The Sultanah Ch. 03

For a second, I considered this the end of my pursuit, a nice diversion from the worries of the day ended. But I still felt an intense curiosity to see where the pickpocket was going. Besides, he had presented me with the opportunity to enter the seat of my enemy's power within the city unnoticed. I didn't know if there was anything in there that would help me, but it could.

Without thinking more deeply about the possible dangers involved in my actions, I dove down toward the hole. The hole itself was quite smooth and I slid down it quickly, but comfortably. It was like a tube that extended from the street below the surface. It felt like polished stone. It had been there a long time. I tried to remain quiet as I slid down the chute. After just a few seconds the tube disappeared. I briefly saw a room with soft, orange light but then I crashed into the ground with a loud thump. I heard myself give a yelp before the air rushed from my lungs and then I felt pain all over.

I didn't even have time to gain my senses or determine if I was badly injured before I felt someone scoop my head off of the ground. In an instant a strong arm was wrapped tightly around my throat, nearly choking me. I felt a sharp point, likely a dagger against my side, and I felt hot breath in my ear.

"Who the fuck are you and why are you following me?" the voice hissed. The pickpocket. The voice sounded strange in some way, perhaps it was a bit high, but serious. I felt my limbs grow cold and bile back up in my throat. My head was still swimming from my fall and my ankle ached terribly. But I was more concerned about this person. I had dived into the darkness headfirst, away from the protective light of the sun. Now I was in someone's control. This person did not know who I was. I could be killed without a second thought, to be discovered by a Tanril nun.

If anyone. I realized. As my vision came back to me in the darkness I saw where I was located. It looked like a vast tunnel stretching the length of the cathedral. It was only a few feet wide and largely dark, except for a few torches against the outer walls. I looked briefly to my left and the corridor extended on into the darkness as far as I could see. I looked to my right and saw the same thing. I did not know if anyone besides my captor knew about this place. I was totally within the pickpocket's power.

"I am..." I started to speak.

"Quiet you fool!" the voice hissed again, pressing the knife harder into my side, "Your fall has already made too much noise, the fools in the cathedral will hear you." As the pickpocket spoke, he gestured quickly with his hand toward the wall in front of me. The arm quickly returned to my throat. Ahead of me was a long wall of misshapen bricks. Apparently that was the cathedral and I was in some sort of passage underground, just running along side of the basement.

"I apologize for my noise," I whispered back quietly. The knife eased slightly.

"Why were you following me?" the voice said again, tightening the grasp.

"I was not..."

"Don't lie you fool, it will get you killed," the voice responded. I nodded my head slowly. I looked down at my ankle. It was hard to see in the darkness, but it appeared slightly red. Perhaps sprained, but not broken. I wondered if I moved quickly enough if I could escape at a run. But where would I go?

"I saw you picking pockets in the square..."

"You saw no such thing!"

"And I was curious about where you were going. And then you entered the side of the cathedral and I had to see where you went. It was curiosity that drew me here. I had no ill will towards you and would not turn you in. If I had desired that, I would have called to you in the square," I said. I had spoken the truth, and wondered what it would profit me. The knife eased back even further.

"Are you one of the Cardinal's guards?" the pickpocket asked, "I can tell when you are lying."

"The Cardinal has guards?" I asked.

"Exactly what the Cardinal's guards would say," the pickpocket responded.

"The Cardinal is imprisoned," I replied quickly, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, the smartest thing our dear Sultanah has ever done, Gunes bless her cock!" the pickpocket said wryly, "Would that she imprisoned the whole lot of these hypocrites and traitors!" I was more certain what was happening now (and I could not help at smile at the blessing for my cock). The cardinal hired guards to patrol for pickpockets. The thief thought I was trying to arrest him. But I liked his politics.

"Let me ask you, would a Cardinal of Tanri ever hire a woman to serve as his guard," I said. I swallowed hard, hoping that would be convincing. I felt the arm slip from my neck and the knife moved completely from my side.

"No, I suppose not," The thief said slowly, "They have never been smart about hiring their spies, always big muscular young monks who made a lot of noise. You really are just a curious, silly girl," the thief said. I scrambled away from the pickpockets knife quickly. My ankle screamed as I moved and I collapsed again quickly, sitting with my back against the far wall. I was panting. The pickpocket was giggling.

"I'm no murderer, I am not going to kill a silly girl for sport. If you aren't a guard we have no beef," the pickpocket said and slipped his knife back into its sheath.

"I am not used to knives at my side," I said harshly.

"Well you shouldn't be diving into strange passages where the light of Gunes does not shine," he responded truthfully. It gave me an idea

"Gunes seems to shine few places in this city," I said, testing out a theory.

"Aye, it is true," said the pickpocket, "and it is because of these fools here. These traitors and their Cardinal. I do the Sun God a favor by taking their ill-gotten goods." This confirmed a suspicion. The pickpocket had not mentioned Gunes as an idle blaspheme, he was a follower.

"Do you follow Gunes? Do you support the Sultanah, who worships the sun?" I asked somewhat aloofly. If this person was loyal to the Sultanah, perhaps I could convince him to help me (as a fellow loyal subject) get out of the Cathedral and avoid an embarrassing detection.

"I always follow Gunes. And I follow the Sultanah when she does the same," the pickpocket replied.

"Oh how wonderful!" I said loudly, smiling brightly. It was strange, it seemed that Gunes was always putting me onto some new path, now that I had opened myself to her. I wondered where she was leading me next.

"What was that?" I heard a voice say through the wall. It was a woman's voice.

"Oh fuck, now you've done it you stupid bitch!" the pickpocket hissed.

"Is someone out in the passage?" I heard the voice clearly. I suddenly realized what had happened. I had spoken too loudly. A nun in the basement of the cathedral (where the dorms were kept) had heard me. We were discovered! The pickpocket moved quickly across the distance between us, sat down next to me and clamped his hand over my mouth.

"Keep your fucking mouth shut, maybe she will go away," the pickpocket responded.

"Did anyone else hear that?" the voice said from behind the wall. The voice was very clear and I realized the wall was much thinner than I had supposed, the blocks were only an inch or so wide.

"Yes, I did," another woman's voice said.

"I heard nothing," a third, timid voice stated, "We are along the outside wall and underground. No one can be there."

"Shut up Acemi, you are a novice. What would you know about what happens within and beyond the walls?" the first voice stated.

"Rahibe, don't be rude to the novice, She just began her studies this week. She has much to learn. In fact, if I am right, she is about to learn a most important lesson," the second voice said. There was something knowing, almost sultry in her voice and I wondered what she meant. My heart was pounding like a hammer in my chest and the thief's hand was squeezing tighter on my mouth.

"Oh Ikiyüzlü, I hadn't thought of that. I hope you are right," Rahibe said, her voice now also taking on the knowing cadence, "I was wondering when someone would call on one of our new monkish novices," she replied.

"What are you two talking about?" Acemi, the novice, asked, "Is this some kind of prank? This is the edge of the building, are you just trying to scare me?" The novice sounded nervous, as though she was not enjoying her early stay as a Tanril virgin. For a moment, I thought about the fact that it could have been me.

"Who is out in the passage, we know you are there," Rahibe said, loudly. She was totally ignoring Acemi's question. I darted my eyes over to the pickpocket, who shook his head. There was a moment of silence. Suddenly, there was a sound like a panel sliding. Then another. I looked ahead of me and saw two circles of light on the far wall, where I had dropped in. The top circle was smaller than the bottom circle. I looked towards the pickpocket. I saw a beam of light pouring out from a round hole in the wall behind our backs. It was directly between our heads where we sat. The other beam of light was higher. The nuns had removed some sort of panel in their dormitory. They could see out into the passage. The pickpocket's eyes looked surprised, he had not known they existed.

"Can you see anything?" Ikiyüzlü's voice said.

"I think I see feet or...something, it is dark in the passage," Rahibe responded.

"May I look? What is going on?" added Acemi. The pickpocket and I sat deadly still, hoping that they would just ignore us.

"It is probably a novice priest." Rahibe said.

"Heard about this place from a more...seasoned student and is getting cold feet? Don't be shy. We don't discriminate," Ikiyüzlü said from the room beyond. I looked into the pickpockets eyes, but he just shrugged his shoulders. He did not know what was going on either.

"What are you all talking about? I don't like this prank. I will tell the Mother Superior that you are hazing me and she will be most..." Acemi began.

"Stop whining you twit," Ikiyüzlü cut her off. Then Rahibe began to speak, she spoke clearly and slowly and it seemed she was speaking to the imagined novice priest in the corridor as much as she spoke to Acemi.

"This room is a special room Acemi. As you see the walls are very thin and there are...holes cut into them. On the far side of this wall is a corridor. That corridor was built at the time the Cathedral was built, when it was far less certain that Tanri would be accepted in this city. It is part of an escape hatch. The years have proven that system unnecessary. But you see, the priests and nuns have always known about that passage.

"As you know, Acemi, you were brought here by your father as an offering, to be a Tanril Virgin," Rahibe said, suddenly changing tack, "What does that mean?"

"What does what mean? To be a Tanril Virgin? It means to maintain my purity here in this cathedral for the rest of my life," Acemi responded. I wondered what was going on, this little test seemed completely unrelated to the existence of a passage.

"What does it mean to maintain your purity?" Rahibe asked. There was a long pause.

"To...to refrain from all...sexual...contact," Acemi said and I could practically hear her cheeks turning red as she spoke. I shuddered to think that she could have been me. A life of celibacy worshipping a false god with a bunch of mean spirited nuns.

"Close, but wrong," Ikiyüzlü responded. And I was surprised.

"In the second century after the Cathedral's construction, the great scholar Oğretmen was the prior of the monks and priests. He re-discovered an obscure passage in the Incil, the very word of God, that shined new light on the role of the Tanril Virgin. A Tanril Virgin must maintain her purity to the world. That means to refrain from engaging in sexual contact with any man, woman, or creature of this Earth," Rahibe explained.

"I do not see the distinction," Acemi said and I tended to agree.

"Tanri, our God, is not of this Earth. But he is a man, like any other. With a man's needs. He cannot soil himself by coupling with normal, fallen women. Instead, he requires a pure touch. The touch of a Tanril Virgin. Unsoiled by all but the God himself," Ikiyüzlü explained. My mind was spinning, I had studied religion for many years at my father's behest. I had never heard of this doctrine. Frankly, it sounded strange given the avowed prudishness of the New Religion.

"Where does it say that in the Incil? And what does it mean? How can one...lie with Tanri? He lives in heaven."

"Do not worry about the location of the passage," Rahibe said quickly, raising my suspicions further, "as for your other concern. Does not Tanri have vicars on this Earth? Do not some men, pure men, whose actions exist as though they are the actions of Tanri?" Again a pause.

"Priests?" Acemi responded uneasily.

"She is not as stupid as she looks," Ikiyüzlü.

"I don't understand..." Acemi stated. Rahibe went onto to explain, but I had figured out the hypocrites deception already.

"Do I need to draw you a diagram novice?" Rahibe began, "Our god Tanri comes to use this wall. He gazes upon us from this top hole so that we may please his eye and from this lower hole he slides his cock so that we might please his body." Acemi let out a squeal.

"No...That can't be right...It is not Tanri, it is a priest," She whined.

"You are wrong. As Oğretmen explained, when the Tanril virgin cannot see the face of the priest and therefore know his identity, the priest exists only as a vicar of Tanril. A special unity occurs and the Virgin moves completely past the priest, and communes solely with Tanri. It is not actually sexual contact, it just appears as though it is," Rahibe concluded.

"Why can the priest gaze upon us? Certainly he will know who we are..."

"It is not a priest you fool! It is the spirit of Tanri" Ikiyüzlü spat.

"The eye that gazes upon you experiences the same mystic communion. It is likely that the priest through which Tanri enters the Virgin will not even recall her appearance. He sees only for Tanri. Therefore the Virgin remains a virgin and experiences a deeply spiritual connection with God," Rahibe explained.

I did not need to know the exact passage of the Incil used to justify the actions I had heard described. The pickpocket was right, the people within these walls were hypocrites, tying their scripture and their logic in knots to justify what, to them, amounted to a sin of the flesh. I burned in rage at the thought of all of my people, condemned as sinners by the priests and nuns of this order over the centuries, who had committed far less dire offenses. Still, despite myself, I felt my pulse quickening and my cheeks grow warm as I thought of what Rahibe had described. I pushed that thought aside.

"We heard once such vicar in the corridor, though perhaps he is scared to fulfil his role," Ikiyüzlü stated.

"This is wrong, we cannot do this. I will tell the Mother Suprior..."

"She was down here last night performing the ceremony, she insists all novices do so at the early possible opportunity, to feel the power of God," Rahibe explained in a voice that clearly spoke the truth and I confess I was shocked. This was not some silly young nuns trying to skirt the rules. This hypocrisy traveled all the way to the top.

"So young novice priest, please assume your position as God's chosen and we can begin the ceremony," Ikiyüzlü said, not directly at the wall. Clearly she was speaking to me and the pickpocket. We looked at each other in silence, not exactly sure what to do. I began to hope that if we waited long enough that they would just leave. A few minutes of waiting dashed my hopes.

"Novice, the other priests will not let you return until you complete the ceremony, so you may as well get started. I assure you it is a most inoffensive rite," Rahibe stated. I looked again at pickpocket again. He was still not moving. I leaned in towards him, carefully avoided the hole in the wall, and placed my lips near his ear.

"They will not leave. You must stand in for the priest," I said. I pulled back slightly and looked at the pickpocket and he shook his head vigorously, "They are not going to leave until they are satisfied!" I beseeched in a low hiss.

"I cannot do it," the pickpocket stated.

"You have said yourself that you believe they are hypocrites, what difference does it make to you? You say you follow Gunes. The Sun God makes no bizarre prohibitions against sexual contact. Obtain free pleasure and we may leave," I said more quickly than before.

"I cannot," the pickpocket repeated.

"You must!" I responded. The pickpocket sighed quietly and made frantic motion with his hands.

"You fool I am not being difficult with you. I..." he paused for a moment. Then he sighed again and reached up to facial covering her wore. Her worked his hands over the knots and carefully removed the black fabric. I felt a jolt. The face looking back at me was feminine with large almond shaped (and colored) eyes, a narrow nose, wide lips, and soft features. In fact, the pickpocket had a beautiful face. The pickpocket grabbed my hand and placed it against her chest. I could feel the soft flesh of her breast through her robe, "I cannot." She repeated finally her voice sounding even softer than before. I realized now why she had sounded so strange, a woman attempting to sound like a man.

I felt sunk. The pickpocket could certainly not perform the required task to give us freedom. The nuns did not seem likely to back down from their insistence. I thought, briefly about whether I could step into Tanri's shoes for this farce of a ritual. I felt my nipples rubs against the fabric of my robe and my cock twitched slightly at the thought. I was aroused by the word spoken by the nuns and the sound of their sultry voices. I had once again ignored my libido after my coronation. There was too much to do and too much worry to consider sex.

Besides, I was still not wholly comfortable with the strength and nature of my sexual desires. I could not trust myself; I did not know if I sought a place against the wall because it was a wise way to avoid detection or because I desired the touch of the women inside. Beyond that, exposing my body would let the pickpocket know of my identity, and I was not certain I could trust her. She was a thief with a knife after all.

"Something strange is going on out there," Rahibe said uneasily, "Perhaps we should get the Bishop to investigate the cause of the delay." I felt my blood run cold. I did not know if this was simply a ploy to get to "novice priest" to act or if the nuns truly intended to call for assistance, but the threat felt legitimate. The pickpocket and I could get up and run, but I didn't know where I was going. The pickpocket owed me nothing. I could be captured down here, but the forces of Tanri. They might turn me in to my enemies! What a horrible situation, why had I dived into the Cathedral behind the thief? I had not realized the magnitude of the risk I was running until that moment.

Suddenly, my previous concerns seemed smaller. Being caught by the guards and the acting Cardinal (the Bishop) were a far greater danger than the pickpocket, a single woman. Besides, she spoke somewhat warmly of the Sultanah and claimed to be a follower of Gunes. It was better to place my faith in the Sun God than to take my chances with Tanri.

I stood quickly and turned to face the wall. The pickpocket looked alarmed and she reached up to grab my arm and pull me back down. She was unbalanced where she sat and I flicked my wrist, knocking her back. While she was still trying to get her bearings, I quickly grabbed at my garments.

The nature of my robe was such that it was a long piece of fabric that was tied in a series of ingenious knots I had learned since childhood so that it covered my entire body. It was long and billowy and I enjoyed the freedom it provided so much that I wore nothing underneath. This was the robe I always wore on clandestine trips around the city, it was the only one I trusted to keep my secret even if my cock was unbound. Because I knew the robe so well, I also knew how to take it off quickly. I pulled in four or five different places and moved my arms in a gentle swinging motion. In an instant, the robe lay in a pile on the floor.