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Ibana pushed
angrily through the grove of trees.
For the second time this week someone had broken into his banana grove
and made off with part of his crop.
But this time the culprit had been careless, leaving an easily followed
trail. He slowed a bit, sensing
that he was getting closer. He
did not want to frighten his quarry away.
He raised his hand to caution the two men following
him. Mahuhy, his overseer and
one of his field hands. He was
a bit annoyed with Mahuhy, as he was supposed to be watching the banana grove
that day and had obviously not done his
job.
Just ahead was a stand of
bushes. The sandal tracks led
straight into it. He motioned
to his two companions to spread out.
If the thief bolted there would be a better chance of catching
him. He tapped the stick he held
gently into the palm of his hand.
He suspected the thief was one of the
locals. He would give him a thrashing
that he would long remember.
Very quietly now he tiptoed forward, parting
the bushes carefully so as not to make too much
noise. His eyes widened as he
saw beyond the bush into a small
clearing. Slowly he backed
away. This was something he had
not expected. Motioning to his
two helpers he beat a hasty retreat.
“What is it, master?”
Mahuhy asked.
“A wild
woman. A
savage. We must send for the
guard.” He turned to the
field hand. “Find the nearest
guard. Tell him that we have
found a wild woman and need help in her
subjugation. Tell him she had
been stealing my bananas.”
He and Mahuhy settled down to keep watch as
the man ran off. With any luck
the savage woman he had seen sleeping next to a pile of banana peels would
still be there when the guard arrived.
Melissa
stirred. She sat up and rubbed
her eyes. She was feeling a lot
better after a good sleep and a second meal of
bananas. But she was getting
a little tired of the starchy fruit.
“I’m going to start chirping like a chimp if I don’t
get something else to eat soon,” she
muttered. “And I need a
bath. I hope there is a nice
deep pool of water somewhere in this
valley. There should
be. It seems green
enough.”
She pushed through the screen of vegetation,
but as she entered the open area on the other side, something dropped over
her. For a second she was too
stunned to move, then as she realized that she was snared in a net, she fought
to break free. But her efforts
were too late. The net settled
over her and was drawn tight, knocking her off her
feet. She landed hard enough
to knock the wind out of her, something that should not have happened if
she had remembered some of the training Larra had instilled into
her. Her lack of discipline left
her helpless as she was tightly trussed up in the net and hoisted into the
air by a half dozen men.
Only when it was too late to escape did she
protest. “Put me down,”
she screamed, but her captors paid no attention to her objections and babbled
away in an incomprehensible language.
Realizing at last that she was truly caught, and that her captors
did not understand anything she was saying, she finally fell
silent.
“She is mine,” Ibana
insisted. I found her on my property
and she has been stealing my bananas.”
“You forget,” replied one of the
guardsmen who had joined them, “she is
white. And the pharaoh has commanded
that all white women be brought to his court.”
“But I found
her. I should at least get the
reward for finding her,” Ibana protested
“I’ll mention it to the slave master
at the palace,” the guard grinned.
“I’ll bet you
will. You’ll just pocket
the reward and I’ll be out my
bananas.” Ibana was hopping
up and down in rage. “Look
at her,” he added, jumping around the entangled
prisoner. “She’s just
a savage. She sounds just like
a monkey. How can you consider
her a white woman? I should be
able to claim her.”
“Look,” said the guard, reaching
into a pouch. “Here is a
silver coin for your bananas and your help in catching the
woman.” Noting the outraged
look on Ibana’s face he fished out a second
coin. “Alright, two silvers
and you better take them. I’m
running out of patience.”
Cursing, Ibana snatched the
coins. Shaking his fist he watched
sullenly as the four guardsmen hauled the passive savage
away. Inside the netting Melissa
lay quiet. She had noted the
heated exchange between the guardsmen and the banana farmer, not understanding
a word. She was saving herself
for the time when the net was removed.
Then she would make her break.
At the same time she was taking in the panorama of the unbelievable
city she was being carried through.
“I must be dreaming,” she
thought. “It looks like
I’m in an ancient Egyptian
city.” Everywhere she looked
she saw people hurrying about their
business. All of them were dressed
in the manner of the ancient pictures and carvings she had studied in the
archeological texts Larra had instructed her to read before they had journeyed
to
Most of the people, she noted, were brown
skinned. A few, riding in chariots
or carried on litters were lighter
skinned. There was obviously
quite a bit of interracial mixing in this lost civilization, but the whites
seemed to occupy the upper echelons of
society. She pondered this
information as she was hurried through the streets, the net she was being
carried in swinging side to side.
As she passed through the city most people stopped to
stare. It was obvious that she
was considered something unusual, a not surprising event considering that
she was dressed in rags and almost completely
nude.
At length the men carrying her entered a large
building, passing between rows of huge columns and into an inner
courtyard. She was dumped
unceremoniously on the ground in front of a rather important looking
individual. Like most of the
people she had seen he was simply dressed, wearing only sandals and a kilt-like
garment. But he also wore an
impressive gold medallion and was tall and powerfully
muscled.
He studied her through the netting for a moment
and then barked out an order.
Melissa was picked up again and hurried across the compound and into
a large building. Several flights
of stairs later she found herself in a large well lit
room. It appeared to be some
sort of palatial living quarters, because it was sumptuously furnished and
well decorated with statuary and live
plants. In the centre of the
room was a burbling fountain and spaced abut the room were numerous male
and female servants. She noted
that most of the latter were either nude or wearing so little clothing that
it really did not matter.
This time when the net was lowered, it was
set down more gently, but no effort was made to release
her. A tall powerfully built
man strode forward. From the
richness of the clothing and jewelry that he wore, Melissa guessed that this
was the man she had been brought to see.
He was the first man who matched her in
height. Melissa guessed that
he was probably close to six feet tall.
Of all the people in the room he was the only
one wearing anything on his head.
He wore a circlet of gold with the figure of a cobra arched to strike
on the front. He studied her
intensely and then nodded. Once
more she was picked up carried by the four guards who had captured
her. This time she did not go
far. She was taken to an apartment
just off the main room.
As the net was loosened Melissa wondered what
she should do. The room where
she had been taken did not resemble a prison in any
way. Far from it; it appeared
to be a very spacious and luxurious living
quarters. Other than being captured
by being snared in the net she had not been harmed, nor had she been threatened
in any way. She also had to admit
that she was probably a rather wild looking
character. And she
had stolen the
bananas. By the time the net
had been untangled she had decided to see where things were
headed.
A few minutes later she was glad she had decided
to act with restraint. She was
up to her neck in perfumed water and receiving a thorough cleansing at the
hands of three serving girls. At
the same time she was helping herself to a sumptuous platter of fruit and
chasing it down with some of the finest red wine she had ever tasted.
The four guardsmen had departed,
leaving her alone with the five maidservants who were now attending her every
need. As the effects of the wine
took hold, Melissa allowed herself to settle more deeply into the water and
closed her eyes. “This is
heaven,” she thought. “A
girl could really get used to this.”
Queen
Isetnofret ground her teeth, but concealed
her rage in the presence of her husband.
Another concubine, and this one exotically
beautiful. The queen had never
seen anything like her. Tangled
in the net when she had been brought is she seemed like a wild thing, but
she knew that would make her all the more attractive to the
pharaoh. He was powerfully attracted
to the strange and the beautiful, and the bizarre young woman was certainly
both of those.
She just had to see more of
the newcomer. Excusing herself
on the pretext that she needed to attend to something personal, she sneaked
into the living quarters. Standing
behind a wicker screen she spied on the savage as she was bathed and readied
for the pharaoh.
She did not like what she
saw. That mahogany brown hair
and tall supple body were far too attractive and
unusual. And she had a gorgeous
physique with breasts the size of ripe melons, an incredibly narrow waist,
and long powerful legs. She could
imagine them wrapped around her husband.
Such a woman would be a dangerous rival, especially as she was at
least ten years younger than she was.
Returning to the pharaoh, she
spent the rest of the day trying to think of ways of eliminating her new
competition. After sorting through
dozens of highly imaginative possibilities she decided that the direct approach
would probably work best. She
would try it out tonight.
Melissa felt great, if a little
apprehensive. There had been
only one anxious moment since she had been brought to the palace. And that
had been when she had been shaved.
The Egyptians seemed to have something of a phobia about body
hair. She had been almost asleep
in the bath when she felt the touch of a razor to her
skin. The sensation had revived
frightening memories of her rape at the hands of Reginald
Featherstone. That memory of
being tied down on a tabletop and having her pubic hair removed was still
as vivid as if it had happened only the day
before. It had taken all of her
self control not to flee screaming from the
bathwater. But she had forced
herself to submit to the gentle hands of the handmaidens as they carefully
scraped her fur away with bronze razors.
She had been kept shaved ever since that
day. Her body was as smooth and
hairless as the day she had been born.
Other than that her treatment at the hands of the Egyptians had been
extremely generous if a little puzzling.
She did not know why she had been treated so royally although she
could guess. She appeared to
have been added to the pharaoh’s
harem. That was a little worrying
as it meant that the pharaoh would no doubt expect her to behave in the customary
manner concubines. Not
that she found the thought all that
repugnant. The pharaoh was a
handsome and impressive man.
However, she was a twentieth century woman and could not picture herself
surrendering her life to one of sexual servitude no matter how pleasant the
experience might be. She was
no meek captive to go quietly to the pharaoh’s bed simply because he
summoned her. If she was to submit
to a man it must be by her choice, and not because she was regarded as a
piece of property to be used and then thrown away when the man was tired
of her.
However, it did not appear that
she had much choice at present. She
was obviously a prisoner in the palace.
She had passed enough armed guards on the way in to realize that escape
would not be easy and even if she did get out where would she
go? She knew nothing about the
strange civilization she had stumbled
into. Getting out of the palace
was only the first step. Then
there was the city and beyond that…
she had no idea. Probably
the
She glanced at her
companions. There were sixteen
others; all of them dark-haired Egyptian girls ranging in age from fourteen
to thirty. The oldest she learned
was the queen, Isetnofret, who lorded it over the
rest. She made it quite clear
that in the harem she was the one in
charge. So far though, she had
kept her distance. Perhaps she
was afraid of her. She was much
taller than any of the other women and a good nine inches taller than the
queen. She had noticed, however,
the queen darting glances her way.
The looks she gave her were
venomous. She would have to be
on her guard.
Her mind swung back to the task
at hand. She was trying to learn
a little of the Egyptian language and had picked up quite a few words in
just a short while. A pair of
fourteen-year-old girls was helping her and seemed delighted to do
it. “Table,” said Melissa
in Egyptian. One of the girls
nodded and smiled. Then she touched
an onyx vase. “Vase,”
said Melissa. The girl started
to smile but suddenly went pale.
Melissa turned in the direction the girl was
looking. A few feet away stood
Queen
Isetnofret.
In her hand was a dagger, and she was stroking the blade
suggestively.
Melissa looked calmly at the
queen. She recognized an attempt
by the older woman to intimidate her, but was having nothing to do with
it. Her controlled reaction seemed
to anger the queen. Stepping
closer she said something in Egyptian that Melissa did not
understand. But she didn’t
really need to, the threat was clear
enough.
Isetnofret raised the dagger,
the point only inches from Melissa’s
breasts. Melissa didn’t
know if the queen intended to use the knife or was just trying to frighten
her, but she took no chances. Using
one of the moves Larra had shown her, she reached across with her right hand
and grasped the woman’s knife hand.
Then with her left hand she lifted the queen’s
elbow. The move was so quickly
executed that Isetnofret could only gasp in pain as her arm was twisted behind
her and she was disarmed. Melissa
caught the knife and disdainfully tossed it into a reflecting pool a few
feet away.
Purple with rage and screaming
abuse, Isetnofret backed away as Melissa released
her. She recognized only one
word out of the many insults hurled at her, the word for
“savage.” She
smiled. If the queen thought
her a savage so much the better.
Perhaps she would leave her alone from now
on.
The rest of the night passed
peacefully. Isetnofret kept her
distance, although Melissa slept with one eye
open. She had no illusions, she
knew that she had made a dangerous enemy.
But she had also changed the hierarchy of the harem as
well. That was made clear the
next day, when many of the younger girls grouped themselves around
Melissa. Isetnofret was
left with only a few loyalists. But
Melissa knew that the power of the queen rested with more than just the support
of the other members of the harem.
The pharaoh was supreme.
Whatever woman secured his affection would dominate; at least until
a younger and prettier woman came along.
She would just have to wait and see how much of the pharaoh’s
power still rested in the hands of the one he had made
queen.
For the first few days, nothing happened to change the new balance of power Melissa had created in the harem. The members of the harem came and went, summoned by the pharaoh whenever his mind turned in their direction or he wanted some female companionship. Isetnofret was summoned on several occasions, but either she had not brought up the subject of Melissa’s insubordination or the pharaoh decided not to act on her complaints. She still did not know enough of the language to carry on an intelligent conversation, although her vocabulary was increasing every day. And so she waited. Waited until that special day, when a maidservant came to her and uttered the words Melissa both expected and dreaded. “The pharaoh wants you. Come now.”
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