Trojan Whores (20 page)

She had them
all held and caned. She watched how quickly the red lines appeared
on their skin. She sat on her ornate throne and looked into their
fearful faces. She observed how they bit their lips, how they dealt
with the pain, how they sobbed. And she looked down on them as they
lay, panting and exhausted, as buckets of water were thrown over
them. She watched them gulping and choking and laughed when they
heaved or passed out.

Those she
accepted were chained and taken back to the beach. There, Praxis
incarcerated them in cages stacked out in the burning sun. Those
she rejected were thrown outside the walls of the city. There they
were used as playthings by beggars and vagrants and others ejected
because of disease or deformity.

Eva sat
forward as Sappho and Chryseis were pushed down onto their knees at
her feet.

'We found
these two in the temple, lady. They say they had hidden inside a
cage for days. When we checked where they had been we found a rack.
It smelled of a woman's flesh.'

Eva rose. Her
purple cloak, pinned at her throat and opened wide, fell from her
shoulders to the floor in heavy swirls. Her beautifully formed body
was naked and oiled. The contours of her firm breasts complemented
the inward curve of her slender waist. Her sex was tight. It
glistened in the flickering light of the oil lamps ranged along the
smooth marble walls. She tugged the lead and Calliope, already on
all fours, moved forward with her.

'This is
indeed a surprise. For you as well, perhaps? Our Trojan priestesses
have returned. But this time it is you who are on your knees. It is
I who am the lady. Perhaps you have forgotten me? Perhaps you do
not remember our last meeting? No?'

She stretched
a hand down to Sappho.

Sappho looked
up at her defiantly. 'I remember you only as a slave of the Greeks.
Fit for the company of beggars and vagabonds. The last I saw of you
was in their company, crawling in the streets, dirty and
despicable. Grovelling in the dirt. An appropriate home for a lady
such as you.'

Eva smiled.
She took Sappho's chin in her hand. She squeezed.

'What a lady
you are. Still too proud for your own good, I think. And your
friend as well. Chryseis, no less. Your little ally in treachery.
The fine priestesses of Apollo. Where is your god now, priestesses
of the god of prophecy?'

Sappho spat
onto Eva's hand. Two guards rushed forward and held their spears
pointed at Sappho's head. She did not move. She spat again. The
guards looked to Eva for an order. She smiled. They backed off. She
released her grip on Sappho. She smeared the spit from her hand
onto Sappho's short tawny hair.

'You do not
have to plead with me for punishment, my little priestess,' she
mocked. 'I will punish you anyway. No, you do not have to beg me
with your spitting and contempt. It will be my pleasure to
humiliate and degrade you. It will be my gift to you. My gift of
gratitude for your previous betrayal. Oh, how you will wish you had
seen the last of me when you shut me outside the gates of Troy.
Your mocking laughter will haunt you as you suffer at the hands of
your lady.'

She stood over
Sappho. She opened her mouth and dribbled her own spit onto
Sappho's forehead. It ran down into Sappho's eyes, and in a strand
down to her lips. Sappho looked up, still disdainful and filled
with contempt. She sucked Eva's spit into her mouth, swallowed and
smiled.

Eva dropped
back in her throne and laughed.

'Your pride is
admirable, my little priestess. But it is misplaced. You are
forgetting that it is I who am now in the position of power. It is
I who will shape your destiny. It is I who will decide on your
suffering. And it is I who will decide if it will end.'

Calliope
pushed herself against Eva's leg. Eva stroked Calliope's head.
Calliope purred.

'It is
interesting, my little captives, that you have spent time in a
cage. I would not like to take you away from something to which you
have become accustomed. Yes, that is where you shall stay while you
are with me. I cannot think of anything more comfortable or to your
taste.' She turned to the guards. 'Take them to the cages. I will
visit them later.'

Sappho and
Chryseis were pulled to their feet and dragged away. Sappho kept
Eva fixed with a glare until she was finally pulled through the
huge doorway of the magnificent room.

The guards
stripped away Sappho's torn and grimy smock. They lashed leather
thongs around their wrists and hauled them out of the palace.

Sappho and
Chryseis were dragged through the streets. Greek soldiers were
still looting houses, women were being pulled from hiding places,
men were being chained and hauled away to the beach. Sappho and
Chryseis shrunk back in fear as they were prodded and poked by
soldiers and beggars alike. They were stopped when a looting crowd
blocked their way near a rich man's house. Some women spat on them
and threw clods of mud. Sappho felt ashamed and humiliated.

The guards
brought them to a courtyard enclosed by a high wall. It had been a
transfer station for wild animals, imported from Asia and Africa
and sold to the rich nobles of Troy. Most of the animals had
escaped, been released or had been stolen. Enslaved women now took
their places. They crouched inside the iron-barred coops, holding
their hands out for food or appealing to their guards for rescue.
Many of the cages were stacked one on top of another. Those near
the tops of piles swayed precariously when the women moved inside
them. Sappho and Chryseis were pushed into two separate cages
sitting in the full glare of the sun in the middle of the
courtyard.

Sappho
struggled against the guards as they stuffed her inside the cage.
She braced her legs against the doorway, itself barely big enough
to allow entry. But it was useless. She was weak and exhausted. She
could not resist them. The guards laughed as they prised her legs
away. They teased her for acting like a cat. They called her
'Calliope' and kicked her as they bundled her inside.

In the cage
there was no room to move. Her legs were squeezed up so that her
knees touched her nipples. Her arms were folded around her shins.
Her head was bent at an angle. She had to strain her neck to see
what was going on around her.

Some of the
women were hooded, some gagged. Some of them were bound by the
wrists and by the ankles. Some, like Sappho and Chryseis, were
bound only by the wrists. When any of them were taken out to be
inspected for sale, or thrashed for punishment or amusement, they
were chained to a stout timber post near the centre of the
courtyard.

Sappho
crouched in the cage all day. The sun beat down on her. There was
no shade. Food was given to some of the women but not all. If any
of them begged for food or complained they were dragged out of
their cages and beaten.

There was
always someone chained to the post. Sometimes it was a young girl,
pulled from her family house, and now destined for service to a
rich Greek lady. Sometimes it was a delicate woman, once noble and
used to a life of favour and ease, and now reduced to slavery and
servitude. Sometimes it was a beautiful African or Nubian slave,
proud and tall, slender and perfectly shaped. These the guards took
particular pleasure in punishing. They chained them carefully so
that they could not move their wrists at all. They bound leather
thongs around their waists and pulled them tightly to the post.
They beat them slowly and methodically with canes or whips.
Sometimes they smacked them with the flats of their hands. They
counted how many strikes it took before the women cried out. They
laughed as they watched them jerk in response to their punishment.
They felt between their legs. They prised their fingers into their
sexes. They bent and licked there too. They listened to their cries
when they came. They increased the strength of their beating so
that the cries grew louder. They let them hang there still
screaming long after the punishment had ended. Sometimes they
forgot about them and they were left tied to the post all
night.

All through
the night naked Sappho shivered with the cold. She thought of the
terrible destruction of Troy. She looked at Chryseis, pinned inside
her cage. A wave of sadness and fear swept over her. She wanted to
call out, but she knew the guards would come and punish her if she
did. She stared at a Nubian women hanging on the post. The outline
of her muscular body was picked out by the flickering torchlight.
Her head and her pubic hair had been shaved by her previous
masters. She was oiled. Her dark nipples were hard and prominent.
She stared over at Sappho.

Sappho pushed
her fingers between the tops of her thighs. With her legs bent up
her flesh was stretched tight. The soft lips clung to her fingers.
She could barely move, but she managed to shift her buttocks enough
to allow her fingers deeper. She watched the beautiful Nubian,
hanging in chains on the post; naked, humiliated, still twitching
with the pain of her lashing. Sappho felt a sudden flow of ecstasy,
set off by the sight of captivity, of suffering. It welled up
inside her. She could do nothing to stop it. She moaned, and
quickly looked around to see if anyone had heard. They had.

A guard came
over and shook the cage. She pulled her fingers from her sex and
shrank down as much as she could. Another guard came over. They
pulled her out and dragged her to the post. The beautiful Nubian
was released and forced back into her cage. Sappho was chained in
her place. A leather strap was wound around her waist to bind her
to the pillory.

They took
turns, one with a short lash with several tails, the other with a
leather strap.

The lash cut
into her buttocks. She felt the sting from every one of its
tattered ends. They curled around the side of her buttocks and
lashed her hips. Some of the blows were directed downwards and the
leather flails cut across her back or between her buttocks. She
hung onto the chain at her wrists, the weight of her body hanging
on its unforgiving links.

The leather
belt was heavier. Its pain jolted her. It was thick and dense. It
ran deep inside her. It penetrated her with overwhelming pain. Its
smooth flat surface conveyed bursts of agony. She shuddered every
time it landed. She sagged on the chains, not knowing when it would
end, only hoping that some time it would.

She saw the
beautiful Nubian staring at her from inside her cage. Her legs were
pulled up, her knees pressed against her breasts. She had a finger
inside her sex.

Sappho bit her
lip. With every blow she gasped and cried out. She heard her cries
of suffering echo around the courtyard. She knew they were
accompanying a growing surge of joy now running out of control
through her. It throbbed in time with the thrashing belt. It kept
pace with the rhythmic movements of the beautiful Nubian's fingers
as they slid in and out of her wet, glistening sex. Every gasping
scream, every jolting smack of the belt, every fresh glisten of
moisture on the woman's fingers fed the fire of Sappho's
delight.

They unchained
her and pushed her back into the cage. She fought against them. She
struggled against release. She fought to keep out of the cage, not
because she feared its imprisoning bars, but because she wanted
more pain tied to the post.

They forced
her in. She clung to the door. Her hot buttocks were cooled by the
iron bars. She stared at the Nubian woman and, without touching
herself, tightened in the grip of a sudden, jerking ecstasy. She
kept her eyes on the Nubian until the last quivering of her
pleasure subsided. By the time she closed her eyes the torches had
burned out and everyone was asleep.

Next morning
the guards fed some of the women. They held bowls at the bars and
the women struggled to slip their hands through for morsels of
food. Neither Sappho nor Chryseis was fed. Sappho watched as the
guards filled a bowl with their semen. They brought it to all the
cages and offered it to the women. All took it eagerly, lapping at
it through the bars, or slurping it down when the guards held it at
an angle against their imprisoning coops. Sappho watched Chryseis
accept the bowl. She watched her lick and lap at it thirstily. She
saw it sticking to her friend's lips. She watched her throat
tighten as she swallowed eagerly. They came to Sappho. The bars of
her cage were closer together and she could not get at the bowl.
They opened the door and placed the bowl on the ground. She bent
forward on her knees and lapped until the bowl was empty.

Eva walked
into the courtyard with Calliope on her lead. 'Ah, I see we have
animals again in the cages. They feed very well too. Let me see
this one.'

She bent and
grabbed Sappho's dark hair, pulling her head back.

'Well, it is
an animal indeed. I do not know what sort, but I see it is the sort
that drinks semen. It is clearly not a very proud animal. And that
will suit my purposes. I want an animal who will be easily humbled.
Ah, your bowl is empty. And you still look so thirsty. I cannot
have my animals thirsty. Not when it is so hot, and they have no
shade. Push her back in her cage!'

The guards
kicked at Sappho and drove her back. She cowered inside and curled
up as they slammed the iron grill shut.

Eva paraded
around it. Calliope followed her on the lead. Eva handed the loop
of it to one of the guards. Calliope strained on the lead as Eva
stepped away from her, then bent down and stroked her head.

'Do not be
afraid, my little pet. I will not be out of your sight. You wait; I
will have your lead back in my hand soon.'

Calliope sat
back on her knees. The guard pulled. Calliope turned and bared her
teeth, and the guard released the tension.