Part 3: Ten Years

The plan that was put before the Emir was simplicity itself. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of his accession on the first of October the Emir should be pleased to accept a new concubine into the Golden Palace harem and create for her a title, Special Concubine to the Emir. Naturally the competition would be open only to Kobekistani families to enter whomsoever they chose, even males if they wished.

As Kamal Qumsiyeh summed up to his fellow advisors the overall purpose, “Give him a good time and he will reward us.”

Chapter 27: Planning The Competition

It was the Emir who added some conditions. As he was not partial to catamites, and had eunuchs to offer to guests who were so disposed, any Kobekistani female could be entered, provided she was a virgin of sixteen years or older. In order to limit the number of entrants to manageable proportions, only ten candidates, to be chosen at random from all the entries, would be tried as to their detailed suitability. Privately the Emir indicated to the Head of Protocol, Kamal Qumsiyeh, that it should be only those Kobekistani families in good standing who were ‘randomly’ selected to enter. The judging would be performed by the Emir himself.

There would be a series of semi-public tests of all the women, conducted during an invited Audience Session, for which marks out of ten would be awarded. He would consider each candidate in turn and would award marks for her looks and deportment, for her ability to accept punishment, and for a demonstration of her skill at pleasuring a man without being penetrated.

The six lowest scoring entrants at this point would automatically be accepted in to the Golden Palace harem as virgin hostesses to entertain distinguished guests of the Emir.

The top four entrants would participate in the semi-finals during which marks would be added for the woman’s grace and elegance and the Emir’s pleasure during her public defloration. Two would be eliminated at this stage but would be accepted as ordinary concubines in the Emir’s harem.

Finally, the two top women would each spend a night with the Emir and the winner would be announced. The loser of the final would also become a concubine in the Golden Palace harem and could be used by the Emir from time to time.

The winner would be declared Special Concubine to the Emir and would have special privileges in the Golden Palace harem. Privately the Emir agreed with the Chief Eunuch that the only special privilege the Special Concubine would receive would be a distinctive golden harem costume which consisted of a short silk dressing gown which buttoned only at the collar. Nothing else was worn, except golden slippers if the concubine so desired. He also confided in the Chief Eunuch that the acquisition of these nine women would allow them to dispose of some of the less used women in the harem, especially any who had been in the harem of his grandfather.

The Chief Eunuch asked, “Shall I strangle them now, or wait until after the competition?”

“Oh, no. Don’t strangle them, that is a waste, sell them,” replied the Emir, “Selling them gives other men the chance to have in their harems women who may have slept with the Emir, or even two Emirs.”

The announcement of this competition caused great excitement among the heads of the various families in Kobekistan who had suitable women for use as entrants. There was not time to prepare a woman specially, so it was rather pot-luck as to whether a particular patriarch had a virgin of over sixteen years in his harem. Many women were married off before that age, others had been deflowered by their Master, or by one of the Master’s sons. It was utterly unthinkable to offer the Emir a woman whose virginity had been repaired after one or more deflorations; the disgrace if the ruse were discovered would be too great.

Chapter 28: Contest Entrants

Originally eighty-five women were entered for the competition, and this was reduced to fifty-three by weeding out those under age and those from families which had incurred the Emir’s displeasure in some way, or were socially unacceptable. Two women were also eliminated as being the daughters of the former Emir, conceived during royal visits to their nominal fathers. One entrant had been ruled out by the advice of the Head of Protocol, Kamal Qumsiyeh, because she came from an absurdly poor family and it would be an insult to the other families to include her. Nevertheless, for some reason the Emir found her picture very attractive and he decided he might just look her over.

The remaining fifty-one entries were numbered in strict alphabetical order of their given names, and a General Audience was held during which the lucky ten numbers were selected. Since these numbers were lucky, the entrants would be referred to by those numbers during the competition.

Three months were then allowed for the final tutoring and preparation of the women. His Magnificence Mahmoud Abdullah, may he live for ever, thought it would be interesting to see if any of these virgins, who had never been seen ‘in public’ could perform in public, both under the whip and later, when being deflowered.

Chapter 29: Poor Child

Abu Yahya was not a rich man from a powerful family, but he had hunted occasionally with the Emir and he had a lot of daughters, three of them still unmarried. He saw this competition as a way of divesting himself of one, and into the Golden Palace at that. Naturally the Emir had glanced through the rejected entries and was taken with the serene beauty of the head and shoulders picture of Abu Yahya’s daughter. The reasons for her rejection were explained to him, and he agreed that a woman of such a poor family could not be allowed to compete for such an illustrious prize.

A couple of days later, he ordered Maktum to take him to the house of Abu Yahya. As the Rolls drew up outside the man recognised the Emir immediately and ran out to welcome him, making a deep obeisance on the dusty roadside.

“Shall we go inside?” asked the Emir.

“My house is not worthy to receive my Master,” protested the kneeling figure, but the Emir ignored him and strode into the house, followed by Maktum as bodyguard.

When Abu Yahya had followed them in, the Emir asked, “You entered Samia in the competition for Special Concubine to the Emir?”

“Master, it is so. Is the Master offended at my presumption?”

“Not at all, but she was not randomly selected,” he said, half truthfully, “However, it gave me some small degree of pleasure to see her picture. Bring her to me, that I may inspect her more fully.”

There was a flurry in the small harem when this news was relayed by the master of the house, and it took almost an hour before she was deemed fit to be seen by an Emir. Meanwhile he accepted some sweetmeats and coffee, and passed the time discussing hunting with Abu Yahya.

When she finally entered the room it was beneath an abaya, which the Emir immediately ordered removed. This revealed a naked girl of eighteen or so, who made obeisance to her Emir in a graceful movement.

He had certainly not been misled by the photograph; she seemed to have an inner calm and serenity which would make a pleasant contrast to the frenetic gaiety of most of his harem. Even after bearing him three children, Alima, for instance, still seemed to burst into his presence with almost childish exuberance. That was nice at times, but he sometimes wished for a quiet companion in his pleasures.

He waved the girl away back into the harem, “How much do you want for her?”

Different emotions chased each other across Abu Yahya’s face as he tried to decide how much to ask for her, or if it might be better just to give her to the Emir and hope that the goodwill would be worth it. Eventually he decided that discretion was needed.

“Master, I would be honoured if Your Magnificence, may you live for ever, would accept her as a gift from Your Magnificence’s most humble servant,” he said.

“I am grateful to you, Abu Yahya. My Chief Eunuch will arrange her collection later today,” said the Emir.

“Master it is my pleasure and joy to be of service to my Master and I am very honoured both that you accept my unworthy daughter and that you have visited my house.”

“A grateful Emir offers you a favour. Ask and, if it is reasonable, it shall be yours.”

Again Abu Yahya thought for some moments.

“Master, I have two other virgin daughters. If it would please the Master, may you live for ever, to deflower even one of them, that would be a great boon.”

“Why so?” asked the Emir.

“Because she would then find a higher class husband easily, Master, having been used by His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah,” came the reply.

‘These people can still surprise me,’ thought the Emir, ‘Is my pushing my cock inside a woman, once, so valuable?’

Aloud he said, “I will deflower each of them publicly at their weddings, if that is your wish.”

Clearly Abu Yahya was struggling to express some misgiving about this.

‘He probably can’t afford a wedding he could invite an Emir to,’ thought the Emir.

“I will, of course, host the weddings at the Golden Palace,” he added.

“Master, that is most generous. Master, how shall the dates be arranged?”

Maktum sensed that the Emir was becoming impatient with this carping, so he intervened, “His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah, may he live for ever, has spoken. That is all that is necessary. Someone will tell you what follows.”

“Master, forgive me, Master,” said the man as he made a deep obeisance and the Emir swept out to the Rolls.

Later that afternoon the Chief Eunuch informed him that the new concubine had been received, and was ready for inspection.

“Just prepare her for me tonight,” said the Emir, “And prepare her carefully; she is reputed to be a virgin.”

Chapter 30: Samia’s Night

Samia was ushered into the Emir’s bedchamber to find him lying in bed reading. She dropped into a deep gesture of obeisance as she had been told, and tried to remember what she was to do next.

Following her defloration two bath girls were there and they washed the blood off both sets of genitals. A bloodstained cloth with the Emir’s coat of arms on it was given to Samia as a souvenir of her defloration.

The following morning, roused by the smoothness of her skin under his fingers he rolled on top of her and thrust painfully into her newly opened vagina, setting it bleeding again. Ignoring her stifled cries of pain, the Emir took his pleasure thrusting deep into her and then withdrawing slowly.

Calling the eunuch over to oil her, the Emir returned to the fray with Samia’s legs lodged on his shoulders and the woman herself bent almost double under him. This gave his thrusts the maximum penetration and so him the most pleasure. After some half an hour of slow and lazy fucking, the Emir speeded up and brought himself to a pleasant climax, deep in the womb of his new concubine. Shortly after his prick had shrivelled out of her, he rolled away, and the eunuchs took her back to the harem.

The Emir never called her again, and yet she was never demoted to hostess, so for year after seemingly endless year she lived an unbelievably boring life of total celibacy in the Golden Palace harem for the next forty years.

The Chief Eunuch thought it was Samia’s misfortune that she was not impregnated by the Emir’s only explosive foray into her cunt. His Magnificence Mahmoud Abdullah, may he live for ever, was always solicitous of the well-being of the mothers of his children, even the girls.

Chapter 31: Special Guests

It was Kamal Qumsiyeh who raised the matter of illustrious and honoured guests. He suggested that it might amuse and please the Emir to invite a few honoured guests to be in the front rank of the audience, and perhaps even to participate in some small way in the ceremony. This struck the Emir as a good idea, and it was he who suggested that the losing entrants who had not been selected for the semi-finals, could be allowed a public defloration by the honoured guests. The guest judged, by his fellow guests, to have the most flair in performing this defloration would keep their contestant as a personal gift from the Emir. The guest deflorations of the six women would take place before the semi-finals. The honoured guests could be accommodated in the Ruby Palace with a minimum of effort, and a small harem could be provided there temporarily.

A list was prepared of the guests whom Ghada Baroud, the Foreign Advisor, thought should be invited. This gave him much trouble and he cursed himself for allowing it to be suggested without having planned first. When forced to give the Emir an answer as to which names he proposed, the only name he had was that of Prince Habib, who was the heir apparent to a neighbouring Khan with whom they had had some niggling border disputes.

Maliciously intending to frighten the advisors, the Emir said, as innocently as he could, “I would like to invite the Queen of England to attend.”

Predictably Kamal Qumsiyeh nearly had apoplexy on the spot. Then he spent several minutes trying to think of ways in which he could contradict his Emir without annoying him. Eventually he settled on her age as an excuse. A lady of nearly ninety who had lived all her life in a temperate climate could not be expected to withstand a week or more of Kobekistani weather.

“Well, invite her anyway, but make it clear that we want the Earl of Bargoed to come instead to represent her,” said the Emir finally, “And if the competition is at the end of the English summer he can bring my son, the Crown Prince Mustapha, home for a few days during his school holidays. He doesn’t see anything like enough of this country. Of course, the actual competition is not suitable entertainment for a nine-year-old, but I can spend some time with him. Doubtless my mother will come with them.”