regularly walked back and forth along the three sides that were bordered by streets, and more stood on duty inside the railings.
The main entrance was accessible via a series of wide stone steps leading up to a pair of tall wooden doors. These were shut after dark. Once that happened, only the smaller back entrance could be used, and this was heavily guarded and led to the courtyard where the newest arm of the military forces of Kastania practiced and were stabled, the mounted archers of the Kastanian Imperial Mounted Militia, or the KIMM as it was called for short.
The soldiers who rode in the KIMM were mostly young men, for many of the traditionalists mocked the innovation, citing it to be copying their enemies and not being an honourable way to fight. But years of military setbacks and disasters had forced the Koros to consider new tactics and they had decided to use the very weapon that had caused them so much misery.
Youngsters were much more open to new ideas and a change to tradition, and so it was that eighty soldiers and their nimble mounts were barracked to the rear of the palace. Nobody would be senseless enough to try to break in there.
There was another doorway, a single door, mostly secret, used by a few and never unless they wished to come and go in secret. It was towards the rear, by the side of the barracks, and led to a garden that separated the palace from the buildings that stood beyond. There were no doors or windows along the façade of these buildings facing the garden, so it was not overlooked.
The single figure that made its way through the garden did so unseen as a result. It glided softly along the curving path and took a side route, a seldom used route judging by its half overgrown state, and walked up to a wall twice the height of a man, topped by a wide peaked set of coping stones. A small door was set in this wall and the figure stood by it for a moment and listened.
There came a knock and the figure drew back a bolt and pulled the door open. Another dark figure slipped in and the door was shut and bolted once more. The two figures embraced and kissed, then they both half-ran through the garden to the rear where a series of sheds and storage spaces stood. To one side stood a stone bench and the figure who had opened the gate was spun round and the second figure wrenched open the cloak it was wearing to reveal a lithe, voluptuous female body, dominated by a pair of large breasts.
The woman was pushed roughly onto the bench and exposed naked, her legs spread, and the other flung off his cloak and garments, to show a youthful and well-built man, and he stepped up and knelt between her legs and roughly penetrated her. He went at her hard, and she moaned and tossed her head from side to side, lost in pleasure. The man moved harder and faster until he groaned and climaxed, holding her tight to him.
Afterwards he stepped away and began wiping himself down with a cloth he had brought just for that purpose.
“What about me, Dragan?” the woman asked, sitting up, her fair hair catching the first beams of the larger moon that was beginning to rise.
“What about you?” the man asked, staring at her, wiping himself.
“I need to be cleaned. As a princess, I command you to clean me!”
Dragan chuckled and threw the soiled cloth at her. “Clean yourself; I’m no lackey or slave. I’m a noble of the House of Purfin and bow to nobody, not even Princess Amne Pelgion of the House of Koros,” he said sarcastically, bowing ironically to her.
“You beast,” she said, and began to wipe herself. “I don’t know why I bother with you. You’ve no romantic feelings at all.”
Dragan Purfin stepped up to her and pinned her hard, forcing his mouth onto hers. Amne made a muffled sound, then kissed him back, the two locked in a passionate kiss for a long time, then he jerked away and sucked his lips. “That’s why, Princess. You can’t resist me. You’d
Jerry B. Jenkins, Chris Fabry