From A Starlit Shore

By Mark Lind-Hanson

Corocovo, King of Palacha, has run into unexpected “marital difficulties” in his relationship to his wife, Aashon. Together the couple rule over a kingdom where the populace have never known a Creation Myth, a Fall, or a schism of their psychologies. On Planet Ztam, they worship their star, and each year hold a week of Games and Orgies where clothing is neglected in favor of sport and pleasure.
However there has been a growing disaffection in parts remote to the great tradition of the Games, as they have been practiced for generations in Sil. And along the way, a group of runaway children, acting out their personal visions of freedom and loss of innocence, are made as pawns between differing areas of the King’s concern. On Ztam, they’ve never known sexual guilt trips, nor had any idea they came from anywhere else than the soil of their planet. During the Games, all bets are off. The Queen's doctor meets with an old friend, and a love affair is rekindled.
Some situations depicted may be inappropriate for readers under 16.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Lind-Hanson
• Release date: Sep 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005976361

Mark Lind-Hanson

Mark Lind-Hanson is a guitarist, songwriter, and composer, born in San Francisco, and lives somewhere in Silicon Valley.

Book preview

FROM A STARLIT SHORE

a Novel

Mark Lind-Hanson

From A Starlit Shore

by

Mark Lind-Hanson

© 2021 by Mark Lind-Hanson

This is the Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

No trees were harmed in the publication of this book, only electrons.

Copyright 2021 by Mark Lind-Hanson

ISBN: 9781005976361

cover art and illustrations by Mark Lind-Hanson

special thanks to Kevin Donohue, manuscript nanny and midwife

For Marilyn, Gypsy, and Dagmar

these dreams were made of breeze

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

A GLOSSARY of ZTAMIAN WORDS

CHAPTER ONE

QUEEN AASHON OF PALACHA stared out the open window at the lengthening rays the star cast upon the sea as it set. Against the glowing aura of her star, Tudops, a small vessel was headed into harbor, its hold full of men, crops, goats and targonids. It was the people of Ondina, coming as they did each year to take part in the annual Games of the Summer. Life on Planet Ztam was such that the seasons were three- spring, summer, and winter, cold and wet. Each year the men of all the nation and the island of Ondina congregated, here in the capital and at Sil, the host city of the Summer Games, and those headed for the Queen’s recognition would be the very ones who last year had won the grand laurel leaf of the champions- The Queen had been embarrassed for the men of the mainland, but after all, the competitions were fair and equal, and if they from her side of the Cocoro could not keep up with the stout men of Ondina, then she felt, it would be indeed their problem.

She thought and turned her thought again to the problem of her husband. Here they were at the head of the great festivals for which they were oft celebrated, and he could not even get it up to satisfy the longings inside her belly! Not since she was a wee lass had she known that men didn’t hold their great priapus forever… When she were but a wee lass, she found out that some men had a weak spot, and it wasn’t in the head, it was in the balls.

She laughed to herself as she saw the ship grow closer. Crowds had turned out on the dock to greet the returning champions, some with hope, some with vengeance on their minds. The competitions of the Games would take precedence over any other issues before them, and here the King and Queen were at odds in their boudoir, the King wailing that he could not but sustain his throbbing rocket, while the Queen began suspecting she might need to summon an aide de camp to relieve her own condition.

Such things could not be. She decided to call for Dr Shivalingam.

Yoni Shvalingam had served the King and the Queen for half their lifetimes, since she came from the island of Ondina herself and at the age of twenty had passed every medical examination possible, she made herself a physician, and the first to notice were the royal couple, as newlyweds. By the time she was forty, she had consulted the King and Queen on a myriad of other health issues, but they had never come before her in such a light…

The doctor gathered up her bag with the numerous articles she would usually need for a consultation with the royal patients. The circulation monitor, the respiration monitor, the heart monitor, as well as a number of different medicines she kept in a separate wallet divided into different herbs and conditions… It was but short half mile from her office on the hillside down hill to the royal court. On her way she always liked looking a the different tradespeople and would call to the housewives as they leaned from their windows Lovely day in Palachina, isn’t it, ladies?

And the womenfolk would all titter because they knew her for what she was for many of them- their midwife, the one who attended to all the newborn folk of the crown village of Palachina, and had done so for a generation. As midwife to the many, she was also rumored to be in league with fell spirits, which unless appeased might cause husbands to grow cankers in their beards, and wives, corns on their buttocks.

So when the doctor arrived, Aashon was sitting in her chaise against the view of the large triangular window that opened to the sea.

How are you my good Dr Yoni?

Well and fine your majesty What is this issue that concerns you at this time? The doctor had already taken out the blood pressure monitor and strapped it round the Queen’s left arm.

"It is the King, dear Yoni. He is unable to...perform his manly duties. His contumenance is improvidentially compromised, it would seem. Perhaps it was a fall he took as a child when he came near to a rupture- I don’t know but if anything from his stories he’s told me is so, perhaps. Or perhaps, he is just losing confidence in his ability to rule, since the Ondinians won the Games last year, and we of Palacha have had no champions come forth of our own account. Perhaps he takes those things personally, though he is a fool to, I don’t know.

Does the king have any other… interests, besides yourself?

Not that I am aware of, Yoni. Seems to me he hardly even pays as much attention to me as any other, and I have been here for him all along! What is it, is it familiarity breeding contempt? I do not know, but, he seems less arduous than once before… less passionate. He does not tickle me even as he once used to in play. There is something else on his mind, I can tell, but, do not ask me to define it.

OK my lady, I will attend to him soon this evening. Make ready a dinner for me and I will wait in the court outside with the others there already.

The doctor bowed, and exited. As she entered the large court room it was filled with many of the men would be competing in the Games for the side of the mainland, and of those, primarily the ones who were captains of the teams from the different regions. There was Duron of the Farmlands, Moaf of the Targonid Forest, Gerged from the Forest of Dreams, and Ortali of the Alluvial Sink. All of these men had brought with them their many teammates, who were being lodged in hotels down by the water, as the leaders chose to convene at the palace, the sooner to bring their attentions to the notice of the King.

It would only be a matter of time before the men from the Island of Ondina would arrive at the court, and all would then be gathered at what would be the most formally informal of all the meetings that would take place between now and the Games.

Dr Shivalingam looked at the group. Of the men she knew, there had been only one of them, the Man from Farmlands, who had paid her any mind when she was younger and felt fit enough to take part in the Games herself.

In those years, her body lithe and limber, she could throw a javelin as far as any man, and only he- that hirsute and silent brute that stood across the palace floor- had been anywhere close to beating her. He had lost by three inches, but those three inches had put her higher in the minds of her sister folk than he might ever have matched among even his own kin. The Games were not rigged- oh no- but in all respects, being able to meet with the men on equal terms was what the Dr considered the best thing about the Games.

It mattered not that, while the Games were in session, all who attended were unclothed. For that was the custom. All on Ztam were equal before the eyes of the Star Tudops. their Creator, and even the most abjectly disfigured members of the society could be respected amongst the throngs at the Games, for without robes, dress, and symbolism, nudity was the great equalizer.

It happened at the best time of the year, in any event, when clothing was often doffed and set aside in the temperate humid languor of a summer in Palacha.

There was no sense of shame between the sexes in Palacha, for the Games provided them with a healthy outlet for energies that might elsewhen be taken up by courtship, romantic pairings, and a growing population. The fact the Games went on for three weeks guaranteed that while some pair-groups would prosper by the time together, others would not be long in dissipating, for after the three weeks were done, all returned to their basic tasks…

Dr S remembered Duron as being rather clever for a farm boy. He had shown his skill in the dart throwing competitions and had even split a dart in three pieces with his own on a bull’s eye.

The stage was set for some sort of confrontation, but the tall blonde man kept his gaze from her, and spent all his time in talking with the other chieftains across the room.

At the center of the palace court, the great throne of King Corocovo III sat, he conspicuous by his absence at the moment, the throne guarded by standing men and a number of bored attendants. All the energy in the room, however, was with the agitated discussions the men were holding at the wall most distant from Yoni. She sat, and an attendant brought her the plate of dinner she had requested. She bowed back at her and slid into a cross-legged position, minding not to spill any of the Ondinian wine which had been handed to her as well.

Palace birds fluttered to and fro above the chattering men. Dr Yoni concluded that however long it would take the men from her Island to climb the hill to the palace, it would be announced well before their arrival by the usual band of hooligan children and carnival goers.

And so it was. She had not but to wait a moment after setting down her cleaned plate and empty glass than the first children burst into the court, shouting The men from Ondina! The men from Ondina!

And with them, soon trooped into the hall the group who had sailed the day and night across the straits to the Palace at Palachina. From the Ports of Ondina and Trasmo they had come, bringing with them a number of essential crops and livestock often traded with the mainland, and those who had been fortunate enough to divest themselves of their lot before they ascended to the palace, would be those who were first inside the gates.

The men from Ondina came, their faces shining brightly with the light of Tudops, radiant with the joy of returning champions, although they stood on rival ground, their authority was unquestioned, in the way the onlookers held themselves back as they strode gamely into the great halls.

Greetings, brothers of Palachina! And to the Royal Majesties!

Then, rather surprised themselves at not finding the King present, as he might usually have been, to welcome them, they stood back, aloof, regarding their rivals from the Mainland with spry contemptuousness.

It is in the spirit of the Games we have come! And we have brought the plentiful harvests of the farms of Ondina, and more of the sweet wine which you all so awesome crave!

With a flourish, their leader, Orodam of Ondina the seaport, drew from his cloak a magnificently elaborated scroll, which fell to the ground as he held it before him. He read:

To the good peoples of Palacha, Palachina, the Farmlands, the Forests, and all the crown’s jewel lands! We have come this year to the Games to defend our champion titles, and lay claim to what we hope will be the new future between our two polities! That we shall in perpetuity hold these Games is not a given for us to see the ways of our posterity, that is unknown. But we resolve that here and now, Ondina will be the leaders when it comes to all things!

There was muttering from the mainland men as they drew together to whisper subtle tones of suspicion between themselves.

What the devil- that they will be our leaders? They cannot be Our leaders, for We have always led!

Yes but that was before last year, and the Great victory their women scored.

Yes, it was not they who bested us, but the ladyfolk! And where are they?asked Moaf, who shot a look over at Dr Yoni, who had still been sitting, patiently attending to the meal set before her on a low divan. She returned the look, but it did not faze her. The real one to look for would be Duron, for she was certain that of all of them, he would not wear his grudge of her island ancestry against her so easily on his sleeve.

Duron seemed to have made a decision about something, and he drew the others close by. But Orodam from Ondina merely smiled, and continued reading from his parchment.

We bring to you this year seventeen great targonids, three of which will be saved for the great finale feast, but all of which are dedicated to feeding the crowds at this years Games. We have brought seven great Jerboams of wine, fresh from our autumn hillsides, and ready for slaking the pleasure of all those in heed of a good flagon. We have brought more of the little goats which the children of the crown village so adored last year- these we give freely unto them, as a source for their daily milk, and wool for their winter sweaters!

The mainland men stood appraising this act of generosity.

No doubt, this is to get us to give up our young champions so they can begin working on them! Hmph! snorted Moaf, who was easily the most agitated.

The more good they do, the less chance we have of getting our women up against theirs! When the Ondina women get here, forget about any pleasant energies! laughed Duron. He was seeing the entire show now as what it was, a clever trick of propaganda on the part of Orodam and his gang.

The winds blew steadily in from the sea as the final rays of sunset flashed pink and blue against the ocean waves. Dr Yoni finished her plate, and then withdrew again, leaving by way of the Queen’s chamber.

‘The King will be back in less than an hour" said Aashon.

I don’t know how to keep you there if you are going to be bored by all that men talk.

Oh I am not bored, your Majesty. I am just thinking of what I might do to help in your strange situation with him. I think I might go to see Klamidwa. She will at least give me some ideas. Meanwhile, you do your best to get old Corocovo’s pecker up! You have it in you and you know he’s still got it for you. So do what you can, and I will come back tomorrow. If Klamidwa has any new secrets for me, she’ll need to lay them out!

The Dr left the Queen standing there, as she was, half indulged in stuffing her face with a large vegetable dessert. She moved quickly through the sides of the palace and exited near the front, but farther down the great hall than she had sat… Outside, there were still throngs of villagers and children making nuisances around them, playing with village dogs, and screaming at the top of their lungs in glee.

The road back to her own home led up the hill even further, but she took comfort in knowing that the further up the hill she lived from the Queen, the less likely the Queen would be to come calling on her. For she grew tired of Queen Aashon’s constant hemmying and hawying about her own health, which so far as Yoni was concerned, couldn’t be any better for a woman her age. But the Queen’s own self- diagnoses took minor irritations to newer, higher levels of hypochondria. Or they could. The Queen was easily led into believing she was allergic to twenty five things, though in actuality it could have been two or three.

In any case, as she shrugged off the throng and made her way up the cobblestone path, she had a short sigh of despair for the fate of the King.

It hadn’t been his fault he married late as he had in life, though it had been at a primer moment of it. The man was a good nine years elder to the Queen, but for some reason, the two of them together when first coupled spent as much time together as a pair of besotted teenagers, and cooed and cawed over each other just the same.

If the Queen doesn’t let go of some of these… irritations which she has allowed herself to formulate against him, then he will surely die as henpecked as any commoner. Aye, that’s a bit sad, she thought, but when she reached her door, she turned and looked back out over the palace, the approaches, the craft docked in the harbor, and the sea. All of this little piece of Palachina, she thought, it’s a beautiful place to while away the years when I am old. But so many things can happen in that great castle down there… it is up to Tudops what may come of those two!

Setting down her earlier bag of various health measurement material, she prepared a new one for her visit to Klamidwa. She would go to see Klamidwa on the morrow. For if Yoni had been called to be the one midwife to the village on the cliffs of the harbor at Palachina, Klamidwa had perhaps been called upon to be the local priestess of good (or ill) luck. And a meeting with her was one Yoni never came to without a question of any covert and contrary aims from the old hag.

Of course, Klamidwa the old hag was not much a different sort from what she had been as Klamidwa the hot mama. But with the death of her husband, a former champion in the Games, she had taken to wearing nothing but a mourning smock and her hair all wrapped up atop her head like a basket of snakes. All the herbs in the garden which grew wild about her house were the makings of the different potions and spells she would hand out to the young wives and husbands who would oft seek her out when they were beginning a marriage. All the sexual secrets, Klamidwa knew as well, for inside her burned a flame of lust which not even her husband had been able to extinguish with the gifts of his manhood. That place inside her liked to clutch, and cozen, anything which came within the desiring heart of Klamidwa.

But so far as interest in the other champions of Palacha goes, she stood not in awe nor thrall, in fact, one or two of them had come by her to make a pass after the death of Nunc, but they were always, she thought, too vainglorious, and half the man Nunc had been.

Dr Yoni brought some special food for Klamidwa in her little bundle, it was a small piece of broiled targonid, highly spiced with tefallon and gandolon, but sure to cheer the old crone’s hunger, for it was always a matter of sitting with the old one for a pot of tea, if one made a visit. It was as much a consultation for the Dr as it might have been for Klamidwa! Such was the relationship of the two.

CHAPTER TWO

KING COROCOVO III strode wearily into his twilight courtroom, settled onto his throne, gazed around him, drearily nodded, and at that, the men of Ondina came forward once more.

Your Majesty, we have brought...

King Cocorovo held up his hands and asked Stop, please. I know what you are going to tell me. You and the men of your isle have brought us great goods and stores and stock, and we must be grateful. I suppose, as well, knowing you are all bound for the Games, that you have brought your teams all along with you?

Of course, your majesty, replied Orodam. All twenty stout men and fifteen robust maidens. And there are a small group of children, who insisted on coming.

Of course. mused the King. The presence of children was not unexpected, but it was well known that when children did come to take part in the Games, it was often that they did so in a manner of eloping in the dark of night with a group of companions. The practice was frowned on, but there was little parents could do, as most of them would be bound to be attending the Games themselves, and with all the less concern for the kids as