Sapphire and Shanna were escorted under heavy guard
to a large wagon with an iron cage mounted on it. The door to the cage was unlocked and the two women were thrust
into it. Still heavily chained, they
had no choice but to comply. Inside the
cage there were already a half dozen young women and five young men. It appeared that Prince Bandar had been
shopping for more than just a single member for his household.
As soon as the heavy barred door was slammed shut
and locked behind them, the wagon got underway, pulled by four horses. An escort of twenty cavalry accompanied them
as befitting so valuable a cargo. The
wagon rumbled by the blazing brazier.
Here, dozens of slaves were lined up while their new masters placed
their personal brands on each of them.
Shanna and Azure stared impassively at the scene, not wanting to show
any sigh of weakness. The shrieks and
cries of the branded slaves rang in their ears and then faded as the wagon
rolled out of earshot.
Their journey took them up a hill and into an area
of El Arish that contained many grand houses.
Eventually the wagon reached the gate of an impressively large
building. Guards swung the gate back
and the wagon entered a spacious courtyard.
The driver brought the wagon to a halt parked in front of what appeared
to be a palace. A flight of stairs led up
to an ornate wooden door set in an imposing masonry wall. Large windows set with glass flanked the
door. It was obviously a residence of a
man of importance.
The door to the cage was opened and the slaves were
herded out at spearpoint. Most of the
slaves were escorted elsewhere, but a few, including Sapphire and Shanna were escorted
up the granite steps and into the palace itself. Once inside the more attractive females were marched through a
grand hall and into a separate wing of the palace. There the guard changed.
The cavalry who had ridden with them on the journey to the palace turned
them over to ornately attired servants armed with immense two-handed
scimitars. This apparently, was the
palace guard, and therefore, trusted with Prince Bandar’s women.
The palace guards took the party of women, now
numbering only five, but consisting of the most beautiful captives, farther
into the wing. There they were turned
over a second time to a number of women slaves. Still chained, Shanna and Sapphire had no choice but to go where
they were led.
Shanna and Sapphire were separated again from the
remaining women and escorted into a magnificent suite of rooms. There an older, but still very attractive,
woman met them. Unlike most of the
other women they had seen in the palace, this woman was fully dressed in a
floor length gown. Her graying hair was
piled on top of her head and secured there with jeweled combs.
“Greetings, princesses,” said the older woman. “I am Chanda, and I am in charge of the
prince’s household.”
“We are not princesses,” protested Shanna, “we are
warriors.”
“Here,” replied Chanda, “you are princesses and will
be treated as such. I will remove your
chains, but I expect you to behave with decorum.”
“Why should we not try to escape,” said Sapphire,
“we are warriors and you are but a few women?”
“That is true,” said Chanda, but you are surrounded
by dozens of armed guards and even now are being watched by a special guard
armed with poisonous darts.”
Chanda waved her hand, and from behind a half a
dozen hidden alcoves emerged several determined-looking young women armed with
blowpipes.
“Any attempt to escape will bring instant death,”
said Chanda. “And you will be watched
day and night.”
She produced a key from the folds in her dress and
proceeded to remove the manacles from the wrists and ankles of the captive
women.
“You are filthy,” said Chanda. “You will be washed.”
As soon as their fetters had been removed, Shanna
and Sapphire were guided gently toward a large sunken pool. Vapor rose from it, attesting to the fact
that it was full of hot water. This was
something that neither Shanna nor Sapphire had ever seen. They had always bathed in cold water. Their rigorous training did not allow for
luxuries like warm baths. They allowed
the slave girls to coax them into the water.
It appeared that any resistance would be futile in any case. They would bide their time and wait for a
better opportunity.
The bath lasted a full hour. The two young warriors emerged from the
water thoroughly scrubbed and quite refreshed.
Neither had realized what a pleasant experience a warm bath could be.
A set of clothing was waiting for each of them. It consisted of a semi-transparent material,
probably silk, although neither warrior had ever seen so much of that fabric
before. The diaphanous material did not
cover very much of their bodies. The
garment in which they were dressed extended only from their shoulders to just
below their breasts. A pair of gauzy
pantaloons covered the lower part of the body from just below the navel to
their ankles. In both cases, however,
the sheer nature of the material left most of the skin beneath their garments
clearly visible. They were dressed,
sort of, but their clothing afforded them very little privacy.
While they were dressed servant girls attended to
their hair, fingernails, and toenails, trimming and painting them. When they were finished, the two girls not
only looked like concubines, they felt like concubines.
Their grooming finished; a meal was set before
them. While they ate Chanda explained
the situation to them.
“Tomorrow, Prince Bandar will come in the evening
for you. He will expect you to give
yourself to him voluntarily, and if you do not you will be severely
punished. I should warn you, that the
Prince is not a patient man, and he enjoys torturing women just as much as he
enjoys making love to them.”
“We cannot submit,” said Sapphire. “No warrior can surrender herself to any
man.”
Shanna nodded, agreeing. “If he tries to take us we will resist, even if it means being
killed by poison darts.”
“The Prince will not like that,” said Chanda. “He will treat you with great cruelty. Look here.”
As she finished speaking, Chanda pulled her dress
open so that her breasts were revealed.
Sapphire almost gasped at what she saw.
Terrible scars covered Chanda’s bosom.
“I have these marks all over my body” said
Chanda. “I once thought that I could
resist the Prince’s pleasure. My body
is covered with scars like this, and he took me anyway.”
“A man like that should be destroyed,” said
Shanna.
“You may tell him that yourself if you wish,” said
Chanda, “but I would choose cooperation if I were you.”
Both young women were silent. There was nothing more to be said. They finished their meal and were escorted
to their bedchambers. Each woman was
shown to a separate bedroom. Each
chamber was beautifully furnished with a comfortable bed and various items of
fine furniture, but the rooms were windowless and the door was massively
constructed. It was apparent that their
rooms were little more than luxurious prison cells.
Both women slept well. The fear of what was to come on the morrow did not prevent them
from having a good’s night’s rest. They
had been through quite an ordeal and were thoroughly tired.
The next day Chanda collected them and supervised
their morning ablutions. Then they were
dressed in the same skimpy outfits and taken under guard through the
palace.
Shanna and Sapphire expected to be taken to a suite
of rooms much like their own. After
all, they had been told that they were to meet Prince Bandar, but instead they
were escorted down a series of staircases that took them deeper and deeper into
the bowels of the palace. They were
mystified by this, but they soon learned the reason behind it.
The lowest staircase finished in a long dark
hallway. Under heavy guard Shanna and
Sapphire were paraded down it and through a massive iron door at the end. They entered into a large windowless room
that was lit only by the light of dozens of flaring torches. The room contained more than a score of
heavily armed men, all of them dressed in armor and carrying ten-foot
pikes. In the center of the chamber
stood an imposing man of about forty.
He was dressed in loose fitting trousers and an open-necked shirt that
showed his powerful barrel chest.
“Welcome Princesses,” he said. “I am Prince Bandar. I expect that you are bewildered by my
choice of a meeting place. Well, I will
explain.”
Prince Bandar motioned Shanna and Sapphire to sit on
a stone bench in front of him. He
remained standing. Under close guard,
the two women did as they were told.
“I have been informed by my house-mistress that you
are not likely to cooperate with me and accede to my will. Is that correct?”
“I will never submit to you,” said Shanna, “I will
die first.”
“Nor will I,” echoed Sapphire. “No warrior may give up her virginity
without a battle.”
“It appears that my house-mistress was correct. However, I have ways of changing the minds
of even the most stubborn female.”
Prince Bandar gestured to the guards who were
standing close to Shanna and Sapphire.
Immediately, the two women found themselves the center of a score of
spearpoints. Two other guards stepped
forward. There was the clink of chains,
but with the spearpoints almost touching their skin, neither woman dared
move.
Manacles were placed on each of Sapphire’s wrists
and chains connected to each manacle were run through iron rings set in the
floor. Heavy locks secured each chain,
leaving her sitting on the stone bench.
Both of Shanna’s wrists were secured in the same
way, but instead of shackling her to the floor manacles were also placed on her
ankles and she was led into the center of the room.
“You spoke first, Amazon,” said Prince Bandar, “so
you shall be the first to be tamed.”
Sapphire saw that Shanna’s shackles were held by a
man on either side of her, so that her arms could be moved. The tall female warrior began to strain at
her bonds, guessing that something unpleasant was about to occur, but her
guards were expecting resistance and held her securely.
There was a rasping sound and Shanna saw that a
contraption was being lowered from the ceiling right over Shanna’s head. It consisted of a horizontal wooden beam
about four feet long and three inches thick.
It was suspended from a chain that was linked to a ring at its point of
balance, so that it stayed horizontal as it was lowered. At each end of the beam was an iron
ring. When the beam was lowered far
enough, the chains connected to the shackles on Shanna’s wrists were run through
each of the iron rings, so that her arms were pulled over her head and bent at
the elbow. Then with a scrape of metal,
the bar was hoisted back into position.
Shanna stood in the center of the room with her arms
raised over her head. Because the beam
her chains were attacked to was suspended by its center, she could pull one or
the other of her arms down, but the action forced the other arm up.
For several minutes, Prince Bandar merely walked in
a circle about the helpless Clan Wolf warrior, seemingly inspecting her. Then he reached out and with a sudden
motion, ripped Shanna’s filmy top from her body.
Shanna twisted, trying to free her wrists from the
manacles, but the action served only to make her body sway suggestively. After a few moments, Shanna stood still,
preferring not to give her audience a show.
Prince Bandar pursed his lips in approval. He had never before beheld such physical
perfection. Her high, firm breasts
hardly swayed as she moved before him.
Her lustrous black hair framed a face of exquisite beauty. Incredible
green, eyes, high cheekbones, a straight nose, and a full, kissable mouth gave
her almost hypnotic beauty. But she had
a proud and disdainful look about her.
This woman was not compliant, but he would make her compliant.
He held out his hand. “Give me my whip,” he said.
The instrument of torture that was handed to him was
a thing of beauty and horror. It was a
twenty-foot long lash of twisted leather, intended for driving cattle or
horses. In the hands of an expert, and
Prince Bandar was such an expert, it could do terrible damage and be made to
strike any area of the body. He snapped
it once, just for effect. Crack! The sound of the whip echoed through
the underground chamber.
Sapphire shuddered.
How could anyone withstand such a terrible instrument of torture?
Shanna to her credit stood perfectly still. Even the explosive sound of the whip
cracking so near her helpless body did not make her flinch.
Prince Bandar approached her. “One last chance, Amazon. Will you give yourself willingly to me?”
“I would as soon be taken by a dog,” replied the
defiant warrior.
“So be it,” said Bandar. “You have made your choice.”
Drawing back his arm, he struck with all of his strength.