by Daniel Caet
“My dear Somerset!” she said to the man who showed an obvious concern on his face, “you shouldn't worry about anything, this man and I know each other well.Welcome to my house, cousin!”
“Majesty!” Helel replied bowing, causing a clear smile of satisfaction in Margaret.
“Somerset, my dear, allow me to introduce you to Guillaume, Marquis de Lavalle, my mother's cousin and therefore mine!”
The man looked at Helel from top to bottom and as if it were a choreography they both made a kind of greeting halfway between reverence and lack thereof.
“Majesty, with your permission I would like to introduce you to my wife, Lorraine de Lavalle!”
“Oh, this is a surprise!” she said deigning to look at me, and I would have sworn that her body tensed as if to accentuate her small stature. “My dear cousin has been negligent in telling me in our previous meetings that he was married. And I see that you are also expecting child, my congratulations to both.” I made the reverence that was expected of me while biting my lips so as not to respond to her nasty comments of ungodly girl. “No one can deny the good taste of my dear cousin, you are truly a beauty. Even at your age.”
Helel must have noticed how my body tensed and grabbed my hand trying to calm me down.
“It is for us an honor and pride that you have received us, Majesty.”
“Oh, but we must take this opportunity to remember old times, my dear Guillaume! I understand that they will have given you chambers in the palace. One of these nights you must have dinner with me so that we remember happy moments together. I guess your wife will prefer to rest, of course!” she released with a poisonous tone that annoyed both me and the Duke of Somerset, who wrinkled his nose like a rat.
“It will be a pleasure, Majesty!” Helel replied, bowing again and letting Margaret continue her procession around the room.
I left the room snorting like an enervated scalded cat for having had to endure the attitude of that capricious girl who had taken her role as queen too seriously. I could hear how Helel tried to keep my pace by gently calling me by my name and asking me to wait for him while I walked with military decision to the rooms that had been assigned to us.
“Sadith, I think you're making a world of a grain of sand.”
“What I'm going to do is a hat with that little girl's skin! When her entire family did not even exist I had already lived thousands of years, I have been in the greatest courts in the world, courts that will never be anymore! Does she think she is a queen? I can tell you what real queens are. On all my dead-ones, I am going to teach this bitch humility and respect to her elders and wiser!” I was aware that it was my altered hormones that spoke for me, but far from getting irritated, Helel started laughing out loud. “Stop laughing, it's all your fault, Helel!” I snapped.
“Yes, you repeat that a lot, but it doesn't matter. The truth is that you are hilarious. You have to understand it,” he said in a conciliatory tone, “I am used to you being cold, serious and controlled like a marble statue, and this state of yours has transformed you into something similar to an overflowing current capable of destroying everything.”
I didn't answer because I knew he was right. I tried to breathe several times to calm my energy and prevent it from dominating me, but the noise of knocking at the door made me lose my concentration.
“And now what?” I shrieked.
The door opened in an instant and a boy of about twelve or thirteen years appeared in the doorway with a fearful smile.
“My lord Marquis, the queen invites you to dinner with her tonight if you are willing to accept,” the boy said, rolling his eyes with his news.
“You can tell her Majesty that we will be there,” Helel replied formally and the boy flushed immediately. “What's up boy? Speak without fear.”
“Sir, her Majesty invites you only, and she reminds you that you should let your wife rest as is in keeping with her condition for the sake of your son.”
At that moment I could not help it and a jolt shook the palace to the ground. My power was overflowing and I had to grab the wall in front of me to recover enough concentration to calm the wave of energy that had just escaped my control. From my position I saw how the boy looked around at the same time he prescribed himself, asking for protection from the god of Christians.
“For whatever you want, calm down!” Helel whispered, hugging me. “You can leave us boy, don't worry. Tell her Majesty that I accept her invitation.”
It took me a few minutes to calm down, but I finally succeeded, my breathing became more constant and my pulse returned to normal.
“You can let go of me, Helel,” I said, shaking to separate myself from him.
“Are you calmed down?”
“I'm pissed off and disgusted, but I'm not going to lose control again.”
“I hope so. I don't think it helps our goals that the entire court dies under the rubble of the palace because of an earthquake that nobody knows where it came from, don't you think?”
“What kind of relationship do you have with this idiot that summon you to her rooms alone and at night? And it's not that it took her long to do so. One of these days, she said. Ha!”
“I've told you, we've known each other for a long time. Let's say biblically,” he said with a wicked smile.
“I think that the whole room has figured it out if only because of the way her eyes lit up when she saw you. Perfect! That means you only have to put your cock up her holes so that we can free Eleanor. I don't think it will cost you much effort.” My comment made Helel burst into laughter again, and I realised that I was again being carried away by my condition. “And what am I supposed to do? To be here waiting languidly until you return without knowing what happens?”
“Do you really want to know what happens?” said Helel, winking at me.
“Obviously not that in particular, I just want to know if I can help in any way.”
“I think that, given your lack of current self-control, the best way to help is to stay here calm and let me deal with Margaret.”
“If you say so,” I said unconvinced.
At dusk, Helel left for the queen's chambers and I sat by the fireplace in our room ready for many things, but not to remain without knowing what was happening. I knew I couldn't invade Helel's mind, he would notice right away and throw me out, but the queen was a different matter altogether. Just by concentrating a little I could enter her mind enough to be able to see everything that happened in that encounter from her point of view, to observe the scene with her eyes. That had the disadvantage of being able to control the level of depth of the connection; too soft and I would not see anything clearly, too intense and the connection would make me feel everything she felt, a risk that I could not take for the little one I carried in my belly.
I concentrated looking at the fire in front of me to use its energy as a catalyst and in just an instant my mind was traveling to Margaret’s, reaching her at the right moment when one of its pages announced the arrival of Helel. Suddenly my body was no longer my body but hers. I could see the silk nightgown that covered her body and the velvet dressing gown that had been thrown over, open, revealing her breasts with hard nipples from the contact with the cold silk. Margaret turned to receive Helel as she told her bridesmaids to leave them alone. Then she went to a table that occupied the central part of the room and poured two glasses of wine from a golden jug, handing one to Helel.
“To the old days!” she said looking Helel in the eye.
“They're not that old Margaret, we're both still young,” Helel smoothly replied.
“Yes, it's true, but our circumstances have changed, dear friend,” she said as she sat in an armchair by the fire and invited Helel to take a seat. “Look at yourself, married and with a creature on the way, who would have said it! I mean,” she corrected as he played with his loose hair that fell on his shoulders, “I would have dared to say that there would have been many other children before, it won't be because you didn't try
often, if you asked the ladies at my uncle’s court in France, but I never thought I'd see you married.”
“Maybe I was wrong in my previous statement and I do get older,” Helel said, taking a sip of the wine he offered.
“I don't know,” replied the thoughtful queen as she placed her foot on Helel's crotch, causing a shiver to run down my back. “I wouldn't know how to tell you without inspecting you any closer.”
“I am not the only one who has married, Margaret. Look at you, queen, nothing less,” Helel replied, spreading his legs to facilitate her caresses.
“That is the problem with women, Guillaume, we are nothing more than pawns in the hands of men,” she said, rising suddenly and walking around the room. “When my father was offered the possibility of marrying his daughter to Henry, he didn't even hesitate for a moment, it was good for him and good for the family, and it didn't matter that he was condemning me to spend the rest of my life with an impotent that blushes just by looking at my breasts. What I wanted didn't matter, I'm just a woman.” A part of me was recognised in those words that were nothing more than the reflection of the damage that Christian followers had done in society with their doctrines of male superiority that had relegated women to be little more than anything, barely a belly and two hands. “So here I am,” she continued, “in a country that hates me as a French woman, with a husband who wouldn't touch me with a stick and surrounded by snakes wanting me to fail at the only job they think I can do, have children who continue the line of the house. Which is impossible given my husband's love incapacity. Oh, I'm so alone, Guillaume!” she said taking off her gown and touching herself to accentuate her youthful figure of small and turgid breasts.
“I understand you have friends to entertain you, my queen, Somerset to name only one,” said Helel, rising from the chair.
“Oh yes, my good Somerset! It's a good entertainment, don’t get me wrong, but I miss a man who truly understands my needs, I don't know if you know what I mean.” And her hands released the straps of the nightgown to drop it to the floor showing her body in perfect nakedness. I could tell how the way Helel looked at her excited her body and a humidity grew inside her.
“Well, we both know that it takes a while, too many perversions to get to know,” Helel said as he approached her slowly dropping his coat on the floor.
For a second, when I looked at his face and the way he looked at her with a clear desire, I thought I would lose the connection, that I could not stay focused, but it was the opposite.
“Do you think?” said Margaret as she stood on the bed on all fours, offering herself completely to him without qualms, without control. I could see how Helel stood behind her on the bed. He was no longer dressed but completely naked, and Margaret was no longer Margaret, her body was no longer hers but my mind had taken control. I could feel his warm hand between my legs, his fingers preparing me for something much greater. My body, the one that had belonged to Margaret, shuddered anxiously and my back curled up asking for more. And Helel didn't hesitate to give me what I wanted. His member penetrated me deeply causing me to shiver with pleasure as I had not felt before. His hands grabbed my hips as he penetrated me again and again with determination, but without brutality. I could notice how the skin of my body was bristling. His hands grabbed my breasts and forced me to rise so that I could hold myself in his embrace as he penetrated me incessantly, and his lips and his tongue ran down my neck making that moment unforgettable. I lost track of time, forgotten in that immense pleasure until I noticed that my body could not contain itself anymore and asked me not to stop approaching climax. “Go on!” I found myself screaming in Margaret's voice, and Helel answered with a single phrase as it spilled inside me exploding with pleasure.
“It's all yours, Sadith!”
Hearing my name caused me to lose connection immediately and return to my body barely able to breathe from the agitation of orgasm. I could tell how my body had reacted to that extracorporeal experience. My crotch was wet, my nipples hard and I could swear I could still feel Helel inside me. I didn't know how to react. A part of me was ashamed for letting myself go that way, another part was angry to know that, during all that time, Helel had always known that it was I who was inside Margaret's body and still had continued. But above all, I was scared, scared of the way my body had surrendered to Helel, without control, without qualms and in a fully conscious way.
I was not able to find the courage to re-enter Margaret's mind for a long time, but finally the anxiety to know what could be happening made me decide to try again. As soon as the connection was established and the images became clear I could understand that they were talking about Eleanor.
“I can't do it, Guillaume, so don't ask me any more!”
“Of course you can, by all demons, you are the queen of England and your husband a wimp without will! And let me remind you that everything you have right now you owe it to me. You know perfectly well that you were not the first candidate for the position, if it had not been for my influence to tip the balance in your favour you would still be disgusted by being a noble of provinces possibly married to a noble of fourth line.”
“Oh, I knew that sooner or later you would try to collect that debt! It is not that yours is selfless love, is it?”
“Of course not, everything has a price, my dear Margaret.”
“Well, that's a price I can't and won't pay,” she said, raising her voice and clearly losing patience. “You said it, I am the queen of England, a foreign queen, hated and despised in equal parts. Do you have any idea how complicated my situation is right now? A husband good for nothing, unable to defend his position on the throne or that of his queen who is a misunderstood foreigner and who needs to conceive a child as urgently as possible to secure her position. I cannot contravene a royal order and release a woman accused of threatening the life of my own husband. It would be suicide!”
“There are worse things than suicide, Margaret, believe me!” Helel replied and his response sounded like the whistle of a snake. Margaret stood with her back to the clasp of her gown and her hands stopped dead when she heard that threat. Silence filled the space of the room for a moment to be replaced by the woman's laugh, a laugh contained as well as evil, the laughter of a madwoman.
“That's something you should know well, right, my dear lord of hell? Or maybe I should call you by your name, Helel?” she turned around to look directly into Helel's eyes, which gave her a look full of unstoppable anger. “You see that the game of lies and secrets can be played by two.”
“Well, well! This is a surprise. May I ask how you found out who I am?”
“I have already told you that my situation is quite precarious, so I had to look for allies who could support me to remain on the throne,” she said like a cat playing with its prey while lying sensually in bed. “As it happens, those allies turned out to know you very well. And they have told me many things about you. In fact they were very interested when this morning I let them know that you had come to see me, so interested that they insisted on seeing you in person.” Just when that sentence ended, the thunderous sound of trumpets announcing the arrival of something or someone made the whole room vibrate and Margaret put her hands to her ears.
“You have no idea what you have done, little whore, by allying with them you have managed to mark your destiny!” Helel shouted, raising his voice above the shrill sound.
“It may be, Helel, but at least it will be a long destiny, unlike yours!”
Immediately a couple of light beams materialised in the room, and inside the blinding glow two man-shaped figures covered with light armour and carrying swords could be seen. What happened next was so fast that for a second I thought I had dreamed it. In Hele’s hand, a curved section of a shiny black metal materialised, and making it fly through the center of the room he cut off the head of one of the figures that had just appeared. The head rolled to the bed where Margaret was cornered, making her scream in horror. The other figure tried to wield his weap
on, but Helel's sword had pierced his belly before he could even think about it, and in its ascent he split his torso in two causing the body to fall with a loud blow to the floor. Then Helel, still naked and with the body covered in the blood of his attackers, took Margaret with one hand by the neck raising her in the air.
“You thought you could be smarter than Satan himself, bitch! Do not worry, it will not be today when you die, but since you are so worried about your destiny I am going to give you a glimpse of a future that you cannot change.” I could immediately see the image that formed on Margaret's head. A birth full of pain to give life to a son who would be called prince despite being the son of another man. A crown falling from the head of her husband while the worms ate his flesh, and the body of a boy covered in white roses drowned in fresh blood of intense scarlet color. “The husband you need will be killed, his crown taken away, your son killed by the thorns of the white rose and you will die in the most absolute solitude. And when your time comes, I will be the only one next to your bed to remind you that all this is my revenge.” With a blow of his hand he threw her against the bed causing her to bang her head on one of the posts and lose consciousness, and I lost the connection I had with her.
A moment later, Helel appeared in our rooms naked and bloody as I had seen in Margaret's mind.
“We're leaving,” he said as he grabbed me by the waist.
“Where? What about Eleanor?” But I received no answer other than the cold of the night hitting me in the face and the darkness around me. Helel had transported us to some forest, although I had no idea where we could be.
“Helel, where have you brought me? Why have we left? We have to go back and grind that bitch until she authorises Eleanor's release, we can't leave like this.”
