Chapter 7

Bethsany examined herself in the mirror. "I still look pretty good. Don't you think, Lilli?"

"Yes, Miss," the tall brunette encapsulated in leather responded warmly.

"Be honest, Lilli."

"At your age, Miss, you will not bring in customers except for those with certain... desires, but no matter. I wish to have your body and health when I reach your wisdom, too."

Bethsany turned around and stroked Lilli's face gently. "You say the right things, Lilli." She kissed the taller girl gently. A knock at the door interrupted her fingers' probing between Lilli's legs. "What is it?"

One of the younger girls appeared at the door. "My apologies, Miss, but Aimee' is here."

Bethsany sighed, trying not to smile simultaneously. Loving Lilli was a privilege neither one permitted often, temptation being what it was, but she also could never pass up an opportunity for kindness with Aimee'. "Lilli, will you forgive me?"

The brunette nodded. "I understand. I need some commission today anyway."

Bethsany laughed. "Forever the opportunist. That's why I like my crew. Could you let Aimee' in on your way out?"

"I will," Lilli promised, leaving slowly. As she walked out, she held the door open, revealing the small, shivering form of the girl who came to visit every week. "Aimee'! The Gods, you must be chilled to the bone from your walk. Come in, come in, please, sit down by the fire. Page, get us something warm for her to drink. Nothing with liquor, dear, just chocolate or something." The young girl who had first peeked in to announce Aimee's presence looked in, nodded, then disappeared. Bethsany positioned Aimee' on a short, padded stool by the fire. The girl reappeared with a tray holding two steaming mugs. "Here," Bethsany said, handing one to Aimee'. "Drink. You need it. You look positively white!"

"I am sorry to distress you so, Bethsany," Aimee' said softly. "Master Teltirray is more confident of me; he says in this weather thieves do not get out so much."

"Nor should healthy young girls like yourself!" Bethsany countered. "Besides, in winter brigands need their sustenance like everyone else and with pickings slim you make a lovely target. Be careful!"

"If any such brigand were to lay a hand on me..."

"You would what?" Bethsany grinned. "Lay them low with a bolt of wizardly power? Are you to that point, my lovely Mage's student in black?"

Aimee' blushed. Bethsany cupped Aimee's chin and pulled it up to look into her eyes. "There is nothing to be ashamed of, Aimee'. Confidence is the first measure of any success, be it in Magic or Business or Sex. But you must know your limits, too." Aimee' nodded and sipped at her drink, shrugging off her cloak and easing to the floor before the fire.

Bethsany joined her; however under her robe there was no further clothing. "Let me tell you another story, Aimee'... of what happened to me after my rescue. Is that acceptable?"

Aimee' grinned and nodded. "Please!"

Bethsany leaned back and began.

"There, there," said my rescuer as she handed me a bowl of warm soup. "You will be all right."

"Who... who are you?"

"My name is Cyl'Dia. I am a woman of Darachmod." That last word made me look up and take notice of her, Aimee', because I had heard of Darachmod. It was a city, rumored to be in the very mountains through which my family had been riding when the bandits had attacked. She smiled tightly. "I see you have heard of us. The legends are mostly true. Drink up. I will return in a little while."

She was gone again, and only Huna and I were left together. I held onto Huna and she let me, being the only thing in my recent life that had had any stability and kindness to it. I watched the women in the camp moving about easily, seriously; there seemed to be little humor about them. Slaughtering a camp, even one filled with spirits as ugly as Styur's, could have held no glee to them.

They were all beautiful, tall, strong. All of them wore heavy armor that hid what sorts of bodies they had underneath, but as they stripped it off they revealed tightly fitted, warm clothing that showed the shapes underneath to be very obviously female. I wasn't to learn just how female until later.

Cyl'Dia returned shortly with another woman behind her. "We are returning, so your eyes must be covered until you are trustworthy. Do you understand?"

I nodded, still frightened. She reached out and stroked the dog's head for a moment. "Huna, huh? She's a good dog. What's your name?"

"Bethsany." I blurted it out as one word.

"Beth'Sany, huh?" Her voice had a curious stop indicating that she had divided my name into two parts like hers. "That's a pretty name. Beth, this is my commander, Dyn'Valas. Dyn, this is Beth'Sany, who we rescued from the centaurs."

Dyn'Valas knelt down and examined me closely. Then she smiled. "We do not kill slaves, Beth, even male ones, although we see to it that they make their way in a direction other than following us. Do you wish to come to Darachmod with us, or is there a family you want to go home to?"

I shivered. "I... I have no family. They killed them all." I managed to point down to the ruined and burning centaur village where I had spent the past months.

"All of them?" Dyn'Valas looked shocked. She recovered momentarily and said, "I understand you killed their leader rather... gruesomely."

I managed to shiver another nod. "He... he used me." I began crying, sniffling in the cold, wet of falling snow. "I wanted to get back."

She patted my head gently. "That's understandable. You want to come to Darachmod with us, then?"

I nodded. "Please."

"Cyl, make it so."

I was placed on the back of a horse and blindfolded. "Wrap your arms around me," Cyl'Dia said softly. "Reach into the jacket. Go ahead. I won't bite and it will keep your hands warm."

I did as she said, my fingers reaching in. Between my hands and her body were but one or two thin layers of cloth, and underneath it I could feel her torso. Even there her muscles were hard, rippling, strong. She was clearly a powerful woman in her own right and I envied her. I wanted to be like her.

We rode on through the day. I felt strangely at peace, Aimee'. The blindfold kept me from questioning my surroundings in any great detail and the best feelings I got at all came from Cyl'Dia, who gave me warmth and comfort and spoke to me along the way. She asked me for details of my life before the Centaurs and I gave that information freely. I enjoyed my talks with her; they meant much to me. After so many months of nothing but drudgery in the day and cruelty at night, a voice of kindness was something to hold onto.

We mostly spoke of my life. Not as if hers didn't have as much for discussing, but as if she held back on discussing it at all until we reached her city.

A hollow sound surrounded her voice and the sounds of horses. The dry, winter smell was replaced with a slight staleness and I recognized that we entered a tunnel. No-one spoke a word until the air returned to the bright coldness of winter. "Cyl'Dia, you are excused from your duties to take Beth'Sany to the chirgeon. See to it that she is looked after and then, I will find you this evening at your home."

"Thank you, my lady," Cyl'Dia replied. "Beth, you may remove your blindfold now."

I did, getting my first glimpse of the city of Darachmod. It was a large, walled square with houses scattered according to a pattern. On each wall was a large, rectangular building built up against the wall, and the houses and other buildings seemed clustered around those. The center of the town was very open. Each building was carefully regimental in construction, pleasing to the eye, ordered. Cyl'Dia led the horse into a stable where girls about my age took the horse and gave it blanketing, food, and water. "Come," Cyl'Dia said to me softly. "I will show you the chirgeon, and then to home."

The chirgeon was a kind, elderly woman who looked me over carefully, taking special care to examine my eyes, tongue, and sex. "She has suffered no permanent harm," she finally assured Cyl'Dia. "She needs proper food and a bath, however. This thinness is not natural for her."

"Senva?" Cyl'Dia asked, or at least I thought asked, the doctor. It was not a word I knew.

"No, no, not quite. A healthy middle, I think. Bengesk."

Cyl'Dia smiled and nodded, but her smile was tainted slightly with sadness. "I understand. Thank you, Chire."

"My pleasure. It was sweet to meet you, Beth'Sany."

Cyl'Dia lifted me into her arms again and Huna followed us out into the streets. We made our way into a small home off a side street. Once inside, another girl about my age came running up. "Cyl!"

"Myr!" she shouted, straining to hold me with one arm while with the other gathering the girl into her clasp. "Oh, it's so good to see you!"

"Are you... are you home, finally?" Myr asked. "Who's this?"

"Myr'Dia'Nan, meet Beth'Sany. We found her with the centaurs as their unwilling slave."

"Unwilling?" Myr seemed to recoil. "You mean, they didn't give you a choice?"

"Slaves don't get choices," I sighed.

"Some do," Myr assured me. "I do." The revelation that Myr was a slave frightened me. That she was Cyl'Dia's slave stunned me. The fear in me grew immense and suddenly I was fighting Cyl'Dia, slapping at her. But she still wore the protective padding that went with her armor and I was doing little more than getting her attention. She dropped me, however, in my squirming, and I retreated across cluttered room to kneel against the wall by the fire. I expected Cyl'Dia to confront me, but instead Myr did. "Wait, you don't understand. I want to be here."

I looked up at her, disbelieving. "You... you want to be here?"

Myr nodded, smiling in unmistakable pleasure. "Cyl is my beloved, Beth. But I have not the will or control to be a good and equal lover, Beth. Someday, maybe, I will, but until that day I... I accept her yoke of power. Maybe I never will."

"That's not right," Beth said.

"Oh?" Myr asked. "I am not a child anymore." She blushed, looking ashamed. "But I do not want to be unprotected. Cyl'Dia gives me protection. I agree to that."

"And punishment?"

"If I have been bad, yes. I could leave Cyl at any time, but I'm not sure what I would do if that happens."

Cyl'Dia stood behind Myr, stroking the younger girl's hair with her hand. "You're getting there, Myr. You are confident in your slavery, at any rate." She looked up at me. "Some women, such as Myr, want someone to push them into adulthood. Others simply find their pleasure in another's power and stay there all their lives. And some, like myself, find our pleasure in being that source of pleasure."

"And having your wants met," Myr said.

"That, too," Cyl'Dia smiled. "I expect none of this, Beth'Sany, from you. You are my guest until the Spring. You can be whatever you want... except lazy, I suppose. Whether for my reasons or your own, you will have to aid in the carrying of food and water, cleaning, and chopping of wood. I hope that's acceptable?"

I nodded, still a little frightened by the revelation that Darachmod, the city of women, still kept women as slaves. "I understand what is necessary," I said.

"Good," Cyl'Dia replied. "Now, let me show you your bed. You'll be sleeping in Myr's room, an arrangement she does agree to, right?"

"Oh, yes!" Myr replied, grinning. "Easily!"

"Good. Then you get her bedding ready. I have to go meet with Captain Dyn'Valas." She stood up again and left, taking a long-coat off the rack as she did so.

"Now, come with me," Myr said. "And I'll show you to your room."

The house Cyl'Dia lived in was a large space broken up into rooms by taut expanses of white cloth stretched over frames of wood. They let light through easily, and I could see shadows and the flickering of lantern light from those rooms that had them on the backdrops of the cloth. Some of the frames slid to allow passage. Through one, Myr led me down a short hallway and into another room with such a frame. Inside, the room was large enough for three or four people to sleep in comfortably. She had a chest for her possessions. I had to step up to get in, though, because the floor of the bedroom was a wooden platform raised almost a foot and half off the floor. "I'm sure Cyl will get you one of your own. Now, wait here while I get you some bedding. It's sure to get colder yet."

Myr left me alone for a moment, for the first time since my rescue at the hands of these women. I stopped to take stock of my situation, feeling disoriented. I was alive; I had people who seemed safe enough. I had a sense of comfort for once that was unlike any other. Myr returned with a bundle of cloth that hid her face from my view until she dropped it on the floor. "Fhew!" she sighed. "Heavy. And now we have to get the metal, too."

"Metal?" I asked.

"I'll show you," she assured me. "Come. I'll need help with this."

I followed her into another room with more large chests. "There." She opened one chest and handed me some metallic slats, about three feet long and five inches wide, a little less than an inch thick. We made several trips of these back and forth to the bedroom. "What are these?"

"Sleeping slats," she replied. She pointed to a spot of floor where wooden slats the same size as the metal ones we had carried were laid into the floor. With a knife she pried them loose and tossed them aside, fitting the metallic ones in one at a time. "Heat flows through metal much easier than it does through wood, see?" She said. "At night, before bed, we place coals on the floor underneath in these." She held up a metallic pan with a lid. "These put out heat that flows up into the metal, and then into our bodies, so we stay warm."

I did not understand. "Does the heat know where the metal is?"

"I don't know," Myr said. "It's magic to me." I nodded. "Come, let's put the wooden slats away and get two more coal pans for you. One for your legs and one for your shoulders. That's about where they should go. There are traps in the floor for you to put them down. See?" She pointed. I did. We gathered the slats and put them away. By the time we were completing our duties, Cyl'Dia returned.

"I see you two are almost done. Good. Myr, take one of the chests for Beth." She sat down on the steps of the bedroom. "I have good news, Beth. It is the opinion of our Captain that you may stay here as long as you desire, but it is also her opinion that that will not be forever. As long as you provide your fair share of work, however, you are welcome here in whatever position you wish to fulfill."

I nodded, unsure of what to say or do next. Cyl answered that for me by holding her arms out. "Come and hug me."

Which I did, gratefully, throwing myself against her and feeling those protective arms wrap around me. I was still frightened, Aimee', still scared of a future without my family, a future I did not know. One that hardly seemed to lead to where I am today!

That night, as I settled down to sleep, I was to get my initiation in another woman's arms. I had anticipated Cyl'Dia being the one. Yes, I think anticipated was the correct term. I wanted to make love with her, truly. I know that I was misunderstanding my need for protection, my joy at being saved, with the painful sensuality Styur had awakened within me, and I wanted to share myself with Cyl the only way I had known how for month.

But no, it was Myr who started that. That first night as I lay in my bed I was haunted by memories of the dead Styur, fearing his return from the grave, the touch of his ghost, come searching for the girl who stole his sex.

I must have made noise because I remember fighting a hand on my shoulder only to wake up and find Myr kneeling by my bedside in only her nightclothes. "Beth! Beth, you must wake up!"

"What?"

"Beth, you're having a nightmare! Wake up!"