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- Contains: mf, ws
-
- Warning: The narrative that follows contains descriptions of sex acts
- and bodily fluids that some readers may find disturbing. If you fear
- you are such a reader, please do me the favor of leaving off reading
- now, as I would like not to be the cause of your discomfort.
- ==========================
- @BEGIN_FILE_ID.DIZ
- The Dew of the OrchidA deliciously wet fantasy from days of yore
- by Hartley@END_FILE_ID.DIZ
-
-
- In order for you to know my story, you must first know who I am. I
- am the monarch of a small principality surrounded on three sides by
- mountains. And although my realm is hardly a shiny pebble in
- regional politics, my palace seems endlessly permeated with political
- intrigues, and I can trust nobody.
-
- Nobody, that is with one exception -- my maid servant, Dembrosia. I
- hardly noticed her at first, when the butler promoted her to be my
- chambermaid. She'd enter my chambers whenever I left them, or
- whenever I called for her, which wasn't often. She'd stand at the
- entrance, her hands folded before her, and cast her deep foreign
- eyes at the floor. With her lilting accent she'd say, "Good
- morning, my Liege," and she'd bow, and her hair would tumble from
- behind her back and hang free like silky midnight about her face.
- And I'd ignore her.
-
- Ignoring beautiful women is a privilege of kings, since so many are
- available to us. Yet lately, politics has eaten into even this. I
- have been unable to go whoring for months, ever since a
- night when I was in cognito in a brothel, and an assassin broke in on
- me and my true-love-for-the-evening. It was fortunate for me that
- she was on top, for I was able to use her body as a shield. The poor
- tart. I'll never know if she had a part in the plot. The blow
- nearly cut her in two. But the seconds that it took my enemy to
- extract his blade from her was long enough for me to roll out of bed,
- find my own sword, and dispatch him with my superior fensing skills.
-
- It brings tears to my eyes to think that but for the whims of fate,
- my own Dembrosia might have been placed in a different vocation and
- been the one with me that night. And it moves me even more, now that
- I know her well, to realize that she would gladly have volunteered to
- suffer that sting so that I should not have to.
-
- But this was not the only attempt upon my life. Just three weeks
- later, my valet, while administering me my bath, drew a dagger from
- under his tunic, and struck at me. Perhaps he did not rememeber
- that, as prince, I had been grappling champion of the kingdom. Before
- he knew he was foiled, I had his one arm bent behind his back and his
- head held under the water till the bubbles ceased.
-
- News of such a happening travels fast in a palace. Even before the
- undertaker arrived to unburden my bathhouse of the corpse, Dembrosia
- came running up to me crying desparately, "My Liege, my Liege. Don't
- trust any of them." She dropped to one knee, sobbing, and clutched
- the hem of my robe.
-
- "I assure you, my dear," I said, "I don't."
-
- She sobbed a bit more, then regained her composure and looked up.
- "But Sire," she implored, "you mustn't engage a new valet. They'll
- just try it again."
-
- "What, bathe and dress myself? Surely these chores are so weighty
- that I might risk my life for their avoidance."
-
- "How brave of you, my Liege, to make mirth of such a situation. But
- you needn't put yourself out. You may allow me to be your valet,
- Sire."
-
- "A female valet? That's unheard of. The staff shall be laughing
- behind my back."
-
- "They are plotting behind your back as we speak, Sire. Sometimes
- I truly believe I am the only one in the palace who remains loyal."
-
- "You know this for certain? Tell me all you know, child? Who are
- the conspirators? Speak!"
-
- She began to cry again. "I'm sorry, my Liege," she sobbed. "Nobody
- speaks openly. But word is to the kitchen that the disloyalty is
- spread to the highest levels. I fear greatly for you, Sire."
-
- "And a mere girl like you will protect me by serving as my valet?
- And just why shall I trust you? Perhaps you aim to use your feminine
- wiles to compromise me to another assassin."
-
- "Oh no, my Liege. Although I could aspire to nothing more dear than
- to lie with you for even a single hour, Sire, should I ever do so,
- you may slit my throat straight away for suspicion and be done with
- me. I desire but to serve you."
-
- "My last valet, now lying dead in the bathhouse, concealed a weapon
- beneath his clothes. How shall I be sure you won't do the same?"
-
- "I shan't wear any, Sire. Oughtn't that be the proper attire for a
- maid to bathe her master?"
-
- "And you, girl, are but a chambermaid. How will you know the skills
- of a valet?"
-
- "I learned them from my mother before I was sold to the slave
- traders. My mother was a royal hostess in the court of the Orchid
- Empire, a thousand leagues from here. There a female valet is not
- unheard of. It is the custom. If it please your majesty, I shall
- treat you in the manner of that custom, and I dare say that my Liege
- shall regret not being born there."
-
- She prostrated herself at my feet, her hair tickling my toes. The
- thought of this morsel, naked and tending to my person with her
- exotic ways, was more than my good sense could bear. And so I agreed
- to her plan.
-
- The next day, she came to me with a most unusual request. She
- prattled off a long list of fruits, herbs, springwater, and essences
- she would need from the market in order to bathe me properly. Some,
- like the fresh raspberries or the cloves, command premium prices in
- our kingdom. But my curiosity bade me to permit the expenditure.
-
- I informed her that I would need a bath late on the next afternoon.
- This was to be in preparation for the nasty business of providing the
- kingdom with a male heir. The queen was demanding of my services, and
- it would be impolitic to deny her, as much as I wished I could. The
- oldest and most haggard whore in the kingdom can bring me more
- pleasure than this high-born cackling ostrich of a woman that my
- father, rest his soul, forced upon me. Even her name, Ghezylah,
- grates on my senses.
-
- I arrived in the bathhouse at the appointed time. The fire was
- already blazing with three kettles upon it. The tub was full and
- steaming. Dembrosia stood beside it with her hands folded in front
- of her and her eyes cast to the floor.
-
- As soon as I had closed and barred the door, she slid that frumpy
- chambermaid's uniform from her shoulders and slipped out of it as
- gracefully as any dancer. Her skin glowed golden in the firelight.
- She carefully folded the uniform and set it on a shelf. Then she
- stood facing me. I just stared. The light and her nakedness brought
- forth how different she was. With her foreign cheeks so angular and
- her shoulders so slender, comparing her to domestic women was like
- comparing a leopard to a herd of cows. Unlike their great bulbous
- breasts, hers were like soft, ripe plums. Unlike their oak-branch
- arms, hers were like the tendrils of a weeping willow. Unlike their
- heavy gelatinous thighs, hers were long and delicate, and moved as
- fluidly as the legs of a wading bird. And between them, instead of a
- thick forest, she had but a whisp of fluff, transluscent, and
- scarcely concealing her crevice of delight.
-
- "I am ready for you, Sire," she said. "Will my Liege step up to me,
- please?"
-
- I did. The steam simmering up from the bath wafted over her
- shoulders and into my nostrils. Her scent was heavenly, so much so
- that I bent my head forward and sniffed deep into my head what
- might have been a whipped confection of fruits and flowers and spice
- and animal sweat.
-
- "Sire," she said calmly. "Please stand up straight so I might undress
- you."
-
- I became aware that I had closed my eyes. When I opened them, her
- smiling lips filled my vision. I obeyed her. She worked her fingers
- over my buttons and clasps as deftly as any magician, slipping off
- each garment gently, knowing so of its mechanics that she never
- needed to pull at the cloth or strain at any of my limbs. She
- controlled my arms and legs without a single spoken command. Her
- mere touch bent them comfortably in whatever way suited her purpose.
-
- "My Liege," she said softly. "In a perfect world, I should serve you
- fully by bearing you into your bath. But alas, I am too small for the
- task. So I regret to have to ask you please to do this yourself.
-
- The water was as hot as any flesh might stand. I had to immerse each
- appendage with utmost deliberacy, especially those that hung between
- my legs. And I regret to admit that submersion of those parts in
- such steaming water compelled them to leak till my bladder emptied,
- as though I were once more a baby. Whether Dembrosia observed my
- weakness, I cannot know. She was busy readying soap and cloth.
-
- My brow began immediately to exude beads of sweat. But before the
- perspiration had time to run down my face, Dembrosia had wrapped my
- head in a hot damp cloth. Then she took up the washcloth and soap
- and stepped into the bath with me. I started back for a moment.
- This was a complete surprise to me. No valet had ever entered my
- bath. But I grew used to the idea at once.
-
- She stood straddling my legs, which were extended flat on the floor
- of the tub. She then began her work in earnest. No wrinkle or crevice
- was too small to escape her attention. And her every attention was as
- sweet to my flesh as the nipple is to a baby's lips. There was no
- modesty in her touch either. To her fingers, each dab of my flesh
- was equal to any other, no matter how humble its location.
-
- Nor was she modest about her own flesh, which she kept covered with a
- film of suds so it might slide easily against my own. As she bent
- over my shoulder to scrub my back, her breast pressed against my
- cheek. As she removed the cloth from my head to wash my hair, that
- luscious peach wedged between her thighs bobbed but two finger-widths
- from my nose. It was only with all my willpower that I was able to
- restrain myself from lapping at its sweet juices.
-
- All the while, I was as one who had tarried too long at the wine.
- That was the effect of her fragrance, which tumbled over me again and
- again whenever she drew close.
-
- When every nook of my skin had been rubbed and kneaded, she drained
- the water from the tub. She stood, still straddling my outstretched
- legs, and said, "It is my privilege now to ask whether you should
- like to have your wand of power scrubbed especially clean. It is the
- option of a man as great as your majesty to accept or decline such
- treatment."
-
- Surely if her performance thus far was any sign of what this might
- be, I could expect the joys of her proposition to be nothing less
- than celestial. But alas. My seed was marked today for my queen,
- and so I had to decline.
-
- She exited the tub and busied herself first with pouring kettle water
- into a porceline basin, then mixing it with fresh water she pumped
- from the cistern. This she poured over my head and body as a rinse.
- Then she entered the tub once more, saying, "Please place your hands
- over your eyes, my Liege, that I may avoid burning them as I annoint
- your head with fragrance. Lean forward if you will, please."
-
- Again, I obeyed her, though I felt so fluid in her presence that
- I could hardly call it obeying. Her every command seemed almost
- as though it was what I would have done anyway.
-
- I was unable to see, but I could feel her warmth approach close to
- me. Then I felt her pouring warm liquid over my head. It dribbled
- over my ears and down my face. Its scent was the same as hers, only
- far stronger for having dripped under my nose. This potion was a
- symphony of scent, with flutes made of wildflowers and lavender,
- violins made of raspberry and almond, horns made of cinnamon and
- clove, bassoons made of freshly cut birch, and deep animal bass notes
- that quivered in my loins. She kept pouring gently for nearly a
- minute. It ran in warm rivulets over my shoulders and down my chest
- and back. When she was done, she rubbed it into my skin with the
- flats of her palms.
-
- "You may rise, my Liege," she said. She patted me from head to foot
- with a dry cloth, then dressed me in freshly laundered robes with as
- much finesse as she had undressed me. Then she bowed and bid me good
- day.
-
- "Thank you, my dear," I said.
-
- "And thank you, my Liege," came the reply. "The pleasure your
- bath brings you is equal to the pleasure serving you brings me."
-
- I left the bath house and proceded to my queen's chamber, where I
- spent the afternoon fulfilling my duty to her, which this day was as
- foul a thing as such an undertaking can be.
-
- That evening I had dinner in the great dining hall with Ghezylah and
- at least a dozen lords and ladies of the palace. My chefs outdid
- themselves this evening with a glazed veal dish I had never tasted
- before, garnished with sauteed asparagus tips and marinated artichoke
- hearts. But as a waiter carried in huge souffle, I was overtaken
- with a sudden unease. I rose abruptly. My chair fell over behind
- me. The lords all rose in response. I backed away from the table,
- which seemed now to pitch and roll like a ship at sea. I looked
- around at walls that swam before my eyes. And then the marble floor
- careened up from beneath me and thudded against my shoulder. I
- recollect looking into a tight circle of shocked faces. And then I
- was awakening in my chamber.
-
- The sheets of my bed were damp and rank and clung to my skin. I was
- shivering, even though morning sun poured over me through my chamber
- window. Deep cramps gnawed at my at my belly. My joints ached. My
- head throbbed. My mouth was as sawdust. My eyelids might as well
- have been sandpaper. From each of my extremities news of calamity
- reached my sensibilities, save one -- my right hand -- which
- Dembrosia was pressing gently between her palms. She knelt at my
- bedside, her head bowed in apparent prayer, with strands of her hair
- draped over my forearm.
-
- I groaned.
-
- "My Liege," she breathed, looking up. Tears welled in her eyes. She
- rose to lean over my bed and kiss me on the forehead. Then she drew
- back suddenly. "Oh forgive me, my Liege," she begged. "I lost my
- senses to see you stir once more. Such affront will not happen again."
-
- "What happened?" I croaked, for my throat was as dry as ashes.
-
- "Oh Sire! It's terrible." She broke out in sobs.
-
- "What, girl?" I demanded. "Stop that crying and speak."
-
- "Poison, my Liege," she said. "They mean to kill you. But praise
- to the heavenly spirits, they have failed."
-
- "What filthy worm worked this villiany?" I asked, my anger dampening
- my pain.
-
- She broke again into squeeky sobs and buried her face in the blanket.
- Then she shook herself, wiped her eyes, folded her hands and spoke
- calmly. "I cannot know, Sire. I trust none of them. Not one of
- them with whom you dined is what he pretends to be, I'm sure."
-
- "And did my taster not fall ill?" I asked.
-
- "No Sire. Nor did the kitchen dog I fed your leftovers to -- see,
- he sleeps in the corner. I believe it was the wine. In the tussle,
- your glass was spilt. I expect that indeed that was no accident, Sire."
-
- "But I watched it poured into every glass from the same bottle. Who
- else has suffered?"
-
- "Nobody, my Liege. It must have been the work of a conjurer."
-
- I smiled for the first time since waking. "You are a most clever
- girl," I said. "I should have the likes of you at my table of
- advisors. Now please, fetch me water to drink."
-
- She drew a copper flagon from beside the bed and held its lip to my
- mouth. The water was tepid, but it washed the parched slime from
- my tongue. I reached for the flagon that I might tip it to make
- the drink flow faster. She drew it away.
-
- "No, my Liege. Drink slowly. The poison is still in you. It made
- you cry out in thirst for three days and nights."
-
- "Three days! I remember none of it."
-
- "You cried out as if mad, Sire. I was by your side every moment.
- And when a servant brought this flagon, I poured its contents out the
- window in fear it too was poisoned."
-
- "And so how did I drink?"
-
- "I took the flagon to the cistern myself and filled it."
-
- "Did anybody question you?"
-
- "Yes, my Liege. The guards at the door bid me not enter with
- water for you lest I was the assassin bearing more poison."
-
- "Who gave them their orders?"
-
- "I'm sure I don't know, Sire."
-
- "And yet, how then did you bring me drink?"
-
- She was silent.
-
- "Speak, girl!"
-
- "Oh please, your majesty. Promise me my execution shall be quick and
- painless." She began to cry again.
-
- "Cease this foolishness at once. Tell me how you came to bring me
- untainted water."
-
- She bit her lip and began in a wimpering voice. "Sire, know that I
- did this to save your life. I beg your mercy. When the guards
- refused me, I darted around the corner and drank the contents myself
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