16. Sirex

16

SIREX

T he palace was a grand affair—a monument to greed and power, Sirex thought as they passed through the gates and beheld the enormous structure. It was a vast, sprawling structure, several stories high made of green and purple glass bricks.

Normally these were sacred colors to the Kindred—they were the colors of the trees in the Sacred Grove where the Goddess was worshiped. But the palace of the Emperor of Salacious Prime was cold and gleaming in the pinkish light of the red giant sun. There was nothing of the Goddess here, Sirex thought—it was an edifice that spoke of male power and wealth and dominance.

Speaking of male dominance, what in the Seven Hells do you think you're doing with Phoebe? whispered a judgmental little voice in his head. You're treating her like you actually own her—like she's nothing but a piece of property and you can do anything you want with her. Are you sure you're not letting your Scourge half get the better of you?

The thought brought a mingled flash of lust and guilt and Sirex tried his best to push both emotions away.

This is just an act—it has nothing to do with my Scourge half, he told himself firmly. As soon as we complete the mission and get back to the Mother Ship, our relationship will go back to normal.

They approached the broad, gleaming doors which were made of thick green glass and looked to be at least three stories high. As they mounted the steps to get to them, Sirex was just wondering if he and Phoebe would have to undergo another "inspection", when the doors swung open by themselves and a male in green, gold, and purple livery stepped out to meet them.

"Greetings—I had a message from the gate guards saying that they had let a merchant through. I am Y'sfer, Undersecretary to the Royal Advisor, Lord Thruck. And you are…?" He raised his eyebrows politely, waiting for Sirex to answer.

"I am Sirex, a merchant from the K'lix system," Sirex said. "I have very valuable wormhole technology which can be weaponized to bring victory to any army that utilizes it. I believe the Shining One would be interested in meeting with me to discuss it."

"Hmm, yes that does sound intriguing." Undersecretary Y'sfer nodded thoughtfully. "Very well, you may enter the palace. However, it is Lord Thruck who makes the final decisions about who may gain a Royal Audience with the Shining One."

"So I understand." Sirex nodded.

"Good. Then do come in."

The Undersecretary stepped aside, allowing them to pass. Sirex gave a little tug on Phoebe's harness, which made her gasp under her breath. His shafts hardened when he heard that helpless little sound. He liked knowing that he could give her instant pleasure, even if it made her uncomfortable to have such sensations in public. She had asked him to dominate her, and that was exactly what he intended to do—though only for as long as this mission lasted, of course, he reminded himself.

Inside, the palace was even grander. It was also cold, with a chilly air current rushing through the vast, gold and glass hall they found themselves in. Beside him, Phoebe was shivering. Sirex put an arm around her and drew her close to his side. She nestled against him at once, making his heart feel tight in his chest.

"Do you smell something funny in here?" she murmured, her nose wrinkling as she sniffed the air.

Sirex frowned and sniffed himself. There was a sweet kind of odor permeating the palace air but it was hard to place where it was coming from.

"Probably some kind of air freshener," he murmured back. "They must be fond of scenting the air here, like you humans do on Earth."

"Maybe…It just smells weird. " She pressed closer to him and Sirex tightened his grip on her, giving her a reassuring squeeze. Gods, he couldn't forget how she'd come for him when he was mapping her pussy for the harness—come so hard as he stroked her little Goddess pearl…

"If you'd like to follow me, I'll take you to the Grand Salon where Lord Thruck spends much of his time when he's not advising the Shining One," Undersecretary Y'sfer said, breaking into Sirex's illicit thoughts.

"Yes, of course." He nodded and he and Phoebe followed the other male as he led them through the large, high-ceilinged entryway.

They walked down a broad corridor and came at last to another set of double doors. Y'sfer opened them with a flourish and motioned Sirex inside.

"Please enter. I will introduce you to Lord Thruck."

The Grand Salon of the palace was a vast room where everything—including the ceiling, the walls, and the floors—seemed to be made of gold. The ceiling was two stories high and the second story was all windows. Red sunlight flooded through them, making the burnished golden floor look like a pool of blood.

Scattered around the area were various richly upholstered couches and chairs. Males from many different planets were seated on these and all of them had females kneeling at their feet. The women were wearing the same kind of clothing and harness that Phoebe had on, though Sirex couldn't help noticing that many had dispensed with the clothing and were just wearing their harnesses.

It was quite a display of mostly naked female flesh, but Sirex wasn't tempted to ogle any of them. His attention was immediately fixed on the enormous Trollox at the far end of the room.

Lord Thruck was just as Lady Scornfoot had described him. He was also ten feet tall and grotesquely muscular. Two heads sat on his shoulders—but only one looked normal. Well, normal for a Trollox anyway, Sirex amended to himself. It had two small, piggy eyes, a snout-like nose, and a wide lipped mouth from which two curving tusks protruded.

The other head clearly had something wrong with it. Its hair was long and snarled and it had three eyes—two in the normal areas and one in the center of its broad forehead. This third eye was sunken and surrounded by wrinkles—it was closed at the moment, as though it was taking a nap. The rubbery lips sagged and a silver line of drool was coming from between the twisted tusks of the second head's mouth. It looked deranged to Sirex but he remembered that Lady Scornfoot said it could be discounted since it only spoke nonsense.

The Trollox's enormous body was clothed in a golden brocade coat with a ruff of fluffy white lace at the thick throat and tight velvet breeches which ended at the knees and looked ridiculous—at least to Sirex. His hairy, muscular calves were visible and the shoes he was wearing on his giant feet looked like they were meant to be dainty pink slippers—though either one would have been big enough to make shoes for three regular sized males.

The Trollox's normal head—the one with only two eyes—looked up and saw Sirex studying it. He gestured with one huge paw-like hand, and said,

"New guests! Come forward," in a surprisingly high voice for such an enormous male.

"Ah, Lord Thruck is beckoning to you. Come, I'll introduce you to him," Undersecretary Y'sfer said eagerly.

Sirex took his arm from around Phoebe and led her with the leash, since that was what he saw a few of the other males doing. They walked the length of the Grand Salon and Sirex was aware that all eyes were on them. Well, except for the eyes in the Trollox's deranged head—the middle eye was still "asleep" and the two on either side of it rolled wildly, not appearing to see anything at all.

"Come, come—don't be shy," the Trollox said when they got near. "Y'sfer, do introduce us to this new friend."

"My Lord Thruck, this is Sirex," the Undersecretary said, bowing. "He comes from the K'lix system and claims to have valuable wormhole technology to sell."

"Is that right? How very interesting!" The sane head looked at Sirex eagerly. "We are certain the Shining One would be interested in such technology. Can you give us a demonstration?"

"I'm afraid that I can only give a demonstration for the Emperor," Sirex said firmly. "I'm told that you are the person to ask for a Royal Audience with him?"

"Yes, that's correct." Lord Thruck frowned. "However, many males wish for an audience—in fact, almost everyone here is hoping to meet with the Shining One." He nodded at the males—many of them from alien species—sitting around on the couches. "In order to see the Emperor, you must formally request a Royal Audience."

"I see." Sirex nodded. "In that case, I am formally requesting a Royal Audience right now."

The Trollox's normal head nodded.

"Very well—then we will formally appraise you. Let us see your female—bring her forward," it ordered.

"Phoebe, come!" Sirex gave the metal leash attached to the three-point harness a little tug, which caused Phoebe to utter a little gasp as she came quickly forward.

"Clothing off," Thruck said, sounding impatient. "We can't evaluate her properly with anything in the way."

"I don't see what my female has to do with my offer to sell your Emperor valuable, one of a kind wormhole tech," Sirex growled. He didn't like the idea of the big Trollox looking at Phoebe's lush curves. It wasn't that he feared Thruck would want her for himself—for some reason, he didn't strike Sirex as that kind of threat. But there was something in those yellow, beady eyes he didn't like.

"As Guardian of the Shining One, it is our job to be certain everything that meets the Emperor's gaze is appealing and pleasing," Thruck said, frowning. "His Majesty must not be made to look upon ugliness of any kind—it would disrupt his composure and make it difficult for him to rule effectively. Therefore, let us see your female…or else leave the palace at once."

Though he still didn't like it, Sirex saw that he didn't have a choice.

"Phoebe, remove your clothing," he said to her.

She started to do so but Thruck exclaimed,

"Stop!"

"What is it? What's wrong?" Sirex took a step closer to her and put an arm around her protectively.

"She has no non-con bracelets on!" Thruck sounded horrified and affronted, as though Phoebe had done something to personally offend him.

"I don't know what those are," Sirex said, frowning.

"Non-cons—non-contact bracelets," Undersecretary Y'sfer explained quickly. "They keep your female from touching certain sensitive parts of her own anatomy. They are extremely important when it comes to keeping a female in line," he added.

"Y'sfer, bring a pair of non-cons for this female at once!" Thruck demanded. "We will not tolerate a free female in our presence!"

"Yes, my Lord Thruck!" Y'sfer hurried off and returned shortly with a small wooden box. He opened the lid to reveal two thick golden manacles. "Here you are…" He offered the open box to Sirex. "Simply put these on your woman and she won't be able to achieve sexual pleasure without your touch."

"What? Why is that important?" Sirex demanded. He was extremely reluctant to put any kind of strange tech he didn't know about on Phoebe.

"Why, because if women aren't controlled they'll always be touching themselves!" Thruck exclaimed. "Such nasty little bitches—they can't keep their fingers out of their honeypots for a minute unless they're restrained!"

"That's ridiculous!" Phoebe suddenly burst out. She stepped out from behind Sirex and glared up at the huge Trollox. "You've seriously invented a device to keep women from touching their own bodies? What kind of Handmaid's Tale mess are you running around here?"

"Phoebe!" Sirex barked, glaring at her. He knew she was what the humans called a "feminist" meaning that she believed men and women were equal and women shouldn't be treated as lesser beings. For that matter, he was a feminist himself. But now was not the time or place to display her irritation at the wrong-headed and misogynistic ways of the planet they were visiting. What could she be thinking?

"Well!" Lord Thruck put a hand to the lace ruff cascading down his chest and the eyes of his normal head opened wide in shock. "How dare you allow your woman to speak that way to us? We are male and therefore vastly superior! You ought to have her tongue cut out!"

"That's an excellent idea, Lord Thruck!" Y'sfer nodded eagerly. "I can go get the Royal Tongue splitter at once if you wish."

"No!" Sirex pushed Phoebe back behind him. "Phoebe is my woman—no one lays a hand on her but me."

"Then you must punish her at once! Or you can leave the palace immediately," Lord Thruck snapped. "We will not be spoken to so disrespectfully—especially by a mere female!"

"Fine," Sirex growled. He wondered again what Phoebe could have been thinking, staging an outburst like that? She had endangered the mission and really put him on the spot! Now he had to find a way to punish her in a way that would mollify Thruck and convince him to let them stay.

Looking around, he saw a large golden footstool that no one was using. Taking Phoebe by the arm, he dragged her over and sat on the stool. Then he pulled her face down over his lap and released the magno-tabs that held her skirt in place. This put her bare bottom on display, the full globes of her ass jiggling enticingly.

"Hey, what are you doing? Stop!" Phoebe tried to struggle off his lap, but Sirex was having none of it.

"You've been a bad girl , Phoebe," he growled, wrapping his right leg around her legs and gripping both her wrists in his left hand to hold her still. "Now you've got to take your punishment!"

"No! No, please!" she moaned, wriggling in his lap. Her wild motions and her moans were causing his shafts to react. Or maybe it was the fact that he was holding her down—restraining her as she struggled to get away. Sirex didn't know the exact reason he was harder than he ever had been before, but he didn't have time to analyze it right now.

"I'm going to give you ten blows," he told her, his voice going low and menacing. "And after every one, you're going to say ‘I'm sorry.' If you don't say it, that adds another blow to the spanking. Do you understand?"

"But Sir—" she began.

Sirex brought his right hand down hard on her luscious ass.

"One!" he growled. "What do you say, Phoebe?"

"Ow! Sir, I shouldn't have to?—"

"Two!" He spanked her again. "What do you say, Phoebe?" he repeated.

She twisted her head to glare up at him defiantly.

"Look, you can't just expect me to?—"

"Three!" Sirex spanked her again. He was using his open hand and he wasn't hitting her to do damage—just to teach her a lesson. But he made sure that the spanking stung enough to get his point across.

"Sir, please!" she moaned.

"That's three that don't even count because you haven't said you're sorry yet," Sirex reminded her. "We can keep this up for as long as it's necessary, Phoebe. Are you going to behave or not?"

She must have seen the implacable look on his face because her defiant expression melted into a pleading one.

"Sir, please—I'll be good. I'm sorry—you don't have to spank me anymore," she begged softly. There were tears in her big, silver-green eyes which probably ought to have melted his heart. But Sirex couldn't allow them to.

"I'll start the count again," he growled. "And this time you're going to say you're sorry after every blow. Understand?"

"Y-yes…" Her breath hitched in her throat and a tear ran down her cheek.

Sirex was torn—part of him wanted to cuddle her in his arms and kiss those tears away. But another part—a part he'd been resisting all his life—surged forward. He felt a rush of lust—she was helpless and in his control and he would punish her if it pleased him. Later he would comfort her, but for now she was in for a spanking.

He brought his hand down on her lush bottom again—by now it was warm and rosy with heat—at least to his infrared vision.

"One!" he said again.

"Ow!" Phoebe cried. "I…I'm sorry, Sir!"

"Good. I know you are," Sirex told her. "Now again… two…"

The spanking went on and on and it seemed like his shafts got harder with every blow. Every time she struggled and wiggled against him…every moan and cry drawn from her lush lips made him want her even more.

It was wrong—Sirex knew he shouldn't be feeling this way—shouldn't be getting so much pleasure from punishing her.

And yet he couldn't seem to help it. What did that say about him? He didn't know and at the moment, he didn't have time to even consider it.