Infall Ch. 07

Chapter Seven

Indya waved to Mavia, who was riding in the cart, Zozo running with Ashka. Mavia waved back. Mavia was coming with her to Averdine, and Indya's friend hadn't seemed sad to leave Edith, who had returned.

It wasn't difficult to see why. Edith was a huge, angry-seeming man, as big as Kythe and Zen, and he hadn't seemed happy to find the rí at his home. Indya had no idea how Mavia, so full of laughter, could have had such a child. Indya blamed Mavia's husband, whom she disliked even never having met him, but she didn't say so to Mavia.

Edith had refused to allow Mavia to to Averdine with Indya, shaking his head, not even looking at Indya after his first alarmed, sweeping glance. "She's got no use to me anymore," Edith said, giving Mavia a glance, "but she's still my responsibility."

"She has many uses, you saying that," Indya had cried, almost in tears, she was so angry.

"Please, Indya," Mavia had said in a low voice, meeting her eyes, Indya aching to see the disappointment there.

But Kythe and Zen had spoken to Edith privately, the man looking angry and scared, and Edith had consented. Indya still didn't know why Mavia would need permission, considering Mavia was the parent in the relationship.

"He's had too many disappointments in his life," Mavia said on the day they left, when Edith stayed in the cabin and didn't say goodbye to Mavia. Mavia was making excuses for his bad behavior, her hands arranging a shawl on her lap. "The girl he pined after married another with more land, and he had ambitions that didn't get met. Maybe now that I'm not a burden to him, he'll find what he wants."

"You are never being a burden to nobody ever," Indya had said, feeling such a wave of anger on behalf of her friend that she'd had to swallow the rest of what she wanted to say. "You are joy with your laughing that makes everyone around you be happy."

Now Indya was riding Saba, looking around herself at Matise, this land Zen and Kythe's father ruled, which they crossed into on the third day. Even now, the rí didn't ride without other men, and there were twenty in the camp when they got there.

And there had been Kythe and Zen's familiar tent. So, Indya had her own tent again, and Mavia lived there, and Mavia never said anything when Indya was gone for the night, which was every night. When Kythe and Zen came to her tent, Mavia was quiet in front of the rí, sewing and sewing, but every once in a while, if someone said something funny, Indya would hear her raspy laugh from the corner.

It was still cold, but she was warm in clothes Kythe and Zen had given her, soft boots that she loved. She hadn't ridden yesterday, not able to sit on a horse. Today, she still was glad to stop in the afternoon, rubbing her bottom, Kythe's eyes slanting to hers and a smile coming to his mouth.

* * *

"What's the matter, nina?" Zen had said the first night she'd visited their tent after they'd come back, in the evening.

She'd been walking around their tent quietly, Zozo following her like he was afraid she'd disappear again, looking at things, thinking how foolish she'd been, how much she'd scared them. How much she'd scared herself. She could have died for nothing more than one man's lies and her pride. She'd gone and sat down, Zozo coming to her and putting his head on her lap, Indya stroking his head.

"What's wrong, alea?" Kythe said.

Looking down at her hands, she had answered. "I don't stop think about what I did. I don't give you reasons in my letter. You don't know why. I saying I'm sorry to you, but it's not enough for me. I was being proud too much to wait for the truth. How do you punish your people when they are doing something wrong?"

"The men? We eschdul them," Zen said.

"What is that?"

"We tie them by their hands to a post in the ground and strike them with an esh."

"What is an esch?" she said a little more faintly.

Kythe walked to a chest and opened it, pulling it out and showing her.

Indya swallowed, her vision going a little gray at the edges. Then she nodded. "You will do this to me," she said, setting her jaw, her heart pounding. She'd clasped her hands together because they were shaking.

"Nina," Zen said, his voice saying no.

She frowned at him, her nose flaring, her chin coming up. "I'm not afraid," she said, "Well, I am being afraid, but if your peoples is enduring this punishment, I is enduring, and then I am forgiving myself. I'm strong."

"She's right," Kythe said. "She will take her stripes for what she has done, not giving us a chance to tell her the truth, running from us and almost dying, making us worry and look for her for months. Will you accept your punishment from me, how I will do it? I am the one who punishes the men. You don't have to worry I will go easy on you."

"Yes," Indya said, breathing fast, looking up at him. "And it will be over."

"Then it will be over," Kythe agreed. "We will do it here, now."

"Now?" she said, beginning to shake. "Yes. Okay, now." Her heart was thudding in her chest. It was better this way. She didn't want to wait, anticipating it. Kythe was being kind.

"She's frightened, brother," Zen said.

"As she should be," Kythe said. "She's not only going to be our wife, brother. We don't want another woman, so she will also be our savorenella. Our savorenella comes to us and asks for punishment for something she's done. Shall we deny her, or shall we take our pleasure on her striped flesh?"

Indya looked at Zen. He studied her face and then he rose, his breathing deeper. "Go lie down," he said to Zozo and Ashka, who went straight to their places, his voice different.

"Then stand up, savoronella, woman-for-sex, and strip," Kythe said. "Leave your hair in the tail. We want to see your face, see your sweet body."

She stood, shaking all over like she was cold, her hands going to the fastenings of her dress behind her. She dropped all of it onto the floor and was naked. She looked at Kythe's face when he came and looked down at her, that same cool expression.

"You've never felt the lash before. You're gentle and unused to pain. You've said you want this. But if you can't bear it, make a fist with this hand," Kythe said, touching her right hand, "and Zen will tell me. I will stop, little alea. There's no shame."

"All right," she said, her eyes still on his face.

Zen walked and picked up the high bench for the saddles to rest on and set it down in the middle of the floor, beginning to secure a rope to it.

Kythe's huge hands went to her breasts, cupping them, her nipples jutting. He rested them there, his eyes on them. "I missed you, alea, like fire. I thought of you, lying awake in the night, wanting your warmth. You are made for us. I want to whip you and hear your cries."

He said that and her nipples twinged and got hard, even though he hadn't touched them. His eyes were on them, flashing to hers, and his face took on that cruel-for-sex expression now. She squirmed a little, her heart pounding so hard she knew he could feel it against his palms.

He dropped his hands and leaned down and spoke in her ear, his voice quiet. "I'm going to strip it all away and find the center of you, beautiful alea, pretty flower, where you're so soft. You're mine for this time and I'll do what I like."

A deep wave went through her, Indya feeling weak, breathing fast, her lips parting. In all her shaking, she stopped to shiver. Kythe stepped back. The whole thing began to take on a floating quality, the deep colors and rough textures, the two men, so much larger, looking similar, their shirts off now in the firelight, the smell of the sticks they burned. Kythe went to a chest and opened it.

Zen was standing by the bench, Indya's eyes going to his face. He nodded slightly.

Indya walked toward him, Kythe tracking her progress across the room with his eyes. She reminded herself she had asked for this, that they were giving her what she had said she wanted, and she knew they would stop if she said. She would feel better when she had done this and atoned for her pride.

"Lie down on your belly on the bench, little savorenella, for your punishment," Zen said, his voice dispassionate.

For a moment, she couldn't do it, and then she bent over, the bench lower than her hips, a little, her butt thrust up, jutting. Zen took her hand and extended her arm so it was straight out from her body, palms down, and he tied her wrist, and then he did the other one. Her head hung past it, unsupported, her hair trailing to one side in its tail. Another rope went around her arms, immobilizing her upper body.

Zen went around, standing behind her. She couldn't possibly see him, confined to looking at what was in front of her, a rich tapestry in blood red that seemed to swirl and move.

"Spread your legs a little," Zen said behind her.

Indya widened her stance.

"More," Zen said.

She did what he said, exposed now, feeling the cooler air, and then she felt rope at her ankle, going around the leg of the bench, secure, and then her other ankle, and now she couldn't move her legs, either, breathing fast.

Something crossed her vision and she raised her head. Kythe was there, and he was naked, his sex erect and hard up his belly, right in front of her. Her eyes shifted to his hand where there was the whip, and it wasn't the little thin one with the flat end. This had a thick handle and a single black leather thong that was rolled, the tip tapering down, a little longer than his arm. Her eyes went wide, seeing it up close.

He showed it to her. "This isn't to urge horses. This is a serpent whip for pain, and it has a bite. You're going to get to know this tonight, savoronella."

Zen's fingers spread her sex behind her. "Oh, nina," Zen said. He touched between her legs and she could feel how wet she was when she hadn't even known she would be, closing her eyes.

They changed places, circling her, Zen coming around in front of her. He was naked now too, as erect. She felt Kythe spreading her sex behind her now and he pressed on her clitoris, Indya crying out.

"The prettiest pula, swollen, your flower opening," Kythe said, and she hardly recognized his voice. "You're ready for your punishment, savorenella. I will be so careful not to touch your tenderness. Only the beauty that frames it."

Zen squatted in front of her, his hand steadying himself on the bench edge beside her head. "I want to see your face when you first feel the lash," he said, putting his other hand on his hard sex, stroking himself. "Don't close your eyes. Keep them open, no matter what. You can yell or scream. You can beg, if you want." He looked up at Kythe and nodded, and then at her. "Here it comes. Get ready.

She tensed, breathing fast, her eyes on his and she felt the dull thudding strike on her butt, heard the crack, crying out with fear, not even feeling it yet, and then she did, a burning sting. It hurt, Zen holding her eyes. He grunted lightly. Still, it wasn't the pain she had feared. The second came, a pause, and then the third, a fourth, varied, Indya never knowing when the next would fall. It still wasn't so bad, her bottom getting warmer.

Then they began to hurt more as they fell. A lash came and she cried out for the first time since Kythe had started, because it was more painful. Yes, this was the pain she had feared.

Zen's eyes were on hers, still stroking himself lightly, his sex erect.

There were pauses in between. She couldn't move, her hips trying to pump to ease it, the thud and then the sharp, deep bite. Indya didn't even hear herself anymore, crying out again and again, the sound of the strikes going through her, looking at Zen. She saw his eyes flash to her right hand with each strike.

Her cries got sharper, and now she was crying. "Zen," she said, panting, keening. "Zen, say to stop. Say to stop, please, I can't. Kythe, it hurting, please." Indya kept her right hand still. She just wanted to say it as the strikes continued. "I'm sorry I did that. I am wrong. I hurt you both. I hurt myself so I am almost dying."

After a time, she began to really float, hearing someone and not recognizing it was herself, the thuds coming less often, heat, vague, the pain there but different now, and she felt it, a long twinging ache in her groin, deep and slow and as sharp as the strike. She went still, trembling on an edge and then it slipped toward pleasure, her body relaxing, her vision losing focus.

"Fata," Zen said in a low voice in front of her, watching, greeting her, his eyes roaming her face. "Hello, my nina-bird, our salvoronella. You are so beautiful."

Indya felt fingers between her legs briefly and she was coming, but it didn't end, a strange and constant pleasure.

"Alea," Kythe said behind her, his voice full of need. "I'm proud of you."

Zen straightened to his feet as Kythe touched her again and the burning took hold of her, the pleasure rising, her body rigid, Kythe stepping back and giving her another strike, and another, only making it more intense. Indya didn't want him to stop now, Zen's hand on her braid, raising her head, his sex nudging her lips. He was hard, tilting his hips, and then he was in her throat, thrusting. There was another thud, Zen's sex lifting when it happened.

"I'm watching you," Zen said, giving a deep grunt. "Such pleasure. I'm watching your ass getting whipped, sweet nina, sexy nina."

He let her breathe, Indya taking time to do it, to catch her breath, sips of it, writhing, this pleasure still on her, the whole area straining.

Then Kythe was penetrating her slowly behind her, too much sensation. Her eyes rolled back, such perfect pleasure.

"Breathe, nina," Zen said, panting himself, pulling out.

She did that.

Zen pushed deep into her throat and gave a series of sharp stabs. "Oh, nina," he grunted. "I'm going to come so hard." He cried out, muttering the way he did, releasing, Indya feeling the vein of his silky sex moving under her tongue, feeling him pulse and release, tasting him. His movements were jerky, more deep grunts, the sounds helpless.

He pulled out of her throat, shuddering, Indya getting her breath forever. She yelled and then made a sound she didn't recognize, full of need. "Yes, please. Yes, please, Kythe," she said, the words only filtering into her mind long after she said them. "Zen, please."

Kythe came down over her, his weight on her, her butt stinging, thrusting as he had been the whole time. "Come again, alea," he said. "Don't stop now."

She went quiet when Kythe reached under her, touching her sex, rubbing her clitoris fast, the source of all sensation. It felt so good she lost herself in it, her eyes unfocused and almost sleepy, and then she jerked with it, taking her. The pleasure was finally cresting, a perfect sensation, keen and full. She felt more tears on her face, saw Zen in her field of vision, saw he had squatted again and was watching her. He raised his hand, wiping the tears away with his fingers, gentle.

Kythe's thrusts were fast and deep. "You belong to me, alea. You belong to Zen. Do you understand? You don't go away from us."

Indya nodded, telling Zen, telling Kythe. "Yes. I don't go away. I am yours always."

Kythe was stabbing and he cried out and stopped. "Indya," he said, his body clenching, deep pulses.

Yes, she did understand. They were hers now.

* * *

She became aware when the last of the ropes released. There was hot water and then a bed. She cried, but Kythe held her through it and she wasn't really sad. She just needed to cry, and he was kissing her, and he lay down with her, stroked her hair, her sore butt cradled in his groin. Zen was there, her hand going to his braid, holding on, still hearing the dull thud, still seeing his eyes, feeling the impact.

"Go to sleep, nina," Zen murmured.

"Alea," Kythe said behind her, his large hands.

She fell asleep and didn't remember anything else.

* * *

Indya opened her eyes.

Kythe was over her, looking at her, awake. His knuckles came and caressed her cheek, gentle. "How do you feel, alea?"

"My butt hurts," she answered.

Kythe pursed his lips and looked like he was swallowing something and she realized he was trying not to laugh. There was a second long snorting laugh on the other side of her, yielding to huffs.

She glanced at Zen and then returned to frown at Kythe. "Why is that funny?" she said, Kythe getting out of her way when she sat up because he'd completely lost it to laughing. "I am bruised, you are so violent." Indya turned to Zen. "Why are you laughing for? Zozo! You crazy dog," Indya said, the dog's big feet everywhere and his hairy body and then his tongue. "Ah! That's disgusting, in my ear."

"Do something about the fatada dog, brother," Kythe said, still laughing.

"Get down, Zozo," Zen said in his firm voice and Zozo jumped down and then jumped back up again onto the bed, attacking her again, Ashka barking now.

"Why for you don't training the dog when I'm gone, Zen?" Indya complained. "He's a wild animal now you don't."

She found herself under Zen, looking up at him. "You didn't just say that to me, nina."

"Yes, I say that," Indya said. "You're having a problem with your hearing?"

Zen made a noise and was kissing her, her arms coming up around his neck as he slowed it, sensual. He finally drew back, looking at her face while she smiled, glancing at him.

"Don't let her seduce you. There's no time for kissing," Kythe said, coming over, Zen moving, and then Kythe was kissing her as nicely. He drew back. "Get dressed. It's late. We have to ride today."

Indya looked up at him, her mouth falling open, her arms around his neck. "Are you mad, Kythe? We can't go nowhere. I don't ride Saba today."

"Then you will ride in the wagon--" Kythe said.

"You don't tell me what to do, Kythe," Indya said. "I don't have to do what you say. You go, then. Ride without me and leaving me here lying on the road with bruises on my body, you brute. It's not done? I'm punish more? Like you didn't do enough to me last night. It's so much being like how you are to thinking this is right."

"Then we stay here today, brother," Kythe said, smiling and kissing her. "We'll feed her and spoil her because her butt hurts."

"But we ride tomorrow, nina," Zen said. "We'll go slow and take some breaks."

"Yes, thank you," she said, smiling at him and suddenly Zozo was there all over things again, his drippy self. "Zozo, you crazy dog!"

* * *

"Are you all right, child?" Mavia said later. "I thought they were killing you."

"You heard us?" Indya said, sitting gingerly.

Mavia gave her raspy laugh. "If there's a village up or down this road that didn't, I'll eat my shawl."

Indya laughed with her. "They're very good at sex. I like having two men for that."

"The things you say, child, I do sometimes think you're simple," Mavia said, shaking her head, laughing again, and then she peeked up at Indya. "You enjoyed what they did?"

"Yes, the way they doing it. You don't enjoyed sex, Mavia?"

"If I ever did, I don't imagine I would have said it out loud."

"I knowing some things, but I don't understanding that."

"I wouldn't worry about it. So you are the savorenella for the rí? It's an honor, child."

"Yes. But also they wanting to be marry me, they say."

Mavia stared at her. "I thought the rí were marrying the daughter of the Coveralis king when she is of age. They were promised as children."

Indya made a face at her. "I don't being with men who are with for another. I hearing about that and I left them, but it was a lie they are marry. They saying to their father they don't want her."

"You are the nah-lí, Indya?" Mavia said faintly.

Indya shrugged. "I guess. Don't you call me that, though, or looking for stuff on the ground."

* * *

In the afternoon, two days later, Kythe and Zen came to her, riding on each side of her, Zozo trotting ahead with Ashka. Indya had a new dress, and she'd had a long and hot bath, and Kythe and Zen were in their best clothing and looked very handsome and she had told them this.