Chains Released

1

Jake Killen woke up to a throbbing head and an awareness that he lay on something lumpy and not very comfortable. It took some effort for him to turn to one side, and then he had to fight himself into a sitting position. Sitting up made his head spin even more, but once the dizziness eased up he could at least look around at where he was.

Light came into the room through a couple of small windows high up in one of the walls. The room itself was dirty and not very big, holding nothing but the pallet Jake sat on and a second pallet holding a still-unconscious Tandro. Why he and Tandro hadn’t been killed was a question Jake wished he knew the answer to, but at the moment he wasn’t able to worry about ulterior motives. As long as he was still alive it would be possible to escape at some point, hopefully a point that would be reached before they were given too much pain…

“Oh, my head,” Tandro groaned, and then the native was also forcing himself to sit up with one hand to the head he’d mentioned. “What happened, and where are we?”

“This time we were attacked with clubs instead of knives, and I have no idea where we are,” Jake answered, moving just a little to look directly at Tandro. “Since there was no one else on the street at the time of the attack, we’re probably the only prisoners who were taken. You do remember that no one else was around, don’t you?“

Tandro winced as he looked at Jake sharply, but happily the other man got the point Jake wanted him to. If Tain was as good as Jake thought she was, she’d gotten herself and Ennie out of harm’s way before the attack was over. Their attackers might not know about the two slaves who’d been following the pack horses, and if they didn’t know about the girls he didn’t want Tandro telling them.

“Yes, I do remember that there was no one else on the street,” Tandro finally said with a very faint smile. “That has to be why they jumped us at just that time. But I wonder if it’s possible that someone saw what happened and is right now telling the guard about it. If so, we could be out of here in no time.”

“That’s possible, so let’s hope it’s true,” Jake agreed, but only to reassure his friend and companion. Tain would probably decide against telling the guard anything, since she didn’t know about the relationship he and Tandro had developed with Captain Sovri. Jake had been too busy messing around with Tain and then trying to apologize to keep the woman informed about what was going on, and now he was paying for that stupidity.

Tandro lapsed into silence, so Jake did the same. In a few minutes his head was feeling fractionally better, due entirely to the quiet, so he was hoping that the silence would go on for a while. It did continue for a short while, and then someone opened the door to the room and walked in. The man was fairly large and on the heavy side, but those weren’t the most interesting things about him. His vest and knife belt and sheathe were covered in jewels, the most ostentatious display of wealth Jake had seen on this planet.

“How nice, you’re both awake,” the newcomer said as he swaggered a few more steps into the room. He also looked from Jake to Tandro with a very disturbing smile on his face, a smile that made Jake’s insides tighten.

“In case you were wondering, my name is Himlin.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Jake said as he got slowly to his feet, seeing out of the corner of his eye that Tandro also stood. “What I don’t understand, though, is why you changed tactics. The first two times you sent men with knives.”

“But this time men with knives would have done me more harm than good,”

Himlin said, his smile changing to a very cold stare. “You two have lodged an official complaint against me, and you have to be still living to withdraw that complaint. Which you’ll do either later today or tomorrow, depending on when I decide to send you out. I haven’t made up my mind about that yet.”

“And how do you expect to get us to withdraw that complaint?” Tandro asked in his calm and quiet way. “If we walk into guard headquarters either badly beaten or hurt in some other way, they’ll know our decision was forced on us. As I understand it, forcing someone to withdraw a complaint is also against the law around here.”

“You’re right, it is,” Himlin agreed, a flash of cruel anticipation appearing momentarily in the coldness of his gaze. “But I now have a way around that law, and you can thank your friend over there for supplying the way. I’ll admit I probably wouldn’t have thought of the idea on my own… Kneel to your master, slaves.”

Jake had only just started to wonder why he wasn’t making any attempt to jump Himlin when he found out the hard way. His body knelt without any direction from his mind, and Tandro did exactly the same. That told Jake he and Tandro had been given the slave drug, after which they’d been ordered not to make any trouble. Being unconscious hadn’t kept them from hearing the order, and now that they were awake they were able to obey it.

“At first the idea of men being made into slaves outraged me, but that was only at first,” Himlin said as he looked down at them with grim pleasure.

“Once I thought about it for a little while I realized that some men deserve to be enslaved, if only to teach them a lesson about what not to do. If you then add in the opportunity their master would have to take out some of his anger on the ones who made him angry to begin with, you end up with a really good idea. Uncover your bodies completely.”

Jake and Tandro had no choice but to obey, and in no time at all they were kneeling naked. Silently cursing himself out for having such a big mouth did Jake no good at all, especially when Himlin ordered them to stand up and follow him. The damage was already done, and now he and Tandro had to survive the results of Jake’s bone-headed inspiration.

The next room wherever they were was at least three times larger than their original room, and some of the men who had captured Jake and Tandro were lounging around in chairs. In the middle of the other chairs was a larger one that was empty, which told Jake where Himlin would sit.

There were also two things standing not far from the chairs that looked like wooden saw horses, and Himlin gestured to them.

“Each of you stand behind one of the forms facing one another,” the slaver directed as he headed for his chair. “Since you’re both so concerned with what’s done to female slaves, it’s only fair that you find out first hand what their lot in life is like.”

Jake would have enjoyed at least hesitating before obeying Himlin, but even that wasn’t allowed him—or Tandro. The other man walked to the second saw horse which stood about five feet away from Jake’s, and when he put himself behind the thing they were facing one another.

“Good,” Himlin said, and Jake was sure that the slaver had seated himself.

“Now bend over the forms just a bit, but not so far that you can’t still see each other.”

It turned out to be necessary to hold to the top of what Himlin called a form in order to bend over and still be able to see Tandro, so that was the position Jake found himself in. The sight of Tandro in the same position looked disturbingly familiar to Jake, but before he was able to figure out why he felt disturbed he was distracted in a very unpleasant way.

“No, don’t tense your muscles in an effort to resist,” Himlin said, making Jake want to curse out loud. “You’re slaves, and slaves aren’t permitted to resist.”

Which meant there was nothing to stop the person behind Jake from thrusting what had to be an insertion into Jake’s backside. He could see the same thing being done to Tandro even as he felt it being done to him personally, and the grin on the face of the man behind Tandro filled Jake with the need to kill. But he couldn’t kill, he wasn’t being allowed to, and that made the situation ten times worse.

“Slaves are required to be obedient and pleasing at all times,” Himlin said as Jake fought not to move around at the urging of the insertion. “My two newest slaves have been very disobedient and not at all pleasing, so now they’re going to be punished. Slaves need to know what being bad slaves will bring them.”

Jake’s stomach had already clenched at the sight of what the man behind Tandro held because he knew there was another man behind him also holding a switch. If Himlin had decided to have them whipped, Tandro would probably be as happy as Jake; there are times when intense pain is much preferable to less pain and intense humiliation. But they weren’t being given the choice, especially not when Himlin wanted to send them to withdraw their complaint—A sound hissed out of Jake’s throat at the feel of the first stroke across his backside, a painful stroke that made him move in a way he’d been trying to avoid. The movement combined with the sight and sound of Tandro being given a first stroke, and then Jake felt the second stroke land. He and Tandro weren’t being switched at exactly the same time, an oddity Jake didn’t understand.

It took half a dozen very painful strokes of the switch before Jake did understand what was being done. He was being made to watch Tandro’s switching just as Tandro was watching his own, and after half a dozen strokes Jake was flinching and moving even when only Tandro was being struck. It was like doubling the punishment, and that insertion made the time pure hell. Not moving had become impossible, and Jake was horribly aware of how aroused he had become.

It came to Jake that if he’d been asked before now just how bad he considered a switching to be, he would not have hesitated in saying that it couldn’t be thought of as fun but certainly wasn’t all that bad. That conclusion came, of course, before he was made to stand bent over and do nothing but writhe as the thin branch was brought down hard on his backside again and again. He could feel his flesh quivering even when the switch wasn’t hitting him, and anticipating the next stroke made the stroke worse when it came.

After a very short while Jake wanted to howl every time another stroke landed, and it was all he could do not to let the howl become audible.

Tandro had begun to grunt very low when he was struck, and then he began to grunt even when Jake was struck. Tandro was being made to watch—and share—Jake’s punishment even as Jake was watching and sharing his, and the humiliation rose so high that Jake was amazed it was possible for him to breathe around it.

The time of the switching seemed absolutely endless, but it couldn’t have gone on for more than fifteen or twenty minutes before Himlin unexpectedly called a halt.

“All right, that’s enough for now,” Himlin said, clearly speaking to the men with the switches. “If their behavior isn’t absolutely perfect for the rest of the day we’ll give them the same again later, and maybe I’ll have them switched even if their behavior is perfect. Since I’m the one who owns these slaves, I can do anything I like with them. That should prove how much better it is to own a slave rather than be one.”

The laughter coming from all the men who had watched Jake’s humiliation made that humiliation even worse, but there was still nothing Jake could do to change things. The slaver wanted him and Tandro to wish they were masters again instead of slaves, but the tactic wasn’t working the way the fool expected. Jake was now even more opposed to slavery, not to mention silently promising himself Himlin’s blood as soon as it became possible to take it…

“All right, slaves, you can straighten up now but don’t try to touch or take out what was put inside you,” Himlin said after the laughter died down. “Come over here, and then kneel at my feet to either side of my chair. I like having slaves around me when I relax.”

Again Jake had no choice but to obey, and walking proved to be even more painful than he’d expected. But painful wasn’t the only thing walking turned out to be, and by the time he reached Himlin’s chair it was all he could do not to groan. The insertion had made him aroused during the switching, and walking had increased the arousal. The men seated in the chairs grinned wide as they watched him and Tandro, some of them chuckling as others laughed outright. They could all see how Jake and Tandro felt, the two men’s condition being more than a little obvious.

“Yes, I enjoy having obedience from my slaves,” Himlin said once Jake and

Tandro had knelt painfully to either side of his feet. “And I also enjoy having slaves around me. Bring in the first one.”

One of the men was near a door in the far side of the room, and when

Himlin gave his order the man near the door turned and opened it. The way the man grinned was a hint Jake didn’t want to believe, but the next moment the hint was reality that couldn’t be denied. A really beautiful woman came in, moving with all the grace of a born and trained dancer, her naked body covered only with lengths of sheer lavender silk that were worse for Jake than complete nudity would have been.

The woman’s dark hair hung down to her slender waist in bouncing waves, moving beyond her arms as she moved toward them. Most of her body was slender, but her breasts jutted against the silk to emphasize her small waist and rounded hips. Her lovely face wore a smile of welcome and encouragement, and actual amusement danced in her gorgeous blue eyes.

Jake’s arousal was so intense and painful that he wanted to jump to his feet and use the woman no matter how many others were watching, but he’d been ordered to kneel and that order hadn’t been rescinded. When Tandro groaned aloud, it took all of Jake’s will not to do the same.

The music of a flute sounded suddenly, and the woman began to dance to the music. The flute-player had apparently followed the woman into the room, but Jake hadn’t noticed the small man until he began to play. The way the woman swayed and turned and stepped and posed was sheer hell for Jake, and even closing his eyes didn’t help much.

“I expect you slaves to watch this other slave’s every move,” Himlin’s voice came, instantly ruining Jake’s feeble escape attempt. “She’s been trained for a specific purpose, and I want to know if that purpose has been achieved.”

So Jake was forced to watch the dancer as she moved in a very small amount of space in front of Himlin. Jake’s hands had turned to fists where they rested on his thighs, an outward admission that the ache in his backside wasn’t enough of a distraction. His body flared with the demand of his need, but he wasn’t being allowed to see to that need. He was just being allowed to have the need increase, higher and higher without the least hope of getting it taken care of.

And then an odd thought came to Jake in spite of his barely being able to think. Himlin had said that the slave had been trained for a specific purpose, but he hadn’t said exactly what that purpose was. It was just possible that Himlin meant to question him and Tandro after the girl finished dancing, and if they came up with the proper purpose of the girl’s training they might be allowed to use her. Part of Jake was very ashamed that he would even consider taking advantage of a slave like that, but the rest of him needed release too badly to worry about the niceties. If he ever got away he could find the girl and apologize, but right now…

Right now Jake knew he had to figure out the answer to the question he’d be asked, so he watched the girl’s dance carefully. Her movements were graceful but they were also slow and deliberate, the way she held to the silk and occasionally moved it emphasizing all the rest. Her gaze slid from one of the men watching her to the next, the smile on her face provocative, the look in her eyes the least bit challenging. Her hips moved in a way that turned Jake’s mouth even drier, and—That’s it, Jake thought when the realization forced its way through to his conscious mind. She’s been trained to entice men into wanting to rape her, and the training has been very effective. If she would just come close enough for me to grab her…

But the girl didn’t come close enough to be grabbed, only almost close enough. Out of the corner of his eye Jake could see that Tandro was writhing where he knelt, something that Jake would have also done if he hadn’t had a ten-point-steel grip on himself. His intense interest couldn’t be missed by anyone who looked at him, but at least he wasn’t adding to his own humiliation by writhing.

The girl danced for a very long time, years and decades and centuries in Jake’s estimation, but finally she went to her knees and bowed her head while she squirmed around a little and then the dance was over. The flute playing stopped while the men in the audience made loud sounds of appreciation, and then Himlin turned his head toward Jake.

“Well, slave, I can see that you liked the dance quite a lot,” Himlin commented, making his men laugh again. “Now I’ll find out if you also obeyed my orders. Without speaking aloud, tell me if you’re able to say whether the female slave’s special training has been effective—and that you know what she’s been trained to do.”

Jake nodded his head, the only way left him to show that he’d figured out the answer to the question, but Himlin didn’t go on to ask that question. He turned to Tandro and said the same thing he’d said to Jake, but Tandro didn’t show a nod the way Jake had. Tandro shook his head instead, which told Jake why Himlin had silenced him. If Jake had spoken aloud, he might have been able to share his knowledge with Tandro.

“Oh, that’s really too bad,” Himlin said when he saw Tandro’s headshake, the slaver pretending to be upset on Tandro’s behalf. “I’m afraid you’re going to regret not having the answer, but maybe you won’t be alone regretting the lack. Your friend claims to know how to answer my question, but maybe he doesn’t know at all. It’s time to find out, so tell me, slave, what was the female slave trained to do?”

“She was trained to entice men into wanting to rape her,” Jake said, suddenly wondering if his answer was the one Himlin was looking for. “And yes, her training has been very effective.”

Those words brought laughter from all the men again, and Himlin wasn’t shy about joining in. The slaver enjoyed his laugh while even the dancer smiled, and then he half leaned down to Jake.

“What a good slave you are, obeying your master so well,” Himlin said as he patted Jake’s head. “You’ve earned a small reward, which I know you’ll be grateful for. Girl, go and bend over the form and raise that silk up to your waist.”

Jake’s mouth turned even drier as the girl instantly obeyed the orders she’d been given. She jumped to her feet and hurried to the form Jake himself had used, then raised the bottom of her silk costume before bending over the form. She was in exactly the right position to be used, and Jake waited tensely for permission to go and do that using. He needed a woman, needed her desperately, and even putting on a show for his captors wouldn’t—make the time - a complete waste—It actually took Jake that long to realize that Himlin wasn’t giving him permission to use the girl, but had gotten to his own feet and walked over to her. Himlin had his body wrap open in no time, showing that he was almost as badly aroused as Jake, and then the slaver was thrusting himself into the girl. The girl cried out when that very large tool was pushed into her, but she made no attempt to escape the following use. Not that she could have escaped even if she’d wanted to…

Terrible disappointment flooded over Jake, the emotion so sharp that for the first time in his adult life he really wanted to cry. He’d done exactly what he was supposed to do, had been praised and promised a reward, and then the reward he’d hoped for was snatched out of his hands by his master. Even though doing something like that was his master’s prerogative, Jake still wanted to cry. He’d have to be careful to be much better the next time, or else this would just happen again—Jake shook his head hard as anger flooded his mind, chasing out all those alien thoughts. He didn’t want to cry, he wanted to hurt Himlin for tormenting him, and also for giving him more orders while he was unconscious than he’d realized. If his previous reaction hadn’t been so totally alien to his normal way of looking at things, he might not have been able to thrust the ideas away so easily. Jake could have ended up an eager slave, anxious to do well for the man who had made himself Jake’s master…

It would have been nice if Jake could have spoken aloud the words that now filled his mind, but asking for trouble was definitely a bad idea. Himlin had probably given Jake the kind of orders that were given to female slaves, having no idea that the same kind of orders would be useless to hold a man. Which was a damned good thing, or Jake would have been really deep in it right now.

And the only question left now, Jake thought, was how much worse it would get. That it would get worse was so sure a thing that Jake would have willing to bet every cent he owned on the certainty. And he couldn’t even hope for rescue. Tain would be a fool if she didn’t get Ennie and herself out of the town and back to base, but she might have been that kind of fool if Jake hadn’t … enjoyed himself.

It’s my own fault, Jake thought as every ache and sense of need intensified in his awareness. This will be going on for a very long time, and I have no one but myself to blame. Not that that makes acceptance any easier… What the hell else will Himlin do to us…?