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by Frost Queen Tomiko [MF] (epub)

  Taiko hit a wall and started climbing. It wasn't until she was mere feet away that the darkness yielded, and with one last push Taiko threw herself into the open air of the forest. Aka came bounding after her a moment later, landing on the ground next to her and shaking violently, flinging water everywhere.

  They both ran, putting enough distance for comfort between them and the cave. When they stopped Taiko reached down and grabbed Aka by the scruff of his neck before he could escape, holding him up.

  "I should make myself some boots out of you!"

  "Hey! What gives? I just saved you!"

  "Did you know that that thing was out here?"

  "No! Of course-"

  Taiko shook him.

  "Don't make me cast a truth spell on you."

  "Okay, yes, I did, but I never thought you'd go running into her cave. Only an idiot would do that. When you didn't come back I followed your trail, and let me tell you, going into Tsuchigumo's den wasn't my first choice of how to end my night. Even I'm not sneaky enough to get past her if she's not sleeping, which fortunately she was, and when I didn't see you I was worried I might be too late."

  "You were too late. I must have been down there an hour! It's only because I had a spell on me that I didn't drown."

  "Hey, lucky that. So, uh, you haven't run into that spirit yet, have you? I thought I smelled it around the cave."

  "Yes, I have, it lured me into the cave, trying to get me eaten by that thing."

  "Oh, clever."

  "As clever as making you into footwear? Are there any other surprises waiting for me tonight? And how did you smell a spirit, anyway?"

  Aka looked away, avoiding her gaze.

  "Aka..."

  "Okay, so the 'spirit' might not really be a spirit."

  "Boots and a hat!"

  "Wait! The 'spirit' is actually sort of a friend of mine. But she was cursed somehow by Lord Akio's men. Everyone used to love her, before that. I was hoping you'd figure out how to get rid of it."

  "Why didn't you tell me that? Did Nǎinai know?"

  "No, I was afraid if I told them who she really was they'd be less afraid of her, and they might even wind up hurting her if it's what they had to do to get rid of her."

  "Why didn't you tell me, then? What if I had hurt her just because I didn't know?"

  "I, uh, was kind of just hoping it would all work out."

  Taiko resisted the urge to throw him.

  "So now I have to figure out a way to capture her so that I can figure out what's wrong. You're going to tell me everything now- everything that she can do, what her weaknesses are, and how she thinks. Oh, and how close are we to the shrine right now?"

  Taiko grilled the fox, learning what she needed, while waiting for her current spells to expire and her magic to recharge.

  The 'spirit' was waiting for her when she neared the place where Aka told her the shrine should be.

  "You?" she said, looking through her mask at Taiko. "You're supposed to be dead. What gives? I heard Tsuchigumo getting ahold of you. You screamed and everything."

  "You underestimated me. Didn't I tell you how powerful I am? Now your pet is dead, and I know what it was guarding for you."

  "You're lying. She wasn't guarding anything; she isn't even my pet. I just used her."

  "You won't mind if I take the villagers to see it, then? They'll find it very useful. Particularly in getting rid of you for good. That's if you can escape me first. I'm going to do some wonderfully awful things to you after that trick you tried to pull."

  "You're bluffing. I don't know how you got away, but I've seen frogs that were more fearsome than you, 'great' Taiko. I bet Umai isn't even a real place."

  "Enough talking!" said Taiko, making her magic gestures as vigorous and dramatic as possible. "Ushimuttsu's brawn!"

  Taiko charged her, and her enemy immediately retreated, just as Aka had predicted.

  "Come follow me again," she said, "I've got plenty more traps to lead you into!"

  She was still faster than Taiko, rapidly putting distance between them, but that didn't matter. Taiko knew where she was going. She ran briefly in the direction she was being led, but turned around when it was clear that the 'spirit' was too far ahead to see her anymore. Instead she headed back to the cave.

  Taiko made it just in time to see the troublesome creature sneak into the opening. She waited, and after a brief period of silence, was rewarded with the sounds of a woman's scream. Taiko rushed to the opening, then climbed down as quietly as she could.

  Tsuchigumo, the loathsome thing that had almost eaten her, now had her real adversary in her eight-handed grip. Now that she was captured her shape shifted back to its true form. Her mask disappeared and her hair grew into a fiery orange mane. Her figure transformed into an hourglass shape that filled out a red kimono, and instead of a gangly specter it was a beautiful young woman with a fox's ears and tail that Tsuchigumo held in her possession.

  "Get off me!" she yelled, her panic easy to hear. "I'm poisonous! If you eat me you'll die!"

  "You shouldn't scream," said Tsuchigumo. "I don't think you're poisonous. I'll try eating you a little bit at a time to see."

  "I've got friends looking for me! Strong ones! They'll kill you if you hurt me! There's a-"

  Her pleading was interrupted as Tsuchigumo filled her mouth with her silk. Taiko watched while Kuzuno struggled hopelessly in her grasp, no more of a match for the monster than Taiko had been.

  "My last food used tricks and got away. I'm going to wrap you up very tightly. I don't want it to happen again."

  Taiko's ordeal was repeated, this time for Kuzuno. Her wrists were covered in sticky silk and put high up against her back. Her chest and arms were wrapped many times in many ways with the strands, so tightly that Taiko was afraid her ribs would crack. Kuzuno whined and squirmed, but Tsuchigumo had no trouble preparing her to be drowned and eaten.

  When Tsuchigumo was just about to get to work on her feet Taiko ran through the poses for her next spell.

  "Cling to her, silk!"

  Tsuchigumo hadn't noticed her until now, but she immediately snapped her head toward Taiko when she broke her silence.

  "You came back," she said. "Now I have two things to eat."

  Tsuchigumo started to move toward Taiko, but stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed that something was wrong. Her web was sticking too well. It was already stuck to the two hands that had been weaving it around Kuzuno, and when she used her other hands to try to pull it off they became stuck as well.

  The creature didn't know what to do, and in her attempt to get free she managed to tangle herself up even further. She tried to bite off the strand coming from her mouth, then to pull it away, but it refused to behave, and soon there was a huge gob of hanging from her jaws. Tsuchigumo fell, and her own silk glued her to the ground.

  Taiko gave her a wide berth as she went to retrieve Aka's friend. Her ankles had just enough of the silk on them to hobble her. Taiko, still under the effect of her brawn spell, picked her up, threw her over her shoulder, and carried her to the opening. Kuzuno made it more difficult than it needed to be, kicking her legs and trying twist out of Taiko's grip.

  "Stop that! Do you want me to leave you in here so you can be eaten?"

  Kuzuno had a pointed, angry response, but the silk in her mouth prevented Taiko from deciphering the specifics of it. She hurled her through the opening before climbing after her.

  The spell on Tsuchigumo's webbing would last for a little while, and as much as she'd been tangled up it might hold her for a while still even after it lifted. Taiko wasn't about to hang out near her den longer that she had to, however, so she scooped up Kuzuno again and walked until her brawn spell started to fade.

  She set her struggling prisoner on the ground and looked around for her new confederate.

  "Aka!" she called out, not seeing him.

  "Mistress Kuzuno?"

  He was slinking out from behind a tree, his ears pressed down and h
is tail hanging low. When he got within a dozen feet of her she roared and lunged at him, at least as much as she could while still tied up and gagged. It was enough to send him flying away, and in a heartbeat he was vanishing back behind the tree. A few moments later his head appeared again, poking out carefully.

  "See? She's even mean to me now. Me! Can you tell what's wrong with her?"

  "Come over here," said Taiko, kneeling down next to Kuzuno. "She isn't hurting anyone like this."

  Taiko put her hands on the woman- or as Aka had called her, the kitsune- and let her senses flow over her. Physically, she was fine except for a little strain put on her by the webbing. Taiko delved deeper, but she couldn't find any sign of a curse or evil magic.

  Aka was closer now, approaching only with extreme tepidity.

  "So? What's the deal?"

  "I don't know. I can't see any curse."

  Taiko sighed. She started to work the silk free from Kuzuno's mouth. It wasn't easy; the strands didn't want to tear, and they were stuck fast to each other. Aka was too busy keeping her body between him and Kuzuno to help. Eventually she got it free, tearing it off of her skin as gently as possible.

  "Ah!" screamed Kuzuno, snapping at Taiko's fingers. "Aka, you little traitor, get over here and chew me loose!"

  Aka hid himself entire behind Taiko, and she could feel him huddled against her back.

  "Aka! You can't leave your mistress in the hands of this evil woman! She tried to feed me to Tsuchigumo, and now she's planning on taking me to Akio to sell me as a slave."

  "Don't listen to her," said Aka, "She's been a huge liar ever since she was cursed."

  "You don't need to tell me that," said Taiko, wondering if it was really only since whatever Akio's men had done to her.

  "Kuzuno, Aka here brought me to help you. We know that Akio's soldiers did something to you, and it's been making you feel bad. Can you tell me what they did? I promise I'll do whatever I can to fix things."

  "Untie me, and I'll tell you."

  "You two... I'm not stupid, okay? I can't untie you until you're better, so just tell me what they did."

  "I'm fine this way," she said. "I don't feel worse off at all. In fact, Akio did me a favor. I'm much more clever now, and I'm not going back to how I was before, so you can stop wasting your time and untie me right now."

  Taiko sighed. Why couldn't anything today be easy?

  Water poured over Chiyo's face. An entire bucket's worth, just enough at a time to force her to hold her breath and make her feel like she was drowning. Her gag was soaked, and it dripped water into her throat. The water flowed from her head down to the table, where it drained into a tub below so that the bucket could be refilled as many times as they liked. This was the ninth time, by Chiyo's count.

  Chiyo's body was still stretched out over the table with the wooden spikes in her back. She couldn't even feel her arms and legs anymore, except when something touched them, causing them to explode in pain. Her breasts and vagina were more constant sources of agony. Between her legs were metal clamps, fixed to her soft lips and biting into the sensitive flesh. Her breasts were pressed between two wooden boards, each lined with pointed studs.

  The water finally ran out and Chiyo had her chance to breathe again. She coughed, sending a wave of vibration through her body that caused dozens of aches and pains to flare up. She was alone now. Yumi had been taken away, to what fate Chiyo didn't want to think about. It was just her and her torturers. The masked man worked in silence, and neither of his underlings felt the need to speak either. It was up to Chiyo alone to fill the room with her cries.

  She heard the tub being moved away. They were finished with it for now, meaning that some new horror was being prepared for her. A click came from the table and her whole body burned with a new intensity. To her surprise, it was because the spikes were being lowered. It didn't matter for the moment- she screamed, her body hurting just as if they were being pushed up.

  Eventually all of the tension went away. Her hands and feet were still bound, but the ropes were slacked. Chiyo still didn't dare to move her limbs, even the slightest twitch letting her know how traumatized they were. The clamps came off next. First the boards were taken away, and then the clamps were taken away one by one. Blood rushed into places where it had been squeezed out, awakening nerves that immediately erupted in pain. The rope around her wrists and ankles loosened, and in an instant her hands and feet were throbbing from the same inrush of blood.

  Chiyo didn't know how long she could spend on that table before having the strength to push herself off, but the masked man wasn't that patient. He grabbed her arm and pulled her over the side. She willed her feet to catch her, but they didn't answer, and it was only his grip on her arm that slowed her collapse to the ground.

  He dropped her into a heap, and she didn't budge from it. She wanted to pull the gag from her mouth, but her arms were dead. Chiyo would rest for every second they gave her.

  They were hardly generous. The men straightened her out and rolled her onto her stomach. They put her arms behind her back, and Chiyo dismayed to feel the rope wrapping around them in the exact same way it had when Akio first took her prisoner. She offered no resistance, not that it was in her power to impede them in the slightest.

  When Chiyo was bound again they pulled her to her feet. Her legs couldn’t even support themselves, let alone the rest of her weight, and she was unable stand like they wanted her to. When they saw that she needed more time to rest they bent her over the table, letting her torso lay on it while her legs dangled. The masked man slapped her in the ass with his hand, repeating every few moments until he thought she'd had enough.

  They pulled her to her feet again. This time she managed to remain upright for a brief moment. She fell onto her knees, but they were insistent, and the next time Chiyo was taking unsteady steps toward a doorway on the other side of the room.

  She collapsed another three times before they reached their destination. In the next room over were a dozen cages, six each against opposite sides of the wall. Only one of them was occupied, and to Chiyo's surprise it was a familiar face- Miruku was curled up inside, as naked as Chiyo and bound in the same way. She wasn't gagged, but when she saw Chiyo she only hid her face and curled more tightly.

  Chiyo was put on her knees in front of a cage against the opposite wall, and the masked man went to work tying her ankles together. One of his minions tied a rope to her wrists and ran it through the bars on the roof of the cage. When she was ready they opened the door and backed her in, shutting it and locking it closed.

  To make sure her night would be as unbearable as possible they finished by pulling on the rope tied to her wrists, forcing her to stay upright on her knees but with her chest hunched over. She wasn't surprised to feel them knotting it in position.

  They left Chiyo to rot without a single word. She finally had time to realize how hungry and thirsty she was. She'd have all night to think about it.

  Taiko looked at her compass again. They were going in the right direction, at least. She didn’t know if she trusted Aka or not after all of his little omissions, so a bit of caution would be smart.

  Aka was far ahead of her, nervous of being too close to the kitsune while she was still under whatever curse she was under. He alternated between trotting forward at double pace and waiting until Taiko caught up. He looked around nervously while stopped, alert for any threats.

  Kuzuno was making a grand ordeal out of every step. Taiko had already removed some of the web around her and adjusted it to make her more comfortable. Taiko’s arms were still sore from how they’d been bound, and she wasn’t going to keep Kuzuno like that just to be cruel, even if she tried to have Taiko drowned and eaten. Still, she was wary, and wasn’t falling for her melodrama. Her arms were folded they way the women from Umai’s had been. The stickiness of the strands made up for Taiko’s lack of skill in ropework and kept it from needing to be too tight. Taiko had fashioned a leash that was fixed to her wais
t to keep her from running, and Taiko was making her walk out in front so that she could keep an eye on her.

  "I’m tired!" whined the kitsune, "You’ve been marching me for hours, and you’ve tied me up too tight."

  "Stop being ridiculous."

  Kuzuno dropped to the ground, plopping onto her knees. She looked over her shoulder at Taiko with mournful eyes.

  "How can you be so cruel? What do you want from me?"

  "Get back up! You don’t need a rest if you have so much energy for theatrics, and I’m not untying you!"

  Kuzuno growled softly at her. When she saw that she wasn’t going to convince Taiko that she was suffering a different look crept across her face.

  "I know what you want. You want my body, don’t you?"

  "What are you talking about?"

  "You’re taking me somewhere to ravish me! You’re going to put your hands all over me- force your lips on me- make me pleasure you with my tongue- make me howl for you! You’re terrible!"

  Kuzuno was on her back now, arching to show off her breasts. Her voice was sultry, and even the fear in it seemed calculated to allure. She slid one of her legs against the other, slowly bending it and raising her knee.

  Taiko felt her face flush red. She was gorgeous, and she knew how to make a hell of a display out of herself. Taiko knew that it was an offer, not fear, and the only thing she could understand about it was that her own body seemed to want it. She was incredibly embarrassed, and she was sure that she wasn’t hiding it very well.

  "Don’t try to deny it! I can smell your filthy lust. Just- just do it already and get it over with!"

  She threw her head back and let her chest heave, panting dramatically.

  "Squeeze!" said Taiko with a hurried casting.

  Kuzuno yelped, this time honestly, as the strands tightened around her for just moment to crush the air out of her.