“No one touches this sorceress—but me.” He pulled his loincloth aside and uncovered his stubby penis. Proudly he wrapped a fist around it, pumping up and down. It began swelling and growing. As he did, he came closer and closer until the head of it was inches from Selena’s face.
“Tonight I will send a message to the gods who took my son from me. You may have chosen to obey their wishes, sorceress, and refuse to restore his life. But tonight you will be mine to command. To use. And then to punish.”
* * *
Haldor and his men made their way through the deserted streets of Daan33 to the Portal, where they were met with salutes by the guards. Then, just as the little man promised, the guards wordlessly turned their backs to be immobilized.
He remembered nothing of his last journey through a Portal but David had explained what would happen. He’d been in simulators many times in preparation for his trip to Gadolinium.
At first, it was just as David had described. Like being sucked into the depths by a powerful undertow, tossed and turned, unable to breathe, in total darkness. Haldor felt his body being stretched apart, then a horrible pain.
He must have lost consciousness for a moment. When he came to his senses, he found himself lying on a stone floor covered in blood, staring into the lifeless eyes of a Tabun warrior. David knelt by his side.
“Thank the gods you finally decided to wake up,” he said. “I thought I’d have to fight the Tabun one-handed, carrying you over my shoulder the whole time like some swooning maiden.”
Hearing the kind of taunt one of his fellow warriors would have greeted him with did more for him than any sincerely expressed concern would have done. Haldor struggled to a sitting position.
“Easy, brother,” David warned. “All that blood isn’t from the throat of the Tabun. The wound in your side tore open as you passed through the vortex. I staunched the bleeding as best I could with my shirt, but now that you’re up we can bandage it. “
“Will, we’ll have to make do the way they did in the old days,” he called. “Tear your shirt into strips and we’ll bind them around him.”
Will stood on the other side of the small stone chamber with the bodies of two more Tabun at his feet. He ripped his shirt into pieces and tossed them to David, then went to the open doorway, peering out into the darkness.
David filled Haldor in as he bandaged him up. “Rob’s gone out on a reconnaissance mission to see if there are any others around. As for these, I broke the neck of the first guard the minute I stepped out of the Portal, before he even knew what was happening. The second man came at me but by then, Rob had arrived. He subdued him and then I went to work. I was trying to convince him to tell me where Doctor Reston is being held when your body arrived. The Tabun recognized you as a Viking warrior. He let out a bloodcurdling shriek and lunged at you. I had to slit his throat.”
His voice was matter-of-fact as he said the words, but Haldor could feel the Earther’s hand shaking as he wadded up a strip of the cloth, placing it directly over Haldor’s wound. David fell silent for a moment. Then, with a visible effort, he went on. “The Tabun’s scream drew in another from the street who came staggering in, right into Will’s arms. He was drunk enough to babble on quite a bit before we silenced him. I’m not very proficient in their language yet, but as near as I can gather, they’re having some sort of ceremony tonight. Everyone’s gathered at the palace of their Lord. Balam?”
“No. No. Balam is dead. I saw his body, run through with a spear.”
David shrugged. “Well, as I recall, you were supposed to be dead too.”
Haldor had never been to Skhul, the Tabun world, but he’d heard tales from a handful of merchants who came to his planet and boasted of trading with the Tabun and attending their slave auctions. They soon learned they were not welcome to return to Gadolinium.
Like his home, Skhul was a planet covered by ice and snow most of the year. Days were short and the dark nights long. Tabun thrived there because it resembled their place of origin on Earth countless thousands of years ago. Haldor had warned the Earthers that they wouldn’t be prepared for the frigid temperatures. So before they left, David sent a messenger to the delegation from Ceres Major, who brought back long gray hooded cloaks for all four men. They hoped at first glance they could pass as holy monks from that planet, known for their mission to preach a message of peace to the savage inhabitants of every distant outpost they could find in the universe.
Rob slipped back in, blending into the shadows so that he was almost invisible until the last minute in his gray robe.
“They have a huge bonfire in the center of town. Everyone seems to be there, drinking and carousing. The streets are deserted. There’s a big wooden platform at one end with an empty throne on it. I saw a whole string of naked people kneeling along the front of the platform, hands tied behind their backs, roped together around their necks. Mostly women, but there are men too. All young. Some from off-world, but there are Tabun among them.”
Haldor nodded. “Slaves. They’ll be given to the crowd tonight, then sacrificed and tossed in the bonfire before sunrise.”
David looked shocked. “They’ll do that to their own people? What kind of monsters are they?”
“Tabun females are property. Daughters are sold as brides, or as slaves if their fathers need money and there’s no bridegroom bidding. As for the sons, they’re owned as well. Selling off a rebellious one is a common enough way to assure obedience among the others.”
They headed down the deserted streets with their heads bowed, hoods drawn up to shield their faces. The sound of drumbeats grew as they neared the center of the town, swelling and pulsing like the heartbeat of a giant living creature.
A hundred drummers circled the great bonfire, beating in unison on animal skins laced tightly over hollow wooden logs. Dressed only in loincloths, their broad chests dripping with sweat. They had no leader Haldor could see, yet they drummed as one. The beat rose and fell, morphing seamlessly from one haunting cadence to another. He felt its savage power, surging up through the very ground he walked on. Through the soles of his feet, traveling up his spine, thudding against his eardrums, making its way into his very brain until it devoured all thought.
The Tabun danced. Whirled and twirled, stomped and gyrated, uttering wild shrieks. The men naked, stubby penises already swollen and purple, hips thrusting obscenely against the nearest female or against each other. The women wore animal skins tied around their waists, just long enough to cover wiry masses of dark pubic hair. Some had tails hanging down from behind. Everywhere people tossed their heads back and poured streams of green liquid down their throats, never ceasing their frantic motions. His head swam just from inhaling the vapors of the qaxa.
On the sidelines, dozens of wild beasts reared and pawed. Trapped in wooden pens, there to be sacrificed and then cast into the fire as well. Tossing their heads around, ripping each other’s flesh with razor-sharp horns in their frenzy to escape. The smell of fresh blood only increased their frenzy.
Haldor and his men hovered on the edge of the crowd, unnoticed in the turmoil. The drums beat faster and faster yet, until the arms of the drummers were a blur. Though he tried to resist its hypnotic spell, his heart kept pace with the rhythm, pounding against his chest until he feared it would burst. The sound built, becoming one unending wave with no beginning and no end. Impossible to sustain. His eardrums were bursting. Impossible to bear—
Silence.
At first he thought he’d gone deaf, hearing finally destroyed. Then he looked around. The drummers had all ceased as one, stilled as though each was truly only a part of some giant unseen beast. The dancers were motionless as statues. Everyone’s eyes were on the platform.
Haldor looked up—and a surge of animal rage poured over him. Only David’s heavy hand on his shoulder kept him from lunging through the crowd and vaulting up onto the wooden stage.
Balam, that filthy slime, stood in the center of the platform in front of th
e empty throne. In his arms, he held the limp body of a young Tabun male. And at his feet, being dragged along on her knees with a rope around her neck like a dog, was a naked female. Selena.
Chapter Eleven
It was hell, straight from a canvas painted by a master from the Middle Ages.
Selena nearly fainted from terror. Grotesque figures danced naked around a bonfire to the savage pounding of drums. Dozens of strange horned beasts staked in pens along one side reared and pawed at the ground, bellowing, driven mad by the sound. A row of bound and trussed virgins in front of her, both male and female, trembled as they knelt there, waiting to be tossed into the crowd like hunks of raw meat.
The drumbeats reached a deafening crescendo, then ceased as one.
Balam strode to the front of the platform, dragging her along by the neck with a short rope tied to a loop on the hammered gold belt around his waist. She had no choice but to crawl along after him or be strangled.
Tonight he wore only the gold belt, an animal skin around his hips, and a floor-length cloak of feathers. Huge feathers in shocking red and purple, iridescent blue and dazzling green.
Around his neck hung an elaborate necklace. Thick gold links decorated with fangs and claws and other severed bits of living creatures, not all of them from the animal kingdom. In his arms he carried the limp body of his son, cradling him like a child, sound asleep.
He stopped and raised the corpse high above his head.
“My people,” he shouted. “Behold the body of my only son, Lord Atun. He will journey tonight through this fire into the underworld along with these many beasts, food enough to host all the gods who dwell there to a royal feast. He will not go alone. Twenty-four slaves will accompany him, to see to his every need in the afterlife.
“My son can never take his rightful place before you. The gods have stolen him from me. Atun will never be your lord. But though you cannot serve him in life, he is my son and I command you to serve him this night in death.”
He paused. “The slaves you see before you are unfit to accompany him. They are untrained in the ways of satisfying a Tabun master. Tonight, I give them to you. I command you to use them. Fill all their holes. Teach them submission before I send them on their way. Prepare them to serve their Lord Atun for all eternity.”
The crowd roared, surging forward. Ten men stepped forward, blocking the platform, each blowing an ominous low note on a huge animal horn. The Tabun stopped in their tracks at the sound, obviously well trained by Balam.
He laid his son’s body down.
Then he yanked the rope, pulling on Selena’s head so she was jerked upright on her knees before the crowd. “Behold this evil sorceress! She alone had the power to breathe life back into Atun. But she showed him no mercy. She refused. She condemned him to the underworld.”
He raised his voice. “Before I can mourn my son, I must avenge his death. I call upon gods and mortals alike—witness here the wrath of Lord Balam! I will impale this wicked creature before you all, that you may watch her cry out in shame and agony as I plunge my mighty rod into her over and over without mercy. Then I will bind her to my son’s empty throne and whip her before I cast her down into the fire with him while her heart still beats.”
Balam swept aside the animal skin around his waist to reveal his penis. She gasped. He’d dyed it a bright red. Whatever native plant he’d used made it swell even larger than it was when he’d stroked it in front of her earlier. Selena was close enough to see what the crowd would not. He had a leather thong circling it at the base, tied firmly around it so his erection wouldn’t fail him in front of his subjects. The other end of the leather strip was fastened securely to the base of his gold belt.
One of his servants carried a heavy wooden bench to the center of the platform. Two others grabbed her and bent her over it. They pulled her legs apart and tied her wrists and ankles to the legs of the bench, leaving her naked bottom thrust up in the air. Balam stood behind her. If she turned her head to the side, she could see the crowd—and they would all witness her shame if she screamed as he impaled her or gave in to the tears threatening to stream down her face.
If she turned her head away, everyone still had a clear view of her bare breasts hanging down, the soft thatch of curls nestled between her widespread legs. The massive erection protruding from Balam’s body. Either way she’d be forced to listen when they cheered every stroke as he rammed it inside her.
She shuddered as Balam moved in, rubbing his engorged penis over her naked bottom. She felt his rough fingers dig into her burning cheeks, spreading them apart. The drumbeats began again. Heavy. Slow.
Suddenly—chaos. She couldn’t feel Balam near her any more. Selena twisted her head to witness a scene of utter carnage. Somehow the beasts had gotten loose. Charging through the crowd, tossing shrieking Tabun aside with their horns, goring others. People fled in all directions. Screaming, trampling each other, some swarming up onto the platform to escape the maddened creatures.
Heedless of the crowd, two hooded, robed figures vaulted onto the platform and moved swiftly along, slicing the ropes that bound the slaves. A third appeared in front of her, knelt and freed her of her bonds. He helped her to her feet, then pulled off his cloak and wrapped it around her.
She stared into the unmistakable features of an Earther.
“I’m David Stevens, from the ministry. We’re here to rescue you.”
She heard harsh grunts behind her and whirled. Haldor stood behind Lord Balam, dangling him a foot off the ground by the necklace twisted around his fist. Balam clawed at Haldor’s body, the links of his gold chain digging into his neck, slowly strangling him.
Balam writhed and kicked, tore at him, gasping for breath. Selena saw blood flowing out of the wound in Haldor’s side, but his face remained impassive. The two remained locked in their silent struggle, heedless of the havoc all around them. The Tabun leader’s struggles began weakening, his body growing limp.
Haldor let go of the necklace and set him on his feet so they were face to face. “I want you to look into the eyes of the Viking warrior who sends you to the underworld.”
He grabbed a fistful of Balam’s hair in one hand, tilting his head back. “I too have wrongs to avenge. You invaded my homeland, murdered my parents, attacked my king—and now you would take the life of the woman fate has decreed is mine?”
Haldor reached down, grabbing Balam’s golden belt. He lifted the Tabun, one fist twisted in his hair, the other clutching the elaborate hammered belt around his waist. Balam let out a bloodcurdling scream as the belt rode up his body, drawing the leather thong around the base of his cock tighter and tighter.
Balam’s hand went to the gold necklace. He slid his bent fingers between the three lethal prongs hanging there, curling his fist and gripping them as though he himself had suddenly grown claws. He slashed out at Haldor, aiming for his neck.
The Viking twisted, flinging Balam away from him. He fell from the platform, landing on the multi-pronged rack of a great naurok, one of the creatures destined for sacrifice. The beast reared and bucked, sending Balam’s body flying off its horns into the fire.
There was another scream. This one went on and on. Selena turned away and clapped her hands over her ears. But it was no use. She knew the sound would echo in her head forever.
* * *
Haldor swept Selena into his arms. He shoved his way to the edge of the platform, leaped to the ground and took off at a dead run, with David, Will, and Rob at his heels. The Tabun ignored them. Intent on saving their own lives, they fled in all directions in fear of being trampled to death either by the charging beasts or their drunken fellow citizens.
He didn’t put her down until they reached the entrance to the Portal. Only then did he crush her lips in a kiss as fierce as it was fiery.
He drew back suddenly. One hand stroked her cheek. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m all right. But you—you’re bleeding.” She bent to examine t
he wound in his side.
“A scratch. You’ll mend it when I get you home.”
Selena clung to him. “I can’t believe you’re here. I never thought I’d see you again. It was a miracle you arrived when you did.” Sudden comprehension dawned in her eyes. “You did that, didn’t you? Let the beasts loose?”
Haldor grinned. “That was Will’s doing. It seems Earth had some warriors after all.”
David stood by the entrance to the Portal. “You two can cuddle all you want later. Right now we need to get going. I’m sending Will through first, so he can take care of any potential problem on the other side. Then Selena, then Rob. You’ll go next, Haldor, and I’ll bring up the rear. Keep watch here in case any Tabun guards come this way.”
Will stepped through. There was a blinding flash of light and he disappeared.
“Doctor Reston, you’re next. It will be over in no time.”
“Wait!”
She turned to Haldor. “I won’t waste another moment on regrets. I love you, Haldor.” She got up on tiptoe, whispered in his ear. “And when we get back to Earth, I’m going to show you just how much, my lord.”
* * *
Selena opened the bedroom door silently. Haldor stood at the window with his back to her, looking down at the view of the city from her apartment on the 287th floor. He’d tossed his fur cloak on a chair and wore only the linen trousers. His chest was bare, as were his powerful arms, except for the wide gold cuffs on his wrists gleaming in the moonlight that streamed through the window.
He hadn’t been here before. Somehow, in her stripped-down sterile white rooms, he loomed even larger than he had at the clinic. Or on Skhul, where she’d seen the other side of him, the fierce warrior, ready to put to death the monster who threatened her life.
His to Tame (Alien Masters Book 4) Page 12
