AllFreeNovel
Share Us
All along the route, crowds had gathered. Chanting, singing, swaying rhythmically. A procession had formed in the road below the palace grounds, waiting to begin the trek. Drummers had lined up first, followed by rows of soldiers Bree guessed were the royal guards Shiraza had spoken of.
After the soldiers, a double line of young girls dressed in flowing white robes carried flutes and lyres. Next were the camels, each tended by a young man. There must have been a hundred of the creatures, all bearing saddlebags bulging with cargo.
“That is part of your dowry, to be given as tribute to your future mate,” Shiraza whispered. “It is but a fraction of the riches your kingdom possesses.” She gestured to a phalanx of solemn-faced men in bright robes who waited behind the rows of camels. They carried bells and gongs and were preceded by yet another band of drummers. “Those are the temple priests, who will preside over tonight’s ceremony.”
But it was the sight at the doors of the palace that took Bree’s breath away. A dozen elephants, each adorned with a jeweled headdress, stood patiently in line, single file. Every elephant had an enormous wooden platform strapped to its back. Some were piled with silver and gold ingots; some held mounds of frankincense and jars overflowing with rare spices.
Two carved wooden columns topped the last elephant’s platform. An attendant holding a rope attached to the animal’s headdress called out a command. The beast fell to its knees. A bevy of young men appeared out of nowhere and arranged themselves into a human stairway in front of it.
Two priests came forward and held Bree’s hands as they guided her up, all three of them balancing on the backs of the young men. They led her to the center of the platform and slipped her wrists into loops of silken rope attached to the top of each column, spreading her arms up and out as they had been when she sang the sacred chant.
The priests climbed down, and the elephant majestically rose to its full height. Bree found herself grateful for the taut restraints when the beast took its first steps. She was rocked to and fro as the elephant plodded along. She spread her arms further apart and wrapped her hands around the ropes to help maintain her balance.
Far ahead, the procession started to move. The sound of the drums echoed off the distant cliffs, filling the valley with their insistent beat. The flutes and lyres played a haunting refrain while the people lining the route swayed and chanted along with the music.
Behind her, another phalanx of royal guards shielded her mount from the mass of humanity that fell in step behind her. It seemed everyone in the kingdom was in attendance. Bree saw tiny babies, even elderly men and women unable to walk so far, carried in loving arms.
The scholar in Bree was transfixed. Before her lay the wonders of one of the wealthiest civilizations ever known. The sophistication of the city amazed her with the incredible diversity of goods available in the shops and market stalls. Beautiful stone houses that would be considered mansions by any current standard lined the route.
But what lay beyond the city gates surprised her the most. Far from being an arid desert, the land was lush and green as far as the eye could see. Crops laid out in large rectangles flourished along both sides of the river flowing through the center of the valley. It emptied into a huge lake. At the far edge of the lake stood a massive dam, taller and wider than any known to exist in ancient times.
She was so captivated by the scene spread out before her she forgot about her appearance. But when men in the crowd began pulling aside their robes to display their erect penises, shy Sabrina took the place of Bree the scholar.
It was one thing to study drawings on papyrus, to decipher ancient scrolls, uncover dusty impressions carved on rock. Seeing live men – some of them extremely well-endowed – engaging in a socially acceptable rite of an ancient fertility cult shocked her to the core. As men were wont to do throughout the ages, they shouted and boasted about their performance, openly stroking and fondling their erections as she passed by.
To her surprise, rather than scolding them the women joined in, touching the stiff cocks, stroking their breasts and hips while making their own brazen comments. Looking closer, Bree realized most of the women were naked from the waist up. What she had thought brightly colored clothes were actually elaborate designs painted on the women’s breasts, like the hibiscus flowers adorning hers.
Bree began to fall under the spell of the event – half-naked bodies dancing in the flickering light of the torches, hypnotic chanting and drumming that penetrated her very soul. She was acutely aware of the cool breeze on her hard nipples, the stares of the men as her long skirt fell open with each swaying step of the elephant. A part of her mind wondered if the paints and oils covering her body had been infused with a mind-altering herb.
As the procession drew near the temple, reason gave way. She lost herself in the moment, swaying to the music with every stride of the huge beast, letting her imagination run free as she stared at handsome men devouring her with their eyes and saluting her with their stiff cocks.
The massive columns of the temple rose ahead. Elaborate carvings decorated the top of each one – men and women engaging in every kind of sexual act, sometimes in pairs, sometimes with multiple partners. A set of bronze doors as tall as three men atop each other stood open, giving her a tantalizing glimpse of the temple’s inner sanctum.
The camels had been herded to an open area beyond the temple, and the elephants were heading there as well. But the priests led her mount to the steps of the building, where the gentle giant fell to its knees.
A dozen young men wearing sarong-type garments slung around their hips waited at the doors of the temple. She caught a familiar scent. Their bodies had been anointed with the same oil Bree’s attendants had massaged into her. Each was a perfect specimen of manhood, with well-defined muscles gleaming in the firelight.
To Bree’s surprise, they unhooked the platform from the beast and carried the whole thing, with her still tied to the columns, up the stairs and through the enormous doors.
Inside, throngs of people had assembled. In the center, just as she had proposed in her doctoral thesis, a massive bronze bull sculpted with a gigantic erect penis stood on a raised dais. But there was no altar under the bull. Instead, the men carried her platform there, placing it under the bull’s enormous member.
Shivering with a mixture of embarrassment and arousal, Bree suddenly realized she herself would be the centerpiece of the fertility rite.
The young men took up positions around her, facing the room. The priests followed them into the temple, walking solemnly in two lines, chanting and waving incense burners. The cloying odor of frankincense was so thick Bree could almost taste it. She watched the smoke take shape, transforming itself into writhing bodies. One part of her mind realized she was hallucinating, no doubt due to whatever substance had been in the paint and oils. Her body had absorbed it through every pore.
Though the shapes were a trick of her mind, the growing arousal she felt was real.I’d be rich if I brought some of this back to modern times. It’s the ultimate aphrodisiac, working on men and women alike.
Judging from their behavior, many in the crowd had ingested some kind of intoxicating substance as well. She saw dozens of women fall to their knees and begin pleasuring the lucky men near them. Occasionally two or three males clustered around a single female instead, kissing, fondling, holding her captive while they drew moans and muffled screams from her.
The drumbeats grew louder and more frantic, building to a crescendo. Suddenly, the music stopped. The crowd hushed; the temple was silent as a tomb.
In the stillness, the first notes of the haunting melody Shiraza had taught her rang out, played by a single flute somewhere in the vast chamber. Others joined in, at first only a few, then more and more. The music swelled. The drummers began again, pounding out the primitive beat. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but it was time to play her part in the ritual.
Bree started singing.
Her voice rang out, full and strong. She sang an ancient homage to pagan gods and the great bull over her head. She sang of fertile fields bursting with crops and the wide river flowing with life. She sang of virile men and alluring women, of sensuous earthly pleasures, of passion and lust. The melody rose and fell. Bree lost herself in it, letting the chant carry her beyond rational thought.
The inner chamber of the temple had been designed by one of the greatest architects of ancient times. With the bronze body of the bull above her magnifying the sound and deflecting it outward, her voice echoed off the far walls of the enormous structure.
