The Angry Mermaid 31

Or

Y Morforwyn Dicllon 31.

Mabina. The youngest daughter and Twin to
Drustan Her twin brother.
Grandpa Erin the twins grandfather.
Giana The twins grandmother
Caderyn The twins father.
Herenoie The twins wise and beautiful mother.
Morgaran The Twins oldest brother.
Aiofe The twins oldest sister. Famous for her beauty.
Tara The twins second oldest sister. Famous for her grace.
Feidlim Twins aunt (Caderyns’ beautiful sister.)
Mogantu Twins uncle (Married to Feidlim.) Chief of the Gangani tribe.
Brun. Twins 2nd cousin and the Acaman clans’ blacksmith.
Feorin. Twins second brother. Also training to be a blacksmith.
Rhun Feidlims’ son and Feorins’ favourite 1st Cousin. (Both red-heads.)
Arina Child of a Demetae fisherman, (rescued by Aiofe, Drustan and Mabina.)
Penderol Dumnonii Minor chief.
Udris Young Dumnonii warrior.
Dryslwyn High chief of the whole Celtic nation. Dwells in Brithony.
Bronlwyn Dryslwyn’s wife (and queen.)
Magab The moor who taught numbers.
Eric Saxon galley slave rescued from Corsair pirates.
Carl Another Saxon galley slave rescued by Drustan.
Torvel Celtic galley slave rescued from the same captured corsair ship
Arton. Turdetani Chieftain Holder of Gibral Rock.
Carinia Arton’s wife.
Isobel. Arton’s adopted daughter.
Appotel King of the Turdetani Tribe. (Southern Iberia.)
Bramana Queen. (Wife of Appotel)
Pilus King of the Capetani.
Shaleen Pilus’s queen and sister to Bramana.
Pedoro Lord Marshal of the Southern border region.
Lady Shulaar Lord Pedoro’s wife.
Taan. The scullery maid.
Isaar. Pedoro’s oldest son.
Ferdie Pedoro’s 2nd son
Sular Pedoro’s 3rd son
Gontala Pedoro’s youngest son.
Shenoa Pedoro’s only daughter.
Portega. Tyrant King to the west.
Portua. Portega’s grandson.
Jubail. Old Fisherman.
Mutas Magab’s younger brother and usurper.
Walezia King of Malta.
Alviar Megalomaniacal bishop of Carthage. (Hates Drustina.)
Ethelia Female healer who treats Drustina during her pregnancy.
Seripatese Drustina’s faithful horse.
Astos & Amitor Minor royalty who govern Alexandria. King and Twin Queen.
Meronee Nubian Queen of Nobatia The northern Kingdom of the Nubians.
Horam The Egyptian master Boat builder.
Muraa King Astos’s male partner.

This chapter describes Drustina's love for Astos and the conception of his baby. A romantic interlude.

Hope you like it.

Preparations for the state visit to Nobatia went apace whilst bedroom activities followed a conventional route. The royal barge was made suitable for King Astos and his newly acquired bride to legally consummate their ‘marriage’. Drustina even underwent a token conversion to Christianity purely to facilitate her wishes to meet with the great Queen Meronee whose ancestors had so successfully resisted the might of Rome and its heirs who now occupied Constantinople.
Torvel was reluctantly required to remain behind because there was no evidence yet of Amitor being pregnant. Besides, Amitor had to rule as Viceroy in Astos’s stead.

As the vast procession set off from its base in Alexandria, Torvel was condemned to stand beside Amitor on the quayside watching as the royal procession took most of the late morning to pass. It was gone high noon before the last barge disappeared up the river.
Drustina naturally had The Angry Mermaid in her care and the nimble ship kept darting amongst the barges as Arina and Dru kept dashing hither and thither to take a closer look at some point of interest as the procession steadily beat its way upriver. Periodically some guard ship warned of some new bank or shoal left by the recently abated floods and farmers were to be seen eagerly digging at the rich mud deposits to spread on their farms to either increase their holding over the desert sand or to repel the encroaching wind-born menace of that same desert sand. The farmer’s efforts also served to keep the main channel clear.
Drustina became fascinated with these activities and also with the strange drums that had internal spirals that rotated the water out of the river and lifted it several cubits, to in turn irrigate even greater areas of the low-lying delta land.

The first night they arrived at the primary furcation of the main channel and the narrow delta channels combined to form the main single channel of the great river. Drustina and Arina were impressed. As they dined with Astos that night, the court cartographer described what they knew of the great waterway.

“Nobody has ever found where this river is born but we have to travel many hundreds of stadia even to get to a place where two great tributaries become one. This is even further up the river than Meronee’s kingdom. Further than that and you enter a vast marsh or swamp where it is impossible to pass. The natives are secretive and dangerous and there are many wild beasts such as you have seen in the menagerie. After that, the local people say that the river ascends into great forests that take many days and even months to cross. Nobody has ever knowingly returned from there because they become sick and die. The whole vast land is an evil and poisonous place. Some native peoples, who seem to live without difficulties, have returned with our explorers and they have told of wonderful things. Much gold and precious stones but it is all unproven myth and story. Several times, Queen Meronee has sent out an expedition and every time, if they return at all, they return with reports of hardship and death. Some of our more adventurous young men have joined the expedition and they have reported the same tribulation. We are just thankful for the river below the great Sudd marshes. Beyond the marshes we must leave it to the devil and the death that waits there. There is much sickness over those lands. The water that issues from the marshes however, is pure and sweet. The best water in the whole Nile.”

Drustina listened with fascination and pictures flashed through her imagination. She asked of the peoples who were reputed to live there.

“We know little of the people who live in the great marsh or those who live in the great forests above it.” The Cartographer replied.

“They must be very special people to live amongst that sickness and not be affected.”

“All we know for certain is that they are dark skinned like Queen Meronee, some say even darker.”

“Why is that?” Drustina pressed. “Why are the people darker skinned?”

The cartographer shrugged.

“I’ve no idea. You ask a lot of questions that can’t be answered.”

“It’s in my nature,” Drustina smiled. “My curiosity combined with my duty to bring me all the way here from my lost lands.”

“Yes, the cartographer nodded sagely. Tomorrow it is your turn to tell of your lands and the great ocean beyond the Pillar’s of Hercules.”

Drustina nodded and King Astos intimated that the meal was over. The last of the food had been cleared away and the wine had made everybody mellow. Drustina noticed that King Astos drank very little. He smiled invitingly and Drustina nodded.

“Are you okay for tonight?” He whispered.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Good then we shall moor here for tonight. Nobody will expect us to stop here and there will be no chance of disturbance.”

She smiled. The king was just too caring and considerate to be a man. He obviously wanted some sort of peace and privacy away from the pomp and ceremony that accompanied his every normal stop. The barge crew secured the vessel to the bank and stood guard ashore to ensure the royal couple’s privacy. As peace and quiet settled on the barge, Astos whispered.

“Is this peaceful enough? Are you ready now my lady?”

“Yes I am lover. I am entering my fertile cycle. Come let us find out what joys we can indulge tonight.”

“I thought so,” he replied, “I keep a diary now also.”

Drustina grinned and kissed him in front of the last departing dinner guests. Eventually the barge was deserted except for the two and Drustina murmured privately.

“Is that why you drank little?”

He grinned guiltily and nodded. Drustina chuckled as they made their way to the royal cabin and the royal bed.

“You take more care and preparations than the stud farmers in Alexandria.” She remarked

“I want it to work. I want to be a father to a healthy child.”

“Have you any preferences, boy or girl?”

“Only that it be the opposite sex to Amitor’s baby.”

“Does not this Christian faith I am now entered into, condemn cousin’s marrying?”

“Not first cousins. Besides, their blood is truly mixed this time. Amitor’s baby will have a fine healthy father in Torvel and mine will have a splendid mother. Oh ... you and Torvel are not related in any way are you?” He asked nervously.

“Most certainly not. He is a Celtic Briton from the famous Queen Boudica’s Icieni tribe. I am of the Gangani; we are a tiny tribe who live in the far west. We could hardly be more distant peoples and still be Brithonic Celts.”
Astos smiled as the relief clearly showed. Drustina sensed his happiness and she touched upon it.

“When you first came to me you were tense and frightened, now you seem content and relaxed. Are you reconciled to women now?”
Astos smiled and reached out to touch Drustina and her skin tingled at his light caress.

“No, Drustina, I am reconciled to you. I still favour men, I always will; but fortunately you are manly in many ways. You are a ferocious warrior and yet —“

“And yet what?” Drustina pressed as womanly curiosity took her.

“And yet you are gentle and patient, here, in the bed, with me and my needs. You are almost like a mother to me. For that I have come to like you. I am accursed of this faulty attraction to men though I would not change it for the earth. I know the bishops secretly condemn me for it but they are too afraid to speak of it or voice their protestations. And yet you ... you who those horrible bishops called a monster; have proven to be the most gentle and understanding person I have ever met. It is your personality, your gentleness and yet your mighty courage that has caused me to conclude the bishops are wrong. You were never a monster.

It is hard to believe that the ferocious, fearless warrior who slew so many tyrants and butchers is this same gentle, tender maid, here, with me, in my bed. You are a conundrum Drustina. And yet that puzzle makes you attractive and acceptable to me. For that I worship you.”

With these whispered words a tear came to Astos’s eye and he pressed tight to Drustina’s breasts. His nervous fingers reached up gently and fingered Drustina’s breasts before gently threading them into his mouth.

“Don’t bite them,” Drustina pleaded as her buds stiffened with delight and her cock hardened.

Astos gave a soft muffled sigh and ‘adjusted’ himself. Drustina stroked his back and he gasped as he finally relinquished his gentle grip on her nipples and grasped her masculinity. She rolled slightly on her side to make it easier and Astos let out a soft groan of delight as he slid over her lithesome body and spooned against her back where his organ pressed at her arse. Drustina giggled as she reached around and guided Astos correctly.

“Wrong entrance darling. It’s the wet one at the front.”

Astos reciprocated Drustina’s giggle and curved his back further to reach the correct place. As he finally slipped his organ slowly into Drustina’s receptive sex, he sighed and reached around to feel the strange duality of an opening with a cock where normally there would have been a stiff little bud.

“Can I play with him?” Astos begged.

“There’s nothing I’d like better,” Drustina croaked as her voice betrayed her lust.

The act was quickly consummated but this time, Astos did not withdraw. Instead he lay tightly spooned to her and his cock remained lodged where Drustina found it delightfully agreeable while his smallish hand remained clasping her maleness like a child seeking security. Astos was behaving as a man would and it pleased her. Soon they fell asleep as the waters of the Nile lapped a lullaby against the hull of the royal barge.

∞0∞

Dawn found them still embraced and Drustina was awoken by Astos’s hardening organ. She giggled and whispered.

“Is that a piss stand or are you still pleased to see me?” Astos sighed.

“I’ve got to wee!”

So saying he stood facing outboard, peeled back the heavy silk curtain and relieved himself. Drustina giggled and followed suit as she employed her maleness to exactly copy him. Astos grinned as he watched her stand and direct her pee without the slightest hint of self-consciousness.

“So you are a boy then.” He chuckled.

“When it suits my liege, when it suits.”

“A girl would have to stick her arse out.” He grinned. “Would you have done that if I were not here and did not have to reassure me of your masculine side?”

“What, and have a crocodile bite my bum?” She sniggered.

“Not this far north my darling but they live in the Sudd and sometimes the odd one strays north to Nobatia. Not often though.”

They cleaned themselves with the water provided in the toilet chamber and eagerly resumed their lovemaking. Drustina was impressed with Astos’s enthusiasm. It was amazing what a girl with a cock could achieve in exciting Astos to full functionality. After they had once again consummated their union they fell to pillow talk.

“The rumours tell that you always want to take the woman’s part; is it true?” Drustina asked.

Astos blushed and nodded his confession as he turned away, embarrassed by his revelation. Drustina felt sorry for him and her heart melted.

“D’you want me to do it that way now?”

“What? You mean take me like a maid. I’m afraid I’m no maid.”

“How many partners have you had?” She continued.

“Only one. He’s a member of my personal bodyguard. He used to come to my bed every night.”

Drustina nodded knowingly.

“And now he’s been relegated to your ex. Do you still have feelings for him?”

“Yes. Of course I do. He’s probably standing guard right now on the river bank and jealous of you for having stolen his place in my bed.”

“Is he clean, by that I mean not diseased?”

“Of course he is clean. He came to me as a virgin youth and he has been mine every night. I have other courtiers who ensure he is not allowed to stray or wander.”

Drustina was relieved and she decided to be bold. She was also curious.

“Why don’t you bring him aboard?”

Astos’s eyes widened with gratitude.

“Do you really mean that?”

“I won’t be here once I’ve had your child. It would be churlish of me to steal you from him, give you a child and then just hand you back like some sort of used toy. He would be made to feel like some sort of disposable rag. Go and get him.”

Astos could hardly contain his happiness. He flung his arms around Drustina and kissed her with a furious passion before releasing her and calling out to the guard on the bank. In a few moments a young slender, effeminate youth appeared and smiled at Astos before gazing at Drustina. There was resentment in his eyes but Drustina patted the bed and invited him to join them. The youth’s glare softened as he glanced towards Astos questioningly. Astos nodded and eagerly settled beside Drustina as he repeated Drustina’s invitation. The youth cautiously settled on the bed as Drustina pulled back the sheet to reveal her manhood. The youth’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He had heard the rumours but now his own eyes confirmed it for real.

“It’s true; you are a man-maid!” He gasped.

“I am. And I am here purely to give Astos a child. I am not here to steal away his love for you.”

The youth’s smile widened and deepened as he realised he was not to be thrown aside in the interests of royal succession then his brow wrinkled.

“So how am I to be in this new circumstance?” he wondered.

Drustina reached out and pulled him to her breasts.

“Where you have always been, in Astos’s bed and in his heart.”

“But my lady queen, you are in his bed!”

Drustina’s widening smile embraced both Astos and his partner.

“It’s a big bed; big enough for three.”

The youth let out a tearful, choking squeal of joy and flung himself into Drustina’s arms. It took Drustina by surprise and she let out an ‘oomph’ of breath as he took the wind from her chest.

“Hey steady darling,” Astos gasped, “she might yet be carrying my child.”

“Oh! I’m so sorry,” the youth squeaked his apology as he immediately tried to disentangle himself.

Drustina continued to hold him to her as a mother would hold an older child and the youth realised it was a genuine embrace of love. Instead of struggling to escape, he found himself snuggling tighter as though seeking some long lost parental approval. Drustina sensed where the youth had come from. He was yet another person who had been ostracised by the new faith and consequently by his too pious parents. She let him lie wrapped in her arms as Astos reached out and stroked the youth’s hair and face. Drustina sensed the familiar movements as she felt his chest begin to heave. The youth was sobbing.
She spoke softly to Astos.

“Are we to lie together again now or wait until the evening?”

“Sadly, we must wait until evening. Affairs of state demand my attendance. Even here aboard the barge they make one endless procession to my throne.”

During the first day, Drustina had watched the constant procession of river craft to-ing and fro-ing to the barge all day long and realised it was a myriad different petitioners and plaintiffs seeking justice and redress. Astos waited until his boyfriend had stopped sobbing and then he struck the breakfast gong. Even before Drustina had finished dressing, the curtain that separated the throne room from their private cabin was drawn back and a meal presented. Astos was dressed in a light cotton shift and Drustina realised this was his normal attire when sitting as dispenser of justice. It was a simple form of dress, bereft of any badge of rank to set petitioners at ease when they were presented to him. Astos took station upon his throne and invited Drustina and his boyfriend to share food as the first of the petitioners was presented. He turned and whispered to Drustina.

“I would like to hear your opinions on these cases. It will be good practice for you if you ever recover your lands and become a queen in your own right.”

Drustina grabbed the idea wholeheartedly and smiled as the first petitioner approached the table. It was a farmer who claimed that the authorities had stolen some of his land on the bank to build a new jetty. His access to the bank and the length of river bank he held title to had been reduced and this had reduced his water extraction rights. He had been given more land as compensation but he now had insufficient water to irrigate it properly. He was asking for his original water volumes to be reinstated. Astos turned to Drustina in front of the farmer and smiled.

“Well my lady, a simple solution perhaps. An easy case to solve.”

Drustina asked the man if he still had unfettered access to the river. He confirmed that he had but the channel needed repair and maintenance beyond his pocket. The jetty construction had affected the river’s course and the diversion caused constant siltation of his irrigation channel.

Drustina thought briefly then turned to Astos.

“Perhaps a small retaining wall that would also serve to protect the ships on the jetty. Maybe even a dressed masonry wall to facilitate and extra berth.”

Astos smiled.

“You’ll win the hearts of every farmer on the Nile banks with solutions like that but you’ll bankrupt the city coffers of each town that builds a new jetty.”

“Which are we to have my liege? Happy farmers growing plenty of food, or fat city merchants growing fat by exploiting new scarcities caused by loss of irrigable land?”

Astos chuckled as the farmer’s eyes widened hopefully.

“A goodly observation my lady! We’ll make a great queen of you yet. The Lioness of Carthage proves she is also the Sage of the Nile ... the wise old Crocodile of the Nile.”

Astos turned to the presenting courtier and asked the farmer to explain the problem on his accompanying drawings. Drustina was well used to drawings and water solutions and she suggested a jetty profile that would solve the water flow problem. Astos studied it, let out a great uncharacteristic bellow of laughter and nodded. It was a simple and ingenious solution. He turned to the hopeful farmer.

“You shall have your solution and your water rights restored. Your price will be that you must recover more land from the desert behind your farm.”

The farmer’s eyes teared up with gratitude, for the recovery of his full water rights certainly ensured his and his family’s survival. The instruction to expand his farm was not an onerous duty but a licence to increase his productivity and his wealth. It simply remained for him to adapt his irrigation techniques to make the water go further. Drustina suggested a new water screw driven by a wind tower. The biggest expense would be lining the entrance to his newly restored irrigation channel to accommodate the increased flow. The stone construction ensured a more permanent marker and control of his water rights whilst helping also to stabilise the rear of the new jetty. All in all it was an elegant solution and Astos congratulated Drustina.

“You have an eye for construction my queen.”

“I am a boat-builder sire. First and foremost a practical girl.”

“Ayyee-ee and that’s the truth,” he replied thoughtfully as the farmer reversed from the throne room and the next petitioner arrived.

So it went on through the morning and Drustina thought it would never end. Happily lunch arrived and after that the king went hunting with his cheetahs. Drustina was mesmerized by the speed of the animals when free to race across the open desert spaces. She was also enchanted when the graceful animals were brought to the royal barge and she was allowed to lie with them as King Astos treated them like pets. She now understood why Egyptians treated them with the same reverence as they treated cats. Before the evening meal, the king ordered the royal barge to make up time by transiting the next sector by night.
Drustina expected the barge crew to be all dissolute at the prospect but she was pleasantly surprised to find them enthusiastic. Astos explained.

“I am not a tyrant my dear. It is much cooler at night and it is only a short leg to the next town. We will arrive long before dawn and the men will get a satisfactory sleep in the cool of the predawn. Many of the men come from this town and it will give them a chance to visit their families while you can go ashore and explore the shops.”

“What will you be doing?” She asked Astos.

“In the morning I’ll be doing my usual courts and in the afternoon I’ll join you in the town.”

“I think I’d prefer to stay with you in the courts. I have much to learn.”

“Very well, but these are more serious cases. Sometimes murder has been committed as the litigants have tried to further their interests outside the law. Some of it is not pretty.”

Drustina let out a brief guffaw.

“My Lord! You are speaking to Drustina here. I’ve seen more death and horror than you could ever envisage.”

Astos did a double take as he remembered.

“Shit! Of course! I’m sorry Dru; such is your gentle nature that I completely forgot your ferocious past. That speaks volumes for your nature and your wisdom.”

Drustina savoured Astos’s affectionate address by calling her ‘Dru’. It was a sign he was coming to see her as a friend and companion as well as a queen and mother to his child. She leant forward and kissed him in front of the courtiers as they went in to dine. At the head of the procession she inveigled herself between Astos and Muraa, Astos’s youthful lover. She walked between them holding both their hands thereby demonstrating to the whole court that this was how the royal relationship would continue as long as she sat as queen consort. She felt Muraa’s hand tighten with joy as he realised he had not lost a lover but found a supportive friend.

At the evening dinner, Drustina was called upon to talk about her adventures and the barge was already underway before the court was satisfied they had heard enough. As the three prepared for bed the courtier’s boats plied to and fro as they delivered each courtier to their own barges. It was gone midnight before Astos, Drustina and Muraa had peace and privacy in the royal bed chamber.

Astos became the ‘meat’ in the middle of the sandwich and eventually all three fell asleep with contented smiles. The pattern was thus set for the Journey as far as the great pyramids. At this point several overland caravan routes met with the river and a fair sized city was growing just north of the old city of Memphis. Drustina was impressed by the many buildings, especially a solid masonry bridge that crossed the Nile and yet had in its centre arch a drawbridge to let ships pass by raising and lowering the road. Astos smiled at Drustina’s open amazement and curiosity.

“Does it impress you then my queen?”

“Why yes. If ships wish to pass under bridges in my lands, they must drop their mast then raise it again quickly. You will have noticed that the Mermaid has a pulpit pivot to let the mast be lowered backwards to the deck.”

“Well I hadn’t actually but this is the first crossing of the Nile and it has been here for hundreds of years. The ship-gate obviates the need to lower the mast.”

“Yes my liege, it is a splendid convenience. Tell me what is that waterway on the eastern bank? It seems to lead over the land.”

Astos glanced at it and shrugged. It was the old Pharoic Red sea canal that provided a waterway between the red sea and the Nile. Goods could be carried by ship all the way from the mystical Orient to the Pillars of Hercules without once having to be manhandled on pack horses. To Astos, the Red Sea canal was truly old hat. A few hundred years earlier the Emperor Trajan had repaired it and it still functioned. Drustina was astonished to see the ships climbing what looked like steps in the water and the waterway disappeared into the shimmering heat of the Eastern desert.

“It climbs over the hills!!” Drustina cried in amazement. “How does it do that?”

Astos grinned. His new queen seemed so easily surprised for one so well travelled. He was truly proud to be able to show her how the system worked. They brought the Royal barge to a jetty a few miles below the bridge and Astos ordered some horses.

“Now you will see a truly amazing sight my lady. Ships and water going uphill and over the land.”

The royal party rode beside the canal for a mile or so until they came to the first ‘step’. Drustina watched fascinated as a ship was impounded in a small enclosure not much bigger than the ship and then water was run into the enclosure causing it to fill up. As it filled, the water level rose and lifted the ship with it until the level in the enclosure was equal to the next leg of the canal. Drustina was excited to see the ship slide peacefully into the next stretch of the canal after having been lifted some ten cubits. They followed the ship along the canal to the next enclosure and Drustina carefully noted how the wooden ‘gates’ acted like blockers to hold the water in place. She squealed with delight as she finally grasped the principle. Finally the ship had risen a full one hundred cubits and Astos explained that from that point it was all downhill to the Eastern Sea.

Drustina noted that the Mermaid could just fit into one of the chambers. Then she noted that the canal ran through sterile desert and she frowned.

“How is the water fed to those enclosures?”

The engineer who was showing them around explained.

“There are two systems my lady. The first is a very long aqueduct going back hundreds of leagues up the Nile to the sixth cataract. There the Nile water enters the aqueduct and it runs all the way to Memphis then out to the canal. It was a massive undertaking that took our forefathers many hundreds of years to complete. The water enters the Canal about twenty Stadia east of the highest enclosure and it feeds both sections of the canal.”

Drustina quickly grasped the principle then asked about the second. It was all valuable education for her. The engineer explained.

“The second system is not so effective my lady. You noticed those huge windmills a couple of miles towards the bridge on the eastern banks.”

“Yes.” Drustina nodded avidly.

“Well they turn the water screws and a modest amount of water is lifted to feed the canal in times of water shortage. In the dry season only the most essential traffic used to travel the canal but when Emperor Trajan refurbished it, he repaired the aqueducts and enlarged the reservoir. Now the canal is only on reduced capacity for about a month at the height of the dry season.”
Drustina was beside herself with enthusiasm and turned to Astos.

“Please dear husband. May we take the Mermaid to the eastern sea? Just to say we have been there.”
Astos sighed.

“I’m sorry my lady, we have a fairly tight schedule if we are to travel to Nobatia before the water level drops too low; perhaps when we return.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Drustina cautioned him.

Reluctantly, Drustina bid farewell to the Pharoic canal and they resumed their passage up as far as the bridge. The plan was for the whole royal fleet to pass the bridge the next morning.

oo00oo

Authors note.

Comments are always welcome good or bad.

Bev.