Taiko screamed in shock when freezing water poured over her back, soaking her. The Oni laughed as the tub filled, coming up to her chin and above until it poured into her mouth. She raised her head as much as she could, but the water only stopped just below her nostrils. She couldn't see much, but Tomiko's figure appeared in front of her. The Queen put a single finger into the water, and suddenly chunks of ice began to form.
Taiko had thought she was cold before, but now she was shivering so hard that the newly created ice made strange music as her shaking rattled it. She rasped loudly as she filled and emptied her lungs, and she felt like there was knot of solid ice in her stomach. Her neck cramped, but as soon as she let her head droop her nose went underwater.
"Turn the tub, a little. I want her to be able to see her friend. We'll put her on the block."
The Oni dragged one end of the tub around, and over the lip Taiko could see a curved chunk of stone that was covered with a layer of ice. Tomiko absently dug her fingernails into Taiko's back while her pet monster fetched Yumi from the pillar. Yumi screamed and fought while she was bent backwards over the the stone, but the Oni handled her as easily as if she was a child. There was a chain at one end near the floor, and while holding her down with one hand she used the other to hook it to the collar.
She moved to Yumi's feet and removed the shackles around her ankles, taking one of her legs and bending it to put her foot against the side of the block where a metal clamp was waiting to lock around it. Taiko couldn't see the other side of the block, but Yumi's other leg was soon position the same way, held in place while she struggled.
The block bent her backwards nearly a full half circle, with her head and knees both almost touching the ground. Her arms, trapped between her back and the ice that covered the block, further contorted her shape. She tried to look up, to see what they were planning to do to her next, but the chain kept her neck down and her face pointed toward the wall. She was shivering and trying to push her body off of the ice as much as possible, but without much success. She screamed, not in fury or defiance, but in fear and sorrow, a pitiful wailing that Taiko was shocked to see she was even capable of.
"What's the matter, you don't want to share that cunt of yours with the rest of us?" asked the Oni.
She put two of her fingers against Yumi's sex, thrust out by the position of her hips, and let them sink inside. Yumi whined and twisted against the block as much as she could, but she was trapped by the frozen chains while the Oni was free to play with her clit.
"Quiet, you selfish little bitch. You'll get your turn to play with my cunt, except you'll be using your tongue."
"Use the rods," said Tomiko. "You can fuck her later. I want to hear her scream some more."
Taiko groaned, pleading for Yumi even if they couldn't understand her. The Oni she could understand- it was disgusting, but she was at least taking pleasure in torturing them. But Tomiko seemed to be motivated only by the mildest curiosity.
The Oni took her fingers out of Yumi, running them up over her body to rub them on her lips, and stepped away. Taiko couldn't see anything until she came back, holding two sculpted chunks of ice. Each one was made to look like a penis, although larger than the ones Taiko had endured so far. She knelt next to Yumi, put one of them down, and placed the tip of the other against the lips of her pussy.
Yumi whined frantically, which only brought a smile to the Oni's face. She licked her lips as she pushed it in, the shaft of ice disappearing into Yumi's sex. Yumi bucked wildly, thrashing so much that Taiko was afraid she'd hurt her neck. The Oni didn't stop, pushing it until the base rested flat against her lips.
"Bet you miss those nice, warm fingers now, huh? What about that ass of yours? Is it nice and tight too?
Yumi shook her head, her body still jerking periodically.
"Let's find out."
She picked up the other frozen cock and slid it under the first one, searching for Yumi's hole.
"Here we go," she said, starting to push.
Taiko had to shut her eyes. She heard Taiko screaming again and the rattling of her chains.
"It's a little harder going in, isn't it? But that's the fun part. It'll be easier if you relax, but I've never known anyone who could do that with a chunk of ice being shoved up their asshole."
Taiko felt the tip of her nose touch ice, and she jerked her head back up. Her neck was so tired now, and her whole body was numb, but somehow still hurting.
"Would you like to know something interesting about Frostspire?"
It was Queen Tomiko's voice. Taiko opened her eyes and saw her, kneeling in front of the tub while Yumi still struggled and cried out behind her.
"The cold here will never kill you. This is the palace of ice's embrace. It will grab a hold of you and never let go, no matter if you try to bundle up in a thick coat or if you get so cold that your body wants to die. Frostspire won't let it. There are women here who have literally been frozen solid, but still lived. That's why you haven't passed out by now."
Tomiko put her hand on Taiko's head and pushed her face into the water.
"You can still drown, though."
Taiko didn't have the strength to fight her, but soon her desperate body took over, straining to lift her head while her lungs were ready to explode. The chunks of ice in the tub crunched against each other as she churned the water with her struggling. Just when Taiko was convinced that Tomiko meant to end her, she let go.
"I still don't know what it is. For some reason, it makes me a little sad to see you like this. To hear your friend scream. I haven't felt that in a long time. So strange..."
Taiko tried to wrestle her lungs back into control enough to speak. She did her best to explain what she knew through the metal bar, but Tomiko didn't seem to care.
"Whip that one," she said. "I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with this one."
The Oni stopped pinching Yumi's nipples and went to find a whip. Tomiko moved out of Taiko's way so that she could watch her when she came back, holding a thick, flat leather strap. Yumi couldn't even raise her head enough to see, but the Oni dragged it across her stomach to let her feel it.
She raised it in the air and brought it down across Yumi's belly, a sharp slap echoing through the room. Yumi screamed until her voice went hoarse, which delighted the Oni. Taiko shut her eyes, but Tomiko pushed her face into the water again, sending a clear message that she was meant to watch. The leather strap slammed across Yumi's breasts, three times, while her muscles convulsed, straining so hard that Taiko couldn't believe that the chain hadn't snapped.
Taiko struggled against her own chains while Yumi was beaten again and again, but even if the shackles hadn't been sealed tightly around her wrists and the chains digging into her chest it would have been hopeless, her body now too frozen and weak to much more than shift the ice around.
Yumi roared in agony, the leather strap coming downtime after time. Just hearing the leather crash against her skin made Taiko hurt. She didn't know how Yumi was even surviving.
"Flip this one over," said Tomiko.
The Oni laid the whip down across Yumi's crotch and walked over. She lifted Taiko out of the tub enough to turn her around, then lowered her back down into the water. Her head sank under, water covering her face. She tried to lift it up, but her hands and legs were both chained underneath her, and the collar around her neck pulled it back. Her body refused to budge, even as she struggled more and more frantically. There was barely an inch of water between her and the surface, but she was as trapped as she'd been while at the bottom of the pit in the monster's cave.
Tomiko reached her hand under Taiko's head and lifted her up, postponing her execution. She took in all the air she could, knowing how easily she could be plunged back into her death. After a few moments Tomiko lowered her again, enough that her nose was just barely out of the water. Taiko felt like her next breath could fill her lungs with icy liquid, but didn't dare stop breathing.
"They tell me you tha
t had two other friends with you," said Tomiko, her voice distorted by the water. "Aside from Akio, I mean. My soldiers will find them soon."
Tomiko let Taiko's head dip just a hair, sending Taiko thrashing about as the water touched her nostrils.
"I hope they're as beautiful as you are. I have plenty of surprises for all four of you."
Chiyo gripped the railing as if her life depended on it. If what Akio said about Frostspire's curse to hurl anyone climbing to its roof to their deaths on the ground below was true, then it just might.
She stood at the top of the palace's tallest tower. It was the only one open at the top, letting Chiyo look out over the clouds below. In the distance she even saw the mountains they'd crossed to get to Frostspire. The wind blew fiercely, howling as it rushed through the gap between the roof and the top floor of the tower. As scary as it was, Chiyo was counting on that wind.
She lifted the fruits of the last eight hours of her and Miyoshi's labor into place. Miyoshi had named it 'Hopewing'- a glider designed to use the fury of Frostspire's winds to fly all the way into the desert and to the Dunnie's village. With any luck, they would see the magical flare that it was timed to set off and find it. It had taken Chiyo's engineering and Miyoshi's craftsmanship to make it, along with a couple of hours of calculations on how to launch it to send it the right way.
Chiyo re-checked her markings, sighting them against the peaks of the mountains. The glider's built-in gyroscope would make sure that it always righted to the same direction, no matter where it was blown. All she had to do was aim it correctly. She waited until a particularly strong gust of wind roared through the spire, nearly throwing her over the balcony, and let it go. Hopewing shot forward, climbing as the wind blew over its wings and taking its precious cargo with it. The jar of blood needed to save Ikumi was on its way, along with detailed instructions on what to do when the Dunnies found it.
Chiyo climbed back down the stairs. Now that she had committed Hopewing to the hands of fate her weariness demanded its due. She'd been awake since they left the Butakin's farm for Frostspire the day before. She'd been tired when Minoru first led them to the hidden library. Since then she'd had to design the glider, sneak down to the workshops to steal materials for it, do the calculations, and climb the tower again to launch it.
The tower had been a lucky break. It was the only way out of Frostspire other than the front gate. The only reason it had probably been overlooked was that it was above the library. They'd found the stairs to it while exploring the space and looking for anything they could use. There was no other way to it other than through the library, which meant that nobody except Tomiko herself could have known about it. Chiyo had climbed it just before the last night had fallen. That's when her plan for everything came together.
Miyoshi was already asleep, hunched over a table with sewing implements strewn out around her. She was tailoring some stolen guard uniforms for them, to make sneaking about easier. They'd need them. Chiyo sat down opposite her and found a piece of paper to sketch on. Even as exhausted as he was, both physically and mentally, her mind was still churning. She drew the rough outlines of what she needed Miyoshi to build next, and started to work out how she would make the maps she needed of the palace to the precision that would be required.
"How did it go?" asked Minoru, his voice coming out of the silence.
"It should get there tonight," she said. "The Dunnies will find it."
"Have you figured out anything about the door yet?"
"No, I haven't had any time. But I don't sense any magic around it. I think it's more of one of your things than one of mine. If it's in Tomiko's palace, then it's probably connected to her. I bet we'll need her to open it for us. How are... how are Taiko and Yumi."
Minoru hesitated before speaking.
"They'll survive. Don't worry about them."
"Don't worry? They're being-"
"Worrying keeps you distracted, and it doesn't help them at all. They need your plan to succeed. I'll worry about them for you. You should get some sleep for now. You can start on the next phase tomorrow."
"What about Akio?" she asked sourly.
"I can't find him. He's too far away from my crystal, which is currently sitting in a trash pile where Taiko's clothes were thrown. From the chatter, though, he's still down in the mines, giving them a hell of a time. You need to get that crystal, too. I know, you’ve got plenty on your plate already, but if they dump the trash somewhere you might lose me altogether."
"No, it's okay. I have to go all over the place anyway. And there might be something I can use down there."
Chiyo put her head down, resting her eyes for just a moment. All of this had to end soon. She missed Umai so much- its festivals, its food, its people. She already missed Haru. She wished she could be tied up in his bed, a slave with no worries or weight on her shoulders other than pleasing him with her body. She tried to think about her sketches again, but strange dream logic kept seeping in, and soon all of reality was lost as she fell asleep.
Yumi tried to stay on her knees. It wasn't easy. She'd spent at least an hour, probably more, bent over the block while the Oni whipped, beat, and lashed her until her throat was raw from screaming. Then she'd gotten to trade places with Taiko, chained up in freezing water and almost drowning, hearing Taiko as she was whipped in Yumi's place. They'd spent just as long on her as they did Yumi, all while Yumi wished she would just freeze and get it over with already.
She'd spent the rest of the night wishing that as well, chained to the pillars again, except with metal clamps biting down on her nipples and pussy. Whatever magic made her shackles perpetually freezing was working tenfold with the steel teeth. Her entire breast felt like it was covered with ice, which didn't make her nipples feel any better for the jaws sinking into them. Her pussy was in agony too, the clamp fixed onto a fold of skin at the top of her slit. A chain was running from the clamp, down between her lips and up between her ass cheeks where it split behind her back to come around her sides and link to her nipples.
The straighter she stood the more it pulled, both on her nipples and on her pussy, and she'd spent the night bent backward from having her arms between her and the pillar. Her and Taiko were left in each other's company, Tomiko offering no other explanation of herself before shutting the door behind her. Now she was back, along with her pet monster.
She was sitting in a chair a few feet in front of Yumi, her legs crossed and her dress pulled back to offer her soft leather boot forward. A leather crop dangled from her fingers while she waited for the Oni to finish taking Taiko down from the pillar. Yumi tried to stay where she was, her body too drained to demand anything more from it.
"Remove the pink one's gag," said the Queen. "And if she tries to speak so much as a single word you may rip her tongue out."
Taiko plopped down next to Yumi. She was just as unsteady, and the Oni was practically holding her up by the strap of her gag while she worked it loose. Taiko didn't dare utter a word once the bar came out of her mouth, but she couldn't stop a few painful moans from escaping.
"Come forward," said Tomiko. "Lick my boot. Thoroughly."
Taiko risked one glance at her face before shuffling forward on her knees. She put her mouth to Tomiko's boot and let her tongue drag across it. She repeated her motion, licking the same spot a few times. Tomiko was so still and quiet that Yumi wondered if she was even breathing. It wasn't until Taiko stopped to take a breath that she struck, her crop cracking against Taiko's breast without a hint of warning.
"Did I say that you could have even a single moment for yourself? Lick until I tell you to stop."
Taiko yelped and went back to Tomiko's boot, moving faster than before.
"I said thoroughly!"
Tomiko smacked her breast again, and Taiko struggled not to stop, even for a moment, and give Tomiko another reason to hit her. Yumi watched her kiss and suck on the boot, from toe to heel, while Tomiko looked down without the slightest sign that she was eve
n getting off on this. Yumi couldn't understand her; Akio wanted obedience and desired them sexually. The Oni seemed to be like him. But Tomiko offered no reason, not even the most twisted one. She simply tortured them, as if it was the only thing to be done.
"Go back to your spot," she said. "The other one, now."
Yumi felt the Oni's hands undoing her gag. She couldn't even move her jaw once it came out for how stiff it was. She shuffled forward while Taiko moved back, both of them too ashamed to look each other in the face. Pain shot through her arms with every inch of progress she made while her collar and clamps tugged on her. The chains around her chest dug in when she breathed, and she was no more used to the cold that still tore at her unceasingly than when she first tasted it.
She could smell Taiko's saliva on the boot. This was disgusting. She knew that she couldn't refuse, that it was a battle she would lose and suffer horribly from, but her hesitation got the better of her.
Tomiko's crop slammed into her chest. Her entire breast stung, her frozen skin amplifying the pain as ever. She hit Yumi twice, rapidly and without holding back. The tip of her crop came to rest under Yumi's chin, lifting her head while Tomiko leaned over and let a gob of spit fall from her lips to her boot. Yumi knew what she was meant to do, and knew that she had no choice but to obey.
She closed her eyes and pressed her tongue against Tomiko's boot, right where the mass of spit still lay. Her mouth, her stomach, and her throat all tried to rebel, but Yumi fought them down despite her nausea. She covered every spot where Taiko had been, tasting both her and Tomiko's saliva all the way to the back of her throat. Tomiko let her go over the entire boot two, three, four times, in no hurry to stop her.
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