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Chapter
25
Deliverance
Hands covered with dirt and sweat groped at
Takla’s thrashing body, gripping her arms legs, breasts, crotch, and
any other part they could
reach. Jagged and
broken fingernails tore at her velvet skin and the hard calluses of hands
used to heavy manual labour clamped hard over her
limbs. Then her legs were forced
apart while she was held off the
ground. There was a bit
of a delay, as men jostled for position, and then the first man thrust into
her.
It did not hurt as badly as when the demon
had taken her, but in many ways it was much
worse. The men holding her had
not washed in weeks, perhaps months, and they stank of accumulated sweat
and filth. Soon her body too
took on the same vile odors. Her
entire body reeked of semen, sweat, and the accumulated filth of the hole
she had been thrown into, as man after man took
her. She had screamed at first,
but then one of the men had grabbed her hair, and forced himself into her
mouth. After that all she could
manage was a series of muffled grunts.
The ordeal seemed to go on
forever. Takla had no idea how
long it was. She only knew that
every man in the pit raped her vaginally and orally at least twice and perhaps
three times. How long it would
have continued she did not know, but partway through the last rape a man’s
voice sounded above all the clamor of men’s hooting
voices.
“That’s
enough. If we keep it up too
long we’ll kill her. And
we wouldn’t want that would we, mighty queen of the
Suruani?” The man’s
voice dripped venom and sarcasm, and what was more, Takla had heard it
before. A memory came back to
her. A memory of a man called
Sennam. She had sentenced him
to the quarries for his crimes. He
had committed the most serious of offences; that of challenging the right
of women to rule. And he had
done it in particularly outrageous fashion, by plotting to assassinate Takla
and her ruling council. But he
and his accomplices had been caught before they had the chance to put their
plan into action.
“That’s right my
queen. It is I,
Sennam. And these are my
friends. The ones you consigned
to a living hell. You kept me
alive so that I could suffer in the
quarries. Now I will keep you
alive in order that you may serve me.
Sadly we will not be able to entertain you the way we have done
today. The new king gave us the
day off so that we could give you a proper
reception. Tomorrow it will be
back to the quarries. But rest
assured. When we return from
our labours we will still have the energy to see that you are properly
amused.”
As Sennam had delivered
his tirade, Takla had been released.
She crumpled to the floor of the pit, unable to
stand. The men around her, many
of them exhausted by their own efforts, joined
her. There was no proper place
to sleep in the pit, just the stone floor and so they sat in a circle around
her. After awhile, Takla struggled
to a sitting position.
“Please,” she said I need water.”
“Over there,” said one of the men
with a movement of his head. But
he made no attempt to get it. Takla
looked in the direction indicated and saw that there were three wooden buckets
in the pit. Two were sitting
together and the other over in a corner.
Drawing herself together, she slowly crawled over to the two buckets
that stood next to each other.
“The service here is not as good as at
the palace is it, my queen?” said
Sennam. Here we do most things
for ourselves. But you will find
that we will be glad to service you in another
way. Every
day for as long as you stay alive.”
Takla found that one of the two buckets contained
water. Floating in it was a small
wooden cup. Scooping up the water,
she drank greedily. The water
was warm and had a strange smell.
Takla guessed that it was probably not
clean. But she had to have it;
otherwise she knew that she would surely die of
dehydration. She drank a second
cup and then controlled herself.
The men might have rules against drinking too
much. She looked into the second
bucket and saw that it was filled with some sort of mush; no doubt the food
supply for the day. She had no
appetite, and so she left it. She
did not check the third bucket. She
knew what it was for, but did not want to use it just
yet. Not with everyone
watching. Sooner or later, she
knew that should would be forced to use it, but she would delay for as long
as possible.
Most of the men seemed to have lost interest
in her. Takla guessed that if
all they got to eat and drink was what was in those two buckets, then most
were probably too starved to have much
energy. They had used most of
it up on her. Now she noticed
that many of them were asleep.
Exhausted and battered from her most recent ordeal, Takla crawled
to the side of the pit, and leaning against the wall, fell
asleep.
The sound of the grate being opened woke Takla
up. “Time to work!”
came a shout from above. The
men around her scrambled to their feet.
A ladder was lowered from above, and one by one the men climbed from
the pit. Sennam was the last
to go. “Wait here for us,
my lovely. We are looking forward
to enjoying your charms when we
return.” Then he was gone
and the grate was pushed back into place.
Takla was alone in the
pit. She tried to get to her
feet, but the effort created a wave of protest from her battered
body. She noticed that a thin
trickle of blood was leaking from her
vagina. That was not surprising
considering what she had been through.
She hoped that there was no permanent
damage. She lay panting on the
floor of the pit.
Her eyes were now quite used to the
gloom. She looked about
her. Was there any chance of
escape?
She doubted that there
was. It was unlikely that the
men would still be prisoners if there was any way
out. The grating that sealed
the pit was a good twenty feet over her
head. She could never climb up
there. And the walls were solid
stone. He eyes lingered on the
buckets. Suddenly she was thirsty
again and very hungry. Forcing
herself to move, she crawled over to the
buckets. They were
empty. Disappointed, but not
surprised, she slumped to the ground.
Well, starvation was a way out.
She doubted that she had the courage to kill
herself. And anyway, how would
she do it? She couldn’t
hang herself. And dashing her
head against the stone wall might provide a painful injury but would not
likely kill her. But if she
didn’t get food or water, she knew that she would not last
long. In a few days she would
sicken and die. Then she would
be free of the horror she had been thrust into.
A noise at the grate disturbed her morbid
thoughts. With a clang it was
pulled back. “Send up the
buckets, bitch,” commanded a voice from
above. Takla saw that a rope
had been lowered.
She considered refusing, but considered that
unwise. They would only beat
her or worse. And she did need
food and water. Perhaps they
would fill the buckets again. The
decision to starve herself to death was
forgotten. That was too hard
a death.
Dragging herself to her feet, she attached
the two empty buckets to the rope.
As soon as she was finished the buckets were pulled
up. As they disappeared she went
after the third bucket. It stank
horribly, as she had expected.
Maybe when it was empty she would use
it. It might not smell so bad
then. The rope came back
down. She attached the third
bucket to it at watched it hauled out of
sight. There was a delay of a
few minutes, and then all three buckets came down
together. As she had hoped, the
empty food and water buckets were now full and the latrine bucket was
empty.
She returned the latrine bucket to its place
in the corner.
And scooped water out of the water bucket with the
cup. It was relatively
cool and fresh. Well, that was
something. She would be the first
to get the water each day. She
wondered if that would anger Sennam.
She hoped that it would. She
was about to try the food when she heard another noise at the
grate. Looking up, she noticed
that it was still open and that a ladder was being
lowered.
Her mouth open in surprise, Takla stared as
the ladder was lowered to the floor of the
pit. It struck the bottom with
a thump. “Alright,
bitch. Get out of
there.” The voice was that
of the man who had ordered her to send up the
buckets. Takla stood unmoving
at the bottom of the ladder. Why
would they want her out of the pit?
Then she thought of the
alternative. Why would she want
to stay in the pit any longer than she had
to? Gathering her strength, she
forced herself up the ladder.
In her battered condition it was a hard
climb. But she did it, climbing
rung by rung, until at last her head reached the
surface. Two men were waiting
for her. They were standing beside
a cart drawn by a donkey. She
supposed the cart was used for hauling the food and water and removing the
latrine buckets.
“See,” said one of the
men. “I told you it was
the queen.” He
laughed.
“The mighty queen
Takla. Reduced to serving
as a whore for the quarry workers”
The man who spoke was tall and thin, but his
muscular development suggested that he was fit and
wiry. His companion was shorter
and stockier, standing no taller than
Takla. Both fixed their eyes
on her. Takla found herself
shuddering under their combined gaze.
“Hurry up, bitch,” said the thin
man. It was he who had been speaking
all along. “We got orders
to clean you up. King Desari
hisself has taken an interest in you.
We are to make sure you stay clean and
healthy. He wants your stay in
the pit to last for as long as possible.”
Takla climbed the rest of the way out of the
pit. As soon as she was clear
the tall man grabbed her arms and forced her to her
knees. “Just to make sure
you don’t go anywhere,” he
said. The shorter man was carrying
a wooden restraint. It was as
simple device consisting of two timbers joined by a
hinge. When closed there were
two holes for shackling a person’s
arms. Takla’s arms were
forced into the device and it was closed just above her
elbows. A pin was placed through
a hasp in the other end to hold it
closed. Then a chain was attached
to her neck and she was pulled to her feet.
“Ah, she does stink,
Vin,” said the shorter
man. “She could do with
a wash. That’s for
sure.”
Vin
laughed. “You’re right
there, Hakk. I guess the washing
facilities in the pit ain’t so
good.” Laughing at his joke,
he climbed onto the cart.
Hakk hooked one link of the chain over a pin
at the end of the cart and climbed up beside
Vin. With
a shake of the reins, the cart was under way, Takla stumbling along
behind.
The cart wended it way out of the quarry area
and up toward a grove of trees.
Although exhausted and in pain, Takla was forced to keep up to prevent
herself from being dragged behind the
cart. She doubted very much that
either of the two men would stop for her if she fell
down. As they approached the
stand of trees, Takla could hear the sound of splashing
water. This, she guessed, was
where she was to have her bath.
The cart stopped and Hakk unhooked the chain
from the back. Pulling her with
him he walked toward the sound of the
water. Entering through the trees,
Takla found herself, looking at a clear pool of water into which tumbled
a small waterfall from a cleft in the rocks on the opposite
side.
Pulling her up to the water, Hakk rudely shoved
her in. With no way to save
herself, Takla fell face first into the
pool. Fortunately, the water
was not deep, and Takla was able to regain her
footing. She stood there refreshed
by the cool cleanliness of the water.
“Alright, bitch,” order
Vin.
“clean
yourself.”
“How can I clean myself with my arms
pinned behind my back. And I
have no soap.”
And you ain’t gonna get any soap either,
your highness,” jeered
Vin.
“just bob up and down in the
pool. Wash all
that stink off you.”
Takla did as she was told, realizing that
nothing was going to be done to help her.
She ducked down until her head was submerged and tried to swish her
body around. It was difficult
with the shackles on her arms, but she did feel
better. She no longer stank of
sweat and sperm and felt much refreshed.
“That’s fine, bitch,” said
Vin.
“Now get out.”
Takla waded toward the shore.
She would have liked to stay longer in the revitalizing water, but
knew she had no choice in the matter.
As she reached the shore Vin grabbed her
arms and pushed her toward a grassy
sward. Takla knew that she was
gong to be raped again.
“Oh, did I forget to tell you, bitch?”
said Vin, seeing the look on Takla’s
face. “King Desari said
we could fuck you whenever we wanted.
Ain’t that right Hakk?”
The shorter man nodded, a lascivious smile
on his broad face.
Takla didn’t think through what she did
next. She acted purely on
instinct. As
Vin escorted her toward the patch of grass where
he intended to rape her, she increased her
stride. The unexpected movement
left a slight gap between her and
Vin.
Trained from girlhood as a warrior, it gave her the opening she
needed. Whirling, she lifted
her knee and caught the tall man between the
legs. With a howl of pain,
Vin dropped to the ground and lay writhing in
agony. Hakk just looked at her
with a stupid expression on his face.
She gave him no time to recover.
Stepping forward she drove the instep of her foot into Hakk’s
genitals as well. With a loud
cry of pain, he joined his friend on the
ground. And then Takla ran for
it.
Perhaps she should have stayed and made sure
that she finished off the two cart
drivers. But she was already
exhausted by the slight expenditure of energy she had used to take them
out. She wasn’t sure she
could finish the job before one of them
recovered. It was difficult to
kill a man or even render one unconscious with just her
feet. It was better to
run.
She dashed deeper into the grove of trees,
hoping that it would provide her with some place she could hide.
It didn’t. The stand was
only about thirty feet deep; not large enough to provide a proper hiding
place. But a couple of hundred
feet off was the edge of the forest.
If she could reach there, she might have a
chance.
She was halfway across the open space when
she heard the shout behind her. She
knew that meant that at least one of the men was now after
her. She glanced quickly over
her shoulder.
Vin was coming after her with ground-devouring
strides, seemingly unaffected by the blow to his gonads.
Just behind him was
Hakk. Putting her head down,
she ran as hard as she could.
But now, her injuries and trials of the last
few days caught up with her. She
had been running on adrenaline, but that reserve of energy was used
up. Now she stumbled on, but
with her pursuers coming ever closer.
The crude wooden bar securing her arms also made running
difficult. Soon she could hear
their footfalls as they closed on her.
And then their
breathing. A hand closed
on her hair, jerking her to a halt.
“Got you, bitch!” said
Vin.
Ayashe knew that she must be very close to
Sawatis and Lemaire, but she had lost their trail in a bewildering mass of
footprints on the other side of the city.
It looked as if a stampede of people had trampled over
them. Somewhere in that mess
of trodden earth were the footprints of her friends, but she had no way of
determining where they were. She
only knew that the two men had not gone into the
city. And so, she had continued
to circle the city, hoping that she might pick up their trail
again.
She kept to the trees as much as
possible. There were still quite
a few of the strange dark-skinned people moving about and she had no reason
to assume they might be friendly.
Every now and then, however, she had to move into the
open. She was in an area that
had quite a few farms. Quite
often she could use the crops that were being grown as cover, and sometimes
she used the buildings, but sometimes she just had to take her
chances. She was in that position
now. A large open area was just
in front of her. On the other
side of it was a small grove of trees and a series
of cliffs. Through the trees
she could just make out the glint of
water. Perhaps Sawatis and Lemaire
had gone there. There was no
way of telling, so she would just have to find
out.
Unslinging her
“Wish I had breasts like that,”
Ayashe muttered, but then she saw something that made her forget all about
breasts. Chasing after the women
were two men. Through her binoculars
she could see that both appeared very
angry. Even more to the point,
they were overhauling the running woman with alarming
rapidity. Ayashe lowered her
binoculars and picked up the
The tallest man caught up with the woman
first. He caught hold of her
hair and wrenched her to a halt.
Then he yanked again, jerking her right off her
feet. Still holding her hair,
her slapped the helpless woman across the face, giving her both a forehand
and backhand slap. By this time
the shorter man had caught up as well.
Ayashe noticed that he seemed to be limping a
little. As the tall man hauled
the woman to her feet, still holding her by her hair, the shorter man drove
his fist hard into the woman’s
belly. The woman doubled up,
but the tall man would not let her fall.
The short man brought back his fist for a second
blow.
Talka’s lungs exploded as Hakk drove
his fist into her. There was
no way for her to avoid the blow and he hit her as hard as he
could. Gasping for breath she
doubled over.
Vin held her
up. Placing his hand on the back
of her neck and pulling on her hair, he forced her head up so that Hakk could
deliver his next blow into her face.
Her mouth open as she fought to breath, Takla could only watch as
Hakk’s fist went back. And
then the back of Hakk’s head blew
off.
With a surprised expression Hakk’s legs
buckled and he slumped to the ground.
There was a loud sound like the one Takla had heard when the white
demons had thrown lightning at her
warriors. Releasing his hold
on her hair, Vin looked toward the sound. Takla
slumped to the ground. She heard
a strange noise from Vin and looked
up. The tall man was staring
at a little red hole in his chest, then without a sound, his legs buckled
and he dropped dead beside his friend.
At the same time the loud sound came
again. Still fighting for breath,
and too confused to even be frightened, Takla fell to her knees, but turned
her head in the direction of the sound.
Coming toward her was another white
demon. She was holding a strange
looking steel rod and wearing clothing resembling that worn by the two female
demons Takla had seen earlier. In
sudden realization, and with a sense of shame greater than anything she had
yet experienced, she understood that the demons she had tortured and humiliated
were probably not demons at all, but simply two women like
herself.
She also realized that
the girl coming toward her had saved her
life. Overcome with remorse,
Takla lowered her head and wept bitter tears of shame.
Ayashe ran up to the sobbing women. “It’s OK,” she said. “You’re safe now.” She kept her voice calm and soothing, realizing that the dark-skinned beauty could not understand her. Setting down the rifle, she pulled the pin out of the wooden manacles and took them off. Placing her arm around the weeping woman she tried to help her to her feet. “Come,” she said softly, applying pressure to the woman’s arm, “we can’t stay here it is too exposed.” Ayashe saw the woman wince as she touched her and saw that her body was covered with bruises and abrasions, but she did not resist and struggled to her feet. As quickly as she could, Ayashe guided the woman toward the shelter of the trees. Her search for Lemaire and Sawatis would have to wait.
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