Chapter 28: Room 6

When the Emir decided to try out a part of the sixth torture room, he selected Ramzy El-Najjar's grand-daughter, Zeinab, for the privilege of being his experimental assistant. She was prepared as though for his bed, and in that she felt very honoured. An abaya was put on her over her ceremonial harem dressing gown and she was led through a series of passages into the Ruby Palace. She had, by this time, decided that unfortunately it was not the Emir who would use her, but that she was being offered to some guest of his. Finally she was led down some stairs and into a large room with no furniture but equipped with a bewildering array of ropes, slings, nooses and pulleys.

Zeinab was led over to an area in the room where two large rings were suspended from the ceiling, rather like those used by gymnasts to perform on. Her abaya was removed, as was her harem dressing gown. She was cuffed to them by her wrists so that she was held clear of the ground. Then she was stretched into an X with her legs tethered to the floor wide apart and her weight taken entirely on her arms in a fashion which was not painful ... at first

Sississis ... CRACKACKACK!

There was no warning and she saw no movement before there was a short hissing sound beside her and all at once there seemed to be innumerable lines of burning agony on her skin all at once and she could not even draw breath to scream. As she hung there choking and heaving for breath she thought she would die of the pain and shock. Naturally the blow had caused her to squirm, which added to the strain on her shoulders. As her thoughts cleared and the acute pain of the blow was supplanted by the longer term aching of her shoulders and elbows, she surmised that she had been hit with the multi-tailed whip which had curled itself round her arse and lower back, with the weighted tips of the lashes curling round and hitting her belly and the lower curve of one tit.

Sississis ... CRACKACKACK!

A second blow from her still unseen tormentor was lower, covering her thighs and her arse and curling round further to bite into the soft front of her thighs, her hairless mound and her lower belly. This time she screamed and screamed and screamed. The pain of the blow blotted out all thought of the ache in her shoulders, but as the pains subsided there was no respite as the strain on her upper body reasserted itself.

The Emir came round in front of her and asked in a casual voice, "Does the pain of the whip take away the pain of the stretching? Or is it the other way round? Does the pain of the shoulders mask the pain of the blows?"

Not knowing what he wanted to hear, she answered in the time honoured formula "As the Master pleases."

He waited until she was steady again, hanging sobbing gently with breath back to normal and her back, arse and thighs colouring up nicely.

Sississis ... CRACKACKACK!

When he saw that she had closed her eyes a third blow was struck across her belly, making her feel that the front of her whole body had been dipped in boiling water from the nipples to the knees. Mercifully she passed out, but was revived by a bucket of cold water being tipped unceremoniously over her by one of the eunuchs.

"Well?" the Emir demanded, "Which is worse, the blows or the stretching?"

Zeinab did not realise that he wanted the simple truth, for what Master ever wanted that?

She replied again, between sobs, "As the Master wishes."

The Emir dropped the whip and stood fuming, thinking, 'How can I ever find anything out when they won't even answer a simple question?'

Seeing her body at just the right height in front of him, he spread her arse cheeks and thrust into her anus, hard. After a few vicious thrusts he lost interest in sodomising this female in such an uncomfortable position, uncomfortable for him, that is. Pulling clear of her he turned and stalked out of the room. It was fifteen minutes before it occurred to him that she would still be left hanging until he ordered her release.

"Bring Zeinab back to the harem," he remarked to nobody in particular, and his order was relayed to the Chief Eunuch.

Zeinab had been hanging by her shoulders for what seemed like hours, and she was truly in agony from the strain on her shoulders when they released her. It was two days before she could raise a coffee cup to her lips without shaking so much that some would spill.

When Princess Zubeydeh expressed sympathy the young woman could not understand why the older woman thought sympathy appropriate, "My Master needed a subject for his experiments. I am pleased and honoured that he chose me. I hope he chooses me again."