Beauty was happy today to be meeting only with the small council, and she greeted those standing about the table with genuine warmth.

“Well, be seated all,” Laurent said. “Let’s have some cider, if you will, and perhaps some sweetmeats, and get to talking straightaway about Lexius.”

Laurent took the head of the table and Beauty the chair to his right. Alexi sat down opposite Beauty, with Dmitri beside him, and the ladies across from one another after that. Lady Eva settled at the foot of the table with her quill and ink, and bound book for note taking.

“So what is all the mystery?” asked Beauty.

At once the others looked to Alexi, and he, seeing this, made a small graceful gesture of acceptance with both hands. He looked most beautiful this morning to Beauty, with his auburn hair now considerably longer than it had been at their first meeting, a prince from a tapestry, in her mind, and as always he was impeccably turned out in the finest patterned silk tunic, and adornments that suggested the treasures of Byzantium.

No one devoted to the new kingdom had given any more passion and devotion than Alexi. Not even Dmitri, who worked tirelessly every day to refine the Place of Public Punishment, or Lady Eva herself, or even Rosalynd and Elena, who were in charge of the nightly spectacles in the castle gardens.

Beauty had a special love for these two sisters who’d shared captivity in the sultanate, and she found them most appealing. Rosalynd in her mind had attained the pinnacle of buxom voluptuousness, whereas the smaller, more delicate Elena was a clever-tongued tasty sylph with high pointed breasts and a low purring voice that delighted Beauty.

“I shall be spokesman, then, why not?” said Alexi, raising his eyebrows and settling against the carved back of the chair. “I’ll tell what I know. But some things I do not know, and perhaps others here will be inspired by my candor.”

“What the hell happened?” asked Laurent with a little wink and smile. “Get to it! We were bound together night after night in the hold of the ship that brought us back here, he and I, bound, bound by our delicious desires. I probably did more to train him than anyone who came after.”

That produced a low respectful bit of laughter from everyone.

“Well, I think you did,” said Alexi. “As you know he was brought before the Queen, accepted reluctantly because the Queen would not have anyone choose slavery of his own will, and then packed off to the kitchen. But the report soon came upstairs that he was wilting like a lily under the coarse treatment of the servants and ought to be tended with more care. So she sent for him.”

He paused and shrugged. “I was her favorite as everyone knew,” he said, his voice philosophical rather than mocking, “and I can’t say I was delighted to see him absorb so much of her attention.”

“Of course not,” said Laurent, with a gesture for Alexi to continue.

“Well, she had time enough for both of us,” said Alexi. “And Lexius was as abject and servile as any naked slave who ever kissed the Queen’s slippers. He was graceful by instinct, and knew subtleties of service that no one can teach. He had a lissome charm and an eloquence in ignominy that was breathtaking. Of course I did with him what I had done before with others—I seduced him while the Queen slept and proved a harsher master than she was a mistress.”

“Ah, so that’s how it was with you two,” said Laurent.

“Yes,” said Alexi. “Lexius taught me how to master him in his submission. We had to be careful, of course. The old queen forbade all such trysts among her slaves, though they happened throughout the castle nightly. And he and I were never caught. Meanwhile the Queen delighted in talking about how Lexius had once been a powerful steward of slaves under his former master, the Sultan, and constantly demanded he offer up to her refinements and innovations in the ways slaves should be displayed and used at Court. And he was more than willing to do it.

“Then at night he became my adoring attendant! Well, all this might have gone on for years and years, but the Captain of the Guard came up and informed the Queen that the sultanate was in grave danger, and almost certain to be destroyed. Soldiers had heard the rumors from the sailors putting in. And soon the Queen confirmed the worst: a powerful army was gathering to invade the sultanate and other realms like it.

“The Captain of the Guard was adamant that if he were to rescue Dmitri, Rosalynd, and Elena, he had to have Lexius with him. Lexius knew the sultanate after his years there. He could find a way for the Captain to accomplish the rescue speedily, and speed was of the utmost importance.

“So the Queen had Lexius groomed and dressed from head to toe, and armed for battle. Lexius was well acquainted with weapons, and swore to assist the Captain in every possible way. And off they went at once to the docks to board the ship for the secretive mission.

“Well, you can imagine what this must have been like for Lexius who for two years at least had been a naked plaything. Here he was once again possessed of the implements of power.

“He and the Captain accomplished the mission, with only a few nights to spare, and before they even returned the sultanate was destroyed utterly. Lexius and the Captain had both warned the Sultan of what was to come, by letters left for him which he would not receive until they were safely away with their charges. But whether that was of any help at all no one ever knew. The sultanate was obliterated. And the custom of pleasure slavery was stamped out in that land forever, though not by persons who had the slightest interest in it. It simply fell out that way.”

“And so you were all brought back at that time,” Beauty said. She paused and looked at Dmitri.

“Yes, my queen,” Dmitri said. “It was all quite sudden. To be immersed in the village again was quite sudden.”

Rosalynd and Elena laughed knowingly, and Elena shook her head.

“Go on, Alexi,” said Beauty.

“Well, I did not before this time think the old queen had loved Lexius, but I should have known that she did. And when he returned, when he brought these slaves back to her feet, I should have observed more carefully the way that she looked at him. Picture it, if you will. Here, this languid, sinewy, and feline man who’d been her naked doll, and suddenly there he was before her in a long black velvet tunic, purloined from the fallen sultanate, trimmed with magnificent designs, his fingers covered in massive rings, his jeweled sword belt girdling his waist and his weapon now not the broadsword he’d taken with him but a gleaming scimitar. He brought the slaves to her in golden collars and chains and, making her a magnificent bow, assured her that they had offered complete compliance in their rescue.”

“How fortunate for them,” said Laurent with a laugh.

“Yes, well, I should have seen her black eyes devouring him, devouring all the delicious aspects of his person, his seductive Eastern dignity. But I didn’t see it.

“Well, she said that having such pampered and spoiled slaves returned to Court wouldn’t do, and that Lexius was to take them down to the village and see they were appropriately worked and punished there so that all the cloying softness was removed from them. Lexius was to remain in the village at Jennifer Loxley’s inn and watch over them daily. She said a month or two would be sufficient for Lexius to ensure that things were being done properly, and then he was to return to her. But in the meantime he might make himself entirely comfortable in the inn and do whatever he liked.”

“Ah,” said Beauty. “What a stunning idea. So he would enjoy this freedom, this privilege, and then come back to her naked and abject.”

“Yes, that is it, exactly,” said Alexi. “But how much Her Majesty understood of what she was doing here is not clear. She wanted total obedience and that seemed her emphasis. And maybe she thought this time in the village was some sort of reward to Lexius for his bravery in journeying to the sultanate on the eve of war. I mean she wanted to reward him in some way.”

Alexi shifted in his chair. He was speaking almost entirely to Beauty now but didn’t seem to realize it, but Beauty realized it, and as always she loved to watch the shifting expressions of his face, and she loved the tone of his voice.

“Anyway, down to the village Lexius went with plenty of her gold,” Alexi said, “and so went Dmitri and Elena and Rosalynd to be punished there. And all were sent initially to the stables. But Lexius had leave to take them out of harness at any time and subject them to the Public Turntable, the Punishment Shop, or whatever he thought appropriate.

“Now, the mayor at that time was the only keeper of female ponies in the village, and his stable was much smaller and infinitely more elegant than the public stable. But you know all this, of course. Well, it was a new sight for Lexius. And he fell in love with the high style of the harnesses, the plumes, the golden bits, and shapely boots worn by the female ponies. And so did Elena and Rosalynd.” Alexi paused and looked to them for confirmation.

“Oh, absolutely,” said Rosalynd. “It was superb, all of it, and the stable, small as it was, all polished and shining, more like a great, how shall I say, stage setting perhaps than a real place, and the grooms were magnificent—big powerful boys with huge hands and loving voices. We had such fun with them. But then, Your Majesty, you see what we have done with your own stables. And it all began there.”