He was Lord Jonah, the emperor’s right hand, who had long ago been the emperor’s slave. But Jonah was far more clever than his master. He had not sprung from the lower classes of Hetar, despite his unfortunate circumstances. Indeed, he was the son of Sir Rupert Bloodaxe of the Crusader Knights and his lover, the lady Farah, a Pleasure Mistress who was now rumored to be the next headmistress of the Pleasure Guild. His mother had come from a wealthy Midlands family and was blood kin to its governor, Squire Darah. Though sold into slavery by his father’s wife when his sire died, he had purchased his freedom and then remained by the emperor’s side, encouraging Gaius Prospero in his plans, gently reining him in when those plans became foolish or risky, and all the while making his master believe that Gaius was the creator of the great destiny that was Hetar’s. Jonah was tall and slender with dark hair and burning black eyes. He had schemed to take Vilia for a lover only to learn to his delight that she wanted him. They were an ambitious pair ideally suited to one another.

As Hetar’s four moons rose over the Sea of Sagitta, the lovers lay sprawled together on a wide double chaise that was set upon a tiled terrace overlooking the water. Jonah’s slender fingers twirled themselves within Vilia’s female passage as they spoke together. Vilia murmured with each little burst of pleasure he drew forth from her.

“They say he is completely infatuated with his new toy,” she told Jonah.

“Has Anora not been able to interfere between them?” her lover asked.

“He does not need her!” Vilia exclaimed excitedly. “It seems his ability to enjoy pleasures has returned. I always thought his hysteria over that dream he had of Lara was ridiculous although I would not have thought Gaius had that much imagination. Umm…oh yes, my darling, that is nice.” Vilia shuddered delicately.

“But surely Anora would want to join them in order to protect her own status,” Jonah murmured as he licked her juices from his fingers. “After all, she is his second wife and you are not there.”

“Anora has come down with a rather unpleasant rash. She will only allow one of her servants to tend her. It is obviously quite dreadful. She can hardly interfere under those circumstances.” Then she nipped at his earlobe as he mounted her and his talented manroot slid deep. “Oh, darling, yes!” Vilia yelled as he began to use her vigorously and when he had both taken and given pleasures they lay together contentedly. Or so Vilia thought.

It is too convenient, Jonah mused. He knew Gaius Prospero did not have the imagination to have created what Vilia believed a dream. Lara had indeed cursed the emperor and now someone had lifted that curse. And a beautiful slave girl had appeared beneath the emperor’s nose and his ability to enjoy pleasures had returned with her. And Anora, the deliciously perverted Anora, was suddenly unable to interfere. No; something else was going on here, but Jonah could not figure it out. Yet. He shrugged to himself. It was probably something magical and Jonah was wise enough to know he could not fight magic. Perhaps Lara had had a change of heart. Well, someone had.

“Perhaps,” he said to Vilia, “it is time to return to The City, my darling. If we are to plan a campaign against Terah, then we must begin soon. Before summer begins.”

“There is time,” Vilia replied. “We do not often have the luxury of time together, my love. I could wish it were otherwise. I am tired of hiding our passion!”

“Vilia, my adorable Vilia,” Jonah gently scolded her. “Listen to me and heed what I say to you. If it was known we were lovers we could both be executed. And frankly, Gaius cannot do without us, although he doesn’t know it. In time I will take his throne from him and you, my Vilia, will rule by my side as my empress. I will have no hesitation as he has in placing you there. And I will take no other to my bed, Vilia.”

“And I will give you a son to follow us, Jonah,” Vilia told him. “Together, you and I will found a dynasty. In a thousand years the name of Gaius Prospero will not even be remembered, but the Jonah dynasty will still rule!” She kissed him passionately.

The Jonah dynasty, he thought and felt a thrill run through him. This was why he adored the woman in his arms so much. She had an eye on the future, and it was not a small future but a great one that would last at least a thousand years. “You do not want your son, Aubin, to rule one day?” he asked her.

“Nay,” Vilia told him. “Aubin is too much like his father. And he is both young and foolish enough not to need anyone else’s council. I know that without you, my darling Jonah, Gaius Prospero would not be emperor of Hetar. It is you who have advised him, led him and put him on his throne. But he has been but a means to an end for you, my darling. Now we must begin planning your future.” And she kissed him again.

He kissed her back with equal passion and finding one of her plump breasts he squeezed it hard. “Yes, my Vilia,” he told her. Then his manroot sought for her again and Vilia welcomed him with a glad cry into her body.

In the morning when she awoke, he was gone. He was so very discreet in his comings and goings that none of her servants ever knew he was there. He would have returned to his own villa. She knew he would go from there to The City today for he would not have left her so early otherwise. Vilia sighed. She longed for the day when they did not have to hide. The day she would sit by his side and rule over Hetar.

JONAH HAD INDEED returned to his own villa before the dawn even began to hint of itself in the Outlands sky. Disciplined, he slept for two hours, then awoke, bathed and was served the first meal of the day by the attending servant. As he ate he gazed out through the great arched windows in his bedchamber at his vineyards. The rows stretched as far as the eye could see. Soon the vines would begin to show tiny snippets of green. Then the leaves would begin to form, followed by the clusters of grapes which would ripen beneath the hot summer sun. His vineyards were his greatest joy and the wines his vintner made each year would soon make him an extremely rich man. The vintage was rich, rare and very special. It had quickly come into great demand among the magnates of Hetar. But true power lay in the wealth a man might amass, Jonah knew. That was a lesson he had learned from Gaius Prospero.

Jonah called a servant to him. “I am returning to The City,” he said. “I shall not return for several days. Tell Lionel he is to remain here until I come back.”

“Yes, my lord,” the servant bowed and then went off to do his master’s bidding.

About Jonah’s neck he wore a chain from which hung a milky-white oval jewel. It was a sorcerous means of transporting its owner from one place to another, given to him by the great Shadow Prince Kaliq. It had been magically imprinted with Jonah’s essence and would not obey anyone else’s command. This way he might come and go between Hetar and Terah easily. Jonah took the gem between his fingers and rubbed it gently. “The City, my rooms,” he said, and was instantly transported to his own apartments within the palace.

A serving woman cleaning in his bedchamber gave a startled cry as he appeared.

Waving his hand impatiently he left her and hurried to find Gaius Prospero, who was having his morning meal in his own dayroom. The emperor looked tired but he had a distinct air of contentment. Remembering his night with Vilia, Jonah almost smiled but managed to restrain himself. “Good morning, my lord,” he greeted the emperor, bowing politely.

“Where have you been?” Gaius Prospero demanded. “I sent for you yesterday and you were not to be found. Were you in Terah?”

“I was in the Outlands at my vineyards,” Jonah answered. “I needed to confer with my winemaker, for the growing season is upon us.”

“Be careful, Jonah, or you will become a rustic.” The emperor chuckled. “Did you see my wife while you were there?”

“Nay, but which one is there now?” Jonah said pleasantly.

“Vilia. She is a most thoughtful woman and went off to allow me the leisure to enjoy my new slave, Shifra. Anora, of course, stayed. She is so fiercely jealous. Once I found it charming and amusing. I am not so certain I feel that way any longer,” Gaius Prospero grumbled. “However I was told she has developed a most disgusting rash and has been forced to keep to her own rooms.”

“Then you have been free to dally with your new slave girl, my lord. I can see it has done you good,” Jonah told him. “You appear more at ease than you have in many months. Your responsibilities weigh heavily upon you, I know. I am delighted that you have someone with whom you can enjoy life, my lord.”

“Jonah, it is a miracle. I am once again able to enjoy taking pleasures with a woman! You know that ever since I had that dream where that wretched faerie woman cursed me, I have not been able to do so. Anora’s whips could arouse my manhood but even her most skillful abuse could not cause me to enjoy pleasures. But with Shifra it is all different! Ah, Jonah,” the emperor gushed, “she is beautiful and kind and sweet, yet she is intelligent. She seems to exist merely to please me and make me happy. Over these last few days I have offered her whatever she wanted to show my satisfaction with her but she refuses to take anything from me. She asks only to be allowed to be with me. How different is that from my two wives? Both are always eager for some new acquisition. And what one wants the other must have or I am allowed no peace in my own house.”

“But the lady Vilia is the mother of your children, my lord, and she has always had your best interests at heart,” Jonah murmured. “And you loved the lady Anora enough to ask the lady Vilia’s permission to marry her.”

“I don’t want either of them any longer!” the emperor declared forcefully. “What can I do, Jonah, to get rid of them without the people thinking badly of me? I want to free my sweet Shifra and marry her. I want to make her my empress! Think, Jonah! Think!”

“My lord, this is a serious decision that you propose making,” Jonah said softly. “With the lady Anora, while she will protest mightily, the solution is a simple one. I believe she would be content owning her own Pleasure House in The City. If you can arrange that along with the license to operate it in her name, if you will settle an outrageous amount of gold upon her, if she may keep her villa with its farm in the Outlands province, along with all the jewels and other luxuries you have settled upon her and if she may take her servants and slaves with her, I believe she could be persuaded to allow a divorce especially if no fault in the matter was laid at her door.

“And while I have always been respectful of the lady, I have also felt she was your bête noire, my lord. You will lose naught by ridding yourself of her. But the matter of the lady Vilia is another thing altogether, my lord. She is the mother of your children and is greatly respected among the people. You must think on this most carefully before you decide to move forward,” Jonah advised.

“She has always preferred the country to The City,” Gaius Prospero said slowly. “Even when we had that little farm in the Midlands where we would go to escape The City’s heat in the summer. And with our daughters wed and Aubin grown, she seems to spend more and more time at that villa of hers in the Outlands.”

“Ridding yourself of her will cost you dearly, my lord,” Jonah said. “You cannot free and wed your slave girl and then make her your empress if you are still wed to the lady Vilia. The people would not stand for it. But first the lady Anora.”

“Anora would cost me less if she just died,” Gaius Prospero said softly.

“Indeed, my lord, she would,” Jonah agreed, “and as you say, she has been ill these past few days. If you truly mean to rid yourself of her this might be a most convenient time,” he suggested.

“I have paid little attention to her since she grew sick,” the emperor noted. “Perhaps I should send her some special treat. She has developed a taste for Razi of late, the peach-flavored in particular.”

“Will you allow me to send her some from one of my Razi kiosks, my lord?” Jonah suggested. “In your name, of course.”

“It will be a most special blend of Razi, will it not?” Gaius Prospero asked. “It must be the best for I will have only the best for my dearest Anora.” He lowered his voice so that only Jonah might hear it. “It should be quick. There ought not be any suffering to draw attention to the sad event, Jonah. This illness she has been suffering must be blamed for her untimely end. She is not well-known among the people. A small period of official mourning to show respect should suffice.”