One Night in Xanadu

Chapter 13 - The Scent of the Steppe

"Hush." One finger touched my lips as I began to bend for I treasured this dress of pure red felt as my wedding dress, and I would not see it despoiled by the dirt of the floor on which we stood, although those flagstones gleamed and never had I see such cleanliness.

"There are servants here, little wildcat. A wife of the Khagan has no need to labor except at that which pleases the Khagan. Servants will take your clothes, servants will bring you fresh clothes in the morning. Borte will come to you and guide you, and tomorrow you will have your own maids and servants and your own suite of rooms near to Borte and your Khorula sisters. Chingay and his men will guard you well. You need have no fear that you will be left unguarded, unguided and untended. But for tonight, for our wedding night, it is I that will guide and tend you, my Altani, my beautiful little wildcat."

His lips spoke my name gently, as if he was tasting me, and I kissed his finger then, a gentle kiss. My smile was tremulous for I was fearful and his reassurance and his care for me meant much as his fingers ran over body, caressing me through my leather tunic; and he held me close, he buried his face in my hair, in my neck and I was ashamed, for those many concubines, those other wives, they had that smell of scented soap, of perfumes, their hair shining and silky, their complexions white and flawless.

I knew my hair, in its braids decorated with pearls and gold and silver coins, was matted and thick with oil and smoke, my face and arms burnt brown from those long days and weeks of travel, and I did not have that pale delicacy of his Han concubines. I had come straight from the road and that bout with the Khagan to my wedding feast, and now to my wedding bed. Of that I was all too conscious, for did not the Khagan prefer his concubines silky and smooth, freshly washed and perfumed, reeking not of horses and dirt and sweat.

"Ahhhhhh," the Khagan breathed, inhaling deeply, his face buried in my hair, his hands running over the black leather of my tunic. "Altani, my princess, my little wildcat, you bring to me the scent of the steppe. The scent of our people. Sweat and horses and the smoke of our cooking fires and the steel of our weapons, the milk of our sheep and the salt-blood of our mares on your lips." He lifted his head, his eyes looked down into mine and there was a deep longing there.

"We have lost much in this conquest of the Han, in this Great Khanate, for while we have conquered from horseback, while my armies ride ever onwards, we cannot rule an Empire from the backs of our horses. It is the dismounting and the governing that is hard, and in adopting their ways, we weaken ourselves. It is such as you, my little wildcat, who remind me of this. It is something I need to be reminded of often, for it is all too easy for our people to lose ourselves in these sybaritic luxuries. At times I yearn for the steppe, for the freedom of riding with my warriors under the blue skies, with nothing but the grasslands as far as the eye can see and the blue sky overhead."

"Let me remind you now, my Lord husband," I murmured, no longer ashamed of that familiar scent of sweat and horse and smoke that permeated my hair, my skin, my clothing. "Forget this bath, forget these Han affectations and take me now, Lord. Take me as you would have taken a woman of the Xiongnu whom you captured in the old days. Take me on the hard ground beneath our feet as you would have taken a wife newly stolen from her father's yurts and let me scream for you, let me struggle and fight as you take me, let me remind you of the old days and the old ways, Lord. Let me give you that, if that is your desire, Lord."

My hand reached down and held him where he was swollen and rigid beneath those leather breeches that he wore, and they were the leather of the Mongol horsemen, leather such as my own people wore, even the women such as I. The Khagan wore not the silk robes of the Han, and I knew where his heart lay and I was gladdened, for this I could give him. In this I could lighten his load, ease his stress and make myself favored and my hand caressed him.

"Forget the ways of the Han on this night and take me in the old way, Lord. Let me give you that gift on our wedding night. Take me as you would have taken a maiden of my people in the old days. Let me remind you of what you are, and I shall be content."

He shuddered under the touch of my fingers. His eyes burned with desire. The power and strength and will in those eyes brought a weakness to my knees, a flood of heated excitement to my sex such that I knew I was melting with my own desire -- and I had seen men with women, I had heard the women talk. My own mother had advised me of this, and I had watched the stallions mate with the mares, the rams with the ewes. I knew this Khagan was as a great stallion, and on this night I was to be his mare.

"Take me, Lord," I breathed. "Take me in the old way if that gives you pleasure, clasp me to you as you would clasp a daughter whom you have taken by force from her father's yurts."

"Little wildcat of the steppe," he breathed, and there was no laughter in his voice now, only the flaring of his nostrils and a quickening of his breathing as my fingers fumbled at the fastenings of my leather tunic. My hands pulled my tunic over my head. My hands unwrapped the binding that restrained my breasts. His hands joined mine, exposing my skin of pale olive, revealing the youthful firmness of my breasts. His hands sought my breasts, cupped them. Under his large hands my breasts of whose beauty I was so proud were small, tiny almost; and I shivered at his touch, my nipples swelling to a firmness that ached; and my knees weakened.

"You are beautiful, Altani," he breathed. "I will take you indeed, but not as a maiden ravished from her father's yurts in the night. Rather I will take you as a wife willingly wedded, for you come to my bed as a wife, eagerly and willingly, and I will not spoil what should be for you a night of joy merely to slake my desire." His look now was one almost of anger. "Your brother insulted you by offering his father Attila's daughter to me as a mere gift and not as a wife."

"Do not punish him for that, Lord," I breathed in sudden fear, for while I would have willingly killed him myself, that was now in the past, and he was my brother. "He offered me to you in good faith, humbling himself and me to show his loyalty to you, and I came to you in obedience to his gifting."

While I would have killed my brother to better rule my people myself, now that I was a wife of the Khagan, that would never be. I would never rule my people, and that was something that could not be changed. My destiny was in this room with me, and I would make the most of this, my fate.

The fate of my Khorula grandmother was mine now, and had not my grandmother's son become the Chanyu? Was I not now the Khagan's wife? A son of mine to the Khagan would succeed the Khagan, for he had no sons as yet, and new ambition flared bright within me, for was I not now at the center of the world, was I not the Khagan's wife? Power beyond any held by the Chanyu of the Xiongnu lay here, and so now lay I.

"He is my brother and your loyal servant." I smiled. "He is too respectful of your strength to be anything other than loyal, and he will serve you well, Lord, and now I am your wife he is also kin and he will serve you loyally." He would be too afraid not to. Also, he was my blood, and he was the Chanyu of the Xiongnu as I would never now be, and there was no benefit to me in ensuring his death. Better he was alive, there might be use to be made of him should I establish myself here in the Khagan's court.

My hands fumbled at the Khagan's clothing, for I had never unclothed a man before, and in my inexperience I as timid. My fingers unfastened his tunic, unfastened his breeches so that they dropped to his ankles. In his eagerness he kicked them off, his hands peeled off his own tunic. Now he was naked, naked and erect, and I eyed that erection with a fearful excitement for he was overly well-endowed. I trembled now as I looked down at him, and it was his hands that found the ties that belted my trousers of black leather.

It was his hands that unfastened those ties and eased my trousers down and the hot wet excitement overwhelmed me as he laid my body bare and exposed me, naked for his eyes to enjoy, and his eyes and his smile said that indeed, he enjoyed the sight of my naked body.

"I desire you, my Altani," the Khagan murmured, holding me in his arms and he was large, muscular and strong with a strength beyond any man I had known and his erection pressed hotly against my skin. "You are beautiful, maiden of the Xiongnu." His hands ran over the smooth skin of my back, down to my hips, caressing my butt and I shivered in his arms, shivered and trembled for I was a maiden, my virtue intact for I had never known a man, and the Khagan was a man. This night, I was his wife, and this night he would take me.

"Lord," I gasped, for I was afraid, just a little, and the Khagan read now the fear on my face as I trembled in his arms.