The Isle of Torment

by Andrew Hunter

  He laughed as he retreated once more, reaching down with his left hand to waggle his erection tauntingly. Tanys reversed her grip on her dagger and shifted her stance.

  When he came at her this time, she stepped into the cut, parrying his blade with her own and leaving him with a nasty cut through the fleshy part of his hand. He sprang back, anger in his eyes as he saw his blood welling up through the cut. Then he laughed again and advanced once more.

  To her surprise, he repeated the same attack once more, and she quickly tried to do again what she had done before. This time, however, his blade twisted upward at the last moment and raked a red gash across Tanys’s forearm.

  She hissed in pain as she yanked her arm back. He laughed again.

  “Are you finished playing?” she asked.

  The ghast shook his head. “Oh no,” he chuckled, “I’m going to play with you all night, girl.”

  Anavaiel whimpered wordlessly behind her, but Tanys ignored the girl. She shrugged aside the burning sensation of her cut arm and gave the ghast a grim smile in return. “Let’s play then,” she said.

  He took a step back and then raced forward at an angle. He leapt and rebounded sideways off of one of the tables ringing the pit. Tanys rolled beneath his arcing cut and came to her feet again to find the man now between her and the princess. He spun around behind the trembling girl, bringing his knife to Anavaiel’s throat.

  “Drop the blade,” he said, “or I slit her throat.”

  Tanys hesitated, freezing for a moment. Her eyes narrowed as she considered her options. She shook her head slowly. “You wouldn’t rob your master of his prize,” she said.

  The ghast warrior grinned, lifting Anavaiel’s chin with the flat of his blade.

  Vriene laughed a high, merry laugh. “Boldly spoken, human,” he said, “but you far overestimate the girl’s value to me. He can have both of your lives, for all I care. I’m enjoying the show far too much to interfere in this. Do as you please with them Chaasz.”

  The ghast warrior pressed the black steel of his blade harder against the creamy flesh of Anavaiel’s neck, and a red bead trickled down into the hollow of her throat. Anavaiel groaned, and Tanys winced.

  “Stop!” Tanys shouted, her eyes going from Vriene to the ghast named Chaasz.

  “Drop your knife and accept your punishment,” Chaasz said, “and maybe I’ll let her live.”

  Tanys shuddered, squeezing the hilt of her dagger tightly for a moment before stooping to lay it gently on the floor at her feet.

  “Good girl,” Chaasz cooed, “Now kick it over here.”

  Tanys felt her cheeks flush with rage, but she pressed her bare toes down over the grip of the blade and slid it across the floor toward him.

  Chaasz looked pleased. He turned the flat of his blade to press Anavaiel’s trickle of blood into a red smear across her throat. The princess squeezed her eyes shut as he dragged his long tongue up her cheek.

  Tanys balled her hands into fists, but dared take no action against him so long as he held the blade to the girl’s throat.

  He looked up from fondling Anavaiel’s breast and nodded at Tanys. “You go ahead and strip down,” he said, “I’ll do you when I’ve done with the princess here. You might want to play with yourself a little while you wait. It’ll hurt less if you’re a bit damp when I start on you.”

  Tanys glared at him as he reached down to tug at the downy patch of fur between Anavaiel’s legs. She writhed and whimpered, her eyes still tightly shut. “Strip!” he shouted at Tanys as he bent the princess over forward, forcing her head down with the pommel of his knife.

  Tanys hissed in fury as she watched him shift his hips, positioning himself behind Anavaiel’s lifted rump. The princess shook her head from side to side, crying.

  “Wait!” Tanys cried.

  Chaasz’s eyes lifted in rage, his blade poised above the princess’s naked back.

  Tanys raised her hands, palms out, staying his wrath. She quickly pulled off her ragged shirt, her heaving breasts bouncing free and swinging as she bent to push her leggings down from off her hips. She was careful to conceal the little sprig of herbs in the bundled pile of her pants before she shoved them aside with her foot. She straightened again, legs apart and hands cupping her breasts like an offering to him. “Take me first,” she said.

  Chaasz sneered. “I’m already hallway up the little trollop’s ass, girl. You wait your turn,” he laughed.

  “She’s a virgin,” Tanys said, “Let her keep that a few moments longer.”

  “Why the fuck would I do that?” Chaasz scoffed.

  Tanys smiled. “Because she’ll have to watch what you do to me first… everything you do to me,” Tanys said, “and she will anticipate the moment when you will do those things to her.”

  Chaasz laughed. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, bitch, but you can sit there and anticipate what I’m going to do to you while you watch me do it to her… and then she can lay there watching me do you until you’re begging me to switch back to her.”

  Tanys laughed harshly.

  “Something funny, cunt?” Chaasz asked, his face darkening.

  “You ghasts always think you have the stamina of a bull,” Tanys said, “Truth is we’re gonna be here all night, waiting for you to get it up again between every fuck. I think I’ll go take a nap, and you can wake me up when you think you’re ready to have a go at a real woman.”

  “That so?” Chaasz hissed, thrusting his hips hard against Anavaiel’s backside. The princess yelped as his manhood probed hard into the crease of her round bottom.

  “It is,” Tanys said, taking a step forward and tossing back her raven mane, “The women of my tribe have never met a man that could match them in bed.”

  “Bold words, girl,” Chaasz said, “We’ll see how well you talk when you’re choking on my seed.”

  Tanys dropped to her knees on the floor of the pit. She arched her back with her hands on her ankles, presenting her breasts to him with legs spread wide. “I could use a drink,” she said, then parted her lips, her mouth open and waiting.

  Vriene chuckled softly. “She does look rather thirsty, Chaasz,” the demoniac said, “Perhaps you’d better see to her needs.”

  Chaasz’s lips trembled, his mouth flat with suppressed rage, but he dared not disobey his master’s whim. He shoved Anavaiel to the floor and rubbed his chin with the back of his forearm, eyeing Tanys with open suspicion. He crossed the floor to her, pausing two steps away.

  Tanys eyes went to his swollen member and she moaned softly, her lips still formed into an O.

  Chaasz gave a bitter laugh. “Thirsty, eh?” he said, “I can fix that for you.”

  He took his cock in his free hand and leaned his body backward slightly. A jet of hot urine shot out, splashing across Tanys’s face and breasts, the pungent sting of it on her tongue as she recoiled in disgust, shutting her eyes and mouth.

  “Drink deep, bitch!” Chaasz laughed.

  Tanys rocked back on her knees and then rolled forward before the ghast could react. She rolled into his legs, pinning his feet beneath her shoulder and hip. He tried to regain his balance but could not, and he toppled over backward, his knife arcing down in an awkward slash that scored a cut across her bare hip but did no real damage.

  She came up between his legs as he sprawled on the floor, driving her fist into his testicles so hard that she felt something burst beneath her knuckles. He roared in agony as she caught the wrist of his knife arm in her left hand, her right fist smashing blow after blow into his unprotected balls.

  As he shoved his left hand down to try to save what he could of his genitals, she reached up to seize control of his knife and push it point down into the taught, oiled skin between his penis and navel.

  Chaasz shrieked as she sliced his belly open, and his entrails bulged out through the cut.

  Tanys rolled away, her knife reclaimed and her body bathed in Chaasz’s blood, piss, and worse. The ghast’s eyes rolled in horror a
s he fumbled at the ruins of his lower body, his legs kicking helplessly in the spreading pool of his blood.

  She walked slowly over to where her other blade lay and picked it up, feeling whole again for the first time since that night on the Gannet. She wiped the gore clean on her naked thigh and admired the way the black steel glistened, sated with blood.

  Chaasz howled, bloody fingers feeling between his legs as he writhed in mortal agony. Tanys looked down at him without pity, spitting the taste of his urine from her mouth.

  “Thanks for the drink, you son of a bitch,” she said.

  Chaasz looked up at her in impotent rage.

  She moved close and bent to look down at him. “That,” she said, “was for dropping my knife.”

  He made a grab at her with gore-slick fingers, but she stepped away, laughing.

  Tanys turned to face Vriene to find him shaking with silent laughter. At last he gave her a little nod, as if to say well done. He stood up and smoothed the front of his white robe then, taking his cane in hand as he turned to leave.

  “Master!” Chaasz croaked, “Heal me… please!”

  Vriene did not look back. “Bad luck, Chaasz,” he said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Tanys.”

  The black iron doors to the hall swung open as Vriene disappeared through the curtains at the back of the room. Tanys quickly bundled her clothes around her knives and tucked them under one arm. She helped Anavaiel to her feet and led her from the room as Chaasz writhed out the last moments of his life in a pool of cooling blood.

  ****

  "You're hurt," Anavaiel said, seeming to wake from a trance-like state as they followed Naietta back to their rooms.

  Tanys looked up from the gash in her arm that she had been dabbing dry with her bundled shirt. Her trousers she had put on again and her daggers rode, somewhat uncomfortable inside the tightly cinched waistband. "Oh, this is nothing," Tanys said, "Are you all right?"

  Anavaiel's hand went to her throat where the ghast had left a bloody pinprick in her fair skin. Her eyes widened in fear. "Will there be a scar?" she gasped.

  "No," Tanys chuckled, "in a day or two, you won't even be able to see it."

  Anavaiel shuddered in relief and suddenly began to weep.

  "You're fine!" Tanys assured her, "You were very brave tonight." She stopped walking and turned to hold the girl close as she cried against her shoulder.

  Anavaiel stepped back and looked down. She seemed suddenly aware that she was still naked, and her hands moved to cover her breasts. Her cheeks flushed bright pink.

  "It's all right," Tanys said, "Don't worry about that."

  She looked at Tanys with tears in her eyes. "I'm so afraid," the princess whispered.

  "It's almost over," Tanys said, "Just hold on a little while longer, and you'll be free again. We'll get off this island, and you'll be headed home... You'll be safe."

  "No," Anavaiel whimpered, "I'll never be safe, even if I were free again... What does it mean that even my dearest friends want me dead?"

  Tanys looked at the trembling girl with pity. "It means you need new friends," she sighed.

  Anavaiel's eyes lifted hopefully. "May I call you my friend?" she asked.

  "I'd be proud to be your friend," Tanys said.

  Anavaiel wrapped her arms around Tanys and sobbed gratefully. Tanys stroked her golden hair gently as she held the girl, feeling the warmth of the girl's slender body pressed against her own.

  The princess lifted her face to look up into Tanys's eyes again, her soft, pouty lips slightly parted as though she wished to speak but was too afraid.

  "What is it?" Tanys asked.

  "Was that what it is like to... to be with a man?" Anavaiel asked.

  "You mean what happened back in the circle?" Tanys asked.

  Anavaiel nodded. "I've never been with a man before," she said, "I've read about it... even imagined it... but that... Is that what love is like?"

  "No!" Tanys said, "What happened in there had nothing to do with love! What he did... that was just another kind of hate... no better than what I did to him in return."

  Anavaiel’s eyes fell, and she brushed her fingertips across the bloodstained skin of Tanys’s arm. “Does it… does it hurt?” she whispered.

  Tanys leaned forward and kissed Anavaiel softly on the lips.

  Anavaiel started, surprised by the intimacy of the touch, but then she moaned in pleasure as Tanys kissed her again.

  “Did that hurt?” Tanys asked with a smile.

  “No,” Anavaiel sighed, her cheeks going pink again. Tanys could feel the waifish girl’s skin flush with heat as she held her close.

  Tanys lowered her lips to Anavaiel’s throat, tenderly kissing her just below the delicate curve of her jaw, probing with feathery kisses as she traced the curve upward. She took the soft lobe of Anavaiel’s ear between her lips and lightly stroked it with the tip of her tongue.

  Anavaiel shivered in Tanys’s arms, and she returned the embrace, her hands exploring the warrior woman’s body with hesitancy at first, and then with a desperate enthusiasm as she surrendered to her virgin passion.

  Anavaiel flinched as Tanys’s tongue passed over the tiny puncture where the blade had touched her throat. Tanys tasted the sweet tang of her blood as she gently licked the girl’s skin clean. Tanys wondered if this was what it was like for Ghodn when his prey at last surrendered their bodies to his teeth, when they abandoned all hope of escape and simply lay down and offered themselves to their devourer.

  Anavaiel suddenly whimpered, and Tanys snapped out of her daydream to find her teeth pressing softly against the girl’s throat. She could feel the fluttering pulse of the princess’s heart beneath her tongue.

  “I’m sorry,” Tanys said, pulling away, “Did I hurt you?”

  “No,” Anavaiel gasped, shaking her head as her hands fell away from Tanys’s body. She suddenly looked ashamed and stepped back, covering her small breasts with her hands again.

  Tanys smiled at her and extended her hand. “Let’s get you back to your room, Ana,” she said.

  Naietta, who had been standing impassively by until now turned and led them back toward the lift, and the two girls followed.

  Anavaiel walked close beside Tanys, her head slightly lowered, saying nothing until they arrived at her room.

  “Tanys?” the princess said as she stepped through the door into her room. She looked at Tanys with a desperate look in her doe-like eyes.

  “Yes?” Tanys said.

  “Is… is there more to it than that?” Anavaiel asked, “To lovemaking, I mean.”

  “Yes, much more,” Tanys laughed.

  “Can… can you show me?” the princess whispered.

  Tanys smiled at her and then stepped through the door into the girl’s room. She reached out to brush back Anavaiel’s golden hair from her shoulder.

  The girl’s eyes fell to the bloodstains on Tanys’s arm, and she blushed again.

  “Do you want me to clean myself first?” Tanys asked.

  “No,” Anavaiel sighed, “I… I’ve never been dirty before… I’ve never touched anything that wasn’t clean… spotless… safe.” Her eyes lifted with a pleading look. “I want you to touch me, Tanys… make me dirty too.”

  Tanys pulled her close, and Anavaiel’s hand lifted to Tanys’s right breast. The princess’s dainty fingertips brushed lightly across the flecks of dried blood spattered upon the skin of her chest. Anavaiel’s fingers wandered down, resting lightly on Tanys’s soft nipple. She looked up at Tanys as though begging permission.

  Tanys nodded and then arched her back, lifting her breast slightly.

  Anavaiel lowered her lips to Tanys’s breast and pressed her pink lips ever so gently against the dark swell of Tanys’s nipple. Tanys could feel the girl’s breath grow faster upon her skin as the girl softly parted her lips and pressed her tongue against the hardening bud.

  Tanys quivered with the thrill of the princess’s delicate touch.

  Anavaiel’s eyes lif
ted again, uncertain now.

  “Am I doing it wrong?” she whispered.

  “No,” Tanys said, “but it’s like being kissed by a moth.”

  “How… how should I do it then?” the princess asked.

  Tanys led her over to the bed and lay her down upon it. “Let me show you,” she said, laying aside her knives and stripping off her pants.

  Anavaiel lay back, giving herself to Tanys, as the raven-haired warrior lowered her mouth to suckle at her breast. The princess moaned as Tanys rolled her budding nipple across the tip of her tongue and then drew her breast inside her mouth.

  Tanys groaned, her fingers tracing the gentle swell of Anavaiel’s abdomen as she explored lower still. She tugged playfully at the downy patch of fur between the girl’s legs, enjoying the little whimper of delight that the girl made when she lightly drew her fingernail along the fold of Anavaiel’s sex.

  Anavaiel took Tanys’s head between her hands and lifted the warrior’s face from her soaking breast. She stared at Tanys with a feverish hunger in her eyes and then leaned close to kiss her hard on the lips.

  Tanys pressed her tongue inside the girl’s mouth, probing and overpowering the princess’s tongue within. She pulled back then, sucking hard on the girl’s lower lip, enjoying Anavaiel’s shuddering moan as the petals of her flower parted to allow Tanys’s finger to slip inside.

  Anavaiel quivered in pleasure as she leaned back, spreading her slender legs. Tanys straddled the girl’s leg, her own arousal now dampening the creamy flesh of Anavaiel’s thigh. Tanys slid downward, grinding her sex against the girl’s knee as she planted a hot kiss between Anavaiel’s breasts. Tanys rotated her middle finger inside the girl’s slick pussy and then crooked her finger slightly as she moved it in and out.

  Anavaiel gasped, her fingers tightening their grip in Tanys’s dark mane.

  Tanys moved off of Anavaiel’s knee to settle her body between the girl’s legs. She withdrew her finger from the girl’s body, pausing only to pluck the little pink bud of Anavaiel’s sex between her fingernails before withdrawing her hand entirely.