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[ismenin]

Twi's day in the Western hemisphere. LSR has, even though knackered, poor girl, done this for me. What a beta!

I must remind you that this series is slightly different from the other two - but please stick with it until the end. I think you might agree it is worth it.




Part Three - The Rings

Dom's thoughts as he writes his report are in italics. Some BDSM in this part
Thanks of course to Lady Sunrope for beta.

**Warning! Near enough non-con sex here. Just letting you know.**




Menkh tapped on my door in the middle of the night. How he knew I would be here alone I could not tell, for Lij and I never slept apart except when one of us was sick.

"It is well, Dom, he will not hear us. He has had the bed moved onto the balcony as he says the place where it stood was too hot for sleep. He has four fan bearers waving feathers over him as we speak."

I rose and flung a robe over my naked form, and sat opposite Menkh, waiting for him to continue. He did so, but slowly.

"Dom, Lij has always been an excellent king, even before you came and made him a better one, for you injected a love of humanity into him that was sadly lacking in him before..." I smiled, wistfully... "and he always had his finger on the pulse of government. His grasp of foreign policy was staggering, and his knowledge of our courtiers and princes, and of foreign minor kings and their vagaries was unparalleled. How will we manage now he can remember nothing? I am worried, Dom, I cannot hide it from you. I cannot put my finger on exactly *why* I feel so....disturbed."

I put my hand on Menkh's arm. "Try not to worry, old friend. I will ask Seti-Hop to look..."

Menkh sighed. "Seti-Hop is gone, Dom. He died not long after you both left. He has been many months in the tomb Lij had built for him in the valley, as befits the physician of a god. Whether Lij will listen to Soraya as he listened to Seti..."

He paused, remembering. "But of course it makes no difference if he can remember neither of them."

"We must wait to see what happens, Menkh. We cannot hope to rush things. He still has a lot to learn, and he is frustrated by not knowing...not remembering. I do not think he wants Menep and Nefer to see him like this, and that is why he forbade us to send for them...
not now, of course, that he has the power to do that to me."

Menkh stared at me in puzzlement so I got him the parchment Lij had had written for me in Erin, and signed by him, making me co-ruler of Egypt.

Menkh grinned. "Then we are saved!" he said, handing the document back to me. "You can take over..." I shook my head, forestalling him.

"He will not remember doing this, old friend. I cannot bring it up, now. He will think we are trying to usurp his authority - which we would be. We must wait and see what transpires."

Menkh rose. "I suppose you are right, Dom. We must be patient. One hopes the Hyksosians harrying our borders will have equal patience. Ninus tells me there are rumours of an invasion amongst his people. Priests have been killed at Dendera. All is not yet safe. We need a strong ruler...we need Lij...the *old* Lij. I will bid you good night. We shall talk of this further."

With that he left as quietly as he came. Sleep had fled, so I carefully opened the door between us and went in to see Lij. I wanted to see his face - I needed to see it.

The fan bearers plied their feathers and a cool breeze wafted over the naked body lying on the bed. By the light of the moon his body was silver in the darkness. His lay on his back, his legs parted. I could see the tattoo of the royal cartouche on his inner thigh, the love brand of the harp just above his hip - then my eyes travelled upwards. I could not help it, I wanted to touch him.

I looked at his face, so calm and serene in sleep. No lines marred it - no sign of growing older, as we all must. He was thirty now - but he looked the same to me as he had ten years before when I stared insolently up into his eyes - a slave I was, then, nothing more. I wished those eyes would look upon me again with the same desperate desire.

I put my hand on his thigh and he turned in his sleep, muttering something in a low voice, but he did not wake. I returned to my rooms and got into bed. Eventually I fell asleep, but I had disturbing dreams that when I woke I could not remember - except the unease that they left within me lasted all day.

*******

Two days after we returned home Lij held his first audience in the throne room. As we walked in, Lij in front, Liv and I behind him, all fell to the floor in obeisance as was usual. When Lij turned to sit in the golden chair I could not help but notice a look of...let us say triumph in his eyes.

Liv and I sat either side of him as princes, lords and courtiers took their turn to kiss his feet and welcome him home. Old Prince Manep-Hepsu, eighty nine years old and a wonder in the land, had trouble getting to his knees. I looked at Lij, remembering a time when my Lij would have leapt to his feet and helped the old man, but this one...this cold-faced Lij sat there, unsmiling, and did nothing.

Menkh aided the old man to kneel and to rise. It would have shamed Lij for me to do it, so I sat there quietly and did nothing, but there was something coiling in my gut that had fear about it.

Afterwards, as we ate, the old Lij came out. He made us smile, he charmed his wife, he tickled his children - and during the afternoon sleep, he caressed me so sweetly, kissed me so tenderly that some of the clouds receded. It was true the spark was still missing, but I was glad to have his arms about me, his body within mine, his warm breath on my neck. What fools men are!

Later as I entered his rooms I heard cries of pain. I rushed in and stopped dead in my tracks. Lij was thrashing a young lad with a long bamboo cane and not sparing his strokes either. He had tied the boy to the pillar and was laying into him with a vengeance, a feral grin on his face. "Lij.." I said quietly, and he turned quickly, the smile wiped off his face as he looked at me.

He threw the stick down and indicated to the other shaken servants that they untie the lad. His back was beaten to a pulp. Bamboo is hard, almost vicious when laid on in anger. "Lij?" I said again, "What ails you?"

He went to a table and waited for a servant with shaking hands to pour his wine. "He displeased me. He spilled wine on my sandals."

He must have seen the expression of disbelief on my face for he countered with "If one does not enforce discipline the servants become lax."

"It is just I have never seen you..." He interrupted. "Oh, come, Dom. You have never seen me beat a servant before?"

I shook my head. "No, Great One, you usually use the whip, and are not so ...enthusiastic in your punishments."

He sneered. "Next you will tell me I have never beaten good old Pen-Nekeb, friend of friends." He sat down and sipped his drink meditatively.

"No, I certainly never saw you do so, Lij."

He looked up at me astonished. "Well, all things change. I shall keep a tighter grip on things from now on." He changed the subject quickly. "Jed and Titi want to see the lions after their sleep. Do you wish to come?"

I admit I lied to him. "Lygia wishes to see me about Evgren...our daughter...I am afraid you will have to excuse me, Lij."

He waved his hand at me in dismissal. "These domestic duties...stay! I need some slight alteration to my apartments. Would you have a builder sent to me as soon as may be possible?"

I bowed low. "Certainly, Great One." It was many years since I had been formal with Lij in private - but this Lij, this new Lij appeared to demand all the trappings of his rank. I gave them to him - what was the harm?

I left then and quickly went to Menkh's offices where luckily I found the great architect Imhotep discussing tombs with his friend. I cut short his greetings –

"He wishes for a builder, Hotep. Do not lose any time in responding to his demands. I have just seen him slice a servant to the bone for damaging his sandals."

Imhotep raised his eyebrows and left swiftly.

Menkh stared evenly at me. "Have you never beaten a servant, Dom?"

I shook my head.

"The punishment far outweighed the crime - if crime there was, Menkh - but that was not what disturbed me. It was the look of...lust on his face. Oh, I know that in our private lives we are inclined to some ...punishings... but not like this. Not to harm permanently. I admit I do not know this man, and what is more, I do not like him either."

The words came from me with a sense of dread for they were words I had never thought to utter but there was relief too. A chance to tell the truth to a friend.

Menkh shifted in his feet and fixed me with a penetrating stare. "But do you still love him, Dom?"

I gave back a look, as honest and as straightforward as was his. I thought of the love I had had for Lij over the years - the desperate longing for his presence when we were parted, the joy we experienced together. I would love him into the eternities, but...but...something was missing. I voiced my thoughts.

"Aye, I do. But I do not like what he has become. He is cold, distant sometimes, as if his mind is far away. It is not his fault he cannot remember me, Menkh. And I do remember that one does not have to like those whom one loves. Look at Pretep and Nat. He hated her, yet he loved her. It was two years before he found himself another...wife."

"I think Knafra-Menu might slap you hard if he heard you call him Nat's wife, Dom - notwithstanding he looks, dresses and talks like one. But we stray from the point. Lij is different now. Maybe there are ways we can try to bring the old Lij back - the River House. perhaps..."

"No!" I shouted, louder than was needful. "I...I do not want him to know of it. It is precious to me, Menkh. That I would keep of him. I have very little else."

Menkh rose and poured me some wine. "You speak as if he were dead, Dom, have you not noticed?"

I sank in my chair hardly willing to admit my thoughts in speech.

"My Lij is dead, friend. This...this...copy..is not my gentle man..."

Menkh smiled. "Gentle man? I hear you like him to beat you with his whip on occasion, Dom. Gentle?"

I blushed. "Those are love-things of which I will not speak - but he is...was... gentle with me. I miss him, Menkh. I see him every day, every day he embraces me...but...but...there is something lacking!"

I rose from my chair and paced about the room in distress. "I should be grateful for any part of him, after what he has been through...I amgrateful. But still I wish for...the spark that made him most beloved by me."

Dom turns away because the memory is still painful and he does not wish to mar his work with tears. Such an admission even to a friend was hard. After all this time, it hurts still. It would be so easy to give up this task of recording and consign the memories to darkness. He considers it only for a moment. Some matters cannot be allowed to lie untold.

Imhotep returned, putting an end to our discussion. He was a good friend, but he was not...of the family. Not yet, but I had hopes for him. He had cast his eye on Nat's daughter. We hoped he would prosper with her. She was a difficult woman to please.

"What did he want, Hotep?" I asked to break the silence. Imhotep poured himself some wine. "Not much. A small inner room converted into a small temple - a place for worship and personal contemplation."

My heart leapt within me. Lij had showed little interest in religion since he was injured, but this...surely this was a step forward? I impulsively hugged the bemused architect and kissed him loudly on the cheek. "Thank you, dear friend. You have given me hope..."

I hurried out before my feelings got the better of me. I tried to make a truth of the lie I had told Lij. I went to see Lygia and the babe.

********

When I returned from the dispensary where Gia was keeping Raya company as she mixed some potions, I went straight to Lij's rooms. I found the place full of workmen and dust, and Lij lying on the bed in my apartments drinking wine. He seemed to be drinking more of it of late that he was used to, but I put it down to the difficulty of settling down amongst people one did not know.

He held out his hand to me as I came in. I went to him gladly, and lay beside him on the bed. He kissed me gently, brushing his lips on my skin raising the hairs as his warm breath touched me.

"I am glad ...so glad you are doing this Lij..."

"Kissing you, do you mean?" He smiled at me as his hand tweaked a nipple. "...Or do you mean the temple in my rooms?"

I rose to his touch, gasping as he tweaked harder. "You like that...me touching you in that way, do you?"

I nodded, blushing. "I do. I like it, Lij...very much." I made a sound in my throat as his little teeth worried at the nub.

He straddled me and nuzzled in my neck, biting a circle around the tender flesh. His eyes suddenly were fixed upon the silver rings embedded in the wall of my bedroom. He kissed me again,

"Are those rings there for any purpose, Dom? Do you like to be tied to them? Shall I do so?"

"Yes, please!" I gasped, I was so aroused I could hardly speak. "The ropes are in the chest."

He rose from me and went to the chest. He found the rope - he also found the whip. It was much smaller than the bull-whip but still held a nasty sting. If wielded by a master it provided just enough pain mixed with the pleasure of watching him use it to make me come to climax without need of extra stimulation.

Leaning over the papyrus, Dom flushes. The needs of kings were not matters for general consumption. Yet, this matter, this history of what once was, needed to be told for those who came after to understand and learn. He adds ‘It is important I tell of this so future generations may judge for themselves my subsequent actions.’ It will suffice, he thinks.

I stood by the wall with my back to it, looking lovingly into his face, and he fastened the ropes tightly around my wrists and to the rings.

I was surprised to say the least that, after what he had suffered at Ede's hands...then I remembered that he could not remember, and let out my breath with a gasp.

Suddenly he untied me and turned me around roughly. I could hear the shortness of his breath against my neck as he fastened me with my chest facing the wall.

I was quivering with desire and anticipation, but the first blow I received removed such feelings in an instant. Instead of the sharp quick stinging blow I had come to know and expect I received a welt across my back that all but flayed the skin off me. I grunted in surprise and shock.

The next few blows were worse. There was no pleasure for me in his intent, only pain. I cried out, "Lij! Stop! You are hurting me!" All I heard was a laugh. "It is supposed to hurt you, is it not?"

The blows fell harder. I begged for him to stop, my thoughts reeling in the knowledge that to injure me was giving him such pleasure. I used the word we had arranged upon in case of dire need - but he had obviously forgotten it and did not stop. Blow after blow without ceasing, his cries of delight at my moans and pleas. I gave myself up to the pain. I could not believe my love could use me in this way. My mind was being tortured far more than my poor bleeding body. What had I done that he would do this? Blood dripped onto my feet - I could see it. After ten blows my head fell, my legs would no longer support me and my mind…it was scattered, fragmented like shards of pottery. I was broken and useless and then, only then he stopped.

Instead of gently releasing me and tending to me as I expected, as I yearned for to take away the horror from my mind, he came up behind me and shoved himself hard into me with no preparation. I cried out. I was nothing, a vessel for his seed and that was as hard to bear as the pain from his using of me. He came quickly, panting into my ear, and bit my shoulder hard as he did.

Then he left me, saying he had to wash the blood off. My thoughts could not connect, one with the other. My heart was dying within me. Why, my Lij? What did I do? This was not my Lij...not the Lij I loved. He was a monster.

After a few minutes I heard a discreet cough at my shoulder. It was Lij's new servant, chosen to replace Nekeb. He was a Syrian, and I did not like him. Why, I did not know, except I had heard rumours that he was a gossip and talebearer.

"The Great One asked me to release you, my lord," he almost sniggered, as he untied my hands. My humiliation was complete.
After he released me, and looked at me weltering in my own blood, he bowed very low - almost an insult, but not quite - and left through the adjoining door.

I staggered to the bed and pulled a covering from it and carefully wound it around my injured body. It was slow and painful and my low cries of pain filled the room. Yet of Lij there was no sign. I covered myself as best I could and slowly made my way along the corridors, feeling along the walls to keep myself from falling, to Soraya's dispensary where she would treat my wounds.

As I walked I decided to have the rings removed from the wall. It was all I could do. It would not, could not happen again; on that I was determined. It was small comfort for with each step I felt more abandoned and alone.

Comments

[fantasy-fan.livejournal.com]

Abandoned and alone indeed. Almost worse than betrayed and in pain.

We all have monsters within us, I imagine. What makes us human is that we do not let them out, usually.

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

Yes, humans have to subdue their emotions. Animals don't. :D xxx