The Mammoth Book of Short Erotic Novels (67 page)

“Hands behind back, slave. Must I remind you every time?”

I start to shiver.

“Slavegirl,” says Scratch, “have you been dishonest?”

“Yes, sir. Right, sir. Oh, yes, sir. Yes, I have.”

“Dishonest Alex! Repeat after me. I, Alexandra Bellamy, am a lazy parasite who contributes nothing to society.”

“I, Alexandra Bellamy, am a lazy parasite”, I repeat.

Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen . . .

Before he hurts me, Scratch keeps me waiting. I don’t know what’s going on behind my back. I don’t know what he’s holding in his hands.

Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two . . .

I count, to help the time pass more quickly while I’m waiting for my pain.

I need it, now.

We all do.

Our nerves and buttons work the same.

THE EMPEROR OF NIGHT

Marilyn Jaye-Lewis

It happened that in olden times, in a land far, far away, an ancient people looked up lazily toward the approaching evening.

These were such ancient times that the stars were not yet born and the full-bellied moon was the sole celestial body in the nighttime sky. But on this evening, as twilight crept slowly toward
the west, the startled people watched in awe as the sun began to rise again. Along the far horizon of the sea, it sprang up boldly and hid behind the full-bellied moon and all the land fell into
sudden night.

The Earth was remarkably still, then, for this was a sacred darkness.

On the far side of the moon, under cover of night, the mighty sun caressed the moon’s fat belly with his eager fire, emptying his rays into her hidden crevices and filling her with his
power until, it is said, she began to glow.

The glowing moon, unable to withstand her fullness, surrendered to the penetrating flames of the mighty sun so completely that his flames burst through her swollen craters, and together, as the
frightened people fled in all directions, the sun and moon exploded in a multitude of stars across the vast, unending sky.

The force of this explosion caused the land to shake and rock; it tugged at the swirling waves of the ocean waters, sending them leaping and curling upward, eddying in great swells until, from
the depths of the far-off South China Sea, there emerged from the water a land of splendour, covered in a cloud of sea mist, whose centre burned so gloriously that its proud inhabitants took no
notice of the sunless sky. They knew that the sun now walked among them as a sacred man of fire.

This man of walking fire, this falling sun from heaven, came to be called affectionately, the Emperor of Night.

The great emperor was loved by all his people. They basked in his bright fire and were nurtured by his light. Though the emperor taught his people the secret of making fire, none among the mere
mortal subjects could ever build a fire whose flames outshone the great falling sun from heaven. For in the emperor’s heart there burned an eternal flame; a flame of longing; the seed of
heaven itself.

In an effort to ease the daily burdens of his people, to give them a time of rest, when the sands ran through the hourglass twelve times, the emperor draped his regal body in a robe of black
silk, Covering the essence of heaven, he shielded his land from the eternal burning flame of his heart while his people gently slept. And it was in this way that the emperor created night.

The emperor’s grand palace was hidden on three sides by a shimmering, impenetrable cinnamon forest. Its courtyards were still more hidden behind the shade of mountain plum and wild pear
trees, whose clustering blossoms the ladies of the palace had adorned with tiny silver chimes that tinkled in the delicate evening breezes and filled the nights with sounds of trembling music.

The palace itself had been intricately carved from mighty teaks and cedars. The sacred room where the emperor slept extended along the length of the grand palace’s fourth side, where it
was buttressed against the power of the tossing sea by a huge wall of carved granite. A granite so smooth it glistened, it formed a majestic lagoon of fresh seawater for the emperor alone. Here the
cranes and herons, the crested kingfishers and loons, nested in the protruding rocks amid the rarest night-blooming orchids and magnolia blossoms.

When the emperor adorned himself in his black silk robe and thus brought on the night, he retreated in a sacred solitude, surrounded by the graceful calm of the nesting birds, visited only
occasionally by the harmless sea creatures who might swim under the great stone wall where the lagoon emptied into the waterway of the South China Sea.

The ladies of the palace were numerous and each was as fair and sturdy as the emperor himself. Like him, their supple forms were lean, their delicate faces appointed with fine high cheekbones
and dark almond-shaped eyes. In the daylight, they wore their straight black hair in elaborate braids – sometimes adorned with tender peach blossoms, or lilies-of-the-valley. At night, they
let their hair hang free, and exchanged their bright red robes for robes of black silk, so that each palace lady resembled the emperor in every respect save for what remained hidden beneath the
folds of the austere black robes.

It was his custom that the emperor rarely slept, even though he’d created night, for great was the longing inside the eternal burning of his royal heart. He seldom passed the unending
hours alone, though, sending for the various ladies of the palace for companionship in the darkness.

None was to enter the emperor’s sacred room, however. Each lady met him instead on the teakwood verandah, opening onto the majestic lagoon. The verandah was gently illuminated by the tiny
flickering flames of a hundred burning candles, each candle ensconced in an elaborately carved shade of ivory. The flickering flames produced tiny dancing shadows all along the granite wall:
shadows in the shapes of flying dragons, miniature salamanders, or scattering wild geese. It was on this peaceful verandah, opening onto the majestic lagoon, that the emperor shared his pillow and
mat with whichever lady he fancied, being mindful, as he lifted her robe and led her through the many royal positions of tenderness and sharing, not to be wanton about the condition of his own
robe, lest it loosen to reveal his heart and cause morning to arrive too quickly.

It is said that the emperor’s eternal flame could be depleted only through the expulsion of his seed into a woman who was not his bride, and though the burden of his eternally burning
heart was great, the emperor was careful to preserve the power of his fire. The ladies of the palace were entrusted with a temper of restraint when arousing the emperor’s pleasure. They were
well schooled in the art of pleasing him without bringing his royal seed to the point of expulsion.

The rare few among the palace ladies who took him past the brink of danger, who, knowing they could never be the emperor’s bride, for the emperor’s bride would not be mortal and
would come in the form of a treasure offered up from the depths of the sea, who still longed greedily to fill their barren wombs with the emperor’s eternal fire; these few were punished
swiftly and with severity. Taken by the palace guards to the hillside in the early morning, the offender was stripped bare of her protective robe and staked openly to an elevated cedar plank, her
trembling legs forcibly raised and spread.

While the rest of the palace ladies were commanded to bear witness without lowering their eyes, the rare offender was subjected to the terrible Sixth Punishment, the punishment by horse cock,
her wrenching screams ignored until the mounting stallion’s bulging shaft had rended the offender’s canal completely, making her no longer suitable for pleasuring the emperor.

Only then was the offender released and cast out from the palace walls. Only then were the palace ladies permitted to hide their faces in their sleeves.

It is said that on these bitter days, the emperor fasted alone and did penance in the royal chamber of his inner sanctum.

A great thing happened every twenty-eight nights.

The emperor was permitted to expel his longing in the manner of an ancient ceremonial sacrifice.

Two ladies of the palace would be summoned to the teakwood verandah, where they assumed the Royal Position of the Gobbling Fishes, one lying atop the other in the posture of intercourse, their
robes raised for the eyes of the emperor, their naked genitals rubbing together until their aroused labia swelled to resemble the mouths of gobbling fishes.

When they were close to orgasm, the emperor parted his robe and, kneeling between the spread thighs of the palace ladies, separated their swollen vulvas by easing his stiffening member between
the engorged netherlips. The head of his royal shaft would pleasure their erect clitorises as it slipped in and out, until he himself was ready to discharge a burst of his eternal fire.

Then the emperor withdrew his member carefully, and discharged himself into a golden chalice, held ready by a third lady of the palace.

This third lady was the most revered. Adorned in a ceremonial robe of luminescent silver, she and the emperor carried the golden chalice into the calm lagoon together, to the spot where the
oysters gathered. Here, the emperor would select the most shimmering oysters. He would lovingly stroke his finger along the seam of their glistening shells and, with the tenderest of words, the
emperor coaxed the oysters to reveal to him their secret pearls.

One by one, the emperor would pluck the delicate pearls and drop them into the golden chalice that held his royal sperm.

After the pearls were selected and plucked and a ceremonial prayer recited, the golden chalice was emptied faithfully onto a sacred spot of jagged rock protruding from the waters of the quiet
lagoon. For it was believed that in this way, the sea would be appeased and offer up to the emperor his long-awaited bride.

And here, at the sacred rock every twenty-eight nights, the emperor performed the supreme sacrifice: he removed the robe of luminescent silver from the lady of the palace, and while the two
remaining ladies lay prone on the verandah and hid their faces obediently in their sleeves, the emperor prepared to teach his chosen lady the most secret of the royal positions.

“Soon you will learn the Position of Stealing Fire”, the emperor announced tenderly. “In return, in gratitude for joining me in this supreme sacrifice, the emperor wishes to
pleasure you.”

The palace lady, now naked, her back steadied against the sacred rock, would assume the favoured Royal Position of the Standing Heron, expecting to be pleasured by the emperor’s stiff
member, but on this ceremonial occasion, the emperor would kneel in the salty seawater and place his mouth to the lady’s tender netherlips.

A whimper of confusion and bliss would issue from the lady, as the sight of her emperor kneeling before her in the water, his royal mouth pleasuring her in an unexpected manner, was usually very
troubling to a delicate lady of the palace. But the arousing pressure of the emperor’s mouth exploring her tender secrets would cause the lady to surrender, until, within the tiny stiffening
hood at the very tip of her mound, her pleasure peaked and she could endure no more of the sweetness. Her modesty then returned.

“Now I will teach you the Position of Stealing Fire”, the emperor would instruct her solemnly as he rose from the water and parted the folds of his robe. “Come, kneel before
me.”

The naked lady trembled before her emperor and knelt in the water, respectfully lowering her eyes as he revealed himself. Taking her chin in his hand, he pressed his stiff member to the
lady’s quivering lips and commanded her quietly to open her mouth. So strange was the manner in which the emperor chose to pleasure himself that it was not uncommon for the chosen lady to
lose her repose.

“Open your mouth”, he would command her again, all the while keeping a mindful eye on the ladies lying prone on the verandah, lest they become too curious and lift their faces from
their sleeves.

“You love your emperor, don’t you?” he would entreat her. “You don’t wish to see me lonely all my days?”

“No, my liege”, came her heartfelt answer.

“Then you must help me to appease the sea, or it will never offer up my bride.”

Confused but ever faithful, the lady would be persuaded to part her reluctant lips and take the length of her emperor’s thick shaft fully into her mouth. Then, as in the act of
intercourse, he pleasured himself in her.

It was in this manner that the emperor discharged a second time, willingly sacrificing some of his fire, emptying it deep into the mouth of the chosen lady, a lady who was not his bride. The
eagerness with which the emperor surrendered his fire, and the helpless state to which he sank as it issued from his loins, was why this royal position was regarded as the most secret position of
all.

It was because this secret was so treasured by the palace, lest it be known among the ladies who would seek to drain the emperor of his power, that the emperor, having sacrificed himself in her,
regretfully closed his hands around the chosen lady’s throat. As a sacrificial appeasement to the mighty sea, he held her pretty face beneath the salty water until she was thoroughly
drowned.

The two remaining palace ladies were permitted then to lift their faces from their sleeves, and they assisted in silent ignorance as the emperor sent the lifeless body of the sacrificed third
under the carved granite wall to be carried out to sea.

It was on those nights that the emperor slept and the following morning would dawn late on the land, as was the customary fashion.

After nearly twelve thousand days of longing, in the great emperor’s thirty-second year, when he ached beyond reason to ease the burden of his burning heart, he donned
his black robe and made it night. It was a sacred twenty-eighth night, and he prepared to send for three ladies of the palace who would assume the Position of the Gobbling Fishes and hold the
golden chalice ready to receive the royal seed, when suddenly the emperor noticed an eerie glow coming from the sacred spot on the jagged rock protruding from the majestic lagoon.