"Are you feeling better?" he asked.
"Yes," she lied. In truth, she was beginning to feel an ache deep in her womb. It was shame. She was ashamed that her thoughts lingered on a very unvirginlike desire for the absolutely wrong man.
"Do you think you could walk? I have something I want to show you."
"Yes, of course." She reluctantly shifted out of his arms, standing carefully. Her clothing was torn in a dozen places and her hair constantly strayed into her eyes, but she didn't care. Despite the conflicting emotions inside her, this night had taken on a magical quality, and she did not want it to end even if she walked around in rags.
"It is not far, but it requires a little bit of climbing. I would not be able to carry you."
"I am fine," she repeated, her curiosity piqued.
With a nod, he gestured her out of the bower. They walked together in silence. He kept a hand on her back and another on her arm, leading her through the dark maze that was the Forbidden City. They ended at a ladder that led up a massive tree.
"It is up there," he whispered into her ear, "but I must empty it out first. Wait here in the shadows and don't make a sound."
She nodded her agreement. Within moments he disappeared up the ladder. Then to her shock, four eunuchs descended in rapid order. They went in the other direction, grumbling and laughing among themselves. Bo Tao descended a moment later.
"They are gone now," he said.
"What did you do?"
"I bribed them to leave. Now no one will know that you are here."
She stepped forward, looking up into the blackness above. "What if someone else comes?"
"They won't," he said as he placed her hands on the ladder. "There is a way to bar entrance to anyone else. Besides, the show is not that interesting tonight."
"Show?" she asked.
"Hush. Climb."
She did as he bid, though it was hard going. Her skirt was already ripped, so there was no difficulty there. But he placed his hands on either side of hers, and he mounted each rung directly behind her. When he bumped against her bottom or leaned close enough to heat her shoulders with his chest, she gasped at the contact and thought inappropriate things. What if she had not hit him in the examination room? What would have happened? With his body around hers and his hand exploring her, what would have happened? What would she have felt?
By the time she made it up to a platform at the very top, her mouth was dry and her breasts heavy. "What is it that you want me to see?" she asked, her voice thready in the darkness.
He didn't answer in words. Instead, he crawled beside her and gently twisted her shoulders around until she looked through an opening in the branches. From there she saw into a room in a palace. There were people inside—women—but what were they doing?
Bo Tao was still holding her to direct her attention. Now he leaned closer to whisper into her ear. "We are looking at the surviving harem of Dao Guang. This is a room in their palace."
"But what are they doing?"
"Can you not guess? Do you not understand?"
She did understand, but she had never thought to see three women in the throes of sexual congress.
"Do you know that women establish a hierarchy in a harem? That one is the head female and the others must follow her rules?"
She nodded. That was why the fighting was so vicious in the virgins' quarters. The hierarchy had yet to be established.
"That woman lying out on the floor is Tai Lai, the head of this harem. She has ordered the others to pleasure her."
Ji Yue blinked, leaning forward on her knees to see better. The woman on the ground seemed to be the oldest there. She lay on her back as one girl suckled her left breast and used her other hand to manipulate the nipple of the right. The second girl crouched at the groin, using her mouth to lick and stroke there. All three were naked.
"With no men to please them, the members of the harem delight themselves. Sometimes it is this way, with each other or with willing eunuchs. Sometimes it is in ways more cruel and bloody."
The moment of ecstasy was building inside Tai Lai. Her moans were growing louder and she began to thrash her head. The younger two intensified their efforts, holding her down when her movements became too vigorous. And then she arched her back, screaming out in her passion. Meanwhile, the other two leaned back, breathing hard themselves from their exertions.
"How long has this platform existed?" Ji Yue whispered. "She should know she is being observed."
"She knows," he said. "She is the one who commanded that it be built. It intensifies her pleasure to know that eunuchs watch her and mourn for what they have lost."
Ji Yue wanted to turn away, she wanted to look at Bo Tao's face to judge if he lied. But she could not tear her eyes from the tableau before her. Tai Lai's recovery came quickly. Her breath returned to normal and she reached out to fondle the breasts of the nearest girl, pinching and pulling despite the younger one's winces. Except, of course, the girl did not seem to be in great pain. Her face became flushed and her hand slipped between her thighs to touch herself.
"But that must hurt!" Ji Yue said.
"It does. But in this place, pain and sex can become twisted together."
The girl was beginning to moan as her hand worked between her thighs. The other one—still crouched between Tai Lai's legs—began to stand, but Tai Lai shot her an angry look.
"Again!" she commanded. "Slower this time."
The other one nodded and bent to her work. And then there were two women moaning and thrashing while one made noisy slurps that carried through the night air.
"And this is how they entertain themselves at this hour?" Ji Yue asked. "While others watch?"
"At night and during the day sometimes. How else can they occupy their time with no children to care for and no man to ease their suffering."
"But surely when Dao Guang was alive—"
"This is the lowest harem. He never called for any of them. All of them are still virgins, all imprisoned in the Forbidden City, unable to leave even to visit their own families. Most are not told when their parents die. Their life is reduced to this palace and these spectacles."
She shuddered at the thought. "Surely not all do this."
"No. Only a few. Others spend their time in petty rivalries and cruel revenges. Many have turned to religion, a few to music and poetry. But I have seen as many as a dozen in that room, including eunuchs."
"And how many watched from here?" she asked, at last able to turn away from the sight.
His teeth flashed white as he grinned. "I feared for the tree that night, so many were perched here or had climbed into the branches."
Ji Yue didn't dare look into his face when she asked her next question. So she let her gaze drop to his corded neck while her fingers toyed with a rough tear in her skirt. "Have you ever joined the…the revelry in there?"
He shook his head. "I am a whole man. I would be killed were I to enter."
She looked up to see his face. There was a kind of mischief in his eyes and she knew the truth. "You have joined them there!" she accused.
He shook his head. "Never. I swear."
"But you have done something. You have the same look my brothers have when they have stolen tarts."
He grinned, his teeth flashing in the darkness. "I have been on this platform with women who are not protected virgins." He leaned forward and touched her face. His hand slipped down her cheek and then brushed across her nipple so that tingles shot through her body. Before she could do more than gasp, she felt his other hand glide up her thigh. The rips in her skirt gave him many places to touch, many places to burrow. She felt his hand curve around the top of her thigh to stroke against her curls.
"Have you ever experienced what those women do? Have you ever felt the tremors rack your body as you cry out in joy?"