Extract from Scarlet Vice

Feeling extremely sorry for herself and wishing she’d had the sense to let the trader and the Northern fuck her first, K’Tai stood patiently as her wrists were lashed together. Secure, she was led to where the single mast projected from the deck and her wrists tied off at the level of the boom. She braced herself, her bottom stuck out towards the bow, completely defenceless, her legs set together. Panic began to grip her as Brother Bastian stood back, hefting the strap.

She began to wiggle her toes and making little treading motions with her feet, also to whimper, a sound that broke to a full blooded scream as the thick leather smacked into the meat of her bottom, jamming her against the mast and splattering the first crew-boy’s spunk, which still coated her skin, in every direction. Before she could even recover herself a second blow fell, no less harsh than the first, delivered across the centre of her cheeks, to make her bottom bounce, and wobble, still wobbling as the third stroke came in, and the fourth, the strap now smacking down on her naked rump to the tune of her screams and the crew-boys’ crows of delighted laughter.

K’Tai could do nothing, her body jerking to the pain without her control, her hips swivelling frantically, her legs kicking in every direction, until she lost her balance and went down, hanging from her wrists, her legs bent at the knee, her breasts and belly pressed to the hard wood. Brother Bastian merely stepped closer and aimed down a little, catching her bottom a cracking blow as the beating continued, with K’Tai no longer aware of how many strokes she’d had, or of anything much beyond her pain and the mocking laughter of the crew-boys.

It had been so sudden, and so fast, that the misery and humiliation of her condition only really sank in with the final blow. Hanging limp in her bonds, with her bottom a flaming ball of hot pain, she began to snivel, then to cry, all her emotions boiling up together. Brother Bastian merely made some incomprehensible remark, but N’Ga stepped close, to ruffle her hair and start to work on her bonds.

Both crew-boys suddenly seemed to be immensely busy with the boat, disappearing aft as K’Tai was released, while Brother Bastian had turned to look out over the river and was muttering again. Glad for any sympathy she could get, K’Tai allowed N’Ga to lead her below, his arm around her waist until they reached the narrow aisle between the bales of trade goods. She was still crying, but managed a weak smile as he poured her a cup of the red wine and sat down. When he spoke it was in Akasava, accented, but clear enough.

‘Do not mind Brother Bastian, he is a Northern and a zealot for their foolish beliefs. For some reason outside my comprehension they cannot stand to see a woman’s naked flesh, still less acts of lust, or love.’

‘He is mad,’ K’Tai rejoined, taking courage from his friendly tone, ‘and as vicious as a ghoul ape, to beat me so harshly merely for not giving him precedence in my cunt! Also, why were not the crew-boys beaten?’

‘You do not understand,’ N’Ga responded. ‘he has no wish to fuck you, or if he does, he keeps his desire in check. He beat you for fucking with the crew-boys, and no doubt he would beat them, only he knows I would heave him over the side, even if he is a mission man.’

‘Why should I not fuck with the crew-boys? I am no longer virgin, and nor should he care if I was…’

‘You committed what is called a “sin”.’

‘What is that?’

‘Like a crime, but of the mind as well as of the body, or so they say. I do not pretend to understand, and how could I? The Northerns are all mad.’

‘This is so,’ K’Tai agreed wholeheartedly, ‘yet they have a strong spirit.’

N’Ga merely nodded and poured himself another cup of wine before extending the bottle to K’Tai. She drank a little, then spoke again, cautiously.

‘You know I am Akasava?’

‘It is in your voice. Besides which, you wear neither bangles, nor neck rings, your lips are not pierced for decoration, nor your ears for coin. It is also in the scent of your cunt and of your skin.’

K’Tai nodded.

‘You are not going to drown me?’

‘No. Ten years I have traded to what you now call Kaldro’s landing, and beyond. Thus far your people have eaten neither my balls, nor my brain.’

‘Why would we! Only a chief or the finest of warriors may eat a man’s balls, and then only a great warrior killed in battle. Likewise, we take in the wisdom only of the few. Not intending insult, but…’

He raised two fingers.

‘I know this. Many do not. You were banished then, or did you run?’

‘I ran, because… for several reasons.’

‘Because you allowed yourself to be fucked?’

K’Tai grimaced and nodded, unwilling to even attempt to explain what had happened with Costos. Another concern came into her mind.

‘You said you would buy me? I am not Brother Bastian’s to sell, nor do I wish to be a slave.’

He shrugged.

‘What else could you be? It is your inevitable fate, without the protection of your tribe. Sooner or later you will be taken, Akasava or not, that or killed for a man-eater. What gain to you in seeking to deny me my profit?’

‘I though I might become a crew-girl with a trader, with you perhaps? I cook well. I suck cock well, I am told…’

‘In Volspana you would fetch maybe four ten of ten… four hundreds of pieces, even more. I need no cook, and women on boats are always trouble, causing friction and jealousy among the men, it is in your nature.’

No. I am prepared to give pleasure to yourself and your crew.’

‘Yes? Perhaps, but with me you would sleep on the boards and be used perhaps six or eight times a day, while I would also sell your mouth and cunt up and down the river to offset your share of the profit and increase my own. In Volspana you would be a slave, true, but a fine, fat girl like you would take only the best, perhaps three or four a day, and on a feather bed with silken sheets. When not fucking, you would have nothing to do but, eat, drink, joke with your fellow sluts, powder your cunt and titties…’

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