The Preacher Man

I turned to my wives after checking that the shields were up. "See what I mean? This is just a taste of what life would be like as Cunif Califar."

All four of them got up and hugged me. "Hurry back Ilias," Abby whispered. "We still have so much to tell you."

Chapter 40. Compassion in Paradise

Time: January 4, 8240 8:28 PM

"Gosh, this place is so beautiful," I thought, as I dried myself with one of the fluffy cathedral beach towels. I couldn't imagine a more idyllic setting. The air temperature was 27C, the same as the water, and with the sun down for almost three hours the sand felt cool beneath my bare feet. Directly above my head, perhaps two degrees north of vertical shone a brilliant waxing moon, right at its transmit point and just a few days shy of full. I had just spent the last two hours snorkeling in the dark waters of the Caribbean, and considered it an experience of a lifetime. Such wonder! My only regret was that my wives could not share my joy with me. It was that beautiful.

Gazing out over the calm waters, I saw four scuba men briefly emerge about thirty meters off shore. They flashed me brief hand signals, asking if I were finished with my swim. I signaled affirmative and good night, and then we saluted each other before they returned to their military speedboat a few hundred meters out.

Wonderfully efficient, I thought. It struck me as odd when I first realized that none of the Ruling Royalty I knew bother to learn the guard's sign language, but that's the attitude of the world's elite. Perhaps someday it'll change.

The beach for a kilometer in both directions was part of the Giza Cathedral private grounds, and except for a few three-man teams of my security detail was completely deserted. It had been an exhausting three days of negotiations and this free time was my first opportunity to relax and unwind. I decided to take a shower at an opulent beachside bath facility, and then just trot back to my quarters and sack out.

As the warm soapy water washed the salt from my skin, I thought of Faisal's original time estimate and realized his outside guess had been accurate. All the principles of the agreement were now in place, and our one final session tomorrow morning from 6 AM to noon should be more than enough time to hammer out the final details. Three days after I had arrived, tomorrow I would probably have a short victory lunch with my host and then fly my ramjet back to Qataban.

Faisal was absolutely correct. The trip was well worth the effort, absolutely essential in fact. An opportunity had arisen to expand a disagreement between his group and another Health sub-faction that had opposed giving me Dalma as my Domine. It turned out the center of the opposition was the Health sub-faction in charge of the evolution of the human genome, the very township of my Domine. No wonder Faisal wanted me there in person.

The negotiations over the last three days had been swift and furious, but I finally got the hang of Health's classic battle tactics, learning how to tear down my position and reform it before my opposition could tear down theirs. It really is a very effective way of bargaining if you can think that fast. By late afternoon today, my opposition suddenly realized I had maneuvered them into arguing against their own original position, and at that point they gave up. All that's left for tomorrow is for me to be gracious in the details and let them come out of this encounter with something they can declare victory about. Faisal couldn't be more pleased.

The executive suite facilities of the Giza cathedral were vast, and the several dozen members of the negotiation teams were widely spread out, giving us all a lot of privacy. My own suite was on the short deserted wing nearest the ocean. Incredibly to me, the other negotiators preferred the town views on the other side of the main sanctuary. How could anyone ever get tired of looking at the ocean? I pray I never become that stupid.

I nodded and exchanged salutes with two of my personal guards stationed outside my quarters. I recognized them as Nasuh and Sati, the CL-8 commander and his CL-7 deputy. I had saved Nasuh's life five months ago, in the coal mines of Antarctica. As with all of my guard, the men had permanent permission to be informal with me if there were only guard present.

"Your room is secure sir," Nasuh said quietly as I approached them.

I was sure that simple sentence was the result of an intense and thorough scan, bordering on fanatic. I nodded in appreciation of all the hard work. "Beautiful night for a swim. I hope the scuba teams took a second or two to admire the scenery."

Nasuh and Sati both cracked thin smiles. They thought I was joking. Ah well. I yawned. "Big day today. I'll probably read for a short while and then sack out. Think you can find a few volunteers to join me for a 4 AM run down the beach Nasuh?"

We both smiled. The rights to be my personal duty guards were fiercely competed for. "Oh, I think we can manage to find a few sir," he replied with a grin. "Pleasant evening sir."

Was his grin just a bit mischievous? Very unusual if it were. We exchanged final salutes and then I retired to my quarters. I activated my privacy shields and then picked up some notes from the day's work, intending to review a few subtle points in the agreements that had been reached. As I approached my bedroom I froze. My instinct was telling me I was not alone. I put down my papers quietly on another table and stood still, listening with all my senses.

My mind was divided whether to be worried. Nasuh was such an efficient guardsman, the situation just didn't seem dangerous. And yet... Yes, in the bedroom. One person, I was sure of it. Unmoving. My body alert, I walked into the room and turned on the light.

There was a woman sleeping in my bed. No, not sleeping, awake but under the covers. As I turned on the lights, she slipped out of the bed and laid herself prostrate on the floor before me.

It was Dodi, one of the women who had served us a few hours ago in the dining hall. I had startled her then by asking her for her name and a few other questions about the area. And now here she was, lying on the floor before me palms up, her bare arms extended from her sides.

Like all the servant women, Dodi had been barefoot while serving dinner, wearing only a tight red halter top and short white pants. It was a kind of uniform I've come to recognize as the standard dress for the top-level slaves of the islands. Dodi was now wearing something similar, a red halter and white shorts, but both clothings now looked made of soft cotton, and the white shorts in particular were clinging to the shape of her buttocks as she lay on the floor before me.

I shook my head as if to clear it. "Dodi, what are you doing here?"

"I was assigned here, Grand Mufeto."

"Huh? Assigned by whom? Speak with complete informality." I thought for a moment, thinking if there were something else I could say to put her at ease. I realized it would probably frighten if I asked her to call me Ilias.

"Yes master, thank you for the honor. My task mistress assigned me master."

Master? Ah well, just let it go Ilias, I thought to myself. "She did huh? Dodi, what did she assign you to do?"

"To be your bed-warmer master."

I gulped. "My bed-warmer? Any idea why?"

"Master?" She paused for a moment and then continued. "The task mistress was kind enough to tell me that Grand Mufeto Faisal had noticed that I caught your eye during the dinner service tonight. Grand Mufeto Faisal gave instructions that I be your bed-warmer tonight."

I didn't know quite how to respond. I had heard vague references to this term a few times before at the islands, and I wasn't sure if it were some royal-only version of the marchette or literally just what the name implied. The room was quite cool, and after my two-hour swim in the ocean, curling up in sheets warmed by an attractive female did have a certain appeal to it.

I decided that the second interpretation would be the safest one to follow. And besides, I was on record for detesting the marchette, and had even killed a CL-15 priest over the issue. I walked over to the bed and placed my hand under the covers. "Well, you've certainly done an excellent job, wonderfully warm sheets. I'll commend you to your mistress tomorrow. Good night Dodi."

I saw her quickly wince and grimace before steeling herself and quickly wiping all emotion from her face. Was that dismay? What did I say?

"Yes master, thank you for your kindness." Taking my words correctly as a dismissal, Dodi got up off the floor and prepared to leave.

"Dodi, wait."

"Master?"

"Sit down for a moment." I gestured to a couple of nearby chairs by a bedroom window. A moment later we were sitting and looking at each other from a few feet away. The view to the west was breathtaking, a moonlit ocean, but Dodi was completely ignoring the scenery. Her attention was totally focused on me. I could tell she was also a little uncomfortable with having such an equal body position with me, but I wanted to understand the situation we were in.

"Dodi, you don't want to go?"

"Master?" She looked at me startled, clearly unused to being asked such an open-ended question by any male, let alone a Grand Mufeto.

"You looked so unhappy when I told you to leave."

"Master, it's not my place to have such emotions."

"Oh, don't worry about that. Dodi, why were you unhappy?"

"Master..." She twisted her hands and looked very nervous.

"There are no punishment issues here Dodi. Will you trust me? Just tell me the truth."

"Yes Master," she nodded and gulped. "Most of the other Mufeto are pooling their bed-warmers for group sex later this evening Master. I'm certain to be reassigned there if I leave here this early."

"Assigned to group sex?!" I could barely keep the revulsion from my voice.

"Yes Master. I was expecting I'd have a much easier time here tonight sir, especially since... Master! I'm recovering from a torn rectum, and you spoke so kindly to me during the dinner service!"

I leaned back in my chair and took a deep breath, trying to collect my thoughts. "Dodi, try to relax. I've changed my mind. I'd like you to spend the night with me."

She stared at me for a moment, her face at first one of pure relief, but then her eyes went wide with astonishment. "Because of what I said?!" She took a gulp of air and then squeaked, "Master?"

I shrugged. "Just try calling me Ilias. How do you know your rectum was torn?"

"Yes Ilias," she whispered. "Thank you for the honor." She paused for a moment, considering how to answer my question. "I was trained at Sardis as a surgical nurse. I was an extremely good one, near the top of my class, 0.5," she said a bit proudly. "I spent the last four years of my life before marriage in surgical training at the township's central hospital. Torn female rectums were 80% of our caseload." She sighed and then whispered, "I know what the symptoms are like. I think I've been sown back up okay. Still... " The faintest of whispers, "Be gentle?"

It was my turn to be nervous. No, not nervous, ashamed, so deeply ashamed. How had the world evolved into such a state, that an innocent woman was pleading with me to be gentle if I wanted anal sex with her? It suddenly struck me Abby might have an answer to that question. Just a couple of days ago, she was about to tell me something important. Well, I would be with my family this time tomorrow.

I stood up and motioned for Dodi to join me in bed. She gave me an eager smile and followed immediately. I was thinking I would just hold her for a while and either pretend or fall asleep for real.

"When does your sleep cycle start?" I asked.

"All of us girls are on a midnight to 4 AM schedule. Thank you for asking Ilias. If you could let me sleep by 2 AM, that would be fine."

She was being too generous in the extreme. A two hour delay in a purging sleep cycle was right at the edge of risking brain damage. I realized that Dodi must be very eager to please me to suggest such a limit. Either that, or in extreme fear of me, but she was not acting afraid at all, quite the opposite in fact. There was a bright smile in her eyes as she looked at me. She skipped over to the other side of the bed in a happy gait, and then I turned off the light and we both climbed in. The western windows were still giving a fine prospect of the ocean from the bed, and the shining moon would be giving us a lot of light until it set about 3 AM.

Dodi was stirring and wriggling, turning her body around completely under the covers. I reached to hold her by her shoulders, and my hand came to rest on her bare butt a few seconds before her feet popped out to rest on the pillow near my head. I had grabbed her low on her butt cheek, just where it merged with the back of her thigh, and I realized with a start that Dodi must have shed her cotton sleep shorts while she was wriggling, and undoubtedly her sleep halter too.

So much for my plans for chastely holding her and falling asleep. I had been trying to keep myself from becoming erect while talking to Dodi, and given the sexual nature of our being together had only partially succeeded. Now was my time for complete failure. Dodi's fingers had found my almost stiff penis and were holding it in a delightfully gentle yet arousing manner, and I felt a warm, moist suction on my penis head, her lips locking me just behind the ridge. I let out a small cry of pleasure as her lips began to slide and her tongue lick me.

"Where are your morals with this?" That faint question rattled in a small, isolated part of my thinking mind as the rest of my mind and all of my body eagerly slid into the pleasure Dodi was offering me. The faint voice persisted. "What would your wives think?"

My wives? Where did that thought come from? And yet... No. It is the rhyme every school boy and school girl learn at an early age, that it is the Guild who chooses the boy, and the boy who chooses the girl. And yet... No. My mind flashed back to the startled look of Abigail, as I sought her affirmation the moment before I accepted Michal's plea for marriage and bondage. And yet... Wait! There was gratitude in Abby's eyes also. And it was that gratitude that now illumined me, showing me the way to a new morality.

"Dodi, stop." I said. I found myself remarkably calm as I spoke, my new moral compass giving me the confidence of being at home.

"Hmmm?" came a muffled noise under the covers. She had worked her lips to the base of my erection, and in the sensual part of my mind, I realized her oral ministrations were exquisite, quite different than Michal's but just as lovely. Perhaps her training as a nurse, I thought. Health would have intimate knowledge of how a female could best orally satisfy a male. But none of that mattered now. Dodi and I had no foundation for having sex together, none that my wives or I now would recognize. Her sincere and kind efforts to please me had to stop.

I pulled up the covers into a tent and called out in a friendly voice, "Dodi! Come up for air! I'd like to talk with you."

My penis popped from her mouth. "Okay." She turned around and lay next to me. I caught a brief glimpse of her nakedness as she turned. The Holy! She was so incredibly lovely in the moonlight. I gazed into her face and realized I could easily read the complex set of emotions playing out in her expression. She was wondering why she didn't fear me. A Grand Mufeto had just rejected her in her job function, and yet she could see in my eyes that she had nothing to fear.

I spent the better part of an hour telling her about my life, not about my heresy of course, but many other things. Dodi responded with a mixture of obedient attention and astonishment, bewildered why I was spending the time to have a conversation she would have no memory of in just a few hours. She was grateful though, grateful for the opportunity to have a thoughtful conversation. That was something she assumed she would never have again in her life. I finished with a detailed explanation of how I had abolished the marchette at Karbala.

She looked at me thoughtfully at the end of my description and whispered back, "I see the analogy you're trying to make. But Ilias! Is it valid here? I freely volunteered to be a royal serving woman. I don't remember when of course, but every day I have the opportunity to change my mind. This is the very best job an unmarried virgin can hope for in the islands."

"What would happen to you if you changed your mind?"

Dodi frowned. "It wouldn't be very pleasant. I'd be assigned to hot, dirty work. The Health Guilds have an exchange program with Al Qaffey. I'd probably be working the bauxite mines for the rest of my life, maybe rotated to the plantations if I were lucky."

She thought for a moment and continued. "Life is much more pleasant here. The food serving work is easy and enjoyable, and I saw the posting of our monthly schedule at our dorms this morning. There's lots of recreation time, even days when we can spend most of our time playing at the beach. I'm sure I must enjoy that."

"Dodi, you can't enjoy having your rectum torn by an uncaring stranger mounting you."

She bit her lip. "No, I suppose it. I'm grateful I have no memory of that. But I wasn't fearful with you tonight. I was truly enjoying myself, giving you such obvious pleasure, before you stopped me. I'm very well trained for it. And... It felt nice to have your hand on my butt as I suckled you. It felt intimate, the way I imagined sex would be when I was a monastery girl."

I sighed. "When did you graduate?"

"I finished my sabbatical the end of May, 8226."

"Ah. So you're nine years older than I am."

Dodi looked startled for a moment. "Yes, you mentioned how you rode the lion. That's amazing."

"So what happened? That you're not married, I mean."

Dodi sighed. "I wish I knew. They would never write about such a thing in my marriage book of course. I do remember my marriage day, the preparation, the Prayers, being strapped to the medical gurney. My very last memory before today was of very bright lights. I'm a nurse. I know the physiology. The preparation drugs before the eternity drugs caused my eyes to dilate. Do you know the dilation is measured? When my irises got to a certain size, that's when the eternity drugs were injected."

I grimaced. "Yes, I know."

"Ilias! You just grimaced?!"

I nodded, my mind a whirlwind of emotion and thought. My heart was pulling at me for action, and my morals were in full agreement, but what about my thought? Michal was an invaluable role model for my other undamaged wives, but did they need another? What were the risks? Was I jeopardizing our mission, our lives' goal? And yet, my heart was pulling me to compassion, to compassion and joy, to accept the risk and the great unknown future. And if I fell because of this, I could still stand before my Holy with a peaceful heart.

"Dodi, what if there were another option? My Domine is at Qataban now. I was stationed there briefly about five years ago. There was a critical shortage of skilled nurses at the township hospital, and I doubt if that has changed. Would you like a job as a surgical nurse?"

She was quiet a long time. "That's my dream," she whispered, "but it's not possible. There's a strict convention that locks me into servitude here. Ilias, you would have to spend an enormous amount of political capital to pull me from here."

"There is a way Dodi," I whispered back. "I want to marry you."

She shuddered and was speechless for a moment, and then very softly Dodi began to cry.

Chapter 41. No Easy Model

The following afternoon...

Time: January 5, 8240 11:50 AM

The world from 22,000 meters is an awesome sight. As my ramjet rocketed southward to Qataban, I was in an aisle seat with Dodi at my side. She kept her face pressed against the window. A small display at the front of the passenger cabin was showing our current speed at 4,035 kph. The weather was clear and calm, and the scenery below was changing far too quickly to ever be boring.