don't mention this again." She smiled at me strangely - and I could sense that there was something else I didn't know.

I looked at her for a long moment, watching her eyes - and then I nodded silently. "It'll be all right, John," she said hopefully. "I'm sure of it."

I let it go. I had to.

---

We dined on aged prime beef and perfectly baked potatoes, fresh asparagus, a delicious cheese souffle, and crisp sugar-snap peas, with a heavenly red wine. Helen had set a Louis XIV table and chairs on the beach near our tent; and when we were finished, they - and the dirty dishes - vanished as if they had never been. I smiled; housework will be a nonissue, I thought.

It was a sad smile. I couldn't stop thinking about what Helen had told me.

After the meal, we snuggled on the enormous sofa in our tent. Our hearts were already one; soft music came from nowhere as we began to learn about each other's bodies.

I held Helen close and kissed her - for how long, I can't say. It seemed like ten minutes, and it seemed like hours. I was lost in her mouth and her arms and her eyes.