The Slave Queen of Etherion Ch. 14

Chapter 14

Lysannum, Tharnirion

Their honeymoon was definitely over, both Rodger and Jade reflected.

Since Jade's coronation, Jade spent most of her days performing her royal duties, even in a kingdom as small as Tharnirion, which had a total population countable in the thousands, well under a million, unlike the nations on the world of Triagia. The only difference that Tharnirion being a small kingdom made was that the monarch -- Jade -- didn't have to delegate as much to her ministers and bureaucrats as Rodger's father, King Cymon, did in Galadon. So, despite Tharnirion having a population of around ten thousand citizens, Jade was busy from morning to evening... looking at papers, making decisions, hearing court appeals... all the stuff that people brought to her because she was the person in charge, who could bring certainty to uncertain situations.

Jade felt the temptation to allow her ministers to handle more of her workload, to hire more bureaucrats on a permanent basis, so that she could spend time being with her husband-master, servicing his lusts to their mutual pleasure. However, that was both a frivolity that she wanted but didn't need, and a situation that had become impractical, given that Rodger now had his own work. So, Jade stifled her frustration at her workload and got on with it.

Since Jade's coronation, Rodger spent most of his day working upon establishing the Magical University of Lysannum. He had travelled about a league, maybe as much as five keymiles (1 league is 3 miles in traditional units, and 1 mile is 1.6 km in Scholar's Invention units) upriver from Lysannum to the n'westing with a group of woodsmen, surveyors and some of the university's future teaching magi, and had led them up the steep, forested side of the great Arch of Lysannum, where the woodsmen cut a path and he, the magi and the surveyors had chosen the site at which the university would be built, nearly eighteen-hundred medars (there are 1,000 medars to the keymile) directly above the Lysion river. The surveyors had surveyed the site, and then it was the responsibility of architects to draw up plans for the university buildings, in consultation with Rodger and his teaching magi. While those tasks were time-consuming, they weren't a full-time job for Rodger.

However, Rodger was no longer a wastrel prince exiled from his homeland for his treasonously poor choice of lover, nor even just the royal consort of the reigning queen, a glorified stud kept for the same reason a dairy farmer keeps a bull, even if his status as the Queen's master and not merely her husband increased his workload a little. He wasn't even the chancellor of the university that was being built, yet. He was now a student, learning the magical arts from the eleven magi who had been convinced to be its first teachers, and aside from the time that he spent organising the construction of the university buildings or consulting with Queen Jade, who was sponsoring the construction in return for future taxation, his time was spent learning how to do magic.

The first step in his magical education had been his initiation, a ritual which was supposed to awaken his Gift of Magic... but Rodger was pretty sure that his Gift was already awake, and had been since the day that he had claimed and deflowered Jade. The next step in the instruction of an apprentice would be to teach them to read and write the scholarly language of High Argraine, but in Rodger's case, that was unnecessary, since he had already learned fluency and literacy in that language from his tutors as a boy... among others, including Ancient Janican and Çantare. After establishing that Rodger was fluent and literate in all of the languages in which Hermetic magic was traditionally written -- and not just one of them -- there was some theoretical instruction that took place in a laboratory that the eleven magi had set up, in which he was taught the basics of magic theory and about the five techniques, Creo (abbreviated 'Cr', meaning 'to create'), Intellego (In, to percieve), Muto (Mu, to transform), Perdo (Pe, to destroy) and Rego (Re, to control), and the ten forms, Animal (An, Animal), Aquam (Aq, Water), Auram (Au, Air), Corpus (Co, Body), Herbam (He, Plant), Ignem (Ig, Fire), Imaginem (Im, Image), Mentem (Me, Mind), Terram (Te, Earth), and Vim (Vi, Power).

Malachite Palace, Lysannum

Amongst all this scholarship, it was a few weeks before Rodger cast his first deliberate spell, a first magnitude Creo Ignem (CrIg) spell to light a candle without fire or flint, a task that Rodger achieved on his first try, much to the surprise of Magus Faberius, of whom Rodger had been asking just when he would actually start doing magic, and not just learning about it.

"I suppose I should've known that you'd have no trouble casting your first deliberate spell, given your history," Faberius said as soon as Rodger had chanted and gesticulated and the candle wick had suddenly been lit. "Can you put it out now?"

"Of course," Rodger replied, then moved his hands and chanted to cast a first magnitude Perdo Ignem (PeIg) spell that extinguished the candle with not even a column of smoke to show that it had recently been alight. "But what was the point of all the stuff that I had to learn about Creo, Perdo and Ignem before I could do that?"

"You don't actually need to know any of that stuff to perform magic," Faberius said. "You proved that with Biblis, and later in front of all of us. All that scholarship is what allows us to communicate with each-other about magic. If we can't communicate with each-other about how we do the magic we can do, we're no better than hedge witches, learning everything from our parens (High Argraine for 'Parent', meaning the master of a magical apprentice), and nothing, or next to nothing from our sodales (High Argraine for members or comrades). So, now, if I -- or any other magus -- tells you about a basic Creo or Perdo Ignem spell, or you read about it in a book, you'll understand what what they're saying. As you learn about the other arts, you'll understand them too."

"Of course... as my tutors often said, scholarship is about learning to stand on the shoulders of giants," Rodger said. "But why do we need to chant the words and make the gestures when we cast a spell?"

"Why?" Faberius asked. "Go ahead, try it without them and see for yourself," he gestured to the candle.

Rodger glanced at the candle, which lit as it had before, and then after he had blinked, it went out again. "As you saw, I can do it without all that rigmarole."

"Of course, you can, and I can too... but it was harder, wasn't it?" Faberius said.

"No, it was about the same as the first time."

Faberius squinted suspiciously at Rodger. "Try it again, but yell the words and make big gestures, then tell me if it was any easier."

Rodger lit and extinguished the candle as instructed. "No, it wasn't any easier... It just made me feel like a bit of a pillock, to be perfectly honest."

Faberius squinted at Rodger suspiciously for a moment, then went to a chest that contained a number of books that hadn't yet been unpacked. He rummaged through its contents, and extracted a heavy leather-bound tome. He put it on the desk next to the candle, and flipped through the pages until he had found the page he wanted, then plonked it down on the book stand next to the candle, before he dragged the table a little way across the room.

"All right, mister 'I don't need words and gestures,' stand up and cast that, 'Pilum of Fire.' It's a fourth magnitude combat spell, so make sure you aim it at the fireplace on the other side of the desk, or you'll set the room alight. With the words and gestures, please."

"All right," Rodger said. He took a moment to read through the spell, which seemed quite complicated, before he stood up and cast it, gesticulating and chanting, then looking up from the book and thrusting his two hands out toward the fireplace.

A jet of yellow-white flame more than half a yard across briefly roared from Rodger's hands and struck the back wall of the unlit fireplace, some flames flickering out of the alcove, setting the unlit firewood waiting there for a chilly day entirely alight, the wrought iron andirons that supported the split logs glowing a dull red for a moment after the jet of flame had ceased, before slowly fading to black.

Rodger yawned from the sudden fatigue that casting the spell had caused. "That... was a bit harder."

Faberius just looked at Rodger with one eyebrow raised for a long moment.

"What?" Rodger asked.

"A new apprentice casting that, even straight from the book, ought to be too tired to stand afterwards... or at least be puffing like a bellows."

"You knew I was different."

"Yes. Well, at least that tired you a little," Faberius said. "Now we have a baseline for something that does fatigue you, try casting it without the words or gestures."

"I... don't think that's possible, since the flame comes from between the caster's hands," Rodger replied.

"Of course you'd have to do that... Just don't say the words or do any of the gestures before that last one."

"All right," Rodger repeated, and cast Pilum of Fire from the book again, as instructed.

As before, the two-foot thick jet of yellow-white flame blasted across the room and into the fireplace, the hot flame setting the andirons glowing dull red again.

"No," Rodger said as he yawned again. "No more tiring than last time."

Faberius stared at Rodger with a sour expression on his broad, bearded face, then stumped across the room and wrenched the door open with a jerk. "Class is over for the day!," he barked grumpily, then stepped through the door and slammed it behind himself with a resounding 'Boom!' that echoed through the palace.

"What was that all about?" Rodger asked the empty room in complete mystification, which naturally didn't reply with anything but an echo.

Rodger left the impromptu lab to go back to his suite... even if Jade was still performing her duties as queen, there was a good chance that Xenia would be there, and fucking the faun was almost as good a way of relaxing as fucking Jade. However, he quickly ran into Biblis, who was coming out of her own laboratory-sanctum, into which no-one was permitted to go without her invitation.

"What was that noise?" Biblis asked Rodger as he approached.

"That seemed to be Faberius losing his temper and giving me the rest of the day off," Rodger replied. "I'm still not entirely sure what upset him, though."

"Why don't you tell me what happened, and I'll see if I can explain," Biblis said.

Rodger explained what had passed between them from the first time he had lit a candle to the second time he had cast Pilum of Fire, with Biblis interrupting occasionally to ask questions, "... and then when I told him that casting Pilum of Fire without words or gestures was no harder than when I used them, he got a rather grumpy look on his face, stormed out and slammed the door behind himself... after saying that class was over for the day."

"Ah... I believe that I understand the problem," Biblis said, apparently torn between frowning and laughing herself.

"Well, I don't, so could you please explain, Maga Biblis?" Rodger asked with exaggerated politeness, though with a grumpy edge in his own voice now.

"Right... That business with casting Pilum of Fire -- a fourth magnitude spell -- showed that the threshold at which a Creo Ignem spell begins to fatigue you is somewhere between third and fourth magnitude... way more than the usual green apprentice, but that's neither here nor there. The thing is, unless you're particularly big or small, the difference between 'winded' and 'unconscious' is five magnitudes of spell."

"Okay... but what does that have to do with it?" Rodger asked.

"Well, for most magi, the difference between casting a spell with the usual words and gestures and using no words or gestures at all is an extra two magnitudes for not speaking, and an extra magnitude for no gestures, for three magnitudes total. So, casting a fourth magnitude Pilum of Fire with no words or gestures should have been like casting a seventh magnitude Creo Ignem spell for you... which should have left you dazed... nearly unconscious..."

"Ah... I think I'm beginning to see the issue," Rodger mused. "Have I just done something else unprecedented?"

"Nooo..." Biblis drawled. "Not unprecedented... just... very rare. There are a few magi who don't need to use gestures when they cast spells. There are even fewer who don't need to say the words... and using the gestures or saying the words as the case may be doesn't really help them. It's extremely uncommon to have both of those... and you seem to have other gifts too. You -- and I -- both have the 'gentle gift', which means that our Gift of Magic doesn't upset ordinary folk. Most magi are treated with suspicion by most mundanes, and some -- with the 'blatant gift' -- are usually received with outright hostility by most mundanes, and even mundanes used to magi tend to view them with suspicion. Then you have your instinctive understanding of magic... a few magi get a little of that too. The combination of all those things isn't unprecedented, but it is very rare.

"The problem is that -- barring claiming Jadie's virgin gift -- it ought to be outright impossible for you to be a prince, a scholar, good at hunting, and for you to be so unbelievably fast, and have all those magical virtues too," Biblis finished explaining.

"Ah... I know I'm quick, but I didn't think I'm all that quick," Rodger protested.

"You remember when Jadie was starting to learn to walk in those kinky tip-toe boots you bought her?" Biblis asked.

"Yes? The ballet boots?"

"I saw once when she started to fall badly, and you were all the way across a very large room. I've never seen anyone move as fast as you did that day to get to her side to catch her before she hit the floor and hurt herself. It shouldn't have been possible... except for certain, very rare people... and such people tend not to have many other personal advantages."

"Hmmm... well... I suppose my arms masters all said that I was quick."

"How quick?" Biblis asked. "Faster than absolutely everyone quick?"

"Well... yes. Ever since I was sixteen or seventeen, my arms masters all said that I had all the speed I needed, so they made me go slowly to work on my technique... not that they said that there was much wrong with that either. At full speed, I could beat everyone... it was only my older brothers Torrent and Benedict who could beat me on technique when we were going slowly. All my tutors said that I was a quick study, too, not just physically quick."

"That too? Well, the first bit is exactly what I thought," Biblis nodded. "So have you worked it out yet?"

"I suppose that Faberius is jealous about all the advantages I seem to have unwittingly accumulated?"

"He's not the only one," Biblis said.

"What would you suggest I do about it? Pretend I'm less able than I really am?"

"Of course not," Biblis replied. "Just... try to be tactful to your poor teachers who haven't been nearly as blessed by the gods -- and our Jadie -- as you."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind," Rodger replied, feeling a twinge of guilt. "You know, I just realised the enormity of what I gained from Jade's gift to me, and that I gave her nothing in return."

"You might not have given her your virgin gift, but I don't think that she wanted it," Biblis said. "She wanted what she got: an experienced man who could give her the life she wanted."

After Biblis had returned to her sanctum, Rodger continued on to the royal suite, where he encountered Xenia coming from the direction of the baths, damp and naked but for a towel wrapped around her waist.

"Oh! Master! I didn't expect you to be back from your studies so early!" Xenia said, and began to kneel down.

"Please don't kneel, Xeni," Rodger said. "I'd like a discussion, not deference."

"What would you like to discuss, Master?" Xenia asked politely as she followed Rodger through the door to their and Jade's bedroom.

"What have you been doing today?" Rodger asked as Xenia shut the door behind her and followed him toward one of the couches in the sitting room where he sat.

Xenia sat down next to Rodger when he patted the seat beside him to his right. "I've been on a mission for the Queen," she said shortly.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Rodger asked. "Was it successful?"

"Yes, it was successful," Xenia said as she leaned her horned against Rodger's shoulder. "However, it was also frustrating... the guy had all the worst traits of a virgin without actually having the advantage of being one. The only good part of that is that he talked afterwards and told me what the queen wanted me to find out. What about you? What brings you away from your studies so early, Master?"

"Apparently, I have the disadvantage of having received so much from Jade's virgin gift to me that some of my teachers are having trouble dealing with their envy... and then I spoke to Biblis, who explained what it all meant, and how Jade gave me so much when she gave herself to me... and I didn't have anything to give her in return... I'd already given it away to a lying slut who got herself executed for what she did with me -- and others -- and I nearly followed," Rodger wiped a tear from his cheek.

"I know that I haven't spoken to you of the occasion when I lost my virginity, but has Jade mentioned it to you?" Xenia asked.

"No... Did she watch or something?"

"Yes, she did. Her father asked that I show her what to expect when a maiden becomes a woman, and when the day came, she hid in the bushes near the deflowering stone. I gave my virginity to a squire called Will, who also gave me his... it's usual for two virgins to trade their gifts with each-other, even if they go on to marry other people later... or not. My gift made him stronger, and his gift cured my clumsiness and made me graceful."

"And all I did was take it from her, and gave nothing back," Rodger said bitterly.

"Of all the things that Jade talked to me about since she went through puberty, she never once wondered what she might get or what she wanted from the virgin gift of the man who deflowered her. She always talked about him -- you -- as a sexually experienced man who would make her scream with pleasure when he took her virginity and every time afterwards. She knew that her virgin gift would be valuable, but she didn't wonder what the man who took it from her it might do with it. It was a burden to her, and I can see that she's happier now it's gone to the man she loves. I think that if you had also been a virgin, she might not have wanted you as she does."

"Biblis said something of the sort too," Rodger admitted as he put his arms around the faun's delicate bare shoulders and hugged her and kissed the damp green hair on top of her head, between the roots of her scimitar horns. "Thanks, Xeni. That makes me feel a bit better about the whole thing."

"I'm glad I could help," Xenia murmured as she smiled up at Rodger. "You've made my best friend very happy, and I wouldn't want you to think you're not everything she's ever told me she wanted." Xenia slipped her slender right hand into Rodger's shirt between his buttons and rested it on his bare skin. "Now... Master, I'm begging you... please fuck this unworthy slave! I've been fucked today by a worthless limp-dicked loser who came in me in moments and then left me completely unsatisfied. I'm so horny! I need a good fucking!"

"Well... I'll have to think about it," Rodger prevaricated for a moment.

"Please, master!" Xenia begged, rising to her knees on the couch and kissing Rodger on his unresponsive lips. "Pleeeease! I've been good, haven't I?" she pressed her breasts against Rodger's shirt as her left hand came to rest upon his crotch.

"Yes, slave, you've been good, so let's get rid of that towel so I can see about your reward."

Rodger yanked the towel from around her waist and tossed it carelessly across the room where it fell, awkwardly draped over a marble bust of a long-dead queen of Tharnirion. He kissed his faun slave, noticing once again that the taste of her mouth was different to Jade's, but just as exciting. He put his hands on her narrow waist and pulled over him, her furry knees falling to either side of his legs as they kissed. His stroking of her waist led to her chest, then her breasts with their pierced nipples. As he played with her breasts and pinched her nipples, she hummed with pleasure as they kissed, then rose from her knees so that she was tilting her face down and he was tilting his head back to kiss her. However, with her breasts at the level of his head, tempting him, he soon released her mouth and began to kiss her breasts, before taking one of her nipples into his mouth and sucking on it, tugging at its ring with his tongue while he massaged her other nipple with his fingers. Xenia gasped and moaned as Rodger found her pussy with his other hand, and she held his head, directing it to her breasts.

"You're wet for me already," Rodger murmured against Xenia's breasts as his fingers found their way past her pierced clitoral hood and into Xenia's slick cunt.

"Oh, gods!" the faun gasped as Rodger caressed her pussy and breasts simultaneously. "I'm so horny! I need to be fucked so badly my pussy is throbbing!"

Rodger stood up and Xenia slid down from his thighs until her hooves touched the floor. Xenia took her hands from his head and lowered them to his shirt, where she began to unbutton his shirt, as she wrapped one furry, ungulate leg around his legs and pulled him to her. It seemed like only seconds before Xenia had unbuttoned Rodger's shirt and pulled it down his arms, tossing it across the room where it fell across the coffee table. She released her grip on him with her leg, and as she resumed kissing him, she reached down to his belt and unbuckled it by touch, then undid his pants and pushed it down off his bum.

Rodger staggered a bit as he kicked off his half-boots and pulled his legs out of his trousers, underwear and socks, but Xenia supported him for the few moments that it took him, Then he picked her up and took her around to the back of one of the two overstuffed leather chesterfield lounges that stood in the middle of the room. He put her down so that she was sitting on the back of the lounge, at his waist level. Then he put one hand behind her bum, just above her short furry tail, and pushed her backwards so that her shoulders landed on the lounge's cushions and her head hung over the edge, her horns nearly reaching the floor. Rodger pulled Xenia's green-furred hips closer to him, then teased her pussy with the piercing at the head of his cock.

"Please, Master... stop teasing me!" Xenia begged. "I need to be fucked!"

Rodger slid his cock into Xenia's oozing cunt and began to fuck her vigorously. The faun groaned with pleasure as his thrusts jerked her body back and forth, her face turning red as her blood began to pool in her head, her breasts flopping up and down until she gripped them with her hands, squeezing them and pulling at her own nipples. As he pounded her pussy, Rodger put his thumb on Xenia's clit and massaged it. She put her hooves behind his back and used them to help set the               pace of his fucking, tilting her hips back and forth lustfully as her pleasure grew. She cried out when she came, her moans turning into a series of shrieks of pleasure as her cunt clenched down on Rodger's cock.

However, Rodger wasn't finished, and continued to thrust his cock into Xenia's cunt between her furry green legs, grasping her hip with one hand as he stroked her belly with the other. By this time, she was alternating between moaning with pleasure as she was fucked, and crying out with her repeated orgasms. Eventually Rodger couldn't hold himself back any longer, and he groaned repeatedly in time with his orgasmic spasms as he ejaculated into Xenia's cunt. Her legs clenched tightly around his hips to hold him in place as her latest orgasm wound down.

"Thank you, master," Xenia said, looking up at Rodger with a face flushed red from her head-down position. "Could you help me up so I don't break my horns on the coffee table please?"

"Of course," Rodger reached down for the faun's hands. Once Rodger and Xenia had linked hands, he pulled the faun upright.

"Thank you," she said again, and kissed him, putting her arms around his neck. Then she lifted herself off his cock and slid to the floor. "It seems that I'm going to need another bath," she said, looking down at her furry thighs that were stained dark with her fluids, with white streaks of cum trickling down her furry legs.

Rodger looked down to see that his own pubic hair was matted with sexual fluids, that were also running down the leather of the couch. "I think I need to join you... and this couch needs cleaning too."

Future University Site, Tharnirion

Rodger reflected that both he and Jade were often too busy to do more than eat and fall into bed and make love before sleeping at day's end, and while both he and Jade enjoyed their moments of intimacy, he was hardly treating her as the slave that she wanted to be. So, Rodger consulted with Xenia as Queen Jade's body slave about a particular matter that was of interest, and then arranged for Jade to have a day free from her royal duties... without telling her in advance. She was his slave, so she needed to be able to cope with surprises. Fortunately, the day he had selected promised to be a warm, sunny autumn day when Rodger woke between his slaves as Xenia rose to help organise the day's activities.

Rodger crept out of bed without waking Jade, and dressed in riding gear, before he returned to the bed and whipped the down-filled blanket away from his sleeping slave woman.

"It's time to get up, slave!" Rodger called. "We have things to do today!"

"The queen has court again today," Jade protested weakly, not opening her eyes. "She doesn't need to get up yet..."

Rodger smacked Jade on her bare bum, being careful not to hit her too hard, just enough to sting a little. "The queen's schedule is clear today, and I have things that I need my slave to do, so get up, slave!"

"Ow!" Jade yelped. "Yes, Master," she said, struggling sleepily to rise from the bed.

"Come on, slave... your clothes for the day are waiting for you. Hurry up and get dressed," Rodger ordered.

"Yes, Master," Jade repeated, still sleepy, beginning to move toward their dressing room.

"Move it, slave! Move! Move! Move!" Rodger insisted forcefully.

Rodger hastened Jade by repeatedly smacking her gently on the bum until she scurried to the dressing room where Xenia had her clothes waiting, leaning back and putting her hands over her backside to avoid Rodger's smacks, her bare breasts bouncing and shaking in time with her movements. In the dressing room, Xenia helped Jade into an immodest riding outfit, consisting of a form-fitting white blouse that covered Jade's upper body, but was so tight that it didn't hide anything and a pair of equally skin-tight pale linen trousers. Jade fancied that she could see her areolae through the translucent fabric of her top, and she could see her labia outlined beneath the tight fabric of her pants.

"This is so immodest," Jade said, blushing as she looked at herself in the mirror. "I love it, Master. Thank you."

"You do fill it out well, slave," Rodger complimented her.

Xenia helped Jade into her riding boots, and put Jade's long black hair into a bun before putting a broad hat on her head and pinning it to her hair with a few hatpins.

After a quick breakfast, Rodger attached a long chain to Jade's collar and led her out of the castle to the stables, where a pair of horses had been prepared for them. Jade looked at the horses and noticed that her courser had been saddled with an astride saddle, not the side-saddle that she had used as a maiden. She looked at Rodger questioningly, but didn't comment.

"I see you've noticed the change in your saddle, slave," he said pleasantly. "You're a woman now, not a virgin any more, so it's appropriate for you to ride astride."

"You didn't insist on that on the hunt we had right after our wedding."

"That was a hunt, and you didn't have the leisure to get used to an astride saddle at the time," Rodger explained. "We're just going on a nice easy ride today, so you'll have plenty of time to become accustomed to it."

Jade didn't question where Rodger was taking her as they mounted their horses, and Rodger led her out of the palace grounds and through Lysannum by the long chain attached to her collar. It was the first time that she had ridden her horse astride, and it was using different muscles to riding sidesaddle... but as she was a sex slave now, she had exercised those muscles riding men... mostly Rodger, but also a few other men.

As they rode down the Riverside Way, away from the docks, they passed many citizens of Lysannum, many of whom stopped what they were doing to watch Rodger and his beautiful slave ride past.

"It's looking like our slave-queen's going to get a good Rodgering today," a middle-aged tradesman quipped to his workmate as they stopped to watch Jade and Rodger go past.

Jade blushed and suppressed a smile of pleased embarrassment.

"Look at her blush!" the other tradesman replied to his workmate. "If we had any way of knowing, I'd wager a silvermark you're right."

Soon Rodger and Jade were out of the city and riding through the countryside upriver, alongside fields full of crops being harvested, though even there it seemed that the workers all stopped, stared and smiled to see their immodestly-dressed queen ride by at the end of a chain attached to the slave collar around her neck. After a while, Rodger took a branch of the road that led away from the river with its river boats full of crops headed downstream to the market in Lysannum, or empty and headed upstream to be loaded again.

The road they were taking led toward the base of the great arch that towered over the countryside, and a couple of hours leisurely ride from the palace, they started up the side of the arch. It was steep going, and they were forced to ride their horses in zig-zags across the side of the base of the arch, until they rose above the plains to the forest that covered the top of the arch. There, at the bottom of the deciduous forest, Rodger called a halt.

"I'd better remove your chain, slave," he said as he matched his actions to his words. "The trail gets rougher from here, and I don't want to take the risk that it'll cause you to fall."

They continued to ride up a narrow trail that zig-zagged further up the side of the arch, though the going became easier as they rose higher and the curvature of the vast natural edifice became shallower. They finally stopped after a few more hours of difficult riding at a smooth stony outcrop at the highest point of the arch, where they had a magnificent view over all Tharnirion; the farmlands and city of Lysannum to the easting, the forests beyond the plains to the n'westing and the mountains at the edge of the world beyond that, the Hollow Mountain to the neasting and the range of mountains that marked the border with Kelvortyne a little further to the northing, the town of Fetorum to the weasting...

"It's beautiful up here, Master," Jade said as they dismounted. "Thank you for bringing me."

"This is where the university is going to be built, and I thought that you might want to see the site before we break ground," Rodger said, coming to stand behind her.

Jade leaned back against her master-husband's chest, and he took hold of her shoulders and stroked them for a moment, before his hands wandered to the front of her blouse, where he began to undo her buttons, finishing with the button that fastened her trousers, then he removed her blouse.

"Sit down and let's get you out of those boots," he said.

Jade sat down on the sun-warmed stone and began to unbuckle her riding boots before Rodger knelt in front of her and took over. Once her boots were off, he helped her remove her pants, and in moments, she was sitting naked upon the sun-warmed stone.

"Lie down on your belly, slave," Rodger said.

"Yes, Master," Jade did as she was told.

Jade sighed with pleasure as Rodger began to massage her with some oily substance, starting with her shoulders, moving down to her back and bum and legs, then returning to her arms. She saw that it was some whitish cream that turned into a glossy sheen on her skin as he massaged it in.

"What's that stuff, Master?" Jade asked.

"It's a mixture of lanolin and philosopher's wool," he said. "It'll stop your skin from burning in the sun, since your skin is quite pale, and I'm going to have you naked up here for quite a while."

After he had covered her back, Rodger had her roll over, and he massaged the cream into the front of her body, from her hairline to her toes, but lingering over her breasts and pussy in a quite arousing manner.

"All right, slave, please rub the lotion onto my skin now," Rodger commanded when he was done.

Jade helped Rodger remove his clothing and mirrored his treatment of her, having him lie down on his back and covering the front of his body with the oily cream, before rolling him over onto his belly and covering his back. She was getting quite aroused by this time, and she finished off the task of covering his back by rubbing her breasts and belly across his back.

"You can roll back over, Master," she said when she was done, and was aching to be fucked.

Rodger rolled over, and as she had hoped, his oily, shining cock was standing at attention against his six-pack belly. "Slave, ride my cock," Rodger commanded.

"Yes, Master," Jade smiled.

Jade began at Rodger's feet, and slid her oily body against his, up his legs, across his cock and up to his chest. She kissed him on the mouth as she rubbed her wet, oily pussy against his cock until his cock began to twitch. She felt quite proud of herself for catching the tip of his cock in her cunt without having to use her hands, and she lowered herself onto him, taking his cock inside her. Obedient to his command to ride him, she sat up then, straddling his hips, keeping her back and head erect as was proper when riding, as she began to bounce upon his cock as if he was a horse at a canter.

Rodger's hand came up from his sides, caressing her thighs, her hips, her waist, and then her breasts. He massaged her nipples and pulled at the slave rings in them, and she smiled and gasped at the waves of pleasure that his touch caused her. She continued to ride him, but unlike riding a horse, her pleasure increased until she was staring into his eyes with her mouth open, gasping and moaning with pleasure. She shuddered and cried out as she orgasmed upon his cock.

"Don't stop just because you're cumming, slave," Rodger warned.

Jade kept riding as her cunt spasmed and clenched rhythmically. When her orgasm was over, it was easier to keep riding him, until she came again, that is. She came even harder the second time, and it was a struggle to keep moving as her body twitched and writhed with pleasure almost out of her control... but she pushed through it and continued to ride.

Then Rodger moved, rolling her to the side so that she was lying on her back on the smooth warm stone with his cock still in her cunt. He put his hands behind her knees and raised his body away from hers as he pulled them up, putting her ankles on his shoulders to either side of his head, tilting her pelvis toward him as he balanced his weight on his hands to either side of her shoulders as he fucked her urgently, his cock plunging deeply into her cunt and bumping against her cervix in a manner that was pleasurable only because she was so aroused. She could tell by the way Rodger was breathing that he was close to cumming, and within moments, he groaned several times as he ejaculated deep into her cunt.

Afterwards, they lay together in the warm sun, kissing and cuddling in a manner rather unlike a master and a slave.

"I love you, Jade," Rodger said, brushing a lock of her straight black hair away from her beautiful face.

"I love you too, Rodger," Jade replied, before kissing him on the lips. "You're the best master I could ever have. Thank you for arranging this day for me."

"It's not over yet, slave," Rodger smiled. "I intend to fuck you several more times before we return to the palace."

"I'm looking forward to it."

Rodger was as good as his word. He put Jade onto her hands and knees upon their discarded clothing and fucked her doggy-style for quite some time, bringing her to several more orgasms before he filled her cunt with his cum once more. He insisted that she remain lying upon the stone with her hips held high while he unpacked the lunch that he had asked the palace cooks to prepare.

"Your birthbane will have worn off quite a while ago, and Xenia said that your period is due in a couple of weeks, which means that you should be fertile today... so I intend to impregnate you today, slave," Rodger said. "I've even considered hanging you up by your ankles from a handy tree for an hour or so, just to be sure my seed makes its way as deep inside your womb as it can."

Jade blushed at the thought. "I'd do that for you if you wanted, master."

"Are you sure?" Rodger asked. "I doubt it would be very comfortable."

"Yes, I'm sure... if you think it'll help me get pregnant."

"Well... after lunch, I'll get things ready and fuck you again, and after I cum, I'll hoist you up."

"All right."

As Rodger promised, after they had eaten and rested for a little while, Rodger took some ropes from his saddlebags and led Jade to a large tree where he tied her ankles separately with knots at each end of a long rope, tied so that they wouldn't pull tight and cut off her circulation. Then he threw a loop of the long rope over a thick branch, but left it loose as he approached her and they began to make love again. Rodger picked Jade up and stood with her perched on his cock, with her arms around his neck and legs around his waist, while he supported her with his hands as they fucked.

"Let go of my neck and lean back, and put your hands over your head to hold yourself up," Rodger instructed Jade.

Jade wasn't quite sure that Rodger wouldn't drop her, but she didn't give voice to her doubts, and did as she was told. Rodger supported her with one arm behind her back and took hold of her hand to make the transition easier... then she found herself doing a handstand in front of her master, looking away from him as he fucked her. She felt flushed as her blood rushed to her head, and she came several times before Rodger filled her cunt with his cum again.

Then, once he was done, she felt the ropes tied around her ankles pull her up, and she rose into the air with her legs slightly spread until Rodger tied off the rope somewhere out of sight, before walking around in front of her. His cock was right at head level, which she was pretty certain wasn't a coincidence. Without being prompted, she raised her arms and grabbed his hips, and pulled herself to his cock so that she could take it into her mouth. As she began to fellate him, he put his head between her legs and began to lick her clit expertly. It seemed like no time at all before she lost her concentration on fellating him as she came again... and again... and again. As it happened, she didn't manage to make her master cum, since she was too distracted by her own orgasms that he gave her relentlessly, and as time passed, by the increasing discomfort in her ankles and feet.

"Master... please... could you let me down?" Jade asked. "My ankles hurt and my feet are starting to go numb."

"Of course," he replied, and put his arms beneath her to take her weight as he untied the rope.

When Jade's feet touched the stone, she couldn't stand, and she sat straight away as he untied her ankles and rubbed them.

"I liked that at first," Jade said. "But it hurt a lot after a while."

"Should I learn how to tie you up more comfortably so you can stay in the ropes longer?" he replied. "Though I don't think that it's supposed to be entirely comfortable."

Jade considered this for a moment. "I'd like that, Master."

When it was time to go home, they both rode down the side of the arch, until they passed below the bottom edge of the wood that covered it. Once the riding had become easier, Jade had a naughty thought.

"Master... if I'm more likely to get pregnant if I'm head-down, wouldn't it make sense for you to take me back to the palace lying over my horse's back?" she asked mischievously.

Rodger laughed. "Quite likely... are you volunteering?"

"Yes, Master."

"Very well."

Jade had the embarrassed pleasure of returning to the palace naked and tied face down across her horse's saddle, not too differently to the day that Rodger had claimed her.

* * *