Trojan Whores (24 page)

'And what is
this, my lady?' asked Ajax, as he stretched out his hands and
touched the tangle of materials.

'It is called
the "shrinking man", my lord. It is a device of captivity. It is
the lover's embrace from which there is no escape. It has the power
to inflict pain like no other. It is the very perfection of
suffering. It is the pinnacle of excruciating pain. To witness its
use is like being in the presence of the gods themselves.'

'Is it a
device which can also bring pleasure to those who are blind?'

'It is, my
lord. The screams the "shrinking man" draws from its victims are a
more powerful source of excitement then anything that can be seen.
If you request its use I promise you will be amply rewarded by the
tune it brings forth. It will be music such as you have never
heard. It will lift you like the lyre of Apollo.'

'You have won
me over to its use, my lady. Perhaps the little priestess, Sappho,
shall be the first instrument to be played on this amazing
apparatus. Yes, my personal guard will bring her.'

Sappho was
dragged forward. She drew back at the sight of the terrible
apparatus. She dug her heels into the soft earth as Ajax's guards
pulled on her arms.

The assembly
of the wooden frame, laced together with metal fixings, was draped
with leather straps and thongs. It dripped with water. It looked
like a monstrous creature arisen from the depths of a hellish
ocean. It was encircled by buckets filled with water, which
reflected the lights from the torches and lamps. It was as if the
"shrinking man" was ringed by iridescent moons.

'Your little
priestess is fearful now, but she will soon warm to the loving
embrace of it. Here little priestess. Do not be afraid to approach
your paramour. He will clutch you so close you will never want to
be released from his arms.'

Ajax's guards
struggled to bring Sappho close. Her heels lost their purchase. She
fought against them, spitting and biting and bracing her feet
against the heavy timber base. As the guards offered her up to the
device they looked confused. They seemed unable to carry out their
instructions. The apparatus was too complicated. They could not
work out which way to place their struggling victim, how to bring
the bindings together, how to close them properly around its
captive's limbs.

'Sire,' said
one. 'It is beyond us.'

Ajax held a
hand to his forehead. 'Forgive me, lady. My guards are untutored in
such things. And they are right to admit it. I am corrected. I
could not allow them to bind one of my slave priestesses into such
a contraption for fear of making a mistake. They have made me
understand that this apparatus of perfection must be operated
perfectly. It seems as though I am to be disappointed.'

'No, my lord,'
urged Eva, anxious to please. 'Let my own guards perform the duty.
They know well how the mechanism works.'

'I could not,
lady. You can see, the little priestess is such an animal. I fear
they could not restrain her sufficiently well. And she would be
injured in the ensuring struggle. Or perhaps bring harm to your
"shrinking man". No, lady, that would never do.'

'Then I will
instruct your guards myself,' she said with a burst of impatient
arrogance. 'And you will have the pleasure of listening to my own
commentary. Yes, I will act as the victim so that your guards can
learn the technique. Then, when they have mastered it, I will be
released and your little priestess will take my place. Yes, it
amuses me to do so. Perhaps you will hold my pet, sire.'

Eva handed
Ajax Calliope's lead, who pressed herself eagerly against his leg.
Ajax smiled.

'First, my
lord, you must imagine how the "shrinking man" welcomes his lover.
I step into the cage of leather and metal. His drapes are loose at
the moment. They have already been soaked so that they are soft and
stretched. I can enter with ease. His leather strapping is like
silk against my skin. Now, I kneel within him. His shape fits my
body perfectly. He welcomes me to kneel on all fours within his
carcass. Now, a metal clasp closes around my head. It is tight. It
is a constricting band around my forehead. Once in it I cannot
move. Now your guards must be careful to pull these straps closely
across my face. They have done it, but they leave them free of my
mouth, for I must give you the commentary. As they pull the leather
straps tighter they close around my body. I feel them tensioning
now. The tightness takes my breath away. The straps are broad
enough to hold me, thin enough to cut into my skin. There are so
many that as they wrap me in their clutches I cannot move at all.
My arms are already fixed by them. Now they must wrap each of my
fingers; even they will not escape the caress of the "shrinking
man".'

Calliope sat
up on her knees. Sappho's eyes brightened as the guards slackened
their grip on her arms.

'Now, my lord
Ajax, I cannot even move my legs. The straps have a hold of me
there as well. And each of my toes is bound with delicate wet
thongs of leather. Now they lash more straps around my thighs and
knees. They already have my calves and ankles tight. Now they must
pull a strap up into my sex. It must be as tight as they can make
it. I need to feel it deep between the folds of my lips. They are
doing it now. They are pulling it between the flesh. Yes, it is
tight. My flesh is wet and the slippery leather slips easily
between. It has made me even wetter with its tension. And it is
painful, but I cannot pull away or gain any relief. It is truly a
delectable tension. And there is more to come. The "shrinking man"
has only just begun to work his magic.'

Calliope stood
up. She draped her arm around Ajax's shoulder.

'And the gag,
my lady Eva? Are you ready for the gag?' she asked.

Ajax smiled.
'Yes, lady Eva. Your mistress asked you a question. Are you ready
for the gag? Ah, you look surprised, lady. Has it been so long
since you have felt the pain of torture? Had you forgotten that
your pet was also your mistress? Did you truly believe I was your
slave? Poor Eva. Deceived so easily. Gag her!'

The guards
pushed a leather ball gag into Eva's mouth. She could not struggle
or fight against them. She could not appeal or cry out. Spit ran
from her mouth as they stuffed it in. They lashed it tight and
bound a leather strap around so it was held firmly inside and could
not be seen. They tightened all the other straps and thongs,
pulling them into clasps or buckles, locating them into the teethed
jaws of their unforgiving clamps.

Praxis sensed
the threat of treachery. A wave of fear flooded over him. He jumped
to his feet. He was quickly restrained. He held out his hands
hopelessly as they chained his wrists and flung him to the
ground.

'I hope you
have not lost your enthusiasm for the "shrinking man", lady,'
mocked Calliope. 'You have only introduced it to us. We need to see
what else it can do.'

Eva's eyes
flashed in confusion. She could not understand what was happening.
She had felt so assured of her place with Praxis. She had been so
certain of having overthrown Calliope. Now the one she had treated
as a pet stood taunting her, and mocking her blind arrogance for
entangling herself in her own apparatus of torture. She tried to
bite onto the leather ball in her mouth. The straps across her face
and the cage around her head made it impossible even to do that.
She tried to move her arms, her fingers, her legs, her toes. It was
impossible. She was completely caught in the clutches of the
terrible contraption. She could not move at all. She felt the
tightness of the strap in her sex. She felt the throbbing of her
clitoris against its unrelenting pressure. She tried to relax her
thighs, her buttocks, but she was now inseparable from the
contraption which held her in its vicelike embrace.

'Douse her!'
shouted Calliope. 'Slacken the pressure on poor Eva. I cannot bear
to see her suffering.'

Eva's eyes
flashed for side to side. She heard the buckets being lifted. She
heard the sloshing of water. She saw the flicker of light reflected
in rainbows around her as it was tossed. She felt the sudden shock
as it was thrown all over the "shrinking man" - all over her. It
ran down her face and streamed from her chin. She could not move as
it flowed over her body. But the wetting brought a fresh pliability
to the leather bindings. She felt them slipping against her skin.
She managed to move a finger. A wave of relief rushed through her.
She pulled against the constricting bonds. They gave under the
pressure.

'Now tighten
the straps fully,' ordered Calliope.

The straps
were pulled again; levered into their clasps, tensioned into their
buckles and clamps. Eva could no longer move her finger. The moment
of freedom had passed. She knew there was no escape.

Braziers were
brought and set around the apparatus and its victim. Their heat
soon began to dry and tighten the tangle of wet leather thongs. Eva
felt its increasing compression. Her eyes filled with terror. They
were the only part of her body she could command - and they were no
longer in her control. Her mind was ablaze with fear. Her head was
filled with the terror of it all. She could do nothing to change
it. She could not even express it.

The tightening
increased. Her skin was pinched by its shrinking straps. Her limbs,
already confined by its contracting framework, throbbed and pounded
with the increased tension. Her jaws, held wide by the plugging
gag, generated pains which ran down her throat and into her bowels.
She could not swallow. Her cunt was wet, she could feel that, but
its wetness was frustrated by the feeling of numbness across her
whole body. She could only move her eyes. But they brought her no
hope, no salvation. They flashed around in terror. She was
panic-stricken by what was happening. She was overwhelmed by what
she knew was in store, and yet she could not guess what that could
be.

Eva knelt,
held inside the entwining arms of the device. The ever tightening
bands of leather squeezed as they continued to shrink in the drying
heat of the braziers. She wanted so much to cry out, to scream for
release, to beg for freedom. She thought of how she would do
anything to be set free. She would allow herself to be degraded in
any way her torturers saw fit. She would serve them, be humiliated
by them.

But there was
no way of passing her message to them, and she realised they would
not care even if she could. They only wanted her suffering and she
could do nothing to deny them. She wanted to shiver, to allow her
body to express her fear, but she could not even do that. She
wanted to lick her lips, to push out her tongue. Any movement would
allow her to know that she had some control over her body. But she
could do nothing. She had no control. It had been taken from her.
The enfolding caress of the "shrinking man" was all enveloping. Its
control over her was total. She was a victim of perfect stillness,
a prisoner of absolute bondage.

The bindings
continued to shrink, to cut her skin. Her body was crisscrossed
with the marks of its terrible grip. There was no release for her.
She remained motionless. Her body trapped in arrant silence, a
victim of the inescapable grip of the unforgiving contraption.

Calliope knelt
beside her. She ran her hands across the drying straps. She felt
their tension. She sensed their contraction. She sensed the pain
that was passing to its terrified victim. She traced her fingers
against Eva's skin, taut between the strapping, frozen in its
grasp. She rested them against the strap pulled up between Eva's
thighs. She felt the swollen flesh on either side. She felt the
pounding in Eva's veins. She felt the stillness of her body, taut
and clasped in the relentless leather grip.

'Yes, it is
your little pet,' she whispered. 'Poor Eva, did you really believe
in your silly arrangement with Praxis? Is that possible? Yes, I
believe you did. Poor, innocent Eva. I can hardly believe you could
be so foolish. Eva. Eva. It was a trick. Eva, it was a trick. I
wanted to be your pet so I could show you I was truly your
mistress. How would you ever know unless you experienced the
downfall of your false hope? Oh, you were so proud. You were so
arrogant. And I enjoyed it. All the time knowing that soon I would
bring you back again to your rightful place. Poor Eva. Nothing to
say? Do not worry. There will be time. Yes, you will be going back
to Greece as a captive. Do not think you will ever be otherwise.
You will carry the brand of Ajax and you will be my lowliest slave.
Oh, Eva, I am sad that you will have to suffer so much.'

A sparking
branding iron was lifted from one of the braziers. Eva did not move
in any way as it was placed first on one of her immobile buttocks,
then on the other. Her eyes flashed from side to side; frantic
expressions of her agony. She was bursting with pain. It ran
through her in waves. No part of her body was immune to its
progress or its ferocity. But she remained still, her flashing eyes
the only signal of her agony. Motionless and in complete silence
she was held in a state of perfect pain, in the unforgiving
embraced.

Praxis cried
out for Master Wang, but he was not there. He reached out for a
slave to help him, but they had all run away or been stolen by
others. He called for Eva, and although she was close by she could
not speak. She had lain all night, shivering and jerking with the
shock of her incarceration. Her body was covered in the wheals of
the embrace. She could not stand up, could not bend. She smelled of
urine and had vomited.

Soldiers
emptied Praxis' tent then overturned a brazier and scattered its
flaming coals around the ornate skirting. Praxis was bound by the
wrists and, together with Eva, loaded onto a small cart. The tent
burned behind them as the cart was drawn through the sand dunes and
along the beach. Finally they were brought to Ajax's boat and
thrown roughly down on the sand.