Pleasure Knight

There was no stopping now, never stopping, keep going thrashing into her until she begged me to stop, told me that she couldn't take my male lust anymore. Not stop now, not when I was almost there, not when I rode the wave, not when that wave came crashing down with an enormous noise of thunder and I kept clinging to her hair until the last tremors had passed away.

"More?" I yelled as I let go.

"Yes, my Pleasure Knight. More, give me more."

-

It was bright day outside when she left at last. She promised me that she would return, that she would set me free soon. Very soon.

I managed to wash my sweaty, exhausted, hot body in one of the basins before I collapsed on the bed.

My sense of bliss lasted about as long as it took me to regain my breath.

What was I doing? Did a woman become good and kind just because she let me make love to her? What were they, those diabolic, golden hoops that had made me such a willing slave to both of them in turn? How could I even pretend to accept that?

And what about Poppy? Didn't I care about her? Was I thinking I was doing a good deed banging Lady Deep Shadow to get her to kill the younger woman at the end of the day?

Maybe I was, even though I hated myself for it? Maybe this was my only option? Maybe I could manipulate her somehow, and turn her from an evil witch into a benevolent Lady. Maybe it wasn't too late for Poppy, if I only could change Lady Deep Shadow's mind. I had made her start trusting me again, hadn't I? Wasn't she close to loving me?

Seriously?

It had to be the love-making that made me think this way. She said I was her Pleasure Knight. What did that really mean? Was all this sex draining away my free will? Was I slowly becoming her slave? Would I mind that?

I fell asleep with foolish, passionate thoughts in my head.

When I woke, it was to a stark, gray reality.

-

"Sir Weed? My Pleasure Knight?" Her voice came to me at night.

I sat up in my bed, the leash dangling from its collar.

She was standing under the leaves in the doorway, measuring me with dark eyes, looking strong, beautiful, well.

I knew at once that she was going to test me. That scared me, but I was resolved to go through with it, no matter what she threw at me.

"Yes, Lady Deep Shadow," I said and added, even though I knew I wasn't going to be that lucky: "Have you come to make love?"

"Not I," she said. "I need my beauty sleep. But you wish to earn your place as my Pleasure Knight, don't you?"

"I do." Better agree. Much better.

"Some day, my Pleasure Knight, you will begin your duties. One of them is to serve and protect my associates."

Oh no.

"They will require you total obedience." She looked at me for a reaction.

I went with a decent impression of 'confused expectations.'

"And Flame assures me that there is only one way to drill that into you."

"You mean...?"

"Yes. Be the best Pleasure Knight you can be. Make me proud. This Lady is a dear friend of mine, one who deserves your utmost respect. I will be terribly disappointed if you embarrass me, so you won't do that, will you?"

I wouldn't.

"Good. Very good." She smiled tenderly. "I knew you would understand."

I did. I understood all too well.

"He's ready," she said as she slid away from the opening to let my Goddess in.

-

I loved everything about her. How the hoops glittered despite the dim light. How she strode in with her white hair trailing, her thin body hidden beneath a thick, black, floor-length dress. How she sneered as if a disgusting maggot was writhing on the floor before her. How she didn't deign to address me by name or appellation. Just 'you.' I wasn't worthy. Surely I wasn't worthy. How she didn't talk to me, just gave me orders. Why would a Goddess want to talk to a worm? How she made me sit on the throne. How she refused to touch me as she chained my wrists and ankles to the armrests and legs. Why should I be allowed to move when my Goddess didn't want me to? How she put on thick, leather gloves before she even got close to my crotch. My filthy flesh would surely soil her beauty and divinity.

She didn't have to touch me more than a few times before I was able to comply with her wish and present my rigid member to her. It was hers to do with as she saw fit. Slap it, prick it, cut it off, destroy it, or enjoy it in every possible way. As long as I was able to make her happy, then I would be happy. Delirious.

And I was. Without further ado she wrenched my rod towards her face and jammed it in her mouth. She sucked me with quick, angry movements, as if she wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

How could I not oblige her? As soon as I started to squirm and come, she stopped her work and just swallowed. That reduced the pleasure for me, but why should I be allowed any pleasure?

I didn't get any. The whole thing felt like I was squirting diseased blood, and not something wonderful like the other times.

She staggered back, clutching her throat, retching as if I had poisoned her. The look she gave me was full of hate. I deserved it, having emptied my disgusting fluid inside her. Curse you, Weed, and your evil, vicious ways.

-

She got up and sat on the bed, staring at the wall, not rewarding me with a single look.

I waited, patiently. There was not much else for me to do with the chains locking me in place, but I didn't fight or stir. I loved my Goddess, didn't even want to think about going anyplace she didn't want to have me.

When she at last rose and came over, she prodded my manhood with her gloved hands. It responded. Of course it responded. That was its duty.

She mumbled something I didn't catch. Oh, how I would have loved to have heard! The hoops sparkled. I loved them so!

She ordered me to arch my body off the seat and point my rod towards her. I obliged. There wasn't much I could do to please her chained up like this, but at least I could push my buttocks as far up from the velvet seat as I possibly could.

She mumbled something else and produced a small jar from her dress, smearing her gloved fingers with something not unlike the healing ointment Lady Deep Shadow and Flame had used on my wound. My Goddess used hers to oil up my pole. Oil it up well and good, like she was greasing an axle. The miserable slave was not worth a single, gentle touch.

When I was as hard and slippery as a bar of wet soap, my Goddess turned around and lifted parts of her floor-length dress, making sure I wasn't allowed more than a glimpse of her blessed ankles. The dress covered my loins like a heavy shroud. She spread her legs and I sobbed in delight, knowing I was about to get to please her.

"Shut up!" she said, hoops dangling.

My joy was intense when she lowered herself onto me, and I began to help her with my movements.

"Sit still!"

So, I remained motionless while my Goddess moved up and down like she was trying, and failing, to sit a weasel to death. When I came I got the same feeling of squirting bad blood. I hoped I had not disappointed her, but I knew, I knew!, I had.

She never let me know, only pulled away from me, adjusted her dress like it needed a good whipping, and marched out of the room.

"That useless, lying bitch!" I heard her snarl as she left.

Left me alone. Without any hoops to look at. It took me just a few heartbeats to break down and cry.

What had they done to me? What had they subjected me to? I had been used, just like a tool in a garden shed. Just like the animals and men of the Dead Lands. What had they done?

-

I fought against the chains, but they were wrought by Flame herself. Somehow I knew that! Their sigil locks looked just as strong as the one on my collar. I was never going to break free of this throne, not even if I tore myself to shreds. Was this the future Lady Deep Shadow had in store for me? Would I willingly, happily, serve and protect that old hag who had just used me?

I remained furious for a long time, but then I turned to tears again. I just wanted to get away, go home, forget this place. Yet I couldn't.

I was going to stay chained here until Lady Deep Shadow came. She would not set me free until we concurred that she was right and I was wrong, and that I would be eager to serve in this manner again. Well, I guessed I had the rest of the night and all morning to calm down and prepare to agree with her.

When she did arrive, I guessed I had guessed wrong, and about more than one thing. First of all, she came within the hour. Second, she didn't look disappointed despite the fact that the hag hadn't seemed pleased when she left.

She looked devastated, flustered, shaken, and came straight up to me. "Sir Weed, how are you? Oh, I am so sorry. I had no idea that my friend would..." She stopped by the throne as if she wanted to embrace me, but found it hard when I was chained up.

"This... Being a Pleasure Knight is a labor of love! I told her that. Told her she had to be good with you. How can you serve and protect someone who mistreats you? Oh, I am so sorry!"

What? Lady Deep Shadow apologized? Was it even possible?

"Sir Weed, my Pleasure Knight?" she said. "Say something! Speak to me."

"I..." My mind struggled like a drowning dog. "Please, Lady Deep Shadow. Don't... Please don't trade me around like some beast? Please?"

"Is that what you call it?" She stepped back and put her hands on her hips. "You think I treat you like an animal? That's a cruel accusation. And from someone who..."

She went on like she used to. That was oddly comforting, somehow. Hearing her apologize was like watching a pig dancing ballet. Lady Deep Shadow would never admit to being in the wrong, not truly. She would trade me to all kinds of women who all found me disgusting, so that she could turn me into a kind of magical, unwilling bodyguard. She, and everyone else, would use those vile, golden hoops on me. Again and again. And, she would not save Poppy. However I looked at it, I lost.

I had to do something to try to win, if only to save my dying self-respect. And if that meant an overdose of hypocrisy, then...

-

"I am sorry," I said. "It was just... She was... She didn't show me the kind of love you do. I..." Now came the hard part. "...missed you, my Lady."

"You missed me?"

"Yes, my Lady. I missed you every moment she was with me. I just find it hard to be with someone who is not you."

"Oh, my dear, dear Pleasure Knight! You are so wonderful. I promise, I will be there next time, all right? I will even hold your hand."

Yeah, right.

She fished something out of her pocket. It was a small, black, oval piece of metal with a fiery pattern that glowed all of itself.

"Come, let's get you down off this awful thing. It was all Flame's idea. I never really liked it. So, let's see. If this works..."

She touched the metal oval to the chain that bound my left foot. It glowed, loosened, then split apart into two parts, clanging as they fell and hit the floor.

I could not believe it. Yes, my leg was free. And, didn't my collar have a similar sigil on its lock?

I tried to give Lady Deep Shadow my most grateful smile. It seemed to work, for she returned it with a tender wink. More chains fell, and my right leg was free.

"I think you need to rest, my Pleasure Knight," she said as she pushed the key to the small, metal knot on the chain that had captured my left wrist. Then came the brief glow before the links fell, hit each other, and made a sound like a mournful percussionist who decided to quit playing just then.

"I think I do," I said.

I was, of course, lying. During this brief moment I had made a decision. I was sure that the collar had the same kind of lock as the chains. Maybe I could break free!

I would try. I would gamble everything on one attempt. If it didn't work, well, then I would hang myself using the leash before Flame came to find me. At any rate, Lady Deep Shadow would have died for what she did to Poppy. She was no lioness, she had never been taught to fight, she didn't know the rules of my trade. And we played by my rules now.

Lady Deep Shadow moved the key over to my right wrist. I let her. She pushed it against the lock. I waited.

The lock glowed. Chains began to fall.

I acted.

I reached the key with my left hand before the chains had tumbled past the right armrest. Plucked it out of her fingers and pressed it against the lock at my throat with a big, friendly, innocent smile on my face. All before she had time to say a word.

"Oh, thank you so much," I said, in a vain hope of not being branded a traitor in case the collar failed to open, "I don't have the patience to..."

It did open, on a hinge by the ring where the leash was attached. Then it fell down on the velvet cushion behind me.

-

The best thing was that I didn't have to smile anymore. I could be angry. Very angry.

"What-" was all she managed to say before my hand jammed her mouth shut and I dragged her across the room by her most recent, flimsy dress. Mothball man, indeed. Her eyes probably just went on widening, her face most likely turning more and more confused. I didn't care. I didn't have to.

"Listen to me!" I dropped down on top of her, my knees pinning her arms to the wooden planks. She might have struggled, but I didn't notice. This was my time.

When I removed my hand, she drew a quick, violent breath.

"No screaming," I said, fingers back over her mouth, stifling her.

The next time I removed the hand she gave yelling a second go. I did not allow it. A third try failed, but after that she just glared at me.

"We will talk," I said and freed her mouth.

"Traitor! Take your hands off me, or I will make you suffer ten times as bad as that bitch-"

Again, hand over mouth. "Sorry," I said. "What I meant was: I will speak and you will listen and say 'Yes, sir!" to whatever I say. Got it?

Those lines had worked on me when my officers had used it during training, but Lady Deep Shadow didn't say 'Yes, sir!' She just glared at me like I had boiled her puppy dog.

I decided to plunge on. "Right now we will go and free Poppy. Do you understand?"

"The Wild swallow you!" she cursed.

I wondered what Sergeant Heavy would have done if I made that reply during an exercise. Whatever he chose would have worked on Lady Deep Shadow, I was sure. It would have worked on anyone, but unfortunately I was not Sergeant Heavy. What could I possibly do in the convincing department? If she called my bluff, I couldn't get her to do anything. And, I realized as her stare made that call, Poppy would die if she did nothing.

Right. Time to stop bluffing. Time to mean it.

"If you don't save Poppy," I said, "I will kill you."

"Do your worst!"

So... Mean it, it was. For real?

I remembered Poppy with the tree growing out of her belly, her skeletal body, the pain on her face. Yeah, I would follow through. I had to.

-

I put one hand over her mouth. She had probably gotten used to that by now. Then I used the other one to pinch her nose shut. That was something new.

"Blink your eyes," I said in a monotone voice that I knew would have frightened me, "when you are ready to cooperate."

She tried to breathe. No could do. She fought to break free. Nope.

I waited.

She struggled. Panicked.

So did I. Was I really going to go through with this? Poppy! I had to! Poppy! Lady Deep Shadow's face seemed to move in and out of focus as I killed her. It was as if I were the one choking, desperate for air.

She blinked. Finally!

I removed my hands, and she spent the mandatory time gasping and coughing before she spoke.

"You tried to kill me!" She couldn't believe it.

Neither could I, but I could pretend I did. "Yeah." My voice was as flat as a dead, poisoned lake.

"Murderer!"

I could choose between getting into an argument with her or getting things done. "On your feet. We're rescuing Poppy."

I grabbed my clothes and put them on while keeping within grabbing-at and sitting-on distance of her. For once my rod was soft, dangling between my legs like a silly joke.

She got up, her body unable to choose between looking enraged or deflated.

"If we can't, then I kill you." I pushed her towards the door. "Lead on. You know the way."

"I need some acids," she said.

"Acids? Why would you need that?"

"Of course I need acids! You idiot men are all the same. You don't know the first thing about the arts, yet you run around playing at being bosses. If you want me to rescue that slut of yours then I need my acids to kill the gutfig."

I had no idea if that was true or not. "Where are those acids, then?"

"In my workshop," she said.

"Where is that?"

"Tree," she said.

"You better not fool me!"

"No."

"Or I kill you!" Why did I keep saying that? "Move!"

-

The night was darker than the previous ones, the moon and most of the stars more or less hidden behind a light layer of clouds. That suited me fine. I had no wish be seen, and no need to find my way by myself. Lady Deep Shadow was to be my eyes tonight.

We stole along a walkway. After a hundred paces or so, she found a ladder and began climbing down.

I followed close behind.

Just as I thought: 'She is just reaching the point where it would feel safe to jump down and start running,' she did just that. Not bad for an ancient woman of forty, or some other extreme age.

I fumbled after her, but she had a few feet on me. Which was, and this was typical of my kind of luck, enough to allow her to disappear from view in the dark forest that she knew better than anyone. Not to mention me.

Wow. I was doing just great. All right, I could still hear her as I plunged into the wilderness after her, but it was still not good enough to get a passing grade on the prisoner transport test. Wonderful. All this farce needed right now was for her to yell...

"Help!"

Yeah. That.

"Help!"

I wanted to shout the exact same thing, but I would probably just get a pointy branch down my throat from some hateful bush or other.

"Help!"

-

Help did come. And it came to me, in the shape of a big lawn.

I burst out of the trees, and in the dim starlight I saw her running with hitched-up dress not more than five paces ahead of me. Luckily, I had been forced to play a lot of kickball as a page. Kickball was one of those popular, manly games where you are supposed to hurt your opponent and then pry a ball from his cold, dead hands, getting extra points from kicking him in the nuts. My strength had been Brutal Tackles From Behind. As Lady Deep Shadow found out.

By the time she managed to spit out the worst of the grass and dirt she found her arm yanked up behind her back and a very angry voice hissing, "The workshop! Now!" in her ear.

The man behind the voice wasn't really angry, he was just terrified that Flame might have heard the shouting. It still worked, though.

I didn't let go of her for even one moment after that, and we soon reached the enormously thick and tall tree that carried her mansion far above us.

She led me to an opening between two of the giant roots. It was completely dark inside.

"Let me go. I have to light the brazier," she said.

What could I say to that? 'I am afraid you are going to disappear into the dark and so I am going to hold on to you until morning?' I fell down on "All right, but if you try anything, I will kill you!"

I let go of her hand, but not her hair. It was probably still a mass of sexy, lazy curls, but I didn't check. Not now.

"Do you mind?" she said.

"Yes!" I answered.

"You're hurting my hair!"

Only a great effort of will prevented me from saying, "Oh, I'm so terribly sorry! Are you all right?" and choosing "I don't care. Make light," instead.