Sinbad bathed, other slaves brought platters of fruit and viands, delicious from throughout Mars. Sinbad, sedated, ate mechanically, as he was bidden, and sloppily drank wine. The bathers washed spills from him, then took him from the bath and dried him with scarlet towels. Once they dried him off, the handmaidens took him to a couch and then left the room in an orderly fashion.
As soon as the women were out of sight, Sinbad was off the decorative couch and on his feet facing the arched door, all in one instant. He stood ready and took a defensive stance, and then checked the movement.
It was a woman who had entered unannounced; a woman whose gossamer robes did not conceal the rich garments beneath any more than they covered the suppleness and beauty of her tall, slender figure. A filmy veil fell below her breasts, supported by a flowing headdress bound about with a triple gold braid and adorned with a golden crescent. Her dark eyes regarded the astonished Earthman over the veil, and then with an imperious gesture of her green hand, she revealed her face.
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Sinbad rose in attention to discover it was none other than Akhdar’s sister, Princess Aella.
She was beautiful, and it was hard to imagine there was a time he hadn’t noticed. Had she changed so much? He took her in, as though for the first time. Aella’s hair was the color of a garden of roses, and the candlelight gave her fair green skin a heavenly glow. Her movements were supple, graceful, her body been but curved in the right places. Curves accentuated by the colorful silks tied around her body. As she looked at him and smiled, her sapphire blue eyes twinkled with mischief. He knew that any of the noblemen on Mars would have given all their riches for one night with her.
She stepped up and put her hands softly on his shoulders.
Sinbad started to speak, without the slightest idea of what he wanted to say, but she stopped him with a finger against his lips.
“You’ve fought valiantly, Sinbad of Earth.” Her eyes were laughing with anticipation and delight as she leaned in closer to him. “Now it’s time for you to claim your reward.”
Then, unable to restrain herself, she embraced him tightly.
Sinbad could smell the spicy, complex scent of the finest berries and juices in her hair. So different from the flowery fragrances preferred by the maidens back home. The touch of her was electric; he was intoxicated by her heavenly scent as Aella’s hands ran across his chest. Then she went up to the thick column of his throat to take hold of him along the line of his jaw and brought his lips to hers.
The kiss was intense and it fulfilled all of Aella’s expectations. She trembled against him, catching her breath with the sparkling overload of physical sensation. She danced with danger, as it gave spice and meaning.
She bit him tenderly on his lobe, hard and sexy. Then she sat straight up before him and shifted her position a little bit so she could make her intentions and desires unmistakable.
She held the embrace for a moment, and then he slowly started to reluctantly pull her away.
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He hadn’t been with a woman since Princess Farah—his betrothed. Then he wondered if she and her brother King Kassim were well. Sinbad was ready to marry Farah, but a spell was cast on Kassim by their evil stepmother Zenobia turning him into a baboon just as he was going to be crowned caliph.
Then Sinbad and Farah had to set off in search of the Greek alchemist Melanthius who had the cure that could break the spell. They eventually found the wise man and his daughter Dione, who agreed to help them with their quest. Then Metlanthius told Sinbad and his crew that they must travel to Hyperboria where an ancient civilization once existed, to find an ancient pyramid where Kassim can be restored to his original state.
But Zenobia and her equally wicked son Rafi pursued them by unleashing hordes of monsters, including a bronze golem called a Minaton that resembled a minotaur. However, Sinbad and his crew were able to turn the tide with the unlikely help of a friendly troglodyte. In the end, Zenobia and her son were slain, Kassim is restored by the magic of Hyperborea and is crowned King upon his return.
Sinbad was gone for a very long time.
Had it been weeks?
Months?
Has it been over a year since he crash-landed on Mars?
He feared his disappearance might have made her feel jilted. He shook it off his mind, knowing Farah wouldn’t misconstrue this predicament. She probably had Kassim sent fleets of ships in search for him.
If only those ships could fly into the stars.
Then Sinbad wondered if the search had been called off and he had been pronounced legally dead.
How long did Farah mourn for him?
How many tears had she wept?
How lonely and cold she felt when she laid in her bed at night.
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Then he realized she might have taken a lover to fill the void in her heart. Did he really expect her to wait for him forever? All he wanted was her to be happy. Even if it meant for her to run into another man’s arms to comfort her. Although it granted such sadness in the fiber of Sinbad’s soul.
With that thought, he broke off Aella’s kiss. She sat there confused, wondering if she did anything to upset him.
“What’s wrong, darling?” she asked, breathlessly. “Do I not please you?”
“No,” Sinbad sighed, “it’s not that. You are very beautiful, your highness. But my heart belongs to another.”
Aella looked at him as if he was uttering nonsense. “What do you mean?”
“I am betrothed.”
Aella’s face became twisted with anger. “Who is she? I’ll have her killed!”
Sinbad backed away, taken by surprise on Aella’s sudden change of character. “Calm yourself, please.”
Aella didn’t abide by Sinbad’s plea. “What makes her better than me? If she really cared about you, Sinbad, she would have found you by now. I would not be surprised if she is carousing with a fine young Earthman as we speak.”
“You don’t know anything, vile woman!” Sinbad snapped at her, as he got off the couch. “I don’t know what you were hoping to get out of this, but you don’t own me.”
Aella’s eyes narrowed at him, but she managed to squeeze out a warm smile. “Maybe the promise of half the Dozhakian kingdom and my dowry might change your mind, beloved. Be my consort and all of this can be yours.”
“What about your brother?”
“Well, accidents do happen,” she chuckled.
“My answer is still no.”
Aella pouted and held back tears. “What
