by Sarah Rayne
Rumour said, in an uninterested voice, ‘I have heard that it is so. I have never needed to have recourse to such crude methods.’
The Lady only smiled, as if she were amused by Rumour’s disdain. She turned back to Black Aed, who stood silently before her.
‘You tremble,’ said the Lady, eyeing him. ‘And you will tremble. You are going to suffer, Black Aed, and I am going to enjoy seeing you suffer.’ She gestured impatiently to the other Almhuinians.
The stone table first,’ said the Crimson Lady. ‘For the mood is on me to play a little before the final grand feast.’ She glanced back at Rumour and Andrew. ‘In your world, you would perhaps say — an appetiser, I think?’
‘No, we would not say anything of the kind,’ said Rumour, and the Lady smiled again and turned back to the Almhuinians. Andrew saw that they were waiting to obey their Lady, that no matter the atrocities they were called on to assist in, they would obey her instantly and unquestioningly. He thought: but surely between them they could overpower her? Surely they will make some attempt at rescuing one of their own people? And saw that they would not, and that whatever the Crimson Lady told them to do would be done.
‘Strap him down well,’ said the Lady, lifting one slender white hand to indicate the nearest of the stone tables. ‘Strap him down well.’ She paused, deliberately.
‘And then heat the pokers.’
*
Black Aed fought every inch of the way. The Almhuinians leapt on him, instantly obedient as Andrew had foreseen, dragging him to the nearest of the stone tables. He kicked and clawed at them, his eyes bolting from his head, showing red in the flickering torchlight, his face hardly human now, but that of a cornered rat, baring its teeth.
At one point, he half broke from his captors and flung himself across the room, scrabbling at the closed door, only to be caught and dragged by his feet across the floor, his head scraping harshly against the rough surface, clawing and grasping at the stone flags as he was dragged, trying to gain purchase, his fingernails tearing backwards, so that his fingers were bloodied, nailless stumps. He was lifted to the stone table by four of the Almhuinians — four people who had once been his friends and his companions, or even his kin, thought Andrew.
‘Face downwards,’ said the Crimson Lady, standing at the table’s head, her face lit to evil life, her arms crossed on her breast. ‘Face downwards, and spread his legs.’
Black Aed was thrust on to the stone table top, and the gyves were snapped tightly and cruelly about his wrists and ankles. He writhed and threw himself against their restraints, shrieking in terror, cursing and threatening.
But he is caught, thought Rumour, unable to look away. The gyves are holding fast, and he is caught.
A rat caught in the trap …
At the centre of the room, Diarmuit had placed a slender, wicked-looking iron rod into the centre of the brazier, and the scent of hot iron filled the room.
The Lady slipped the thin robe from her shoulders, and let it fall to the ground in a whisper of silk. She stood before them, naked and slender and beautiful, and for a moment, the great evil eyes were turned to Andrew, and the strong beckoning stirred in their depths.
Andrew felt the flicker of arousal again, and stared at her angrily, understanding that she was throwing out her seductive lures, but for the moment, helpless against them.
Did I not tell you, Human, that I should take you to the peaks of the darkest and most sensual pleasures of all … ?
With an immense effort, Andrew dragged his eyes away from the great black eyes, and the Lady said, in an amused voice, ‘Afraid, Monk? Let us see how you fare when it is your turn to face the hooks and the razors. When it is your turn to be strung from the iron hooks so that I may feel your warm, pulsating blood caressing my skin.’ She stopped, breathing fast as if she had been running, and shook her head slightly like an animal coming out of water.
‘The rod, ma’am,’ said Diarmuit softly, and she turned back, taking the rod from him, using a thick velvet pad to hold it. She lifted it up, so that they could all see the thin, smooth steel shivering with heat, white-hot from the brazier, and the smile touched her lips again; avid, sexual, greedy … Andrew felt again that treacherous stirring. What would it feel like to inflict pain, to bestow screaming agony on another living creature … ? You would know yourself to be possessed of such power … He stared at the Lady, and felt his mind spiral downwards into crimson swirling desires and deep, dark passions, and then, without the least warning, Rumour’s thoughts pierced the smothering evil: Close your mind to her, Andrew, for she is casting the Beckoning Darkness about you … Andrew felt something cool and clean touch his mind, rather like a shower of rain on an autumn morning, he felt the insidious lure release its hold, and with the feeling, came a deep gratitude to Rumour, who understood and sympathised, and who had managed to break through the darkness and brush the surface of his mind in that cool, gentle way.
Black Aed was spreadeagled on the table, and his captors had peeled his shirt and breeches from his body. Andrew and Rumour saw that, although his body was covered with pale, more or less ordinary Human skin, along his spine was a band, a stripe, a striae of thick, bristly fur, dark brown and coarse. As Aed struggled again, Andrew saw that Aed’s spine extended approximately six inches outwards from his body, jutting over his buttocks, making a rudimentary tail.
The Lady approached softly and sinuously, the heated rod held firmly in her right hand. Black Aed flung a terrified glance over his shoulder, and his body sagged suddenly.
The Lady nodded to the two Almhuinians who stood at Aed’s head, and they leaned forward, silently, forcing his thighs wide, so that the embryo tail jutted rather horridly upwards. The Lady pushed it aside impatiently, and Andrew and Rumour saw that it was not bone, as they had thought, but a gristly, fibrous growth. Rumour found herself trying to decide whether this made Black Aed more Humanish and therefore more pitiable, or more Rodent-like, and thus evil and repulsive. She shook her head angrily, because there was no time to be feeling sorry for these evil beings. They had to think of themselves; of getting away and finding Chaos’s Castle of Infinity, and reaching Theodora. She glanced to the doors, but three Almhuinians were standing guard, and one of them caught Rumour’s eye and grinned knowingly, shaking his head.
There will be no escape from this place. Amaranthine …
Black Aed was sobbing, his head and his face pressed into the rough surface of the table. His nose and chin were grazed and bleeding from having been dragged across the floor, and the tips of his fingers were in bloodied rags from where he had fought to avoid being dragged to the stone table. He still flailed helplessly against the gyves that were about his wrists, but his legs were held firm and immovable by his captors.
The Crimson Lady stood savouring her prey, and then nodded to the Almhuinians holding the prisoner’s legs. At once they jerked his thighs apart, and two of them moved to pull open his buttocks.
In a single clean movement, the Crimson Lady thrust the white-hot iron rod down between Black Aed’s thighs; and as it rested there, lying against his skin, there was the terrible sound of skin scorching and flesh searing. Black Aed was screaming — dreadful, trapped-hare screams — and Andrew saw the Lady throw back her head and shiver with anticipation. A frown of concentrating ecstasy touch her brow now, and, still holding the fibrous, gristly tail out of the way, she grasped the rod more firmly, and slid the tip inside Black Aed’s gaping anus.
A truly dreadful shriek rent the air, and there was a faint hissing sound, as if water had gushed on to the hot iron. Runnels of urine trickled between Aed’s thighs, hissing and bubbling. Tiny droplets of moisture ran down his legs, leaving a thin trail of scarlet, blistering flesh, and the Lady laughed contemptuously.
‘The creature cannot even hold its water in the face of a little pain!’ she shouted, and her eyes were blazing madly now, flecks of bloodied spittle on her lips. ‘See how its filth and its excretions are boiling within its miserabl
e carcass! An inch of the heated iron — no more! — and it is writhing in agony! Puny being! Weakling! I am better without such cowards to serve me!’
Black Aed was sobbing, his face was contorted in such agony, that Andrew made an involuntary movement and then was still.
‘And now,’ said the Crimson Lady, stepping back, and surveying her victim, ‘and now, to the hook with him.’ She gestured imperiously to Diarmuit, and the Almhuinians sprang forward, unfastening the gyves and the manacles, dragging the moaning, shivering Aed from the stone table.
‘To the hook!’ screamed the Crimson Lady, stretching out a pointing finger, and the Almhuinians began dragging the barely conscious Aed across the floor. Andrew, his mind reeling with horror, saw for the first time that thin, iron-runged ladders were embedded into the walls, and that the Almhuinians were swarming up them, hauling Aed with them. They moved easily and agilely, and although they all wore leather shoes or boots, there was the impression that their toes curled like thin claws around the ladder’s rungs.
They dragged Aed up carelessly, scraping his already mutilated body against the iron rungs, and at once the Lady screamed in anguish, ‘Do not let him bleed! Preserve the blood!’
The Almhuinians reached the top, and crawled along the thick, wide rafters. There was the soft creaking of ancient, well-seasoned wood, and Andrew saw that the rafters were easily four feet in width, and that the Almhuinians were able to drag Aed along with them. They neared the centre and knelt there, lowering Aed over the edge.
‘Carefully!’ screamed the Crimson Lady, suddenly. ‘Do not spill any more of his blood!’
The Almhuinians had lowered Aed and they were holding him by his arms now. His chin was resting on the hook, its point against the bony ridge of his jaw. Aed’s eyes were bolting from his head with terror, and he was still struggling, but the Almhuinians held him firmly and he was helpless.
The Lady was watching avidly, her fists clenched and her eyes blazing with inHuman excitement. Thin fingers of colour painted her white face, and Andrew felt the treacherous ripple of admiration stir the surface of his awareness again. He thought: she is caught in the grip of her evil hunger, but like this I believe she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!
‘Position the cask!’ said the Crimson Lady, her voice suddenly urgent, as if she could scarcely contain her hunger. ‘Do it!’
She bounded forward, moving like a great cat, and as the Almhuinians dragged the immense silver butt directly beneath the moaning, writhing Aed, she held out her hands and they lifted her into it. Diarmuit reached for the huge earthenware jug and stood watching Aed.
‘And now,’ said the Crimson Lady, her voice languorous and sensual, ‘impale him. But do it slowly. Let him feel the caress of the cold iron in his cowardly mouth. Let him feel it biting into his bones and his teeth.’
There was a moment when no one moved, and a sudden waiting silence descended on the slaughterhouse. Rumour thought: is this the moment to reach for a spell? Something filled with light? Something made up of slicing knives and white hot spears? Would the Collector come again, and if so, would he be a match for her?
The Lady had thrown back her head, and her eyes were fixed on the dangling figure of Aed directly above her. The lower part of her body was hidden by the silver cask, but her nipples stood out hard and erect, and her eyes were avid.
‘Impale him!’ she screamed frenziedly, and ran her flattened hands over her body with such absorbed sensuality that Rumour shuddered.
‘Drive the hook into the creature’s cowardly flesh!’ cried the Crimson Lady. ‘Make him dance on air! Do it! Do it!’
Aed was fighting again, struggling to break free, but the Almhuinians held him. He began to jerk convulsively with terror, his legs kicking and writhing.
‘The dance of the hanged-man!’ screamed the Lady triumphantly. ‘See him dance! See the fool dance on air! Impale him! Now!’
The Almhuinians lifted Aed several inches, the muscles in their stringy arms bulging. And then, with dreadful precision, they brought his jaw down on the hook. There was a wet, splintering crunch and Aed jerked convulsively, an animal grunt of agony bursting from him. Blood and spittle gushed from his mouth, and the point of the hook burst through his nose bone, jutting out of the centre of his face so that, from below, it appeared that his nose had been replaced by the great black hook.
His body sagged, and he moaned with thick, grunting sounds. Rumour, sickened, realised that his mouth was shattered and that he was screaming through his nose. Blood, flecked with splinters of bone and teeth, trickled down over his chin.
The Lady stared up at him with the hungry intensity of a lover. ‘And now let us have the traitor’s blood!’ she cried. ‘Let us have every drop and every trickle and every ounce and every tear-drop of moisture in his puny body! Now! Now, when he is poised between pleasure and pain! Slit his veins! Shed his juices! Quickly! Do it! Or must I slaughter more of you! Do it!’ And then, with unmistakable lust clotting her voice, ‘Let me feel the blood,’ she said, and her voice lingered on the word.
But the Almhuinians were already reaching down, the razors held out. Their eyes glinted redly in the dim light and, for a moment, it was not Humans who crouched along the ceiling beams, but huge rats, red-eyed and feral. At the Lady’s side, Diarmuit stood with the great earthenware jug.
‘Open his veins!’ screeched the Lady. ‘Open his veins! Or must I twist your manhoods from their roots and force them into your cowardly throats! Let me feel the blood, Rodent-mutants!’ And then, in a different voice, ‘But do it slowly to begin with. Let it fall slowly, like a caress. Now!’
The Almhuinians reached forward, and held Aed’s arms up, the razors glinting redly.
‘The blood,’ screeched the Crimson Lady, and as the razors sliced into Aed’s flesh, blood and juices and terrible fluids began to gush.
The Lady threw back her head, the veins standing out in her neck like cords, and the blood began to splash on to her. It came in a thin, steady flow, spattering over her white skin, running into her hair and over her face. Her tongue came out, licking at the terrible fluids, and her eyes were half closed in evil ecstasy. With the palms of her hands, she caressed her naked body, stroking the skin, sliding her hands between her thighs. Black Aed moaned and struggled, and there was the sound of tearing flesh and muscle as the hook, embedded in his jaw and his face, shifted a little. He grunted agonisedly through the shattered bones of his nose again.
Diarmuit, his expression absorbed, held out the jug, and as more of the gore ran down, there was the sound of it dripping into the jug’s cavernous depths. He held it aloft, and poured it with a slow steady trickle over the writhing, blood-drenched figure of the Lady.
‘He is draining,’ she cried. ‘Let me have all his juices! He is a paltry specimen of manhood, but I will have it all nevertheless! Be ready to slit him again!’
She reached her slender white arms upwards, and the Almhuinians wielded the glinting razors again. Blood ran into the Lady’s cupped waiting hands and slopped over, and she cried out in obscene ecstasy.
‘The remainder!’ cried the Lady. ‘Drain the traitor of everything!’ As she spoke, the Almhuinians plied the razors for the last time, slicing with grisly expertise at the pulsing veins in Aed’s neck. Blood sprayed outwards, a thick, gore-filled fountain, and the Lady moaned in dreadful pleasure, catching the flow and smearing it into her limbs. Her white body was clotted with gore, and her hair was matted and slick with the fresh, warm blood — and she is dangerously and soul-scaldingly beautiful, thought Andrew. Even as he framed the thought, the Lady turned and regarded him through eyes that were slitted with dreadful ecstasy. Her lips curved in a hungry smile.
And you will be the next one, Human …
Black Aed’s body had sagged; it was turning slowly and swinging, exactly as a carcass of a slaughtered animal will hang in a meat-safe. Great livid bruises had appeared on his skin, and the last drains of blood trickled out now, clotted drop
lets splashing on to the Lady’s shoulders.
He is raining blood on her, thought Andrew, still caught in the evil fascination, unable to tear his eyes away. This is her god, her worship, this is the thing she believes keeps her beautiful and young. And perhaps it does.
The Lady was gesturing to the Almhuinians who held Andrew.
‘And now, Human,’ she said, her voice purring with anticipation, ‘and now, you see a little of my pleasures.’ She glanced to Diarmuit and the others. ‘This one interests me,’ said the Crimson Lady. ‘His body draws me.’ She raked Andrew with her eyes. ‘Lean and strong,’ she said, softly. ‘Muscular. Strong arms and powerful thighs.’ She leapt from the blood-butt, as agile as a panther, and moved to stand in front of him. Blood dripped from her, smearing the stone floor, and Rumour saw that blood had collected under her fingernails and toenails, and that her scalp was crusted with drying gore.
The Crimson Lady was standing close to Andrew, and her bloodied hands were caressing his body, her eyes holding his, her whole bearing one of terrible and evil beauty. Rumour thought: of course he is caught in thrall. Of course he is feeling his body respond. He cannot do otherwise. That is the terrible allure possessed by the necromancers of the House of Medoc, she thought, and knew that, although she had reached him earlier, Andrew was helpless in the Lady’s allure now.
‘Strong and lean and hard,’ whispered the Lady, her blood-smeared body pressed against Andrew’s. ‘Pure Humanish blood. Untainted Humanish sap and Humanish juice.’ She opened her eyes and deliberately ran her hands over him, caressing his thighs. ‘Oh, monk, I am going to enjoy you,’ she said. ‘I am going to enjoy your agony, and then I am going to enjoy seeing it cross over to the most exquisite agony of all.’ She stepped back and nodded to the Almhuinians. ‘Strap him down,’ she said.