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Amy paced alone in the small cell to which
she had been escorted. Guards
had come for her early that morning and had taken her away from the apartment
she shared with the other young women.
She waited with great trepidation.
The stories of what happened to female captives of the knights of
New Wessex were vivid in her mind.
She could think of no other reason for her to have been taken from
her new companions.
A noise outside the door of the room caused her to
start. A key turned in the lock,
and the stocky form of the leather-clad man she and Steiner had met when
they were first brought to the castle entered the
room. Two other men entered with
him, flanking him like guards.
One of the guards stepped forward and pushed Amy to her
knees.
“Kneel
wench. Do you not realize your
liege lord is before you?”
Amy struggled to regain her feet.
“I recognize no lord,” she answered
defiantly. “I am a guest
in your kingdom, not a subject.”
“Such insolence,” the man
cried. “For that you should
be flogged.”
“It’s you who are going to be flogged,” replied
Amy. And as she spoke, she drove
her fist into the man’s private
parts.
With a scream of agony, the man released his hold on
her. Amy followed through with
her unexpected assault before the other two men could
recover. She had no well-defined
plan, she just knew that she had to find a way to
escape.
Even as the other two men recoiled from her attack she was upon
them. The man next to the
leather-clad man, who she now took to be King Hugo, tried to draw his sword,
but he got it only halfway out of its scabbard before Amy’s foot caught
him full in the throat, crushing his windpipe and sending him crashing to
the floor to writhe out the last of his life in
agony.
That left only the king. He was
unarmed except for a dagger, which he now
drew. But he might as well have
been armed with a table knife for all the good it did
him. Amy whirled like a Dervish
and slammed the back of her hand into his nose, smashing the cartilage like
cardboard. Screaming and spraying
blood from his shattered nose, Hugo reeled across the room, landing in a
heap on the far side.
Amy turned her attention to the man she had first
attacked. Clutching his private
parts, he was attempting to rise, but a hammer hand across the back of his
neck drove him to the floor for good.
Quickly she moved to the door and slammed it
shut. She wanted to muffle as
much of the noise coming from the room as
possible. Fortunately, it appeared
that Hugo had come with only two guards, a lapse in security he was going
to regret.
Amy bounded back across the room.
“Shut up!” she said, slapping the moaning king’s face
as hard as she could. The blow
whipped Hugo’s head back.
“Now listen very carefully,” Amy
hissed. I am going to get out
of this castle. And you are going
to take me. If you even think
of trying to escape I am going to cut off your balls and feed them to the
castle hounds. Do you understand
me?”
Totally beaten by what he had supposed was a helpless woman, Hugo could only
nod dumbly. He was in terrible
fear for his life, because he now realized that she was no ordinary woman,
but a forest demon possessed of enormous
powers. How else could her assault
on him and two of his guards be explained?
Amy jerked the frightened monarch to his
feet. Ordering
him to place his arms behind his back, she bound his wrist with strips of
cloth from the guards’
surcoats. Then she pushed
him into the hallway. As she
had surmised, it was deserted.
Probably the king had ordered it that
way. No doubt when he came to
rape his victims, he wanted a little bit of
privacy.
“First off,” she said, “you are going to take me to where
you put the gear that I and my companion were carrying when your men captured
us. Remember what I
said.” She pushed the point
of Hugo’s dagger against his leather jerkin, penetrating the fine
leather. Hugo jerked as he felt
the knifepoint against his skin.
“Please, kind lady,” he pleaded, “I
remember.”
“That’s better. Now
let’s go. Take me by the
way we are least likely to be discovered.
If we meet any guards you have a very good chance of
dying.”
Hugo stumbled before her. He
appeared to follow Amy’s instructions exactly, because they encountered
very few other members of the castle's inhabitants and those they did see
were easily avoided. They came
at last to what appeared to be an armory.
Row after row of medieval weapons were placed
in stands about the room, and there on a table near the door were Amy’s
and Steiner’s weapons and other
gear. Only a single guard rose
to meet them as they entered.
At first the guard seemed to think that he was being visited by his
monarch. A look of stunned surprise
clouded his face when he saw Amy with the
dagger. “Order the fool
to fetch the man who accompanied me and the three girls you are holding
prisoner. And make sure he obeys
or you die.”
The king paled. “You heard
the lady,” he quavered.
The guard hesitated. “Do
it,” Hugo pleaded.
“Can’t you see that the lady is a
witch?”
Now it was the guard’s turn to pale.
Hurriedly, he scurried from the
room.
Amy pushed the king into the chair vacated by the
guard. Putting the knife in her
belt, she moved to the table and strapped on her sidearm and picked up her
rifle. Drawing back the bolt
she shoved a cartridge into the chamber.
“Do you know what this is?” she asked the
king.
Hugo, shook his head, apparently afraid to
speak.
“It contains the power of lighting,” she
said. By way of demonstration,
she took aim at a suit of plate armor standing next to the
wall. She was careful to aim
where a fold in the metal thickened the
steel. She did not just want
to punch a small unimpressive hole in the
armor. She pulled the
trigger. In the confined space
of the armory, the explosion of sound was
enormous. The bullet struck where
she aimed, blowing the suit of armor
apart. Hugo almost fell out of
his chair. Covering his ears
with his hands he was the very picture of
terror.
“Just remember,” said Amy.
“I can do to you what I just did to the
armor. Any attempt at resistance
and I will destroy your castle and your
people.”
Hugo appeared thoroughly cowed.
When a number of guards arrived to investigate the explosion, he
immediately ordered them to bring the captives with all possible
speed.
Amy waited, the rifle trained on Hugo’s
head. If anything went wrong
she fully intended that the rapist king would not
survive. A few minutes later,
several of the guards returned.
They were escorting Danielle, Adrienne, and
Monique. The three young women
entered the room in stunned amazement.
Familiar with firearms, they realized at once that Amy held the advantage,
but Amy was not pleased.
“Where is the man who came in with
me? I ordered that he be
brought.”
One of the guards who had escorted the young women into the room went to
one knee. “He cannot be
found, lady. He seems to have
disappeared."
Amy cursed. “I will have
him brought or I will level the castle.
Search everywhere.” She
looked pointedly at the trembling king.
Hugo nodded and the guard ran to do her
bidding.
“Gott
in
himmel!
I can’t take much more of this,” moaned Steiner as Lady
Anna lowered herself onto his penis.
“Four women in only a few hours and each one
as randy as the last.
I’m being worn to a
frazzle.”
A sharp crack sounded. Steiner
jerked his head. That was the
sound of a shot! Without ceremony
he lifted the passion-filled girl off
him. “Sorry darling,
I think I better investigate
that.”
“Wait,” the astonished girl
protested. “You cannot leave
me!”
Steiner pulled on his pants and boots.
Grabbing up his shirt he ignored the protesting girl and strode to
the door. Outside, Princess Caroline
and the other three girls were waiting, a look of concern on all their
faces.
“What was that sound?”
Steiner inquired. “It
sounded like a rifle shot.”
“I know not what you mean my lord,” answered the princess, “but
you have not yet fulfilled your
duty.”
Steiner had no more time for stud duty.
Grabbing the princess by her arm he gave her a fierce
look. “Tell me where the
sound came from your highness. You
have gotten more than you bargained for out of
me.”
Frightened by his glare, the princess
answered. “I think it came
from the great hall.”
“Take me there.”
With a look of resignation, the princess did as she was
asked. She led the way from the
room where Steiner had been given his romantic assignment, and through the
secret passage to a hall in a section of the castle that Steiner
recognized. He was close to the
main entrance where he and Amy had been brought in.
The princess held back as he stepped into the
opening. “It were best if
we were not seen together, my lord.”
Steiner nodded. He felt a little
guilty that he had not fulfilled his part of the bargain, but then Princess
Caroline had not released Amy either.
Still, he could not leave her without some attempt at
gallantry. He bowed to the
princess. “I am sorry that
I was not able to meet your needs, my
lady. But I must attend to the
needs of my own lady.”
The princess nodded in understanding.
“Farewell, Lord Karl,” she said as she closed the door to
the passage and disappeared.
The hallway was deserted, but Steiner could hear a buzz of activity toward
the great hall. He grabbed a
halberd from a rack of weapons as he moved toward the
noise. He had no skill with the
heavy weapon, but it might be better than
nothing.
A few seconds later he arrived on a seen of utter
confusion. The great hall was
filled with dozens of armored warriors all of them crowded near a door on
the opposite side of the room. As
he came into the room from behind several of the soldiers turned and spotted
him. Steiner prepared to defend
himself.
To his surprise the soldiers seemed glad to see
him. “My lord,” said
one of them, “praise be that you have
arrived.”
Steiner returned a surprised stare.
“Your lady, has taken the king hostage,” the soldier
explained. “She threatens
his life if you are not brought to
her.”
Steiner could have laughed out loud.
How like Amy! In the short
time he had known her he had come to appreciate that she could be very tough
and resourceful. He should have
expected this of her.
The soldiers made way for him as he crossed the
room. And then, escorted by the
soldier who had greeted him he was ushered into a large
room. From the array of weapons
in the room he realized that he was in the castle
armory. But what interested him
the most was the presence of Amy, looking very self-assured as she trained
her rifle on the groveling figure of King
Hugo.
“Karl,” Amy exclaimed with a brilliant smile, “I was just
considering putting a bullet into the king’s carcass in order to convince
him to have his people look harder for
you. Where have you
been?”
Steiner felt himself blushing.
“I’ll tell you later,” he said, as he picked up his
sidearm and strapped it on.
“It is probably best if we get out of here as soon as
possible.”
For the first time he noticed the figures of the other girls in the
room. “Who are these
ladies? They don’t look
much like the rest of the local
population.”
“Kidnap victims like us. We
are taking them with us.”
“Then we better ask the king to get us some horses and pack
animals. It is going to take
us a long time to find our way back to
civilization.”
“I’ve already done that,” she
replied. “I even ordered
one for you. We’re taking
King Hugo, here with us until I’m sure we are
safe.”
The king was barely able to hide his fear, but did not
protest. It appeared that he
was completely under Amy’s control.
A short time later, a soldier entered the room and announced that
their transport was ready. By
that time Steiner had introduced himself to the three
girls. Amy looped a rope around
the king’s neck.
“Remember,” she warned, “I can kill at a
distance. Any treachery and you
will be the first to die.”
“You will not be harmed, lady,” answered the
king. “I wish you well clear
of my kingdom.”
It was as the king promised. Amy,
Steiner, and the three girls were escorted to the trail where she and Steiner
had entered the kingdom. There
they released the king, who was all too eager to quit their
company.
“Think we can trust him?” asked
Steiner.
“No,” replied Amy, “but I think he is too badly frightened
to give us any trouble. But the
sooner we get out of here the better.”
Steiner nodded agreement. With
a flick of the reins he turned his horse and he and the rest of the party
headed back into the rainforest.
Somewhere, they hoped, were the other members of their
expedition.
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