Rebel Princess Ch. 04

VIII

After midnight, when the celebrations of ordination had died down and she had been released from her duties and allowed to return to the bosom of her kin, Lucy made her way back to her new quarters. Rael was secretly staying with her, political issues, safety and simple courtesy demanded it.

"You did well today, Lucy," Rael smiled at her kinswoman, draping a maternal arm over Lucy's shoulders as she met her after the ball which she had not attended herself. As a voluntary exile, it would hardly have been proper to show up to gather nibbles from the buffet table and make polite conversation about pretty dresses.

Lucy nodded as she slipped off the uncomfortable shoes that had pinched her toes all evening. Shoes and ordination notwithstanding, she had not smiled properly since Kai left. Even in moments of levity there was a sadness in her gaze.

"Thank you. I still think I should have done what you did and left this place whilst I still had a chance at life." she replied with a shadow of a grin.

"You are a better woman than I," Rael replied.

"I have less to live for," Lucy replied morosely as they entered her chambers, large vaulted marble rooms exquisitely decorated with all manner of garish regalia.

"That's a pity, perhaps I should have carried out my orders." A voice came from a darkened corner, a voice which made Lucy stop dead in her tracks, peering intently into the shadows.

Slowly, nonchalantly, Kai came forward into the light. She was dressed in simple black hip hugging leggings after the style Lucy preferred, and a low cut tunic which gathered under her slight bosom. Her deep cat like eyes glistened with emotion as she waited for Lucy's response.

"Kai!" Lucy squealed, forgetting in an instance the rigors of office, the pain in her feet, the deep depression that had followed her. She threw herself across the room and into Kai's arms, hugging her tightly for so long that it seemed one of them would pass out before she would break the embrace.

"Why did you leave like that?" she stammered, "Where did you go?"

Kai bit her lip. The answer to that question was not an easy one.

"Tell her, Kai, it is the least she deserves," Rael interjected, watching over the pair as they reunited.

Sensing Kai's discomfort, and the unmistakable air of a dark secret, Lucy frowned and took a step back.

"What's going on?"

Kai tried to frame it gently, but tact was not her strong suit.

"Lucy, I am an assassin. I was sent to kill you. Well, not you, well, yes you, but I didn't know it was you and obviously I didn't kill you, so I'm not going to kill you, but I was supposed to, so...." Kai's voice trailed off as she anxiously looked into Lucy's face.

"You're an assassin. You came to kill me." Lucy repeated, looking dazed.

"I was sent to kill the new priestess, I didn't know that was you, and when I realized it was you, I couldn't do it. I would never hurt you." The words were earnest.

"But, if you didn't know me, then you would have killed me?" Lucy's expression was unfathomable.

Kai opened her mouth, but there were no words. A mute shrug of the shoulders did not make things any better.

"You're an enemy of my state and my people, and officially me. And I'm in love with you. Brilliant." Lucy threw up her hands and turned away.

"No," Kai said quietly, stepping forward and sliding her hands around Lucy's waist.

"I am now an enemy of my own state and my own people and I am in love with you."

She turned Lucy towards her and ignoring her protestations, kissed her deeply, letting her body say what words couldn't. Lucy struggled a moment then capitulated to her lust, her longing, her love. Their tongues played urgently with one another as Kai's strong hands roamed Lucy's body, caressing her back, her thighs, her curved ass. Where Kai was hardened from battle and training, Lucy was soft and curved. Together they melted perfectly.

"Wait, wait, Rael's still here," Lucy muttered, breaking free for a moment. They both looked over to see that Rael had quietly taken her leave.

Kai grinned, and picking up Lucy under her backside, carried her over to the large white organza trimmed bed which lay in the recesses of the chamber. Tossing Lucy on her back, she followed quickly, stripping Lucy of the flowing dress she had been wearing, exposing smooth, ample curves to her gaze.

"My god, you are beautiful," she whispered, laying kisses between Lucy's round breasts.

"I am fat," Lucy complained.

For a moment, Kai's eyes narrowed, then she sharply laid a little slap to Lucy's left breast, leaving a pink mark and eliciting a yelp of surprise more than pain.

"Don't ever let me hear you say that again, you're perfect." Kai said seriously, her eyes locked on Lucy's.

Stunned for a moment, Lucy quickly recovered into brat mode. "Oh, yes ma'am," she replied with a grin, then squealed again as Kai shifted her to the side and laid a firm slap to her ass.

"Do you want to spend tonight being punished, or do you want pleasure?" Kai purred, lowering her head to graze her teeth lightly over the sensitive skin of Lucy's neck.

"Mnnggh pleasure..." Lucy replied, her hands running up over Kai's thighs and working feverishly at the ties which held the tight pants to her body. In a moment or two, Kai was as naked as her love, a slim and toned thigh slipped between Lucy's legs, quickly becoming soaked with Lucy's juices as they writhed against one another.

"Do you remember what I told you in the tree house?" Kai whispered throatily.

"Mnggghg" Lucy replied, bucking her hips against Kai and finding one of Kai's taught brown nipples to suckle on.

"I told you you were mine to fuck as I please, didn't I. I told you I would take you as I want you." Kai continued, slipping her fingers down to tease Lucy's mound, withdrawing her thigh to allow her fingers a chance to caress Lucy's outer lips, feeling how they were flowering open and covered with sweet dew.

Lucy moaned with frustrated arousal and returned the favor, using her fingers to cup Kai's pussy, feeling her wetness which had begun to slick her upper thighs. Kai may have been in control, but her lust was just as powerful as Lucy's. Her pussy was hot, wanting, needing Lucy's touch.

"Look at me" Lucy whispered. Kai's eyes rose from Lucy's breasts to her eyes and as they gazed at one another, both slowly slid inside the other, stretching sweet pussy flesh with their fingers. Their bodies continued to writhe and pump, soft moans and guttural grunts of pleasure echoing around the room as they became one loving, lustful creature.

At first they moved slowly, becoming used to the fullness of fingers inside their bodies. Gently, Kai rose and fell above Lucy, working her pussy on Lucy's fingers and moving her own inside Lucy in kind.

Pinned below Kai, Lucy was limited in her movement. Though she could arch and flex her hips and did so with wanton abandon, she was a slave to Kai's timing, a wet, whimpering slave loving every slow thrust of Kai's three fingers inside her pussy and pleading for faster, harder strokes as Kai began to ride her harder and more aggressively.

Those little moans and groans soon turned into loud cries as Kai's hand slapped against Lucy's pussy, the heel of her palm smacking then grinding against Lucy's pink, engorged clit. In kind, Lucy pistoned her fingers deep and hard into Kai.

What a sight they were, Kai's slim tanned body arched with pleasure, Lucy's pale curves trembling and bouncing with vigorous thrusts. Their arousal was rising to a crescendo, and deep inside each of them, climaxes were building heralded by higher cries, greater urging, a desperate grinding of clits and pussies against the hard fingers stretching and rubbing inside them.

Lucy broke first, the walls of her cunt spasaming around Kai's fingers, her own fingers curling deep inside Kai, pushing her over the edge. Together they shook and churned and rode the bright intensity of their orgasms, feeling the waves of pleasure wash through their bodies, taking them beyond the room, beyond the world to another place where only they existed.

Returning to earth in one another's arms, they lay together for a long while in silence.

"If I wake up tomorrow and you're gone. I will become the assassin," Lucy said finally.

Kai laughed and kissed her lips. "I will be here."

"Will you stay?"

"I don't know, how can I stay? I'm a criminal here, and I am now wanted in my own land."

Lucy smiled. "Well, here I am the Priestess of Iskendar,"

"This is true, you can keep me in the lap of luxury."

"You can be my little pet," Lucy teased.

Kai replied by growling and snapping at her nose.

Lucy laughed and they embraced one another once more, basking in the warmth of their love.

THUMP THUMP THUMP

"Priestess!"

They were interrupted by a loud banging on the doors of Lucy's chamber, and the sound of a guard calling for her.

"Oh no," Lucy gasped.

Kai had already melted from the bed and was crouched naked on the far side of the room, knife in hand.

The thumping came again. "Priestess!"

"Coming!" Lucy called in the most reasonable voice she could muster, drawing the modesty curtain around the bed chamber where Kai hid, hurriedly donning her robe and rushing to the door, which she threw open with imperious irritation.

"Yes?" she queried the small platoon of guards at her door.

The leader looked a little taken aback at her tone, but there was not time.

"Preistess, we have received word of a threat on your life. We must search your chambers immediately."

"You most certainly will not!" Lucy bristled, fixing him with the steeliest gaze she could muster, one she had learned from Rael.

"We must, Priestess. It is for your own safety." His tone became plaintive, Lucy had him on the run, metaphorically speaking.

"Well, sir, for your own safety, may I suggest that you take yourself off out of my sight before I lose patience entirely. I am tired and there are no assassins here. I am alive, am I not?"

The guard was forced to admit that yes, she was most certainly alive, but nevertheless he needed to search her chambers.

"If anyone is to search my chambers, it will be on Lord Lucien's orders only."

"Lord Lucien need not be here," a rough, older voice broke in. The soldiers moved aside to reveal Chaudean, a general of the guard and no friend of Lucy's at all.

"Chaudean, get your men out of here," Lucy said flatly, drawing herself up to her full height.

Unfortunately, this did not provide a great deal of intimidation. Lucy was barely 5'7 and Chaudean was at least 6'5 and built like an elephant. His face was a slab of granite punctuated by two bright blue orbs that passed for eyes. He was a great friend of Lucien's, but Lucy did not look upon him with any favor.

Chaudean arched an eyebrow. "I see becoming Priestess has given you illusions of power."

Lucy flashed him a dirty look.

"The fact that you have known me since I was a child does not give you the right to speak to me as if I were still one. I am Priestess and you will respect my station if you cannot find it in you to respect me."

"It is out of respect both for you and your station that I am here to see that you come to no harm. I shall inform Lucien of your reticence in complying with this request." Chaudean made to gently press Lucy to the side only to find the Priestess of Iskendar's teeth buried firmly in his wrist.

A short grunt of pain and a hand grasping the back of her neck disengaged her as his men began to search the room. Lucy had no time to enjoy the indentations on his wrist as she anxiously watched the heavy set guards clomping about her room, searching hither and thither.

She steeled herself as one finally approached her bedchamber and stepped forward to distract him, only to be once more restrained by Chaudean. The solider pulled back the curtain to reveal not an assassin with a knife, but nothing aside from a very rumpled bed.

"See, no assassins," Lucy said shortly, her gaze withering.

With a grunt, Chaudean withdrew his men from the room. "Sorry to bother you, Priestess. I shall inform your Uncle of the outcome of this visit." He said, with a significant look at the teeth marks on his wrist.

"Yes, you do that Chaudean, you do that." Lucy said haughtily as the door shut behind the guard. She locked it quickly, then went to look for Kai.

Kai was gone.

Part IX

Kai was gone because the moment Lucy had drawn the curtain, Kai had felt herself grasped by the shoulder and dragged backwards into a small, hidden antechamber. Hollowed out of the very walls of the temple, it was so secure and soundproof that she could no longer hear the men beyond.

Rael held a finger to her lips for silence and gave Kai a robe.

"We have to get you out of here, the alarm has been raised. The guards know as well as you that Argrenar assassins work in pairs and they are searching for the other."

"I can't leave, Lucy will kill me." Kai replied, shrugging the robe on quickly, too distracted to blush at being naked before Rael.

"Lucy won't kill you. She will understand."

Kai shook her head. "I'm not leaving her."

Rael's look became stony. "I am not giving you a choice, I am giving you an order. You are leaving with me, now."

"Rael, I can't I can't leave her."

"Well you cannot stay here, and for the moment she cannot leave. Do you wish a future together or a short lived and painful demise? For that is all you will find here."

Raels' words were harsh, but they rang with truth. Kai bowed her head.

"Very well."

The antechamber lead into a series of tunnels under the great temple. They followed them through many twists and turns, joins and dips and rises. So many that Kai was sure she would never be able to find her way back to Lucy's chambers even if she wished to.

"How do you know about these?" she whispered to Rael.

"Let's just say I'm pretty familiar with this city and that which lies beneath it." Rael replied, carefully guiding Kai around a poisoned arrow trap weighted on the floor.

They walked for what felt like hours, carefully watching every step so that they would not set off any of the many traps which lined the tunnels. Kai was beginning to think that she would never see the light of day again when she felt a soft, fresh breeze upon her face and saw a few wisps of natural light sneaking in up ahead. The tunnel eventually lead out under a rickety old shed in a field a good mile outside the city.

"Isn't that dangerous, having an opening to the palace and temple right here?" Kai asked as she climbed out of the hole behind Rael, brushing bits of straw from the floor of the shed from her body.

Rael smiled wickedly as she slid the slatted floor back into place over the exit. "Any so bold as to enter it without full knowledge would soon meet a sticky end."

Part X

"Lucy, you may be Priestess, but that does not give you the right to bite Generals." Lucien said sternly.

"Really? Let me make an edict about that," Lucy replied, staring out the window of the temple, barely pretending to listen to her Uncle, who was, of course, accompanied by Chaudean.

Chaudean and Lucien exchanged looks. Though Lucien understood very well why Lucy had behaved as she did on the day Chaudean searched her chambers, since then her attitude had not improved at all.

As Preistess of Iskendar, Lucy was largely a figurehead for the religious system which had supported the nobles for centuries. As such, she was expected to smile and nod a lot and visit hospitals. Though some powers were associated with the role, her predecessors had not made a great deal of use of them, finding that the nobles quickly grew vicious if their spiritual controls were weakened in any way.

Unsurprisingly, she devoted little time or attention to the responsibilities of her new role and her behavior was drawing widespread critiques from nobles and commoners alike. They had barely seen her smile and wave since the day of her ordination. There were comparisons made between her and a certain Princess Raelalene who no longer graced Iskendar with her presence, and speculation that Lucy too could soon depart.

"Lucy. Your role calls for service to your people. Personal considerations must be put aside."

Lucy turned. "Very well. I will serve my people."

With that she swept out of the room onto the balcony where a small crowd of the very faithful had hovered for days, and made an edict that every seventh day from that day forth should be cake day, on which worshipers should feast upon cake and reflect upon the bounty that the gods had given them. The edict was met with cheers of great joy.

Lucy swept back into the room, fixed the two men with a look and said sweetly. "There, duties attended to," before sweeping off into her chambers, slamming the door loudly behind her.

"It was easier when you could whip her and send her to her room," Chaudean remarked as the echoes reverberated through the room where they stood.

"Don't tempt me, Chaudean, don't tempt me." Lucien replied, his dark gaze following whence she had gone.

"I almost did it myself when she bit me. Bit me! She would not have dared do that a month ago."

"You would have been within your rights." Lucien replied. What with running after assassin lovers and undermining the status of her position, his niece was proving more of a liability than an asset in governance.

"Ah well, perhaps she will settle down soon." Chaudean said unconvincingly.

"Perhaps. I apologize again, friend. I will go speak to her alone."

Irritated by Lucy's blasé attitude and disrespect, Lucien entered her chambers to find her curled up on a couch reading an amateur chemistry book.

"Lucy, you cannot behave this way. There will be consequences, consequences beyond those which I can provide or control," he stated flatly.

She looked up from her book. "You're right. I'm sorry," she agreed demurely.

Lucien looked at her suspiciously. "What?"

"I've been bad tempered and rude and I haven't done my job at all. I'll make up for it tonight at high service, I promise."

"I should have you whipped for how you behaved."

Lucy cocked her head and considered his statement with the air of a cat considering a bath. "Maybe, but you won't be around to whip me forever Uncle, and let's face it, it doesn't seem to have been all that effective in the past. It's still lead us to this point. No, I am grown. I am priestess. I am beyond such measures now."

Her little speech was delivered with conviction, enough to make Lucien crack a small smile.

"You will never be beyond much measures as long as I am alive, but very well. Make amends at high service tonight, and all will be forgiven."

Lucy smiled enigmatically. "Oh I will Uncle, I very much will."

Part XI

High service was the great service held once a week at the temple. Believers from around the city would come to have their sins absolved by the spawn of the aristocracy. It would be Lucy's first service as Priestess, and as such was considered to be the service of the year.

Lucien had his concerns. Though Lucy had appeared to be contrite and serious, he could not quite trust her quick turn around in attitude. He stationed himself near the pulpit with the honored guests and other nobles as the service began.

The temple, with its high walls dwarfing any man was filled with the music of a thousand organs as Lucy made her first appearance from the rear of the church and every eye turned to watch her walk gracefully down the aisle. She wore the robes of her office, white and red, long and flowing about her. The front was cut low enough to show cleavage, prudently covered with a light mesh to baffle calls of indecency.

As she reached the front of the temple, a feat which took several minutes due to the length of the building, she smiled, bowed to the royal family who graced the service from the privacy and sanctity of the upper tier of the temple, greeted the nobles, then the remainder of the congregation and began the service by reading from the book of the faithful.