Lady Abbess Cara and Lord Knight Liam arrived in the middle of the night at shir-or 11.5. As Cara expected, the king wasted no time enforcing his will on her while Liam, standing guard just outside, heard first the scream of another woman, then Cara’s cries of passion and pain. The healer in Liam trembled at his abbess’ sacrifice while anger flared at the king’s disgraceful violence against her.
Suddenly the door between the king’s bed chamber and the antechamber where Liam watched flew open as Cara, naked, bruised, and bloody collapsed in front of him. Liam threw his cloak over her protectively, kneeling and brushing her hair away from her face, whispering, “What happened, Your Excellency?”
“Cara – I am no abbess now.”
Despite Liam’s desire as a knight to avert his eyes, the healer in Liam instinctively looked directly at her, scanning for wounds, “What happened, Cara?”
“Lady Healer Gwyneth is dead; he raped her in front of me, then cut her throat before – before – he took me then threw me away, calling me an ungrateful whore – and telling me to go to whoever’s bed I desire – he plans to continue tonight with me.”
Liam wept, putting his arms around his abbess, the cloak falling away from her, exposing her further, “What can I do for you?”
“Kill me! I am nothing now. I am not worthy of anything but the pyre.”
Liam kissed her lips tenderly, protectively, “Do not talk like that. By my life or death, Your Excellency, I am yours!”
“Be done with it then,” cried Cara, “I am naked; have your piece of me. You want to.”
“What I want is a laser regenerator so I can ease your pain. I am a knight of Ten-Ar, Your Excellency; it is against our code to treat anyone, most of all the abbess we’ve spent our lives worshipping as the beautiful embodiment of all that is good about our house, as anything less than a daughter of the goddess.”
Cara looked up into his eyes, “You really admire me?”
Liam grabbed his fallen cloak, wrapping it around her tightly before lifting the abbess into his arms and carrying her towards one of the beds usually reserved for royal guards. Turning down the covers, he lowered her down onto the matrass, and then covered her with the bed’s soft blankets, “Rest while you can, Your Excellency. I will sleep in the bed next to yours and watch over you.” Cara nodded as Liam laid down, barely out of arm’s reach, his sword against his body, ready to be drawn if need be while he slept.”
In the next room, King Gareth slept contently, the sheets still soaked with Gwyneth’s blood. At sunrise he found Cara in the small bed Liam placed her upon. Disrobing, he threw the blankets off Cara and seized her, this time less painfully. Pleased at the apparent audience of Liam in the next bed, King Gareth’s shrewd mind shifted tactics, his changed touch now drawing out an instinctive passionate response from his prey. Against her will, Cara responded to the difference, aware Liam could see and hear everything. Satisfied at last at his performance to both of them, Gareth kissed Cara as he let his body fully finish, “If this is what it takes to draw that out of you, then let your knight witness our matings, Abbess. Ten-Arian, I assume?” Cara nodded, afraid to speak. “Good!” King Gareth met Liam’s eyes, “One beinor I might give her to you, lord knight. Until then, you will just have to watch me dine on what I deny you.”
Nineteen beinors later, King Gareth kept his promise. In a small ceremony in the throne room, a priest of The Shemai called a sacerdos conducted the simple wedding of the king and Cara, the choice made specifically to irk Ten-Arian devotion to the Beinarian triple goddess. In a gown of Ten-Arian crimson and with crimson-clad Lord Knight Liam serving as her honor attendant, Cara felt relieved the king chose to sanctify their union with prayers to The Shemai, the Beinarian creator god, instead of her goddesses. Like most Beinarians, Cara believed the idea of a single, male creator god to be utterly illogical. With the rituals performed, she felt King Gareth drag her to his bed – with a command for Lord Knight Liam to stand guard just beyond the sheer curtains.
Stoically Liam watched Gareth seal his bride, not bothering to take off her wedding gown until he heard her respond to him passionately. With his audience obviously unable to ignore him, the king unlaced her gown and pulled it over her head, exposing her nakedness to Liam as he continued his lovemaking upon her. Finally, after more than a shir-or of continuous sex with Cara, the king raised his voice “You may go, lord knight. Tell the court I did not force her and declare her ‘Princess-Consort Cara’ with all the privileges of the royal consort.” Withdrawing himself, King Gareth looked into Cara’s eyes, “You only respond with pleasure when he is in the room and can watch me have you, you know. Do you love him?”
“I barely know him. He is a noble knight of Ten-Ar and an honor to our house.”
“He wants you; I can see that in his eyes, way his gaze relishes certain parts of your body, especially the perfection of your breasts. I am tempted sometime to give you to him for a night like the whore I know you to be – but then, that might provoke a different response out of both of you.”
“I am not your property – nor your whore.”
“But you are. Oh, you may raise a vote in the Great Council, Cara, but it will not pass. The men of other houses simply cannot respect you given your sexual history.”
“You are the only man to have me, Your Majesty.”
“So far; that will change I think if ever you grow bold enough. On that beinor, I will show you a darkness that you have not tasted, even in my revenge for your disobedience into heading to Nan-li when you obeyed my summons. How can I sire children upon you if you keep putting yourself in a war zone?”
“You enjoy forcing yourself upon me; nothing gives you more pleasure. So why the lovemaking when you clearly prefer rape?”
“The sounds of your pleasure as I have you, the way your body involuntarily writhes with ecstasy as I force you into craving me makes him jealous! That, Cara, is more satisfying to me than killing your friend. Watching you lust for him and he for you, then conquering you in front of him, making your body lust for me as your pleasure cries fill his ears, the sweat pouring down your breasts as I satisfy you … I am willing to suffer seducing you if that means your every cry of joy and pleasure of the flesh torments you both to the very soul!” Cara met his eyes with hers, rage seething inside her. Gareth smiled, opening Cara’s legs and positioning himself to strike, “Well, with that achieved, time for me to have some fun!” Like an arrow, King Gareth fired his body upon her so painfully her eyes welled with tears. King Gareth laughed as he toyed, each sensation of her physical pain encouraging him across the next full shir-or. By the time he let her rest from his game six new bruises covered Cara’s arms and legs.