The Isle of Torment

by Andrew Hunter

  Tanys nodded slowly.

  "Good," Brynn said, unlatching the barred door of the cage, "Now think pleasant thoughts and be here for him when he comes to."

  Tanys stepped inside, and Brynn shut the door behind her, ramming the bolt closed and fixing it with a pin. "Go to him," he said.

  Tanys knelt in the dirty straw beside the slumbering cat and stroked his bristly fur. "Oh, Ghodn," she sobbed, overcome with the emotion of seeing him again. She threw herself across his neck and wept, burying her face in his thick coat.

  Her skin tingled as a wave of power washed over her. A sensation like a stranger's touch on the back of her neck made her shudder, and she felt Ghodn's body tense beneath her as well.

  Suddenly, the tiger's foreleg twitched, and he let out a rumbling growl. She drew back a little, a thrill of fear in her breast as one of his claws curled upon her hip, the needle-sharp tip piercing the thin fabric of her trousers to prick her skin.

  "He's waking!" Brynn shouted, "You have to calm him. Now!"

  Shaken, Tanys focused her will, reaching out to the big cat's mind with her own. She formed an image of herself and the tiger together and pushed this image against the expanding gray wall of the cat's awakening self. Then Ghodn's mind crashed upon her like a wave of fury, and Tanys fell backward, sprawling on the ground before him as the tiger sprang to his feet.

  Ghodn lunged forward, straddling her as she cowed beneath him. The tiger roared, his jaws inches from her face as he breathed in her scent.

  Their minds locked together, and Tanys felt the confusion within him. Images of blood and violence crowed together with the scent of living flesh, a prey-thing, soft and yielding, and a terrible hunger in his belly. She felt his desire to sink his teeth into her flesh and devour her body to sate the craving within.

  Still, Ghodn hesitated. He sniffed her hair, and the memory of her spread through his mind like a golden dawn. The big cat whined and pressed a massive paw between her breasts, claws retracted, and nearly crushed the breath out of her as he dragged his hot, rough tongue over her cheeks and forehead.

  Brynn laughed. "I guess he remembers you after all!" he said.

  Ghodn snarled as his eyes lifted to the ghast beastmaster outside the cage. Tanys yelped as she felt the tips of Ghodn's claws tense against the skin of her breast.

  Ghodn looked down and her and sniffed, withdrawing his paw before stepping away from her. The tiger paced back and forth along the far wall of the cage, growling dangerously.

  "Well done," Brynn said, "Wait here, and I'll bring him some food." He trotted away, leaving Tanys and the tiger alone in the cage.

  Tanys jumped to her feet, and Ghodn surged forward to join her as she moved to the door of the cage. She reached out through the bars, feeling for the pin that held the latch closed. Ghodn looked up at her with a questioning whine as her fingers froze on the latch.

  Tanys looked toward the cavern beyond where Brynn and a dozen other ghasts, most of them armed, tended the beasts in their care. "I can't, boy," she sighed, taking her hand off the pin, "I don't know where all the others are yet. We can't make our move until I find Jorva."

  Ghodn rubbed his head against her elbow.

  "We have to wait just a little longer," she said, scratching his ear, "but we're all getting out of here... I promise."

  Brynn came back, carrying bucket in one hand. He paused, his eyes going to Tanys's hands that still lingered near the latch. Satisfied that the latch remained secure, he stepped forward, setting the bloody bucket of meat next to the door of the cage. "I imagine he'll want something a little more solid than the gruel we've been feeding him so far."

  Ghodn's stomach grumbled as he pressed his face between the bars, trying to reach the feed bucket.

  "Don't worry," Brynn said, "you'll be back to live prey soon enough, but this will have to do for now."

  Tanys regarded Brynn for a moment. He smiled back at her, letting some of his arrogant demeanor slip away in the concern that he showed for the tiger.

  "Thank you," Tanys said, stooping to reach out and pull the bucket inside the cage. Ghodn pulled it from her hands as soon as it was in and buried his bloody face in the meal.

  "And thank you," Brynn said.

  "For what?" she asked.

  His eyes went to the latch again. "For not doing something stupid," he said.

  Tanys smiled, leaning close to the bars of the cage. "I like to keep my options open," she said, "and, anyway, you haven't given me my lesson yet."

  "Oh... the lesson," Brynn said, his eyes falling to the swell of her breasts, pressed between the bars, "yes, I was supposed to be doing something with you, wasn't I?"

  Ghodn lifted his red face from the bucket with a curious growl. Tanys grinned at him. "Is he going to be all right?" she asked, turning back to Brynn once more.

  "He'll be fine," Brynn said, "We can feed him again in a little while, once his stomach has had time to settle in to solid foods again. Let's leave him alone for now. I have something to show you." He unlatched the gate with a wary eye moving from the tiger to the girl as he did so.

  Tanys made no move, but Ghodn tensed, ready to pounce as soon as the gate was opened. Brynn hesitated, looking at Tanys.

  "It's all right, Ghodn," Tanys said, "I'll be back soon, but you need to wait here."

  Brynn smiled and nodded his thanks.

  "And don't kill anyone 'till I get back," she added with a little smirk.

  Ghodn grumbled and dropped to his belly in the straw to lick sullenly at his paws.

  Brynn opened the gate a little way and motioned Tanys through before securing it again. He paused, looking down at her hip. "You're bleeding," he said.

  Tanys looked down to see a dark stain on the leg of her trousers where Ghodn's claw had broken the skin beneath. "I guess he got me," she said, only now noticing the sting of the minor injury.

  "Come on," Brynn said, "let's get it cleaned up."

  "It's nothing," she said, "I've had worse."

  "Never leave a scratch untended," Brynn said, "Quickest way to lose a leg around here... well, one of the ways."

  Tanys pursed her lips. Brynn's concern seemed genuine. Most ghasts she had met were cold, self-serving creatures. Brynn did his best to project the same air of callous indifference as the others, but beneath that...

  "This way," he said, leading her back toward the large central cavern and then to another side chamber beyond.

  He guided her to a long tunnel with crates of supplies stacked high along either wall. He looked around for a moment before taking an earthenware bottle down from a shelf. He sat the bottle upon a nearby bench and pulled Tanys over to him by the arm.

  She made no move to stop him as he slipped the straps off her shoulders and then turned her to face the bench. She sucked in a breath as he pulled her pants down, exposing her bare rump and upper thighs. She lifted the tail of her shirt and looked down at her leg, wincing at the sight of the four deep puncture wounds that ebbed dark beads of blood.

  "His claws still work," Brynn said.

  "Seems that way," Tanys said, flatly.

  Brynn picked through a stack of rags, picking out a relatively clean one before unstopping the brown jug on the bench. He upended it with the rag pressed against its mouth, and a dark stain of wetness spread through the cloth. "This will probably hurt a bit," he said, setting the bottle aside again.

  Tanys braced herself for the pain, but still gasped when Brynn pressed the damp cloth against her wounded leg. Four points of searing flame burned against her thigh. She instinctively pulled away from the hurt, but Brynn stepped in close, pinning her hips against the bench with his body.

  "Don't move," he said.

  Tanys gritted her teeth, looking back over her shoulder at him. He dabbed gently at the wound, letting the burning liquid soak into the torn skin and cleaning the smeared blood from the creamy flesh of her thigh.

  "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she accused him.

  Brynn chuckled, lean
ing closer still. "Enjoying what?" he asked. She felt his hips press against her backside, the warm, solid bulge of his manhood nestled in the V at the top of her buttocks. The damp rag in his hand drifted forward around the curve of her hip, slipping in the hollow between her belly and her thigh.

  "Treating me like your prisoner," she said, her voice growing hoarse as his warm breath tickled her ear.

  "You're not my prisoner," he said, "You're my student." She felt his growing hardness against her backside throb with anticipation.

  "Then teach me something," she gasped, turning her face as far as she could, her lips almost touching his.

  Brynn let the bloody rag drop from his grip and reached up to grab a handful of her raven-black hair. He leaned her forward over the bench as his free hand fumbled with the buckle of his belt. She heard his axe hit the floor, and he grunted as he struggled for a moment to free himself from his trousers. Then she felt the slick, hot head of his cock slip between the cheeks of her buttocks.

  Tanys groaned, leaning forward across the tumbled supplies that cluttered the surface of the workbench. She stood on her toes to lift her rump enough to let him push inside her and inhaled sharply as his shaft penetrated the folds of her sex.

  She squirmed as her pubic mound and the front of her thighs ground against the rough wooden edge of the bench. The pain of her punctured leg pulsed like tiny pinpricks of fire, but these little torments drowned in a sea of giddy pleasure as Brynn thrust again and again, filling her with his swollen organ.

  She braced the palms of her hands on the tabletop, arching her back as he tugged at her hair. His other hand lifted from her hip to squeeze her breast and tug her shirt open in front. Cool air kissed her swollen nipple. It tingled, the dark areola puckering into hardness as he pinched it between his fingertips and stretched it, lifting her heavy breast. He pressed his lips against her shoulder, his teeth on her skin, and moaned.

  The steady rhythm of his hips and the throbbing friction of his cock inside her caused a swell of pleasure in her loins that grew now to a shattering climax.

  "Harder!" Tanys cried out, squeezing her eyes shut as she gasped again, "Harder!"

  Brynn groaned, releasing his grip on her hair and breast as both hands grasped her hips. Any pain she felt now only added to the pleasure as he drove harder and faster inside her. He pulled out, almost completely and then slammed once again into her soft wetness, driving so deep that his balls thumped against her pubic mound with every thrust.

  Tanys screamed an inarticulate howl of wanton lust. She opened her eyes a little and looked up to see that a crowd of ghast men had gathered near the mouth of the tunnel, watching their master work. Her cheeks flushed with shame, but she was too far gone to stop now. If anything, the thrill of her public humiliation only clenched her sex tighter around his bulging shaft and sent a fresh wave of pleasure through her body.

  Tanys let her head drop as she pushed her body back against Brynn's, giving herself completely to him. He cried out now with every sweaty thrust of his hips, nearing his own climax. His fingernails dug into the skin of her hips, but she would not have resisted now even if it had been Ghodn's claws.

  "Fu-uck!" Brynn yelled as he came, filling her with his seed. He slumped forward, pressing her chaffed thighs against the bench, his softening cock throbbed and pulsed, emptying itself within her.

  Tanys lay, chest down on the wooden table, her sweat-damp hair plastered against her forehead. Her breathing slowed, and she opened her eyes to see the ghast workers scattering away from the mouth of the tunnel. Brynn stood behind her, his hands gone from her hips. Only the throbbing tip of his cock remained inside her, pulsing with the rhythm of his rasping breath. At last, he stepped away, pulling free. Tanys heard him stoop to lift his trousers from the floor.

  She pushed off the table and turned to face him, one breast hanging free of her shirt and her pants still bundled around her knees. Brynn tucked his shirttails back into his belt as he glanced toward the mouth of the tunnel, his face grim.

  Tanys said nothing as she righted her own clothing. The claw wound was starting to bother her now, and the raw edge of chaffed skin where she had rubbed against the table did little to improve her mood.

  "Well, if we're done wasting time here," Brynn said, "We've got some work to do."

  Tanys glared at him. "Fuck you too," she hissed.

  Brynn shot her a crooked grin.

  "Is this how you initiate all your students?" she asked.

  Brynn snorted, his smile fading. "Why not?" he said, "It's the same welcome I got when I came to the island, bent over a workbench by the old beast master."

  "Where is she now?" Tanys asked.

  "He is dead," Brynn said, "I fed him to the beasts myself after I gutted the old prick."

  Tanys lifted her eyebrows but something in Brynn's expression warned her not to pursue the subject further. "What would you like me to do now?" she asked.

  Brynn nodded toward the main cavern. "You going to learn to steer an eel," he said.

  Tanys gave him an incredulous look, but said nothing as she followed him from the storeroom.

  ****

  Brynn tossed a chunk of raw flesh into the eel pool, and Tanys watched the dark surface of the water churn as they fed. The thrashing, gray-green bodies of the writhing creatures broke the surface here and there with an occasional flash of ivory, needle-like teeth.

  "Had a handler fall into one of the pools about a month ago," Brynn said, tossing another hunk of meat, "We managed to pull one of his arms out. Most of it, anyway."

  "Why do you need pools full of killer eels?" Tanys asked.

  "Protection," Brynn said.

  "Can these things sink a ship?" Tanys asked. As vicious as they seemed, she guessed the largest of the eels might measure only about a yard long.

  Brynn laughed. "We don't need much protection against what travels above the water," he said, "but there are things in the depths... Well, we like to discourage visitors both above and below."

  Tanys shuddered to recall the scaled denizens of the drowned city she had once, barely, escaped with Carathan beneath the ice of a frozen sea far to the north. Could such creatures lurk in every ocean of the world?

  "Look at that," Brynn scoffed, pointing at the chaotic churn of eels in the pool below, "No sense of direction or purpose, no matter how many times I've tried to teach them. Nothing sticks... just a mindless drive to eat."

  "They're eels," Tanys said, "What do you expect them to do?"

  Brynn grinned at her and shrugged. "Oh, I guess maybe something like this." He looked down, focusing his attention on the pool for a moment, and, suddenly, an eel shot up, completely out of the water and turned a somersault in the air before disappearing with a splash.

  Tanys gasped. "Did you do that?"

  Brynn nodded. "Your turn," he said.

  Tanys started to protest, but kept silent. She turned her attention to the pool below. Its dark surface grew still as the eels withdrew to the safety of the depths. Tanys pushed out with her thoughts, feeling the minds of the eels, fluttering like moths against her skin. She tried to push her way into one of the creature's thoughts, but they slipped away, lost in a churning mass of simple identities, clustered together for protection.

  "I can't!" Tanys cried in frustration, "They're too small! I can't get a hold on one."

  "Then take them all." Brynn said.

  "What?" Tanys asked.

  Brynn raised an eyebrow. "You've never done more than one animal at once?"

  "You can do that?" Tanys asked.

  Brynn laughed. "You are a babe in the burrows, aren't you?"

  Tanys scowled at him as his laugh played itself out.

  "All right," Brynn said, "Just reach out the same way you would with the tiger, but, instead of trying to force your way into one... just grab them all and swing them around the way you want them to go."

  Tanys narrowed her eyes. She returned her focus to the churning mass of primitive minds beneath the
water. Minutes passed as she trembled with concentration, sweat beading on her skin. It felt like trying to gather up an armload of tiny fish that wriggled through the fingers of her thoughts, escaping into the darkness beyond.

  "Stretch yourself," Brynn whispered, "Fill the spaces between your thoughts with your will. Tighten the net."

  Tanys saw it then, what she had to do. She cast her thoughts out as a shimmering net that settled upon the writhing mass of living minds. The net constricted, and she had them.

  Tanys gasped out a laugh. The school of eels thrashed wildly in the waters below, hurling their bodies to the left and right like a wolf on a leash, but they moved together now as a single entity.

  "Bend them, girl!" Brynn said, "They are yours to command!"

  Tanys grinned fiercely, sweat dripping from her brow, as the eels moved through the water in the direction of her gaze. They turned and moved as she commanded them, spending their mad, panicked energy in obedience to her will. At last, they fluttered to a stop, and the waters grew still. Tanys looked down at the hundred living creatures in the water below, and they looked up at her.

  She felt the warmth of Brynn's hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him. He was grinning.

  "I guess I can tell Vriene to let you live another night," he said, giving her a little wink.

  The pool splashed as Tanys's concentration broke, and the eels fled to the safety of deeper water. She glanced toward a nearby group of ghast workers, waiting for them to pass before she spoke in a hushed tone, "You're not like these monsters, Brynn. Why are you here?"

  The smile dropped from his face as his hand dropped from her shoulder. "That shit doesn't matter now," he said, "You don't get to choose your roommates in hell."

  Tanys rolled her eyes. "Damn you ghasts and your politics!" she hissed, "Just because you don't get to lick the boots of your favorite nobleman back home anymore, it doesn't mean your life is over. What's keeping you here?"

  Brynn scoffed, walking away.

  "No, really," she demanded, "I want to know."

  He spun to face her. "Where am I going to go?" he asked, struggling to keep his voice down, "Where can I go that I won't be hunted down and killed for what I am?"