Snare of the Blood Flower: A novella from A Poisoned Land

by Craig P Roberts

  The beast approached, her wispy moustache becoming clearer with every step. Her lips slanted and her nose wrinkled. She folded her thick ropey arms.

  “There now. It is clear you are a woman,” Wallace said, clapping his hands together. “A big strong woman. The type that can run a fine establishment like this with a firm hand.”

  She stared.

  “Coin!” Wallace exclaimed. “We have coin for a room for the night, if it pleases you, miss.”

  “No more rooms,” was all the woman said to them.

  Wallace turned and leaned against the high serving bar. Through the crowd he peered out the door. “It’s pretty much dark, Cauly,” he said with a nervousness growing inside him, remembering the stories of the things that happened at night on the sandy streets of Molar Tan.

  A smooth silky figure stepped into view—a flat belly, pert tits and blue eyes. Lolita stood in front of the two brothers. She smiled and dangled a large key that was hooked over a long slender finger. “I have a room, boys.”

  Lolita

  Mother will be very pleased with Blue Cauly, thought Lolita as she led the boys to her room. Not only were the older brother’s eyes sharp and bright but his body was young, healthy and well trained. He had a stupid, naive youthfulness about him but there was still resistance towards coming to the hive. It wasn’t Blue Cauly that needed convincing. The opposition came from the little brown-eyed one—Nate. Lolita doubted that was the boy’s real name though. He was sly, rigid and she had the feeling he would be difficult to control. However there was always one way to control a young man—especially one who had likely never experienced a woman before—and definitely not a woman of Lolita’s breeding. This one clearly had no experience at all.

  “Nate, when we get to the room I would like to show you the sort of pleasures that await you if you were to come to the hive,” she offered the pious boy as they entered the building across the dark narrow street from Perony’s Saloon.

  “I’m not interested,” the boy said, trying to act as if he was immune to such pleasures.

  “She’s offering you a fuck,” Blue Cauly, pointed out to his little brother. “Take it! You’ve been gagging for it.” The blue spoke with complete seriousness. It was likely true that the younger brother had been starved of such pleasures, being of brown eyes in the Ten Kingdoms.

  This would also be the case in Grietum’s Hive. They never hunted brown eyes. But the hunt for Nate was a different kind of hunt. This little hunt will help to secure another blue for Mother. What would make this hunt easier was that Nate had brown eyes, which meant she was allowed to use the Salt of the Blood Flower on him. This was her mother’s own creation—a black dust that she extracted and processed from a blood-red flower grown in the hive. One sniff of that and he would be begging within the hour for more and then she would have him.

  Lolita slotted the key into the lock and let the boys pass her and enter the room first. She then locked the door behind her. “There now. Safe from the crazies out on the streets,” she said, tapping the doorknob gently.

  Blue Cauly was already slouched, lounging on the soft seating by the shuttered window; while the little brother perched himself on the edge of the bed—sitting up straight, back rigid, peering around the room.

  “I see you are a man that does not fall for cheap pleasures,” she said to the nervous looking formally-dressed boy sitting yapeishly on her bed as she lit the two oil lamps in the room. “But how about a nice rub-down to relax you? Businessmen always get so tense from all the thinking, planning and money-making.” That will hopefully appeal to him, she thought to herself.

  His lips curled down and he nodded with a shrug.

  “Very good,” Lolita exclaimed, getting a bottle of oil from her sack. “Take your clothes off and lie face down on the bed.”

  “Erm, I think I’d rather just keep—”

  “Just do it, bro,” Blue Cauly said, laughing.

  Nate clearly didn’t like being told what to do, or wasn’t used to orders coming from his older brother, as he huffed and began to unbutton his fancy long jacket and white undershirt. Lolita removed the brass cups that covered her breasts, feeling a satisfying release as she removed the chafing leather straps. She then stood directly in front of the boy.

  His eyes instantly were drawn towards her chest. Even the strict little businessman’s mask slipped at this point. His hands sped up, fiddling with the buttons at his crotch, dropping his fitted black trousers to his ankles. Through his undershorts Lolita could see he was aroused. I will not lower myself to handling a cock belonging to a brown-eye, Lolita decided.

  He lay on the bed, face down as he had been told. Lolita walked over to him and began to remove his undershorts. The boy called Nate wriggled to help her and then he was naked—his whole body still stiff as a board.

  “The idea is to relax, Nate,” she said to the back of his head. “Blue Cauly, tell your brother to relax.”

  The older brother said, “Just relax,” sounding as if he was used be being told what to say but seemed quite happy to do so.

  Mother will like you, Lolita thought, then turned back to the stubborn little brother. He just has to be relaxed and in my control enough to take a sniff and then they will come with me, she was sure.

  Lolita dripped oil into her hands and rubbed them together. A blob splattered onto the boy’s lower back and his tense little neck got tighter as he craned his head around, asking, “What the fuck was that?”

  “It is just oil to make you a bit more pliable.”

  “Why do I have to be pliable?” the rigid little creature asked.

  “It might help you to stop being so uptight.”

  “Just relax,” the simple-minded older brother repeated, in exactly the same way he had done a moment ago.

  “Listen to your brother, Nate.” Changing her tactics and jumping ahead, Lolita wiped her oily hands on the sheets and then reached for the blood flower pouch around her waist. “Perhaps a treat to help you relax,” she suggested.

  “What do you mean?” the boy asked, propping himself up on his elbows and straining his head around.

  How to make it appealing to an uptight sly little trickster like this one… Lolita wondered. “It is a rare and expensive substance. It is doubtful that you would earn enough coin in two moon-turns for one sniff.”

  “So why let me have it?” His stubborn eyes narrowed.

  “You are a businessman,” she said. “You understand the value of a free sample. I hope that you might realize the potential value of coming to be a partner in my mother’s hive.” He will like the word ‘partner’, she thought. And ‘value’! “Think of this as me showing you an opportunity. An opportunity to be a part of something big and…pleasurable,” she added, giving his arse cheeks a little stroke, right down to in between his thighs to where his balls were, to distract him from proper thought.

  “A free sample then,” the boy agreed, slightly shaky from his first ball fondling, Lolita assumed. “No charge at all?” he asked.

  “Of course not,” she said, teasing his sack a little more.

  “No catches? No hidden terms?”

  “None.”

  “Fine,” the boy relented.

  “Come on. Flip over and sit up straight,” she said, picking up his light body and resting his back against the wall. He quickly snatched a pillow and covered up his privates. Lolita held out a finger with a tiny pinch of the dust on it. “Cover a nostril and sniff with the other.”

  The boy didn’t look to his older brother for approval but he did consider the dust for a moment—his little business brain working out every pitfall and every gain to be had.

  After this sniff, it will all be meaningless. All that will matter to him will be the blood flower dust, Lolita thought as she watched him study the substance on the end of her finger.

  He leaned in to her hand, holding her wrist and covering a nostril. One last pause and then…

  Sniff.

  A moment pass
ed, then the boy’s eyes widened and Lolita felt his pulse quicken as his grip tightened around her wrist. “There you are,” she said, stroking his hair and resting his head back gently against the wall as his eyes glazed over.

  “Wait, what have you done to him?” Blue Cauly suddenly sprung up and came over to inspect his little brother.

  “Believe me, he is quite well. I have just given him the best experience of his life.” She turned and spoke gently into the little brother’s ear, saying, “Tell your brother what you are feeling.”

  “Everything,” the boy whispered, his toes curling and hips rocking under the pillow that covered his bits. “It’s soft.”

  “What is soft?” Lolita asked, playing along, hoping that Blue Cauly would be convinced his brother was unharmed.

  “Everything,” the little brother repeated in his trance. “Soft on my body. Like I’m cumming. Fucking cumming!” he suddenly shouted, then calmed and chuckled.

  “But you’re not hurt though?” the older, slower-witted brother asked, inspecting his sibling’s face.

  “No. Just really soft. Everywhere,” the boy said, turning to smile at, and slightly through, his older brother.

  Blue Cauly looked down at the floor, his mouth slanting into a thin line as his little brain ticked over. “Sorry for shouting at you,” he eventually said to Lolita.

  “It is understandable, sweetie. That much pleasure can look like pain.”

  “Can I have some?” he asked.

  “No. Mother likes her blue-eyed males to be untainted with such substances.” She was sure the boy did not understand her negative words but thought a little distraction would not hurt. “Other kinds of pleasures are awaiting you, Blue Cauly.” Lolita stood from the bed and shuffled close to the older brother, draping a hand on his strong shoulders.

  A smile crept onto his face.

  Cauly

  Wallace was sniffing again. “You alright?” Cauly asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Wallace replied, tugging at the white collar around his neck. He undid the top button of his shirt.

  “You look cold,” Cauly said, as they trudged through the baking desert in the heat of the afternoon sun, following Lolita’s tracks.

  “That’s because I am cold,” Wallace said, hugging his own body, shivering and sweating.

  “It’s not cold though.”

  “I know!” Wallace snapped. “I just need another sniff and I’ll be fine.”

  “Can he have more?” Cauly shouted to the woman leading the way.

  “I am afraid I have no more,” Lolita shouted back, throwing her hands out to the side. “But Mother will have an unending supply when we get home.”

  Cauly lowered his voice so only Wallace could hear. “I don’t think we should go anymore. You were right, we shouldn’t have trusted her. You’re always right.”

  “I need the dust though,” Wallace strained through gritted teeth. “My insides are fucking burning. But I’m still so cold.”

  Cauly’s head hurt. Wallace wasn’t thinking straight and that meant both of them weren’t thinking straight. “Okay, we’ll go with her. We’ll buy more of the dust or something and then we’ll leave and go back home.”

  “Yeah,” Wallace said, as if he didn’t care. “Just as long as we get more dust.”

  They rounded the side of a rocky hill and were met by the largest doors Cauly had ever seen. They towered above them all and seemed to lead directly into the side of the mountain. Only a fucking giant could open those big metal bastards, he thought, wondering if they were even doors after all, or if perhaps they were just one big metal wall.

  Lolita walked up to a rusted box off to the side and lifted a flap. She reached inside and tapped away at something within it. When she pulled her hand away there was a loud—

  Clunk!

  —And the metal wall…giant doors…whatever they were, began to split apart. Magic, Cauly thought. Wallace would probably know how it worked but he was too busy trying to keep himself standing. Earlier that day Cauly had given his little brother his cloak and he stood with it wrapped tightly over his normal clothes, shivering, staring down at the sand that was likely hot enough to burn skin. Wallace would normally have been fascinated by something as mystical as these huge doors that open by stroking some box but now it looked as if all he cared about was getting warm.

  The doors were still grinding apart, sliding inside the mountain, when Lolita walked over the threshold into the darkness and called to them, “Come along, boys. We are finally home.”

  At this point, even Wallace, desperate for his sniff, hesitated. Cauly stared into the gloom beyond the door, desperately trying to see any dangers that might be lurking there.

  “Nate,” Lolita called to Wallace, still using the fake name she had been given, “there is a small store of the dust just down this corridor that you can have a sniff of just now. Then we will go see Mother and she will have you bathing in it by the evening.”

  She had Wallace on ‘dust just down this corridor’. Nearly tripping on the cloak that was too big for him, he made a sprint for the darkness. Cauly watched as his little brother was lured into the unknown—his little brother that normally planned everything in advance, that thought for both of them and kept them both safe.

  “And, Blue Cauly, Mother will have many delights lined up for you. What we did back in Perony’s Saloon was just a taste.”

  He’d fucked countless women before but Cauly had never experienced anything like what had happened that night in the room next to Perony’s Saloon. Lolita had the strength of many men. She would pick Cauly up and place him in any position she desired. He’d fuck her as fast and as hard as he could and she would still be demanding more. At one point she spanked his arse and it sent him stumbling across the room. He may have been sore afterwards but that night would light a fire in his dreams for the rest of his life.

  The doors began to grind to a close. Cauly’s feet uprooted and he walked towards the darkness—not because of the woman’s offer of pleasure but because that’s where his little brother was and he couldn’t leave him.

  He stopped once he was across the threshold and let his eyes adjust to the dimness. The floor shuddered as the doors sealed them inside. The air was cool, the walls rumbled and the lights—

  “Bro,” he said, not wanting to shout Wallace’s real name. “Bro!” he shouted again when Wallace didn’t answer him.

  “What!?” Wallace snapped.

  “Look at the lights,” Cauly said, walking up to one of the glowing orbs on the sweating metal walls. “They’re not made of fire. They’re alive or something.”

  “I don’t give a fuck,” he moaned like a child and chased after Lolita shouting, “Please, can I have it now? I’m fucking dying.” There was real pain in his voice, as if something was caught in his throat.

  This wasn’t like his brother. Cauly had never seen Wallace pass by anything that was interesting, confusing or some opportunity for turning a profit, without investigating it and then making endless scribblings in his logbook.

  Worried, Cauly decided he’d better back his brother up: “Listen,” he shouted at Lolita. “He seriously needs to get more of that stuff. I’ve never seen him as ill as this.”

  There was no answer. The woman was beginning to pull further away from them—slinking ghost-like down the narrowing dingy corridors. She came to the end of the tunnel, but the wall parted, like a small, fast version of the outside doors. As they snapped shut behind her, Wallace ran for them, screaming, “No! Please! Don’t leave me! I need the dust!” Wallace stumbled up to the magic doors and as he got within a few footfalls, they parted for him. Cauly ran and caught up with him, both of them stepping through.

  The doors slid back into place behind them, sealing them further inside the hive. They walked down more corridors and passed through more doors that opened by themselves. It all looks the same, Cauly panicked, trying to think how they could find their way back out of the underground maze. Normally h
e’d be able to rest easy if they were in a bad situation. Wallace will be figuring a way out, he’d always tell himself. But right now, he was alone.

  They came to a larger set of doors this time and when they slid apart, Lolita paused, and Wallace stopped behind her too. They were met by four large men wearing leather around their waists and carrying spears. They bowed to Lolita, then turned towards Cauly. One of them reached out and began shackling his wrists. He gave little resistance, knowing it would be pointless to fight against so many guards and the ridiculously strong Lolita.

  “Why do I have to put these on?” Cauly asked the huge brown-eyed man as he latched over the handcuffs and placed a locking pin through the holes.

  Lolita put a gentle hand on his shoulder, saying, “Mother mistrusts strangers, so it is just to make her feel safe.”

  “Just let them, Cauly,” Wallace said with a sniff, shuffling his feet. It wasn’t like him to be so trusting. Normally his little brother would doubt everybody and always plan ahead, but now all he wanted was the dust.

  Lolita pulled a blade out of a sheath around her waist. At the sight of it, Cauly’s fingers tingled and his heart thudded in his chest. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “Do not worry,” she said, her voice remaining as calm as always. “You will not be harmed.”

  He felt the blade, cold on the back of his neck, then a ripping sound. She cut his tunic. He was stripped of his cottons too and pushed through the door arch into the middle of the large room, naked. Wallace was pushed in behind him but was allowed to remain fully clothed.

  The place had the same uneasy atmosphere as Perony’s Saloon, but was missing the warming fire in the center. In place of the flames and serving bar was an empty floor—a metal grid, doubtless leading to hidden dangers below in the darkness. The walls around the room were cast in shadow, but slight movements and the murmur of voices gave hints that figures lurked close by.