Flail of the Pharoah by Rosanna Challis Read Free Book Online

as if she were receiving a solemn lesson in some arcane art, which in a sense she was.
    ‘Hold it like that, show me.’
    Charmian made an ‘O’ of her slender fingers and slipped it over the reed-filled cloth. She looked up at Mira and gave a smile so open and trusting, so delighted at holding this strange object in the way she had been shown, that the queen felt suddenly guilty.
    ‘Here, let me oil it.’ She took some of the precious scented oil from a nearby jar and smeared the cloth with it, in just the same way as when she made use of it for her own arousal. ‘You may slide your fingers more easily up and down it now.’
    Charmian giggled a little as she proceeded to caress the slippery cloth. ‘It feels… strange.’
    ‘A man’s aroused penis – that is the correct word, or one of them – is warm to the touch, and firm-fleshed. It is smoother than the cloth, although you can feel the veins in it, like ribs. At the top it has a special flap of skin called the foreskin but the Pharaoh has had his removed.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘It is our custom. What you are stroking there is the stem of the penis, called the shaft , but there is also a round tip called the glans with a slit in it. From there spills the milky liquid containing the seed of the man. In the case of King Seti it is very precious because it is the royal seed. From this, a royal prince has already been produced.’
    ‘A prince grows from a seed , like a plant?’ Charmian gasped with amazement and Mira couldn’t help laughing at her ingenuousness.
    ‘In a manner of speaking, yes. But you, my dear, must learn how to pleasure the Pharaoh in many ways. This is only one of them, the gentle stroking of his organ that will help it to remain stiff and strong.’
    ‘Why must it stay like that?’
    Queen Mira hesitated, and then decided that the girl had received enough of a lesson for one day. She had no wish to overwhelm her with too much new and disturbing information all at once. It would not do to frighten the girl off the prospect of lying with the Pharaoh altogether.
    ‘Never mind. That is enough for today. Instead, my girl shall make up your eyes in the Egyptian fashion. The Pharaoh will expect to see you so adorned when he eventually calls you to his bed.’
    Mira gave two sharp claps and Iras soon appeared from the wings, bowing low. ‘Your majesty?’
    ‘This is Charmian, the new girl .’ She gave the last two words a slight inflexion, one that Iras would recognise as expressing a degree of scorn. ‘Apply kohl to her eyes, make her look like an Egyptian…’ she had been about to say ‘whore’ but left the word unspoken. Even if Charmian did not know the word now she might remember it, and learn its meaning later. She did not want the girl to have anything to reproach her with.
    ‘Yes, mistress. And some blue powder too, to match her beautiful eyes?’
    ‘Of course.’ Again, only Iras would notice the faint frostiness in her tone. ‘And summon the musicians. We may as well have some entertainment while you work.’
    Three musicians appeared, two playing stringed instruments and one a gentle flute. They began to warble away in a corner, making a sound that Mira secretly found irksome, but she wanted to observe Charmian in every detail and she thought the music might distract her from noticing the close scrutiny she was under.
    Iras had applied the blue powder to the girl’s lids, and already Mira noticed with some satisfaction that she looked like a cheap, painted tart. The local pigments were too strong for a girl of Charmian’s delicate colouring. They looked fine on sun-darkened skin, the pink ochre lending a rosy glow to brown cheeks or lips, and the blue lapis softening the harsh effect of the kohl outlining brown or amber eyes. She watched with private pleasure as Iras painted her features with the fine brushes, the effect growing ever more vulgar and clownish despite her best efforts.
    ‘Marvellous!’ she declared at last,