"Craig Shaw Gardner - Arabian 3 - The Last Arabian Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner Craig Shaw)

wish to trouble the tall king with his domestic difficulties, and blamed
the long journey for his malaise. At that, King Shahryar declared that
they should both go on a great hunt together, for it is in such manly
pursuits that even kings might forget their troubles. But the younger king
had no heart even for this sport and bade that his older brother go
without him.
So it was that Shahzaman stayed behind while his host proceeded to
the hunt, and the younger king did retire again to his chambers and
attempt there to rest, although his thoughts still would not allow sleep to
come.

Now it came to pass that, as the younger king was in this restive state,
he did hear a great commotion in that garden that lay just beyond his
quarters. Curious even in his misery, Shahzaman arose and, treading
quietly, peered from out of his darkened doorway at the unbelievable
scene beyond. For there, frolicking among the vast array of cushions
that littered the center of the gardens, were twenty male slaves and
twenty female slaves, and at their center was the queen of this kingdom,
and wife to his brother, King Shahryar.

And the slaves all paused in their merrymaking, as if waiting for a signal
from their queen. And for her part, the queen smiled very sweetly upon
one of the male slaves, who was tall and very well muscled, and
furthermore was endowed with a prodigious gift of manhood, for I have
neglected to mention that all the slaves, male and female, were entirely
naked, and, indeed, even the queen wore but the flimsiest of robes.

"Come to me," she said to the fortuitously equipped slave. "And you
know how literally I do mean those words. You should consider them
nothing less than an order from your queen."

Then did the slave smile upon the royal woman and take her in his
arms. And the queen further remarked, "We will make these cushions
know they have been used!" drawing the slave down next to her with
great cries of "Let us do it!" and "Whoopie!" and other sayings
especially coarse and shocking coming from the conversation of a lady
of such refinement. And then did all the other slaves do the same,
naked men and women mixing without discrimination, so that the entire
mound of cushions, and the pathway of stones that led to the gardens
beyond, became a mass of bouncing and giggling nudity.
Truly, the younger king was astonished by this course of events, and
found himself watching the drama for a substantial period of time in
order to discern the finer details. But there comes a time when even a
king must make a judgment, and so it was that Shahzaman said to
himself: "As bad as is my misfortune, my brother's is twenty times
worse." And furthermore, "Truly, though I was presented with the
leavings of a diarrheic bird upon my brow, my brother has been gifted
with the similar gifts of a whole herd of oxen.''

And with that, and another hour or two of observation of what passed