Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 15:04:33 EDT
From: Tommyhawk1@aol.com
Subject: Sheik of Desire, #12 (Conclusion)

			SHEIK OF DESIRE, CHAPTER 12
				CONCLUSION
			     "ALLAH CONSPIRED"
			   By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM

     Mahmoud had doctors waiting for them, these doctors met Pavel at the
entrance into the mosque and carried Jassem off somewhere.  Pavel removed
his shoes at the edge of the cavern, and washed his feet at a basin there
at the behest of the men waiting.  He took the pause this gave him to
observe.
     Mahmoud was there, dressed in a simple white robe.  Also present were
many others in white, so much the same that it must be a ceremonial
costume, or a uniform of some sort.
     "Welcome, my husband." Mahmoud said to him genially.  But the eyes
were stern and solemn; they told of a darker undercurrent to this meeting.
Mahmoud was angry, and not showing it as best he could.  "Are you ready now
to join with me within the Waters of Life?"
     Pavel looked at him; there was no reason to pretend contentment with
this situation.  "No, but that doesn't matter, does it?"
     "I shall be a good husband to you." Mahmoud said.
     "And to Jezreel, as well?" Pavel returned.  "I mean, that was the
price for him bringing me to you, wasn't it?"
     "You treat me as a scoundrel, and I am not." Mahmoud protested softly.
His face was flushed slightly, in rage or embarrassment Pavel couldn't
tell.  "This bond between our two peoples will bring prosperity to us both.
Your people have lost the Tree of Children.  You can only produce children
the same as those of Connobar, and they cannot produce children without our
help.  Where would you get grandchildren for your comfort in your old age,
now that Allah's Messenger has departed this world?  Where would your sons
find sons of their own?  Where else can you turn, but to my people to give
you those grandsons?  Our grandchildren's grandchildren will be one people
where now there are three.  All is as Allah has willed.  I but abet his
will."
     Pavel looked and saw that this was Mahmoud's true plan, all along.
Not just controlling the wealth that would come with selling the Waters of
Life to his home valley, but to the domination of the entire world.  Out of
that realization, came words and he never afterwards could say just why he
said what he said next.  "You think you know Allah's will.  But who can
know the mind of Allah?  Allah himself shall judge you according to his own
plans."
     It made a sizeable impression on the men assembled, they muttered
amongst themselves.  Mahmoud turned angrily and made a sharp gesture, and
they quieted.
     It struck Mahmoud strongly, as well.  "We shall see what Allah has
willed.  So far, he has smiled upon me constantly." Mahmoud said sharply.
He turned to the people in attendance.  "Go into the caverns and tell all
inside that I declare a general amnesty for them.  No man may be forced to
return to his husband, no criminal inside shall be punished for his
actions." Mahmoud looked at Aram.  "Even you, Aram, will not be punished
for your actions of this night, even though I know exactly what they were."
     "I...I thank you, O Sultan." Aram said, abashed.
     Mahmoud looked back at Pavel.  "See, I can be generous in my victory.
This night of our marriage will not be marred with any blood, and your
comrades can rejoice along with my own people at our marriage."  His voice
took a sterner note.  "You will come with me now."
     Mahmoud turned and walked away.  Pavel saw the men with swords
stepping up to him and realized that he either walked of his own accord or
he would be dragged.  He chose to walk.
     Another basin much like the one where he and Jassem had bathed and
made love.  It, too, gently steamed with warmth.  Instead of bathing boys,
there was a man in ceremonial garb and...musicians!
     What followed was done in Arabic, Pavel understood nothing of it.  It
must have been a marriage ceremony of some kind, but nothing was explained.
He was required to make a few gestures he did not understand, but his hands
were guided by Mahmoud and by the priest--or whatever they called him--and
Pavel followed it all numbly.  His cooperation or refusal would not have
mattered, not to this Sultan and would-be ruler of Desire.
     Then Mahmoud stood and undid the tie at his throat, pulled the gown
open and let it slide from his body, stood there naked and proud in the
assembly.  "It is time to enter the Waters, my third husband." he said.
     Pavel looked at the priest, no help there.  He pulled off his grimy
clothes and gingerly stepped into the bath.  Yes, that tingle was there
again.  And the musicians began to play, an eerie combination of flute and
strings, that combined to make an aural seduction of his ears.  The music
urged him to give up, to accept his fate, to join with this man.
     Mahmoud stepped into the bath with him.  "Now we both kneel.  You are
to wash my body and I wash yours." he whispered to Pavel.  His heavy hands
landed on Pavel's shoulders and pushed him down forcibly, not that Pavel
resisted actively.  He felt numb, distant, detached.
     Pavel knelt, but otherwise held still, and Mahmoud scooped up and
played the waters over Pavel's body.  Pavel shuddered at the contact.  Damn
this world anyway!  A man should get to choose his sex partners, not have
sex with everyone or anyone.  There were consequences sometimes, damn it!
     The waters rivuleted down Pavel's chest, and it was the strokes of a
god.  Mahmoud's wet fingers followed the water's path, and Mahmoud's
fingers became that god.
     Pavel groaned.  He couldn't resist.  Not this big, strong man, so
handsome and powerful.  Not those eyes.  Not the hands.  Not this body.
Not this man!
     Pavel reached down with trembling cupped hands and scooped up the
water, to bring it up and run it over Mahmoud's left shoulder.  Mahmoud
sighed, and grinned, a grin that was kindly but also a grin of victory.
Pavel felt his body steady itself, and he plied the water until Mahmoud's
hairy form was lined with black paths of hair and his brown muscled grace,
like the lion-like tree-pouncer of his own jungles, shone and rippled as he
moved in for the kill.
     Those strong arms went around him, that bearded face reached for him,
those lips found his...and Pavel was lost.  His body was lowered into the
water, which reached up and enveloped him and his lover, his husband, and
the two of them moved in their general need.
     Pavel was surprised by his next actions, Mahmoud moved to guide
Pavel's cock into his ass!  "What are you doing?" he asked.
     "It is a necessary way to make a child." Mahmoud hissed in his ear.
"You must be entered into my body in this way, and my manhood atop you, so
that my seed may enter your body."
     "Oh." Pavel wasn't much caring about this.  He realized dimly, as his
cock entered the heavy, hairy, taut-muscled vessel of Mahmoud's body, as
his very being cried out for release, as the moist, warm, clutching
interior of Mahmoud's ass seized around him, that this wasn't what happened
with him and Jassem at all.
     It did not matter.  Pavel would have drowned in his acquiescence of
events, had not Mahmoud's strong arms supported him, held his head and
shoulders above the water.  Mahmoud grunted, gasped as the last few inches
slid into him, shut his eyes and threw back his head.
     "Ah, my husband." he sighed.  "You are wonderful.  Even were I not
marrying you, I would have given this to you.  Take your pleasure with me,
Sheik Al-Fajr, relish this day, this hour, this moment with me.  There
shall be many more nights like this, many more."
     Mahmoud moved his strong lithe body on top of Pavel, and Pavel cried
out.  His very being was wrapped up inside his cock, which was wrapped up
in Mahmoud.  He couldn't resist, he no longer wanted to resist.
     Mahmoud moved now with quick strokes.  Again, Pavel was reminded of
his lovemaking with Jezreel, the urgency of their needs, the peremptory
nature of their rapture, which moved the body rapidly to its conclusion.
No dallying was part of the plan.
     The music was rising in its tempo, the musicians seeming to take their
cue from Mahmoud's motions in the water.  The thin, quavering sound of the
flute was like a scream in Pavel's ears, and the strings were harmonizing
with Mahmoud's grunt of eager pleasure.
     The waters churned around him, they began to glow ever so slightly.
Pavel felt his climax rise within him, and now he was sure that it was the
Waters pulling his body into this state more so than the lovemaking, the
Waters were forcing him to comply with Mahmoud's plans.  Surrender was his
only option.  Was this life so bad, then?  He could live with Jassem and
Jethro in the Palace, and Mahmoud was an adept and rugged lover.  Maybe he
could even reconcile with Jezreel in time.  Give in to it.  It is fate.
Allah's will....
     Pavel's brain tingled with his need and it traveled in a rapid blaze
of glory down his spine and into his crotch.  Pooling there, it turned his
cock to steel and heated it to boiling, the Waters glowed ever brighter as
they began their mysterious work.  Pavel surrendered to his new husband, to
his fate, and to the orgasm, as Mahmoud grunted and then his voice rose
higher in pitch.  "Now, my third husband, now!" He ground out.
     Pavel jetted his wads into Mahmoud's ass, and Mahmoud's eyes grew
wide, and Pavel felt the odd sensation as Mahmoud's jism seethed and
nestled onto Pavel's stomach like small tadpoles, or tiny fish that
squirmed on his belly, seeking a resting place.
     The Waters turned bright blue, the glow of the conversion, and with it
came the electrical feeling.  Imprisoned, Pavel waited for the pain in his
stomach he had witnessed with Jassem.  He felt Mahmoud drawing him close,
and then they were locked into place by the self-churning waters.
     But there was no pain.  None at all.  Mahmoud panted still with his
release, and then his eyes flew wide and he choked.  "Uh!  Uhhh!  Ahh!"
     Pavel looked into Mahmoud's eyes, terrified, astonished eyes.  "What's
happening?" he asked as well as he could.
     "No!" Mahmoud wailed.  "Noooo!"  He spasmed, grunted, and again Pavel
was looking into pain-filled eyes and he could do nothing.
     Murmuring voices watched them, Pavel shifted to see goggle-eyed men in
white robes watching them.  "Allah's will.  Allah be praised, all glory be
to Allah!"  That was what they were saying, but it wasn't a litany, it was
a baffled puzzlement, a begging for understanding.
     "Huh!  Huh!  Guh-huh!" Mahmoud choked out, beyond words now, as his
body was wracked and twisted.  Pavel found himself drawn despite the
Water's clutches closely to Mahmoud and he felt the rippling at Mahmoud's
stomach at his own.
     And the navel distended to become a prodding point at Pavel's abdomen,
and then it was like it burst at the tip, a volcano erupting, Pavel felt
hot wetness seethe there, but he could only look into Mahmoud's eyes.
     As well as he could, he looked back with sympathy and compassion.
     It was over, and the light died, and hands reached to fish them out of
the waters.  "It is the will of Allah." the priest said.  "All blessings to
Allah, for all proceeds according to his will and his plan."
     "No." Mahmoud groaned, limp in their hands, weak and exhausted, the
big man no longer a lion-like creature, but now merely a suffering soul.
     And at his navel, the same drivel of blood that had marred Jassem's
young frame.
     "No." Mahmoud sighed feebly.  "This cannot be.  You were younger than
me!"
     "It is." Pavel returned, gently.  "I don't understand it either.
Maybe because I was born of the Tree of Children.  I was born a sort of
clone.  My father is older than you are, maybe that makes me older than you
in some way."
     "My kingdom, my palace, my children." Mahmoud groaned in despair.
"No, this cannot be!"
     Pavel turned to the wide-eyed priest.  "What happens now?"
     "All is as Allah has willed, as always.  Your husband will now bear
your child."
     "But...but he is your Sultan." Pavel said, baffled.  "What about
that?"
     "As your husband, he belongs to you, as does all he possesses.  You
are now the Sultan of Medina Jadeed."
     "Huh?" Pavel said dumbly.
     The priest managed a smile.  "Mahmoud conspired to rule this world.
But Allah conspired against Mahmoud, and he could not stand against such a
force."  The priest laid a hand on Pavel's shoulder.  "What are your
orders, my Sultan?  This city and this mosque, and the Waters of Life, all
belong to you now.  We are yours to command, so long as you obey the Will
of Allah."
     "And we all know what happens when you don't obey that." Pavel smiled
feebly.  "Hoo, boy!"
     He had some thinking to do, fast!  * * * *
     "I still don't get it." Jethro grumped to Pavel the next day.  "You
became the king of this whole damned country, and then you gave it all up?"
     "Not exactly." Pavel said.  "I think I made the right choices.
Mahmoud couldn't be Sultan now that he's become one of the child-bearing
males here."
     "That is true." Jassem agreed.  The three were meeting at his bedside.
     "But Mahmoud could still sit on the throne.  As my agent."
     "But then you picked another agent." Jethro struggled to understand.
     "Jezreel.  To be my agent back in Facilitata Valley, and in Connobar.
So Commander Sachsen will go with Jezreel to advise him, and to keep an eye
on him, and they'll both keep an eye on Mahmoud during their visits here."
     "Doesn't Hassan object to you taking over Medina Jadeed like that?"
     "He couldn't." Pavel said.  "He turned it all over to Mahmoud.  But I
told Mahmoud to keep Hassan supplied with all his needs.  Hassan is doing
good work, and deserves to be helped out.  He wants another observatory up
in the high mountains, and when the angels come, I'm going to ask them to
help Hassan with that."
     "What of the Waters of Life?"
     "A good question." Pavel admitted.  "The Waters are only effective for
a few days after it comes out of the wall of that natural spring they have.
So we can't transport it back to Facilitata Valley, not really.  And the
mountains keep any large number of men from coming here.  The Angels don't
mind helping us out from time to time, but they won't become full-time
ferry-boats for us, either.  And there are religious connotations as well
for the Waters.  I think it best to keep looking for another solution for
our valley.  At worst, we'll do things the way Mahmoud planned, send to
Medina Jadeed for the men to be Facilitators for both our valleys.  Plenty
of younger men who wouldn't mind performing stud services here, I'm sure."
     "That is certain." Jassem said.  "Most of the Cavern of Outcasts
consists of such men, who were married against their will.  All of them
will happily travel to your valley if they can.  But the mountains, are
they so bad?"
     "I didn't take a good look on my way here.  We'd have to find a way
around or through them." Pavel said.  "Also, just south of us lies the
valley of the Slan, which is off limits to all mankind for one hundred
years, when the last of the Slan will be dead of old age.  That was in the
treaty.  So we can't go there, but what's north of Connobar?  And north of
here?"
     "We never went to look." Jethro said.  "Stepwith never actually
forbade us to go there, but he warned that we were not ready yet for what
we'd find outside our own valley."
     "So did the Messenger of Allah." Jassem agreed.  "He gave us the
plains and told us to never leave them for as long as he was among us."
     "The same being." Pavel pointed out.  "Same message for two different
groups of mankind.  But Stepwith is gone now, and he gave us this entire
world.  I guess that includes the north, doesn't it?"
     "It would, as would his injunction not to leave the plains." Jassem
agreed.  "When shall we go?"
     "Soon as you are stronger, if you want to." Pavel said.  "Doctors say
you can get up and walk tomorrow.  But the question is, how do you feel?"
     "A little sad, still." Jassem said.  "We have lost the life you and I
had started.  It was the Will of Allah.  But it was also His Will that I be
allowed to have more children later.  He did not take that from me.  And
these sons will be born when I choose." he had added. "There is much now
that I may choose."
     "Such as?" Pavel asked.
     Jassem looked at Jethro.  "My husband, will you release me?"
     "Huh?" Jethro said.
     "Divorce me.  There is no shame in our culture for divorce, not when
the child is lost as this one was.  And you have told me how your bodies
are different from mine and Pavel's.  We may not be able to have children
at all, and so we would be forbidden to ever marry."  Jassem hesitated.
"Also...there is a world for me to see.  I want to go with you as you
search, if I may.  As your equal, not your servant and not your mate."
     Jethro looked at him, and grinned.  "Glad to hear you feel that way.
I really like you, Jassem, but we Connobarans just don't marry this
quickly.  I want to be with you, maybe find out if we can get married, I
admit.  In the meantime, we should just have fun together."
     "Isn't that what I was suggesting?" Jassem pointed out.
     "Sure." Pavel said.  "We three can take off to the north.  We need a
path from here to either our valley or to Connobar which can be traveled by
men and sukhusans, without the necessity of the help of the Angels.  If we
can find one, then the Waters of Life will be available, maybe.  If not,
maybe we can find something else that will do.  The Tree of Children, the
Eggs of Connobar, the Waters of Life.  There may be other ways here, and we
should go find them."
     "Won't we need a fourth man for the trip." Jethro said.  "Nobody wants
to play odd-man-out when the mist comes."
     Jassem patted his navel.  "There is no need for four.  I have not yet
taught you all the ways which we can make love.  So long as we avoid the
exact position, I will not become pregnant.  It was part of the Gift of
Allah's Messenger to us, to give us pleasure without the price of
children."
     "I've been staring at your navel and wondering about that sort of
thing.  I look forward to finding out about these ways." Pavel grinned.
"But we'll need someone to guide the sukhusans, as well." Pavel grinned.
"Fortunately, I know just the man for the job."
     "Aram." Jethro said, understanding.
     "I'm not in love with him, but I'm not ready to fall in love again
just now.  Aram will make a good traveling companion.  I'll leave you two
alone to celebrate your divorce." Pavel said.  "I've got things to do.  A
Sultan's work is never done and until I leave, I can't delegate it to
Mahmoud."
     Pavel left, whistling.  Aram was waiting for him in his chambers, and
his father would be arriving tomorrow along with a member of the Connobaran
Council.  He'd start the negotiations for his father, and then take off.
     He looked northwards.  The mountains there looked gentle, warm and
inviting.  Full of promises, he felt.  He couldn't wait to go and see what
was waiting for him there.

				  THE END
			  COMING IN FALL OF 1999
	       PLANET OF DESIRE IV: SECRET OF THE TURTLE MEN