Email:
Lespion@msn.com
Steiner found himself alone in a small
cell. He immediately began to
look for a way out, but found none.
The room was windowless and the door was four inches thick and barred
on the outside. It was beyond
his ability to think of a way out.
He would just have to hope for an escape opportunity at another
time. For several hours he was
left alone, but eventually he was brought food and
water. There was no chance of
escape, however, it was slid through a small opening at the bottom of the
door. He never even saw the man
who brought it. He decided to
make the best of a bad situation and get some
rest. There was a small straw
covered cot in against one wall of the cell and he lay down and curled himself
up on it.
He had no idea what time it was when he awoke as the lack of light in the
room did not allow him to tell what time it
was. He was missing his watch,
having lost it when he and Amy had been taken
prisoner. One of the guards had
taken it, no doubt thinking it was a piece of
jewelry. He sat on the cot awaiting
events. After what seemed like
an eternity there was a noise outside the
cell. He readied
himself. This might be his best
chance of escaping.
The door was flung open. Outside
were two armed guards holding spears, both of which were pointed directly
at him. But there was also someone
else. It was a young light
complexioned girl. Her skin color
and high cheekbones hinted at her African ancestry, but it was obvious that
she had a good deal of Caucasian blood in her background as
well. She was well dressed in
a style reminiscent of pictures he had seen of women in the Middle
Ages.
“So,” the young woman said, “it is
true. There was a white
man. I had thought the rumor
to be false.” She stepped
toward Steiner for a better look.
“Be careful, my lady,” cautioned one of the
guards. “He may be
dangerous. We should not have
brought you here.”
“Do not tell me my place, Maurice,” said the
girl. “My father, the king,
would not be happy to hear that you questioned my
judgement.”
“Your father, the king, would not be happy to learn that I brought you
here, my lady. I only did it
as a favor to you. We must go
now.”
“Alright, we will go. Do
not mention this visit to my father.”
Maurice nodded and moved to close the
door.
“Wait!” exclaimed Steiner.
You cannot leave me here. I
came as a stranger to your land.
You have no right to imprison
me.”
“It is not my place to decide on your fate,” said
Maurice. “I take orders
only from the king.” Without
further ado, he slammed the cell door shut.
Steiner returned to his cot. After
a time, he was brought more food and water, and the bucket he had used for
a toilet was removed and replaced.
He ate and then dozed off.
He was awakened a few hours later.
Someone was moving stealthily outside his
door. Quietly he got to his feet,
wondering who was moving about so carefully outside the
cell. He heard the bar being
cautiously removed. He tensed
himself. Was this a rescue attempt
or was he to be quietly murdered?
It was most strange, but he readied himself for
action.
The door opened. To Steiner’s
amazement he found himself facing the young woman who had come to gawk at
him earlier. He opened his mouth
to speak, but she held a finger to her lips signaling
silence. She turned and gestured
that he should follow her.
Obediently, Steiner left the cell.
The young girl led him down a set of stairs and into a lower
hallway. A few feet away Steiner
could hear men talking and realized that he was being led past the
guardroom. At the end of the
hallway was a door, but the girl did not open
it. Instead she touched a catch
on a wooden panel in the wall and opened what appeared to be a door to a
hidden passage. Looking back
toward him she indicated that he should
enter. Steiner hesitated, and
then shrugged. What did he have
to lose? He stepped into the
passage.
He found himself standing at the top of a long flight of stairs that disappeared
into darkness. The girl stepped
into the small space with him and closed the panel behind
them. He felt the touch of her
hand on his arm as she led him silently down the darkened
stairs. They proceeded slowly
so as not to fall. Down and down
the stairs went. After what seemed
alike a very long time they stopped at what felt like a
landing. In the dark it was
impossible to tell. The girl
let go of his arm and he could hear a grinding sound as a heavy lock was
turned, and then a creaking as a door was swung
open. For the first time in several
minutes he could see. A flickering
light illuminated a room beyond the door.
Steiner and the girl stepped
through.
It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust, but Steiner found to his surprise
that he was in the company of five amazingly beautiful dark-skinned
girls. “What is going on?”
he wondered.
The girls gathered about him.
“He is so white,” said one of them.
“And his hair,” said another, “it is
yellow!”
There was a murmur of agreement.
“I think he is beautiful,” said still a
third.
Steiner was beginning to feel like a dog in a
show. What were these young women
up to?
The girl who had helped him escape led him to a table and chairs near the
center of the room. She indicated
that he should sit down. Then
she and the other girls sat as well.
“Forgive the mystery surrounding this meeting,” said the girl who
had led him to the room. “It
was necessary that we move quickly or else you would have been imprisoned
again and I would have been punished.”
Steiner nodded his understanding.
The girl continued. “I
am Princess Clarissa and these are my lady companions, Lady Alice, Lady Anna,
Lady Elizabeth, Lady Mary, and Lady
Stephanie. We have rescued you
because we could not bear the thought of you being sent to the gold
mines. The work would have broken
you in only a few months.”
“I am grateful for your rescue, I am Lord Karl.” said Steiner,
giving himself a title. He felt
that enhancing his status could do no harm in this clearly hierarchical society.
“But what do you want of me and what is to be the fate of my female
companion?”
Princess Clarissa smiled most engagingly.
“My lord, it is the custom in our kingdom to bring young women
from the outside to help in the process of
whitening. Never has a white
man been captured in our lifetime.
You are the first we have seen, and we would like to engage your
services.”
“My services?” queried Steiner, quite
confused. “I do not
understand. What do you want
of me, and what is whitening?”
The six girls giggled. Then Princess
Clarissa explained: “Whitening is the process of lightening our skins
through the process of breeding with light skinned
people. As you see, we are only
part African. Our skins have
been whitened because our fathers mated with white-skinned
women. Through this process some
of us have become quite fair.”
She nodded toward Lady Stephanie, whose complexion was light enough
to pass for simply a good tan.
“What we require of you, my lord, is that you help us with the
process by choosing to mate with each of
us. Our children will be fair
indeed!”
Steiner sat back in his chair in stunned
amazement. For several seconds
he was speechless. “You
mean you want me to make love to each of you in order to produce light-skinned
children? Would that not be a
violation of your honor? What
if your father, the King, were to find
out?”
“Then, of course, you would be executed most painfully” replied
Princess Clarissa, cheerfully. The
other girls giggled again.
“But for too long the men of this kingdom have reserved the right
to whiten. It would give us great
status to achieve whitening by
ourselves.”
“I do not understand,” said
Steiner. “In my kingdom,
honorable young women do not ask strangers to mate with
them.”
“Nor here, my Lord, but in New Wessex color is
status. Our children would have
the highest rank if we were to achieve true
whiteness.”
Steiner was appalled. It was
this sort of racist attitude that he had fled when he had deserted the Third
Reich to join Larra and her companions.
“I am engaged to the Lady
Amy. She is now held prisoner
in another part of the castle.”
“I fear that the lady Amy will be bred by my father, King
Hugo. She is very fair and would
ensure him a child of high status befitting a great
ruler.”
This news horrified Steiner even more.
“Will not the Queen, your mother, object to such a
liaison?”
“My mother was not the queen.
I am the ranking princess because I am the lightest skinned of the
children the King fathered. You
would give me children of the highest
rank.”
Steiner was having difficulty digesting the concept of a society so racist
that its very foundations were based on skin
color. This was intolerance and
bigotry raised to a level that would have been the envy of the most extreme
Nazi. He was completely disgusted,
but tried not to show how he felt.
He did not welcome the idea of being returned to the cell or taken
to the mines. “What if I
choose to remain loyal to Lady Amy and reject your offer?” he
asked.
“I would be surprised if you did not, My Lord,” replied Princess
Clarissa, suddenly deadly serious.
“But your safety and that of your Lady depends on your
cooperation. I may be able to
arrange her escape, if you do what we ask of
you.” The other girls
nodded. They all looked at Steiner
expectantly.
Steiner realized that he had no choice.
He was in the power of these women until he did as they
wanted. And once he had begun
to perform what was asked of him he would be even more in their
power. But he had to do something
to save Amy. He could not allow
her to be raped by King Hugo. And,
the task would not be so very unpleasant.
He looked at the six beautiful young women gathered around
him. No, it would not be so very
unpleasant at all.
PREVIOUS
CHAPTER WIZARD'S
LAIR MAIN PAGE
L'ESPION'S
STORY
PAGE
NEXT
CHAPTER