The Silken Slit of the Empress Ch. 05

We're back everyone! I'm sorry about the delay in getting this one out. Life, and other writing projects got in my way a little more than usual for the past week or so.

In any case, Leontius' story continues. The next couple of chapters will be light on the erotica. The background plot is starting to chug forward, so I will need some time to really build things up into a finale that I'm very excited about.

As usual, thank you to everyone that has taken the time to read, review and comment on any previous chapter. You guys are still the best!

Let me know what you guys think of this one. Enjoy.

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This place. Just when I thought that I was getting a handle on it; something would happen to knock me free of the base I'd anchored myself too.

Antonina, wife of the Empire's greatest general, had taken me with her mouth. She'd spit on her marriage vows; risking her future, happiness and respectability. And for what? A whim? A silly streak of competitiveness with her best friend?

She was perverse. She should be ashamed, not strutting away with bared breasts and lips curled into a languid smile.

I let out a breath. I shifted within the empty corridor; Antonina's door still at my back. If she was wicked; who was I then, who felt no shame at my own part in the act we'd just committed? My mother's voice, loud in the back of my head, certainly believed I should.

Where was her little lion, she asked me, who'd once so diligently walked the path she'd laid out for him?

I didn't know. I looked down at my hands; the very same ones that had pushed a woman's head down until she'd choked on my cock. I thought they looked clean. Well, not clean, but cleaner. The old blood beneath my fingernails, the stuff that I could never seem to ever scrub off, was starting to flake away.

They'd been getting cleaner since the day I'd first knelt before the Empress.

The sound of footsteps made me raise my head. I felt my stomach clench. I stiffened to attention, flicking my eyes about the space to make sure that everything was in order. It wouldn't do, for Belisarius to arrive to find me with my manhood out; my flesh still gleaming with his wife's saliva.

To my great relief; it wasn't the general that appeared down the hallway, but the Empress and Helena. Theodora glided towards me, graceful as the dancer she'd never ceased to be. She smiled, the corners of her dark eyes wrinkling in the way they did.

"Vigilant as always, my Leontius?"

"Empress," I answered, keeping my back straight.

Without conscious thought, my eyes slid past the Empress' shoulder. Helena was there. My eyes found hers, and I realized that I might not like what found there. It felt like there was a fist around my heart. Did she know? Did she know what I'd just done? I wondered, searching her smile.

She did. And for a moment, I thought I might shatter.

Helena knew, and the shifting green of her cypress eyes begged my forgiveness. She'd known what Antonina had wanted. She had failed to put herself between us. I saw relief in the folds of her face; a careful uncertainty in the shape of her smile.

Something broke within me.

She knew, and she was still here. She was glad to see me. I felt my throat squeeze itself shut. Of course, there was nothing to forgive, nothing worth dwelling on. My shield mate was here, and that was what mattered.

"You've cared well for my dear Antonina, I trust?" The Empress said, pulling my attention back. Her smile had changed. There was an extra curve to it; a hint of knowing in her eyes that made me flush. Of course, I'd never have been able to hide this from her.

"Yes, Empress." The words came out hoarse. I cleared my throat. "She is safe within her chambers."

"Indeed," Theodora answered. "Well, my Leontius, you had better let me in. 'Nina tends to lose track of time when fabric is involved."

I nodded, reaching back to open the door. The Empress brushed past me, trailing her fingers along my outstretched arm. Helena moved to follow, but Theodora looked back as she stepped past the doorway.

"Stay here, Helena. I won't be long."

Helena hesitated a moment. Something seemed to flash between them, and she nodded, stepping back and letting me shut the door. She placed herself on the door's other side, stiffening to attention, a mirror of the way I stood. She was beside me.

I let out a breath, feeling the knot within me loosen.

"You stink worse than before."

I choked on my exhalation. Helena's laughed, the sound deepening as I started to splutter. I'd sucked a bunch of spit back into my throat. I hacked and coughed, my eyes watering. Beside me, Helena's laugh deepened into that thrumming, full-bellied sound that made my stomach tingle.

She was bent over, leaning her behind against the stone wall for support. She laughed, and even through a veil of my tears, I could see the way her eyes danced.

"Not funny," I croaked.

She howled, tears starting to stream from her own eyes. "Stop," she gasped between fits of laughter. "Stop." I glared at her, and she wasn't able to speak again for another minute.

"Turn around," she managed. "Please. Don't look at me."

I grumbled, and spent another minute staring at nothing while she composed herself. "Are you done?" I asked, when I finally turned back around.

"Yes," she said, though another fit of laughter bubbled out of her. She cleared her throat. "Yes. I'm sorry."

I nodded, although I felt my own lip quirk into a small smile. "Why did you leave the box? Did we miss the race?"

Helena shook her head. "It hasn't started yet. You were gone a long time, and the Empress started to wonder. I think she wanted to catch you doing something..."

She trailed off, and heat rushed back to my face. I looked away from Helena. There it was, I thought, the shame.

"Leo," she said. "I'm sorry. I knew what she wanted. I tried, but I--"

I shook my head. "Stop. Helena, please. You did what you could, and then, you fell back and did your duty. Just as any soldier should."

"Yes, but--" She bit off her own words. My eyes flicked back to her. She was chewing on her lip, concern still written large across her features. I couldn't help but smile; feeling the final pieces of what had broken being washed away.

"It's ok, Helena. Its not like I was fighting a battle, or anything."

She snorted. "With Antonina, it might as well be. She's not known for being gentle."

I sighed. "Yeah, well, I hope that her husband is when he eventually rips my balls off. I have this theory that I might soon be the first man crucified in centuries."

She didn't laugh, like I thought she would. Beneath her coppery curls, her expression remained worried.

"Are you ok, Leo?"

I looked back down to my hands for a moment; still a little cleaner than before. "I'm alright, Helena"

"Was she that good, then?" She could tell I was telling the truth, and the words had emerged with an edge to them.

"Its not that," I said. "Although, yes, she was definitely good."

I met her eyes. Her face had hardened, and her cheeks were flushed. This time, she was the one to look away.

"Well, don't worry. You can go see her whenever you want."

"I don't want to." My eyes unfocused, looking into me while I tried to order my thoughts. "I don't like that kind of...experience. There was nothing behind it. I don't really know how to explain it." I hesitated a moment before I continued. "It was like eating just because you're hungry; taking no joy from the food. Sure, it fills you up, and sometimes that's exactly what you need. But I don't know. There can be so much more to something like that. And that's what I want."

My eyes focused back on Helena. I smiled ruefully. "I don't even know if I'm making any sense. Are you following this?"

She nodded. Her cheeks were still red, but here was something else shifting in the swaying cypress of her eyes. My heart started to beat faster. A warmth rose through me; a much softer heat than from Antonina's burning, draconic hunger.

"It wasn't that. Its that... I like it here." I stood up straighter once the words had been said, as if they'd been a weight on my shoulders. "My life isn't where it's supposed to be, and I'm becoming something other than who I was. But I think that its good. At least, some of it is. Being here with you, with the Empress; its so different than anything I was ever supposed to know. But I think... I think that I'm actually starting to be happy; even though I maybe shouldn't."

I hesitated, unable to gaze away from her. Her eyes were so soft. There was no hatred there, no disdain. Neither was there any of the cringing disgust that my mother's voice assured me would be there. I saw none of that; only understanding.

"Is that ok?" I asked.

A breeze within her shifted the green of her eyes. It showed me something else; the edge of something vast that was growing within the depths of her. I didn't know what it was, but it took my breath away.

"Yes" she said. "I think its alright."

She smiled, and that warmth spread all the way down to my toes. I opened my mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

We both started, as Antonina's voice called from within. "Open the door! We're ready."

I grumbled, and turned to push the door open. Helena turned away as well, hiding what remained of her smile.

Antonina swayed out of the room. She'd changed into a short, ivory colored dress that ended right below the knees. It was looser than the other one had been, though her chest still threatened to erupt from her neckline. My eyes briefly touched on that golden chain; resisting the urge to follow the links down to where they disappeared within the shape of her.

"Thank you, solider," Antonina said.

Her lips curled at the sight of me. She'd re-arranged her hair, had wiped her face and breasts clean. She'd washed away all evidence of our...encounter; save for the slight redness that still glowed beneath her milky flesh.

She caught sight of Helena a heartbeat later, and her expression soured.

"Antonina," Helena said, inclining her head.

"I see that you've managed to keep from disembowelling yourself with that sword of yours," she said. "I'm impressed, I admit."

"There's a long history of women skilled in the use of weapons," Helena said. "Your talent with the... spear, for example."

The blonde woman's eyes flashed. "Indeed, it is a worthy weapon. I enjoy the use of it. You would be better with that, I think."

"Perhaps. Though, is it not dangerous? I hear that you are often, ahem, skewered while you spar."

Antonina surprised me by barking out a laugh. "You seem to have found your teeth again, little 'Lena. Come, you can escort me back."

Helena nodded, flashing me a quick look before she followed behind Antonina. I didn't move, staring after them in shock. I didn't know what the hell had just happened.

"Those two have known each other a long time," I heard the Empress say. "Their friendship has always been a little...contentious."

I turned to find the Empress standing within the doorway that I still held open. She smiled when my eyes found hers. She lay a hand on my outstretched arm.

"Would you escort me back, my Leontius?"

"Of course, Empress," I answered.

I let the door close behind her, raising my arm slightly so she could hold onto it as we walked. She raised an eyebrow.

"A week ago, you would have frozen at my touch."

"Yes, Empress."

"I like this change in you."

We started walking, trailing a ways behind where Antonina and Helena still exchanged cutting remarks. Something seemed to have come over Helena, some new confidence that didn't let her simply fade into the background.

The Empress' arm shifted to loop around mine, gripping my bicep. Her skin was warm on my own.

"I worry about her sometimes," Theodora said.

"Empress?"

"Helena. I believe that she enjoys this life, at least, some aspects of it. Though, it has never been what she's really wanted. It was hard for her...before."

Her eyes were on the pair a head of us. She didn't speak again, however, until they had rounded a corner, out of sight. "In a way, of the three of us, Helena was the strongest. Though, her strength could be almost brittle. She's stubborn. And there were times when that rigidity cost her. Although, perhaps that is changing as well."

"Empress?" I asked again, confused.

She laughed softly. "Don't mind me, Leontius. I like to let my thoughts air from time to time." We walked in silence for a few more steps before she added. "She likes honeyed figs, you know. And honeyed olives. Anything with honey really, but the figs are her favorite."

I was running out of ways to express my confusion. So, I just remained silent. I was surprised further, when the Empress pulled me into a stop. I glanced down at her, in time to watch her lean into me.

She pressed her breasts into my arm. I felt the cool smoothness of her dress, tight as my limb slipped into the space of her chest. My eyes widened; frozen as I hadn't been in the hours before. Her lips parted, and she used me to pull herself up until her breath tickled my ear. Gooseflesh erupted over my neck.

"Don't you forget, my soldier," Theodora murmured. "I will have my taste. 'Nina has told me too much of it for me to give it up now."

I shivered.

She made a small, pleased sound in her throat. She pressed her lips against my cheek, and for a moment, I breathed in the sweetness of her breath.

The smile didn't leave her lips until we reached the Imperial Box.