Eternal Slave Ch. 06 - Slave Power

"-claiming he has escaped. The fate of the republic may rest on how well we handle this, and in a state of emergency the normal laws do not apply."

"But there's so much he should learn!" Sergeant Tease said. "How to cook for me, clean my boots, give me back massages, mop my floor, wear a uniform sexily in front of me, be lead and tethered by his shiny, new tie, as well as practice nude close combat with me."

Yes. Yes, she was right. This was all wrong. This was not how it should be. Sergeant Tease shouldn't be wearing that practical uniform. She should be back in the leather skirt, the handcuff-sized golden hoops knocking against her throat. And I should be on my knees now scrubbing the floor while this conversation took place. They didn't even have to be aroused by me, didn't even have to give me much attention except to make sure I was constantly erect. Why had I been fitted with a tie if it was not to be used?

What had she said...? Nude close combat? Fuck! How's a man supposed to concentrate?

"I assure you that there might be ample time for all that as soon as the effect passes and any suspicions fade away. Right now we are not in control of the situation. You and me, too, need to isolate ourselves. The first thing we must do is to send one of the men to find Captain Swift. She can be trusted, and will function as our liaison to the Commandant. He needs to be informed and take charge. Anything else at the moment?"

I raised a hand.

"Private?" Captain Ember said. It seemed that she preferred for people to ask permission to speak instead of treating her with the familiarity Sergeant Tease displayed. I had a feeling that working with Sergeant Tease was very good for the Captain.

"Yeah, uh," I said.

"Aw, he's so cute when he blushes, chief," Sergeant Tease said. "I think we need to fit him with a pair of prison pants. I could not vouch for myself if I were left alone with him for more than two minutes. Those pecs are enough to make me swoon. If he wore pants, though, with the key out of my reach, I am sure we would be able to train him even if he were kept in a box. And we wouldn't have to worry about him slipping his little piece of hardwood into some scheming lady by accident."

"What do you want to say, private?" Captain Ember said, turning away from the Sergeant.

"That woman. The witch from Slave Fountain. Sprite. She, eh, she made love... No, there was no love. She had sex with me. This morning, I think. Just after sunrise. And I think... She brought along a slave when she came here, one who used to truly hate her. After we had sex he was completely obedient to her." Except when he pushed me into the water. That I couldn't explain. "And I think you said that she used some sort of spell to bewitch some guards here? Maybe those guards were all male guards? I don't know. But, what do we do about her?"

"Excellent point, private," Captain Ember said. "Thank you. That has to take top priority."

I felt relieved she didn't protest the 'we.' I had a feeling privates were not usually part of discussions like this, and I wanted to be respected for my ability and usefulness. Not just my body and the effects caused by its icky fluids.

"We'll get Sergeant Lilac at the jail up here and inform her, at once. That witch Sprite needs to be contained. Only the Gods know what kind of havoc she may have caused down in the city."

"By the Lady!" Sergeant Tease said and groaned. "How long is this insanity power going to last! I hate staying in the tower. I want to go out and have fun! Private Sam, this is all your fault!"

"I'm so sorry," I said, blushing again as she gave me a hard look. I love hard looks on women. "I feel awful about-"

"I'm kidding, you silly man." She winked flirtatiously. I love being flirtatiously winked at even more than I love hard looks, so I blushed some more.

"-this. Let's just hope Sprite won't be able to affect anyone else."

According to the laws of narrative causality, this was the appropriate time for someone to come knocking at the door to tell the Captain that Sprite had affected someone else.

Just then, someone came knocking at the door to tell the Captain that Sprite had affected someone else.

The someone in question was Kevin, the gift slave from Angola, and his knocking was impeccably polite, yet urgent. Behind him, from away down the stairs, came the sound of what sounded like scuffling.

"Ma'am," he said, bowing slightly to Captain Ember, the kind of elegant bow you had to practice in the mirror for hours to pull off. "The Advocate, Captain Ponder, is here to see you."

"I see, private," she said. "Please inform the Captain that I may not see him at the moment, but if he would consent to use you to deliver his message... Private?"

Kevin managed to make his polite interruptive tilting of the head scream louder than any siren. "Ma'am, Captain Ponder is very agitated. In fact, private Joe and private Jiang thought it best to restrain him physically at the door while I informed you."

The three of us looked at each other.

"Restrain him?" Captain Ember said.

"Yes, Ma'am. Apparently Captain Ponder feels that you should hand over... private Sam was it?, to someone he refers to as 'his Lady Sprite.' We fear that he might be under some strain resulting from over-work."

Captain Ember rose at once and strode out of the door, Kevin stepping out of her way. She stopped at the top of the stairwell and listened.

"No, sir," we heard the Canadian called Joe answer. "Captain Ember gave instructions that she was not to be disturbed, and so we will not be hung for doing our duty."

"You traitors! She's stolen someone's property!" a furious voice answered. "It's theft, it's kidnapping, and she'll hang, too! Let me in!"

"Sorry, sir," Jiang said and sounded almost amused. "No can do."

"Very well," the voice that was probably Captain Ponder said. "I will take this up with the Commandant directly. At once. Rest assured that I will make sure you are punished for your crimes and disobedience."

"If you say so, sir," Joe answered.

"Have a nice day, sir" Jiang added.

"Captain!" Captain Ember said at once. "Could you come up here a moment?"

"Chief," Sergeant Tease whispered loudly. "Are you sure? He's going to-"

"He already is, Sergeant," Captain Ember said. "And I'm not taking the risk of letting him bring that woman to the Commandant."

"But what if he tries to take private Sam and give him to her?"

"Then I guess private Sam will just have to refuse being taken. He's a head taller than Captain Ponder and almost thirty years younger."

***

As soon as we saw him, it was obvious the Advocate was not going to try to take me anywhere. He was a short, thin man with closed-cropped silver hair and a nice beard. His face might usually look brisk and intelligent, but not today. Not right now. As he came face to face with the Captain, he looked as if someone had just rear-ended him, and then he'd found it that it was Gal Gadot in the other car and that she was wearing her Wonder Woman costume.

"Captain Ember, I demand..." he began with a dangerous judicial finger pointing at her. Then the finger fell. Then his arm fell. Then his jaw fell. "Captain Ember, I..."

"Quick, Captain Ponder," she said. "Come inside, please."

"Of course, Captain, of course." He shuffled towards us, and when he saw Sergeant Tease, his jaw was about to dislocate. I am not sure he even registered that Kevin and I were there.

"Please have a seat, Captain," Captain Ember said and pulled up a chair. "Private, please leave us alone and close the door."

Kevin bowed and retreated, Joe and Jiang following. Would the two women start to treat me like this as soon as all this madness passed? A slave to be excluded from all important discussions? It sounded hot, yet at the same time I wasn't sure that I truly would like that.

"Captain!" the Advocate said. "Sergeant! I'm sorry for trying to break in. I'm sorry for yelling. I didn't mean to. I don't know what came over me. I'll never do it again. I'm sorry. You know that I've always been a friend to the pair of you, and you know I've always done my utmost to be of service. And I want to be of service now. You are the two most beautiful, charming women in the world, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for you."

He slipped off the chair before he'd even sat down, knelt before them, and almost reached out with hands folded in supplication.

That was the way to do it. That's how a man should treat a woman.

The two women did not react in any way like they had done when I had begged and pleaded with them. Sergeant Tease didn't flutter her eye lashes. Instead she looked away, so embarrassed as if she were in pain. Captain Ember rose and helped the man on his feet and all but forced him to sit down in a chair.

"Ponder," she said and took his hand. "You have a spell cast on you. This is not who you are or what you feel. Resist! Think about your wife and your family!"

"Moonbeam?" he said and grasped her hand. "Forget about Moonbeam. She doesn't mean anything to me anymore. I'll divorce her. I don't care. I only want to be with you." He bent down and kissed the hand.

Captain Ember jerked it back as if he's poured hot tea over it.

The Advocate looked stricken. "Please, my love! Forgive me!"

Sergeant Tease closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, then spoke. "Captain. If you care about us, please sit still and listen."

The man nodded, his eyes wet and full of bittersweet desire as he looked at her.

Sergeant Tease looked at Captain Ember. "Do we tell him, chief?"

"Yes, I think we have to. I don't want to involve more people than we need, but he's not likely to forget this."

"Captain," Sergeant Tease said. "You've have a spell of enslavement cast on you. Through the powers of this man, private Sam, our new gift slave. He's given this gift to Captain Ember and me, as well as the witch Sprite, all unwittingly. Can you accept that? That what you feel now is not real?"

The man looked from woman to woman, then smiled a wry, bitter smile. "Yes," he said. "Right now the two of you mean everything to me. I... I want to tell you about my passion, to pour out my heart to you, but I can tell you don't want me to. But yes, I can accept. My love, my sweet loves."

"Thank you Captain. We need your help."

"Anything, my love. Anything."

"How do you feel about Sprite now?"

"Lady Sprite? I miss her." He looked wistful. "She's... quite a woman."

"How if I told you that she's evil? That she enslaved you on purpose?"

"On purpose? She wanted to talk to me. To reason with me, about some escaped slave. I would do anything for her, so I tried to help her."

"Would you help us now?"

"Anything, my love."

"We don't need anything. We just need to know the answer to this." Sergeant Tease pointed at me. "That's the slave she was talking to you about. Private Sam. We want to keep him as member of the Slave Squad. Now that you see him, now that you've heard our opinion, what do you want to do? Let us keep him, or bring him to Sprite"

"He's yours, my love. And yours, my love!" The smile he offered Captain Ember was one that would have made him cringe if he saw it in his normal state. He hadn't even looked at me for a second.

"Excellent," Captain Ember said. "Tell us about this Sprite and what she's been up to?"

"The poor, helpless woman came to our gates to complain about this slave she'd lost. After some of the guards unjustly took offense to her behavior, she was locked up. Eventually she got to meet me, and I was able to help her."

"Help her?" Captain Ember said. "She's not locked up anymore?"

"No, my love," he said with a expression that told us he was very pleased with himself. "I ordered her set free and given a visitor's pass."

"I see," Captain Ember said. "So, we can expect an army of mindless men showing up any minute now, looking for private Sam?"

"If the lovely Ms Sprite wants a crowd of men to adore her, then who am I to complain?" the Advocate said.

"I am one to complain," Sergeant Tease said. "Complain, curse, tear out my hair, you name it. Chief, what do we do?"

The Captain thought for a second, her green eyes narrowing.

"I'll hide," I said. "In a closet, a cave, a basement, whatever. I don't want to be used so that people can do this to innocent bystanders."

"You're right, private," Captain Ember said. "But you'll have to leave the castle. At once. You cannot be found right now. That's the one thing I am absolutely sure of. Sergeant Tease will go with you. I'll stay here and try to counteract the witch's powers with my own. There's no use in trying to conceal what has happened now."

"Chief, I think I should stay," Sergeant Tease said.

"But my duty is here, Sergeant."

"You're a much better fighter, sailor, and ranger than me, chief. And I can beat you at lying and flattering ten times out of nine."

"That doesn't make any-"

"You know what I meant, chief."

"As you wish, Sergeant. I'll take Sam with me to keep him safe. I'll bring Jiang, too. He'll be useful."

"Uh..." I said. "Aren't we overreacting? Couldn't the pair of you overwhelm Sprite's powers, then lock her up, and figure out what to do afterwards?"

"Private Sam," Captain Ember said and her green eyes stared into my blue ones. "If we make one, single mistake this Sprite will get to you, and then the republic may fall into her hands. If we defeat her, then any woman who gets her hands on you may be able to do the same. That's not a chance I'm willing to take. To be honest, I am tempted to cut you down right here and now."

I tried to make my lips form a smile, but I saw that Sergeant Tease was looking at nothing, her hands trembling. Fuck! She wasn't kidding.

"You need to disappear, private," the Captain went on, "until such time as it is safe for your to emerge again. We have no time for further discussion. We need to pack, then leave. At once."

***

As Captain Ember, private Jiang, and myself escaped from the castle and down to the city, I made the following observations:

1. I have no idea what a 'nick' is, but we were running away in just one of those unit of time. Outside the door to the tower there was now a large crowd of male soldiers demanding to see Captain Ember on behalf of their beloved Lady Sprite, two male soldiers wanting to hand Sergeant Tease some flowers, and a few very upset, very confused female soldiers trying to calm the proceedings.

2. All castles have secrets passages, and those passages are put there for the people in the castle to escape during a siege. Captain Ember felt that the situation qualified as an emergency, and the passage we took deposited us in a cellar close by the wall.

3. There are way cooler gift slave powers being handed around than that of messing up the lives and minds of women you have sex with. In Jiang's case, for example, you could climb a castle wall like Spider man would and dance around on the castle wall like Spider man might and, again just like Spider Man did, help pull up other guys who huff and puff while trying to climb the rope you have let down for them to use. Then you can jump (also like Spider Man) down from a castle wall while your rival huffs and puffs some more, and generally leap and jump about on your way like a world class gymnast and part-time Spider Man impersonator as the other idiot falls and stub-toes his way through the badlands down to the city. Probably huffing and puffing even more.

4. Even though you've just had sex with five different women during the last few days, and you can't decide if you like one of them better than the others; even though you know it's for a practical purpose; even though she just informed you she might have to kill you - you can still feel insanely jealous when the woman with the green eyes and the red hair tells the fifty-something Chinese guy that she's going to use him 'as the first possible opportunity.' And it doesn't help that the fifty-something Chinese guy grins like he's thirteen and about to really see real boobs for real for the first time.

***

"Something is wrong," Captain Ember said.

We were crouching behind a big rock just above an orchard at the edge of the city, looking down. All of us were wearing dark, sensible clothes. Captain Ember had a small backpack slung over her shoulder. Both Jiang and me had offered to take it. Both Jiang and me had been refused.

I looked down at the city. The place looked normal. At least that's what I thought, never having looked at a fantasy world town at night before. Perhaps everyone were carrying lamps as they walked from bar to bar? The faint breeze was warm and pleasant, and the night scent of the island made me think of Piña Coladas.

"All those lamps, Ma'am," Jiang said. "What are all those people doing, walking around like that now?"

"I would like you to descend and investigate, private," she said.

"Certainly, Ma'am." He grinned and slipped away like a black cat.

The Chinese man was traveling incognito: His red tie was hidden under a turtleneck sweater, as was mine. I did not like that. Yes, I could still feel the green fabric gripping my throat, but I wanted people to see it. I wanted Captain Ember to be reminded that I was her slave. To remember that the Jiang fellow, however useful he might be, still wore a red tie taken from some other woman's dress. The thing I liked even less about my current dress were the prison pants Sergeant Tease had put on me before we left. She'd thought my sad, hopeless face was hilarious, and made sure I was desperate enough to beg and plead before the knot was tied. I was so happy for her.

I tried to dislike Jiang, but found I couldn't. He looked and acted very friendly, and the food he'd brought us to be wolfed down before we left tasted like Chinese food tasted in China, only with an extra generous helping of chili.

Captain Ember stared after him. I stared at Captain Ember instead. Captain Ember was so beautiful with that haughty expression and utterly capable demeanor. Fuck palm trees and Pinã Coladas, I wanted to be with her.

Yes, I admit it. Yes, I focused on the pretty girl and not the situation at hand. And no, I did not even have an erection to excuse myself. I would get one soon, of course, but that was my own fault.

I had to make Captain Ember give me some attention. Should I... Tell her how good our sex had been? No, Sam. No. Whine and ask her if she really, really was going to kill me if there was no other option? No, Sam. Not if you aren't ready for the answer. Ask for a quickie? Yeah. Excellent suggestion.

"Ma'am?" I whispered.

She nodded, but didn't look my way. Jiang had disappeared, yet she was still staring down the hill.

I took that as an invitation to slide closer. You know, so that I didn't have to speak so loudly.

"Where are you taking us, Ma'am?"

"We need to keep you out of harm's way, private. There are certain uninhabited islands not too far away where you may be hidden while a strategy to deal with your powers is being developed."

"An island, Ma'am? How long will I have to stay there?"

"That will depend, private. There will be enough sustenance there for an extended period of time, though."

"I see, Ma'am," I said. And I saw, all right. I saw a tropical paradise just like Slave Fountain, and I saw the three of us, alone, trying to survive. I saw the need for coconut palm climbing, bird shooting, and spear fishing. I saw the need to build a shed to sleep in, and to collect fresh water. And in all of those activities, I saw how useful it was if Captain Ember constantly possessed the same athletic skills as Jiang, or ever more powerful ones. I saw how a practical woman like Captain Ember would decide that it would be appropriate for her to replenish her skills daily. And of course I saw that Captain Ember would see no use in having power over other men at place where there were no other men. Would see absolutely no use in that. At all. Certainly not if that also meant falling slightly more under the spell of some man or other each time she used him. I saw, to put it bluntly, an extended period of great satisfaction for one man and of great frustration for another.