The Kingdom

There was silence within the room and I briefly wondered how far I was from getting my head chopped off.

Artaxis raised his hand and pointed to me as if witnessing before a larger audience than just the 30 or so women within the room, "Now I believe your God is real! No man without true conviction of faith would have the strength to turn away from the tempting delights held within this room that I so freely offered to you. Likewise, even a man of conviction, who was at heart a coward, would not have turned my offer down out of the fear of offending me. Truly you are no coward just as you are a man of faith! Come! You shall have your reward!"

Artaxis took my hand and led me back out the way we had come and to my surprise we were soon at the door of my room. Pushing the door wide, Artaxis ushered me in with a shove to my back and my breath left me as the lead dancer from the banquet hall rose from the bed to stand on the floor barefoot, even as she had danced.

"She, who you longed for most, is now yours as is fitting for the greatest man I have yet to have ever met!"

I started to object, but found myself quite speechless as the woman of my desire approached to stand before me. Her gaze was direct and her voice compelling as she asked, "Can it be that you do not want me Master?"

The only way out of that question was to lie. To lie was something I'd pledged myself against ever doing. "Yes, I want you, but……."

"It's settled then! Chain her to him!" Artaxis said jovially.

In complete consternation I turned to see two servants quietly enter the room with chains in tow. They fixed a manacle around my left wrist, which had a light chain attached to it of about 4 feet in length. Incredibly, I watched the two servants lock a much wider manacle about the waste of my dancer.

The end of my chain was linked to the polished iron ring that encircled her bare waist. My manacle wasn't tight and neither was hers, but neither of them were coming off. I turned to protest to Artaxis, but he was already holding up a hand, forestalling me.

"I have no doubt that our Western ways are strange to you, but this is not a matter of any custom of ours. The chains are quite simply a necessity on my part to keep you within this room for the night. I have no doubt you could overpower any guard I set against you or that you would risk your life to climb down the face of the cliff beyond that window to the city below. Just as I am sure of that, I know you would not risk the life of this woman by either fighting guards or trying to climb down with her attached to you."