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Harold Saves Her Husband Part 03 and LastHarold Saves Her Husband Part Three*************************************************…Harold’s Note: In this part my friend Jane tells about some of the activities while I was otherwise engaged. Thank you, Jane, but please stop giggling!Part Three:We met Pushpa and Queen Serena. The initial questioning of Kali’s followers had seemed to confirm that Kali-on-Earth was acting independently of Lord Mohan. She was incensed that Lisa and I were ‘favoured by the Goddess’ and that Queen Serena was not a follower of the Goddess Kali.Kali’s plot might have helped Lord Mohan. He might have known and aided it, but none of Kali’s followers seemed to be aware that the King had been k**napped. It was difficult to ask them outright, because the absence of the King still wasn’t known officially. We knew, the k**nappers knew, but both sides were concealing that.“Where is the King?” I asked Queen Serena.“What! If we knew that…” she expostulated.“King Ranjit,” I whispered.“Of course,” Queen Serena whispered back before changing to her normal tone.“The King has a slight stomach upset. He is remaining at the encampment and being attended by the doctor. Some of my ladies are helping to make him comfortable.”I knew what the ladies would be doing ‘to make him comfortable’. Substitute King Ranjit would be sexually satisfied.“Is he likely to recover soon?” I asked. “I hope it isn’t serious.”“The doctor thinks that the King should rest until this visit is completed. He is in a darkened tent, well ventilated but the light levels are low.”Which, of course, would help to preserve the deception that Ranjit is the King. Ambika joined us.“I have some information,” she said. “Lord Mohan had encouraged and supported Kali’s attempt on Prince Harold’s life but most of it was her own idea. Her former supporters are being held in cellars near The Ride To Heaven, but many of them seem unhappy with the plot. We can’t keep all of them imprisoned for long. Lord Mohan would find out and get them released.”“Do we know the ring-leaders?” I asked.“Yes, Prince Harold,” Ambika replied. “Most of Kali’s priestesses weren’t involved. They have identified the four who were in Kali’s confidence.”“Those four will have to die!” Queen Serena insisted. “They expect to,” Ambika answered. “They are preparing for death by praying to the Goddess Kali.”“Ambika? Do we know what Kali wanted to do?” I asked.“Yes. She and most of her priestesses are strict traditionalists. They opposed having a King and Queen, particularly a Queen. They don’t believe a woman should rule, except indirectly. They wanted to kill you, Princess Lisa and Queen Serena. They expected to be executed by King Vishaladeva, but that was a price they were prepared to pay.”“What would have been their reaction if they had been asked to kill King Vishaladeva as well?”Ambika was shocked at the suggestion.“Kill the Rajah, sorry, King! Never! That would be sacrilege and against all their beliefs. They would have defended him to the death, and they were prepared to die so that he could rule as sole Rajah.”“Queen Serena,” I said, “I think it might be an idea to tell Ambika and our friends the truth, why we are here.”“Are you sure, Harold?”“I trust them. They have just risked our lives for us. We need allies if we are going to succeed.”“Then yes. You can tell Ambika.”“Tell me what?” Ambika asked.“King Vishaladeva has been k**napped by Lord Mohan…”“But we saw him!” Ambika protested.“You didn’t. You saw his cousin Ranjit. He is pretending to be the King while we try to find and rescue King Vishaladeva. We think that the King is held in the old tower, but we can’t get near without alerting the guards. We don’t want to kill them, particularly as we aren’t sure that is where the King is imprisoned.”“I think we can get into that tower, through one of the secret passages,” Ambika said, “but it would be difficult to search the whole tower. Although it had some passages, one or two have collapsed, or been exposed. Kali knew more about the tower than I do. There used to be a temple to the Goddess Kali on the second floor. It might still be there.”“We need to know if the King is there. Would any of the four of Kali’s priestesses know?”“They might, Prince Harold, but why would they help? They expect to die, soon.”“But if they were told that there is a plot against the King? Would their loyalties to him override their antipathy to us?”“They might. But it would be a risk. They hate you, the East India Company and Queen Serena. Their devotion to the Rajah Vishaladeva could be stronger than their hate, but I doubt it.”“Can we put them somewhere out of Lord Mohan’s reach?”Queen Serena answered that.“The only place safe for that is your encampment. The buildings here are riddled with secret passages. A few we know about. Ambika knows many more. Kali on Earth knew others. I don’t think even Lord Mohan knows them all.”“How do we get our captives there? And once there, where do we put them?”“The troops have built a couple of stone huts already.” Lisa said. ”One is to be the guard room for any soldiers who misbehave. If we used that, and had a few Lady Archers assisting the guards, that would do. Getting them there? Queen Serena’s official coach can have all the blinds closed. We could take four bound women in that.”“Then we should, as soon as possible,” I said. “But there are several things we don’t know. We don’t know where the King is. He could be in the old tower but might not be. The ladies k**napped at the same time, including Pushpa’s cousin Bhavini, are also missing. But the thing most troubling me is that we don’t know what Sanji is doing. So far everything has been attempted by Kali on Earth or Lord Mohan. We haven’t even seen Sanji, have we?”“No, Prince Harold,” Pushpa said. “We have no information about the ladies. Sanji has been absent…”“…Sanji is said to be indisposed,” Ambika added. “He has been in his zenana for days, even before you arrived. The court has been told that he has an upset stomach that is responding slowly to treatment.”“Do we know if Sanji is actually part of the k**nap?” I asked.There was stunned silence. We had all assumed that, as he was supposed to be made King Vishaladeva’s heir, he was a conspirator.“Serena, you know Sanji better than anyone. Is he ambitious? Would he want to be Rajah? Or would he be a puppet for others to use?”“I don’t know, Harold. The ultimatum that Ranjit brought from Lord Mohan was most explicit that Sanji was to be Vishaladeva’s heir. But if I really think about it, Sanji is unlikely to be that ambitious. He is more interested in the pleasures of the flesh than running his estates. He leaves the business to his agent and has a larger zenana than most young men of his age would have.”“How much larger?”“A normal size for a noble of his status would ten or twelve women, some of whom would be maids to his concubines. He has twenty, more than the late Rajah had.” Queen Serena said.“When he came here, he brought forty,” Ambika added.“Forty!” Lisa snorted. “That sounds like a recipe for disaster. No man can service forty, or even a fraction of that.”“True,” Queen Serena replied, “but not all of them would be concubines.”“Even seven concubines would be too many…” Lisa said.“…if they were like you, Queen Serena or Pushpa,” I added, “but one a night for a week…”“…even one ordinary woman a night would wear any normal man out, into an early grave.” Queen Serena suggested.“Then why does he need forty? Is the zenana something other than normal? Are some of them the missing women?” I asked.“We don’t know, Harold,” Lisa said. “We might be able to find out but first we must get Kali’s priestesses to the encampment. Once there we can question them without risk of being overheard.”Lisa was right. Within the hour four faintly wriggling silk swathed bundles were placed in Queen Serena’s coach. I felt some sympathy for them. I had been bound just like them when k**napped by Kali on Earth. I couldn’t see or know where I was going and had little idea of what might happen to me. Neither did they.Serena, Pushpa and Ambika travelled in the coach with their feet on the squirming bundles. Lisa and I rode as part of the escort.At the encampment a few short words with the Colonel and we had the use of the guard house. The four bundles were carried inside and partially unwrapped. We left Pushpa and Ambika to do the interrogation, and to tell Kali’s followers that Lord Mohan intended harm to the King.As we left the guard house a sergeant asked all three of us to go to the Colonel. When we reached his tent George was there too.“Queen Serena,” the Colonel said, “I don’t know who is in the guard house. I don’t want to know. But George has some information for you. George?”“Your Majesty,” George began, “we have been patrolling well outside our encampment to ensure that we are not surprised by an enemy force. That isn’t likely. I have met their commander, Mahaj. We have agreed to keep our patrols away from each other except during daylight hours. Mahaj seems a reasonable man. His orders are to make a demonstration of force, just as we do.But today one of those patrols was approached by a young boy who wanted to speak to an officer. He insisted that a sergeant would not do. He was brought here and I spoke to him. He said that he was Hasit, the younger brother of Bhavini, one of Pushpa’s cousins, and that he knew where the a*****ed noblewomen were being held.”“Did Hasit say how he got out?” I asked. Queen Serena nodded. She wanted that question answered.“Apparently there is a partially blocked passageway. He was small enough to wriggle through where an adult could not. Hasit thinks, but he is not sure, that his absence will not be noticed because those guarding the women do not enter the area where they are confined. They pass food through a hatch in a door. Water comes from an internal well.”“Where is Hasit now?” Serena asked.“Asleep in my tent”, George replied. “He was tired and hungry, poor little chap. Once fed, he fell asleep.”“How old is Hasit?” I asked.“I can’t be sure,” George said. “I haven’t asked him. He might be seven, or eight. No older.”“Tomorrow morning, when he wakes up, I’ll ask Pushpa to talk to him.” Serena said. “George, did he say exactly where the women are held?”“Hasit wasn’t completely certain because it was dark and they were blindfolded when they arrived at the buildings. His blindfold wasn’t wholly effective. He thinks that they are in cellars underneath the part of the zenana that is occupied by Lord Sanji’s women. The only light in their prison comes from openings very high up near the vaulted ceilings. Even so it is so dark in there that there are lanterns burning all day and all night. He told me and can show where he emerged from the collapsed tunnel under some steps in a courtyard. That was a very long wriggle from where the women are. He wasn’t very clear about measurement. All he knows is that it took him an hour from entering the passage to getting to open air.”“An hour?” I said. “That could be anywhere in the palace complex.”“Unfortunately that is true,” George said heavily. “And I don’t think that passageway would be much use to us. Hasit is very small and he found getting through it very difficult.”George passed me a rough sketch Hasit had drawn to show where he had come out under the steps. It was c***dish, but quite clear.“I don’t want to know, officially, what you are planning,” the Colonel said. “I wish you well. George can use the troops if necessary, but I would have to pretend not to notice.”“Thank you, sir,” I said. “We will continue our planning elsewhere.”We started to walk back to my quarters.“But we do know where the Lord Sanji’s zenana is,” Serena said. “If Hasit is right and they are underneath that zenana, we have a place to start. And we have an opportunity. The English ladies have been invited to Lord Mohan’s zenana tonight for folkloric entertainment.”“But that is when we are going to be d**gged!” Lisa protested. “And we should be there in an hour,” Jane added. “We have forgotten that the zenana entertainment was supposed to happen after Harold’s death on the Ride To Heaven. He was k**napped much earlier than we had expected. The Archers are ready and we should leave in a few minutes.”“I’m not invited,” said Queen Serena. “Nor are Lisa, Pushpa and her women. It is for the English Ladies only. You’ll be on your own, Jane. Do you think you can cope?”“Of course we can, Queen Serena. We are not going to drink anything provided in the zenana. The Archers have borrowed their husbands’ hip flasks and as many more as they could find. We’ll be drinking water, but we’ll offer strong gin to the zenana ladies. The results should be interesting…”“Interesting!” Serena interrupted. “Zenana ladies rarely drink anything stronger than watered wine. Neat gin?”“…could be even more effective than their d**gged drinks,” Jane continued.“Sorry Jane,” Serena said. “Even strong gin won’t be that effective. Unfortunately the knowledge of how to produce powerful d**gged drinks is widespread here. A couple of sips are enough to make someone u*********s for hours. Don’t touch ANY of their drinks, unless to do a switch. Even then, they might d**g both glasses.” “We have to get ready, now,” Jane said. “We can be fashionably late, but not that late. It’s getting dark.”She left to join the Archers. They would be escorted by some Company troops, but once inside the zenana they would be on their own.Pushpa sent us a message by one of Queen Serena’s other ladies, Manika.“We have got some information from Kali’s priestesses.” Manika said. “Pushpa didn’t tell them that Lord Mohan has k**napped the King. We told them that he was plotting to kill the King. As you thought, Prince Harold, they were horrified. They told us anything they knew about unusual activities in Lord Mohan’s palace buildings. The old tower is a diversion, a trap. The only people inside are Lord Mohan’s soldiers. Their instructions are to let anyone inside then close the tower entrance behind them and hold the intruders by force.”“That’s very useful, Manika,” Lisa said. “Anything else?”“They are puzzled by Lord Sanji’s zenana. They knew that there is a large inner chamber on an upper floor that has only one entrance by a narrow staircase from the floor below and windows heavily barred on both the inside and outside. The outer walls are ten feet thick. No one inside could communicate with outside, and if they did get past both sets of bars there is a fifty-foot drop to a paved courtyard. Many years ago it was used for a Lord’s mother who objected to his choice of a bride. He kept his mother in that chamber for twenty years…”“But if that is known, Manika, why are they puzzled?” I asked.“Because it is obviously being used to conceal or imprison people. Kali’s priestesses had a spy hole. They could look into the lower chamber. Only half of Lord Sanji’s women are there. The rest, and Lord Sanji himself, never appear. Some of the women carry swords and daggers. Our women don’t do that normally. They seem to be guards, not zenana ladies.”“Could the King be there?” I asked.“That is possible,” Manika replied, “but I couldn’t ask them that directly. They still think Ranjit is the King – and here.”……“We need to get to that spy hole,” I suggested.“Ambika is taking down details of all the secret passageways that Kali’s women know around the zenana. She knows some that they don’t and she will try to draw a diagram of them all and note how the entrances and exits are concealed, and how they are opened and shut. Ambika and Pushpa are surprised how cooperative they are, considering that they are expecting to be executed.”“Tell Pushpa to tell them,” Queen Serena said slowly and carefully, “tell them that their lives will be spared for their help in protecting the King…”“But Kali tried to kill Harold!” Lisa protested.“She failed. She’s dead. I’m not going to execute her priestesses for following her orders. Any objection, Prince Harold?”I thought of everything I had endured at the hands of Kali on Earth and her priestesses.“No. If they are helping to save the King, we need them, and they should get some credit for that.”Lisa snorted. “You’re too soft, Harold!”“Soft? I’m sure Queen Serena will have some suitable punishment for them. They might see death as preferable.” “Manika, please tell Pushpa,” Queen Serena said, “Tell them that their reprieve comes from the King, not from me. They might be unwilling to accept my word.”“I’m sure they will appreciate that. They may be cooperating to protect the King, but they continue to express their hatred of you, Queen Serena, Prince Harold and Princess Lisa.”“Manika,” I asked. “Would I be able to use the secret passages Ambika is documenting?”“You?” Manika was shocked. “No! The entrances are all in the zenana complex. You couldn’t, shouldn’t, be inside a zenana. It was bad enough in the earlier rebellion but we hushed up the presence of you and George, and remember that Queen Serena had to help to you leave unobtrusively. We can’t do that here. Any breach of a zenana might cause a popular revolt against the rulers, even against King Vishaladeva himself.”“She’s right, Harold,” Serena confirmed. “No man except the husband of the zenana ladies can enter. It would be sacrilege and considered as bad as forcible **** – even to walk a foot inside the doorway. You can’t go in. Lisa and I, and the Archers? We can. We will if we have to. But you’ll have to stay away.” “Thank you, Manika,” Serena continued. “Please let me know if Pushpa and Ambika find out anything else useful.” Manika bowed. She left to return to Pushpa and Ambika in the guardhouse.“The Archers will be on their way.” I said. “I feel useless just waiting for whatever they can do. But what I could do is look for the passageway Pushpa’s cousin used, or look for light from a cellar underneath the zenana.”“What excuse will you have for prowling around in the dark if you are challenged?” Lisa asked.“I’ll be looking for the Colonel’s pet dog that has run away…”“But he doesn’t have a pet dog!” Lisa protested.“I know that. You know that. But Lord Mohan’s people won’t know that. It will have to be a small terrier that might crawl underground. Called ‘Rover’ perhaps and a recent addition to the Colonel’s household…”“So you’re going to walk around the outside of the Lord Sanji’s zenana shouting “Rover!”? Won’t that be too obvious?” Serena suggested.“I won’t start near the zenana. I’ll start where Hasit said he came out, see if that passageway is at all practicable for an adult, and then work my way around all the buildings, leaving the zenana basement until early morning when the guards will be at their lowest ebb.” “Hasit said?” Queen Serena seemed to be thinking hard. “Did we mention Hasit when Manika was here? Did we?”Lisa, George and I thought.“No, Serena, I don’t think we did,” Lisa said finally. George and I nodded agreement.“Pushpa should be told,” Serena said. “She would like to know that her young cousin Hasit has escaped. But it’s not urgent now. It can wait until morning, or I’ll tell Manika if she returns with more information.”……JANEWe, the Archers and I, were slightly late leaving for the zenana. George thought it important that we should know about Hasit, and the information he had given.By driving the carriages hard with a fast escort of light cavalry we were only about ten minutes after the due time when we walked through the zenana entrance. The two armed men outside the doorway presented arms in a sloppy fashion. If they had been Company soldiers they would have been on a charge sheet for their lack of precision.Facing the open door was a screen so that no one could see inside even when the door was open. We walked round the screen and we were met by Lord Mohan’s mother, Sadhna. She welcomed us in the local dialect, to which I responded, thanking her for the invitation. She bowed to us. We curtseyed back to her, spreading our crinolines and hoping that our concealed armaments wouldn’t clank or rattle. They didn’t.Lady Sadhna led us through to a large chamber. We were relieved to see that there was a row of European style chairs facing the clear dance floor. Beside each chair was a pile of cushions on which the zenana ladies would sit. The numbers were exactly equal, one zenana lady for each Englishwoman. Lady Sadhna and I were in the centre on a small platform raised a couple of inches above the main floor.Once we were seated we were offered drinks, which we declined. We responded with our flasks of gin. Our offer was declined too. That is the custom when first offered. We would be expected to accept when the drinks were offered again, but we knew better than to drink what we would be given.Lady Sadhna clapped her hands. Music started in an adjoining room, clearly heard where we were. Two dancing women entered, stood facing us, bowed before standing erect and still. Slowly they began to swap their hips in time to the music. Their navels and midriff were just visible under a translucent fabric. Heavily sequinned blouses covered their breasts and upper body. Their bright blue skirts shimmered with tiny mirrors as their hip movements made the skirts twitch slightly. The dancers began to sway from side to side, their skirts sweeping the floor. Two more dancers joined them as the rhythm of the music quickened. At that point the drinks were offered again. We accepted and Lord Mohan’s ladies accepted our gin. Some of them spluttered at the first taste. As the Archers had pre-arranged, we held the drinks as if we were too engrossed in the dancing. Lady Sadhna seemed irritated by our lack of thirst.One by one, as an opportunity arose, we emptied the drinks beside us, behind us, or anywhere we could. Some of us had not managed it when Marie, who had volunteered to be our test subject and had actually drunk some of what had been offered, showed signs of collapse. We took our lead from her and all of us began to slump, deliberately abandoning our gin flasks.Lady Sadhna clapped her hands twice. The dancers and music stopped abruptly. Each zenana woman inexpertly produced a knife and waved it at her English partner.Lady Sadhna spoke slowly and clearly in accented English.“You English have expressed too much interest in Lord Sanji’s zenana. You will be taken there to see what you couldn’t discover by your spies. Now!”We pretended to find it difficult to walk and leant heavily on the zenana women who struggled to support our much heavier bodies. Most had to put their knives away and use two hands. We appeared incapable of resistance, taking our cues from Marie.We had to be pushed and part carried up a flight of stairs and along a corridor. Lord Sanji’s zenana was above Lord Mohan’s, nowhere near the reported location. Once inside we were faced by a few women wearing knives who looked far more competent than the exhausted zenana ladies who had been dragging us along. We were dumped inside and Lord Mohan’s ladies staggered away, some sipping at our abandoned gin flasks.Under the threat of drawn knives we were forced up another staircase. We pretended to find it very difficult to mount. Marie had to be carried because her legs were not working at all.This staircase was narrow and circular. I thought it would be easy to defend against attackers from below. At the top was a small landing about ten feet square and a heavy locked door. One of the knife wielding women pushed past the crowd of us and unlocked the door, throwing it wide open. Like Lord Mohan’s zenana, there was a partition facing the door but a much larger space. We were all pushed inside and the door slammed shut behind us. We heard it being locked. Marie slumped down, leaning against the partition.I signalled to Anne, one the Archers, to go to the right of the partition. I pulled my revolver out of its hiding place but kept it concealed in the folds of my skirt as I cautiously peered around the end of the partition. I hadn’t expected what I saw.A line of women were sprawled on cushions to one side of the large chamber. All looked tired and drawn. In the dim light I began to recognise some of them as the missing noblewomen. I saw Bhavini. She recognised me. I put my finger to my lips.“There’s no need for silence, Jane,” Bhavini said. “We captives are alone in here. Our guards come once a day to bring food and water but we aren’t going anywhere.”She stood up. Only then did I see that she had a wide leather belt or corset around her waist. It was about a foot deep, ending just below her breasts. Fixed to the back of it was a chain, and that chain was attached to a long rail on the floor. Bhavini walked towards me. She had to stop about a yard from the partition, chained like a guard dog.“Can’t you get that off?” I asked stupidly. Anne and the others had joined me.“Of course we’ve tried,” Bhavini said tiredly, “but we have no tools except our fingernails, and they aren’t enough.”She held up her hands. Her nails, which would normally have been carefully manicured, were broken and torn. Bhavini turned round to show the back of the corset. It was wired together, possibly using pliers. “Archers!” I said loudly. “Use whatever you have to get these ladies freed.”Some of us had very sharp knives or daggers. It wasn’t easy but in a few minutes they had sliced through all the heavy leather corsets. The noblewomen started walking around freely.“Bhavini,” I said. “Your younger brother Hasit escaped. How?”I couldn’t see how Hasit could have got out of this chamber. The stone walls seemed solid except for a ten foot high partition marking off a corner.“Hasit!” Bhavini exclaimed. “I haven’t got a younger brother Hasit. I haven’t got any younger brothers. My brothers are older than me.”“Oh blast!” I exclaimed. “He must be a plant to lead us into a trap. Or rather not us. We walked into this one willingly. But it must be a trap for Pushpa or Harold.”I explained to Bhavini what her fake brother Hasit had said.“There were no c***dren with us when we were k**napped.” She said. “It was a women-only event, and we were given d**gged drinks. The next thing we knew we were in here, chained up, and feeling very unwell. We know we are somewhere in Lord Mohan’s palace, but not where in it.”“This is supposed to be Lord Sanji’s zenana,” I said.“Lord Sanji? I suppose it is. He’s through there with his ladies.” Bhavini said, pointing at the wooden partition. “We can talk to them, pass food and water to one of them who has the longest chain, but they can’t get out, nor could we get in. They are imprisoned too.”“So he’s not part of a plot to replace Queen Serena?” I asked.“Sanji?” Bhavini snorted. “Sanji is led by his lingam and nothing else. Whoever holds that in her yoni controls him. His ladies have been amusing themselves with him while we’ve been in here. We can hear them, and him. Sometimes I’ve felt sorry for him. He is ruled by his women and they can be demanding…”“He’s not ambitious?”“Ambitious? I think Sanji’s only desire at present is a couple of nights alone in bed. He’s worn out by trying to satisfy too many women. But when he’s recovered, they’ll be welcome back. All he wants is sex.”“Thank you, Bhavini. We’ll go in and release Sanji and his ladies.”“While you do, we’re going to use that well.”Bhavini pointed to a windlass on the far wall, which had been beyond the length of their chains. One of the women started hauling water up and they stripped to wash themselves thoroughly.Beyond the partition, which I and Anne had entered cautiously, there were eight chained women, a very large bed, and on it Lord Sanji was naked except for the leather corset around his waist. His lingam was standing proudly. Unlike the others, his wrists and elbows were cuffed to the sides of his corset with leather bands. His chain didn’t allow him to leave the bed. There were a couple of bedpans close to the bed, but he couldn’t have used them without help.Sanji tried to roll over to conceal his erection. His fetters impeded him but one of his ladies spread the pallu of her sari to protect his modesty. It wasn’t very successful because the material was tented by his upright lingam.“Ladies, and Lord Sanji,” I announced, “We have come to remove your fetters. We are all still imprisoned for the moment, but we can make you more comfortable.”Anne brought several of the knife-carrying Archers into the room. They cut through the ladies leather corsets to free them. I took one knife, and working with the lady who was protecting Sanji’s modesty, I cut the bands holding his wrist and elbow on one side, moved to the other side, and released that arm too. Sanji rolled to be face down as I cut through the back of the corset beside the wired lacing. His waist was reddened and sore from the chafing.Another Archer and one of Sanji’s ladies had cut a length from a spare sari, one of many in a heap beside the bed, to make a makeshift dhoti for Lord Sanji. Once dressed, he wanted to go through to the well. I stopped him, and sent Anne to check that the noblewomen were fully clothed again. They might have been said to be some of Sanji’s numerous zenana women, but they weren’t. It would have been very improper for him to see them naked.I let his ladies go to the well first, and then he washed his upper body. The Archers cut up some of the spare saris into long strips, having checked with Lord Sanji’s ladies that they weren’t special. The ladies assured us they weren’t. They were old saris that had been tossed in to them when they were first imprisoned. “Ladies, and Lord Sanji!” I called quietly but forcefully. “We are now, all of us, going to get out. Before we do, please go into Lord Sanji’s room until we come to get you. You will hear a loud noise. Don’t worry. You’ll be safe.”It sounded like a gaggle of geese calling as they all moved into the inner room with most of the Archers. Anne produced some small silk bags of gunpowder from inside her crinoline. Many of the Archers had similar bags.She pushed one bag as far as she could into the keyhole of the outer door, and two others into the small gap between the door and the frame. She made a hole in each bag and pushed a short length of quick match into each. She signalled for us to withdraw, produced a tinderbox and lit a small candle. With the candle she lit the quick match and ran to join us.Seconds later there were three loud bangs in fast succession. It would have been better if they had been simultaneous, but quick match burns erratically. The Archers armed with guns rushed to the doorway. The door had been shattered and blown outwards. The two women outside had been knocked down the stairs and were lying there groaning.There was a rush of the knife-armed women from below. They stopped suddenly when faced by a number of levelled guns. All of them were brought into the chamber, past the partition which was now lying on the ground, and into Lord Sanji’s inner room. There the Archers, the noblewomen and Lord Sanji’s women tied them up with the strips of sari. They were tied cruelly tight and effectively gagged. The women wanted revenge for their incarceration.We shut the door to the inner room and secured it as best we could with the chains formerly attached to the leather corsets. It wouldn’t hold them in for long, but first the women guards would have to free themselves from their sari bondage. Working together it would be possible. All we wanted was sufficient time to leave the building before the alarm was raised, hoping that the explosions hadn’t done that already.We bahis firmaları were fortunate. The sound of the gunpowder hadn’t travelled beyond the lower room. In silence we carefully followed one of Lord Sanji’s women who had been in these zenana buildings before. Within five minutes the whole crowd of us were in the open air and had met George’s cavalry. We crammed everyone into our carriages and drove the overloaded vehicles slowly and carefully back to the encampment. Once there it was as if we had upset an ants’ nest. Soldiers were rushing around erecting tents and building a fence to provide a protected area for the large number of rescued women.I went to report the successful rescue to Queen Serena and Lisa. They were delighted until I mentioned Bhavini’s fake brother Hasit.“Oh shit!” Lisa said. “Harold has been gone a couple of hours already, checking Hasit’s story. He must have walked straight into a trap.”“Ambika might be able to find out what has happened to him,” Serena suggested.She called Manika, who had been hugging her married sister, one of the rescued noblewomen, and asked her to fetch Ambika from the guard room.Once Manika had left I said quietly:“Hasit’s story shows that there is a spy in our camp. His story wouldn’t have been plausible if Pushpa had been with us. They must have known that Pushpa was busy escorting or interrogating Kali on Earth’s four priestesses. Pushpa would have disowned Hasit immediately.”“We ought to ask Hasit to explain himself,” Lisa said. “Is George about?”“He is still with the cavalry,” I said. “I’ll ask him to come.”George came back with me.“Hasit? The boy? I checked just before we left. He was asleep in my tent.”“Can you wake him and bring him to us?” Serena asked.“Is that fair?” George protested. “The lad was worn out.”“Please,” Serena said. “This is important.”“Very well, Queen Serena,” George said ponderously. “I’ll obey, even if I have to carry a sleeping Hasit.”George was back within minutes looking sheepish.“I fell for it,” he said. “The old trick of a bundle of blankets in a bed. He’s been gone for hours.”I explained to George that Hasit was a fraud intended to lead us into a trap, and Harold had probably fallen into it.“I wondered slightly,” George said. “Hasit’s insistence on seeing an officer was odd. I suppose they thought an officer would be more gullible than a cynical sergeant. They were right. I accepted Hasit’s story too readily.”Ambika arrived. Queen Serena explained about Hasit’s deception and our worries that Harold had become a victim again. Ambika agreed to try to discover, from the new map showing more passages that she had known, what, if anything, had happened to Prince Harold. She would disguise herself as a servant woman. With all the visitors to Lord Mohan’s palace, another servant woman would not be unusual, or noticed…….HAROLDAmbika was right. No one takes much notice of women and even less of servant women. That had been the downfall of the native conspirators in the first foiled plot that led to the deaths of the Rajah and his Ranee. I should have been more careful.My intention was to approach the steps described by Hasit openly. It might be after dark, but it wasn’t unusually late. I had climbed those steps several times when visiting the palace, so the only unusual thing I would have to do was to look underneath them.If queried, or challenged, I could use the story of looking for the Colonel’s mythical dog, Rover.Searching around the basement of the zenana would not be so readily accepted. I intended to conceal myself until the early hours before going anywhere near the basement of Lord Sanji’s zenana. One thing began to puzzle me. The building suggested by Hasit wasn’t where I thought the main zenana complex was. I had an impression that the zenana was entered from an inside courtyard and had no walls to the outside of the building complex, unlike the one Hasit described as Lord Sanji’s which was a projecting wing connected to the main palace by one wall only.Hasit’s description matched what was general knowledge about the whereabouts of Lord Sanji’s zenana. Perhaps it was in a different part of the palace because Sanji had brought many more women than a usual zenana complement? I might find out, later. But first, I had to look under the steps.I passed under a gateway into a courtyard lit by flaming torches on all four walls. A line of a dozen servant women were systematically sweeping the flagstones. Near the steps there was a light handcart piled with what looked like old clothes. Cleaning rags, perhaps?That handcart would shield me partially while I checked under the steps with the dark lantern I was carrying. I walked boldly towards the steps. The servant women parted, and bowed as I passed, before resuming their sweeping. The women were close to the steps but the steps were behind them. If they continued in the direction they were sweeping I would have ample time to duck under the steps and be out again before they turned round.I checked before jumping quietly down beside the steps. My dark lantern jammed slightly before opening. I couldn’t see where Hanit had come out. There had been a doorway there. I moved closer.The servant women piled on to me from both sides of the steps. My lantern fell as many bodies flattened me. A cloth was stuffed deep into my mouth and many hands restrained me. Within seconds my arms and legs were tied with long scarves. Another scarf was wrapped several times around my lower face, holding the gag in place. I was lifted out from under the steps and lowered to the handcart. They tied me to it, the last strip of material across my forehead. My eyes were still uncovered, and in the light of the torches a woman’s face appeared in front of me.“Greetings, Prince Harold,” she said in a surprisingly cultured voice. “We had hoped to catch someone in Hasit’s trap, but thought it might be Pushpa, or Ambika, or another of Serena’s women. We hadn’t expected such a prize as you. Lady Sadhna will be pleased with us. She will offer you her hospitality for a while, and you are in no position to refuse her kind invitation, are you?”Lady Sadhna? Oh shit! We thought she was against Lord Mohan’s plots, not supporting it, or even directing it. The Archers would be entering Lord Mohan’s zenana shortly, and Lady Sadhna will be there to greet them. Would they escape that trap? I hoped they wouldn’t prove as incompetent as I had been.Two small women took the handles of the cart. An old sari was d****d over my body and lightly knotted to the sides of the cart. I could still see the torches through the sari, but no details of where I was being taken. I heard the other women start sweeping again, probably hoping to catch more of us.I fumed against my own stupidity. Here I was, a helpless bundle, gagged and bound and wheeled away to an unknown fate by two tiny women I could have easily carried on each shoulder. If my wits had been about me I could have possibly fought off the whole dozen of the fake servant women, or at least have made my capture more difficult. But I had been defeated and captured because I had underestimated women, and assumed that servant women were beneath my notice. I heard the cart’s wheels rumble as we passed out under the archway. I tried to keep some idea of where we were going, but once out of the courtyard it was too dark for me to see anything through the sari over my eyes. I tested my bonds. They were too effective. I could wriggle my fingers, curl my toes, and that was all.Some minutes later, after crossing some cobblestones, we seemed to be in another building that was unlit, or so dimly lit that the light didn’t reach my eyes. Finally we passed through about four consecutive doors. I heard the hinges creak as they were opened and shut behind us. The last one was firmly locked once we were through.I heard a tinder box being used and then light came through. Several wall torches had been lit. The sari was untied at my head and pulled down from my face. I looked around as far as my eyes could turn. My head was held firmly in place.This was a low-ceilinged, mean chamber, probably part of the domestic quarters. There was no decoration on the ceiling and the upper parts of the walls, all I could see.Two women, not the ones who had been pulling the cart, but taller women dressed in finer clothing, appeared in my line of sight.“Comfortable, Prince Harold?” One said. “We will unload you shortly. We regret that Lady Sadhna cannot receive you at present. She is entertaining some of your Englishwomen for the next few hours. However we have devised some entertainment for you, or is it for us? Anyway, you cannot object, can you?…”Effectively gagged as I was, no, I couldn’t.The four women removed the sari and unfastened the bonds holding me on the cart. It was a struggle for them, but they carried me a short distance and put me on a large mattress on the floor. It was soft, and much more comfortable than the bare wood of the cart.“Now, Prince Harold, we are going to ensure you are properly dressed for your audience with Lady Sadhna. These strips of old sari are unbecoming for such a distinguished visitor. Our seamstress will take some measurements to make certain that your attire is correctly fitted…”One of the small women produced some lengths of string. She measured around my waist, about a foot further up my chest, around my wrists, elbows and ankles. She went to a heavy wooden chest and reached inside it. The taller woman who had been talking to me moved into my line of vision before I could see what was being taken out of the chest.“Your countrymen produce some useful tools,” she said. “These, for example.”She held up a pair of pliers.“These were made in Birmingham. The wire they are used on comes from Manchester. The chains? I don’t know. From somewhere in England. But the main items are made by our local craftsmen.”They untied and totally stripped me carefully. They gave me no opportunity to escape from my bonds as they gradually replaced the cloth strips with leather cuffs attached to a larger version of the leather corsets described by Jane. At the time, of course, I didn’t know that the k**napped ladies had been forced to wear them. The wire lacing at the back was tightened with the Birmingham pliers. The corset had attached leather cuffs put around my wrists and elbows, holding my arms to my sides. Those cuffs were also locked by the pliers. Finally they put leather cuffs on my ankles. There was a very short chain between them. If I could stand I might be able to shuffle a few inches at a time. I could move my hands two or three inches from my sides. I was still firmly gagged.I was embarrassed that their wandering hands had caused me to have an erection. Although their hold had been firm, their hands were soft, and their silken clothing had been brushing against me.“There’s one last English product, Prince Harold.”She held up a large padlock. She looked at it.“Messrs Chubb,” she read out. “Messrs Chubb will stop you roaming too far.”She uncoiled the chain from the back of the leather corset and took it to a heavy metal hasp embedded in the wall. The padlock linked the chain to the hasp. She locked it, took the key, threaded it on a piece of the string that had been used to measure me for my shackles, lifted the loop over her head and pointedly dropped the key into her cleavage.“While it might be interesting for you to try to retrieve the key, Prince Harold, I don’t think we have allowed you enough free movement to make such an attempt feasible.”She laughed at me.“There is no need for your so-far enforced silence to continue and we want you to have the use of your tongue.” She continued. “It would be pointless to shout for help. We are in the disused cellars of a redundant wing of the palace, the wing carefully described by Hasit as the place of imprisonment of the k**napped women. But they were never here. Anyone who might try to investigate around this wing will be intercepted by more servant women in larger groups than caught you. We had thought you, and or George might try to look in, so we provided enough women to overwhelm one or two fit men. They still could if there is any attempt to rescue you.”She gestured to one of the smaller women who moved to my head and carefully untied the scarf holding my gag in place before pulling the sodden cloth out of my mouth. The other small woman held a cup of water to my lips. I had to sip carefully, swill the water around, and swallow some before I was able to speak.“Thank you,” I said to the woman still holding the cup. She smiled at me.“Who are you?” I asked the taller lady.“Me? Or us?”“All four of you.” I replied.“Perhaps introductions are in order. I am Hamsa, one of Lord Mohan’s sisters.” Hamsa pointed to the other taller woman. “She is Tamira, one of my cousins. The lady with the cup is Deepal, one of my handmaidens. The lady who removed your gag is Banni, Tamira’s handmaiden. As well as being our handmaidens, Deepal and Banni are our friends.”“I wish I could say I was pleased to make your acquaintance,” I responded. “I might have been, in different circumstances.”“But that,” Said Tamira, pointing at my erection, “suggests that you are pleased to meet us despite your protestations.”I might have made a retort but my mouth was stopped by a kiss from Deepal. My lips responded despite myself. Deepal’s lips were sweet.“Deepal!” Hamsa spoke loudly. “Wait!”Deepal seemed reluctant to stop kissing me.“Deepal,” Hamsa continued, “remember, we want something from Harold first, and Banni starts.”Deepal moved aside.“Banni wants you to kiss her,” Tamira said.Banni lifted her sari and petticoat and stood astride me.“There!” Tamira said firmly.Banni lowered her yoni until it was an inch from my face. Her petticoat and sari dropped around me as my lips met hers. What could I do? Protest? Bite? Be forced? Lie back and think of England? Or enjoy the pleasant taste of a young woman’s yoni?Of course I chose to enjoy Banni, and to work towards making the encounter enjoyable for her too.She began to moan and groan above me and her movements became more insistent. She was close to an orgasm when my erection was suddenly engulfed in a warm wet place. I held back, trying to concentrate on pleasing Banni as Deepal pounded hard on my hips. I could tell it was Deepal. Hamsa or Tamira would have been a much heavier load.Soon Deepal was expressing her enjoyment as loudly as Banni. It was difficult to restrain my own excitement. If I hadn’t practiced holding back with Lisa, Serena and Pushpa, I would have been lost in Banni and Deepal’s ecstasy. My long experience of satisfying demanding women before allowing my own release was enough. The two of them shuddered almost simultaneously. I still held on. There were two as yet unsatisfied women.Banni uncovered my head. She and Deepal climbed off me.“Well, Prince Harold,” Tamira said, wonderingly, “I knew you were favoured of the Goddess, and there were rumours of your prowess, but I have never known anyone resist those two, particularly together. But the night is young…”Tamira straddled me to ease my erection inside her. I looked up to see Hamsa’s yoni descending towards my face.Soon I was back in action. Tamira and Hamsa had a slower rhythm than their handmaidens but it was just as effective at arousing me and them. The two of them were groaning loudly as they went through several orgasms. Finally they were done and I was covered in sweat, but still defiantly erect.But Banni claimed it. Within less than a minute of her frantic squirming I had ejaculated inside her. A smile spread across her face as she recognised her achievement.“Prince Harold,” Banni said, still straddling me, “you have proved why the Goddess favours you, but even you have a limit.”“Of course I have,” I replied. “I enjoy sex too, and I have been delighted to be introduced to you four. I just wish we were on the same side…”“I might wish that too, Prince Harold,” Hamsa said, “but as Lady Sadhna’s daughter and niece we have to support her aspirations for my brother.”I sighed.“What is wrong with Queen Serena ruling the country, with King Vishaladeva at her side?” I asked. “I would have thought as ambitious women you would have sympathetic to the changes she wants to make.”“I might not agree with making Lord Sanji a puppet king.” Tamira said. “He is nothing but a penis with a man attached. All his limited brains are down there. But my aunt wants her son, and his sons to be the real rulers. There are enough frightened men to support him.”“Men frightened of women,” I retorted, wincing as Banni climbed off. “They should welcome proud women standing beside them, not try to shut them up in zenanas as if they were dangerous a****ls.”“That will take generations to change,” Hamsa said. “We have to live with the reality of now, and now means women exert influence indirectly, as Lady Sadhna does, and will do. If we accepted women as rulers, then I might be the heir to Lord Mohan, with my husband as consort. But that would never happen. Our people wouldn’t accept me.”“Would Lord Mohan be a better puppet than Sanji?” I asked. “He is supposed to be the plotter. I’m beginning to think he’s not. He’s another puppet with his strings pulled by his mother, isn’t he? A puppet, just as you four are – doing her dirty work.”“Sanji would be better than Lord Mohan,” Banni blurted. The others were horrified by that statement.“Why?” I asked. “Why would sex-driven Sanji be better?”“I suppose there is no harm in telling you,” Tamira said. “Cousin Mohan, Hamsa’s step-brother…”I raised my eyes at the ‘step-brother’. Hamsa nodded.“…is unpleasant.” Tamira concluded.“More than unpleasant,” Banni said. “cruel, demanding, vicious.”“That’s enough!” Hamsa said. “We may not like him, but he is our Lord.”“If Queen Serena wins, he won’t be. What then? Who might replace him if he is removed?”“Removed?” Hamsa asked. “What do you mean, removed?”“What is the local penalty for treason?”I had said the unmentionable word. Hamsa’s face paled.“Treason? We are trying to get King Vishaladeva to rule alone, not commit treason.”“And in trying, you imprison him?”“He’s at your encampment, with Queen Serena. How can he be imprisoned?”“King Vishaladeva is NOT at the encampment. He is held somewhere in this palace, by Lord Mohan, or perhaps by Lady Sadhna, and has been for many days.”“But we saw him, beside Queen Serena…” Tamira started to say.“That wasn’t King Vishaladeva,” I interrupted. “That was Ranjit, pretending to be the King. Lord Mohan and Lady Sadhna must have known that he wasn’t the King. Are you saying that you didn’t know the King had been k**napped?”The four of them looked at each other. Their astonishment seemed genuine.“And he’s probably wearing one of these,” I added, rattling the chains at my wrists. “That alone could deserve the death penalty.”I was nearly as surprised as they were that they didn’t know about the King’s k**napping. No wonder we had been unsuccessful in finding out where he was held if the knowledge of the King’s k**napping was so secret.“How do we know you are telling the truth about the King?” Tamira said. “You could be lying.”“I’m not. You have my word as an English gentleman. King Vishaladeva was k**napped when he visited Lord Mohan. The only reason I am here, and the Company troops are here in force, is because the King has been imprisoned. Very few of us know. Most think Ranjit is the King. But you didn’t know? What did you know?”“We knew that some of the noblewomen had been brought here and imprisoned with Lord Sanji’s women in what was supposed to be his zenana,” Hamsa said. “We were told that they were hostages to try to persuade Queen Serena to let the King rule alone, as anyone we captured tonight would be.”“We didn’t expect to capture you,” Tamira added, “but thought you would be even more valuable as a hostage than the noblewomen. You are so important to Queen Serena…”“…and to the Company. Don’t forget them. Their troops are close and could use the heavy artillery to reduce this palace to a heap of rubble if they have to.”“But they wouldn’t!” Hamsa protested. “Not while we hold the noblewomen, you, and if we believe you, the King. They can’t run the risk of killing all those.”“Perhaps. If all you had captured was me – the Colonel might decide that I was expendable and he could order a bombardment anyway. But he can’t risk killing King Vishaladeva. If the King was rescued? The guns might start firing within minutes.”Hamsa and Tamira moved away from me and conducted a fierce argument in whispers. Banni and Deepal sat down beside me.Deepal whispered to me:“What will happen to us? Banni and I? We don’t want to be pulled apart by elephants or thrown to the sacred crocodiles. Nor do our colleagues who helped to capture you. We were just doing what our mistresses told us to do.”“We enjoyed you,” Banni added. “We don’t want you hurt. We don’t want to be killed for helping a plot we knew little about.”“I don’t know what will happen,” I replied. “Hamsa and Tamira should be even more worried than you are. You were following their orders. They have been lied to. If they had known that the King had been k**napped, would they have been in the conspiracy?”“No!” Deepal whispered fiercely. “They like King Vishaladeva, and Serena. The King is a good man and treats everyone he meets equally – even servant women like us that others ignore. We would be happy with him as King but who is King doesn’t really matter to us. We would still be servants, and have to obey orders.”“Hamsa and my mistress Tamira are obeying orders too,” Banni said. “Lady Sadhna’s orders. But now they are unhappy that they have been lied to.”Hamsa and Tamira ended their whispered conversation and came back. Deepal and Banni kissed me before standing up.“While we might accept that you are telling the truth, and might agree with some of what you say,” Hamsa said carefully, “we have a duty at present, and that duty obliges us to take you to meet Lady Sadhna. She will expect you to be gagged silent. You will be, but not as cruelly as you were before. Just don’t abuse our mercy by trying to speak. If you are not gagged effectively, please pretend that you are. Promise? Or we will stuff your mouth so full you could suffocate.”“I’ll promise, Hamsa,” I said. “That will be more comfortable for me.”“While you are with Lady Sadhna,” Tamira said, “we will try to confirm your statement that the King is imprisoned in the palace. If we do? We’ll have to think where our loyalties lie. That won’t be easy. Meanwhile, you are still our prisoner.”Deepal didn’t put any cloth in my mouth at all. She wound the long scarf over my lower face, tight enough to stay in place, but not cutting into me as it had done before.They loaded me back on the hand cart. Hamsa unlocked the chain from the wall and locked it to one of the side rails of the cart. If I could climb off and hobble away, I would have been dragging the cart with me. A different sari, of thicker opaque material, was tied over the whole of me. It didn’t restrain me but I was effectively concealed and in darkness.Deepal and Banni wheeled me away. I could hear Hamsa and Tamira walking beside me. One or other of them opened and closed the doors as we passed. From time to time a hand gently stroked me through my covering.Eventually we reached some stairs. I heard whispers before the whole cart was lifted and carried up the stairs. We went through several more doors before we came to a stop and I was uncovered. The padlock was opened. Hamsa and Tamira helped me to stand up. Deepal and Banni pushed the cart out of the room and returned.The four of them pushed and half carried me to sit me in a heavy chair facing an empty gaddi. The long chain was passed several times around me and though parts of the chair. The padlock was locked to the loops of chain at my waist. I might have been able to start to stand but not upright. The chain was too short for that. One by one the four women kissed me on the forehead. One of Banni’s tears dropped on my cheek.They left me alone in the empty room. I tried struggling. It was useless. I was pinioned too securely. My gag might be ineffective but I had promised to pretend that I was unable to speak. I’d keep that promise.I heard the door open behind me. Lady Sadhna sat on the gaddi facing me, flanked by two noblewomen I didn’t know. I nodded my head to greet them, the only movement my bonds permitted. I was acutely conscious that I was naked except for the leather corset. Deepal and Banni, who had followed the three women, stood either side of my chair. Banni was carrying the sari that had concealed me on the hand cart.Lady Sadhna made a gesture. Banni covered my lower body with the folded sari.“Well, Prince,” Lady Sadhna’s voice seem to sneer at the word ‘prince’, “Harold, we had not expected you to be snared in Hasit’s trap. He is a clever lad, isn’t he? Small for his age which can be useful. He is twelve years old but if necessary he can pretend to be much younger.”One of the women picked up a wine bottle from beside the gaddi. She poured a small amount into a glass. Lady Sadhna took the glass, sniffed at it as if it was obnoxious, and gave it back. The glass and bottle were replaced beside the gaddi.“That wine is d**gged. The Englishwomen who came this evening have drunk it, and they are my prisoners. Soon you might be drinking some. But not yet. You are another useful piece for bargaining with that upstart Serena. She will want you back, and those of her noblewomen who are enjoying our hospitality, restrained just like you. I will want a high price for you. What do you think I should ask?”I shook my head. I couldn’t answer. I was gagged. Even if I had been really gagged as I should have been, why should I answer anything? Were Jane and the Archers really prisoners? They might pretend to be, but I trusted them to foil any attempt to d**g them.“If you had searched for the basement suggested by Hasit, you would have been caught there. That trap is still active and maybe I will have more pieces of value before the end of this night. But first I want some answers from you.”I shook my head again.“Remove his gag,” Lady Sadhna ordered.Deepal stood between me and the gaddi and helped as Banni untied and unwound the scarf over my lips. She made a production of pulling the non-existent cloth from inside my mouth, and bundled the scarf as if that cloth was in it. They moved back to stand beside me.“Want a drink to moisten your mouth?” Lady Sadhna asked, pointing to the glass of d**gged wine.I shook my head and moved my mouth as if I was trying to regain the use of speech.“No? Not the wine? Then give him some water.”Banni went to a jug and poured some water into a glass. She made a point of sipping some, in my line of vision, but concealed from Lady Sadhna. I took the hint. The water was safe. Banni held the glass to my lips. I sipped and swallowed.“Thank you,” I said to Banni.She knew that my thanks were not just for the water, but for demonstrating it was safe to drink.“Good,” Lady Sadhna said, “you can talk.”“Yes, Lady Sadhna, I can talk, but why should I?”“Because you can be made to talk.”“About what? You haven’t asked any real questions.”“What do you know about my negotiations with Serena?”I looked pointedly at the four other women before answering.“I know things that you know; you know things that I know; but most of these things are not known to others.”“How obscure of you, but possibly true. Leave us!” Lady Sadhna ordered.The two ladies beside her looked startled. Deepal and Banni were already moving towards the door. The two noblewomen followed reluctantly, apparently unwilling to leave Lady Sadhna alone with me, even though I was helpless. It was unprecedented for a lady of her rank to be alone with a man who was not a close relative. But Lady Sadhna was above such trifles.“Well? We are alone.”“But perhaps overheard,” I suggested. “if you want me to talk freely we should still use discretion.”Lady Sadhna waved her hand as if dismissing the possibility.“I hold most of the counters – you, someone even more important to Serena than you, several of her women and now most of the Englishwomen. Neither Serena nor the Company dare attack me with force while I have such valuable hostages. She will have to comply with my reasonable demands…”She might have continued but one of the noblewomen ran back in. Lady Sadhna looked very annoyed. The woman whispered in her ear. Lady Sadhna was even more annoyed, furious.“Stay there, Harold! Of course, you have no choice. I’ll be back soon…”She rushed out of the room followed by her noblewoman. I heard the door being locked.I sat still. Lady Sadhna was right. I had no choice. I was shackled to that chair with no hope of escape. But perhaps my suggestion that we could be overheard was right?“Anyone there? Can anyone help me?” I asked in a loud voice.Silence. I tried again.“Anyone there?”This time there was an answer, a fierce “Shush!” from the wall behind me. I heard a faint grinding sound followed by soft footsteps. I turned my head. Ambika held a finger to her lips. She had a sharp knife in her other hand.She dropped to her knees in front of me and examined my bonds carefully.“Blast!” she whispered. “I’m sorry, Harold. I could cut the corset, the cuffs around your arms and legs, but not the chain. You’ll still be locked to that chair. Only the key would undo the padlock.”“And Hamsa has it,” I whispered back.“Hamsa? She’s part of the plot? I wouldn’t have expected that.” Ambika whispered.“She didn’t know about the King,” I replied. “She’s beginning to think she’s on the wrong side.”“We are winning. The Archers have found the k**napped noblewomen, Lord Sanji and his ladies who were captives too, and all of them are back at your encampment. You and the King are the only captives left.”“What happened to the zenana ladies who tried to d**g the Archers?”“I think they are finding the attractions of neat gin,” Ambika giggled. “I was close to their chamber on the way here. They were singing very rude songs about men. They were particularly rude about Sanji and Mohan…”Suddenly we heard a key in the locked door. Ambika dashed across the room to the secret passage behind a tapestry.The door was opened carefully. I saw Hamsa first. She was holding a finger to her lips. Tamira, Deepal and Banni followed her. Hamsa shut the door quietly and locked it on the inside.Hamsa whispered:“Prince Harold. You were telling the truth. The King IS a prisoner here. We’re not sure where yet, but we have an idea. I’m going to release you and we’ll try to get you out of the palace.”“I’ve brought your clothes,” Banni whispered as Hamsa took the padlock key from around her neck.Once the padlock was open the chain could be unwound.“I didn’t bring the pliers!” Hamsa wailed. You’re still shackled and can’t move fast enough.”“Hamsa?” I asked. “Are you saying you believe me, and you will help Queen Serena get her husband back?”“Yes. I don’t want anything to happen to the King. I would prefer him to rule alone, but beside Serena is better than the King being dead or a lifelong captive.”“Ambika!” I whispered loudly. “Our friends…” I emphasised the ‘friends’, “…need help.”“Friends?” Tamira queried.“Friends,” I repeated as Ambika approached us.“Ambika!” Hamsa exclaimed. “Our Chief Priestess of the Goddess?”Ambika bowed.“And my friend,” I said as Ambika started to cut the cuffs and corset from me.“I am pleased to meet your new friends,” Ambika said, kaçak iddaa “but you now have many more, Prince Harold.”“More?” I queried.“Yes. Lisa and Queen Serena have pardoned Kali’s four priestesses because of their help. They apologised for their treatment of you…”I couldn’t help myself blushing.“That sort of treatment?” Banni asked.I nodded as I started dressing myself.“Then I suppose your new friends should apologise too,” Hamsa said.“You didn’t?” Ambika said.“We did,” Tamira replied.“And you found out why he is favoured by the Goddess?”“Yes,” Deepal replied, echoed by Hamsa and Banni.“And Lisa declared Kali’s priestesses as her friends – all of them,” Ambika continued.“All of them?” I queried.“Yes, Harold,” She replied. “All. That’s about thirty women. Then your other friends are all my priestesses that follow the Goddess, about fifty, and Pushpa and her ladies…”Hamsa laughed. “Harold. You’ve got a larger following that Sanji ever managed. And so many priestesses? Are you sure you aren’t a God as well as a Prince?”I had finished dressing.“Sorry, friends, but we really should be elsewhere, soon!” I said. “If Lady Sadhna comes back, or someone unlocks that door, we’re in trouble. Ambika? Please get us out of here – fast!”Banni grabbed the bottle of d**gged wine as the six of us went behind the tapestry and through the open panel. A few yards inside there was a torch burning on the wall, and unlit torches beside it. We lit one each and followed Ambika through yards of passages, through concealed doors even though the passages themselves were secret. After the last door we went down a long circular staircase. A dozen or so steps creaked loudly. We went through an archway into a cellar. There were three identical archways around the walls. It seemed as if the cellar was used for many meetings. There was a battered table surrounded by old chairs, a well, some cooking utensils and a basic fireplace. An open chest held a heap of folded saris and other women’s clothing. I recognised wine boxes and several crates of bottled India Pale Ale. A pile of straw mattresses could have been used for sleeping.“We can talk here safely,” Ambika announced. “There are no spy holes near here. Anyone coming near us would be heard. All the accesses to this cellar have steps that make a noise. There is a way to leave silently, but not to enter.”“Do we know where the King is held?” I asked.“We don’t,” Hamsa answered. “We know that he is a prisoner, but not exactly where.”“I don’t, yet,” Ambika admitted, “we should know soon. There are many women prowling every part of the palace, my priestesses, and Kali’s followers as well. We suspect that the King might be near the stables – the elephant stables. As soon as they find exactly where he is someone will come to us. If they haven’t found him within the next hour we will get negative reports.”I walked over to the beer crates. I took a bottle and opened it. I had a thought as I poured it carefully into a pewter tankard.“Banni,” I asked, “why did you bring the d**gged wine?”“I thought it might be useful – for those guarding the King. If we could persuade them to drink it, we could rescue the King without harming the guards. Like us, they would only be following their orders and don’t deserve to die for that.”“That is a good idea, Banni, if we could find the King.”I lifted the tankard to my lips. The ale was at the ideal temperature and tasted like nectar.“Ambika, or any of you, do you know why there are so many secret passages? Who else knows of them?” I asked, idly.“All our palaces have some,” Hamsa replied. “I knew that there were a few but not how to use them. I had no idea there was one from Lady Sadhna’s chamber. I didn’t know this room existed.”“Nor did I,” Tamira said. “I knew of the Consort’s staircase that leads to Lord Mohan’s bedroom, but most women know about that. I knew there were spy holes in many of the main rooms but not how to get to them.”“I think only Priestesses knew how to use the passages,” Ambika added. “The Goddess’ priestesses that I lead knew some of them, the ones that have accesses in our temple. Kali’s priestesses had their own secrets including the Ride To Heaven. But in the last few hours we have found a couple of passages that neither group knew about, one obviously disused for years.This room was the meeting place for my priestesses. It is very old, under the original fort, and we think it was made by the architect for himself, just in case the then ruler was displeased with him. That archway…”Ambika pointed to one that seemed exactly the same as the other two, “…leads to a tunnel that goes right outside even the newer buildings. It has obviously been extended several times because the workmanship changes. The far exit is close to the bottom of a cliff by the river but well above any flood level. From the outside it looks just like natural stone. There are spy holes to check that no one is close by when you open that door.”We heard stairs creaking through one of the archways. A red-skirted priestess entered. She was one of those who had mounted me before I took the Ride To Heaven. She bowed to me. I returned her bow.“Prince Harold,” she said, “I am Kalini, one of Kali’s followers. I regret to say that we have met before.”“Welcome Kalini,” I said, blushing. “I recognise you but will forget our previous meeting. Now I greet you as my friend.”“She didn’t?” Banni said in a stage whisper.“She did,” Ambika replied.Kalini tried to keep a straight face, but failed as Banni and Deepal started giggling. She started giggling too.“I’m sorry,” she said eventually when she stopped giggling. “We think we have found roughly where King Vishaladeva is held. Ambika suggested the stables. They are nearer our temple than hers so we spread ourselves around the open rooms, and watched from a couple of spy holes for anything unusual happening.There was a sudden uproar and people rushing around, a few moving more purposefully in the direction of the stables. I think it must have been caused by your disappearance. We heard Lady Sadhna shouting angrily, but she was too far away for us to hear what she was shouting, except something about ‘idiotic drunken sluts’. It didn’t help that one of the elephants was continually trumpeting. I went as close as I could get to the stables and I looked from an upper window into the stable yard. The trumpeting elephant had broken out of its stable, with a chain still attached to its leg. It is a male, on heat, and trying to find a female. It started charging the door of a female elephant’s stall.Some of the mahouts were trying to restrain it, unsuccessfully, when the lad Hasit came into the yard. He tried to cross it to a small doorway. I’m sorry, Hamsa and Tamira, but Hasit was trampled by the elephant.”“I am not sorry at all,” Hamsa said emphatically. “He was Lady Sadhna’s pet and she was turning him into a very nasty copy of Lord Mohan. She wanted him to be Mohan’s successor. That would have been disastrous.”“We knew that Lady Sadhna used Hasit as a messenger,” Kalini continued, “but hadn’t suspected he was important enough to send to check on the King. I think that was what he was trying to do when he was killed.”“Is there any way of getting beyond the stable yard without passing the elephant?” I asked.“There might be, Prince Harold,” Kalini answered, “but we are not sure. There was a passageway under the stable yard. It isn’t secret, but the far end has collapsed. If the obstruction isn’t too large, we might be able to dig through. No one has bothered to clear the passage, because it is easier to walk across the yard – except when there is a sex-mad elephant in it.”“We ought to get there and see if we can clear a way through, before Lady Sadhna’s people get past the elephant,” I said.“We?” Kalini asked, “We can. You can’t, Prince Harold. Most of Lord Mohan and Lady Sadhna’s people are searching for you. The passageway is not secret, nor the way to it.”“She’s right,” Hamsa said. “We can’t risk you being captured again. The King is the last, but most important, asset that Lady Sadhna and Lord Mohan hold. You’ll have to stay here.”I looked at the chest with the pile of saris. Tamira noticed.And we couldn’t disguise you as a woman,” Tamira said. “You are too tall.”“You wouldn’t get more than a few yards beyond a secret passage, Prince Harold,” Kalini added. “Although few people usually notice servant women, nor priestesses, there are far more women dressed as servants who aren’t, and almost all the priestesses are wandering around. Everyone is becoming suspicious of everyone else.”“That goes for you too, Lady Hamsa and Lady Tamira.” Kalina said. “We have overheard suspicions raised about your role in Prince Harold’s escape. It would be safer if you stayed here with Prince Harold.”“What about Banni and me?” Deepal asked.“You too. You are known as your mistresses’ friends as well as handmaidens. You are less likely to be sought after, but you could be. You might be tortured to reveal where Prince Harold and your mistresses are.”“Ouch!” Banni said. “We wouldn’t enjoy that. We’ll stay and look after Prince Harold, and our mistresses.”“That sort of looking after?” Ambika asked. “I think I should stay too. I might be needed to act as the contact point because the others can’t leave here.”“That’s a good idea,” I said. “Ambika could be our messenger.”“Then I’ll leave you now,” Kalini said. “If we can get a dozen or so priestesses down under the stable yard we should be able to work out whether we can clear the passageway, or whether it is completely impassable.”Banni held out the bottle of d**gged wine.“Take this, Kalini,” Banni said. “It is d**gged. If you can persuade the King’s guards to drink it…”“And this,” Ambika said, handing over her knife. “You might need to cut the King free of his bonds.”“You trust me with your knife?” Kalini was surprised.“And with the King’s life,” I said. “You are our friend.”Kalini nodded as if she couldn’t believe it. She left the chamber.“Well, Prince Harold,” Banni said. “All we have to do now is wait. While we are waiting, we five of your friends are ‘looking after’ you. I think we need another demonstration of how favoured you are by the Goddess. We do, don’t we?”The other four nodded. I sighed.“It seems that I have been outvoted. What Princess Lisa would say…”“You know what she would say,” Ambika answered. “Enjoy yourself!”“And I haven’t enjoyed you properly,” Hamsa said.“Nor have I,” said Ambika, “but Ladies take precedence over Priestesses”.They dragged the mattresses to make a large bed, spread saris over it and pushed me to the centre.Ambika lifted her flowing skirts and lowered herself towards my face. Banni and Tamira undressed my lower half. My lips and tongue were already deep into Ambika’s welcoming yoni when Hamsa lowered herself to slide my lingam into her yoni.As they synchronised their thrusts Ambika’s skirts sometimes allowed me to see above me. Deepal was standing behind Ambika and caressing her breasts. Banni was doing the same to Hamsa. Tamira had one hand on Ambika’s shoulder and the other on Hamsa’s. As they were on the downward stroke she pushed down too.Tamira soon saw they didn’t need her help. She moved behind her handmaiden Banni, stripped her to the waist, put her hands on to Banni’s breasts, and her head over Banni’s shoulder. Banni turned to meet Tamira’s lips.Ambika was the first to reach her orgasm. Deepal increased her breast massage as Ambika screamed her enjoyment, suddenly silenced with Deepal’s mouth. Hamsa was shaking with her ecstasy and I was feeling battered but enjoying the attentions of two women. I had to prove that I was ‘favoured by the Goddess’ so I held back even as their movements became more frantic. Eventually Ambika then Hamsa slowed and stopped. Ambika slid backwards, resting behind my head which was still hidden under her skirt. Hamsa lifted the hem and looked down at me.“Are you ready again, Harold?” She asked.I nodded. I wasn’t sure I could speak.Hamsa and Ambika swapped positions and my trial began again. The two women became excited much quicker this time and I was able to hold on until they had finished. They climbed off. Tamira claimed my slick but still erect lingam. Banni and Deepal pressed their naked breasts around my head, each trying to get a nipple between my lips.As Tamira worked herself up to frenzy I managed, with the help of my hands, to get two nipples, one each from Deepal and Banni, into my mouth and suck. Even then they didn’t stop competing to see how much of a breast they could cram in.I was concentrating so hard on trying to breathe with a mouth full of breasts that were sometimes covering my nose, that Tamira wildest movements were not likely to make me reach my own climax. Eventually Tamira was satisfied. She sat back.“What now?” she asked. “He’s still erect.”“He won’t be,” Banni said. “He might have proved that he is favoured by the Goddess, but I am favoured by men. Let me at it.”Tamira climbed off me. The other four women pressed their naked breasts against any part of my body they could reach. Banni brought her head close to my hips, opened her mouth, and took my lingam deep inside. Her head began to bob up and down. I soon believed her. She was ‘favoured by men’!Even so, my erection had been so used that it took Banni at least five minutes to produce the final reaction she wanted. All six of us rested in a heap of entwined bodies….While I, and we, recover, Jane will continue her account….The Archers and I were back at the encampment with the rescued noblewomen, with Lord Sanji and his ladies. We had found out that Hasit had lied, fled, and that Harold was walking into a trap. Ambika had gone back to find out what had happened to Harold, and to try to find where the King was being held. We suspected that we had a spy among us. We sat in the guard room where Kali’s four priestesses had been imprisoned. They were now our friends, trying, with Ambika and her priestesses of the Goddess to save King Vishaladeva, and probably Harold because we were sure Harold had been captured checking Hasit’s story.We were me, Jane; Lisa; Queen Serena; Pushpa; and Pushpa’s rescued cousin Bhavini. We were all feeling slightly frustrated that we didn’t have a more active role at this stage. All we could do was wait for information from those searching Lord Mohan’s palace.George and his troops were on high alert despite the late hour. The boundaries of the encampment were tightly guarded and patrols were out between the encampment and the palace. There had been encounters between Company troops and Lord Mohan’s, but they had been friendly encounters, exchanging formal greetings between officers. Both sets of soldiers were more concerned with suspicious civilians than each other.It was apparent that Lord Mohan’s troops weren’t aware that the Archers had ‘escaped’. They knew they had visited Lady Sadhna, and had returned. Why not? They hadn’t noticed that the numbers of women returning had been much more numerous, and that Lord Sanji was among them. Even if they had, what did that matter? Lord Sanji was supposed to be a friend and ally of Lord Mohan. His movements were apparently unrestrained.That was the difficulty of keeping the information of a plot to a select few. Most of Lord Mohan’s people had no idea that the King had been k**napped, nor that Lord Sanji’s zenana held him captive with the k**napped noblewomen. George had explained that Lord Mohan’s troops were wary of Company troops but not hostile. Their instructions had been to test the alertness of the Company troops, to use them as a test enemy for exercises in patrolling, but not to attack them. Of course, if their officers had ordered an attack, they would have obeyed. But they would have known that although they were numerically superior, they were outgunned in small arms technology and seriously weaker in modern artillery. They had none of the heavy bullock-hauled guns.“Bhavini and I,” Pushpa said, “think we have found the spy in our midst. Bhavini?”“This is difficult for me,” Bhavini said. “Pushpa explained that you, Queen Serena, still trusted her despite my imprisonment. Lord Mohan and Lady Sadhna sent messages to Pushpa threatening to torture me unless Pushpa cooperated with them. You, Queen Serena, told Pushpa to send messages that were partly true and partly misleading.”“I didn’t know that,” Lisa said.“It was unimportant,” Queen Serena interrupted. “I trusted and trust Pushpa. Prince Harold and Princess Lisa convinced me that was essential. Bhavini?”“Another woman was threatened, like Pushpa. Her sister-in-law was among those captured. The two women had been friends for years before the captured woman married the brother. Pushpa didn’t know the relationship, nor its importance, and thought all her ladies were trustworthy. But one was sending information to Lady Sadhna, via the boy Hasit. He had disguised himself as a beggar boy and was often near the encampment to collect information from her.”“And the woman who was blackmailed is?” Queen Serena said ominously.“Queen Serena, please,” Pushpa said, “she was unfortunate, not evil. Before Bhavini says who she is, remember that only your great trust saved me from doing the same.”“Pushpa is stronger than most,” Lisa said. “She wouldn’t betray you, Serena. But not all are as strong as Pushpa.”Queen Serena relaxed slightly.“I suppose you two are right. I appreciate the loyalty of my ladies but maybe one or two could not face their friends being tortured. But we have them all back now – except my husband and Harold.”“That is why we know the identity of the spy,” Pushpa said. “As soon as she saw her sister-in-law she burst into tears, came to Bhavini and I and confessed.”“It was Manika.” Bhavini said bluntly.“Manika?” Lisa was obviously thinking fast.“Yes, it was Manika,” Pushpa said. “If it had to be any of my women, Manika was probably the best, or least worst, for us. She didn’t know the potential of the Archers until they returned with the rescued ladies. She thought that Kali’s plot had been foiled by Ambika’s priestesses, without the Archers. She wasn’t able to see Hasit after the interrogation of Kali’s priestesses, nor the results, so the plotters wouldn’t know that Kali’s followers are helping us. Even if she had, she might not have told Hasit.She had been telling them the minimum. She did tell Hasit that Ambika and I were busy with our captives. That allowed him to get away with telling George the false information.”“Are you saying, Pushpa, that Manika was trying to protect her sister-in-law AND us?” Queen Serena asked.“As far as she could,” Pushpa replied. “She was giving information about the Company troops that was already known and telling Hasit she was a minor player who didn’t know what we in this room were doing.”“She wasn’t minor, was she?” Lisa said.“Unfortunately, no, she wasn’t.” Pushpa replied. “It was fortunate, and accidental, that she wasn’t aware of the Archers capabilities. A stray word, and she would have known. Even so, I ‘m fairly sure she wouldn’t have told Hasit. The Archers were our best hope of rescuing the k**napped noblewomen including her sister-in-law.”“Hasit was playing a major role for a seven or eight year old,” Lisa said.“Seven or eight?” Bhavini exclaimed. “Hasit is twelve, at least. He’s small but can pretend to be younger than his real age. As Lady Sadhna’s messenger, he’s much older than twelve in duplicity. He’s made no secret that she wants Hasit to be Lord Mohan’s successor. We’re not even sure that Hasit is his real name, he lies so often.”“The plots and counterplots are getting too complicated,” Lisa protested. “We know that King Vishaladeva is imprisoned by Lord Mohan, or Lady Sadhna, but very few others know that because they think Ranjit is the King and with us. We didn’t know about the plot by Kali-on-Earth that captured Harold and Ambika. We thought that was part of Lord Mohan’s plot, but although he must have known of it, and encouraged, and perhaps helped it, it wasn’t his idea.Harold has friends, us, Ambika and her priestesses, the Archers, George and his Company troops, yet he has probably walked into a trap triggered by the boy Hasit who isn’t what he seems to be.We thought Lord Sanji was a major player in Lord Mohan’s plot but he wasn’t. He was a prisoner too, and destined to be a puppet Rajah.We thought Lady Sadhna was on our side. She wasn’t. Now we know she may be, and probably is, the leader, intending Lord Sanji to replace the King until Hasit, or whatever his name is, is old enough to rule.According to George, Lord Mohan’s troops are not hostile to us, except perhaps Lord Mohan’s palace guards who are a separate body responsible directly to him, not to Mahaj, the commander of the regular troops.Kali’s followers were our enemies. Now they’re not, they’re our friends because they support the King, but not Queen Serena.The noblemen are worried that women are getting too assertive…”“They will have more reason now,” Bhavini interrupted.“Why?” Lisa asked irritably. Lisa was showing the stress of sitting around doing nothing. Lisa wants to be in the middle of the action, preferably at Harold’s side. She was obviously worried about Harold. In the mood she was in, if she had met Lord Mohan now, Lisa would probably have torn him apart with her bare hands.“Lord Sanji’s ladies are not noblewomen,” Bhavini said. “While the k**napped noblewomen knew that they were hostages and would be traded for advantage, Lord Sanji’s ladies were chosen by him for their attractiveness. They thought they would be killed once Lord Sanji had agreed to be Lord Mohan’s puppet.”“What has that got to do with assertive women?” Lisa asked brusquely.“A lot,” Bhavini replied. “They felt they had nothing to lose. Lord Sanji was a boring sexual partner. He was always on top in the missionary position. He wouldn’t experiment or change. Any of his women who tried to persuade him to try something new was punished, sometimes by a whipping from his official wives.His wives were part of Lady Sadhna’s plot, and were controlling Lord Sanji before he was imprisoned. They were some of the knife-carrying women keeping us imprisoned. Lord Sanji’s women tied them up very tightly as revenge for their harsh treatment by the wives. But it is what the women did to Lord Sanji that might be a problem.”“What did they do?” I asked, seeing that Lisa was getting impatient.“We had an idea from the sounds coming from the inner room. During the first day Lord Sanji was objecting, and after a couple of hours his objections ceased. We thought he had been gagged. He had been. But we didn’t know the details until now. The women have been talking to us. First, they insisted on riding him. Because he was unable to use his hands and arms, he couldn’t resist even one of them, but he tried, until several of them held him down.They wanted him to kiss and use his tongue on their yonis. He tried to bite, but was slapped when he did. We heard the slaps. He was persuaded to cooperate, and his head was pushed between a woman’s legs and held there. By the time he was rescued he was pleasuring all eight of them at least twice a day, and ridden by four or more of them consecutively, sometimes one rubbing her yoni in his face while the other used his lingam.He is sulking in his tent and refuses to see any of his women. He is talking about them as ‘heartless bitches’, worse than his wives.”“If that information gets out,” Queen Serena said, “it will worry those who are already concerned about our women getting too assertive. Can we keep it quiet? Who knows?”“I do,” Bhavini admitted. “So do the Archers and the k**napped noblewomen.”“But they are our supporters,” I said. “If asked, they would keep it a secret.”“They would. Pushpa, please go and tell the noblewomen that what happened to Lord Sanji is not to be told to anyone else,” Queen Serena ordered.“Pushpa, please tell the Archers, the same from me,” I asked.Pushpa left.“But what about Lord Sanji and his women?” Serena asked.“Lord Sanji?” Bhavini said. “I don’t think he would want it known. His women? They are worried that he might take revenge on them. I don’t think he will. Apart from the sexual humiliation, they looked after him, gave him food and water and attended to his basic human needs. They cared for him in a way that his wives would never have done. They are afraid that they will be executed.”“I’m not going to,” Queen Serena said, “and Lord Sanji is a guest in our camp. He can’t arrange an execution while he is here. We might have freed him from his imprisonment in Lord Mohan’s palace, but he isn’t free to do what he likes. He is still apparently part of Lady Sadhna’s plotting, and his wives certainly are. He is a guest, but can’t leave.”“I don’t think he would want to,” Bhavini said. “His wives had been his jailers, even before he was really imprisoned. He was controlled by them, and they were and are Lady Sadhna’s creatures. If he left, he would be his wives’ puppet again. His eight women are really his friends, even if they used him more than he wanted. They like him but want him to be more considerate in sexual things. Perhaps they did too much to him, too soon, but they thought they didn’t have long to live.”“Can we make sure they don’t talk to anyone else?” Queen Serena asked. “It is bad enough that we, the Archers and the noblewomen know. It could be disastrous to our reign if their treatment of Lord Sanji became generally known.”“One way,” I suggested, “would be to tell them that they won’t be executed IF they keep quiet. Lord Sanji’s reputation is that of a sexual athlete who has a larger zenana than most. If that myth could continue…?”“Bhavini, please tell them that. They will live as long as they continue to pretend that Lord Sanji is a randy young goat.” Queen Serena ordered.Bhavini left on her errand. Queen Serena, Lisa, and I were forced to wait for news, from anyone. Queen Serena and Lisa were very irritated by their inaction, but what could they do? We had rescued the noblewomen, Lord Sanji and his women, but Lord Mohan or Lady Sadhna still held the King, and probably Harold as well.Even when Pushpa and Bhavini returned to confirm that the noblewomen, the Archers, and Lord Sanji’s women would keep the secret of his unfortunate experiences, it didn’t lighten our mood of worried frustration.Bhavini tried to amuse us by giving more details of what his women had done to Lord Sanji, but we weren’t really paying attention. She added that Lord Sanji had asked for one of his women, so perhaps he wasn’t as angry with them as they thought….HAROLD… While Queen Serena, Lisa, Jane and the others at the encampment were waiting for news, I had been demonstrating why I am ‘favoured by the Goddess’ while we too waited for developments. I think I was enjoying myself more than they were.We heard the stairs creak and one of Kalini’s priestesses entered. She went straight to Banni.“We have broken through the collapsed passageway and have seen the two guards,” the priestess said. “They were discussing women and both of them agreed that Banni was the best they had ever known.”“I told you I was ‘favoured by men’,” Banni announced proudly.“Kalini thought that if you went to the guards, they would take the d**gged wine from you better than from a priestess they didn’t know. Please, Banni?”“Won’t she be at risk?” I asked. “If she is known to be Hamsa’s handmaiden…”“Not if she is dressed as one of Kali’s priestesses. I’ve brought a spare set of robes.”Banni made an exhibition of stripping. She seemed to have practiced it. Despite my tiredness, Banni’s writhing body produced a response in my loins. She left with the priestess.“Hamsa, some time ago you said that you might be Lord Mohan’s heir if women were accepted as rulers. Why?” I asked.“I am the next in line. I couldn’t rule but a son of mine would take precedence after any sons Mohan had, and he hasn’t had any yet, not by his official wives nor his concubines. He has no c***dren at all.”The priestess was back in about quarter of an hour.“Banni made it look so easy,” she said admiringly. “We approached the guards, who greeted her like a long-lost friend. They tossed a coin to decide who Banni should be with first. I passed the d**gged wine to the loser, who took a large gulp of it. The winner’s lingam was in Banni’s mouth. He might not have noticed when the other guard slumped to the floor, but in case there was a sound I caught him and stifled his outcry with my hand and a fold of my skirt.Banni held out her hand for the bottle as the first guard reached his climax. She passed it to him, and within seconds he was u*********s too. I called Kalini and the other priestesses while Banni searched the guards for the key to the room they were guarding. They didn’t have it. Banni had stripped them naked to make sure.The elephant was still rampaging in the courtyard and trumpeting loudly. We used the tools we had brought to dig the passageway clear and broke the door down. Inside there was another locked door, but less sturdy. That was down in seconds.The King was restrained, naked, by a leather corset with cuffs around his wrists, elbows and ankles, and chained to the wall. Kalini cut him free with Ambika’s knife.The King seemed confused by the sudden incursion of so many women. Banni persuaded him to wear one of the guard’s uniforms and was dressing him when I left. When he and the others get here we need to leave as fast as we can. The elephant won’t hold the guards up forever.”A few seconds later Banni came into the room followed by the King, Kalini and several of Kalini’s priestesses. He recognised me but still seemed unable to work out what was happening.“I think he was d**gged continually,” Kalini said, He doesn’t really know what has happened to him. We need to get him away…”Ambika led the way down the long passageway that went outside the palace. I was helping the King on one side, with Banni on the other. It took ten minutes to get to the exit. Ambika opened the door quietly and peered out through the concealing bushes. She came back, holding her finger to her lips and signing for us to move back down the passage. The King started to ask what was happening. He was startled when Banni covered his mouth with her hand and whispered “shh!” in his ear.“Mahaj and his officers are just outside the entrance,” Ambika whispered. “We can’t get out without passing them.”“He won’t be a problem,” Hamsa whispered back. “I’ll just tell him to escort the King.”“Just tell him?” I queried.“Tell him,” Hamsa insisted. She laughed. “He is my husband!”Hamsa slipped out. I don’t know what she told her husband, but the King was greeted with salutes. Mahaj and some of his officers took the King to George and his patrol that were encamped a few hundred yards away. George sent a mounted trooper to bring some carriages for the King and the rest of us. Meanwhile George’s troops and Mahaj’s set up a perimeter to make sure none of Lord Mohan’s palace guards got near.Hamsa and Mahaj were urgently conferring. I assume she was telling him as much as she knew. I could see that Mahaj was surprised, but when the carriages arrived, his troops were part of the escort as we travelled to the encampment.Queen Serena hugged King Vishaladeva fiercely. He knew who she was. She bundled him off for a cool bath and to bed, to recover.Mahaj joined our council of friends. He told us that he was waiting for Hamsa. He knew there was a passage that came out where he was waiting, but not exactly where. He kaçak bahis had posted some troops in that area, and that patrol would stay there. He knew, but hadn’t been told officially, that Hamsa and Tamira were being sought by the palace guards. At the time, he didn’t know why, but thought he might be next for arrest so he had stayed out of the palace, surrounded by his troops.He had no idea that the King had been k**napped and held in the palace and was horrified at the state the King was in. While he had originally been uncertain about the rule of Queen Serena, he had been repelled by those opposing her, and had been persuaded that Serena’s rule was better than the late Rajah.Now that the King, and Prince Harold, were free, we all thought that there would be consequences for Lord Mohan and Lady Sadhna. But we couldn’t act without Queen Serena, and she was more concerned about Vishaladeva than revenge. That might change.Kalini and Ambika went back to the palace to see what they could find out. Had the King’s rescue been discovered?Mahaj went back to his troops surrounding the palace, supported at a reasonable distance by many of the Company’s troops. We didn’t want bloodshed, but we didn’t want the palace guards trying to recover the King. They wouldn’t be able to get through both encirclements.I wasn’t taking much notice at the time. Lisa was all over me, trying to make up for the time we had been apart. She dragged me off to our tent for frantic coupling. We emerged a couple of hours later just before Kalini and Ambika returned. Hamsa and Tamira had gone to a tent to catch up on their sleep. Jane had also retired for some rest.Lisa and I returned when we heard that Ambika and Kalini were back. We left Jane sleeping.Ambika spoke for both priestesses:“As soon as we reached the palace, something was obviously wrong. There were no priestesses anywhere. One of my priestesses called out from a spy hole, telling us to get out of the public rooms immediately.Apparently the elephant was to be killed by order of Lady Sadhna. The mahouts objected and let the female elephant out of her stall. While the elephants were coupling the palace guards were able to cross the stable yard. They found the naked d**gged guards, the broken doors, and the King gone. They searched the building and found the cleared passageway, but there the trail ended, because the King had walked through open rooms dressed as a guard escorting priestesses. A guard had seen him, thought it odd that a guard had to be supported by priestesses, but assumed he was ill, or drunk and didn’t want to get a fellow guard into trouble.One of the d**gged King’s guards recovered enough to identify Banni, dressed as one of Kali’s priestesses, with another priestess.Lady Sadhna ordered all priestesses to be arrested, but they had all vanished. The secret passages and rooms were crammed with frightened women, watching as the guards rushed around.Kalini and I ordered that the priestesses should go to the chamber the King had left from. While she went out through the passageway to see Mahaj, I sent some of my priestesses around the palace to get everyone out.Mahaj’s troops let the priestesses pass but stood ready to block any guards trying to follow. We had about eighty priestesses between Mahaj’s troops and the Company troops before anyone in the palace noticed. George set all the priestesses this way, under escort, but provided a carriage for us two, so we could warn you to expect an invasion of women. Some of his officers have roped of an area in the centre of the encampment, and tents are being erected for the women.”“Once the priestesses were safe,” Kalini said, “I went back, disguised as a servant woman. One of my cousins IS a servant woman, and we look alike, so it was a risk worth taking. I met her in the kitchens and asked what she knew, if anything. She didn’t know for certain, but the rumour was that Lord Sanji had been imprisoned and had escaped with a group of women, but they didn’t know who. What the servants did know was that the guards had been ordered to check every woman they didn’t know, to arrest any priestess or pretended priestess, and that Lady Sadhna was very, very angry. I didn’t think it was safe for me, or for my cousin, if I stayed, so I came away. As we left Mahaj’s lines the alarm bell was sounding in the palace.”“What should we do?” I asked rhetorically. “The palace is encircled by two layers of soldiers, all the captives, and all our friends, are free and in our encampment, and that is defended far beyond the capacity of Lord Mohan’s palace guards to attack. Even if Mahaj wanted to breach our defences, he couldn’t, but he is supporting the King and Queen anyway.”“I don’t like saying it,” Lisa responded, “but I think all we should do is wait. Again. I have waited too much today, but we hold all the cards. Lord Mohan and Lady Sadhna have lost all their captives and have no one they can punish because everyone involved is here. What happens to the plotters is for Queen Serena to decide, when and if they are in her power.”Mahaj arrived to confirm that his troops were still in position but hadn’t been approached.“I don’t like asking,” I said slowly, “but I think we need to know what is happening in the palace. We need some eyes and ears in there. Ambika, Kalini, do you think you could get back in and observe without being caught?”“I’m sure we could, Prince Harold,” Ambika replied, “but two of us would not be enough. There are so many secret places that have spy holes that we need more than two if we are going to work out what is happening. What do you think, Kalini?”“I agree. I think we need at least ten of us. We could ask for volunteers among our priestesses. Prince Harold is right. We need to know. We can’t remain ignorant. Lady Sadhna and Lord Mohan might seek retribution on those still there.”“Thank you,” I said.“I will come with you,” Mahaj said, “and give orders that you are allowed to pass in and out of the palace.”The three of them left to arrange for volunteers and for Mahaj’s troops to protect them.A lady arrived with a request for Pushpa to go to Queen Serena. Shortly afterwards Queen Serena joined us.“The King is sleeping,” she said. “I have asked Pushpa to have some of her ladies watching him, and looking after him if he wakes up. He is still suffering from whatever d**gs they used.”I explained that Ambika and Kalini, and some priestesses, were on their way back to the palace to find out what was happening there.“That was a good idea, Harold,” Serena admitted. “I am pleased that Mahaj and his troops support our rule, even if they are happier with a joint rule rather than me alone. That is a good sign. If we can minimise the effect of this plot, perhaps people will get used to me over time.”“What will you do when we arrest the plotters?” I asked. “The Colonel…”“The Colonel doesn’t need to know!” Serena exploded. “I’ll deal with them, but the official line for the Colonel will be that they committed suicide. I can’t forgive them for what they did to my husband.”Serena was on the point of tears. I opened my arms and gave her a hug. Only a Prince can take such liberties with a Queen. Lisa joined the hug.Somehow one thing led to another and all three of us were kissing. The two women stripped me and soon I was on cushions on the floor. Queen Serena’s bare yoni was poised above my face and lowered to meet my tongue. She wriggled and writhed above me as I struggled to breathe while giving her as much pleasure as I could. Lisa was sitting astride me, her hands on Serena’s breasts, as they kissed. They changed places. My mouth was covered by Lisa’s lower lips as Serena lowered herself on to my erection. I was having to prove, yet again, why I was favoured by the Goddess. Serena juddered into several orgasms as I held on. The two of them must have agreed that it was time. How, I don’t know. I was concentrating on breathing as I probed my wife’s yoni with my tongue, and was hidden under her wide-spreading skirt. Both of them thrust downwards. My lingam went deeper into Serena and I could hold on no longer. They climbed off me and snuggled on either side, their breasts pressed to both of my cheeks. I drifted off to a comfortable sleep, surrounded by two women I loved.I woke up to the sound of voices. My nakedness was covered by a spread sari. Ambika and Kalini were talking. I sat up, wrapping the sari around me. Lisa stood in front of me, hiding me with her crinolined skirt as I dressed hurriedly.I hadn’t missed much. Kalini had been explaining how they had distributed the priestesses around the secret areas of the palace, leaving one in the basement chamber as the information point. The two of them had gone to the spy hole overlooking Lady Sadhna’s chamber. As they arrived, Lord Mohan had been carried in by some of the knife-wielding women, among them Lord Sanji’s official wives.“Lord Mohan had been tied, right hand to left ankle, left hand to right ankle, and gagged,” Kalini continued. “He was put down facing the gaddi. Lady Sadhna came in and shouted at him. She was accusing him of incompetence and treachery to her. Of course he couldn’t answer. She kicked him several times until he fell over. She continued to berate him, saying that everything she had done was for him.”“Another woman rushed in.” Ambika said. “She whispered in Lady Sadhna’s ear. We couldn’t hear what was said, but Lady Sadhna ordered the women to search for priestesses. All the women left, except Lady Sadhna and the woman who had just arrived. Lady Sadhna kicked Lord Mohan again before she and the woman left too.”“We seized the opportunity,” Kalini added. “We opened the secret door, rushed out, roughly blindfolded him and dragged Lord Mohan inside. Once the door was shut we blindfolded him more effectively. Ambika went off to find some more priestesses. When she returned with help we carried the bound, gagged and blindfolded Lord Mohan down to the basement chamber, along the passage and outside.”“I sent one of the priestesses to get a carriage from George’s troops.” Ambika said. “We concealed Lord Mohan with several saris wrapped around him and bundled him into the carriage. He was on the floor and we and two other priestesses rested our feet on him so that neither Mahaj’s nor George’s troops would see that we had a captive. He wriggled a bit but he is completely helpless, still a bundle on the carriage floor. Where do you want him, Queen Serena?”“Bring him here,” Queen Serena ordered, “as he is – a helpless bundle.”I went with Ambika and Kalini to help the four women carry Lord Mohan. We put him down at Queen Serena’s feet. The other two priestesses left to return to the palace.“Unwrap him!” Serena ordered.Lisa untied the saris concealing Lord Mohan. She removed the blindfold. Mohan glared at her as she struggled with the tight gag. Once it was removed I held a mug of water to Mohan’s lips, remembering that I couldn’t talk after being gagged. He was reluctant, but accepted the water.“Well, Mohan?” Serena said sarcastically, “How is it that you were bound so effectively that a couple of women could take you from the centre of your palace, the palace which you are supposed to rule? And apparently tied up by women, you who despise women as inferiors? You have been plotting against me, as a woman ruler, but women seem to control you? Or don’t they?”Mohan just glared at her.“You won’t talk? Should I kick you, like your mother did? Would that make you talk?”“She’s a bitch, and my mother only in name,” Mohan said.“In name? What do you mean?” Serena asked.“She was my father’s senior wife. I am the son of one of the junior wives. Sadhna had no c***dren. She ruled my father, and has continued to rule after his death, refusing to commit suttee. I have ruled nothing, not even my own women. They, like Sanji’s wives, have been my jailers not my partners.”“So you have been plotting to remove a female ruler while you were already ruled by women? Is that it?”“No, Queen Serena, I have not been plotting. I just said, I have no power. Sadhna rules everything. She arranged to k**nap the King. She arranged to k**nap the noblewomen. She imprisoned Lord Sanji. But she did it all in my name. Even my palace guards are loyal to her, not me.”“So you are just a weak, pathetic wimp who let her do what she wanted?” Serena insisted.“If you want to put it like that, yes, I suppose I am. But what could I do? When my father died I was still a c***d. Sadhna continued to run everything. When I became an adult, all the reins of power were in her hands. She surrounded me with women loyal only to her. Once I was twenty one years old I should have inherited the power. Sadhna made sure that I was the figurehead with no control of anything. If I tried to rebel, I was swamped by strong women who tied me like this and left me tied for hours, taunting me.”“Release him,” Serena ordered.Lisa and I tried to unfasten his bonds. We couldn’t. I had to cut them. I looked at Mohan’s wrists. They were rubbed raw and showed signs of old scars, confirming his story. I held one out to show Queen Serena. Mohan was incapable of moving by himself as the blood returned painfully to his hands and feet.“Ambika, Kalini,” Serena said, “Please escort Lord Mohan away and get salve applied to his limbs. Ask an officer to arrange that he is guarded to ensure he doesn’t try to escape, and isn’t rescued, but don’t hurt him if you can avoid it. Once he is safely guarded, please come back to us.”They had to support Mohan as he left. He was barely able to move one leg in front of the other.“So Mohan wasn’t the plotter,” Lisa said.“Not the main plotter, perhaps,” Serena replied, “but I’m not sure he was as uninvolved as he says he was. He appeared uncontrolled in public. Yes, I know that could have been an act, and he might have been punished later if he didn’t behave. He is obviously unfit to rule here, whether he was a victim or not. I will have to find a replacement…”“How about Lady Hamsa?” I suggested. “She is next in line after Mohan, and now she is one of our friends.”“Possibly,” Queen Serena mused, “but first we have to deal with Lady Sadhna and her supporters. How?”“I think Mahaj could help.” I said. “He has control of the local soldiers, far outnumbering the palace guards. He could just march in as if returning from a patrol…”“That’s an idea, Harold,” Serena replied. “Could you please send an officer to ask Mahaj to come to see me?”I went. Neither I nor Queen Serena could give orders to George’s officers, but a polite request was enough. Mahaj arrived twenty minutes later. He bowed to Queen Serena, and nodded to me, Prince Harold and Princess Lisa.“Lord Mahaj,” Queen Serena started. That surprised Mahaj. He has a title, but it isn’t as high as Lord.“Lord Mahaj,” Serena repeated showing that it was not a mistake. “We have a*****ed Lord Mohan from his palace. He tells us that he was not a conspirator, nor involved in the imprisonment of the King. He says…” Serena emphasised the ‘says’, “that the plot is Lady Sadhna’s alone. We want to end that plot and arrest Lady Sadhna. Prince Harold suggests that you and your troops would be best placed to do that.”Mahaj nodded, obviously thinking hard.“We want your advice. How can we arrest Lady Sadhna and her co-conspirators, without bloodshed or a civil war in Lord Mohan’s palace?”Mahaj waited a few seconds, considering his reply.“Your Majesty,” he said. By calling Queen Serena that he had emphasised that her accepted her rule and her right to issue orders to him. That was significant. “A few of the senior officers of Lord Mohan’s palace guards are loyal to Lady Sadhna. Most of them just follow their superiors’ orders and know nothing about the former prisoners nor the plots. It could be difficult if all the palace guards resisted us, but I don’t think they would – if we can get the senior officers arrested first.But my greatest concern is that most of Lady Sadhna’s conspirators are women. My troops wouldn’t enter the zenana, even if ordered to. I don’t know how those women could be captured, unless the priestesses that support you…”“Lisa,” Serena interrupted Mahaj, “please ask Jane to come.”Lisa went.“Lord Mahaj,” Serena continued, “I think we have the ability to neutralise or even capture the zenana ladies. If we can do that, would that make your task easier?”“Much easier, Your Majesty, particularly if that could be done before my troops enter the palace. The plotters would be leaderless and confused.”“Very well. I think we can arrange that. Will you please go and fetch your wife, Lady Hamsa, and wait outside until Princess Lisa fetches you. That shouldn’t be long but we have secrets even from our trusted supporters.”As Lord Mahaj left, Lisa and Jane entered.“Jane,” Queen Serena said, “we need the Archers again. Ambika and Kalini will take them secretly into the palace. There they must capture Lady Sadhna and her women. Once you have done that, Mahaj and his troops will go in and arrest the senior officers of the palace guard, and the plot will be completely foiled. Can the Archers do that?”“Of course we can,” Jane replied. “When?”“Within the hour if possible.”“We will borrow some more guns from the armoury, but it will be done, Queen Serena.”Jane rushed off to find Ambika and Kalini and summon the Archers. “Lisa? Ask Lord Mahaj and Lady Hamsa to come in.” Serena said.Lisa was back in seconds, followed by Mahaj and Hamsa.“Lord Mahaj,” Serena started. Hamsa was puzzled. She looked at Mahaj. “I have called you Lord Mahaj because that is who you are, now. I have appointed you a Lord of my realm.”“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Lord Mahaj said.“Lady Hamsa,” Serena continued, “Lord Mohan is our captive and unfit to rule here. I am appointing you…” Serena emphasised the ‘you’ as the legitimate ruler in his place. Lord Mahaj will be your consort but you will rule. Do you accept?”Lady Hamsa curtsied low.“Yes, Your Majesty, I will accept with one condition…”Queen Serena looked annoyed.“…that Lord Mahaj remains commander of the local troops and is my Prime Minister. As a new ruler I will need his help.”“If that is what you want, Hamsa, then yes, you can have him as commander of your forces and your Prime Minister.” Queen Serena ordered.Hamsa’s hand reached out for Mahaj’s and squeezed it.“Thank you, Your Majesty. We…” Hamsa emphasised the ‘we’, “…will rule here as your friends, allies and devoted supporters.”Queen Serena came forward and hugged Hamsa, then Mahaj before kissing both of them. Mahaj was surprised, then delighted as Lisa joined in, then the four of us had a group hug.“Can I appoint Lady Tamira as Lord Chamberlain and commander of the palace guards?” Hamsa asked Queen Serena.“Do what you like, appoint whom you want. You rule here.” Serena replied. “All I ask is that you are loyal to me, and remain my friend. Everything else is for you to decide – except perhaps the fate of Lady Sadhna. She must die. What you do to her supporters? You will have to judge them, and condemn them if you have to.”“Thank you, Queen Serena,” Hamsa replied. “As the new ruler I must accompany my husband when he disarms the palace guard. I’ll take Tamira with me, and install her as their new commander at once.”“By the time you get there, Lady Sadhna and her zenana ladies will be neutralised or captive. Good luck.” Serena said.Hamsa and Mahaj left.“I hope you are right, Serena, and the Archers have been successful,” I said.“Of course they will be,” Serena snorted. “They are heavily armed, well trained, and have access to all the secret ways in the palace. Sadhna and her ladies have no hope. A few knives are useless in the face of guns. Controlling Mohan and Sanji is no preparation for facing the Archers.”Of course Serena was right. Ambika led some of the Archers to Lady Sadhna’s chamber. Kalini led more of them to the open rooms of the zenanas where the Archers disarmed Sanji’s wives and herded them, and all the women they found, into the upper chamber where the noblewomen had been held. They were surprised that the damage caused to the door and partition by Anne’s gunpowder had already been repaired. They fitted the discarded corsets to the women they had found with knives, attached them by chains to the rail on the floor, and locked them in. A few Archers remained on the landing as guards.Ambika watched through the spy hole until Lady Sadhna came in. Once she was there, some of the Archers ran to guard the doors on the outside. Ambika led the rest into the chamber. They pointed their guns at Lady Sadhna and her women. Useless knives clattered to the floor, and the Archers moved to tie up the women. Lady Sadhna slid a hand into the cushions of her gaddi, produced a small bottle and drank the contents before anyone could stop her. She collapsed and died in seconds.The Archers had been surprised that they had not encountered any of the Palace guards. They had been prepared to fight them if necessary but had hoped that the sight of levelled guns would have been enough. The guards’ normal weaponry was swords and spears, with muskets kept under lock and key in the guard room.Those Archers in Lady Sadhna’s chamber escorted their prisoners to join the others, leaving two to watch over Lady Sadhna’s body.Lord Mahaj and Lady Hamsa rode into the courtyard that had been the scene of my capture while looking for Hasit’s fictitious passageway. Lady Hamsa asked to see the palace guard commander and his senior officers. When they arrived, Mahaj’s troops presented loaded arms and then pointed them at the guards’ senior officers.She announced that she was now the ruler, replacing Lord Mohan who had been arrested for treason against King Vishaladeva and Queen Serena. She introduced Lady Tamira as the new commander of the palace guard. Lord Mahaj ordered his troops to march the former commander and officers to the guard room. He and Lady Hamsa remained in position, flanked by his troops.Lady Tamira inspected the palace guard as they stood to attention, faced by an overwhelming number of Mahaj’s troops. She complimented some, expressed disapproval of a couple for minor dress irregularities, and once she had looked at every guard, asked the remaining officers to stand aside with her.She told them bluntly that King Vishaladeva had been imprisoned in Lord Mohan’s palace and that he and Lady Sadhna had committed high treason. Their former officers would be interrogated and those involved in the King’s imprisonment would have to face Lady Hamsa’s justice. Any proven innocent would be released and reinstated.Lady Tamira asked the officers whether they would be willing to express their homage to Lady Hamsa and Lord Mahaj. She made it clear that refusal would mean that officer would be added to those under arrest. She was surprised that all of them were very willing to accept Lady Hamsa as their ruler. Apparently they had distrusted Lady Sadhna and had contempt for the ineffectual Lord Mohan. They knew Lady Hamsa and Lord Mahaj as considerate and honest members of the court and welcomed the change.Once they had expressed their formal homage, they split the guards up into small groups and explained that they had new rulers. They called for three cheers for Lady Hamsa, three for Lord Mahaj, and three for their new commander Lady Tamira. The cheers seemed genuine, but Mahaj’s troops had removed the guards’ muskets from the guard room.One of Ambika’s priestesses came to Lady Hamsa to report Sadhna’s suicide and the capture of all her armed women. Hamsa asked her to express her thanks to the Archers and priestesses.Hamsa asked her husband to replace the Archers guarding the women with their own soldiers.Mahaj arranged that, and for all the entrances and exits of the palace to be watched by his own troops standing beside the guards. Although the palace guards had sworn their loyalty, he and Tamira wanted proof before trusting them wholly.Lady Hamsa asked that, within the hour, the Archers, the priestesses, Lord Mahaj and his senior officers should join her in what had been Lord Mohan’s throne room. She sent messengers to ask for Princess Lisa and I to come too. She suggested that Queen Serena and King Vishaladeva should pay a formal visit as soon as the King had recovered.In the throne room, Lady Hamsa pointedly sat on Lord Mohan’s throne. Lord Mahaj sat beside her, but lower. She formally declared herself as ruler; Lord Mahaj as commander of her forces, including the palace guards; Lady Tamira as Lord Chamberlain in her own right and Guard Commander, deputy to Lord Mahaj. She then asked Ambika and Kalini to come forward.“Ambika,” Lady Hamsa said, “you are formally reinvested in your role as Chief Priestess of the Goddess in our realm. Kalini, you are Chief Priestess of Kali in our realm. You are both declared friends of my husband and I.”Ambika and Kalini bowed.“Both of you are also given the title Lady. My title will be Princess. My husband, Lord Mahaj, will be Prince Consort. Prince Harold, Princess Lisa? You are declared our friends, and Prince and Princess in our realm as well as you already are in the realm of my overlord, Queen Serena. You are also declared friends.”We bowed to Princess Hamsa.“Before I continue, I have to deal with more unpleasant matters. Lady Sadhna will be given a state funeral tomorrow. Those women and guard officers who aided her plot, or were suspected of aiding the plot, against Queen Serena and King Vishaladeva will be interrogated over the next few days before some of them will be put on trial for treason. That trial will be as fair and just as we can make it, but those proven guilty will face punishment according to our laws. Only those suspected to have been seriously involved will be tried. I intend to issue an amnesty, yet to be determined, for those who were only carrying out their superiors’ legitimate, or apparently legitimate, orders.Lord Sanji is formally divorced from his official wives. Some of them may face trial. Neither he nor his concubines will need to benefit from the amnesty because he and they were acting under duress. They are declared innocent of any plot against the King and Queen despite what may have been said about them.Finally – Lord Mohan, former ruler, is also declared divorced from his official wives. He is banished from our state for ten years but will receive a pension to enable him to set up a moderate establishment beyond our borders.”Princess Hamsa paused.“Banni, Deepal? Please stand before us.”Banni and Deepal were not sure about that order. They clung to each other.“You two are appointed official concubines, and are given the titles of ‘Lady’ and friends. You will be given an official salary and an appropriate number of servants to match your status.”Deepal had to be held by Banni as they executed a shaky bow. Banni was smiling broadly. I wondered whether Prince Mahaj knew of Banni’s other title ‘favoured by men’?“The formal part of this event is declared closed.” Princess Hamsa said. “Food and drink will be brought in shortly and I expect everyone to celebrate our accession.”Princess Hamsa took Prince Mahaj’s hand as she climbed down from the throne. She joined Lisa and I as we congratulated Ambika, Kalini, Banni and Deepal, newly honoured as ‘ladies’.There was some stiffness between us until Banni hugged Prince Mahaj. Deepal hugged me, then we eight exchanged hugs. Prince Mahaj and I were swamped by excited, happy women.“Banni,” Prince Mahaj said, “when we took over the palace guard room we found the two guards you had persuaded to drink d**gged wine. They were to be executed tomorrow.”“That would have been a waste, Prince Mahaj,” Banni said. “one of them is well endowed.”“He thought of you too. He remembered your mouth. His first question was whether you were safe. The two of them didn’t know who they were guarding. They had been told the prisoner was a nobleman who had offended Lady Sadhna. They had a short list of senior officers, the only ones allowed to see the prisoner. That list is very useful because it tells us which guard officers were part of the plot.”“Thank you, Prince Mahaj. Princess Hamsa, you said I was entitled to servants. Could I have that guard for myself?”“Yes, Banni. You can.” Hamsa replied.“And could I have the other one, please?” Deepal asked.“Yes. What will their duties be, ladies?”“Night duty,” Lady Banni announced with a wide smile. “To protect us from…” she paused, “loneliness?”“I think they will find their duties much more pleasant than guarding a locked door,” I suggested.“I’m sure they will,” Princess Hamsa added. The celebration ended fairly quickly because most of those present were still absorbing the sudden changes in the state. Those who were not suspected were still wary of their new rulers. Although they knew them, they didn’t know how they would be in their new roles….Princess Hamsa reviewed the evidence against the guard officers and those knife-wielding women who had been married to Lord Mohan and Lord Sanji. She decided that they were all acting under orders from Lady Sadhna, and ordered that they should be exiled from her realm for periods from one to five years. She would review Lord Mohan’s exile yearly, and end it if there was no movement to reinstate him. …Two days after Princess Hamsa’s accession, Queen Serena and King Vishaladeva came for a formal state visit, bringing the King’s cousin, newly titled Prince Ranjit, re-titled for unspecified services to the Queen and King.Their Majesties’ train included the Archers, Pushpa and her ladies, the Colonel and many of George’s officers.They were met with a parade of Prince Mahaj’s soldiers and Lady Tamira’s palace guards including most of their original officers. Only six of the guard officers had been committed for full trial.In the throne room Queen Serena took the throne. King Vishaladeva, still looking pale and weak, sat on a smaller throne slightly lower. The Princes Mahaj and I, and the Princesses Lisa and Hamsa sat even lower.Queen Serena formally thanked all of us for our role in rescuing the King. I felt embarrassed. It had been my intention to lead the rescue. I had been captured myself. My only role had been to divert attention from our extensive group of friends that really rescued the King.The Queen made another announcement. Pushpa was made a Lady, the most senior lady in rank of Serena’s realm.Princess Hamsa asked for Lady Kalini, the new Chief Priestess of Kali, to make her announcement. I was surprised when Kalini accorded me the title “Beloved of Kali” to add to my existing title “Beloved of the Goddess”. Afterwards she explained that surviving the Ride To Heaven was a sign that Kali approved of me. I wasn’t sure. I thought that one of the Archers might have tampered with the Ride, but I wasn’t going to argue with the new ‘Kali-On-Earth’.After the formalities, King Vishaladeva retired. Queen Serena told me that the doctors thought he would be his normal self in about a week, and until then he should take his duties easily.Prince Mahaj also made his excuses, but I noticed that he left with the new concubines Ladies Banni and Deepal.Queen Serena asked a few of us to join her in another room. The few of us were Queen Serena, Princess Hamsa, Lady Tamira, Princess Lisa, Lady Pushpa and I. The floor of the room was covered with soft cushions.“Prince Harold,” Queen Serena said, “I know that you and Princess Lisa are disappointed that you didn’t take a larger role in saving my husband, King Vishaladeva, but you, Harold, provided significant aid to those friends who did…” She paused.“…by demonstrating why you are beloved by the Goddess. We ladies want another demonstration please.”Of course I had to obey a Queen’s order. Proving why I was beloved by the Goddess took the rest of the day.

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