Zuleika and the Barbarian

by Bertrice Small

  His look grew serious, and then he said, "Yes, Zuleika, my princess of Dariyabar, you shall, for I can love no other."

  "It is a grave vow you make, my lord," she answered him.

  "I know," he responded. "Trust me always, Zuleika, and I swear that I shall never fail you. Believe in me, my darling, and I will trust in your judgment though it be difficult for me to accept the council of a woman. I shall, nonetheless, for I adore you!"

  Her look was equally sober. "Do not say these things to me, Amir, if you cannot keep your promises. I will forgive much in you, but never will I forgive betrayal. As I will be loyal to you, so must you be loyal to me."

  He drew her down into his embrace. "Then we are agreed, my darling princess of Dariyabar. I shall love you always, and be ever faithful." His lips brushed hers softly. "What vow will you make me?"

  She smiled now into his dark eyes. "That I will always be faithful to you, my lord. And that I will love you too." Then she kissed him passionately, and Amir Khan knew in that instant that he had found a treasure beyond all price.

  Chapter Six

  For centuries Kansbar, the genie who protected Dariyabar, had considered who his enemy might be. An enemy who worked subtly and skillfully to destroy all that his first master, Prince Sinbad, had built. Now he knew. Keket, his own niece. She had been but an infant when his brother had entrapped Kansbar in his bottle and thrown it into the sea. Unfortunately, like her father, Keket believed what she chose to believe, neglecting the truth that stared her directly in the face. And Golnar was her daughter. Keket would not take lightly that chosen child's betrayal.

  Poor Golnar. Her heritage was as much magic as it was human, but other than love potions, elixirs, and creams to preserve her great beauty, she knew nothing, nor did she understand. Her human heritage would eventually take over entirely. Golnar wanted power. Knowing she could gain it by using her body, she was fully prepared to do so. Not to destroy Dariyabar, but to have it for herself. She was quite a simple creature. He had long ago sworn to protect this kingdom. They were bound together as one entity. He would not fail in his duty even if it meant using this foolish child of his vengeful niece to gain the victory. But, he would protect Golnar from her mother's wrath. The girl was more to be pitied than scorned.

  Kansbar had the ability to appear outside of his bowl, and now he did so, almost filling the bedchamber where the princess and her husband lay sleeping, their arms about each other. For a brief moment he allowed himself to be touched by the sight of them, but then his voice boomed out, "Awake, Zuleika and Amir! Awake!"

  His voice fiercely penetrated their dreams. The couple awoke, sitting up against the pillows and staring surprised at him.

  "Kansbar, I do not believe I have never seen you outside of your bowl," Zuleika remarked. "You are a most impressive genie."

  "You have grown too used to thinking of me as small, my princess. The time has come for you to see that my power, as well as my great size, are related. What you see is but half the size I can attain, for your chamber constricts me. My lord Amir, are you quite awake now?"

  "Will you always disturb us at our slumbers, Kansbar?" the khan asked, half-amused.

  "Only in moments of danger, my lord khan," the genie replied respectfully, "and danger is near, in the presence of Golnar."

  "Do you see?" Zuleika demanded of her husband. "Did I not warn you that the bitch would be a thorn in our heel?"

  Kansbar actually laughed, and the sound shook the very rafters of the chamber. "You are jealous, my princess. You should be. The wicked wench means to seduce the khan, and bear his heir, thus supplanting you and any child you would have. I have discovered this night that Golnar has a magical heritage which might help her in her nefarious plot, had I not learned of it."

  "I will kill her myself!" Zuleika declared. "I will slit her throat from ear to ear! Then I will drink her blood!"

  Again, Kansbar laughed. "Which is stronger, my princess? Your desire to protect Dariyabar, or your jealous love for the khan?"

  "Both!" Zuleika cried, but she blushed at her bold admission.

  The genie chuckled knowingly. "For now, you love him more," he told her, "but that will pass. You will never, I know, betray Dariyabar. It is your son who will inherit one day. Your blood, the blood of Sinbad that will flow in the veins of future sultans of Dariyabar."

  "And my blood," the khan interjected.

  "Oh, yes, mighty khan, your blood as well, but not the blood of Golnar, daughter of my niece who is half-genie, and half-fairy. Hear now my story, for it has been many centuries since I have told it, or anyone has known of it, or remembered it. Long ago my brother fell in love with a mortal princess, but she was afraid of him. She did not love him in return. This princess begged my help and I gave it to her, keeping her safe from my brother. He, however, mistakenly believed that I too was in love with this fair mortal. He thought that if I was no longer in his way, the princess would love him. So he entrapped me in a bottle, threw it into the sea, and imprisoned the princess in his palace. The gods, however, were with me. I floated within a relatively short time up onto this shore where I was found and released by Prince Sinbad. I offered him three wishes in exchange for my freedom."

  "I have always wondered what he wished for," Zuleika interrupted.

  Kansbar actually smiled with the memory. "He was a most unusual mortal. For his first wish, he asked me to build him a city right there upon the seashore. I did. His second wish was for a fleet of merchant ships, for he knew that wealth and prosperity were the key to his city's success. I granted him his desire, and waited anxiously for his third wish. I expected him to ask for gold, or other riches in abundance, but instead he requested that I remain always as the guardian of Dariyabar, keeping it safe from its enemies and remaining a friend to his descendants. I could not refuse him. I am bound by my sacred oath, an oath all genies take when their powers are granted to them."

  "I realized, however, that my prince must take a wife, and sire an heir. In his dreams I brought him the princess that my brother coveted. They fell in love. So I transported her on a magic flying carpet from my brother's palace to Dariyabar, where they were married, and lived happily ever after. But my brother, still believing that I had stolen the princess for myself, complained to the Great Genie, who is lord over us all. The Great Genie listened to his tale, and then asked for mine. When he learned that my brother had imprisoned me in a bottle and thrown it into the sea, the Great Genie became enraged. It is against our own laws to act against a fellow genie in so cruel a manner. To punish my brother, the Great Genie took back his powers. My brother, embittered, told our family that I had stolen his powers after escaping from the bottle in which he had imprisoned me. My niece, Keket, who is half-fairy, grew up believing this. It is her daughter, Golnar, raised in her mortal father's household, who is to be the instrument for my brother's family's revenge in the manner in which I have told you."

  "Then Golnar must die," Zuleika said.

  "No," Kansbar replied. "She is my own blood. I cannot allow it, but instead, listen to my plan. The khan will appear to fall into her trap. He will go to her bed, and when he has had his pleasure of her, Sabola will follow him, and then one hundred hand-picked men from the khan's troops will enjoy Golnar's favors. Neither the khan nor his general will conceive a child with her. That, I promise you both. But Golnar will indeed bear a child from that night of lustful delights and diversions. Whose child it is she will never know, but it will not be either the khan's, or his general's.

  "And after that night she will be sent from Dariyabar as wife to a merchant of Samarkhan. She will seduce him. He will believe the child is his. He is childless, and will welcome a son or a daughter to bear his name. Golnar wants but riches and power, unlike her mother, who seeks revenge. I shall give this daughter of my niece what she so desperately desires, and protect her from Keket."

  "But will your niece be satisfied that you have thwarted her, Kansbar? Will she be content to leave Dariyabar in
peace at last?" the khan asked the genie.

  "In the matter of my niece," the genie answered, "I must go to the Great Genie, and seek his advice. Keket and her daughter are the last of my brother's descendants."

  "I don't know why my husband must allow himself to be seduced by that wretched girl," Zuleika grumbled, glaring at the protector of Dariyabar. "Why not just send her off with this merchant?"

  "Golnar must be disabused of any notion that her child can rule Dariyabar," the genie said. "She is a sensual female. Once she has attained her goal, or believes she has, it will not be difficult to introduce her to a night of a hundred lovers," the genie said.

  "Nonsense! You seek to break her spirit, Kansbar! You seek to convince her that she has entertained so many randy cocks that she cannot be certain who her child's sire is! You want her grateful to have a rich merchant as a husband. You will, I have not a doubt, point out to her the advantages of giving this man a son, and ruling his household. You will appeal to her vanity, her greed, and her lust for power. But why do you need my husband and Sabola for your plan?" Zuleika demanded.

  "She must be lulled into complacency, my princess, and only the khan can do that. I am sorry, but it must be as I have told you if we are to succeed."

  "We might watch together from a balcony while my soldiers use her," the khan suggested softly, licking the delicate curve of his wife's dainty ear. "You would like that, Zuleika, wouldn't you? You will see your revenge against this bold creature, and enjoy it." He kissed the ear.

  "Yes," Zuleika murmured softly. "Yes! I should enjoy seeing her take a thousand cocks into her lover's bower." Her violet eyes were alight with the thought, and the khan realized that he had not considered that his wife had a streak of cruelty in her, but she did. Or was it merely her jealousy?

  The genie's dark eyes met those of the khan. Kansbar smiled knowingly, as if he could read Amir's thoughts. "Complete this thing swiftly," he told the man who would soon be his master. "Have it done before Sultan Ibrahim leaves this earth." Then he was gone in a puff of smoke, and a faint rumble of thunder.

  "I hate this plan!" Zuleika said.

  Amir Khan pushed her back amid the pillows. His big lean body covered hers, and he pushed his hard rod into her love sheath slowly. "But you will obey, my beautiful wife, because it is for Dariyabar, will you not?" He had been very aroused picturing in his mind's eye the clever genie's plan. He moved on his wife and, her eyes closing, she moaned with the pleasure his entry and subsequent actions were giving her.

  "Yes, my lord," she murmured her promise.

  He thrust hard and quickly into her willing body. "Yes, my lord, and my master!" he growled.

  She tightened her muscles about his length, feeling a burst of satisfaction when he groaned in response. "I hear, and I obey, my lord and my master," she whispered in his ear, biting down upon the lobe.

  "Bitch!" he hissed, moving more swiftly upon her.

  Her nails raked down his long back. Her slim legs wrapped tightly about his waist. She was soaring. "Ahh, you devilish barbarian, I am yours! Do not stop! Do not stop!"

  And together they found nirvana.

  In the morning, Amir Khan explained to his general the plan that the genie had devised. The general grinned wolfishly.

  "While I surely love my wife," he said, "I shall not object to having a little taste of that princely treasure. Do you want me to choose the others? What criteria would you have?"

  "Those who are loyalest, most deserving, and especially those with big cocks. Let us give Golnar an experience she will not soon forget. One that will sustain her on the long nights she will have with her elderly merchant," the khan chuckled. "Do not, however, pick men who are cruel to their women. I do not want her harmed. Just well satisfied."

  Sabola laughed. "After a night such as she will have, I expect she will be very well satisfied," he chortled. "When shall this event take place, my lord khan?"

  "Tonight," Amir Khan replied. "The sooner, the better. I do not want to give Zuleika time to reconsider this matter any more than she already has. Nor will Bahira be pleased, I expect. So let us get it over and done with quickly, before our wives cause difficulty. I trust the genie, for he has guarded Dariyabar for centuries. While he feels a certain loyalty to his niece's child, his own loyalties to Dariyabar are greater. Of this I am certain."

  "Then I will go now to choose the men who will join us," the general said, and left the khan.

  Amir went almost immediately to Golnar's harem, entering it unchallenged, for it was he would rule after the sultan's death. The guards at the doors to the harem were aware of it. The eyes of the two dozen or more women were immediately upon him. He smiled at them, and said, "You need have no fear, ladies. You will all be well taken care of, I promise you. Where is the lady Golnar?"

  An older servant came forward. "She is in her own chamber, my lord khan. Shall I take you to her?"

  "Lead on," he replied, and followed the woman across the main room of the harem, down a narrow hallway to its end, where the servant opened a door and beckoned him inside. Golnar was seated upon a marble bench having her long silvery-blond hair brushed by a slave girl. "Your tresses are the most beautiful color I have ever seen, Golnar," the khan told her with a smile. Then he took the brush from the slave, dismissing her and the older woman. "Let me brush your glorious hair, lady."

  "I knew that you would come," Golnar whispered when they were at last alone. She leaned her head back to meet his dark gaze.

  "Did you?" His tone was amused. He set the brush down next to her upon the bench. "Why?"

  "I saw how you looked at me in the hall, my lord. Do you desire me, my lord? Prince Haroun always said I was the most desirable of women. He said he had never seen a girl as beautiful as I am."

  "My wife is beautiful," the khan noted.

  "But her passion is for Dariyabar, my lord. It will never be as great for you as it is for Dariyabar," Golnar murmured, and then she turned so she might brush his lips with her own. "If you were my lord and master, I should think of none other but you." Her pointed little pink tongue flicked out, and around the shape of his mouth. "If I were yours, my lord, you would be my very reason for existence."

  Her perfume was lush and heavy. Her words were tempting in their meaning. He realized in that moment what a truly dangerous woman Golnar was. Any small guilt that had niggled at the back of his mind was now dispelled. He would enjoy taking her, then allowing Sabola and their men to have their pleasure of her. He put an arm about her supple waist, and pulled her close. "I will be sultan when Ibrahim dies," he said. "He has already told me that whatever I desire in Dariyabar is mine, Golnar. I need not even ask. My wife is passionate, and a most satisfying lover; but a man of my stature craves variety. I think that your prince will not return, Golnar."

  "I believe, my lord, that you are correct," Golnar answered him. Her heavy, thick gold eyelashes brushed her cheek, feigning modesty. "Do you think you might crave me, my lord?" she murmured softly.

  In reply he stood up, and his hands fastening about her waist, he lifted her so that she was standing upon the marble bench. "Remove your garment, Golnar."

  For a moment she looked at him, surprised.

  "Obedience is the first trait I look for in a lover," he told her. "When I command you, you will obey."

  "Yes, my lord," Golnar replied, and loosening the ties on her garment she let it drop.

  He walked slowly about the bench, observing her carefully. She was small, and well-rounded, but exquisitely well proportioned. "Put your hands beneath your breasts, and display them to me," he said.

  Immediately she obeyed, slipping her hands beneath her full bosom and lifting her breasts for his viewing. Haroun had never treated her like this, she thought, excited. Haroun had been soft. This man was a dominant conqueror.

  Reaching out, he pinched a nipple hard, and she squealed. He smiled, almost cruelly. "Remove your hands from your breasts. Use them to draw your nether lips apart, Golnar, that I may
view your hidden assets," he ordered her.

  She was again shocked, but quickly complied, catching her breath sharply as a single finger reached out, first to touch her love bud, and then begin to rub it assertively. Her eyes glazed as the pad of his finger began to obtain the desired effect. "Oh, my lord," she gasped, "how good it is. Yes! Ohh, yes!"

  Now the khan pushed his fingers between her nether lips, and thrust three of the digits deep into her love sheath, moving them swiftly back and forth until Golnar's legs began to shake. Immediately he withdrew the fingers, licking them slowly and deliberately until no trace of her juices were left. "You will receive me tonight," he told her, and then turning abruptly, he left her.

  Golnar fell to her knees upon the hard marble bench. She would be bruised, she knew, but she could not have dismounted the bench if she had tried. Never in all of her life had a man been so assertive with her. Men had lusted after her from the time she grew breasts. Her father's first wife feared that her sons would commit incest with their half-sister, so beautiful was Golnar. Men had always wanted her. Her beauty had ruled them, but not this man. This was a man who took what he wanted, and be wanted her. She would conceive his child this very night, and one day rule Dariyabar through her son.

  Golnar called for her women. She must be prepared, and perfect for the khan when he came to her bed this night. She laughed aloud to think of the proud princess of Dariyabar who would one day have to give way to Golnar's son, the heir to the kingdom of Dariyabar. Then Golnar thought of her mother, Keket, and how angry she would be to learn that her daughter had betrayed her. But she would tell her mother that it would be better to destroy Dariyabar through Golnar's son. Certainly her mother could relish the thought of her grandson working to ruin the kingdom founded by the evil genie, and Prince Sinbad. And perhaps before that happened, her mother would die. Genies and fairies did not live forever, although mortals believed that they did.