"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.