"I'm sorry, Chiyo," said Taiko. "If you don't want to stay here- if you want to leave- I'll understand. But I won't let this awful world be the one we have to live in. I'll either end Tomiko's reign or find a way to separate our worlds again."
"Give me the rag," said Yumi. "Just don't act surprised when I don't let you keep her crown."
Akio tossed the blood-soaked cloth to her. She immediately started wiping off down the back of her neck. Taiko saw the strength return in her grip on her spear.
"Yumi, I'm begging you!" said Miyoshi.
"I'm sorry, Taiko."
This time it was Minoru's voice.
"I warned you that I wouldn't let Akio get his hands on Tomiko."
"What? Wait- I won't. I'm not going to hand her over to him, no matter what."
"No. I can't risk it," he said, his face hard.
Minoru backed out of the door, sighed, and started shouting.
"Intruders! In the storeroom!"
"Run!" shouted Miyoshi
They'd be trapped where they were, of course. Taiko ran into the hallway as Akio drew his sword, Yumi on her heels. The first guard rounded the corner, and Akio met him with a crushing blow that set him crumpled to the ground.
"This way," said Miyoshi, her and Chiyo already halfway down the hallway in the other direction.
"Fox's swiftness!"
Taiko let the magic surge into her veins. Akio was easily holding the hallway against the soldiers who had piled up in front of him; if they could just win this fight, they'd still have a chance to get upstairs while the rest of the palace guard was still confused and disorganized.
Akio's spy wasn't far away. Taiko shocked him when her hand shot out faster than he could see and took the jar of blood from him. She threw it to Miyoshi, who barely reacted in time to catch it. While Yumi joined Akio to push the soldiers back Taiko's arms went into a blur, forming another spell.
"Frostfur's bulk!" she shouted, forming the image of the beast in her head and sending her magic toward Chiyo to give her the creature's stoutness, hoping it would protect her in case any soldiers got to her again during the fight.
Just as the spell went off a door was thrown open, and more men poured into the hallway, this time between the two halves of their party. Taiko, Akio, and Yumi were on one side with Miyoshi and Chiyo on the other. The poor men were doomed- the narrow hallway would make them perfect targets for Chiyo's magic.
Taiko looked back over to her, and in an instant knew that she'd made a mistake. Chiyo was frozen in fear, her staff out of position, with the soldiers closing in on her and Miyoshi. Taiko rushed to help them, but there were half a dozen men between them. Two of them faced her, stabbing at her with their swords. She dodged easily, tore the blade out of one of their hands, and tripped the other, but she had to back away before she could press forward to avoid the first man's fist.
She heard Miyoshi scream Chiyo's name, and through the men caught a glimpse of Chiyo dropping her staff and running. Miyoshi picked it up and tried to ward off the soldiers with it, but she was quickly forced into a retreat, following after Chiyo, screaming for her to wait.
"Where are they going?" snapped Yumi, coming to Taiko's side.
"I don't know," said Taiko. "Just fight!"
Yumi jammed the butt of her spear into the soldier's stomach, putting him down, but more men poured out of the doorway. Even as half of them ran after Chiyo the odds against Taiko and Yumi increased. Between Yumi's darting spear and Taiko's quickness they held them at bay, dropping one of them every few moments, but their numbers weren't decreasing.
"Rush them!" shouted a voice from behind the press. "Now! Before they pick you all off!"
A push rippled from the back of the mass to the front and they surged forward. Yumi put her spear in one man's leg, and Taiko kicked another in the groin, but the sheer weight of the push carried the soldiers into them. Yumi jumped back, but lost her spear, and even Taiko wasn't swift enough to fight them at the speed their charge was building.
Yumi tried. Her fist hit a man's jaw hard enough to knock him out, but instead of falling back he was pushed into her, and while she tried to throw him off the surge caught her. Taiko saw her falling, and then only the men who pushed past her, leaving Yumi completely overwhelmed.
"Akio!" she shouted, looking to him for help.
He had almost cleared his end of the hallway, and for a brief moment Taiko thought that he would come to reclaim Yumi. Instead he scowled, roared, and barged into the men in front of him. They were caught off-guard and fell, letting Akio flee toward the mines, his spy on his heels.
She tried not to let her shock paralyze her. She spun back around to fight, but there was no way to maneuver around the men in the hallway, and when they charged Taiko was caught and slammed against the wall.
Taiko hit the ground, breathless. She was still trying to get her first gasp of air when two men grabbed her arms and flattened her against the cold stone floor. The fight was over. They'd lost, and she was about to be a prisoner again.
"So," said a man that Taiko couldn't see. "Allies of that despicable man- 'Lord' Akio. Strip them both and tie them up. Her Majesty will want to interrogate them."
Taiko felt her coat being peeled off. One man put his shin on her neck, holding her down while they twisted her arms behind her back to pull her clothes off. Her speed was useless while she was on the ground, and there were too many of them to fight.
It was cold in the palace. Taiko had forgotten about it in the dash to the storeroom, but with the warmth of her garments taken away and her naked skin pressed against the stone it didn't take long for her to start shivering. They took everything except her bra and panties, neither of which provided much protection from the frigid air.
Men arrived with rope- rope that looked like it had been soaked with water and left to freeze. They dropped it next to her, close enough that a few coils of it touched her ribs. She jerked away when she felt how cold it was. They couldn't really mean to tie her up that, could they?
"Wait-" she said, forcing the words out through a chest that was still too tight.
"Please, don't-"
The man with his shin on her neck pressed down, shutting her up. They crossed her wrists and wrapped them tightly with the freezing rope, laying it both vertically and horizontally and making each loop neat and tight. She felt the chill dig into her skin as more and more pressed against it. After they tied their knots they dropped her wrists onto her back. Taiko yelped and tried to lift her arms, needing to get the icy rope away from it, but the men pushed them back down.
She fought to gain some measure of freedom, but there were at least four men holding her. They tossed the rope that trailed from her hands over her shoulder, lifting her chest just enough to begin threading the rope around it. A freezing line was laid from her shoulder down between her breasts, then around her torso and up against the underside of her bosom. The rope wasn't wrapped around her arms, but as they continued on to run it, putting it above as well, it started to squeeze her breasts between the two coils.
They tied a knot right between them, catching the rope where it ran over her shoulder. They pulled the rest of it over the opposite shoulder, tying it back to her hands. Every bit of it was burning her skin where it touched now. Her wrists were half-numb, and the rope didn't feel like it was warming up at all. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering, wondering how long it would take.
She felt some more tugging behind her back, and without any other warning the rope between her wrists and her shoulders shortened, pulling her hands up until they were as high up her back as her joints would allow.
Taiko cried in pain, but the men held her while the rope was tied to keep them there permanently. The number of hands holding her down finally reduced to one, letting her try to pull her wrists back down a little. When she did the rope around her breasts tightened, pinching them mercilessly. Even when she tried to just relax the natural tension in her arms they pulled tightly on
her chest. She remembered the desert, and the all-night march in that stringent bondage, and realized that she could be bound this way for a very long time.
"Please, just let me talk," she said as they put her on her knees. "I'll cooperate if you just promise to-"
"Shut up," said the man in charge. "One more word out of you and I'll take the rope around your arms and pull it tight until your bones break."
Taiko heard Yumi moan, looking over in time to see her eyes open, then go wide as she realized that she was a prisoner again, bound just like Taiko was.
"No, no!" she shouted, struggling fiercely.
One of the soldiers pulled a spare length of rope across her neck and used it to hold her while he put his knee in her back. She fought him for a moment before submitting to her punishment, her face turning red as he strangled her. When she'd been still long enough he let her go. She hung her head in shame, gasping for air, and Taiko saw a look of pained submission on her face that she never imagined could be possible.
"Take them to the cells on the third floor," said the Captain. "I will inform Her Majesty and send for them when she's ready. Go."
Taiko was lifted to her feet and shoved forward. Her bare soles had to tread across and icy floor, while the rest of her had to contend either with the winter air of the hallways or the wet, freezing rope that was even starting to drip down her torso now. The cramps already setting into her arms added to her misery, and Taiko knew that it was only a matter of time before she was given away again to satisfy some pervert's sexual urges.
Miyoshi and Chiyo had been right. She'd been such a fool to let this happen. She prayed that they would escape Frostspire, and that at very least they wouldn't share in the horrible penance she was about to pay. Taiko thought about everything she'd heard about Queen Tomiko, and mercy wasn't looking very likely.
Chapter 8
The Belly of Ice
Yumi had never been so cold in her life. She'd thought Akio's cellar was chilly when she'd had her first taste of being stripped, but it was nothing compared to Frostspire. The thick coats that everyone wore weren't just for show, and even when she had hers she could feel the chill. Now Yumi had nothing but her underwear to keep her warm. The floors were made of ice. Literal ice that burned the soles of her feet as she walked on it. Even the ropes that bound her wrists, chest, and arms were somehow made of ice.
They were walking down a wide hallway now, with plenty of people in various kinds of dress to stare at them. It wasn't the worst Yumi had endured, but she was hardly unaffected by it. Only her memories of what her disobedience had bought her and her friends at Akio's hands kept her mouth shut and her legs moving. Taiko was in front of her, and from the way she was shivering she must have been just as cold as Yumi.
Yumi was stopped in the middle of the hallway. She glanced to her left and saw that there were prison cells built into the side of the hall. The ice-covered stone yielded to frost-covered iron bars and the cells that were behind them. They were shallow, only a few feet deep, but wide, made to show off their prisoners to the palace's foot traffic. The inside of the cells seemed to be made purely of ice, and Yumi realized that they would have no salvation from its vicious bite.
One of the soldiers opened the door, pulling a wooden box from the corner and placing it against the wall. The men pushed Yumi forward, up to the box, and for just a moment she was happy to step onto it and off of the floor.
"Turn around," said the Captain.
Yumi did as ordered. One of the soldiers was holding two u-shaped metal bands and a maul. Taiko was on her knees, bowing with her head almost to the ground and a sword and her neck. The men untied Yumi's hands. Her urge to attack them was overwhelming, but she knew she would lose. She might hurt some of them, but more would come, and she was unarmed and almost naked. She would lose, and they'd torture her and Taiko for resisting.
She let the men take her wrists and put them up against the cell wall, stretched out and up. She kept her back from touching the wall, but her arms had to feel the cold ice grab her skin. The bands were placed over her wrists and beaten into the wall, fusing her arms in place against the ice. When both of her arms were secured one of them leaned over and pulled on the box.
Yumi barely had time to brace herself before it disappeared from under her feet. Her body flopped against the wall, held from the ground by her wrists. She screamed, all of her muscles instantly cramping. She squeezed her legs together, trying to hold in what little warmth she could. The soldiers found some chains and wrapped them around her ankles, adding another place where freezing metal touched her and weighing down her feet so that she couldn't lift her legs.
It was Taiko's turn next. She wasn't shown any more mercy, and soon her body was dangling against the wall next to Yumi's. Both of them were breathing fast, their hearts pumping furiously to try to warm their bodies. The ropes around their breasts had been left in place, still occasionally dripping down their bodies and squeezing them uncomfortably. They still hadn't gotten the tiniest bit warmer for having been against their skin for so long. The soldiers shut the cell door and left them, their manner as cold as the palace around them. They hadn't leered, taunted, or groped at them like Akio's men would have. It wasn't much comfort.
It didn't take long for Yumi to regret not fighting while she had the chance. Maybe Akio really was the merciful one after all. She never would have thought that she could miss being tied up on her knees in front of him, but now all she could think of was how warm his body would have been, pressed on top of hers. It was a pitiful thought, but with her body begging for any kind of relief at all against the cold she embraced it.
Neither of them said anything. What could they? Empty assurances and platitudes? Both of them knew what kinds of things were coming, and neither had the heart to speak of them. The hallway was still full of people, some of them walking by and some milling about, occasionally glancing at Yumi with either pity or disgust.
It was a long time before a trumpet sounded, stirring everyone into greater action. The hallway cleared, something in the palace apparently being important enough to attract all attention. Yumi and Taiko were left alone in a silent, freezing hallway.
It was Minoru who disturbed the silence, fading into view in front of them.
"Y- y- you piece of shit-" stammered Yumi.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't want this to happen to you."
"Why?" asked Taiko, her words as frozen as Yumi's.
"I told you. I won't let Akio get his hands on Tomiko."
"So you let them get their hands on us instead?" asked Yumi. "What are they going to do to us now, huh? Why do we deserve this when she doesn't?"
"There's something you haven't told us yet," said Taiko. "Please. You owe us that, at least."
Minoru looked away in shame.
"Tomiko is my sister. Was my sister, I guess."
"What?" said Yumi. "That monster is your sister?"
"Watch it," said Minoru. "She isn't really this person. Tomiko- the real Tomiko- wasn't like that. This world screwed her up as much as she screwed it up. It took some dark piece of her soul and engulfed her in it. All of this horror- it isn't her fault. My sister is still in there, somewhere. I know she should be stopped, but I won't let Akio rape and torture her every night for the rest of her life. Not that, no matter what."
"I wasn't going to let that happen," said Taiko.
"Did you let it happen when Akio raped Miyoshi and Chiyo? Did you let it happen when you had that soldier's dick in your mouth? You trust in fate too much, Taiko."
"If she's your sister why don't you go talk to her and tell her to let us go?" asked Yumi.
Minoru shook his head.
"She won't recognize me. She doesn't remember anything from before the shattering any more than you do."
"But you do," said Taiko. "Why? And why are you a spirit?"
Minoru looked away, trying to hide the guilt in his eyes.
"I'm dead, that's why. I died a couple of years
before the shattering. Or I guess I should say that Minoru- the real Minoru- died a couple of years before the shattering. I'm just a figment, something from Tomiko's psyche that improperly manifested into her world. An anomaly, I guess."
"Is that what made Tomiko so sad and cold?" asked Taiko.
"Maybe. All of this might be my fault."
"You shouldn't say that," said Taiko. "You didn't choose to die."
"Yes, I did. I committed suicide a day before Tomiko's birthday. I don't even know why. I say that I did it, but I'm not really Minoru, after all. I only know what Tomiko knew about me, plus what was pulled from some public databases. I know that I hid it, mostly. That I was pushing people away for a couple of years. She was the last person close to me."
"Maybe I screwed her up. Or maybe she's just cursed with whatever I was cursed with."
Yumi was struck dumb. She couldn't even wrap her head around the idea- killing yourself when there were people around who loved you. For no reason. No wonder Tomiko's world was such an awful mess.
"So what else is there?" asked Taiko. "What else are you waiting to drop on us?"
"There's nothing else," said Minoru. "I told you last time, and I wasn't lying. I know why Akio is here. He was a nerdy little fart who had a crush on Tomiko. He shouldn't have wound up in her world; it's not like she wanted anything to do with him. But I guess she didn't have anyone else. Or maybe stuff happened after I died. I don't have the slightest idea what your connection to either of them is."
Yumi started laughing. It hurt, but she couldn't help herself.
"Akio... a nerdy little fart... I should have known."
"Don't laugh. I doubt that you were much more impressive before the shattering. You were probably always getting picked on by bullies or something. Both of you now are the fantasies you had about yourselves back then."
"You should have told us before," said Taiko. "If she's hurting- I can help her. I know I can. Could you do at least one thing for me?"
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