Females of Vulvar Read online

  “Yes, Your Excellency, I admit the thought crossed my mind.”

  “The reason you are being asked, rather than commanded, is because that is the will of the Goddess-Queens. They wish you to take on the assignment voluntarily, and only under that condition. They have given you the right to refuse the assignment.”

  I stroked my chin. “I’m happy to help with this if I can. First, it would delight me to work in the field I’ve been trained and educated in. And, I see no reason to refuse to give my help even if I can do so without penalty.”

  The Chief Priestess looked at me closely. “Do not agree to take on the assignment too quickly, Tobias Hart. Not until you learn all that it entails. You may well change your mind by the time I’ve finished. You may find a good reason to refuse it.”

  Chapter 9

  The Mission

  No one spoke for a time. Then the Chief Priestess met my gaze and continued. “We believe the valuable religious artifact is hidden in the City of the Dead.”

  “City of the Dead?” I said.

  Gaylia nodded. “Before the great war, there was a capital city called Saba on the far southeastern coast of this continent. It was a strategic global trade and cultural center which made the city a prime target. According to legend, the city was ruined, its inhabitants annihilated by a devastating attack. The effects of the weapons used rendered the city and surrounding land in a large radius uninhabitable as it remains to this very day. Thus, by tradition, it is known as the City of the Dead.”

  “The effects of the weapons still linger?” I said.

  “It is believed so,” Gaylia said. “Though beyond legends and rumors, we actually know little about the area. Since the destruction of Saba over six-hundred years ago, we have considered it far too hazardous for exploration. And, given the region is uninhabitable, there has been no reason to explore it.”

  “Yet the Goddess-Queens believe an expedition there to seek the artifact is survivable?” I said.

  “Only if the expedition is completed in no more than three days, according to the Goddess-Priests,” Gaylia said. “Given the potential of the residual effects of the weapons used to destroy Saba, remaining there for even a day longer could prove fatal to anyone undertaking such an expedition.”

  “Three days isn’t much time to search for an ancient artifact,” I said. “Unless the Goddess-Queens have a good idea where it may be found.”

  Gaylia picked up from the table a small leather-bound book that had been in front of her since I’d sat down.

  “I’m told the contents of this book, if understood, leads to the artifact’s location,” she said.

  She placed the book back on the table and pushed it over to me.

  “What is this book?” I said, picking it up.

  “I’m told it is a journal kept by a Saba high official some 1,600 years ago,” Gaylia said.

  I opened the front cover. As the paper was brittle with age, I carefully turned to the first page.

  After only a few brief moments, I looked up at Gaylia in amazement.

  “Where is this journal from?” I said.

  “The Goddess-Queens delivered it here,” she said.

  “No, where did this book originate?” I said. “Surely not here on this world.”

  “Yes, it is of this world,” Gaylia said firmly. “The writing is the ancient language from the time before this planet became known as Vulvar. No one any longer lives on this world who can decipher its meaning. The ability to translate the language has been lost to antiquity.”

  “This journal is written in the language of an ancient Earth civilization,” I said. “The language is considered classical Egyptian from the period known as the late Egyptian phase, or the Golden Age of Egyptian civilization which existed some 2,500 Earth years ago.”

  “Then clearly there must be some connection between Vulvar and Earth far beyond what we’ve ever been aware of,” Gaylia said. “You can understand the writings?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I majored in Egyptology. My dissertation topic was from that field of archaeology. I’m able to translate Egyptian writings from the hieroglyphic writings of the Archaic phase through the script of the Coptic phase.”

  “Excellent,” Gaylia said. “Evidently, that is why you were chosen by the Goddess-Queens.”

  I scanned a few more pages of the journal.

  “Does the writing tell you about the artifact and where it rests?” Gaylia said.

  “There is no mention of any artifact in the first few pages,” I said, marveling at what I’d read.

  In only a few pages, I’d learned that thousands of years before the Goddess-Queens, Vulvarians, or whatever they called the people of this world back then, had possessed the technology for interplanetary space travel. A scientist who worked in their space program had written the journal. I wasn’t certain if that was information I should share with these women, at least not with Gaylia and Melriel. They likely would find my discovery threatening to their system of religious beliefs.

  “I’ll need time to translate the entire journal,” I said. “It’s been a long while since I’ve read the language, and I’m a little rusty.”

  “Very well,” Gaylia said. “In that case, I have more to tell you about the mission and its potential dangers.”

  “All right,” I said, nodding.

  “There are other threats to those who dare to go to the City of the Dead,” Gaylia said. “Tradition holds that dangerous creatures may inhabit the area surrounding it. Malevolent creatures, perhaps mutants, which came about from exposure to the effects of the weapons of war.”

  “But, the existence of such is just supposition?” I said.

  “Yes, it is what has been taught to us, handed down from legend and oral history,” Gaylia said. “But, the Goddess-Queens confirm the existence of such creatures. So, you must not discount the potential danger. It’s yet another threat anyone who contemplates going to the region must consider. You must understand, Tobias Hart. Certain death may await you in the City of Death if you accept the mission.”

  “Certain death and a small chance of success,” I said. “What are we waiting for?”

  Gaylia smiled ruefully. “Even with what I’ve told you, you still accept the mission?”

  “Yes,” I said. “The more I learn, the more intrigued I become. Besides, would you have me dishonor the Goddess-Queens by refusing their request?”

  “As said, it is your decision, Tobias Hart,” Gaylia said. “The Goddess-Queens have left it to you. Now, I suppose I can reveal the final point. Though the chances of your death are great and the chances of success small, should you succeed, the Goddess-Queens promise a reward.”

  “A reward?” I said.

  “If you find and recover the artifact they desire, the Goddess-Queens have sworn to return you to your home planet.”

  “Are you serious, Your Excellency?” I said excitedly.

  “Wait, what?” Melriel blustered. “Return him to Earth? But he is my property.”

  “That is the decision of the Goddess-Queens, Melriel,” Gaylia said. “Will you challenge their will?”

  “Of course not,” Melriel whined. “But, is it not unfair to deprive me of my property?”

  “I am certain the Goddess-Queens will adequately compensate you for any loss, Melriel,” Gaylia said. “But, that is not of utmost consideration at the moment.”

  Melriel looked at me narrowly, then back at Gaylia.

  “As his owner, I request to be a member of the expedition,” she said.

  “Granted,” Gaylia said. “I intended for a member of the Kohtuhree of Priestesses to go as a representative of the Goddess-Queens. Since you are aware of the potential dangers and still have volunteered, I need not seek another.”

  “I too, volunteer to accompany the expedition, Chief Priestess,” my mother, Laena, said.

  “That won’t be possible, Laena,” Gaylia said. “You cannot be spared from your important duties here. Instead, choose six of your
finest warriors and a commander over them to send.”

  “As you wish, Chief Priestess,” my mother said, though she was clearly unhappy with the decision.

  “We will have only nine in the expedition?” I said. “Despite the potential dangers you have enumerated? As it’s said, many hands make light work.”

  “Wisdom suggests a smaller party is apt to draw less attention, Tobias Hart,” Gaylia said. “I’m convinced the smaller number will make things safer than sending a large force. It would be best if the expedition is not discovered by any creatures who may inhabit the region.”

  “Perhaps you’re correct, Your Excellency,” I said, though I would feel better going with a lot more warriors.

  “Then it’s settled,” Gaylia said. “In four days, the expedition party will depart Thiva. You will travel by baacaas to Port Abrago.”

  Baacaases, I’d since learned, were the equine-like animals I’d seen depicted on a tapestry the day I had arrived on Vulvar. I’d ridden horses on earth and assumed riding a baacaas couldn’t be much different.

  “There you will board a ship to sail to the City of the Dead,” Gaylia continued. “The ship will remain there at anchor for up to three days to transport the party back to Port Abrago after the expedition.”

  “Assuming we survive,” I said.

  “Yes, assuming that,” Gaylia agreed.

  After working out a few minor logistical details, Gaylia concluded the meeting and dismissed us. Melriel, my mother, and I walked downstairs together. Once we had exited the building, my mother turned to Melriel, who seemed to be in a foul mood.

  “May I have words with my son in private before you depart?” my mother said.

  Melriel nodded. “I can spare you a short time, Laena,” she said. “But, please be brief. My slave has duties at home.”

  “Thank you,” my mother said, drawing me aside out of earshot of Melriel.

  “It pains me you have agreed to take on the mission,” my mother said. “And, it annoys me that the Chief Priestess has excluded me from the expedition.”

  “It’s for the best, mother,” I said. “If it turns out as dangerous as advertised, having to worry about your safety the entire time would only make things harder for me.”

  “Yet, it seems you have no problem with me remaining behind, anxiously awaiting your return while worrying about your safety the entire time,” my mother said.

  “At least I’ll know my mother is safe from harm,” I said. “Do you know how long it takes to travel from Port Abrago to Saba by ship?”

  “With fair weather and following seas, I understand it is a 12-day voyage.”

  I nodded. “What are Vulvarian ships like? We didn’t cover that in my studies.”

  “Sailing vessels,” my mother said. “Similar to the eighteenth-century technology of Earth.”

  “That’s better than I expected,” I said. Considering the rudimentary ground transportation technology on the planet, it wouldn’t have surprised me to learn we would go to sea on something on the order of an ancient Athenian penteconter with a row of oars.

  “Remember, Tobias,” my mother said. “Remain not more than three days whether or not you find and recover the artifact. You have a good reason for desiring success, but returning alive to Thiva even as a slave is preferable to becoming a permanent citizen of the City of the Dead.”

  “Yes, mother,” I said. “I want to find the artifact badly. I want more than anything to return to Earth. But, I suspect if I can’t locate it within three days, there won’t be much of a chance of anyone ever finding it.”

  “I will send my best warriors and best officer with you,” my mother said. “Of that, you may be certain.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “I will do my best not to dishonor you, mother.”

  “Do your best to return to me alive, my son. For that is all I desire.”

  My mother and I embraced and said our goodbyes. She then departed, and Melriel walked over.

  “Come, my slave,” she said. “I’m in great need of being pleasured. Perhaps it will improve my mood. We must return home promptly as you will pleasure me before you receive any food.”

  “Yes, Mistress,” I said.

  With a broad, mischievous smile, and an insistent tug on the chain attached to my collar, she turned toward the streetcar stop.

  Chapter 10

  The Journal

  As we entered the house, the timekeepers tolled four bells announcing the seventh hour. Melriel was as good as her word. She led me straight to the upper floor to her bedchamber.

  After removing the leash, she pulled my tunic off over my head. Then she pulled off her own tunic and pulled me onto her bed. Spreading her thighs, she insistently pressed down on my head until my face was between them. It seemed she must have been thinking about being pleasured all the way home from the city.

  Oddly, she didn’t bind my wrists as before, leaving my hands free to explore her body. In addition to my mouth, I also put my fingers to good use. Judging by her moans, the ecstatic utterances, and rearing hips, she didn’t seem to find it objectionable.

  It was long past five bells when Melriel pushed my head away. I flopped over onto my back beside her, and we lay side by side, both covered in perspiration and struggling to catch our breaths.

  “Your mistress is pleased, and her mood much improved, slave,” Melriel said with a grin. Your fingers were a welcome addition."

  I smiled. While she had left the tube locked in place as I’d expected, oddly, I found pleasure in pleasuring her even though denied any relief of the urges and desperate need she engendered in me. After a moment, Melriel leapt atop me, straddling my hips. She rubbed the apex of her open thighs suggestively against the tube.

  “I find myself curious,” she said.

  “Curious about what, mistress?”

  “Whether penetration by the tube would be considered copulation,” she said with a wistful smile. “After all, it would not be your flesh. Would it not be quite like the use of a jeikoill?”

  Jeikoill, I’d learned, was the term for the gadget on Earth known as the dildo.

  I laughed. “Mistress, I fear that even if it did not violate the letter of the law, certainly it would violate the spirit of the law prohibiting copulation.”

  Melriel looked down at me with an affected pout. “Slave, are you unwilling to suffer castration and impalement for my benefit, so I might be pleasured in whatever way I wish?”

  I laughed again, and Melriel joined in.

  “Certainly, mistress, I’m willing to make the sacrifice if that is your wish,” I teased. “I can’t imagine ever withholding anything from you.”

  Melriel smiled and rubbed her palms on my chest.

  “Perhaps you won’t have to risk making that sacrifice as long as you continue pleasuring me so effectively in the manner you have,” she said.

  I smiled up at her.

  Melriel toppled off me onto her back.

  “You have hard used your mistress, pretty slave,” she sighed. “Perhaps you intend to exhaust me so that you can make your escape.”

  “I don’t wish to escape, mistress,” I said.

  Melriel laughed heartily. “Ha. You enjoy your mistress’ treasures, pretty slave?”

  I grinned. “Yes, very much so, mistress.”

  “Go now, my slave and wash,” she said, smiling. “Then meet me in the kitchen, so I can feed you. Afterward, you may study your book until the evening meal. By the time we finish the last meal, I will have recovered my strength, and you may pleasure your mistress once more before we sleep.”

  “Yes, mistress,” I said, climbing off the bed.

  I bent over to pick up my tunic off the floor. Melriel gave me a hard smack on my backside with the palm of her hand.

  “Hurry, my slave,” she said. “Before I change my mind.”

  I looked back at her in mock horror, pretending to rush from the room.

  “Yes, mistress,” I said with a chuckle.

  �
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  After the midday meal, I spent the afternoon in my quarters reading the journal the Chief Priestess had given me. I was astounded and mesmerized by what I read. I couldn't imagine that Vulvar had once been home to such an advanced civilization. The more I read, the more questions I had.

  For example, I pondered whether the ancient people of the planet had colonized Egypt at some time in Earth’s distant past. From my studies, I knew there was a period in Egyptian history where the civilization underwent rapid advancement for which there was no known plausible explanation. That theory of how the Egyptian language came to be present on Vulvar seemed more likely than a theory that the Egyptians had somehow traveled to a distant planet from Earth. The civilization was advanced for its time, but interplanetary space travel certainly wasn’t a technology they possessed.

  I considered that Vulvarians, whatever they had been called back then, could have abducted Egyptians from Earth and brought them to the planet just as they had me. Yet the writer of the journal seemed to be an important scientist of his time, and no Egyptian living between 1300 BC and 700 BC would have had the technical knowledge of space travel possessed by the author of the journal.

  The first fifty pages of the journal made no mention of any artifact, much less any instructions for how to find it. It was mostly notes about the author’s work on various space travel projects. A dozen pages later, I found what I believed was the answer to one of my questions.

  The author wrote of a crewed expedition sent to a distant planet identified only as the third planet in a solar system that orbited a large life-giving star in a galaxy far away. The author wrote that a short time before the craft arrived at its destination, all contact with it was lost, and it was never known what had happened to the space travelers. Because of a war that had flared up on Vulvar, there had not been at the time resources to attempt any rescue or recovery mission. As I continued reading, it seemed that war was only the first in a series of conflicts that forced the ancient Vulvarians to abandon deep space exploration.