Authors: Darryl T. Mallard
“How long have you been there, my lord?” she said, smiling.
“Long enough,” Talos chuckled. “You fight well.”
“Humph! I need stronger opponents,” said the empress. “These women were not strong enough to properly challenge me.”
“Perhaps you’d do well to choose
male
opponents from the ultra-elite corps,” said Talos.
Beral let out a sigh. “No. Unfortunately male warriors are even less of a challenge than female ones.” Talos’s eyebrows rose at this in surprise. “They tend to either take it easy on me because I’m a woman or (sigh) lose focus in training.”
Talos smiled in realization. “I see, I see,” he said.
“Honey, why won’t
you
train with me?” said Beral excitedly.
“Oh no,” said Talos holding up his hands. “It would be the same as with the men of the corps. Lack of focus I mean.”
“No it won’t. I know you will…”
“I wasn’t talking about me, I was talking about
you!”
laughed the, High Lord. “Have you forgotten that three of our children were made right here in the training hall when we were supposed to be training?”
“No,” said Beral slowly, pouting.
“And who started it each and every time, huh?” said Talos.
“I know, honey,” said Beral. “But…do you have any idea how beautiful you are when you’re all sweaty and…” Beral reached out and began to touch Talos’s chest. “But you won’t even let me watch you train now. Why won’t you let me watch you? I still remember that match you had with that barbarian cousin of ours from Barrat. It was so exciting! Now you lock all the doors and won’t let me in while you train, with or without partners!”
Talos remembered that match well. His opponent was one of their own distant kin, one of High Lord Cato’s descendants from a once independent and unknown region of the empire, and the boy was proving his bloodline that day. Still, Talos had age and experience on the youth and after a long hard tussle was about to force him to submit when suddenly Beral called the match a draw and ordered everyone out of the training hall…except him. The worst part was his opponent was very tough, so he was already quite tired. Talos shuddered at the memory. He wouldn’t like to go through
that
again.
“Watching seems to have the same effect on you as training, my lady,” said Talos removing her hand, “which means my training would suffer if you were present for
any
reason. Anyway, I came here to talk to you about the humans.” Beral made a face and sat down. Her husband sat across from her. “What do you think of these humans? The Earth humans I mean.”
“I now understand completely what ‘Great Bellasaris’ was speaking of,” said the empress with a sigh. “They reek of greed, fear, envy and hate. Last night two Americans stayed behind at the feast. The others fled on the so-called pretense of privacy. However, of the two who stayed in the great hall, only one man actually stayed to enjoy himself with no ulterior motive. The other drank very little, but observed much. Humph! And not out of a voyeur’s pleasure either.”
Talos cocked his head. “How do you know this?”
“Your ancestor, ‘Great Lady Gorgo’ recognized him from her previous contact with the American humans two thousand years ago. Now THAT was most impressive. Unknown to the fool, she marked him early and although she and our great ancestor, Cato, had been enjoying themselves earlier, she lay there feigning exhaustion and sleep, and watched
him
as Bellasaris took her turn once the president and her man left.”
“Humph! Even at a friendly feast they can do nothing but scheme!” said Talos sadly. “What of the other man?”
“Actually,
he’s
very likable. The Ramsy clan is quite fond of him and he has made many friends among the court already. So far, he seems to be one who learns and adapts well to new cultures. Our telepaths have confirmed that he bears no malice towards mutants whatsoever and was originally chosen by the president to accompany her because of this.”
“President Chambers has good judgment,” said Talos seriously.
“I beg to differ,” replied Beral. “There was a man among her staff that was just the opposite of the one called ‘Luther’. He despised mutants and
she
knew it, but she brought him along anyway. That shows very
bad
judgment. I marked his body language and facial expression from the start. A little mental rummaging confirmed this. She soon realized her mistake though and kept him from any further contact with our people and as quickly as possible, sent him home on some stupid pretense via the teleport. But not fast enough to avoid detection. She almost sent the wrong man home.”
“What do you mean?” said Talos.
“Just what I said,” replied Beral. “The man, Luther, confided to Lady Lana, and so indirectly to me, (giggle) that he got into big trouble for letting himself go at the welcoming feast that night. And he was
very
close to being sent home and severely punished instead of the one called James. If it were not for the timely visit of Lady Ramsy he would not still be here.”
“It was an
informal
party!” growled Talos angrily. “He was
supposed
to have fun! The food was there to be eaten! The booze was there to be drunk! And as for the women, they offered themselves willingly! He has no mate and they were far from ugly, so what’s the problem? He would have offended the ladies and their kin if he refused their hospitality. What’s
wrong
with these people?!?”
“He
is
still here, honey. But his flaw as far as President Chambers is concerned is that he has trouble remembering to behave like an Earthman.”
“Heh! If behaving like an Earthman means being a tight-ass, I can see why,” said Talos with a smirk. “What of the other humans from that realm?”
The empress shrugged and said, “The same, they all have people among them who range from Luther to the man who was sent home. But their leaders all want the same thing. They have not verbalized it yet, but it has been seen in their thoughts. They want the teleportation technology. Queen Bellasaris’s wars and victories have not been forgotten on that world.”
“I would imagine not,” chuckled Talos. “It’s only been, oh…thirty or so years, their time, since the war against the United States?”
“And fifteen since our retaking Bain and crushing Paolo,” replied Beral. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. Still, they don’t have clean fuel engines or sophisticated lighting and heating systems, at least not by our standards. We have many things infinitely more useful…well
harmless
than the teleportation secrets and weapons. In exchange for allowing their mutants to immigrate here I’m sure they will be willing to deal.”
“I don’t know about that,” said Talos. “History tells us that with them someone is
always
looking for a way to find military applications for even the most innocent of technology. Well, we’ll see. I still don’t think anything of worth will come from dealing with these repressed barbarians. If not weapons right now, it will be some sort or deal to get onto our rich and healthy world. Having nearly depleted or fouled their own resources they’ll want to degrade our planet for material profit! Make no mistake; no matter how much they rave about the god they worship, they revere NOTHING more faithfully than money and what it can buy for them! Already in my conversations with them the term, ‘Doing business together’ has been used many times. The ancestors were right. They are not to be trusted!” With that, Talos stood up and turned to leave.
“Wait, my lord!” said Beral quickly. “I still need a strong opponent for my training. Stay.”
“We’ve been over this before,” laughed Talos.
“No, I’m serious,” said Beral. “I want to train. Do you know that ever since Queen Tana’s daughter stripped our son’s face at that party, and everything
else
that happened, I’ve been harassed by Illyrian noblewomen, queens from the other states, both of and outside the empire, and their daughters about Tabba and marriage! They won’t leave me alone! I need to work off some steam.”
Talos looked at his wife. She seemed serious. To tell the truth he would look forward to a good workout with Beral. She was a
very
tough and skilled opponent and she had some years and experience on him. He had learned many good techniques from her when they trained and the workout was always good. There were not many who could match or come close to matching him in the strength department. The only problem was that every single time the training progressed to a higher level she became…
aroused
.
“Do you promise to stay focused on what we’re here for?” said Talos sternly.
“I promise!” replied Beral firmly. Talos nodded and walked over to the far wall and began to strip. Beral watched the muscles ripple beneath his ebony skin and chuckled to herself.
“I’ve already broken that promise. I’d better control myself this time though, at least until we’re done, or else (giggle) he’ll never let me in here with him again!”
******
The formal dinner was indeed more appropriate than the wild dinner turned orgy of the night before and
nobody
was naked…or even half naked. Many noted with relief that there were actually children,
little
princes and princesses, present this time. This was definitely a reassuring sight for the Earth people and Akkadians. Still, the clothes were not the stiff suits and gowns that one would have seen at a diplomatic dinner on Earth or in Akkadia. Plenty of skin, curves and muscle could be seen. Other rulers, princes and princesses had arrived too, along with their chiefs and retinues. These were not many. Most had been delayed because of issues in their domains or personal dilemmas. All were disappointed that they had missed the
really
fun reception and now had to settle for the restrained dinner reserved for Akkadian’s and the overly prudish Earth humans. Two rulers and their retinues were still missing however, one much to the relief of almost all the women. The queen of Melmoria and the empress were of the few women that were not pleased at this king’s absence. But it could not be helped. Queen Tana had informed the empress that this difficult man sent word to her that he would not be joining them, but sent his best wishes for the summit’s success. It was too bad. One of the empress’s daughters had her sights set on one of the kings sons. It was her hope that a bonding between the two would seal a real peace and bind these fearsome warriors to the empire both intimately and permanently.
One such bonding had already possibly occurred between her house and another nation traditionally ruled by men. The present queen was sitting on the throne now only because a worthy male heir was not found of an age to rule. This was not the case with her children. Queen Tana’s sons were strong and capable. All had high telepathic abilities as well. It was very likely that another queen wouldn’t appear for many centuries if one of them succeeded to the throne. That was not acceptable to the rulers of the empire and already the plans for an agreement was in the works to insure that Tana’s daughter, Abe, would succeed to the throne. That is, in the event that the prince and princess had
truly
bonded and marriage negotiations began. If it worked, at least a new queen would rule for another century or two after Tana stepped down or passed away. This would be long enough for the people to accept this new (actually old) tradition and thus slowly bringing the forest kingdom back to its roots…they hoped. The savage nation even further to the west of the forest kingdom was an even bigger problem and one the empress hoped to solve in a similar manner.
The mountain barbarians had strayed from the traditions of the rest of the peoples of Bellasaria to a degree that was truly frightening and needed to be corrected. Force was an option she didn’t like to think about. If that road was taken it could easily cause the disease to spread even more widely. If only King Roc had come. Beral noticed that another ruler from the far west hadn’t arrived yet either. She hoped they were not somewhere killing each other at this very moment. But no, if there was anything of that sort going on one of her spies in the queen’s country would have already sent word of it. No, these women were against the wall. The queen wouldn’t leave her capital until she was certain of its defenses and of the enemy king’s location. All things considered, perhaps it was better that neither had shown yet. The empress put the matter from her mind for the moment.
******
Drinks were still flowing and the atmosphere was quite relaxed. Although none of the behavior seen on the night before was going on, people were actually dancing on the great floor. And much to the visitors from Earth surprise, some of these songs were songs they were well acquainted with, albeit VERY old. Many of these were accompanied by particular traditional dances unique to each song and seemed to be played for various reasons. When Luther asked Lady Ramsy about this she chuckled and explained.
“Some of these songs a person will request to express his or her feelings, say for example, interest in a male or female they are too shy to make their feelings known to directly.” Lady Lana chuckled at this and said, “This is the case
usually
with young boys. Bellasarian females are NOT shy, especially if they are in heat or have fallen for someone. Others songs and dances are to warn other females away from a man they are interested in or as an invitation for some fun a little later. Most old Earth songs are just for dancing or listening to though.” Luther nodded. “Still, some, like the Macarena, are danced exclusively by women here, and NEVER at a dinner like this. For us it is a dance to fire the blood of men. When a Bellasarian woman starts swaying her hips and making those moves men have been known to ravage them on the spot before the dance is done, which of course, is the objective!” laughed Lady Ramsy.