The Sorcerer_s Skull

" This is truly a sumptuous palace, friend Lan Martak," came the spider' s familiar voice. " Have you seen my quarters? Marvelous! I' ve already begun spinning a sleeping web between the ivory posts. Most comfortable."

" Too comfortable," mused Lan, as he glanced around him. The place was more like a museum than a dwelling, yet Nashira had said it was a guest house. It hardly seemed plausible that an itinerate like himself merited such quarters, yet here he was. And there had been the flash of magic.

He shook his head. Perhaps the beauty of the room had been enhanced by simple magical spells. It wasn' t unheard of. Perhaps no gold gleamed so brightly nor artist painted so brilliantly, unless aided by small magics.

It didn' t matter. He' d enjoy himself. For the night.

" You' re not drinking. Is anything wrong? Are you ill?" came the anxious words of the serving girl.

Lan looked at Ria and said, " How can I drink in the wine and your beauty at the same time?" She blushed nicely and turned to show him her profile. He' d tried to determine her age and had failed. Young, definitely, but a woman now. The ripeness of her breasts, the inviting width of her hips, the slim tapering of her graceful legs, all that indicated woman.

" Do you require anything further?" she asked. A strand of her red hair fell forward across her forehead. Quick, nimble fingers replaced the vagrant mane until her coiffure was again perfect. Dancing emerald eyes teased and hinted at pleasures no mere girl could know. It was Lan' s turn to be confused.

" I' m stuffed. The food was excellent. I can barely finish this wine the Suzerain so kindly sent me."

" What a shame she is not here to share it with you." The way Ria said the words hinted at erotic worlds Lan only guessed existed. In a way it surprised him that the woman suggested that Nashira had any but passing interest in him.

" I' d rather: " Lan began, then stopped. His train of thought derailed as he " felt" powerful magical spells whirling around him. Then the sensation vanished.

" You' d rather be with me?" Ria asked innocently. But there was nothing innocent in the way she lithely rose to pirouette. As she turned, her garments began falling off in a teasingly erotic fashion. Lan got glimpses of snowy skin as her blouse sank down her back. When she turned, she held the blouse chastely over her breasts while her skirt seemed to have a mind of its own and creep up over the flare of her hips. A tiny puff of fiery red hair appeared before Ria spun around again, dropping the blouse to stand naked to the waist.

" I am not Nashira," she said slowly, " but I hope I can please you, nonetheless."

She turned and squarely faced Lan. He felt urges within his loins that hadn' t stirred for some time. Fighting Waldron and Claybore had taken too much of his time and strength for the more pleasant activities life offered.

Ria offered the most pleasurable of all.

She came to him, her skirt slipping to the floor as she moved. By the time he took her in his arms, she was gloriously naked.

" Love me," she whispered hotly in his ear.

He rolled over to rise above her. Together their fingers removed his unwanted clothing. Then he made love to her, gently at first, then building needs until neither could stand another second. In a burst of fiery passion, they consummated their wanton desires.

Lan soon found himself responding to Ria' s knowing ministrations anew.

" Look, my friends, behold how a barbarian makes love to a woman!" Nashira pointed to the wall of her immense audience chamber. The characters etched into the pounded gold mural began to writhe and move. The gold quality faded to be replaced by flesh tones. Soon, Lan and Ria moaned and strove ten times bigger than life in front of the crowd gathered before Nashira' s throne.

" Lusty, isn' t he?" came an effete voice from the Suzerain' s right. " Hmm, interesting movement, that. Do you see how he turned her over so that she came up on hands and knees? Interesting technique, very interesting."

" Is that all it is to you, Clete? ' Interesting'?" taunted Nashira. " You make love like a mechanical. Why don' t you show us what you' ve learned from Lan and demonstrate? On Aludra."

A honey blonde smiled and began stripping off already scanty clothes. The woman beckoned to Clete, who stood stock- still.

" Why don' t you join me instead, Nashira?" the man asked. " All would enjoy that."

" Come, Clete, come and show me. Oh, look at what they do now. That is much more than interesting," said Aludra, her hands working down the front of the man' s tunic, around his waist to cup firm buttocks. Then she slipped her fingers lightly around to his codpiece. " Not all of this is cotton padding," she said, her voice now husky.

All the while, Nashira watched Clete and Aludra- and the othersslowly working themselves up into erotic frenzy. A full five hundred of her nobles had turned out for sport this evening. The attraction was obvious. Few visitors to Melitarsus showed the energy that Lan did. Nashira smiled and leaned back in her throne, her long, slim legs unconsciously spreading as she watched the pair magically shown on the wall. She reached out and silently took a cup of aphrodisiac- laced wine from an expressionless mechanical waiter.

" Ah, yes, Lan Martak and my little Ria, you are quite an attraction," sighed the Suzerain of Melitarsus, sipping at the cinnamon wine. She felt a stirring of her long skirts and glanced down. A small lump worked its way upward. She felt hot breath along her naked legs, and shivered in anticipation. Her eyes returned to the screen as her own passions rose, were fed, were tended. She shrieked out her joys, then relaxed.

She blinked rapidly to clear her vision. Aludra and Clete had long since split up. Aludra and two other women were intimately engaged, while Clete and another woman were slowly warming to one another. All had their eyes fixed on the wall, however. Orgies became so dull after a while. It required a special attraction to add zest to them. The magical eye spying on Lan certainly gave her nobles new life this night, thought Nashira.

The roar of passion rose from the five hundred- or more- gathered in the audience chamber. She barely heard the child' s voice over the groans and gasps.

" Can I go now, Mama? Will there by anything else?"

" No, Kyle, run along."

The child licked his lips, smiled, and vanished like a ghost. Nashira smoothed her skirts, closed her eyes, let her hand roam her lush body, and lost herself once again to her own sexual needs.

" You look disconsolate this fine morning, Krek. Is there anything I can do?" asked Nashira. She turned to face the giant spider, her skirts floating out from around her slender legs like a pale green nimbus. Sparks darted throughout the fabric, giving the dress the look of a sea caught on fire.

" Nothing," said Krek, munching on an especially large grasshopper he' d caught invading the premises.

" Surely, you cannot be wanting for food?"

" No."

" Come, now," said Nashira, her hands stroking over the coppery bristle of the spider' s nearest leg. " Tell me. I want only to help."

" Very well." The spider twitched his body around and started off. Nashira kept her hand on the spider' s leg as they went into the lavish quarters the Suzerain had given Lan. " Listen" was all Krek said.

Nashira' s lips turned upward in a wicked smile. The unmistakable sounds of Ria and Lan together echoed throughout the building. She felt herself becoming excited as she eavesdropped. While not so potent a stimulus for her as using the magic eye, this nevertheless provided her imagination with vistas hitherto untapped. Her hand tightened on Krek' s furry leg, and she began stroking up and down more vigorously.