“We’ll find her once we get inside.” Sarin glanced at the large citadel looming over the square. “I don’t think it’s wrong to presume Lord Naga is the reason the women here walk around shrouded in so much clothing. His guards carry off any attractive women to serve in his seraglio.”
“Your conclusions seem highly likely,” Tarn agreed. “And if Nerya’s in the seraglio, she’ll be relatively safe for the time being.”
“Safe!” Jaden exclaimed. “Nerya knows nothing of that kind of life, and she’ll object most strongly to becoming a concubine. I just pray she doesn’t do anything stupid and has the sense to lie low and wait to be rescued. She must know we’ll not desert her.”
“She’s well able to look after herself,” Sarin assured him. “I remember what Zene was like when we first met. The warriors of Freygard are resourceful women.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Jaden found he couldn’t think objectively where Nerya was concerned. That was a weakness he must conquer.
“Look, the sun is setting.” Sarin glanced at the sky. “Let’s hope these men the whore promised to find will turn up at the agreed time. Once they lead us into the citadel, we can rescue Nerya and find Brion at the same time.”
Nerya, aware of movements around her, struggled to full consciousness. As she opened her eyes, everything swam sickeningly for a moment. Her mind in a fog, she frowned, unable to recall what had happened. There appeared to be a white, carved ceiling above her head. The mattress she lay on felt very soft and as she moved her arm she dislodged a number of satin pillows. The place smelt sweet, like a garden of roses in the height of summer.
Her head still spinning, she went to sit up. “No, lie still,” said a gentle female voice. “You’ll feel dizzy for a moment. The potion they use is strong.”
The woman came into focus. She had dark slanted eyes, delicate features, coal-black hair and wore a yellow silk gown, which clung to the curves of her slim body. “Who are you?” Nerya asked her. “And where exactly am I?”
“In Lord Naga’s citadel. Where else?” The woman put a goblet to Nerya’s lips. “Drink it. It will make you feel better.”
It tasted like lemons, only sweeter. Nerya drank the icy cold liquid, finding it helped to quell the queasiness in her stomach. As the woman turned away to put down the empty goblet, Nerya forced herself to sit up, ignoring the swimming sensation in her head. Delicate, carved furniture decorated with gold leaf filled the airy, marble-floored room. She looked around in confusion, wanting a more detailed explanation of what had happened to her.
“Why was I brought here?”
“Don’t you know anything?” The woman fingered Nerya’s doublet. “We must get you out of those unsuitable garments before Lord Naga’s servants or any of the other women see you.”
“My clothes? What’s wrong with them?”
“Fortunately, you were still wrapped in your cloak when the soldiers left you here. Women don’t wear breeches, not here in Usaka. It’s clear you’re not from these parts.” The woman spoke softly, as if not wanting to be overheard, even though there was no one else around, as far as Nerya could see. “It’s much safer if everyone believes you’re a citizen of Usaka. Anyone who arouses suspicion is taken away for questioning, and I’ve heard it’s far from pleasant. I would not wish that on you.”
Nerya had no idea who this woman was, but she was clearly trying to help her. “What’s your name?”
“Asumi.” The woman picked up a deep blue silk garment from the foot of the bed. “Here.” She thrust it at Nerya. “Put this on and be quick about it.”
Nerya flung off her doublet, following it with her shirt and her boots. She stripped off her breeches and her grubby breechclout before slipping on the blue satin dress, which was far from comfortable and quite impractical. Not only was it skintight, the long skirt was slit up to her thigh on either side, revealing a fair amount of her bare legs.
“That’s better.” Asumi lifted the lid of a studded leather trunk and hid Nerya’s discarded garments beneath a pile of silk and satin dresses. “I’ve already concealed your weapons. Although what a woman would want with a sword, I’ll never know.” She examined Nerya and frowned. “We’ll have to do something about that hair, and I’ll arrange for you to bathe later.” She touched one of Nerya’s sword-roughened hands. “You really haven’t cared for yourself at all, have you?”
Nerya had no interest in what Asumi was talking about. She didn’t plan to stay here long enough to be bothered about such trivial matters.
“The evening meal will be served soon,” Asumi said as female voices drifted through an arched window close to where Nerya sat. She stood and glanced through the window. It overlooked a much larger chamber full of pretty women elaborately dressed in brightly colored garments. “There’s not much to do in here but eat and talk, or relax and pamper oneself,” Asumi continued. “Oh, and plot against each other, of course. Lord Naga has more or less ignored all his concubines since Lady Senshu arrived.”
Among the women, Nerya spotted the girl from the market stall, dressed in a tight-fitting, low-cut, scarlet silk gown. “So am I now one of Lord Naga’s concubines?”
“What else would you be?” Her companion saw who she stared at. “No doubt she was involved in your capture. She gets rewarded most generously if she finds someone beautiful enough for Lord Naga’s tastes. Avoid her. She is a devious bitch. And do your best not to catch Lord Naga’s eye. Lady Senshu is a vicious woman. She doesn’t like to share him, even with his other concubines.”
“Which one is she?”
“You won’t see her here. She has her own rooms close to Lord Naga’s quarters. No one knows where she hails from. She’s a mystery to us all. But she’s captured our lord’s interest and she pleases him greatly. It is she who suggested he send out his mercenaries to kidnap the boy.”
“Boy?” Nerya asked, trying not to sound too interested. “What boy might that be?”
Jaden bent his neck even lower to avoid hitting the jagged rocks above his head. He glanced back. Tarn and Sarin also appeared to be having problems with the lack of headroom. Not that it mattered to the men who’d led them here. They were short, scrawny individuals, and Jaden didn’t trust them. Not one jot. He would never have employed them if he’d had a choice, but now his need to enter the citadel had become more urgent.
The men had explained that only a few people knew of the existence of this tunnel. It had been built centuries ago by a mage who’d ruled this part of Acheron. He’d planned to use it to escape the citadel if it was ever attacked, but he’d been slaughtered by a rival before the tunnel was finished.
“The tunnel widens ahead,” the shorter of the two men said. “Here.” He handed Jaden a torch. “You’d better carry this.”
“Thanks.” Jaden switched the torch to his left hand so he could use his sword if the need arose. “You’ll get the rest of your money as soon as we reach the entrance which you claim leads into the lower levels of the citadel.”
“I don’t lie.” The man frowned. “I happen to want the rest of the money. Fifty gold pieces, your companion said. That’ll be more than enough to get me away from here.”
“Fifty pieces. Yes.” Jaden splashed through yet another deep puddle. More water droplets dripped on his head. He raised his torch higher. Thick green mold coated the tunnel walls and tainted the air with a choking, musty odor. They passed a barred doorway and his torch flickered unsteadily, as though it had caught a faint breeze. “Where does that lead?”
“It’s a dead end,” the man replied. “Parts of the tunnel were never finished.”
Just ahead was a sharp bend in the passage. As they rounded the corner, Jaden saw what appeared to be a huge chamber. It was difficult to gauge how large it was as the dim light from their two torches didn’t penetrate that far.
Jaden tensed as a soft clink came from somewhere in the darkness. “It’s a trap!” He drew his sword.
As their guide and his companion turned
to flee, Jaden grabbed one man and hit him on the head with the heavy pommel of his sword. Sarin caught the other and pressed a dagger to his throat. “You betrayed us.”
“Lord Naga is a powerful mage. We daren’t go against his orders,” the man managed to gasp before Sarin mercilessly drew the blade across his neck.
As he crumpled to the ground, his life blood flowing from the gaping wound, at least a dozen torches flared, lighting up the great cavern. Jaden raised his sword, ready for battle as he spotted the large troop of heavily armed soldiers standing there waiting for them.
“No way out behind us,” Tarn grated. Jaden glanced back to see more soldiers moving up the tunnel behind them.
“We fight?” Sarin raised his sword.
“Why not,” said Jaden with a cold smile. “The odds aren’t that bad, now are they?” As he spoke, a sharp pain bit into his neck. He pulled a small feathered dart out of his skin. It fell from his nerveless fingers as a strange coldness invaded his veins. He’d felt it once before, he vaguely thought as he blacked out.
The tearing agony in Jaden’s arms and shoulders cruelly wrenched him into full consciousness. Gasping at the sudden discomfort, Jaden opened his eyes to find himself in a small, dimly lit chamber. He hung from chains attached to the manacles around his wrists. Even if he stretched as far as he could, the tips of his toes wouldn’t reach the flagstones, and he soon found that stretching served only to increase the intense pressure on his arms. He reached up, grabbed the chains attached to the manacles and tensed his arm muscles to relieve the cutting pressure on his wrists.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?” The female voice came from a dark corner of his cell.
A blonde woman stepped from the shadow and walked toward him. Her form-fitting black silk dress clung to her lush curves. The color made her creamy flesh look even paler in the flickering light of the torches. As she thoughtfully examined his naked body, her thin lips curved into a smile. In different circumstances, Jaden might have found her heart-shaped face, fine features and high cheekbones very attractive, but all he could see was the spine-chilling coldness in her pale blue eyes.
He had no idea who this female was, but he knew one thing: the mage Naga was not in the citadel. This close, he would be able to sense such an entity. Wizards, mages and the like exuded a magical energy undetectable to most people, but it charged the air like lightning during a violent storm, and Jaden was able to feel it.
The woman snapped a small whip-like object across his lower chest. Jaden clenched his teeth as pain surged through his body. He couldn’t fail to recognize the keitan, a magical instrument forged by the Dragon Lords. The keitan could induce either intense pain or equally intense pleasure, whatever the user chose. It was dangerous for the uninitiated to wield such deadly power. This female clearly knew what she was doing as she casually flicked it across his flesh again. Jaden was more prepared for the pain this time as the stinging agony traveled through his belly and raced down his legs to the tips of his toes.
“You were foolish to come here. You know that.” She moved closer to him and ran her hands caressingly over his stomach. Jaden shuddered, disliking her touch almost as much as the kiss of the keitan. “I had the Prince of Kabra abducted and brought here to lure his father into Acheron. Now, thanks to you, Jaden, I not only have King Tarn, but Lord Sarin of Percheron as well. I also have you, perhaps the greatest prize of all—Jaden of Iberim, the Suzerain Commander of the forces of the great Marquabian Empire and close friend of the emperor himself.”
“You’re mistaken. I’m not who you believe me to be.”
She touched him with the keitan again, and this time an unnatural but equally wonderful sensation of pleasure surged into his groin and, to his consternation, awoke his flaccid cock.
“Was my informant wrong?”
“He was very wrong,” Jaden managed to gasp as the lash caressed him again and intense sexual pleasure inflamed his veins with an unwanted lustful fire.
“Why don’t I believe you?” She pointed to one of his bracelets lying on a wooden stool. “This clearly belongs to a nobleman of great wealth.” She drew the tip of the keitan across his cock shaft, and the surge of exquisite bliss almost made him climax at once.
“What you should believe, my lady, is that I’m a Dai’Shi-en!”
Once they’d entered Acheron, he’d tried to block them out. Through sheer force of will, he’d managed to resist them so far. Now, here in the citadel, the magical power of the Dragon Lords called to him, and it was a call he could no longer resist.
“Dai’Shi-en,” she repeated, frowning.
She lashed him again, this time employing pain instead of pleasure, but bizarrely the stinging agony served only to force even more blood into his already engorged penis.
“Why do you continue to lie to me, Jaden? It’s pointless. I know enough about the Dragon Lords and their followers to have a healthy respect for the Dai’Shi-en. You really must fear my attentions if you seek to escape me by invoking their name.”
“I don’t lie.” Jaden gritted his teeth, expecting more pain, but instead she stepped forward and wrapped her fingers around his cock. “I’m a Dai’Shi-en!” he insisted.
“Call yourself whatever you like. I don’t care.” She smiled and licked her lips. “After I’ve tortured you for a while, I’ve a mind to have you taken to my chambers and order you chained to my bed. You’re attractive and very well endowed. When my lord is away, he doesn’t deny me the simple pleasures of life. No doubt you’d prefer that to being imprisoned here?”
“You’re mistaken. I don’t desire you, lady.” He couldn’t deny his erection. “I’m aroused, but it’s only the keitan, nothing more.” It had been set on full power, and the powerful sexual stimulation had brought him achingly close to orgasm. He didn’t want that to happen. It would amuse the bitch too much.
“The keitan causes a caressing agony, but Lord Naga has expert torturers who can tear and hack at your flesh until you beg them to let you die. It would be a pity to destroy a beautiful body like yours.” She ran her hand over his chest, pinching and twisting his nipples. “If you please me enough, I might even be magnanimous and allow you to become one of my personal slaves. It would be a far better fate than dying down here in unbearable pain.”
She trailed her fingers over his skin as she moved around Jaden to stand behind him. Her hands slid down his spine and stole between the crack of his buttock cheeks. He clenched the chains even harder. It wasn’t her fingers touching him now, but the cold shaft of the keitan. At present it caused neither pleasure nor pain, but he knew he should be ready for either. He couldn’t read her well enough to gauge which as yet.
“The agony in such a sensitive part of your anatomy would be even more intense,” she said in a soft, menacing tone as she pushed the tip inside him.
“Ahh…” Jaden gasped as a surge of bliss flew deep inside his nether regions and up his spine. The sensation was so utterly exquisite, his balls contracted and sexual pleasure flooded his groin. It took every ounce of control he could muster to prevent himself climaxing.
“Think what that would be like if that delicious pleasure turns to unbearable agony, Jaden,” she purred. “How would you bear it?”
He braced himself for the worst, determined not to beg. To his infinite relief, she removed the keitan and stepped round to face him again. She licked her lips as she brushed her fingers across his rigid cock. Despite his best efforts to resist responding to the unwanted stimuli, he couldn’t contain a faint groan.
“You exert a determined control of yourself, I’ll give you that. All the better for me when I take you for myself.” With exquisite delicacy, she drew the tips of her long nails across his engorged cock head.
“You’ll regret this,” Jaden gasped. “You’ll invoke the anger of the Dragon Lords if you disrespect one of their most faithful followers.”
“I know how powerful the Dai’Shi-en are, Jaden, but you’ll never be able to convince me you’re one
of them.” She gave a cruel laugh. “I intend to take my time breaking you. In a matter of days, you’ll be only too willing to become my slave. You’ll do anything I order you to do.”
“Break me? I think not. Many far stronger than you have tried.”
She pressed the keitan into the well of his armpit, first one, then the other. The searing agony surged up his arm and into his fingers. He had no control over them at all and, unbidden, they opened, releasing his hold on the chains. As he jerked downwards, pain surged through his aching shoulder joints and the heavy iron manacles cut deep into his wrists.
“One more kiss of the keitan on the pleasure setting and you’ll climax. You won’t be able to help yourself.” She brushed her fingers against his shaft again. “But you don’t want to do that. You think it would display weakness on your part.”
“Dai’Shi-en do not display weakness,” he grated as he ignored the lingering agony in his arms and struggled to take hold of the chains again.
“If you are who you claim to be, then which Dragon Lord do you serve?”
“If you care to remove my shackles, you can see by the mark on the inside of my wrist that I serve her Exalted Majesty, the Empress.”
“Empress Eridea?” She stared at him in disbelief. “You cannot possibly expect me to believe that.”
A man strode into the small chamber and bowed to her. “Lady Senshu.”
She glared at him. “How dare you intrude.”
Judging by his insignia, he was a seneschal, a military man of some importance, and he held Jaden’s sword. “One of my men has just shown me this.” Jaden detected fear in the man’s voice. The seneschal’s face grew pale with concern when he saw Jaden hanging there helplessly. His gaze fastened on the keitan in the woman’s hands, and he swallowed. “My lady…”
“He has a sword,” she interjected. “So what?”
“A sword carried only by a Dai’Shi-en.”
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