Béla Book 2: Phoenix

"Good morning, Nikka," Diana called out from her doorway as she waved at the dark-haired shepherdess.

Nikka waited patiently while Diana herded her three sheep out of the back pen and added them to the ones Nikka was collecting. The two hugged quickly then Diana hurried back into her hut. Her kyrios, Hymi, glared at Nikka through the doorway, then shut it between them.

"Come on, now," Nikka called out, reaching out with her staff to tap an errant lamb on its head. It bleated noisily and backed out from between two huts where it had intended to explore as she blocked its way with her long staff.

Making loud tsk-tsk noises with her tongue and cheeks, Nikka guided the eight lambs and ewes she had collected this morning out toward the grassy hillside near the river. Seeing other sheep ahead of them now, the new arrivals picked up speed, galloping and prancing out to join the larger group.

Nikka leaned back against an acacia tree and relaxed while she nibbled on a piece of hard bread. She sighed in contentment and thought back on her journey across the world.

This was Nikka's second year in the village. She had arrived as a refugee from the recent war in the east. She picked up the language easily enough, it being similar enough to the Babylonian tongue that she only made a few embarrassing mistakes.

An older woman, Sybille, whose children were grown and her husband having died in the war, accepted Nikka into her household to help with chores and fieldwork. Nikka, ever grateful, proved to be hard working and bright. Although she never spoke to anyone of her homeland, other than to say that her family was dead, she smiled a lot and was very friendly to the other villagers – too friendly, Sybille would tell her.

"The citadel is gone," the old woman told her, "and with it the wicked ways of the city! You are little more than a child, Nikka. But you have the body of a grown woman. The boys here – the men, as well – they leave us to fight. Many die. Few return. The ones who return bring the sickness of the citadel back with them.

"They rot inside, behind their eyes. And they will hurt you if you discover yourself alone with them. They will treat with you like a scorned woman, and not the innocent child that you are."

Nikka understood all too well how men, especially conquering soldiers, treated women. She wasn't innocent, and although she appeared youthful, she had lived the length of several lifetimes. She had learned, after many mistakes, how to blend in with the people, wherever she was.

The people here in this valley pressed up against the backbone of the world were decent folk. Both the men and the women were friendly to her, so she decided to stay for awhile, savoring a few years of contentment until the rumors began to circulate again. Then she would leave, stealing away in the middle of the night – a child of the night; forever young, forever living, forever alone.

"Hey, city girl," a young, masculine voice said from behind her.

There was scorn in that voice and Nikka jumped, recognizing Hymi without having to see him. His hand was on her arm before she could move. Her flesh crawled at his touch. She'd known men like him before. He had been one of the soldiers she'd fled from. Sybille had said so.

Staring into those cruel eyes, Nikka knew Sybille was right. Hymi was rotten inside. His soul had seen and committed too much killing, too much maiming. It filled his mind with death and rage.

Hymi's eyes glistened as he stared hungrily at the dark-haired girl. She was Babylonian and not one of his own people. She was fair game for the rage inside his mind. He couldn't use the village girls, not even his own Diana, the way he needed to use this foreign witch-child from the dead city.

He could feel in her mind that she knew! It was she who had cursed him! It was she who would cure him of this unwanted rage and hate. If she was sacrificed, his living nightmare would end and he would become Hymi, again. He would be able to love again.

"Stop it!" Nikka cried out. "You're disturbing the sheep!"

Hymi laughed and pulled the slight girl against his hard body. "It is your voice that frightens them, Witch-girl. Don't make so much noise and you won't have to chase so far to fetch them back!"

Nikka struggled helplessly against Hymi's powerful body as he carried her over the ridge and down toward the river's edge.

"What's the matter with you?" Nikka cried as she pounded on him with her tiny fists. "Put me down! Where are you taking me?"

After carrying her a little ways, Hymi threw her to the ground. Nikka looked around and discovered they were on the riverbank. She looked up at him, towering over her, breathing rapidly. His tunic was dirty and sticking out in front of him. Nikka could see plainly what was underneath and making his tunic stick out like that.

"All that effort just for sex?" she asked, somewhat relieved that he was only horny.

"You are the source of evil!" Hymi raged at her. "You are the reason I am this way!" He paced back and forth, snarling at the slight girl sitting on the ground.

"All I want is the peace I had before I left," he said, suddenly more quiet. "My thoughts of home are what kept me alive through the terrible time of war! Then, when I return, I have the sanctity of my home, my village, ripped from my soul by your prying eyes! You have cursed me! Do you understand? You have brought everything I left on the battlefield into my home, my village! Into my soul!"

"What your people did to mine is in my mind and soul as well, Hymi," Nikka told him, coldly controlling her own anger. "But the peaceful people in the village did not rape, murder and dismember my people. They may have sent their sons to do that, but they have paid a price in the loss of those sons.

"There is no joy to be won by continuing to hate. If you have to live with what you did to me and mine inside you, then so be it! Your suffering does not begin to match theirs – or mine, every time I look upon you!" Nikka spat on his feet.

"But my suffering will end soon, 'Little' Nikka," Hymi said, his voice low and threatening. "It will end when your life ends – one last sacrifice, one last death – and I will be at peace. It will finally be ended!"

Nikka yelped and scooted back rapidly as Hymi reached for her. He grabbed her arm and she kicked at him, at that big rod sticking out in front of him. Hymi howled and let go of her. Dropping to the ground, Nikka tried to scramble away but Hymi grabbed her loose garment and pulled her right up off the ground.

Holding her in the air with her garment in both hands, Hymi ripped it in half. Nikka dropped naked to the ground with a startled cry, then was caught in his powerful grip again. He waded out into the mud at the river's edge, dragging Nikka behind him by one leg.

"I will sacrifice you to Sangar!" Hymi gasped as he pulled Nikka away from the shore toward deeper water. "He will be delighted to have a daughter of Babylon to feed his minions and when they have grown big and fat from feeding on you, Sangar will allow us to catch and feast on them in return."

Hymi was almost hip-deep in water, now, and pulled poor, terrified Nikka to him. She fought and kicked at him until he struck her several times in the face and she became more quiescent. He grappled her by the hips and pulled her against his long rod. Nikka shrieked as she felt his long rod invade her most private parts, then her head was being pushed under the water by his strong hands.

Nikka gasped and struggled, unwilling to let her life end this way.

'Daughters of the moon goddess don't get drowned in rivers!' The thought screamed in her mind! She kicked savagely against him, hard, managing to pull herself off his hard cock. Then she kicked at the soft part between his legs again.

Hymi roared in pain and rage, then fell on Nikka, shoving her completely underwater. She squirmed and clawed as fiercely as she could, then was suddenly free! Choking and gasping for air, she burst up out of the water and searched frantically for the river's edge. She clawed and climbed up the muddy embankment and had one hand on dry grass when Hymi grabbed her foot and pulled her back into the water.

He hit her hard, this time. Nikka reeled from the blow. She could taste her own blood in her mouth and her eyes were filled with it, blinded. She felt Hymi shove his hard rod back into her, nearly splitting her in half with his anger and hate. She could also feel him backing away from the river's edge, pulling her loose from the muddy roots she so desperately clung to.

Then there was nothing in her hands to hold her up and she was being pushed under the water again. Hymi was going to sacrifice her to the river god and there was nothing she could do to stop him. Now she was completely submerged and Hymi was pressing on her ribs, trying to make her give up the last of her precious air.

Nikka writhed and kicked as much as she could, but she couldn't get any leverage in the water, and another problem was occurring, distracting her from her battle for air.

Her body was betraying her! It liked what Hymi was doing to her! As her orgasm flooded through her belly, down her legs and up through her torso, Nikka felt her lungs giving up the last of her air. She gasped, hoping to catch some of it back, but inhaled water, instead.

Choking violently, she fought furiously to get one last gasp of air. She could see Hymi's large body above her through the churning water. Something straight and long suddenly appeared in his chest. He stopped trying to hold her underwater and fell backward...