Zuleika and the Barbarian

Chapter Six

For centuries Kansbar, the genie who protected Dariyabar, had considered who his enemy might be. An enemy who worked subtly and skillfully to destroy all that his first master, Prince Sinbad, had built. Now he knew. Keket, his own niece. She had been but an infant when his brother had entrapped Kansbar in his bottle and thrown it into the sea. Unfortunately, like her father, Keket believed what she chose to believe, neglecting the truth that stared her directly in the face. And Golnar was her daughter. Keket would not take lightly that chosen child's betrayal.

Poor Golnar. Her heritage was as much magic as it was human, but other than love potions, elixirs, and creams to preserve her great beauty, she knew nothing, nor did she understand. Her human heritage would eventually take over entirely. Golnar wanted power. Knowing she could gain it by using her body, she was fully prepared to do so. Not to destroy Dariyabar, but to have it for herself. She was quite a simple creature. He had long ago sworn to protect this kingdom. They were bound together as one entity. He would not fail in his duty even if it meant using this foolish child of his vengeful niece to gain the victory. But, he would protect Golnar from her mother's wrath. The girl was more to be pitied than scorned.

Kansbar had the ability to appear outside of his bowl, and now he did so, almost filling the bedchamber where the princess and her husband lay sleeping, their arms about each other. For a brief moment he allowed himself to be touched by the sight of them, but then his voice boomed out, "Awake, Zuleika and Amir! Awake!"

His voice fiercely penetrated their dreams. The couple awoke, sitting up against the pillows and staring surprised at him.

"Kansbar, I do not believe I have never seen you outside of your bowl," Zuleika remarked. "You are a most impressive genie."

"You have grown too used to thinking of me as small, my princess. The time has come for you to see that my power, as well as my great size, are related. What you see is but half the size I can attain, for your chamber constricts me. My lord Amir, are you quite awake now?"

"Will you always disturb us at our slumbers, Kansbar?" the khan asked, half-amused.

"Only in moments of danger, my lord khan," the genie replied respectfully, "and danger is near, in the presence of Golnar."

"Do you see?" Zuleika demanded of her husband. "Did I not warn you that the bitch would be a thorn in our heel?"

Kansbar actually laughed, and the sound shook the very rafters of the chamber. "You are jealous, my princess. You should be. The wicked wench means to seduce the khan, and bear his heir, thus supplanting you and any child you would have. I have discovered this night that Golnar has a magical heritage which might help her in her nefarious plot, had I not learned of it."

"I will kill her myself!" Zuleika declared. "I will slit her throat from ear to ear! Then I will drink her blood!"

Again, Kansbar laughed. "Which is stronger, my princess? Your desire to protect Dariyabar, or your jealous love for the khan?"

"Both!" Zuleika cried, but she blushed at her bold admission.

The genie chuckled knowingly. "For now, you love him more," he told her, "but that will pass. You will never, I know, betray Dariyabar. It is your son who will inherit one day. Your blood, the blood of Sinbad that will flow in the veins of future sultans of Dariyabar."

"And my blood," the khan interjected.

"Oh, yes, mighty khan, your blood as well, but not the blood of Golnar, daughter of my niece who is half-genie, and half-fairy. Hear now my story, for it has been many centuries since I have told it, or anyone has known of it, or remembered it. Long ago my brother fell in love with a mortal princess, but she was afraid of him. She did not love him in return. This princess begged my help and I gave it to her, keeping her safe from my brother. He, however, mistakenly believed that I too was in love with this fair mortal. He thought that if I was no longer in his way, the princess would love him. So he entrapped me in a bottle, threw it into the sea, and imprisoned the princess in his palace. The gods, however, were with me. I floated within a relatively short time up onto this shore where I was found and released by Prince Sinbad. I offered him three wishes in exchange for my freedom."

"I have always wondered what he wished for," Zuleika interrupted.

Kansbar actually smiled with the memory. "He was a most unusual mortal. For his first wish, he asked me to build him a city right there upon the seashore. I did. His second wish was for a fleet of merchant ships, for he knew that wealth and prosperity were the key to his city's success. I granted him his desire, and waited anxiously for his third wish. I expected him to ask for gold, or other riches in abundance, but instead he requested that I remain always as the guardian of Dariyabar, keeping it safe from its enemies and remaining a friend to his descendants. I could not refuse him. I am bound by my sacred oath, an oath all genies take when their powers are granted to them."

"I realized, however, that my prince must take a wife, and sire an heir. In his dreams I brought him the princess that my brother coveted. They fell in love. So I transported her on a magic flying carpet from my brother's palace to Dariyabar, where they were married, and lived happily ever after. But my brother, still believing that I had stolen the princess for myself, complained to the Great Genie, who is lord over us all. The Great Genie listened to his tale, and then asked for mine. When he learned that my brother had imprisoned me in a bottle and thrown it into the sea, the Great Genie became enraged. It is against our own laws to act against a fellow genie in so cruel a manner. To punish my brother, the Great Genie took back his powers. My brother, embittered, told our family that I had stolen his powers after escaping from the bottle in which he had imprisoned me. My niece, Keket, who is half-fairy, grew up believing this. It is her daughter, Golnar, raised in her mortal father's household, who is to be the instrument for my brother's family's revenge in the manner in which I have told you."

"Then Golnar must die," Zuleika said.

"No," Kansbar replied. "She is my own blood. I cannot allow it, but instead, listen to my plan. The khan will appear to fall into her trap. He will go to her bed, and when he has had his pleasure of her, Sabola will follow him, and then one hundred hand-picked men from the khan's troops will enjoy Golnar's favors. Neither the khan nor his general will conceive a child with her. That, I promise you both. But Golnar will indeed bear a child from that night of lustful delights and diversions. Whose child it is she will never know, but it will not be either the khan's, or his general's.

"And after that night she will be sent from Dariyabar as wife to a merchant of Samarkhan. She will seduce him. He will believe the child is his. He is childless, and will welcome a son or a daughter to bear his name. Golnar wants but riches and power, unlike her mother, who seeks revenge. I shall give this daughter of my niece what she so desperately desires, and protect her from Keket."

"But will your niece be satisfied that you have thwarted her, Kansbar? Will she be content to leave Dariyabar in peace at last?" the khan asked the genie.

"In the matter of my niece," the genie answered, "I must go to the Great Genie, and seek his advice. Keket and her daughter are the last of my brother's descendants."

"I don't know why my husband must allow himself to be seduced by that wretched girl," Zuleika grumbled, glaring at the protector of Dariyabar. "Why not just send her off with this merchant?"

"Golnar must be disabused of any notion that her child can rule Dariyabar," the genie said. "She is a sensual female. Once she has attained her goal, or believes she has, it will not be difficult to introduce her to a night of a hundred lovers," the genie said.

"Nonsense! You seek to break her spirit, Kansbar! You seek to convince her that she has entertained so many randy cocks that she cannot be certain who her child's sire is! You want her grateful to have a rich merchant as a husband. You will, I have not a doubt, point out to her the advantages of giving this man a son, and ruling his household. You will appeal to her vanity, her greed, and her lust for power. But why do you need my husband and Sabola for your plan?" Zuleika demanded.

"She must be lulled into complacency, my princess, and only the khan can do that. I am sorry, but it must be as I have told you if we are to succeed."

"We might watch together from a balcony while my soldiers use her," the khan suggested softly, licking the delicate curve of his wife's dainty ear. "You would like that, Zuleika, wouldn't you? You will see your revenge against this bold creature, and enjoy it." He kissed the ear.

"Yes," Zuleika murmured softly. "Yes! I should enjoy seeing her take a thousand cocks into her lover's bower." Her violet eyes were alight with the thought, and the khan realized that he had not considered that his wife had a streak of cruelty in her, but she did. Or was it merely her jealousy?

The genie's dark eyes met those of the khan. Kansbar smiled knowingly, as if he could read Amir's thoughts. "Complete this thing swiftly," he told the man who would soon be his master. "Have it done before Sultan Ibrahim leaves this earth." Then he was gone in a puff of smoke, and a faint rumble of thunder.

"I hate this plan!" Zuleika said.

Amir Khan pushed her back amid the pillows. His big lean body covered hers, and he pushed his hard rod into her love sheath slowly. "But you will obey, my beautiful wife, because it is for Dariyabar, will you not?" He had been very aroused picturing in his mind's eye the clever genie's plan. He moved on his wife and, her eyes closing, she moaned with the pleasure his entry and subsequent actions were giving her.

"Yes, my lord," she murmured her promise.

He thrust hard and quickly into her willing body. "Yes, my lord, and my master!" he growled.

She tightened her muscles about his length, feeling a burst of satisfaction when he groaned in response. "I hear, and I obey, my lord and my master," she whispered in his ear, biting down upon the lobe.

"Bitch!" he hissed, moving more swiftly upon her.

Her nails raked down his long back. Her slim legs wrapped tightly about his waist. She was soaring. "Ahh, you devilish barbarian, I am yours! Do not stop! Do not stop!"

And together they found nirvana.

In the morning, Amir Khan explained to his general the plan that the genie had devised. The general grinned wolfishly.

"While I surely love my wife," he said, "I shall not object to having a little taste of that princely treasure. Do you want me to choose the others? What criteria would you have?"

"Those who are loyalest, most deserving, and especially those with big cocks. Let us give Golnar an experience she will not soon forget. One that will sustain her on the long nights she will have with her elderly merchant," the khan chuckled. "Do not, however, pick men who are cruel to their women. I do not want her harmed. Just well satisfied."

Sabola laughed. "After a night such as she will have, I expect she will be very well satisfied," he chortled. "When shall this event take place, my lord khan?"

"Tonight," Amir Khan replied. "The sooner, the better. I do not want to give Zuleika time to reconsider this matter any more than she already has. Nor will Bahira be pleased, I expect. So let us get it over and done with quickly, before our wives cause difficulty. I trust the genie, for he has guarded Dariyabar for centuries. While he feels a certain loyalty to his niece's child, his own loyalties to Dariyabar are greater. Of this I am certain."

"Then I will go now to choose the men who will join us," the general said, and left the khan.

Amir went almost immediately to Golnar's harem, entering it unchallenged, for it was he would rule after the sultan's death. The guards at the doors to the harem were aware of it. The eyes of the two dozen or more women were immediately upon him. He smiled at them, and said, "You need have no fear, ladies. You will all be well taken care of, I promise you. Where is the lady Golnar?"

An older servant came forward. "She is in her own chamber, my lord khan. Shall I take you to her?"

"Lead on," he replied, and followed the woman across the main room of the harem, down a narrow hallway to its end, where the servant opened a door and beckoned him inside. Golnar was seated upon a marble bench having her long silvery-blond hair brushed by a slave girl. "Your tresses are the most beautiful color I have ever seen, Golnar," the khan told her with a smile. Then he took the brush from the slave, dismissing her and the older woman. "Let me brush your glorious hair, lady."

"I knew that you would come," Golnar whispered when they were at last alone. She leaned her head back to meet his dark gaze.

"Did you?" His tone was amused. He set the brush down next to her upon the bench. "Why?"

"I saw how you looked at me in the hall, my lord. Do you desire me, my lord? Prince Haroun always said I was the most desirable of women. He said he had never seen a girl as beautiful as I am."

"My wife is beautiful," the khan noted.

"But her passion is for Dariyabar, my lord. It will never be as great for you as it is for Dariyabar," Golnar murmured, and then she turned so she might brush his lips with her own. "If you were my lord and master, I should think of none other but you." Her pointed little pink tongue flicked out, and around the shape of his mouth. "If I were yours, my lord, you would be my very reason for existence."

Her perfume was lush and heavy. Her words were tempting in their meaning. He realized in that moment what a truly dangerous woman Golnar was. Any small guilt that had niggled at the back of his mind was now dispelled. He would enjoy taking her, then allowing Sabola and their men to have their pleasure of her. He put an arm about her supple waist, and pulled her close. "I will be sultan when Ibrahim dies," he said. "He has already told me that whatever I desire in Dariyabar is mine, Golnar. I need not even ask. My wife is passionate, and a most satisfying lover; but a man of my stature craves variety. I think that your prince will not return, Golnar."

"I believe, my lord, that you are correct," Golnar answered him. Her heavy, thick gold eyelashes brushed her cheek, feigning modesty. "Do you think you might crave me, my lord?" she murmured softly.

In reply he stood up, and his hands fastening about her waist, he lifted her so that she was standing upon the marble bench. "Remove your garment, Golnar."

For a moment she looked at him, surprised.

"Obedience is the first trait I look for in a lover," he told her. "When I command you, you will obey."

"Yes, my lord," Golnar replied, and loosening the ties on her garment she let it drop.

He walked slowly about the bench, observing her carefully. She was small, and well-rounded, but exquisitely well proportioned. "Put your hands beneath your breasts, and display them to me," he said.

Immediately she obeyed, slipping her hands beneath her full bosom and lifting her breasts for his viewing. Haroun had never treated her like this, she thought, excited. Haroun had been soft. This man was a dominant conqueror.

Reaching out, he pinched a nipple hard, and she squealed. He smiled, almost cruelly. "Remove your hands from your breasts. Use them to draw your nether lips apart, Golnar, that I may view your hidden assets," he ordered her.

She was again shocked, but quickly complied, catching her breath sharply as a single finger reached out, first to touch her love bud, and then begin to rub it assertively. Her eyes glazed as the pad of his finger began to obtain the desired effect. "Oh, my lord," she gasped, "how good it is. Yes! Ohh, yes!"

Now the khan pushed his fingers between her nether lips, and thrust three of the digits deep into her love sheath, moving them swiftly back and forth until Golnar's legs began to shake. Immediately he withdrew the fingers, licking them slowly and deliberately until no trace of her juices were left. "You will receive me tonight," he told her, and then turning abruptly, he left her.

Golnar fell to her knees upon the hard marble bench. She would be bruised, she knew, but she could not have dismounted the bench if she had tried. Never in all of her life had a man been so assertive with her. Men had lusted after her from the time she grew breasts. Her father's first wife feared that her sons would commit incest with their half-sister, so beautiful was Golnar. Men had always wanted her. Her beauty had ruled them, but not this man. This was a man who took what he wanted, and be wanted her. She would conceive his child this very night, and one day rule Dariyabar through her son.

Golnar called for her women. She must be prepared, and perfect for the khan when he came to her bed this night. She laughed aloud to think of the proud princess of Dariyabar who would one day have to give way to Golnar's son, the heir to the kingdom of Dariyabar. Then Golnar thought of her mother, Keket, and how angry she would be to learn that her daughter had betrayed her. But she would tell her mother that it would be better to destroy Dariyabar through Golnar's son. Certainly her mother could relish the thought of her grandson working to ruin the kingdom founded by the evil genie, and Prince Sinbad. And perhaps before that happened, her mother would die. Genies and fairies did not live forever, although mortals believed that they did.

Golnar's women came, and she excitedly told them that the khan would come to her bed this night. She must be perfectly prepared. They immediately set to work to make her even more beautiful than she already was. She was bathed. All superfluous hair was removed from her body. Her toenails and her fingernails were pared, and filed smooth. She was massaged with thick scented cream so that her lush body was soft and perfumed. Her love sheath was readied, an elderly woman flushing it out with perfumed water, and massaging her genitals and vulva with sweet oil. Her long hair was washed, and brushed dry, and then rubbed with silk until it took on the shine and texture of the material. Her teeth were cleaned, and her breath made sweet. She ate nothing lest she stink from her food, drinking but sips of iced water.

And then a servant came to say that the lady Golnar was to be conveyed to another apartment where she would await her lord and master. Her servants were overcome with excitement. Golnar herself was almost weak with the anticipation. She was tempted to tell her mother, calling her forth from the flask, but she refrained. She would tell her afterwards that she had stolen the khan from his wife. She climbed into the litter that had been sent for her, and allowed herself to be conveyed to her destiny, smiling benignly at her women as she was taken away.

The chamber to which she was brought was large and square. It had pale pink marble walls and a colonnade of delicate carved columns that rose to a balcony enclosing the entire room. The top of each pillar was gilded where a sheaf of feathers had been carved. There was but one piece of furniture in the room. Set in its center was a cream-colored marble dais upon which rested a great square bed, with neither a head nor a foot. It was covered in black silk.

"You are to give me your robe, lady, and await your master there," the servant said, pointing.

At first she was loath to disrobe before a male servant who was not a eunuch, but then she remembered that the khan demanded immediate obedience to his will. This was his order, and she would not question it. She removed her single gauze garment, and handed it to the man. He bowed without looking at her, and departed the room. Golnar set about arranging herself in the most pleasing position that she could imagine, for first impressions were very important. She did not have long to wait. He entered almost immediately. He was naked, and he was magnificent.

He gazed at her, a slightly amused smile upon his lips, and then he said in a hard voice, "Prepare my cock for its entry, Golnar."

She arose from the bed in a graceful fashion, and knelt before him to take his manhood into her mouth. She began to suckle upon him. When he was finally hard she licked his great length, and her facile little tongue encircled the head of his lance, staring into its single eye. "You are ready, my lord," she finally said. She could hardly wait to have him pierce her and fill her sheath. She arose, and then fell back upon the bed, her legs spread wide for him.

Again the tiny amused smile touched his lips, but did she detect scorn? No! That was impossible. He covered her dainty body with his own big one, and began to ream her fiercely. She had expected a little more delicacy, but then he was a barbarian, and he was having a quite marvelous effect upon her. "The Gods! The Gods!" she half-screamed as the first wave of pleasure began to overcome her. And then suddenly her mouth was filled with another cock. She gulped, and gasped.

"Do not bite him, or I shall flay the skin from your pretty bones, Golnar," the khan warned her. "We barbarians enjoy sharing our women, as I know you have been told. Now suckle General Sabola as nicely as you did me, and he will fuck you as well. I could see that you were a woman who could use more than one sturdy cock, and tonight, my pet, you shall have a full hundred or more cocks fill this hot little maw of yours before the dawn tints the eastern skies."

She couldn't be hearing him aright, Golnar thought, and putting his words from her mind she concentrated upon tightening her vaginal muscles about his rampaging cock. He groaned, and she was pleased, but then he loosed his juices, and she was not ready. She cried out with her frustration, but the khan was rolling away from her, and his general was mounting her, thrusting and withdrawing, thrusting and withdrawing. She gasped with undisguised pleasure, realizing even as she did that with both men using her she would never know who her son's sire was, but suddenly Golnar didn't care, and then a third cock was being put into her mouth. She sucked eagerly upon it, her eyes going past the general's broad shoulder to the line of tall barbarians now entering the room.

They encircled the bed, and cheered their general onward. His passion peaked, and he leapt off Golnar, saying as he did so, "A bag of pearls to the first man who can make her come!" And the bed suddenly sagged with the weight of the men piling upon it, pulling Golnar this way and that in their quest to make her admit to her passion.

"Come, men," the khan called to them. "Take her in turn. Each of you has been well rewarded this night to follow in the path of not just a prince of Dariyabar, but in the path that Sabola and I have blazed for you. How many of you could have ever attained such noble cunt? Treat her well. I will not have her mistreated."

Now the barbarian soldiers grew more orderly, and once again lined up to take their turn with Golnar. They took her in every way that they could in the hours that followed. Some in an ordinary manner. And the first to breach her in a place that Golnar had never expected to entertain a manly cock elicited a shriek of surprise from her that caused those waiting their turn to laugh.

"She's a virgin here!" the young man with the slender manhood now well lodged in Golnar's bottom cried, delighted.

"Plug her well, lad, for others will surely follow you," one older soldier said, grinning.

And they did. Golnar could scarcely contain herself when she was taken at both ends by two young soldiers who first twisted her legs about and over their bodies, one fucking her hot cunt while the other took her bottom, his big hands squeezing her breasts as he grunted and thrust his manhood within her. Her lips became bruised with the kisses of her other lover. And her cries of delight echoed throughout the chamber as, one after another, the chosen soldiers of the khan took their pleasure with the lost prince of Dariyabar's favorite.

From the balcony above, Zuleika watched the erotic and compelling scene below her. Her violet eyes were alight with excitement, and her breath came in quick little pants. She had never considered watching as another woman was used by man after man. And particularly so many men.

"Are you enjoying the spectacle, my princess?" her husband asked, coming up behind her, pressing his big body against her as she leaned over the balustrade viewing the lustful activity below. His hands slipped around her to cup her breasts, and he tore away the slight fabric covering them, tweaking her nipples wickedly as he did so.

"It is thrilling," she admitted to him. "And Golnar seems none the worse for wear considering all the cocks that have so far probed her. Nor does she seem distressed by those to come." She ground her round buttocks into his groin teasingly.

The big hands squeezed her breasts, and he whispered in her ear, his breath hot and noisy, "You are going to be fucked, wife!"

"Am I?" she murmured back.

"Yes!" he groaned at her. His hands tore away the delicate fabric of her skirt. He bent her forward, and for a moment Zuleika thought that she would fall into the mass of soldiers below, but her husband's strong hands grasped her hips as he thrust eagerly into her womanly sheath, moving himself back and forth until their cries mingled with those of Golnar and her lovers.

It was the most exciting thing she had ever done. Her own sheath was well ploughed even as she watched Golnar receiving the very same treatment. When he finally withdrew from her, he was yet hard. He took her in his arms and pushed her up against the marble wall of the balcony, commanding her to put her legs about his waist as he once more thrust into the hot swamp of her sex, groaning and straining with his need for her. Finally he was satisfied, but Zuleika could no longer stand, so her husband carried her from the balcony above the carnal room below to their own chamber, where she fell into a deep sleep. When she awoke she wondered if it had been a dream, but the khan assured her that it was not. And there was no way that Golnar could claim any child conceived the previous night was that of Amir Khan. They might have remained abed but for the shrieks that suddenly erupted from the harem.

Suddenly, the sky over the city of Dariyabar grew black with storm clouds. Lightning flashed, and great peals of thunder erupted. The palace itself shook and the sea beneath it roiled, its waves crashing over the sea walls angrily.

"Get the bowl!" the khan called to his wife.

Zuleika climbed on still-shaky legs from their bed, and fetched the golden bowl, calling to Kansbar as she did. The genie appeared quickly, but not within his bowl, rather within the room, part of him outside in the garden. His face was grim. "What is happening?" Zuleika begged him. "It sounds like the furies have been loosed in the city."

"My niece has obviously learned of her defeat, and is not taking it well," the genie said. He suddenly shrank to mortal size. "Come! We must save the poor foolish Golnar from her wrath." He ran from the chamber with the princess and the khan behind him.

The women of the harem were cowering in a single corner of the apartment when they entered it. Kansbar went directly to Golnar's quarters, entering them, and saying as he did, "Keket, daughter of Ja'fa, cease your rage, I command you!"

Keket whirled about, her beautiful face dark with anger. "Who are you to dare to order me about?" she demanded to know of him.

"I am your uncle, Kansbar, the genie of Dariyabar," he told her. "Why have you sought to destroy this kingdom?"

"You have stolen my father's magic," Keket cried, "and by doing so you rendered him mortal, and he died long before his time. I have vowed to revenge myself upon your creation, this kingdom of Dariyabar! And so I would have, had it not been for this lustful creature I spawned from the seed of a mortal. Even you, uncle, must be disgusted by her overwhelming humanity!"

"I did not steal Ja'fa's magic, niece. The Great Genie took it from him as punishment for his crimes, which were many. It was not just his attempt at vengeance upon his brother, a fellow genie, but against many others in the world of magic. My brother was a wicked man, Keket."

"I do not believe you!" she cried.

"I see that, like your father, you believe only what you wish to believe. You must be punished for your destructive behavior. Your magic is taken from you at the order of the Great Genie, and the Fairy Queen. You are henceforth mortal. Treat your daughter well, and perhaps she will take you in in your old age, for you are, Keket, an old woman now," Kansbar said.

"Noooo," Keket shrieked as she saw the look of horror upon Golnar's beautiful face. She looked down and saw her hands had grown withered and spotted. "Noooo!" she cried again, and then to their surprise Keket swelled up and burst into a thousand tiny pieces that disintegrated as they exploded into the air.

"What has happened to my mother?" Golnar cried.

"Amazing!" Kansbar said with admiration. "Somehow she managed to destroy herself before all the magic drained from her soul. Can you but imagine what she might have accomplished if that force had been used for good? My poor niece." He shook his head. Then he turned to Golnar. "You are my brother's last descendant, Golnar, but you are more mortal than magic. You have conceived a child during your orgy last night, but it is neither the khan's nor his general's. It is the offspring of a common barbarian soldier. But because you are my brother's grandchild I will save you from your shame."

"How?" The query was short and sharp. Golnar gazed hard at the genie, who now seemed to be growing in size once again.

"First you must promise me that this quest for vengeance has ended with your mother's demise," the genie said.

"It was never my battle," Golnar said sullenly. "I just wanted the wealth and power that the mother of Dariyabar's sultan would have, had I been that fortunate."

"I will give you wealth and power on a smaller scale," the genie said, "but you must leave Dariyabar in order to obtain it."

"How?" Again, the question was direct.

"There is a merchant of Samarkhan who has been here in the city for a year, but is now preparing to return to his home. I will make you his wife, Golnar, and give him the power to mount you most lustily for a brief time. He will believe the child you bear his own. It will be his only heir, for he has no others. He will treat you like the queen you sought to be. He is rich, and will, I promise you, grow richer with the passing years. That will be my gift to you, daughter of Keket. Will you accept it?"

She did not hesitate, but nodded in the affirmative. "I will, Great Uncle Kansbar, for that is your name, is it not? My mother told me that it was your name."

"It is," the genie said, so large now that he practically filled the entire room.

"May I take my possessions with me to my bridegroom? All the beautiful things that Prince Haroun gave me? And may I take my servants as well? A woman should not go to her husband without her servants and her possessions."

"I can see how well you loved my cousin," Zuleika murmured dryly at Golnar's pronouncement.

"I loved him every bit as much as he love me," Golnar responded. "Do you know where he is, princess?"

Zuleika nodded.

"Then you must surely know by now he has adjusted himself to his new surroundings, and has found himself another woman to love," Golnar said almost bitterly.

"At least you are free, and will have an honorable estate," the princess replied in return. "Poor Haroun will be a slave for the rest of his life. But at least Dariyabar is now safe!"

And that, gentle reader, is the end of my tale. The princess and her barbarian lived happily for many years, and had many children. As for Dariyabar, it was created by magic, and one day it disappeared without a trace, in the same manner. To this day, no one knows what really happened, for nothing remains of it by the sea on the edge of the southern desert along the road known as Silk.