The vast dining hall beyond shimmered under the glow of a smouldering brazier and a naphtha cresset suspended from the beams. To one side stood a long table of oak surrounded by high-backed thrones, the board laid with golden plates, silver trenchers and crystal goblets. Then what she saw, as previously on the terrace, made her freeze.
The massive construction of dark timber rose directly from the flagstones, its upper beams forming a yawning Y. Outstretched upon it hung a naked female, the slender arms chained to the summits of the structure, the shapely legs wrenched back behind the base of the upright and joined by the ankle straps, What perturbed the newcomer more was the hood of scarlet leather that had been buckled tight over the victim's head. Swarthy-skinned and more erotically ravishing than anything Silvana had ever conjured up in her stormiest dreams of whipped women, the entire body gleamed in the flickering light. The posture not only showed the pectorals dragging the breasts upwards but arched the rib-cage above the sweep of a sleek, incurved abdomen. It was almost enough to send Silvana over the edge.
It was then, as the coffle was goaded forward, that she saw, more perceptibly than on the terrace, what had been pierced through the engorged nipples. The golden rings glinted with the rise and fall of the chest, while between the thighs a cluster of the similar metal circles clinked intermittently with the slave's spasms. The girl had passed out. And with reason, for by a further effulgence of the cresset, it was clear that the exquisite nude had been remorselessly flagellated, almost drawing blood. The purple lash marks criss-crossed the flesh from the shaven armpits to the thighs, several traversing the bulging areoles and nipples.
As Hephaistos again halted his startled group before the spectacle, Silvana felt the downflow increasing between her labia; she almost envied the beauty, above all when she caught sight of the sluggish gouts of sperm crawling down from the vulva that resembled a split apricot. Drifting into one of her old dreams, she wondered whether a palace slave, for that was what confronted her, was fucked before, during or after being flogged. But one thing was clear: the hooded one's exhaustion was due not just to the whip but to multiple orgasms.
"So, gallant Hephaistos, back from another mission of mercy on our behalf? Do show us what you've harvested for our solace." The harsh, aristocratic voice issued out of the adumbrations beyond the scene, and then assumed a form. The figure took Silvana and her five companions aback. Stalwart, middle-aged and over-rouged under a powdered peruke, the female wore nothing other than tall, flared boots and a belt of grommeted leather canted over her pelvis. A gauntleted hand grasped a scourge of thin, murderous strands. Behind her, three other forms appeared - a couple of similarly attired, or rather unattired, younger women, one an attractive ash-blonde, sporting a ribbed dildo strapped over her crotch, the other, with what Silvana took to be an amethyst inserted in the apex of her smooth vulva, was engaged in patiently coaxing an elderly man's wilted penis into shape.
The wigged one with pendulous dugs that had known better times, approached to inspect the coffle. "They said at table you and our dear Thanon were out on the prowl..."
"And, by the sacred Bracon and the rest of the gods, let's hope you found something better than last time," put in the dark-complexioned, dildoed creature. She had a long, lanky body with purple-stained teats. "We're running out of fresh meat and have to make do with this lascivious strumpet." She pointed a flanged breast-quirt at the body crucified on the punishment structure. "Most of the others seem to be caving in. They just don't seem to enjoy sex torture in the lower precincts as they used to, without flaking out. It's just too annoying."
"But Zelda here," the courtier conceded, his cock slithering in the other's grip, "she's still the best of the lot. And doesn't she just love it! Still a delicious slab of flogging flesh, if ever there was one, and always on heat. Comes like a damned goat." With a twinge of remorse, Silvana thought of her animal, Blossom, at home, hoping it was being milked. She doted on that beast, now replaced in her love by a man, equally bearded and called Thanon...
As the older courtier's penis revived, it rivalled that of a Bithynian battle steed she had once seen mounting a mare in the meadows near the silk sheds. But she preferred Thanon's.
With that, Hephaistos hastened his group out and down a steep corridor, pierced with several doors, each braced with florid iron hinges and equipped with gridded apertures. Silvana thought she heard dull thuds, followed by muffled groans, issuing through one of the ingresses but was left to imagine what might be taking place in the sweltering confines beyond; her gut reaction was to release a further seep of ooze down her inner hams. She often wondered how much sex juice she really had up there inside her.
Her fond dreams of serving mint tea on her knees to grateful aristocrats lounging by pools had long since evaporated. Now all she wished was a chance to clean herself up, arrange her gorgeous blonde hair and rest - or, if given the chance, masturbate with relief. Yet, the vision of Zelda chained to that whipping structure, however stimulating, had shaken her, not on account of the slave's shaved groin and all those strange flesh rings but rather because the girl had blacked out. The whipping must have been long and arduous. She wondered if she too could take it - and not faint. And what were all those references to some dungeon or other, and to sex torture in the lower precincts? Puzzling, to say the least.
Fatigue began to gain on the newcomers as they descended the long ramp, Hephaistos pointing leisurely to various alcoves and recesses in the walls, each with chains hanging with hooks. "You'll become acquainted with all this area in due course. It's where we punish idle slaves. But you'd do well to notice the shafts bolted to the back wall of the alcoves. They tend to hold you secure while you're being taught a lesson. But now, the grooming chamber."
Like Kitana, Silvana could have done with a cooling gulp of water, or rather a further few spurts of the fellow's spunk, but instead the jaded cohort found itself in a cavernous, low-ceilinged hallway. Beyond the portal, a row of granite slabs stretched into the benighted space, lit by wavering candles that lent the place an atmosphere of melancholy and grief.
The newcomers shuffled into the Preparation Cellar.
There three figures awaited them. They seemed impatient, for the hour was late.
The Grooming
The veiled woman was the same as she who had vetted them on the steps. A cloak of sombre velvet covered the shoulders, revealing sharp breasts braced in leather thongs, the swollen nipples bulging from spiked silver cones covering the areoles. The keenness of the little prongs gave Silvana no particular desire to be hugged in those powerful arms, however enticing. Damiana - for it was she - had no intention of embracing anyone - except Thanon when, occasionally, she was invited to his bed, his mistress, Greta, recovering from torture.
The high boots with spurs, the pigskin gauntlets and the jet-black hair, gathered up at the nape of the neck, completed the appearance of immense power and cruelty. Behind her, garbed in much the same way, her assistants stood deferentially, whips in hand. The younger of the two, a slender, wiry female, seemed equally threatening, her locks drawn back also into a bow of scarlet silk - Silvana took an instant dislike to her. The youth, not unhandsome, seemed more languid than the women but muscular enough, a fine, thick penis dangling at rest - at least for the moment - above a heavy scrotum. All three had their pubic patch carefully trimmed to form the shape of a heart - probably the only heart they still possessed.
In the masonry behind the funereal blocks the slaves saw what appeared to be a series of tiled alcoves, each with a chain and hook hanging from its cambered vault; the palace underworld seemed to be teeming with hollowed cavities of the sort.
"I am your Slave Mistress," the august female announced. "My name is Damiana. You are committed to my charge. You will obey me and my subordinates here without hesitation. All recalcitrance will be punished implacably" - again the newcomers were defeated by the grandiloquence - "and,
if necessary, in the torture cellars, deprived of pleasure. I'm sure I do not need to describe how my colleagues, Sefket and his sister, Obisba, go about this."
Oblivious as to whom she referred, the coffle trembled as she strolled up and down the line. Then she continued. "You will be housed and fed in the Slave Quarters, along with the others, where you may amuse yourselves freely, except when at table or being prepared for a session. And when summoned for service, you will ensure the nipples, clitoris and, in the case of you males, the cock, are stiff and ready for use. Prior to presentation to the courtiers, you will be oiled or powdered, shackled and attached to the lead-chain. I trust this is clear so far." Whether intelligible or not, the announcement met with a nervous nod from all the heads.
"Now I shall introduce my assistants. This beautiful female is Mila who, having once served as a slave, knows how to deal with a naked body. And this is Yannis, whose sturdy phallus you will get to know well. They are in charge of you from now on, under my orders. They will now cleanse you of your filth and prepare you for ringing."
Silvana paled and wondered if she had heard aright. But the posse had no time to ponder. The sight of the waiting slabs was sufficient to scare a wild boar.
Each slave was hustled to an alcove where the arms, blissfully released for a moment, were brusquely attached to the overhead chain, stretching the body until only the tips of the toes had purchase. The two acolytes went to work diligently, scrubbing off the grime and sperm with stiff-bristled livery brushes, the bodies being left to dry in the heat of the chamber. It was then that the pair of new youngsters recommenced their bawling. Paying no attention, apart from a few slaps with the scrubber, Mila helped Yannis to place and rivet the bondage restraints round the wrists and ankles of all six prisoners, each strap equipped with four rings. A broader band was then buckled round each throat and those rivets too crushed flat with pliers - a tool that Silvana guessed was destined also for other, bleaker uses.
The naked bodies were then led to the slabs and chained down, the arms outstretched to the end of the stone, the feet shackled backwards to lateral clamps set in the flanks of the block. Strangely, Silvana felt her excitement rising as her welted rump bulged on the granite's edge, her flabby sex lips squelching as they parted. She could feel her sex prong emerging from its sheath to throb erect among the golden curls; the looks it received were exceptional.
It took a long moment for Mila's honed razor to depilate the cunts and armpits and then smear her herbal concoction of camomile into the vulvas and nipples. Working on the two youths, Yannis massaged the same lotion up and down each erect penis and into the scrotal skin. When each slave had been readied, Silvana felt a handful of metal rings and some cold instrument being laid on her belly. Throughout, Kitana and Britta yelled their heads off until Damiana's composure frayed.
"This is insufferable! Flog them, Yannis. Silence the trollops somehow. Use a gag or calm them with that cock of yours." Delighted to have flesh to beat and use so early in the grooming proceedings, the assistant needed no encouragement. He stuffed rags, left over from the cleansing, into the mouths, unhooked his scourge and slammed down into Britta's belly. At a nod from her mistress, Mila did the same to Kitana. The hisses and thuds filled the hall.
Immobilized on her slab, Silvana regretted not being able to watch but felt compensated by being just able to see the youth's superb erection yawing as he flogged. This was very different from her doltish guardian at home who never even removed his breeches; at the same time, it recalled, if not the divine Thanon's prick which she had experienced but not seen, Hephaistos's gouging her throat. She was seeping copiously when, a moment later, she caught sight of what the horrendous Mila had strapped on to herself; the ribbed dildo swayed too, as she thrashed the ginger-haired Kitana. On her delicious altar of sacrifice, Silvana closed her eyes, not out of pity or despair but to enjoy the sound of the nearby thwacks of leather. Once again the dunces were disgracing the coffle. They were real burdens and stupidly flaked out long before the last lashes and well before the sound of slushing that followed. Whether the slave handlers, leave alone the gagged victims, came, was impossible to tell, and anyway Silvana was too preoccupied with her own state.
It seemed a century had gone by before she saw the bitch Mila, still rigged with her wet dildo, leaning over her, smiling lasciviously, Yannis's flat-nosed tongs stretching the first of the quivering sex lips for Mila's awl. The point dented the umber flesh and pierced through easily enough, Mila enlarging the hole with a twist of the wrist. A spiral of pain spindled up through Silvana's innards with each successive jab. Swabbing off a bead of blood here and there, the wretch dealt with the other three labia and then, with slow deliberation, slid the tine through the base of the clitoris and sheath. Silvana gave a cry, vaguely hearing Mila's remark.
"My, you've not only long labia but a huge sex stalk, eh, my lovely? Now, the tits."
Silvana felt the metal jaws close over the left nipple, wrenching the sepia-hued teat away from the dome for the puncture, again close to the root so that, as Mila said, "the rings won't rip out when you're hooked aloft by them." Both teats bored, Yannis threaded the circles of metal through all seven holes in turn. "Can't you just see the Lady Clorinda drooling over this one?" he said. "Remember that night when she dragged Mistress Saletha's Elfra on her knees round the battlements with a chain on each ring and her black servant lashing the rump? With such sex meat, this one's in for a lot more than that, believe me."
Silvana felt her excitement rising, despite the pain. Craning her neck, she managed to get a glimpse of Pervez's erection being pierced through the base of the glans, just below the slit, and then through the dangling flap of his scrotal pouch. He took it well, unlike his colleague, Nisos, who let out a yowl, like a scalded tomcat. As to the stolid Carmela who probably had a clit the size of Silvana's, she remained silent, as if detached from her body.
A trance of erotic fantasies took hold of the blonde as she felt the weight of the metal hanging from her labia; she fought back the threat of a gathering orgasm by wondering how the useless brats down the row of slabs had taken the awl through their tiny nipples...
Finally released from their granite beds, the novices stared at their new appendages, the pain lessening, but were given no time in which to rally their spirits.
"Down to the Chamber of Gratification with them," the slave mistress ordered. "And no lingering. But leave those two incompetent sluts here, just as they are. They need a spell of encouragement." The others tried to imagine how the crass delinquents were about to be given 'encouragement' and were glad the two were gagged.
The newly-equipped ones left the row of grey slabs without regret, their sole consolation being that their wrists were no longer chained to the neck, despite the fresh strap, but linked behind the coccyx. As she followed the sway of Mila's butt, Silvana suddenly had an inexplicable longing to grab the minx's scourge and flog her creamy, insolent arse. The yearning startled her. Never before had she imagined herself at the other end of a scourge. And yet, just as she enjoyed receiving it, maybe to wield it was also a thrill. She put the idle thought away but, though suppressed, the idea, she sensed, might well return, if she had Mila to herself one day...The group passed through an iron doorway to descend a stairwell.
As Silvana left, she received a shock. There in the shadows stood Thanon. He was smiling at her from under his veil. Her heart stampeded. Had he been there throughout the ringing, watching her body being prepared? But a moment later, she was in the lower regions.
The oval, barrel-roofed vault, lit sparsely by spluttering candles, made her catch her breath in a different way. Even Pervez hesitated on the lowest step. Damiana and her acolytes seemed accustomed to the momentary consternation; it was always the same with each successive bunch of novices. The array of appurtenances designed to gratify courtiers and, hopefully, please their victims, never failed to startle a newcomer. The fle
sh-piercing and ringing always prepared a trembling nude for the shock provided by the ill-lit chamber.
Silvana and the others thought they would at least be allowed respite to heal up and rest. But clearly, Damiana had other ideas and probably orders.
"This is the Chamber of Gratification," she announced blandly, as if it were one of those merry fairgrounds the Bithynians frequented on feast days. "It is here that our distinguished nobles seek recreation, in addition, of course, to the precincts below and in their private bedchambers, with which you will soon become acquainted. Here, just as you will be called upon to meet their requirements erotically, so will you have the privilege of satisfying your own lust as sex slaves. And I, as your overseer," she slammed her scourge against her boot, "expect you to do your utmost to requite them and me." The slaves did their best to follow the introduction, perhaps only Silvana and Pervez succeeding.
The terrifying woman paced the flagstones, allowing the eyes to wander over the bewildering display of structures bolted to the paving and the long panel of instruments beyond. It was the latter that caught Silvana's attention first, causing a clench in her vagina. The prolific range of whips, plaited crops with metal lugs at their extremities, crops, paddles perforated with holes, leather quirts the length of a forearm, and a host of iron rakes, appeared to be without end. The scourges hung like parched tongues awaiting a quaff of sweat to assuage their thirst. Silvana's liquids descended as if to promise that.
"It is here," the harsh voice went on, "that you will receive the rudiments of your tutoring over the next two days and nights. As my colleague, Hephaistos, will have told you," - which the slaves knew he had not - "your training will commence forthwith today, at high noon." A silence followed. "Now, before you meet your more mature companions, Mila will show you around the chamber. In this way, you will become familiar with the various contrivances on which you will be whipped and used. The precincts I mentioned will come later, for you are not yet seasoned to endure what there is required of your bodies. But I'm sure you will all show resilience once the time comes, when offered to our more eager courtiers, for they will demand much of you. With time, you'll have the chance of graduating through the ranks to the position of our sweet Mila here." Without a blush, the girl smiled.
Silvana's Quest Page 4