Running Wild

by Lucinda Betts

  “Ignore her drivel,” the magician said with that knowing smirk—but Shahrazad felt no wave of enchantment. These words were simply words. “She’s nothing but a weak and powerless girl. Bring the interloper to the Sultan…”

  In frustration, Shahrazad turned toward the magician. “Badr, we cast the spell in the Thaumutugicon—we used the hair! We know the Raj will make an acceptable replacement. There’s no need to torment him any longer.”

  “He’s acceptable, yes. But is he willing?” Badr turned his narrow back on her. “Not yet.”

  “My love,” Raj said, taking the magician’s hands in his. “What does this mean?”

  “This man,” the magician gestured toward Tahir, “is an Impregnator.”

  The Raj, the magician, and Shahrazad all looked at Tahir, who flushed.

  “My love,” the Raj caressed the magician’s arm. “I understand that this fact has some meaning to you, but I don’t understand it at all.”

  Shahrazad didn’t either, not in this context. But the awkward expression on Tahir’s face told her that the concept meant something to him.

  “You’ve been dreading this marriage, haven’t you?” the magician asked the Raj. The words were kind, but she saw a cold machination in the magician’s expression.

  “You of all people know I have.”

  “Because of the final night.”

  The Raj nodded, his blond braid catching the light. “Yes. And because heirs…”

  Shahrazad understood that if a man couldn’t travel the Way of Pleasure with a woman, no children would come of the union. Was that to be her fate? No children? Suddenly, life seemed to be filled with worse things than turning into a flying horse by sunrise.

  “But the Impregnator’s function is to impregnate,” Tahir said to her betrothed. “And the magician is suggesting I service your wife-to-be because you can’t.”

  “Oh!” the Raj ir Adham said, understanding lightening his broad face. “That’s a solution. I don’t have to fuck the girl!” He straightened his braid. “And no one has to die.”

  Have to fuck the girl. That’s how the Raj saw her, saw their union.

  But on the other hand…Wasn’t she freed? Was the magician suggesting a night of running wild? What she’d done with the Flower Taker was nothing compared with what she longed to do with Tahir, what she’d come so close to doing.

  She looked at her lover—the strong line of his jaw, the breadth of his chest, his rangy limbs—and knew a word existed for what she felt: lust. But did that capture the entire complexity of her feelings?

  And was she actually fool enough to fall into this deliciously baited trap?

  No.

  “The magician’s powers are fading. The shitani need a new ruler.”

  “But still…” the slender man said with a flirtatious smile that lit his violet eyes. She heard that strange echo in his words, as if they held a special, hidden power. “I can grant your heart’s desire.”

  “You don’t know what my heart’s desire is,” she shot back, ignoring the pulsing magic.

  “Oh, I don’t?” the magician asked, the challenge clear as the air around him glistened. The hard line of his jaw softened, his lips grew fuller, and his hair grew out longer. The tight contour of his chest gave way to breasts, and his hips swelled. “I think I do, little hawk,” she said, tracing a lascivious fingertip over Shahrazad’s breast. “I know it exactly.”

  “God’s eyes,” the Raj moaned. “What kind of evil magic is this?”

  “But I’ve granted your heart’s desire,” the woman—and she clearly was a woman now—said to him.

  “What are you talking about?” the Raj groaned. “What have you done? Sleeping with a woman wasn’t my heart’s desire!” Beneath his tan, his face had gone white. His broad fingers crossed his face, and Shahrazad could see the white indents in his cheeks from his fingerprints.

  “You wanted to sleep with a woman and enjoy it,” the Flower Taker—no, Badra—purred. “And now you have.”

  “You don’t know what you’ve done,” the Raj moaned. “You don’t know.”

  “I know exactly what I’ve done,” Badra said, a satisfied smile curled around her lips. The shitani started to cackle, but it quieted midcall. Tahir must have tightened his grip.

  “The augury,” the Raj moaned, his face so buried in his hands that his words were muffled. “The augury! My land will fall now to the shitani.”

  “My darling boy,” the magician said. “Run to my arms. Meet me in the Cavern of the Sixty Thieves. You don’t need to fall with your land and your palace.”

  The air around her twisted and shimmered, and the magician vanished into nothing. Shahrazad blinked, but not even a tendril of smoke remained where Badra had been standing.

  “Where is she?” the Raj called in a voice thick with rage. “I’ll kill her!”

  “One of you will replace me,” an ephemeral voice said.

  Shahrazad almost spoke. She almost cried the words that would seal her fate. I’ll replace you, Badra. I’ll take your mantle. Leave these men be. She wanted to say this, but her tongue was frozen, unmoving.

  “Come to me, Raj,” the fading voice said. “You don’t have to fall to the shitani. Come to me, Shahrazad. You’re head doesn’t need to grace Pike Wall. Come to me, Tahir. Come join your sister.”

  “Where is that magician, that pox cunt whore?” the Raj roared in a voice loud enough to penetrate the walls. “Where is she?”

  “Calm down, man,” Tahir said, as Shahrazad scanned the room for the magician. “I can find her.”

  “Where is she?” the Raj roared again.

  “Princess Shahrazad,” the ephemeral voice said. “The Raj will betray you. He cannot help it. Come with me and I will save you.”

  She was going to agree. She opened her mouth to agree. But instead, she said, “How can I replace you? You, who have the ethics of an asp. You, who manipulates without a thought. You were too vain to find a replacement earlier, weren’t you? Your vanity has endangered everything I hold dear.”

  “Your father will behead you.”

  “I must take that chance.”

  “And have you discovered that you’re a Dark Mother, the woman chosen above all others to fuck the shitani lord and bear his child?” she asked from somewhere—from everywhere.

  “I’ve learned that Kalila, Tahir, the Sultan, the Raj or I can serve as the Dark Mother—or Dark Father.”

  “No one said you were a stupid girl—only foolish. Come with me and I will save you.”

  “Never.” She looked at Tahir, hoping he could protect her, hoping she could protect herself.

  “Where is she?” the Raj demanded, whirling around the room.

  “Lift your curse from me, magician. I’ve no wish to be a pegaz. I’ve no wish to aid the shitani.”

  “As a pegaz, you will fly to me to take my place. I sense your acquiescence, young princess. You will come to me. You will be mine. Leave these fools behind.”

  “Don’t do this, Badra,” Tahir said. “She’s done nothing to you.”

  A spectral laugh filled the chamber. “Will you take her place, Prince Tahir? Will you take mine? Your mother will not welcome you back, not after you ran your sister off. Certainly not after you defied her.” Her voice seemed to be growing weaker.

  “Badr!” the Raj bellowed. “You’re the love of my heart, the light of my eyes! Come back. Drop your female guise and come back to me.”

  “Come to me, Raj,” she said. “If you’re man enough.”

  “You’re not a woman! Don’t use a cunt’s voice!”

  But the magician did not answer. She was gone.

  Shahrazad turned to the Raj and Tahir. “That’s what she wants more than anything.”

  “One of us,” Tahir said.

  “Yes.” She shook her head. “At any cost.”

  “Do you suppose she’s behind the auguries?” Raj sat on the bed as if exhausted.

  “Maybe. They’ve spoken to all of us,”
Shahrazad said. “The augury told me that if I allowed a man to touch me, my land would fall—and then Badr touched me.” She looked at her lover and added, “And Prince Tahir. He also touched me.”

  She looked at her husband-to-be, wondering if she’d see her death in his face. But the Raj simply looked at the ceiling and the walls and shrugged. “Nothing has fallen.”

  “Nothing’s fallen,” she agreed. But she turned and lifted her oraz in a most undignified fashion. He could see her back now, her new birthmark. “But things have changed.”

  The Raj looked at her back for a moment, confusion lining his forehead. “Does your father know you have a tattoo? I’ve never seen one of that quality. The scales on that snake actually look like they’re moving.”

  “I beg your pardon, my Raj, but I don’t have a tattoo,” Shahrazad said, lowering her silk and turning back toward him, eyes modestly downcast. “This appeared in the place where the magician touched me—at the ceremony of the first day of our wedding. At the time I believed she was a man.”

  “Well,” the Raj said, tightening the green sheet around his hips. “Nothing like that appeared on me.”

  The shitani in Prince Tahir’s hand wheezed out a weak cackle and kicked its leg like a kangaroo rat trapped by a falcon. Its toes caught the Raj’s green silk, and the sheet slithered to the Raj’s knees.

  “Fucking creature,” the Raj said, grabbing the sheet. He wrapped it around his hips again and said, “What are you going to do with that thing—” He suddenly interrupted his question with a vicious scratching between his thighs. “God’s eyes!” he said.

  “What is it?” Tahir asked.

  “God’s eyes!” the Raj said again. “It stings. It hurts! What did that demon do to me?”

  “It’s the tattoo,” Shahrazad said. “It’s forming right now. Right where her skin touched yours.”

  “No,” the Raj exclaimed, but he looked down, under the sheet. “God’s eyes!” he cried, dropping the green silk. “What’s happening to me?”

  “Let me see,” Tahir said, his voice still steady. But Shahrazad saw quite clearly what had happened to her betrothed. A snake tattoo covered his hip and his lower stomach. Its head—a beautiful collection of green and blue scales—had been magically tattooed on the head of his cock. Beady black eyes peered out, but they looked kindly rather than evil.

  “It’s lovely,” Shahrazad said. “The diamonds of its scales are works of art.”

  The Raj bent to look more closely at his new tattoo, and his stomach muscle rippled, making the snake look like it actually slithered across his body.

  “It looks very much like yours, Princess Shahrazad,” Tahir said. “It even moves like yours.”

  The Raj looked up, startled. “Have you two—” He shook his head. “Have you—”

  “Have we what?” Tahir’s gaze was intense. “Enjoyed the Way of Pleasure together?”

  “Well?” the Raj asked.

  “We have not, my Raj,” she said. “But I have kissed him and taken solace in his arms. I’ve allowed him to touch me in inappropriate ways, and I’ve touched him as well. My head belongs on a pike, my Raj, and I offer it to you freely.”

  “No.” The Raj shook his broad head as he wrapped the sheet back around his hips. “I wasn’t judging. I was simply appreciating the wisdom of the magician’s suggestion.”

  “Were you?” she asked. She’d heard the magician’s warning: the Raj would betray her. But did she believe it? Did that offset her fear of following the path so clearly laid out by the great deceiver herself?

  “I defied the augury, and this tattoo appeared at her touch. You defied the augury, and the tattoo appeared at his touch. The magician is behind them. Her touch caused each of the tattoos.”

  “So, we’re not to trust her. That seems quite clear.” The Raj rubbed his broad face with his massive hands.

  “The shitani threat is real.” Tahir glanced at the demon in his grip. “The threat is real even if she’s manipulating the auguries.”

  “My house cannot defeat the shitani without the help of the Sultan’s armies.” The Raj looked at both of them and added, “And I firmly believe the shitani will invade soon. We need this alliance, Princess Shahrazad.”

  “What if the alliance won’t work?” she asked. “What if the only solution is to usurp the magician?” The Raj just looked at her blankly, and she snapped in frustration, “I’ve been cursed by the magician in a second manner—I change into a pegaz by day.”

  “I don’t care if you change into a winged hippopotamus. I want this alliance, and I cannot enjoy the Way of Pleasure with you or any woman. It seems Badr—or Badra—has found a solution to my impossible dilemma.”

  “Hand Prince Tahir and me over to the Sultan?”

  “What?” he asked. He seemed genuinely surprised. “And have you tell him about the magician and me?”

  “I am weary to my bones of the Pike Wall and its threats. If I had my way not one more head would grace it—man or woman. But your word is my law. What are you suggesting, my Raj?” she asked.

  “Follow the magician’s suggestion. Let Prince Impregnator here impregnate you,” he said, gesturing at Tahir. “You both like each other; there’s no hardship. He can impregnate you on the appropriate wedding night—”

  “Tonight,” Shahrazad said, trying to ignore both the anticipation and the fear as they rolled over in her stomach. “The conception has been timed to take place tonight.”

  The shitani cackled, and Tahir shook it, but the Raj ignored it completely. “Let this man impregnate you tonight, and our alliance is sealed.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” Shahrazad began. “Will the shitani vanish simply because we wed—” And suddenly her ability to speak evaporated as her lips and limbs began to tingle. “It’s dawn,” she managed to gasp—just as wings sprouted from her back and a mane grew along her neck.

  Tahir saw immediately what had happened to the princess. God’s eyes, he thought, squeezing the demon’s neck in frustration. But maybe it wasn’t so…upsetting. The Raj didn’t seem to mind, and if he didn’t mind, the alliance could take place.

  “I see she was serious about changing into a horse, wasn’t she,” the Raj said.

  The pegaz snorted, her sand-colored mane rippling as she pinned her ears and shook her head. The jeweled reins of her bridle flopped around her neck but didn’t drop.

  “I’d take that as a yes if I were you,” Tahir said.

  “Did you get a snake tattoo, too?” asked the Raj.

  “No, but the augury didn’t forbid me to touch anyone or anything—I was told to restore my sister to her throne or my land would fall to demons.”

  “Well, fuck.” The Raj walked across the chamber and retrieved his clothes.

  “What is it?”

  “The Sultan has one of these damned tattoos. It’s on his arm, from his wrist to his shoulder. I wonder what that old bastard did to enrage the magician, may God refuse to look at him—or her.”

  “The Sultan has a tattoo? When did you see it?”

  The Raj chuckled. “What? You think I fucked him, too?”

  “That thought never occurred to me.” And it hadn’t.

  “I was hunting with him last month, and his hawk shit all over his arm. He changed his shirt in front of me.”

  “He had the tattoo a month ago? Before Haniyyah was put to death? I don’t understand—”

  The Raj snorted an impatient sound. “Understand this, untattooed prince from the Land of the Sun. We might be doomed at this point—I touched a woman and she”—he waved his hand at the pegaz—“touched a man—or men. God only knows how the Sultan fucked his land. But I’m not giving up. Fuck the auguries. They’ve done nothing but ruin my life. I’ll do what I need to to keep the land safe from the shitani.”

  The princess in pegaz form nickered, sounding exactly like she agreed with the sentiment.

  “Including taking the magician’s place?”

  “Are you going to be
lieve that camel shit? Has anything that—that creature”—he spit out the word—“has anything that fucking monster said been true?”

  He didn’t know.

  “Princess Shahrazad and I found several ancient books in the palace’s library.”

  “So?”

  “They agreed with the magician’s words.”

  “So?”

  And Tahir had to agree with the Raj. He’d made the same point to Shahrazad when he’d heard she was considering accepting the role of magician. The truth and lies were so tangled in his mind he couldn’t tell one from another. “So, what are your plans?” Tahir himself sat on the bed, suddenly exhausted. What was he going to do with a flying horse and a demon he didn’t dare put down?

  “I’m dressing myself like a decent man, and I’m waking the Sultan.” He jerked up his brocade pants as if they were to blame for his problems. “And then I’m getting this marriage consummated tonight, even if we miss today’s ceremony. I hope your cock is nice and hard at the thought of substituting for me.”

  Tahir looked at the princess’s betrothed, considering. The torchlight caught the emeralds in her headstall and made them wink. “Unless you need a pegaz at the wedding and not the bride herself, I don’t think you’ll have the ceremony today.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I don’t think you’ll marry a horse, even if it has remarkable wings.”

  “When does she change back into a woman?”

  “Sunset.”

  “Good.” The Raj pulled on his boots. “I’ll postpone the ceremony until sunset.” He shot a wary glance at the pegaz and said, “Just to be clear, you will impregnate her for me, won’t you? And keep this just between us. I can’t take the chance that fucking her will doom my land. I can’t form an alliance between our Lands without a marriage—my people wouldn’t have it and neither would the Sultan.”

  Tahir couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do than act as the princess’s Impregnator—but it wasn’t enough. Even without the magician’s taint hanging over this plan, it wasn’t enough. Whatever the rules of this land were, in his own, a secret impregnation would be treason, especially if the queens hadn’t given their approval. Beside that, what if she didn’t want him?