Immunity, page 9
I did as was expected, and in between actual duties, I knelt beside Otter.
No one appeared to pay any particular attention to me, and I heard no mention. I had become just another woman of the harem, there to serve the elves.
* * * *
In the morning, Glisten said, “Snow Dove.” She indicated the place she had taken yesterday to lead stretching.
As best I could with no voice, I taught them the first few poses, demonstrating first, then moving around to make adjustments. They learned readily, several of the women smiling at me. I kept it simple and only did as many poses as we could fit in a timeframe similar to the one from yesterday.
And then we played a new game, organized into teams, a form of team tag.
From then, a pattern was set. Stretching and light exercise in the morning, followed by quickly bathing and dressing, breakfast, and then more time spent perfecting our appearances.
Some of us would be led from the room at any given time. Lunch, boredom broken only if I had a book, and then serving dinner. That was the pattern, so I’m only going to explain variances.
The first was two days later. I wasn’t remotely satisfied with the amount of exercise in the morning. I had never been an exercise freak, but I wanted more than this. And so, after lunch, I returned to the exercise room. I stripped down, and I spent a much longer period working on my yoga.
I would have liked some light weights. And gym shoes. I had neither. But the ground was soft, some sort of grass. I didn’t know how it grew without sunlight, but I attributed it to more elven magic. I wondered what had been done under human rule.
But it was soft, and so I ran laps. It wasn’t the first time I’d run without a bra, but I knew I wouldn’t want to do it often, and I wasn’t sure what I could do tomorrow. It was, however, the first time I’d gone running naked.
It wasn’t remotely the first time I’d practiced yoga naked, though.
I worked up a good sweat and felt pretty good when I nearly ran into one of the guards. She caught me by the arms, and a moment later, I dropped to the ground in front of her, panting heavily while trying to find the proper kneel.
“Get up,” she said. “Catch your breath.” She actually helped me stand. I kept my eyes down, but I slowly caught my breath. “The Khaleesi wishes your presence, but not like this. Bathe, dress, and knock at the door when you’re ready. Do not dawdle, but remember the rules.”
I nodded, grabbed my clothing, and ran to the bathing chamber. Otter and Velvet were there with towels by the time I was done bathing, although Otter sent me to the soaking pool for a minute first.
They took me in hand, several more of the women coming to help. They saw to my appearance and dress, taking enough time to do a good job. I wanted to hurry them, but I knew they understood their roles better than I did.
But as soon as they were done, I hurried to the door and knocked before stepping back. I was kneeling by the time the door opened.
“Snow Dove,” said the same guard. “Get up.” They applied the sack and then they led me through the palace.
* * * *
They brought me to the library. As soon as the sack was off, I knelt to the Khaleesi. She said nothing for several minutes, eventually setting her book aside, standing, then moving to me. When she slid a foot into place, I began kissing.
“You may exercise, all you want,” she said. And that was that, or nearly so. “Did you finish the book?” I nodded. “More than once?” I nodded again. “Take two with you when you leave, and the next time you are summoned, bring back the ones you don’t still need.” I nodded once more.
She let me kiss a moment longer, and then she withdrew, returning to her chair. She left me there for perhaps five minutes before she said, “You are dismissed. Don’t forget your books.”
The next morning, shortly after breakfast, the guards surprised us. We all knelt, and then one stepped forward, stopping before me. She dropped something beside my head. “Exercise only,” she said.
And then they were gone. I looked at what she’d left: exercise shorts and a sports bra. I hugged them to me.
After that, the Khaleesi summoned me every few days. The visits appeared to have no purpose, but they were always nearly identical. She left me kneeling for a while then would give me a foot to kiss before offering more books.
She began making suggestions, leaving them out for me, but offering to let me take one or two more, in addition to her suggestions.
During my solo exercise periods each afternoon, some of the other women might join me for my extended yoga, Otter the most likely, but they never stayed when I ran. And I was never chastised if I was still exercising when the Khaleesi summoned me.
One night, a book was waiting on our bed. There was a note tucked inside. “A gift.” It was a book of elven erotic poetry. The Khaleesi had a sense of humor. I read every word, and it became something I frequently read from, at least a poem or two, most nights before bed.
I didn’t realize much of this while it happened, but the beating that very first day cowed me, and I remained cowed, utterly compliant. Over time, anger and fear were replaced with resignation. This was my life, and there wasn’t a thing I could do to improve it.
Potion
That wasn’t our entire life. I’m going to work up to it a little at a time.
My visits to the Khaleesi grew longer and longer. It took me some time to realize it was intentional. She kept me kneeling, but she slowly increased the duration as I grew accustomed. I grew angry when I realized what she’d done. If she had a kind bone in her body, why had she done this to me. I wasn’t as angry that she had done it as I was that she never explained why. That, I found infuriating.
But, with time, I accepted the situation, as best I could.
My duties at dinner were also varied. We weren’t necessarily strictly serving staff. The first time I fully realized that was when Otter was summoned by one of the elves, and she knelt beside the woman for the entire meal.
She didn’t come home until the morning, joining us as we bathed. She had the look of someone who’d had satisfying sex, and she didn’t appear even the slightest bit upset. After that, I paid more attention, and I realized all the women were being treated in a similar fashion. I never saw the general servants seeing to a single elf, but the members of the harem could be expected to do so. She might not be gone for the night, but oftentimes, she was.
There was a change for me. The Khaleesi summoned me herself, and I found myself kneeling beside her chair. From time to time, she fed me from her fingers or offered me something to drink. And she sat a little sideways from the table, leaving her foot underneath me part of the time.
That didn’t happen for every meal, but perhaps every few days. But that was all she seemed to want.
I grew accustomed.
* * * *
I don’t know how long I’d been there, perhaps six weeks or a month. Dinner began like any other, the Khaleesi summoning me to her side. She kept me kneeling upright most of the time, and she was generous while feeding me. She even had a glass of fruit juice for me, sometimes offering water from her own glass, sometimes the juice.
And there were little touches, but nothing new, nothing else out of the ordinary.
But I began to fidget. The Khaleesi caught me doing it, and she simply caressed my cheek and gave me a little more of the juice.
I found myself leaning against her, and then without being ordered, I knelt down and found one of her feet. She let me kiss for a minute before moving the foot away and telling me, “Up.” She gave me a little tidbit, and I kissed her fingers.
“Good girl,” she whispered to me. She lifted my chin and looked into my eyes, then held me as she gave me more of the juice. I drank, but then I stared at the glass. She was drugging me.
There wasn’t a thing I could do about it, either.
I fidgeted, frankly growing horny as hell. Rhosani gave me the last of the juice. I didn’t realize I’d largely stopped thinking.
Another elf stepped over. Rhosani turned me then ordered, “Down.” The other woman offered a foot, I went to town, squirming the entire time. “Go with Lensa,” Rhosani ordered.
Lensa knelt down and then bade me to stand by lifting on my chin. I followed her hand, and then I followed her.
* * * *
She led me to her quarters. I would have dropped into a fresh kneel, but she stopped me, and instead, we came together in a kiss.
I was nearly mindless from the drug Rhosani had given me. Mindless but trembling in need, and utterly obedient. “Let me undress you,” Lensa ordered. It didn’t take long. There wasn’t much. She touched and kissed as she dropped my clothing, lifting a breast to her mouth. I clung to her.
She led me further inside. “Kneel.” She gave me a foot while she undressed, dropping her own clothing to the floor. “Come.”
She led me to the bed, pushed me back onto the covers, then climbed atop me.
What happened after that was hardly art, not on my part, and I didn’t need art for my own needs. She took me. She took me hard, and I wanted more.
She gave herself to me, and I gave her everything I could, everything she wanted.
She took me again. She took me in ways I’d never been taken, and it was only after she’d done so several times that I calmed down enough I could be more of what she wanted for herself.
I don’t know how many times she took me. I lost track of the ways, and of the ways she received her own pleasure.
* * * *
I woke. There were arms around me. “Snow Dove.” Otter. I didn’t move. I stared ahead in the dim light. She spoke quietly, words I didn’t understand.
I didn’t know what to call it. Was it rape? It hadn’t felt like rape. By the time Lensa touched me, I was beyond willing.
I didn’t know how to feel. I put myself into a different situation, no harem, no fall from grace, no drugs. I’d have happily joined Lensa for the evening. She was beautiful and had been quite generous.
I tried to be angry, but the reality was simple.
I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
I couldn’t decide how I felt about that, how I felt about myself. Should I feel ashamed or used? Probably.
But I didn’t.
* * * *
Keya was next, about a week later, and it was nearly the same experience.
By the third time, I understood what the fruit juice meant, and the moment Rhosani offered it to me, I was daring. I lifted a hand and guided her into giving me a large sip instead of a small one. I met her eye.
I knew what she was doing to me. I didn’t know why. But this time was different.
Rhosani gave me at least as much of the drug as she had been, and I was completely out of my mind. Syvis didn’t take me to her quarters. She brought me to a table in the middle of the room, and then she tied me to the table and took me, right there, as I panted and wordlessly begged for more, wordlessly accepted everything she wanted to do to me. When she finally climbed atop the table and offered herself to me, I lapped greedily, shamelessly.
I could think of only one thing.
More.
* * * *
“The Khaleesi summons.”
I nodded to the guard and ran past her into the bathing chamber. Otter and Brush were already waiting, and they saw to me.
We met in the library, the same way we always did. She offered a foot for a minute then withdrew. She said nothing for several minutes but then asked, “Have I broken you?”
I didn’t understand the question, not entirely. Without rising, I shook my head.
“I have reasons for everything I’ve done,” she said. She paused then asked, “Discounting the overall situation, do you feel abused?”
At that, I knelt up and looked at her. She didn’t chastise me. I thought about it and then shook my head. She studied me, saying nothing. I wasn’t sure what she wanted, but I began to bend back to the floor. “No,” she ordered. I froze. “Do you like the poetry?” Yes, I nodded. “I thought you might. Choose a book. You may sit here and read with me.” She tapped the floor with a foot. “Lean against my legs.”
I found a book then gestured, and she said yes. “Right here.” She tapped again. So I sat down and leaned into the V formed by a leg and her chair. She set a hand on my shoulder, and we each opened our books.
The floor was hard, and I think I squirmed one too many times. “Kneel once more,” she said. I did, and she gave me a foot for a minute then said, “I haven’t chosen any books for you today, but pick one or two more. I’ll see you at dinner.”
* * * *
Things calmed down after that, and we found a new form of normal. Every several days to a week, she gave me the fruit juice, although it wasn’t laced as heavily.
She never took me for herself, and she never let someone else have me without first giving me the juice.
But two more visits to her library later, there were cushions on the floor near her chair, and she told me to make myself comfortable, however I wanted. Over time, we would discover I was most comfortable if I lay down, and she might rest a foot on my side or find some other way to touch me.
I lost track of the elves who’d had me. Some were repeats. Many were not. She never gave me to a male, as infrequently as they were found in the palace.
Time passed. How much? I didn’t know.
Part Three
Knife
I knelt to the Khaleesi. We were meeting in her office. We didn’t do that often, but it wasn’t the first time. She stepped to me and offered a foot then moved to sit in a chair at a table. “Stand up.” I did, and then she indicated a chair at the table. We shared an adjacent corner.
I sat down then lowered my eyes. She had never done this. I didn’t know what to expect. I certainly wasn’t expecting her to set a knife on the table and slide it to me. I glanced up at her for just a moment. “I imagine you would like to push that through my heart.”
I looked up sharply, just for a moment, but then I shoved the knife away, far away from me before dropping from the chair and kneeling to her. I crawled closer, looking for a foot. She stopped me and said, “Get up, Snow Dove.”
I shook my head frantically.
“Will you get up if I put the knife away?” At that, I nodded. So she rose, collected the knife, and put it away somewhere. “All gone. Sit in the chair.”
I moved slowly, not looking directly at her.
“Has anyone been beating you?” I looked up again and shook my head. “I know about the first time. Have there been others?” I shook my head again. “Any of your lovers?” No. No one.
“I’m going to remove the muting spell,” she said. “Your voice may not work well at first.” She stood. “I must touch you. Close your eyes.” I did, and she lifted my chin up, setting her hands on my neck. I felt a tingling, and then she withdrew. I heard water pouring, and she pushed a glass into my hands. “Sip slowly.”
I nodded and drank a little, then held the glass in both hands. She sat back down, and I opened my eyes, looking at her stomach, no higher.
“Your president lost her reelection.”
At that, I looked up. Two and a half years. I’d been here for two and a half years, plus however long it had taken for news to arrive.
“You don’t look heartbroken.”
I opened and closed my mouth, not speaking yet.
“Use whichever language you want,” she said. “Practice your voice, and then we’ll discuss it.”
Whichever language I want? I smiled and spoke, a croak at first, but I started over and got it out.
She laughed. “You’re a smart ass. I should have been more specific. What language was that?”
“Italiano.”
“Did you question my parentage?”
“No. I asked if I’d ever see the sun again.”
“So, Elvish, then. I was never angry at you.”
It took me a moment to catch up to the shift in topics. “You looked angry.”
“I was livid. Not at you.” She held up a finger. “Why didn’t you want the knife?”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“You must hate me.”
“Killing you would gain me nothing, and I don’t want to hurt anyone. Besides, we both know I couldn’t scratch you.”
“And if you could?”
“I’ve never lied to you,” I said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. You would be in the list of anyone. I’ve never lied to you, and I’ve never betrayed you. I certainly never deserved the way you’ve treated me.”
“Perhaps not,” she replied. “If you could make a wish, any wish, what would you ask of me.”
“Why?”
“You don’t ask me to send you home?”
“I don’t imagine you would. For the first time in two and a half years, we’re talking. Maybe finally you’ll tell me what I did wrong.”
“That’s your wish? An explanation?”
“Yes. Why did you bring me here? Why did you turn on me? What happened to Hillary and Aniyah? Maybe you’ll even tell me what you intend to do to me.”
“Let’s start with the easiest. Aniyah returned to Earth. I kept her for a while as I prepared a convincing statement for your president.”
“That took time?”
“Yes. You were the message.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’ve already guessed I was drugging you.”
“I believe I figured it out the first time, the night you gave me to Lensa. If you’d been doing it before that, I never guessed.”
“No. That was the first,” she replied. “Do you remember the third time?”
“She didn’t take me back to her quarters.”
“She tied you to a table, and five or six people used you while you begged for more.” I looked away. I didn’t remember all of it, apparently. “I gave you so much, you were completely out of your mind.”
