Caught in the Devils' Hand

by Ruby Duvall

  “Y-you ungrateful little tramp!” she screamed.

  “I shall take my leave, if that is what’s required,” Kimen announced as he stood, though Shumei suspected that he was merely trying to escape his wife’s rising ire.

  “Thank you, Leader Kimen,” she said, watching him exit the room.

  “Where are you going, Kimen?!” Akki yelled, rising up on her knees. Kimen, for once, ignored his wife, sliding the door shut and walking away to another part of the house. Akki made a frustrated noise, sitting back down on her heels again.

  “Madam Akki, I am going to examine you. Please face me,” she calmly but firmly ordered, keeping her words polite out of habit. She turned slightly toward Akki since they were both on opposite corners of the table.

  “What do you think you could do, huh?” Akki said, though she did turn toward her as she had asked.

  Shumei suppressed a gasp, but it was hard. Her magic had done the equivalent of a somersault in her stomach, and though it wasn’t nauseating, it was certainly off-putting. It was as if her magic had been on its back but was now sitting up and at attention.

  “Just relax and stay still, madam. It will be over soon,” she whispered.

  Something was happening. She could feel the magic inside her moving excitedly and as she raised her hands toward Akki’s body, she felt something in the air around the woman. There was something around her or rather…something was attached to her.

  Akki had frozen, probably sensing the new tension in the air, but she doubted that the woman could feel the touch of magic.

  That’s what it was. There was a spell on Akki. Something had been cast on her, and it was clinging to parts of her like a creeping vine. She needed to find the source of it—the head of the plant, as it were.

  She brought her hands closer to Akki, pushing through the force around her body like moving her hands through water. Her hands came within a couple of inches of Akki’s shoulders, and she opened her palms, tracing the vines of magic as she looked for the root.

  “What’s happening?” Akki said, her voice sounding small. Shumei ignored her, her hands now moving around the woman’s waist.

  There.

  It was there, on her stomach. It felt almost like the center of a weed, tough and bumpy. She curled her fingers around it, tightening her hold on the spell.

  Akki gasped, probably sensing now that something was stuck to her since Shumei was gripping it. Not sure what to do now, she continued her plant metaphor and tried to pull it out like she would with any weed.

  Akki’s breath came out as a pained grunt. She pulled harder, feeling the roots of the weed begin to lose their grip. Akki croaked, her face a mask of pain as her hands clenched the cloth of her skirt, but she stayed immobile like she was told, though perhaps it was too painful for her to move.

  Not wanting to put the woman through unnecessary pain, she let her magic out, and it sizzled along her arm, flicking at the spell in her hand as it simultaneously forced her arm to flex. The spell was jerked out, like a gardener ripping out a weed with one mighty pull. Akki braced both hands to one side, nearly collapsing to the floor, and her breaths came in shuddering gasps.

  Shumei could feel the spell sitting free in her hand, dripping down her arm, though the drips seemed to be harmless. It began to shake, though, invisible and explosive, and her hand visibly shook as she tried to hold onto it. A high-pitched whining began to grow inside the room and she realized that she needed to let go of the spell…now. Tossing it into the air behind her, she heard a loud pop as the spell burst and a red cloud rose to the ceiling out of nowhere.

  “What was that?” Akki asked, gasping for air and looking scared.

  “Someone put a spell on you. I removed it and it exploded…I think,” she explained.

  She inwardly grimaced. Her secret was no longer a secret now. Akki would immediately suspect that she practiced magic since she had just cancelled a spell right in front of her, and she would be sure to banish or execute her within the day.

  She somehow wasn’t as upset by this news as she had thought she would be. Her mind was already rapidly thinking of ways to escape the village if Akki decided to raise an alarm.

  “A spell?” Akki asked, pressing one hand to her stomach. She took in a deep breath, and her face suddenly flushed with blood. A smile rose to the woman’s face, genuine and relieved. Shumei suddenly realized that Akki looked ten years younger. She was…beautiful. The older woman looked down at her hands, her smile not fading in the slightest.

  “Madam Akki, this started at the beginning of winter past, right?” she asked, curious to know how long the woman had withstood the spell’s weakening effects.

  “I…don’t know,” she said, looking confused now as the smile faded from her face. She looked up at Shumei suddenly. “Who? Who did this? Why can’t I remember when this started? Why didn’t I know it was on me?”

  Shumei immediately had her own suspicions. The only other person she knew in the village who would cast spells with such malice, who had cast one on Shumei as an experiment and who had told her that she only stayed in their tiny village because of “unfinished business” was the witch.

  She couldn’t accuse Majo without direct evidence though, and besides, the woman could still prove to be useful. Shumei had no other person to learn anything from.

  Although Vallen had been a magic-user as well…

  She shook her head mentally, realizing that trading even more with Vallen was perhaps more dangerous than dealing with Majo. She could stand to let the woman have a few more kisses, but the only thing Vallen could ask for as payment would be a way out of their current deal.

  “I’m not sure, Madam Akki, but I can probably find the answers to all of your questions. However, my concern now is what you’ll do with me,” she asked, looking pointedly at the older blondie. It took the woman a minute to understand what she was saying, but it was obvious when it dawned on her.

  “What do you think I should do?” she asked. Her tone was very careful, and Shumei realized that Akki might actually be offering her a way to get out of this. If Akki outed her, she would be executed, but the village would find out that the wife of their well-respected blond leader had been suffering from a debilitating spell and hadn’t even known it.

  The respect she had from her deluded subjects would be gone in a flash.

  “In exchange for removing the spell, you will not inform anyone of the abilities I have discovered. I will not tell anyone that a spell was put on you without your knowledge. We will continue as before, Madam,” she suggested, keeping her tone neutral as well.

  Akki seemed to think about it for about half a minute, and Shumei waited with bated breath to see if the woman would be spiteful or smart.

  Then she nodded slowly.

  “That will be fair enough. I believe that you even cured my stiff joints with that little show. I will no longer be needing your medicines then,” she said softly, her eyes steady as she looked at the younger girl.

  Shumei quietly regretted losing the extra income but rejoiced in both the fact that her secret was still safe and in the fact that she would never have to visit the leader and his wife again.

  “Agreed,” she said firmly. Standing to leave, she grabbed up her medicine bag and made to leave, but a hand on her sleeve stopped her.

  “I didn’t take the medicines you sold me for the next six days. I want my money back for the unused portions.” The blonde’s face held a hint of malicious joy. She wondered if Akki and Majo weren’t more similar to each other than anyone realized. She let her incredulity cover her face, feeling freer to use her expressions now.

  “No refunds,” she announced. She then tugged away from the woman, who was still sitting on her shins, and walked out of the house, hopefully for good.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Not bothering to raise her hand this time, she stood in front of the witch’s door and waited for it to open. The woman’s order for today had been changed midweek, requi
ring almost twice as many ingredients. The witch was up to something and she wanted to know what.

  She couldn’t allow the woman to let loose another disaster like what had hit more than a month ago. The villagers were horrible and cruel, but she couldn’t leave them unprotected. It was against the teachings of the Divine One and moreover, even the thought of doing so made her feel ill.

  She had her own secrets though. Neither she nor Majo were going to spill the beans any time soon and she doubted that Majo would start confiding in her, especially if the older woman correctly suspected that she had just broken the spell she had placed on the village leader’s wife.

  This was assuming that the spell on Akki was Majo’s doing.

  Much to Shumei’s surprise, the door opened slowly today, and the witch’s pale, elegant hand caressed its way around the door edge. The woman’s face slowly emerged as well, very well hidden in the shadows of the hut, and she could only see a faint outline of the woman’s face.

  She didn’t seem to be smiling.

  She was extremely careful not to let anything at all show on her face. If her guess was correct, then Majo most definitely knew that her spell was suddenly gone.

  “I have your order for this week, Madam Majo,” she said softly, slowly gesturing to the bag sitting on her hip to avoid any sudden movements.

  “Come in, child. I’m…feeling a bit under the weather,” the woman answered, her voice sounding deeper, older.

  She carefully stepped inside, shucking her boots and keeping the witch in sight as the older woman closed the door, shutting them inside. The candles were still going, looking as if they had been newly lit. Majo walked slowly, her feet sliding as she made her way to the chest in the corner.

  “Have a seat, Shumei. I’ll be with you soon,” she bade. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she noticed that the woman was wearing a plain black dress. It was the first time she had ever seen the witch in anything so…normal. She sat down, pulling the large bundles of roots and bags of crushed, torn or powdered herbs from her medicine bag. Setting them down in the usual spot between her and the witch’s floor cushion, she then waited while Majo slowly made her way toward her with her hand clenched around the kols in her fist.

  “Thirty-four kols, dear, your fee. Thank you for your prompt delivery,” the woman rasped, seeming to have a cold.

  “Madam, do you have a sore throat? I can return with the proper medicine to clear it up,” she offered. Majo slowly shook her head.

  “It’s not a normal sickness. Besides, I can take care of myself,” she said with a stronger voice than before, having cleared her throat. Shumei didn’t speak again, a bit amazed that, for the first time in a few weeks, she hadn’t been offered refreshment—not that she would drink it.

  The witch inspected the plants brought to her, and she looked as closely at the older woman as she could dare, trying to decipher in the dimmer candlelight if the witch had been sucking the life from Akki to stay younger. She didn’t appear to be any older, though, not even by a year or two.

  “Everything looks to be in order. I suppose you’ll be leaving then?” Majo asked with slightly raised eyebrows.

  “Actually…I had some questions, Madam Majo,” she said uncertainly, wondering if she had the guts to withstand more payment for the information she was seeking.

  “Questions about magic?”

  “No…questions about demons.” The witch’s eyebrows came down, a smile now rising to her lips.

  “Are you willing to pay for the answers?” Shumei resisted the urge to gulp and nodded slightly, her neck muscles stiff. The thought of kissing the witch again turned her stomach, but one question was burning inside her mind. “What is the question then?” the witch asked, leaning forward just a bit.

  “If someone cursed a man to be a sex demon, then can another person undo the curse? Is there a cure? How could another person create it?” she asked. It was risky, asking such a specific question. If Majo weren’t suspicious of her preoccupation with sex demons before, she certainly would be now. Indeed the witch’s face showed a reaction. Her smile wilted, and her eyes blinked as they narrowed just a bit.

  She was hopeful, however, after removing a spell from Akki with almost no knowledge about magic. If she could cure Akki, then maybe she could cure Vallen. Then she would not only free him, but she would free herself. Their deal would be dissolved.

  “Why the interest in sex demons?” Majo asked with a distrustful tone in her voice.

  “I was very curious to learn that some demons were not made by the Dark One. You had said that other demons were made in such a way but…only mentioned sex demons specifically, so that’s why I mentioned that type in particular. However…you seemed to know of the ritual to make a sex demon, so I thought you might know of a ritual to unmake one,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t sound rushed or like she was blabbering.

  It seemed that her acting skills hadn’t yet failed her, for Majo’s tight face smoothed out during her speech, the smile coming to its full radiance again.

  “Your payment shall be a kiss and a touch,” she purred, her fingers curling against the smooth wood floor beneath her as if imagining it already.

  Shumei couldn’t help but stiffen, dreading the woman’s touch and very ill at ease with allowing the witch such favors, but if the witch was asking for payment, then she must have an answer for her. She reluctantly nodded.

  Majo licked her lips, crawling toward her once again. This time, though, she sat next to her, her thigh pressed tightly to the younger woman’s as she leaned against her, holding her weight on one hand.

  Shumei looked at the fire, telling herself that it would be over soon, and it indeed was. A minute or two later, and the witch was withdrawing, pulling her hand from the fold of the younger woman’s dress and licking Shumei’s lips one last time before sitting back slightly.

  She could neither repress the shudder that swept over her nor could she stop herself from wiping her lips with the back of her hand. She wished that she didn’t have to trade something like this with such a monster of a woman. Hopefully, this would be the last question she would need answered. She didn’t want to know what the next payment would be.

  “Do not shiver so, dear child. You got what you asked for…an answer. Now listen carefully. I shall say this only once.” The witch seated herself on her cushion again, her hands held carefully in her lap. Shumei nodded, turning her attention to its fullest.

  “In my years of personal study, including an enlightening trip to Houfu, I acquired a great deal of magical knowledge. However, I cannot decipher some of it. Having grown up in this backwoods village, I hadn’t learned how to read or write in my own language, let alone the other languages in the world, some of them old and rarely used. The process of learning a new language, or rather, an old one, is time-consuming.

  “For this reason, I cannot give you a detailed answer, but according to what I can read, the Incubus Curse can be cured. The curse itself requires a special Circle drawn upon the floor and an altar must stand in the center. The focus, or magic-user, of the curse must obtain the curse’s main ingredient, semen, from the one to be cursed, who must also be in the Circle.

  “There are words to be spoken to invoke the curse, but I cannot decipher them, nor can I read what exactly is done with the main ingredient. However, an outline of the ritual for a cure follows the curse. It is done in the exact same manner, but the words of dissolution are different from the words of invocation for the cursing ceremony. The main ingredient, once again semen, is used in a different manner as well.”

  Shumei felt a thrill of hope fluttering in her chest. She could cure Vallen—she knew it. New questions were popping up like daisies, but the one to ask was not sitting in front of her now.

  Something about Majo’s explanation was bugging her though. She mentioned special circles as if she had seen something too complicated to describe. She had kept saying things about not being able to read something, about old languages a
nd outlines of magical rituals.

  The witch had a book. A spell book.

  Her eyes involuntarily looked at the back of the hut where several thick volumes sat in half-darkness, their titles unreadable. She had a feeling, though, that the witch wouldn’t keep such a thing sitting out. It would be somewhere safe. Somewhere with a lock.

  Forcing her eyes not to look at the chest in the corner of the hut, she returned her eyes to the witch’s gaze, but the witch was looking at her chest rather than at her face. She didn’t shudder this time, feeling relieved that the witch may not have seen her unconsciously looking for the spell book she now knew was in the woman’s possession.

  “Ah Shumei…dear child, how much I would be glad to tell you if you would only agree to let me have your body at my disposal for the day.” The witch’s voice sounded as breathless as she looked, and Shumei watched with a bit of incredulity as the witch fondled her own breast with one hand.

  She hastily stood up, her nearly empty medicine bag in one hand.

  “Until next week, Madam Majo,” she blurted, quickly walking to the door and slipping on her boots. Majo bid her a good day but Shumei didn’t bother to acknowledge it as she whipped the door open and darted outside, slamming the door shut and running all the way to her next delivery.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lying in Vallen’s arms, she sighed in contentment as the flutters in her belly continued to send little pulses of remembered pleasure throughout her loins. When she had come to the field at dawn today, the Binding had combined his ache for her and her own desire for him, creating a pulsing fire in her sex and making it dripping wet as she emerged from the trees. Whereas he had looked calm and composed last week, this morning found him to be agitated, which had showed as he angrily paced the open field while waiting for her.

  He had been even more impatient to sate his lust today and had swept her up in his arms before a single word had been spoken. Swiftly walking them to the tent, in a new location today, he had wasted no time in shucking their clothing. The next fifteen minutes had been nothing but hard, sweaty, toe-curling sex. However, he had still been in his right mind enough to have a small cloth on hand this time to catch his pleasure after he had pulled out, saving them from cleaning it up later.