by Anne Rice
“And now she told me that crawling was indeed too good for me, that I must place my arms on the ground, and my chin, and must inch along in that manner, my buttocks high in the air where she might paddle them. ‘Arch your back,’ she said, ‘down, I want your chest pressed to the ground,’ and as skillfully as any Page or mistress, she forced me along as the others praised her and marveled at her skill and stamina. I had never been in such a position. It was so ignominious I didn’t want to picture it, my knees still scraping along, my back painfully arched, my buttocks thrust as high as before. And she commanding me always to move with greater speed as my buttocks grew ever more raw. They were throbbing as the blood throbbed in my ears. And my tears were now blinding me.
“And it was then that that moment came I spoke of earlier. I belonged to this girl with the flaxen hair, this impudent, clever Princess who herself was punished as shamefully as I was day in and day out but for the moment could do as she wished with me. I struggled along, glimpsing Lord Gregory’s boots, the boots of the grooms, hearing the girls’ laughter. I reminded myself that I must please the Queen, I must please Lord Gregory, and finally I must please my cruel flaxen-haired mistress.
“She paused for breath. She exchanged her paddle for a leather strap and proceeded to lash me.
“At first it felt weaker than the paddle, and I felt a merciful relief. But she immediately learned to swing it with such strength it walloped the welts on my buttocks. Now she let me stop so she might feel these welts. She pinched them, and in the silence I could hear my own low crying.
“‘I think he is ready, Lord Gregory,’ said the Princess, and Lord Gregory said softly, he thought that I was. I thought it meant I would be returned to the Queen.
“This was very foolish of me.
“It was only that I would now be lashed swiftly into the Hall of Punishments. Of course there were a handful of Princesses chained from the ceiling, their legs tied up in front of them. Now she brought me up to the first of these.
“She told me to rise and to spread my legs very wide as I stood before her. I saw the captive Princess’s pained face, her blushing cheeks, and then her naked and moist sex peering shyly from its wreath of golden pubic hair, much ready for pleasure or more pain, after days of teasing. But it hung low, at the level of my chest, I suppose, and that was just as my tormentor liked it.
“For she ordered me to bend over towards it, and to thrust my hips out behind me. ‘Give me your buttocks,’ she said. She stood behind me. The other girls pulled my legs wider than I myself could spread them. Again I was told to arch my back and to put my arms around the bound and doubled Princess slave hanging in front of me.
“‘Now you will pleasure her with your tongue,’ said my captor, ‘and see you do it well as she has suffered long, and for not even half your clumsiness.’
“I looked at the bound Princess. She was mortified, though desperately hungry for pleasure. And I pressed my face into her sweet, hungry little sex, rather eager to pleasure her. But as my tongue delved into her swollen cleft, as I licked her little clitoris, and her swollen lips, I was walloped by the belt continuously. My flaxen-haired one chose one welt after another for her work, and I was in great pain as the bound Princess finally shuddered with pleasure in spite of herself.
“Of course, there were others who had been punished enough and now must be rewarded. I did my work as best I could, finding a refuge in it.
“And then with a panic I saw there were no more to be rewarded. I was again at the hands of my captor with nothing so sweet as a bound Princess in my arms.
“And again, my chest and chin pressed to the floor, I struggled along on my knees under the wallops of her strap back to the Special Punishment Hall.
“Now all the Princesses begged Lord Gregory to make me pleasure them, but Lord Gregory silenced them at once. They had their Lords and Ladies to serve, and he would not hear one word from them more unless they wanted to be hung from the ceiling of the other Hall as they deserved.
“I was now taken away, and out into the garden. As the Queen ordered, I was taken to a large tree, and my hands were tied up high so that my feet barely touched the grass beneath them. It was growing dusk and I was left there.
“It had been excruciating, but I had obeyed, I had not run away, and there had come that moment. I was tormented now only by usual needs, my aching cock which might not be rewarded for another day or more by the Queen due to her anger.
“But the garden was quiet, full of twilight sounds. The sky was purple and the trees were thickening with shadows. In a little while, they grew skeletal, the sky was white with evening, and then darkness fell around me.
“I had resigned myself to sleep in this manner. I was too far from the trunk of the tree to rub my miserable cock against it, or I would have done this, tormented as I was, for whatever pleasure the friction could give me.
“And from habit more than training, its hardness would not die away. I remained stiff and tense as though expecting something.
“Then Lord Gregory appeared. He materialized out of the dark in his grey velvet, with the gold on the edge of his cloak gleaming. I saw the shimmer of his boots, and the dull sheen of the leather strap he carried. More punishment, I thought wearily, but I must obey. I am a slave Prince and there is nothing to be done for it. Pray I have the grace to bear it in silence and without struggling.
“But he drew close to me and commenced to talk to me. He told me I had comported myself very well and asked me if I knew the name of the Princess who had tormented me. I said ‘No, my Lord,’ respectfully taking some relief that I had pleased him. He is very hard to please. Harder than the Queen.
“He then told me her name was Princess Lynette, and she was new and had made a great impression on everyone. She was the personal slave of the Grand Duke Andre. ‘What is this to me,’ I thought, ‘I serve the Queen.’ But he asked me pleasantly enough if I had found her pretty. I winced. How could I help it? I could remember her breasts well enough when she pressed them to me while her paddle made me smart and groan. I could remember her dark blue eyes for the one or two instants when I had not been too ashamed to look at them. ‘I don’t know, my Lord. I would think she would not be here,’ I said, ‘were she not pretty.’
“For that impertinence, he gave me at least five rapid cracks with his belt. I was sore enough to be immediately in tears. He has often said that if he had his way, he would keep all slaves that sore always. Then their buttocks would be so tender that all he would have to do was stroke them with a feather. But as I stood there, my arms stretched painfully above me, my body pushed off balance by his blows, I was aware that he was particularly angered and fascinated by me. Why else would he come here to torment me? He had a castle of slaves to torment. It gave me some strange satisfaction.
“I was conscious of my body, its obvious muscularity, what to some eyes was surely its beauty.... Well, he came around and he said to me that Princess Lynette was unsurpassed in many respects and that her attributes were fired with an unusual spirit.
“I feigned boredom. I was to hang in this position all night. He was a gnat, I thought. But then he told me that he had been to the Queen and told her how well Princess Lynette had punished me, that Princess Lynette showed a flair for command and shrank from nothing. I began to grow afraid. Then he assured me the Queen had been glad to hear it.
“‘And so was her master, the Grand Duke Andre,’ he added, ‘and both were curious and somewhat regretful that such a display had not been witnessed by them, being wasted only on other slaves.’ I waited. ‘So a little amusement has been arranged,’ he continued when I said nothing. ‘You shall perform a little circus for her Highness. Surely you have seen the trainers of animals in circuses, who with deft strokes of their whips place their trained cats on stools, and force them through hoops, and other tricks for the amusements of the audience.’
“I felt desperate but I did not answer. ‘Well, on the morrow, when your handsome buttocks have
healed somewhat, such a little spectacle shall be arranged with the Princess Lynette and her strap to drive you through the performance.’
“I knew my face was scarlet with rage and indignation, or worse, it showed my frantic despair, but it was too dark for him to see it. I could see only the gleam of his eyes, and how I knew that he smiled I wasn’t certain. ‘And you shall perform your little tricks quickly and well,’ he went on, ‘for the Queen is eager to see you hop upon this stool and that, crouch on all fours, and then jump through the hoops that are just now being prepared for you. Because you are a two-legged pet with hands as well as feet, you can as well swing from a little trapeze that is being prepared for you, with Princess Lynette’s paddle ever to spur you on, and entertain all of us as you show your agility.’
“It seemed unthinkable to me, performing this. It was not service after all, not the dressing and adorning of my Queen, not the fetching for her to show I accepted her power and worshiped her. Not suffering for her, receiving her blows. But rather a series of willfully executed ignominious positions. I couldn’t endure the thought of it. But worst of all, I couldn’t imagine myself managing to do it. I should be dreadfully humiliated when I failed in will, and was then dragged off again to the kitchen surely.
“I was beside myself with rage and fear, and this menace, this brutal Lord Gregory whom I hated so was smiling at me. He took hold of my cock and pulled me forward. Of course he had it at the root, not near the tip where it might have given me some pleasure. And as he tugged my hips so that I lost my footing, he said, ‘This will be a grand spectacle. The Queen, the Grand Duke and others shall witness it. And Princess Lynette shall be very eager to impress the Court. See to it that she does not outshine you.’ ”
Beauty shook her head then and kissed Prince Alexi. She now saw what he meant when he said he had only just begun to yield.
“But Alexi,” she said gently, almost as if she could save him from his fate, as if it hadn’t already happened long ago, “When you were brought by the stable boy to the Queen’s presence, when she made you fetch the golden balls for her in the parlor, was this not something of the same thing?” She stopped. “O, how shall I ever do these things!”
“But you can do them, all of them, that’s the point of my story,” he said. “Each new thing seems terrible because it is new, because it is a variation. But at the heart it is all the same ultimately. The paddle, the strap, the exposure, the bending of the will. Only they infinitely vary it.
“But you do well to mention this first session with the Queen. It was similar. But remember I was raw and shaken from the kitchen, and thoughtless. I had regained my strength since then, and my strength had to be broken down again. Now perhaps had the little circus been constructed when I was fresh from the kitchen I would have taken to it eagerly then too. But I think not. It encompassed much greater exposure, much greater stamina, much greater surrender of self into positions and attitudes that appeared grotesque and inhuman.
“No wonder they need no real cruelty, no fire, no whips, to teach their lessons or amuse themselves,” he sighed.
“But what happened? Did it come about?”
“Yes, of course, though Lord Gregory had no need of telling me beforehand except to rob me of sleep. I spent a painful restless night. I awoke many times thinking others were near, the stable boys, or the kitchen servants, that they had found me helpless and alone and meant to torment me. But no one approached me.
“During the night I heard whispers of conversation as Lords and Ladies walked under the stars. Now and then I even heard a slave driven past, crying fitfully under the inevitable smack of the leather. A torch would flicker under the trees, nothing more.
“When the morning came, I was bathed, and rubbed with oil, and all this time, my penis was not touched, save when it flagged. Then it was cleverly awakened.
“At twilight, the Slaves’ Hall was full of talk of the circus. I was told by my groom, Leon, that the circle for performance had been prepared in a spacious hall near the Queen’s apartments. There would be four rows of Lords and Ladies surrounding it, and they would bring their slaves, too, to see the amusement. The slaves were in a state of dread, lest they be made to perform. He said nothing more than that, but I knew what he was thinking. It was a grueling test of self-control. He combed my hair, rubbed much oil into my buttocks and thighs, even oiled my pubic hair a little and brushed it so it would be glossy.
“I was quiet. I was thinking.
“And when I was finally brought into the room, into the shadows near the wall from which I could see the illuminated circle, I understood what I had to do. There were stools of various heights and various circumferences. There were trapezes hung so and great hoops mounted perpendicular to the floor. Candles burned everywhere on high stands among the chairs of the Lords and Ladies who were already assembled.
“And the Queen, my cruel Queen sat in state, with the Grand Duke Andre beside her.
“Princess Lynette stood in the middle of the circle. So she would be allowed to stand, I mused, and I should be driven in on hands and knees. Well, I must make up my mind.
“And as I knelt there waiting I decided that resistance was impossible. Were I to try to hide my tears, were I to grow tense, my humiliation would only be more dreadful.
“I must make up my mind to do what I had to do. Princess Lynette looked exquisite. Her flaxen hair hung free down her back where it had been trimmed only enough to expose all of her buttocks. She had no more than a pink blush there from the paddle, and a blush on her thighs and calves too, which far from disfiguring her, appeared to shape her and improve her. It was infuriating. About her neck she wore a collar of gilded and worked leather that was a mere adornment. She wore boots as well, heavily gilded with high heels.
“And I of course was utterly naked. I did not even have a collar which meant I must control myself at her commands, I could not even be dragged this way and that.
“So I could see exactly what I must succeed in doing. She would put on a great show of inventiveness. She would be ready to vent her anger on me in commands of ‘Hurry,’ and ‘Quickly’ and scold and condemn for the slightest disobedience. She would therefore win the applause of the audience. And the more I struggled, the more she would shine, just as Lord Gregory had indicated.
“The only way I could triumph was through perfect obedience. I must execute all her commands to perfection. And I must not struggle either externally or inwardly. I must weep if I must weep, but I must do all she commanded, even if to think of it sent my heart to thudding in my wrists and temples.
“Finally everyone was ready. A handful of exquisite little Princesses had served the wine, swinging their pretty little hips and showing me some delightful sights as they bent over to fill the cups. And they too were to see me punished.
“All the Court, for the first time, was to see it.
“Then with a clap of her hands, the Queen ordered that her pet, Prince Alexi be brought in and that Princess Lynette ‘tame’ me and ‘train’ me before their very eyes.
“Lord Gregory gave me the usual quick smacks with the paddle.
“At once I was in the circle of light, my eyes hurt by it for the moment, and then I saw my trainer’s high-heeled boots coming nearer. In a moment of impetuousness, I rushed to her and kissed both her shoes at once. The Court gave a loud murmur of approval.
“I continued to shower her with kisses, and I thought, ‘My evil Lynette, my strong, cruel Lynette, you are my Queen now.’ It was as if my passion were a fluid that coursed through all my limbs, not only my swollen cock. I arched my back and spread my legs ever so slightly without even being told to do so.
“At once the spanks commenced. But clever little demon that she was, she said, ‘Prince Alexi, you will show your Queen that you are a very quick-witted pet, and you shall answer all my commands with your compliance. And you shall answer all my questions, too, with perfect courtesy.’
“So I would have to speak. I felt t
he blood rush to my face. But she gave no time for my terror, and I said with a quick nod of the head, ‘Yes, my Princess,’ to a murmur of the audience’s approval.
“She was strong as I have told you. She could spank much harder than the Queen, and as hard as ever the kitchen boys or the stable boys had spanked me. I knew she meant to leave me sore if nothing else, because immediately she gave me several loud cracks, and she had that knack which some of our punishers have of lifting the buttocks with the paddle as she spanked them.
“‘To that stool, there,’ she commanded at once, ‘at a squat with your knees wide apart and your hands behind your neck, now!’ And she drove me at once to obey as I hopped up on the stool and with a great but quick effort managed to secure my balance. It was that same miserable squatting position in which my stable boy Lord had punished me. And all the Court could now see my genitals displayed if they hadn’t seen them before.
“‘Turn around slowly,’ she commanded, in order to show me to all eyes, ‘so the Lords and Ladies can see the little pet that performs for them tonight!’ and again she gave me numerous exquisite cracks of the paddle. There was a sprinkling of applause from the little crowd, and the sounds of wine being poured, and no sooner had I executed a complete turn, the slapping of her paddle ringing in my ears, than she ordered me to make a quick turn around the little stage on all fours with my chin and chest on the ground as I had done for her earlier.
“It was here I had to remind myself of my intentions. I rushed fast to obey, arching my back, my knees apart, yet moving swiftly as the heels of her boots clicked beside me and my buttocks were writhing under her blows. I did not try to hold their muscles still, but let them tense, let my hips even rise and fall as they were inclined to do, shrinking from the blows, yet receiving them. And as I moved along the white marble floor, the room a blur of faces over me, I felt this is my natural state, this is what I am, there is nothing before me or after me. I could hear the responses of the Court; they laughed at this miserable position, and there was a growing excitement to their talk. The little performance had them much engaged, jaded as they were. I was being admired for my abandon. I groaned with each crack of the paddle without even thinking to stop it. I let the groans come freely, and arched my back to even greater degree.